Version 1.32: Budget Season’s Real Problem Is Alignment

That's amazing.

I mean, and you gotta think about the, the massiveness of IBM and being able to almost, like, run a scenario right away.

N-not two to three weeks later, right? I love this story, but I'm gonna pull it over to you, Bill.

You've been in the trenches as well, working with Snapple and other companies, and then you came to IBM.

Is this also viable? I'm sure some of our listeners are like, "Yeah, but that's IBM.

They have the resources." What about the smaller companies? So the small companies, let's say they have 10 users in their planning system.

It doesn't matter the size of the organization.

If you have, you know, a large company like IBM, a smaller company like when Snapple first started, at the heart of it, you still need that analytics.

You still need that time to value.

A lot of the customers that I have spoken to in, in all size organizations, CFOs are afraid their teams are stuck in Excel, and they need something that's gonna give them decision responsiveness.

And as things are changing, especially now with tariffs and the price of oil being all over the place.

Was glad you brought up Snapple.

That was one of the things that when I was working in strategy and kind of crossover with FP&A at Snapple, and the price of oil was going all over the place, being able to model what's the impact to the business quickly as those prices are changing throughout the day.

Being able to have that decision responsive, that quick analysis, is really why you need a planning system versus where you get caught in the trap of Excel.

I mean, Excel is great.

A lot of customers think that is their number one planning tool until they need quick decisions, until they need to scale this out.

That's why I said it doesn't really matter the size of the organization.

It's that ability to get those answers quickly, to be able to action on it, and be able to take ownership of that information.

I love that 'cause what I'm hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, is it's not necessarily about quote accuracy.

You-- I always hear CFOs say, "I don't trust my numbers.

Like, we do the budget and it's outdated as soon as it's approved," right? But what I'm hearing you really say is it's about responsiveness.

Yeah.

And I mean, there is always that element of forecast accuracy.

Don't get me wrong.

I mean, that still is probably the number one KPI that every CFO challenges their team.