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Athabasca College (AU), Canada’s Open College, is devoted to eradicating obstacles that limit entry and success inside university-level research and growing equality of academic alternatives for grownup learners worldwide.
To assist their mission, AU outlined their “Think about” Technique, which was a five-year plan outlining strategic precedence outcomes for the establishment. Underpinning the execution and making certain alignment with their aims required a collaborative built-in planning course of. The problem was that the annual planning and subsequent forecasting processes have been a significant impediment because of the lack of transparency and entry to related well timed info for decision-making, leading to a scarcity of belief and collaboration. To repair this, Lengthy Huynh, Director of Resolution Assist, was introduced on board to work with the group to meet two aims:
- Roll out a Finance Enterprise Companion (FBP) Program, which centered on constructing a group of finance of us who might collaborate with college members and division heads on monetary/enterprise plans, remodeling finance into advisors to the enterprise versus compilers and producers of reviews.
- Streamline the built-in planning and forecasting course of, making it straightforward for customers to entry info, observe variances in spend and initiatives and allow college members to re-forecast and in the end personal their numbers.
To help with this transformation, AU started working with us at ActionKPI—a Efficiency Administration Consultancy specializing in built-in useful resource planning—to assist outline a roadmap and phased strategy to re-architecting their planning processes and techniques. The outcome was elevated belief and collaboration from all colleges and departments whereas growing the pace and agility of the monetary reporting, budgeting and forecasting processes.
Challenges confronted
- Lack of transparency: The information for monetary reporting was nested inside totally different platforms with totally different ranges of entry. Price range homeowners struggled to grasp their budgets and had problem accessing related info, understanding variances all through the month and main as much as the quarter.
- Guide and siloed budgeting: The budgeting course of relied on an antiquated system that was not user-friendly and disconnected from the primary ERP system. Budgets needed to be manually uploaded, making it difficult to combine actuals and forecasts.
- Restricted entry to knowledge: Some knowledge—equivalent to HR and payroll—was tough to entry, hindering monetary evaluation and decision-making. They weren’t in a position to get insights into labour prices and make correct budgets and forecasts on one in all their main value centres.
Earlier than implementing the answer, the monetary knowledge was scattered throughout totally different platforms with various ranges of entry. Price range homeowners couldn’t simply entry their finances info, which induced them to depend on particular people to clarify reviews on account of siloed knowledge and sophisticated nuances.
Moreover, Athabasca College’s budgeting course of was hindered by an unintuitive system that operated independently from their ERP system, Banner. Guide uploads and a scarcity of integration between their previous system and Banner added to the complexity and time-consuming nature of the budgeting course of.
The journey begins: Improved finances visibility
After preliminary discussions with ActionKPI, Lengthy Huynh and the finance group noticed the chance to reveal the ability of built-in useful resource planning by means of IBM Planning Analytics (PA).
The main target at first was on growing a variance and forecasting mannequin inside PA that mixed finances and precise knowledge from supply techniques in a user-friendly resolution accessible to varied stakeholders throughout the college. In contrast to their previous system, PA enabled day by day automated uploads from their ERP and supplied well timed entry to totally different reporting hierarchies and variances, and it gave the flexibility to drill down on transactional knowledge. Price range homeowners might log in and examine their budgets at any time, clearly understanding their monetary place and empowering them to actively take part within the budgeting course of and take corrective motion to satisfy targets. This enchancment considerably enhanced transparency, belief and accountability amongst their varied finances homeowners.
“It was such a foundational change to how we appeared on the budgets—from a guide add of information that could be a month previous or perhaps a quarter previous to each night time. It modified the pace at which we are able to make selections and see what is going on.” — Lengthy Huynh
The second section: Workforce and HR integration
As soon as the preliminary mannequin was constructed and knowledge from Banner was built-in instantly with IBM Planning Analytics (PA), the main focus turned to HR (particularly workforce) to raised perceive one of many college’s main value centres.
Beforehand, HR tightly guarded payroll info on account of privateness necessities, leading to restricted entry and inadequate granularity.
To beat this problem, AU and ActionKPI developed a workforce variance mannequin inside PA that encompassed the FTEs and positions on the college, versus staff. Precise college payroll knowledge by place was included into the mannequin, offering visibility into labour prices, emptiness value financial savings and headcount, whereas nonetheless sustaining knowledge safety and privateness.
Having this workforce element allowed college members and departments to revise their FTE plans and subsequent labour prices, making a rolling forecast. This not solely improved the forecast accuracy however enabled AU to change into extra agile inside the decision-making course of.
“Payroll is the largest piece of the expense pie, and an intensive and correct understanding of it’s required for an correct forecast. Now, we are able to forecast by every place and see the affect in-month and into the long run.” — Lengthy Huynh
To handle privateness and knowledge safety issues, the finance group collaborated with HR to find out the suitable wage element every finances proprietor might entry. Every supervisor can solely see wage particulars for workers inside their hierarchy and solely place numbers are proven somewhat than names. This permits managers the transparency and element required to make knowledgeable selections whereas sustaining satisfactory safety and privateness.
Built-in useful resource planning: A holistic strategy
The journey continued with a concentrate on built-in useful resource planning. The college aimed to transition from closed-door decision-making to inclusive, built-in useful resource planning that concerned stakeholders from throughout the group.
Previous to this initiative, useful resource plans and proposed finances modifications have been submitted as separate Excel information, resulting in collaboration challenges, model management points and guide knowledge entry.
ActionKPI built-in the finances and useful resource planning processes into IBM Planning Analytics (PA), permitting for a streamlined strategy. This additionally enabled a democratized course of the place finances homeowners collaborate with their Finance Enterprise Companions to replace their finances entries. This supported better possession and eradicated the method of finances homeowners sending numbers to finance and finance doing the entry.
Beforehand, inconsistent finance information throughout totally different colleges and departments led to poor or inaccurate forecasting and budgeting practices.
The rollout of the Finance Enterprise Companion Program contributed to the success of the built-in useful resource planning course of by offering personalised finance assist and advisory to every division. It was the monetary acumen, ardour for customer support and data-driven decision-making abilities of the FBP group—mixed with the streamlined planning processes and techniques—that made it potential.
“Earlier than, numerous selections have been made behind closed doorways. Now, the college has moved to built-in planning, so it is extremely inclusive. Virtually each finances holder is concerned within the course of versus simply finance.” — Lengthy Huynh
Finance Enterprise Companions, assigned to every division, labored carefully with finances homeowners to reveal how PA might be utilized to enter, observe and visualize finances modifications over time.
This integration fostered collaboration, transparency and knowledgeable monetary decision-making all through the college.
By means of this mannequin, Athabasca College achieved improved forecasting consistency and high quality. The FBP mannequin wouldn’t have been profitable with out the implementation of PA, because it supplied the required infrastructure for efficient collaboration and assist between finance and finances homeowners.
Conclusion
The journey to reinforce transparency and belief inside the college’s monetary processes resulted in vital enhancements.
By implementing IBM Planning Analytics and integrating budgets, actuals and useful resource planning, the college achieved higher visibility, streamlined processes and elevated stakeholder involvement.
The initiatives undertaken by Lengthy and his group not solely remodeled monetary decision-making but additionally contributed to a cultural shift in the direction of data-driven decision-making and collaboration.
Learn more about IBM Planning Analytics
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