It was when Waqas Ali joined Blacklane as Teamlead Group Controlling that the Berlin-based business selected Workday Adaptive Planning as its preferred planning solution.
The choice was based on Waqas’s experience at ahis previous employer and what seemed to be needed at Blacklane. “I knew from the past that Workday Adaptive Planning was the most user-friendly option out there for us.”
Constant adaptability drives dynamic planning capability.
This extended beyond day-to-day use as a planning tool to the need to continuously adapt the solution to changing requirements. As Ali continues, “One condition for selection was minimal implementation effort. We were looking for a tool that would enable us as end users to make any required technical changes. Planning is dynamic — you have to create new models every week of every month.”
It was a condition of the selection process that the solution should enable end -users to make required technical changes. We get that with Workday Adaptive Planning.
Waqas Ali, Teamlead Group Controlling
Ease of use enables rapid familiarity and cost savings.
Ali was delighted with the ease of the implementation. “We had an implementation budget in place to work with a third party,” Ali says. “We selected Sereviso to partner with us and their support was excellent. We only had to use 10% of the budget to get the project through.”
For Ali this speaks volumes about the solution’s ease of use. “At the moment, almost 100% of maintenance is being done in-house. That’s not only by me, but also by colleagues who are using it for the first time,” Ali explains.
“In fact, because it is so easy to use, we could all get familiar with it very quickly, technically as well as from a user’s perspective.”
Full version control and daily forecasting for superior agility.
Equally important as the ease of implementation is the planning functionality that the solution delivers. As Ali explains, “Planning was previously done in Excel, which presents major problems with version control due to changing models. So, quarter over quarter, if you have to run the forecasts in the same way, you’re never certain that you’re referring to the same underlying data, and the same lines, models, and formulae.
“Workday Adaptive Planning is now giving us the same flexibility to build models quickly as we used to have in Excel, but with the standardization that delivers full version control. Now, we can be certain that we’re always comparing apples with apples — and that’s essential for a growth company like Blacklane.”
Another important advantage is the ability that Workday Adaptive Planning gives users to carry out daily forecasts. “People are used to doing quarterly and annual forecasts. But what about the three-month periods between those forecasts?” Ali says. “What if somebody leaves, or there is a major team expense, or there is a batch hiring?
“With Workday Adaptive Planning, we always have the latest view of things, and that’s just not possible with an offline solution like Excel,” Ali continues. “It’s really important for staying up to date and agile.”
With Workday Adaptive Planning, we always have the latest view of things. It’s really important for staying up to date and agile.
Waqas Ali, Teamlead Group Controlling