How Fellowmind Denmark Revolutionized Revenue Forecasting with Aimplan
Background
Fellowmind Denmark, a subsidiary of the larger Fellowmind company, offers a comprehensive range of IT services through its team of over 400 consultants across various departments. The organization sought to enhance its revenue forecasting process by transitioning from manual Excel sheet distribution to a more streamlined and automated approach.
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Their choice to implement Aimplan was driven by the need for a uniform solution that integrated with their existing Microsoft technology stack, which included Power BI. This case study delves into the challenges faced, the solutions offered by Aimplan, and the impact of this implementation on Fellowmind Denmark's operations and processes.
"Implementing Aimplan has been a time-saver. We now have data available, and we can connect to it from virtually anywhere, further enhancing our agility and efficiency in forecasting.
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It has definitely been a game changer for Fellowmind Denmark, and we look forward to continuing to integrate it into our operations." - Martin Sams, CFO
Challenges
Manual and Ununiform Process
The organization was heavily reliant on manually distributing and generating Excel sheets for revenue forecasting. This process was not only time-consuming but also lacked consistency, making it difficult to standardize and consolidate data.
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Desire for Automation
They needed an automated solution to streamline their quarterly revenue forecasting process. The goal was to eliminate manual tasks, improve accuracy, and provide flexibility in making alterations as needed.
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Empowering Team Managers
Fellowmind Denmark wanted to equip team managers to have more control over the data, supporting them to provide detailed expectations for their respective teams. This was particularly critical for their consultancy-driven service revenue.
Needs and Solution
Aimplan provides Fellowmind Denmark with a comprehensive solution to address their revenue forecasting challenges:
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1. Quarterly Forecast and Budgeting: Aimplan is used to create a quarterly revenue forecast, with the final forecast serving as the basis for the following year's budget. This approach allowed for greater precision in financial planning and performance analysis.
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2. Empowering Team Managers: Aimplan equips team managers by allowing them to directly edit and control their team's data within the platform. This gives managers hands-on access to update project timelines, resource allocation, and demand forecasts. The ability to customize the data themselves provides crucial insights for effectively managing approximately 430 billable consultants across different business lines and teams.
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3. Workload and Absences: Aimplan's model was designed to calculate the workload for each
team, accounting for factors such as long-term absences and vacations. This enhanced the accuracy of forecasting and resource allocation.
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4. User Adoption: Currently, 30 managers across different teams are actively using the Aimplan solution embedded into their Power BI environment, and they have found it easy to incorporate it into their existing Power BI environment.
Why Aimplan?
The decision to choose Aimplan as the solution for revenue forecasting was influenced by several key factors:
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Data Reusability
Aimplan's ability to reuse dimensions and other data in Power BI allowed Fellowmind Denmark to leverage their existing data warehousing capabilities, eliminating the need to duplicate data in another financial planning and analysis tool.
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Integration with Power BI
As the organization was heavily invested in Power BI, Aimplan seamlessly integrated with this familiar environment, making it a natural choice for users.
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Cost and Implementation Time
Compared to other solutions, Aimplan was deemed more cost-effective and quicker to implement. The entire implementation process was very short, and Fellowmind
could reuse their existing Power BI knowledge and skills, thanks to the already well-defined dimensions and measures required for the organization's forecasting needs.
Results
Choosing Aimplan has positively affected Fellowmind Denmark at the management level and functional level, with the following outcomes:
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​1. Enhanced Accessibility
By seamlessly integrating with Power BI, Aimplan has made Fellowmind Denmark's revenue forecasting and financial planning processes more accessible for users. They can easily access tasks, deadlines, and data needs within Power BI. Timely notifications will keep all stakeholders informed and synchronized with forecasting and the financial plan.
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2. Time Savings
Aimplan has considerably reduced the time spent on revenue forecasting. With data readily available and accessible from various locations, the organization has achieved significant time savings.
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3. Improved Collaboration
By giving all users visibility of forecasts and deadlines, Aimplan fosters better teamwork between departments on revenue planning.
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4. Facilitated Scenario Planning
The automated approach streamlines what-if analysis, allowing managers to easily adjust forecasts and examine the impact of different scenarios on revenue projections.
What's next?
Fellowmind Denmark has been impressed by the significant benefits of implementing Aimplan for revenue forecasting. The simplified process has not only improved forecast accuracy but also reallocated time and enhanced collaboration across teams. Looking ahead, the company has ambitious plans to further utilize Aimplan's capabilities.
The immediate goal is to extend its use to include forecasting for the entire profit and loss statement (P&L) over the coming quarters. The management is confident that leveraging Aimplan for P&L forecasting will deliver even more accurate and robust financial planning. With a track record of transformation and the forthcoming P&L forecasting project, Aimplan has established its position as an invaluable long-term partner for Fellowmind Denmark's digital finance transformation. It has proven itself as a highly effective solution to automate forecasting processes and support data-driven decision-making.