From complexity to harmony in the sales planning process

With a business hampered by inefficiencies, a global foods leader called on Centific to deliver a digital solution that could optimize planning on a global scale.

The client, a staple global foods distribution and manufacturing company with more than $26 billion in annual revenue, faced significant supply chain challenges. The sales-planning process was manual and overly complex, causing widespread slowdowns and propagating inaccurate data up the food chain to stakeholders and decision-makers. Behind these issues were deeply entrenched inefficiencies, which only a holistic re-evaluation of the business planning methodology could solve.

Centific was engaged to reduce inefficiency and increase business velocity across the client’s organization. Our teams rose to the challenge. We developed a custom digital platform that united the client’s existing systems into an integrated platform designed to streamline operations and boost productivity.

KEY SUCCESSES

Developed a custom platform to streamline the sales planning process
Harmonized disparate and inefficient client systems
Built out reporting and analytics capabilities to increase visibility into data

DEFINING GOALS

The Centific team worked closely with the client to document the project’s goals and priorities, including the major pain points that needed to be addressed and the many priorities that had to be managed for an enterprise of this size. The team gained clarity on the major issues it would need to solve for.

Our analysis found that the company’s many separate systems were not working harmoniously and the company was relying on an ineffective suite of tools. These issues had allowed inefficiencies and inaccuracies to grow and were resulting in degraded performance across the whole business structure.

CUSTOM WEB PLATFORM

Equipped with this insight, the Centific called upon a global network of digitalization professionals to develop a bespoke digital solution. The new system unified the client’s business planning process by integrating several separate systems onto a single platform. This was built with three defined priorities: accuracy, efficiency, and ease-of-use. Users across all parts of the business — notably sales, supply chain, and senior management — enjoyed more visibility into their work and were equipped with additional resources for operational efficiency.

To support this new digital infrastructure – as well as the client’s future business needs – Centific developed this new platform with built-in reporting and analytics functionality. The information delivered can inform upstream and downstream management, improve business velocity, and shed light on new venues for opportunity and growth.

RESULTS

At the core of this engagement was a need for accuracy and efficiency. With the strategic support of Centific, the client was able to meet this need and lay the foundation for smarter and more productive business on a global scale.