Oddly enough, the implementation of a business automation system does not always lead to a significant reduction in the time that it takes to complete business tasks. It's not always bad for the client, and we will tell you why.
For instance, the process of introducing a plan and budget for the next financial year in a medium-sized company can take about six months in case of manual collection and consolidation of data without enterprise planning and budgeting software.
If a company doesn’t have any business software for planning and budgeting automation, such a period will not seem so long. Everyone can imagine how much time it takes to develop Excel templates for planning and budgeting, how long it will be to coordinate the process with management, what period of time it takes for branches to fill in the Excel templates with their forecasts. Please add to it the time for manual corporate data consolidation in Excel, the time for analysis of aggregated budget and planned indicators, and the period for final approval with management.
Automation can make this process faster, but not on every occasion. For example, if a company decides to implement enterprise planning and budgeting software, then most likely the developers will estimate the final time for the process at five days. It is not an attempt to deceive, just do not forget that the assessment is based on the current volume of information proceeded.
However, the more you have, the more you want to have. Using the new business software that gives significantly greater opportunities for financial analysis, planning and budgeting, the company can increase the amount of collected and handling information. Such advanced analytical tools as scenario modelling can also be utilized for formulating a company’s plan and budget in several scenarios and lead to the increase of the overall duration of the planning and budgeting process.
As a result, the duration of an automated business process from the initial estimated five days can be prolonged to a month or two. At the same time, the company receives the most accurate and in-depth analysis of its business activity.
