By Hari Sankar, Group Vice President, Oracle EPM Cloud
No one knows what a post COVID-19 world will look like and no two industries or geographies are experiencing the same reality, but the one certainty is that every organization needs to balance urgent and critical short-term needs with long-term strategic priorities.
In this environment, scenario planning and strategic modeling have become essential to finance teams as they assess a wide array of possible outcomes, forecast revenues and liquidity, and make iterative short- and medium-term forecasts. And that’s why we’re providing free access to Oracle Financial Statement Planning, including Strategic Modeling, to all existing Oracle Planning Cloud customers for the next 12 months*.
Oracle Financial Statement Planning will help our customers run detailed ‘what-if’ scenarios for a wide array of possible economic situations, including payment delays, inventory fluctuations, and supply disruptions. It will also help increase the accuracy of revenue and cash flow forecasting and capital structure scenario modeling, and assist with bank covenant compliance, funding compliance, and credit rating calculations.
With free access to these industry-leading capabilities, you will be able to benefit from:
· Enhanced business agility and improved decision-making: Our Monte Carlo simulation capabilities will help you substantially improve business agility and mitigate negative outcomes by enabling you to test a range of likely outcomes and plan for potential responses.
· Accurate liquidity models: Balance sheet modeling becomes critical when you are modeling for liquidity. Our built-in “goal-seek” capability will help you run periodic checks to decide which operational variables need to change for effective cost management and cash optimization.
· Simple and insightful reporting and analytics: It is key to not only communicate the numbers in the model, but also the thinking behind the numbers. Real-time analysis and report distribution are available using a variety of report formats, and both reporting and analysis are possible using a web browser and SmartView for Microsoft Office.
What does scenario planning look like in action?
To paint the picture of scenario planning in action, consider retailers – whose industry has seen significant disruption to in-store traffic. Many retailers now have to factor in phased reopening of physical locations in addition to anticipating continued shifts in the mix of online vs in-store revenues. They also need to consider consumer spending shifts, with staple items driving a larger percentage of revenues than luxury items.
This is just one example. We know that every single industry will be impacted in a different way, which is why we’re also providing additional educational resources to help finance teams. We’ve made online tutorials and a step-by-step guide available so you can easily configure and take advantage of these free capabilities.
Additionally, several of our partners are here to assist in implementing these new modules, including Accenture, Alithya, Baker Tilly, Deloitte, EPMI, Grant Thornton, Hackett, Huron, IBM, Inlumi, InterRel, KPMG, Oracle Consulting, Peloton, Perficient, Performance Architects, PwC, Qubix, SC&H Group and Strategy Lighthouse.
No one has a crystal ball, but regardless of what happens in the coming months, we are committed to helping our customers. For CFOs and finance leaders across the globe, the next few months will represent their biggest professional challenge. We’re here to support you and we’ll get through this together!
