Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data. Meteorologists probably do the most well-known forecasting type, although some individuals would argue that they’re not very good at it!
The business world also employs forecasting for numerous reasons, from predicting future revenue to anticipating marketplace trends. The process enables them to be proactive instead of reactive, which is especially important to sustainable financial and operational success.
The Challenge
Manual budgeting and forecasting processes for various clinical programs at a Massachusetts-based Biotechnology company developing medicines that control gene expressions were not only time-consuming and error-prone but also limited the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team from reporting at a granular level.
“Every time we had a budget or forecast update, each line within the spreadsheet had to be refreshed,” explained the FP&A professional. “Once those numbers were loaded, we had to run the rules, all of which made for a very tedious process. It was also hard to make changes on short notice, which is a capability we certainly needed.” — FP&A Team Member
How Stratos Consulting Helped
To address these issues, the Biotechnology company enlisted the assistance and expertise of Stratos Consulting, who previously had customized Oracle EPM Cloud Planning (Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service) for them.
- Implemented a customer and user-friendly PBCS Supporting Detail Expense Activity solution that is both flexible and scalable
- Configured Data Management to load and provide drill-through functionality in the module to view Actuals Transactions
- Connected forms in Microsoft Excel directly to the Excel SmartView plugin source application
The Result
The customized Oracle EPM Cloud Planning solution allows our Biotechnology client’s FP&A team to easily plan the budget and forecast at a much more detailed level — whether it’s by vendor, purchase order, project, or another category — and visualize actuals spend in the same view. Granular reports are now easily created and shared across employees and departments.
“We now have different templates for our various programs and functions, and they’re all linked to the same system. Once we enter line-level detail and simply hit a button, that data is immediately input into the system. No more cutting and pasting – or lag time – necessary!” — FP&A Associate Director
Reach out to Stratos today to learn more about our custom solutions for Oracle EPM Cloud, or learn more about our team of technology and industry experts and how they’re driving organizational transformation for life sciences companies.
