As Einstein said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” This survey we believe offers hope, insight, and a much-needed reality check on where FP&A is today. It also forecasts what needs to happen for FP&A teams to develop their best practices from theory into reality.
Integrated FP&A involves harmonising the three levels of planning - Strategic, Financial and Operational levels. This is done both horizontally (cross-functional) and vertically (top-down and bottom-up), using integrated processes, people and platforms that connect all parts of the business. The case studies presented some real-world examples of implementing and applying integrated FP&A.
Integrated FP&A is not a new term. Most experienced FP&A professionals are probably already subconsciously doing it. Integrated FP&A promotes the idea of collaborative planning where finance professionals work with different parts of the organisation to create a holistic view and plan.
In this uncertain environment organisational agility often faces a huge barrier: unaligned top-down and bottom-up planning processes.
For many organisations, the Strategy Gap is a major obstacle that systematically prevents businesses from truly maximising their Strategic Planning efforts and sustainably creating value for their organisation.
In the current highly uncertain business environment, an FP&A business partner needs to be equipped with defined skills and competencies that bridge technical acumen, technology, and influence. The organisation also has to evolve its model to allow the business partners to grow into a digitised FP&A business partner.