No vendor lock: how we helped CSOB streamline its planning and taught it to operate the platform independently / Adastra

What do all departments responsible for preparing plans to want? To save time, have a more in-depth plan review, simplify the budgeting process and get a transparent planning platform that all colleagues can handle. This is the exact requirement at ČSOB. Thanks to the ready solution in IBM Planning Analytics, they have already had a significantly more straightforward and faster-planning process for the fifth year.

ČSOB needed to streamline and above all make its planning, budgeting and forecasting process more transparent. By selecting IBM Planning Analytics, together with the bank's internal team, they created a clear and user-friendly solution that significantly accelerated the planning process and enabled the creation and control of the plan in greater detail.

50 %

Almost 50% of CFOs lack a standardized planning platform

55 %

CFOs are dissatisfied with the operational planning and forecasting automation capabilities

IBM Planning Analytics enables

Accelerate the planning and budgeting process

Automate routine operations

Better control of inputs from other bank departments

No more excel spreadsheets that users customize and tend to have versioning and consolidation problems

Planning in IBM PA supports both TOP-DOWN planning for the strategic plan and BOTTOM-UP for the operational plan

At ČSOB, they have managed planning with IBM Planning Analytics for the fifth year

Keep it simple and stupid! Alias KISS. Based on this principle, the IBM Planning Analytics solution was created, involving both Adastra consultants and a team on the ČSOB side.

There was a need to balance the scope with a precise specification and sufficient freedom to change and modify the specification to deliver a functional and usable solution. Therefore, we made extensive use of prototyping during development. Individual modules were developed closely with the customer's team without a closed specification. Partial parts of the modules were tested and commented on, allowing potential problems to be nipped in the bud.

The project also included an integration test, which simulated the whole process of plan development and checked all modules and their continuity. Finally, the delivered solution was deployed a week after completion and used successfully to develop the following year's plan.

The operation of the IBM Planning Analytics platform is not complicated. At ČSOB, we have trained internal staff who are now in their fifth year of being able to operate and develop the entire planning solution independently.