We’re huge advocates of Extended Planning and Analytics (xP&A for short).
xP&A extends traditional planning, which focuses solely on finance, into other parts of the business such as workforce, sales, operations and marketing.
You may know the term as “integrated planning” or “FP&A” — so why has it evolved to “xP&A”? The ‘x’ is “Extended” for the traditional inter-company silos to finally be broken down. So you can now forecast, plan and budget seamlessly, taking into account ALL relevant data points across the business, regardless of which system it resides in.
That’s powerful stuff.
It means you can assess the impact that all kinds of decisions or events will have on your entire operation. And plan accordingly.
Gartner is predicting that by 2024, 70% of new FP&A projects will become xP&A projects — extending the scope beyond Finance. These are exciting times! But just quietly, not every business should invest in an xP&A solution.
The more complex your business is, and the more it needs to be able to respond to changing circumstances, the more likely xP&A will be needed.
If you’d like to know more about xP&A, whether that’s getting more informed or understanding how it may work with your existing platforms – contact us below and we’d be happy to help!