Amélie Eyzat, EPM Consultant and Solution Architect at Beyond Plans, deciphers the ongoing transformation within finance departments.
According to her, the challenge is no longer just producing a budget, but building a truly integrated and dynamic planning framework, based on Anaplan’s Integrated Financial Planning (IFP) model.
Finance Function: A Profound Transformation Underway
The finance function is undergoing a deep transformation, driven by the pursuit of agility, reliability, and transparency.
Under pressure from economic volatility and faster decision-making cycles, finance leaders must rethink their practices and tools to reclaim their role as decision enablers.
Yet, many organizations remain trapped in legacy processes, sequential planning, scattered Excel models, manual validations, all obstacles to clear performance insight and timely decision-making.
“In many companies, finance remains a data assembler rather than a true decision engine,” observes Amélie Eyzat, EPM Consultant and Solution Architect at Beyond Plans.
The Need: Continuous, Connected, and Predictive Planning
Effective steering is no longer about simply producing a budget or forecast.
It’s about continuously orchestrating the relationship between results, resources, and operational actions, by integrating all key performance dimensions:
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Revenue, derived from volumes, product mix, and commercial dynamics;
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Opex, linked to real operational drivers (activity, headcount, projects);
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Capex, integrated into an investment and cash trajectory logic;
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Payroll, connected to HR planning and workforce evolution;
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Cash flow, consolidated in real time from operational movements.
This continuity cannot be decreed — it requires a platform capable of unifying strategic, financial, and operational planning logics, while enabling fast simulations, informed trade-offs, and frequent recalibration loops.
Anaplan as the Catalyst for This Approach
Within this framework, Anaplan stands out as a particularly suitable technological foundation.
The Integrated Financial Planning (IFP) model provides a proven structure to connect the key pillars of financial management: P&L, Capex, Opex, Cash, and Workforce.
Most importantly, it delivers a solid reference framework, inspired by best practices observed in international finance departments.
It provides a backbone and a common language between finance and operations, while remaining flexible enough to adjust calculation logic and granularity.
“The value of the IFP model lies in its balance — the rigor of a structured reference combined with the flexibility of an open platform,” explains Amélie Eyzat.
“You can roll it out progressively, extend it to new domains, or combine it with business modules — all without breaking coherence.”
From Modeling to Integrated Steering
The Anaplan architecture enables the shift from siloed logic to a continuous financial value chain:
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Sales assumptions directly feed revenue planning;
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HR forecasts immediately impact workforce cost;
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Investment plans automatically affect self-financing capacity and forecasted cash flow;
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Exchange rate, inflation, or volume adjustments propagate in real time to the consolidated P&L.
This interconnection makes dynamic planning possible, where every scenario can be assessed across multiple dimensions — profitability, cash position, investment capacity, and resource allocation.
The Role of Expertise: Adapt, Don’t Just Implement
But the model’s power alone is not enough.
The success of an IFP implementation depends above all on how it is deployed:
Which dimensions to integrate?
How deep to go into detail?
How to link financial cycles to real operational processes?
At Beyond Plans, we start from each organization’s decision-making logic:
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How is a budget built?
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Where are the key adjustment levers?
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What timing and granularity truly matter?
We then adapt the application — sometimes combining it with other Anaplan modules (e.g., S&OP, Demand Planning), to build a truly integrated and field-aligned platform.
“Our role is not to implement a tool, but to design a sustainable management model that teams can fully own.”
In Summary
Implementing Integrated Financial Planning is not a technology project, it’s a cultural evolution toward connected finance: one that can simulate, anticipate, and engage in continuous dialogue with the business.
Anaplan acts as the catalyst, an open, structured, and best-practice-driven platform that helps finance departments regain what they’ve long been seeking: a reliable, integrated, and truly dynamic vision of performance.
FAQ – Common Questions from Finance Leaders
➡️ Is Anaplan’s IFP application turnkey?
Not entirely. The standard framework provides a solid and secure foundation, built on best financial planning practices — but it must be adjusted to reflect each company’s reality (granularity, analytical structure, budgeting process…).
➡️ Can Anaplan really connect to our existing systems?
Yes, in most cases. The platform offers open APIs and standard interfaces with major ERPs and reporting tools (SAP, Oracle, Power BI, Tableau…). However, an analysis phase is always required to define the right data exchange architecture.
➡️ Will artificial intelligence replace financial analysis?
No. Integrated AI features (like Anaplan CoPlanner) speed up analysis and query generation but do not replace financial judgment or business expertise.
The goal is to enhance analytical capability, not delegate it.
➡️ How long does it take to deploy an IFP model?
It depends on the scope and level of customization. A well-framed pilot can be implemented in a few weeks, while a full multi-domain deployment generally spans several months.
➡️ What’s the key to a successful project?
Do not approach Anaplan as just a tool. Treat it as an opportunity to rethink how your organization plans, decides, and communicates performance.
Technology creates value only when the underlying business logic is clear and shared.
