Ventana Research is the first research firm to benchmark the maturity and direction of integrated business planning that is a critical process in every organization. Organizations face an increasing challenge as they attempt to improve their performance and competitive position while adjusting to rapid changes in the economy, commodity prices and financial markets. Ventana Research believes that an organization’s planning process must provide its executives and management across the entire organization with the ability to integrated business planning and forecasting that will result in better coordination in establishing plans consistent with corporate strategy. When conditions change, as they always do, companies must adapt quickly and collaboratively. In short, they must have an integrated business planning process in place to succeed in today’s dynamic global economy.

Ventana Research is undertaking a comprehensive benchmark of the use of integrated business planning across business analysts, management and executives in finance, operations, manufacturing, sales and human resources organizations. “Integrated business planning” (IBP) is a new term applied to a longstanding objective of finance and corporate executives: to bring together the disparate strands of forward looking activities across a corporation in a way that fosters internal alignment and enhances agility, enabling it to increase its financial returns and improve its strategic position. Organizations engage in a range of forward-looking activities. Sales organizations have pipelines to forecast sales. Manufacturing organizations set and reset demand plans and near-term production schedules, often as a result of longer-term production plans that determine where and how they will make them. Logistics people plan inbound and outbound shipments. Marketing departments plan advertising and promotion campaigns. HR departments coordinate staffing requirements and salary and benefit costs. Recently, some companies have tried sales and operations planning (S&OP) to integrate some of their planning activities.

This research will help executives and managers to better understand how to improve their efforts with specific knowledge on best and worst practices. It will enable you to determine how to align your organization’s people, processes, information and technology to improve performance through integrated business planning. Ventana Research believes that with proper planning and execution, companies that deploy integrated business planning to achieve a competitive advantage.

For more information on how to benchmark your organization’s maturity and competency in people, process, information and technology using our research, please contact clientservices@ventanaresearch.com.