NEW: Extended Planning and Analysis Community Page

Credit: I’m working closely on this topic with Dominik Fischer. Together we are leading a new effort at SAP to showcase Extended Planning and Analysis best practices in pre-built Business Content. To stay current on SAP developments in this area, please browse our other Extended Planning and Analysis blog posts and most importantly, be sure to click “Follow” in the upper left portion of that page.

NEW Community Page:

I am excited to share our new SAP Community Page dedicated to Extended Planning and Analysis (xP&A) and our associated business content for this topic.  In 2020, Gartner introduced the xP&A concept as the next evolution of Financial Planning to create a more holistic, cross-enterprise Planning landscape that is inclusive of the various lines of business across a company.

Topic Overview:

Enterprise Planning has been around for decades, but up until now has mainly been driven by Finance. With Enterprise Software becoming more interconnected in the Cloud, Data Warehouses moving to the Cloud, and computational power becoming practically limitless in the Cloud, the conditions are ripe to finally realize the dream of an Intelligent Enterprise.  Business is being increasingly driven by informed, forward-looking decisions instead of executing a backward-looking, reactionary operation.  A key driver to such a strategy is Extended Planning and Analysis in order to rapidly convert insight to action.

Call to Action:

Lots of buzz words? Sure. Big promises? Absolutely. What can I say – we like to bet big in order to help you be the best business you can be. After all, the best way to predict the future is to invent it^[1]. Not sure where to start?  Well that is exactly why we have created this new community page.  In this community we want to start discussion around this complex xP&A topic and hear about your experiences moving these processes to the cloud in a more interconnected fashion than ever before.  We will also regularly share information with you about new offerings, content, and capabilities.  You will easily be able to find new blog posts and announcements by following our new tag, “Extended Planning and Analysis”, which will be available in mid-March.  You can also submit questions directly to us and we will reply with relevant answers, tips, tricks, and our general perspectives on the topic.

We sincerely want to hear from you and look forward to an interactive dialogue.  Help us help you!

References:

1. Gabor, Dennis. Inventing the Future. United Kingdom, Knopf, 1964.

For more information about Extended Planning and Analysis:

• Browse other Extended Planning and Analysis blogs
  • Don’t forget to click “Follow” in the upper left of that page!
• Engage with our SAP Community
• Visit our xP&A Insights article
• Ask your questions on SAP Answers
• Explore our Extended Planning & Analysis Products