Finance plans in spreadsheets. Operations plans in ERP. Sales forecasts in CRM. Strategy sits in slide decks. When these plans are disconnected, organizations fly blind — reacting to surprises instead of anticipating them. Connected planning breaks these silos.
The Cost of Disconnected Planning
When finance and operations plan independently, the results are predictable: budgets that do not reflect operational reality, forecasts that miss demand signals, and strategic initiatives that stall due to resource misalignment. Research shows that organizations with connected planning processes achieve forecasting accuracy improvements and significantly reduce planning cycle times.
What Connected Planning Looks Like
Connected planning is not a tool — it is a methodology. It starts with establishing shared assumptions across departments: the same demand forecast feeds both the supply chain plan and the revenue budget. Changes cascade automatically, so when sales adjusts a target, operations and finance see the impact immediately.
Implementation Roadmap
Phase 1: Process blueprinting — map existing planning processes, identify disconnects, and define integration points.
Phase 2: Data model design — create a unified planning data model that supports cross-functional scenarios.
Phase 3: Platform implementation — deploy a connected planning platform with driver-based modeling capabilities.
Phase 4: Managed services — ongoing optimization, model refinement, and user adoption support.
DataLumin Perspective: Our connected planning engagements follow a proven four-phase methodology. We have helped organizations across manufacturing, BFSI, and retail transform from siloed spreadsheet processes to integrated planning platforms.