Finance-Guided Planning in Action

With the right tools, with the right solutions, we can really have finance without limits. And that's why we're so focused on this operational pillar, and we're so focused on continuing to expand what we can deliver so you can expand into this strategic remit.

How do we think about enabling you further, more modeling, more planning scenarios, so that you can have the solutions you need to lead your organization? Now, in this finance-led era, we see that the requirements are a little different and continue to change as the market changes.

And we see the need for maybe thinking about planning and the modeling we do a new way. What's causing us to step back? Well, think about what we've talked about so far. We talked about volatility, the pace of acceleration, the need for agility.

So speed, agility, and forecast accuracy. Right? That's the recipe for transformation. Right? And you heard a little bit of this just now with Milo's. They needed to be able to address more data with increased granularity.

Right? So they could plan more effectively for tomorrow. They needed to be able to see into their business more. They needed to be able to find the signals in that highly granular data so that they could respond to them.

So how do we think about signal and response as kind of a key-orienting concept for new tools? Well, we can look at another transformation for inspiration. Navigation. Right? We started navigation with maps.

Right? Single version of the truth. Maybe you had the triptych, if anyone knows what that is. But we started with maps. Right? And where did we go next? Well, we took those maps, and now we've got semi-intelligent routing systems to get us from point A to point B.

Right? What do we have now? Well, we have the missing piece. All right? Today we have amazing apps like Waze that provide us the single version of the truth. Right? The maps. The ability to route from A to B.

But now, now I can see the signals that are happening. Okay, so what happens when you're on your journey? Well, you've got traffic, construction, maybe just slow-moving vehicles. Right? But all of those details, all of that insight is available to you on one platform, one experience.

And given real-world changes, like what happens in the market, you can stay on the fastest, safest, most optimal path. Right? So this route optimization is a good way to think about the type of change that we see happening.

Right? When I'm driving, I need the signal presented to me. I don't want to think about recalculating the map or changing things. Right? I want that signal to be given to me as the human in the loop. And then based on that, I want to choose the right response.

I need to be able to cognitively digest what's happening and think, this is what we do every day. This is what needs to happen with our planning tools. Enable us to enter this cognitive planning era. This idea that market changes happen and you need to be able to learn from that.

You need to be able to adapt to those changes automatically. I don't want to have to go reconfigure a model. I'm not going to reconfigure the map. Right? I want my models to understand the dynamic nature of what's happening and surface that to me.

That's what we're talking about when we say cognitive planning. It's this idea that we don't know the absolute answer. We know the value and the outcome we're trying to achieve. We're not going to goal seek our way there.

We're going to build models that are flexible and enable us to adapt and change. This is why we created the dynamic analytic services, things like dynamic dimensions, dynamic cubes. We were laying the foundation, the foundational pieces to enable us to build and deliver this reality.

And so today we're going to talk about a new tool that continues on this vision. I'm very excited to announce Line Item Modeling Engine. It's one engine that solves a whole host of operational needs. Most importantly, it's no code.

You can configure your calculations, your data needs, and it's extensible. Line Item Modeler delivers the ability to learn, adapt, and model faster. Right? And again, all built on our AI native platform.

We talked about the dynamic analytics services. Natively works. Our AI chat capabilities, natively works. Right? That's what it means to be designed on one platform because everything comes along with it.

And again, the data you can trust and that you can feel confident in. So how do we bring this to you and make it even easier to implement? Well, we're going to announce our first two packages that are built on top of Line Item Modeling.

Fixed-term planning and duration-based planning. Now, fixed-term helps you tackle things like projects, leases, subscriptions, while duration-based is good for contracts and grants. So let's put that in some context.

You know, if you're looking at large capital projects, fixed-term would be a great one. If you're looking at grants, maybe in the higher ed space, another opportunity. So as we continue to look at the things that move your business the most, what's one of the biggest line items on the P&L? Well, it's people.

Their greatest asset, and there's some cost there. So we're excited to announce our workforce planning solution built on top of Line Item Modeling. Workforce unifies finance, HR, and operations. You can model headcount, compensation, labor, and you can see that impact, as we talked about with the dynamic capabilities.

You can see it across your business, right, and really use it to drive outcomes on top of the trusted data. This is about how we can deliver value faster and faster, and we're doing that with Workforce Planning Express.

Now, what I'm really excited about here is not just the package based on hundreds of implementations that we've done, right, not just that you have deployment methods and templates and reports to accelerate, but I'm most excited about just what that acceleration means.

So there's one story in particular. We worked with the GSI, and they used Workforce Planning Express, met with their customer, took in the requirements, and the next day showed this demonstrably in the solution.

That's one day to implement Workforce Planning Express. That's value, real value, and real quickly. So this is how we jump into the era of cognitive planning, and this is how we're meeting that need and meeting that call.

So with so many great announcements, what do we got to do? We got to start planning today.