Let’s Ditch the Spreadsheets, Shall We?
Planning and Forecasting
Streamline your budgeting, forecasting and planning processes, and you’ll get rid of that multitude of monthly spreadsheets that take forever to put together!
As New Zealand’s leading experts in financial and operational planning tools, we understand the immense value they can bring to your organisation.
Financial Planning and Analysis
At the heart of financial planning, forecasting and analysis lies the ability to transform complex data, both financial and operational into actionable intelligence. Technologies in this area allow us to leverage historic data and apply it to build scenarios of future performance. They do this through the creation of advanced analytics and forecasting models, FP&A can empower your organisation to anticipate market trends, identify growth opportunities, and mitigate potential risks. With a clear understanding of your company’s financial position and future projections, you can confidently navigate the ever-evolving business landscape.
The value of FP&A extends beyond just financial analysis; it can also be applied to complex operational resource planning. By integrating FP&A into your decision-making process, you can ensure that every investment, initiative, and resource allocation decision supports your long-term vision and drives sustainable growth.
Our planning, budgeting and forecasting solutions are built upon our model templates derived from many years of specialist consulting in this field. Models for profit & loss budgets, rolling forecasts, sales & operations planning, demand forecasts and driver-based allocations, are all standard frameworks that we deal with every day.
Look for an FP&A platform that offers a comprehensive suite of features to support your unique planning, forecasting, and reporting needs. The solution must be highly configurable to adapt as your business evolves.
Seamless data integration from your ERP, CRM, workforce systems and other core systems is essential for building a single source of financial truth.
Effective FP&A requires tight cross-functional collaboration. Solutions that facilitate real-time commentary, version control, and approvals to streamline will bring governance to your planning processes.
As markets shift, your FP&A requirements will need to expand. Ensure the platform you choose can scale to meet your increasing data volumes and user demands without compromising speed and reliability.
Let’s Ditch the Spreadsheets, Shall We?
Planning and Forecasting
Streamline your budgeting, forecasting and planning processes, and you’ll get rid of that multitude of monthly spreadsheets that take forever to put together!
As New Zealand’s leading experts in financial and operational planning tools, we understand the immense value they can bring to your organisation.
Financial Planning and Analysis
At the heart of financial planning, forecasting and analysis lies the ability to transform complex data, both financial and operational into actionable intelligence. Technologies in this area allow us to leverage historic data and apply it to build scenarios of future performance. They do this through the creation of advanced analytics and forecasting models, FP&A can empower your organisation to anticipate market trends, identify growth opportunities, and mitigate potential risks. With a clear understanding of your company’s financial position and future projections, you can confidently navigate the ever-evolving business landscape.
The value of FP&A extends beyond just financial analysis; it can also be applied to complex operational resource planning. By integrating FP&A into your decision-making process, you can ensure that every investment, initiative, and resource allocation decision supports your long-term vision and drives sustainable growth.
Our planning, budgeting and forecasting solutions are built upon our model templates derived from many years of specialist consulting in this field. Models for profit & loss budgets, rolling forecasts, sales & operations planning, demand forecasts and driver-based allocations, are all standard frameworks that we deal with every day.
Look for an FP&A platform that offers a comprehensive suite of features to support your unique planning, forecasting, and reporting needs. The solution must be highly configurable to adapt as your business evolves.
Seamless data integration from your ERP, CRM, workforce systems and other core systems is essential for building a single source of financial truth.
Effective FP&A requires tight cross-functional collaboration. Solutions that facilitate real-time commentary, version control, and approvals to streamline will bring governance to your planning processes.
As markets shift, your FP&A requirements will need to expand. Ensure the platform you choose can scale to meet your increasing data volumes and user demands without compromising speed and reliability.
Choosing the right cloud platform provider for your planning needs is a crucial step, impacting your organisation’s data capabilities and overall information strategy. We understand this complexity. That’s why we specialise in Workday Adaptive Planning, IBM Planning Analytics, and SAP’s Analytics Cloud (SAC) Enterprise Planning and Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC). These leading platforms offer excellent solutions, and above are some key factors to consider when making your choice.
Workday Adaptive Planning
Adapt and adjust your plans, budgets and forecasts quickly. Modern cloud planning software built for business agility.
In today’s dynamic world, financial performance management demands a proven, adaptable approach. The science lies in understanding past results, analyzing the underlying causes, and then leveraging this insight to adjust future plans. Workday Adaptive Planning excels in this crucial final step, effectively closing the loop on the performance improvement cycle. By pinpointing the drivers of past performance, our models empower organizations to reallocate resources strategically and forecast future results with confidence, ensuring a resilient and forward-looking financial strategy.
Capabilities
Unify your financial and operational planning, add cohesive drivers and allocations, speed up your rolling forecasts, empower your analytics and gain flexible what-if scenarios
We can integrate to practically any data source including your Financials, ERP, CRM, Payroll, Workforce, Spreadsheets, Data Warehouses and more
Elastic Hypercube Technology in-memory engine with comprehensive security, auditing and encryption
Easily manage the submission, review and approval process and energise your collaboration
Get rid of the time-consuming, error-prone consolidation of a multitude of spreadsheets
Stunningly quick and intuitive to learn as you configure prebuilt models that deploy in days
Business Benefits
Helpful Resources
Seven Capabilities Checklist
Seven capabilities your workforce planning tool should include for accurate workforce management and payroll calculations.
Seven Steps Tip Sheet
Seven steps to develop successful financial project plans that deliver results on time and within budget.
Success Stories
ADAPTING THROUGH BUSINESS TRANSITION
“With Workday Adaptive Planning, we sped up the month-end reporting and we can implement changes a lot faster, which are then reflected in our reporting systems. This means our decisions are better informed, and we can provide a consolidated view almost automatically.”
Johan Vendrig
Chief Information Officer, Orion Health
MOVING BEYOND EXCEL SPREADSHEETS
“The Mero team is incredibly supportive and proactive. They not only helped us design a purpose-built solution to fit our needs, they also created a user group to connect us to other companies using their tools, allowing us to learn and adapt from others. That speaks volumes about the confidence they have in their solutions and methodology, and it has made a measurable difference in enabling us at Sport New Zealand to create a best practices approach for all budgeting and forecasting activities.”
Gillian Peoples
Acting Finance Manager, Sport New Zealand
WORKDAY ADAPTIVE PLANNING DELIVERS SIMPLICITY AND CAPABILITY FOR RESENE
“I trusted Mero at the outset, so I took it on their word that Workday Adaptive Planning was simple and easy to use. It was the company that sold it for us, but as soon as we saw what it could do, we thought ‘ok, it really is a good tool’.”
Mike Durkin
Chief Financial Officer, Resene
Want to see Workday Adaptive Planning in action? Or just want to find out how we can help your business plan better?
Planning with SAP
Unlock the true potential of your SAP data for more meaningful analytics.
SAP Analytics Cloud goes beyond extended planning and analysis software. It fosters strategic alignment across departments, allowing you to crowdsource insightful plans from the entire business. Make data-driven decisions in the moment with a personal sandbox for planning, real-time performance visualisation, and scenario simulations. Boost engagement and accuracy through collaborative planning, streamline workflows with dynamic orchestration, and consolidate data into a single, verifiable source of truth. The SAP Analytics Cloud uncover key drivers of your plans and automatically predict future benefits, saving time and propelling your business forward.
Deliver timely and accurate plans, budgets, forecasts, and reports with a robust set of enterprise planning features
The SAP Analytics Cloud add-in for Microsoft Excel empowers you to seamlessly input, retrieve, and manipulate data directly between your Analytics Cloud dashboards and Excel sheets. This real-time data exchange ensures you always have access to the most up-to-date information for timely decision-making
Utilise the powerful calendar feature to schedule tasks, workflows, and resource allocation, keeping your planning process organised and efficient. Trigger actions across departments, cost centers, and plan versions with the built-in multi-step planning processes. This ensures everyone is on the same page and eliminates communication gaps
Intelligent and trusted insights powered by automation. Predictive analytics and machine learning streamline forecasting across all levels of your plans
Built-in features that enable easy plan sharing and discussion throughout the entire organisation. Dynamic workflows ensure clear ownership and accountability, while the mobile application empowers on-the-go participation, keeping everyone engaged in the planning process
Run simulations instantly and explore multiple potential outcomes. Isolate the impact of key business drivers within a private sandbox environment. Collaborate on “what-if” analysis with your team to refine your strategy
The SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) application delivers planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation capabilities, so you can easily adjust plans and forecasts, speed up budget and closing cycles, and ensure compliance with financial reporting standards. Save time and reduce errors with a single, integrated software solution for business planning and consolidation.
Automate aggregations, allocations, and other manual processes to speed up planning cycles, while running what-if scenarios to identify quick course corrections
Leverage real-time what-if modelling and scenario planning to assess budget suitability and proactively address potential challenges. Build flexible forecast models that allow for quick adjustments, ensuring your budget adapts to changing circumstances
Facilitate a swift and accurate financial close through the automation of the consolidation process. This ensures adherence to all financial reporting requirements, including a complete audit trail
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation is embedded within SAP S/4HANA on-premise, enabling real time plan to actual analysis and consolidations
Integrate SAP Analytics Cloud with your existing SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) solution to gain access to sophisticated visualisations, enhanced planning capabilities, and cutting-edge predictive features
Like to talk to us about planning with SAP?
IBM Planning Analytics
Ditch the guesswork and embrace foresight with IBM Planning Analytics.
IBM Planning Analytics, powered by TM1, is a powerful and versatile planning and analytics solution that helps organizations of all sizes achieve greater efficiency and foresight. This cloud-deployable or on-premise solution streamlines processes and delivers actionable insights by transforming raw data into meaningful predictions. Its intuitive interface and integration with familiar tools like Excel make it easy for users to access data from various sources and conduct in-depth scenario analysis. With its AI-powered capabilities, IBM Planning Analytics enables real-time analysis, flexible forecasting, and granular “what-if” simulations, empowering users to confidently predict outcomes and make informed decisions. This solution allows organizations to create reliable plans based on evolving trends, visualize insights effectively, and ultimately, improve decision-making speed and quality, driving business performance forward.
Planning Across the Entire Organisation
Real-time multidimensional analysis of massive amounts of data down to SKU product level
Accelerate planning with pre-built apps for financial, demand, workforce, and IT project planning
Built-in AI advanced forecasting, with Gen AI capabilities enhancing accuracy and predictive insights
All spreadsheet functionality but with added governance and control. Any adjustments can be applied in real-time to all views
Generate, customise, and share insightful reports directly within the platform, without exporting data to other tools
Powerful data visualisation capabilities with advanced planning and forecasting functionalities
Continuous rolling forecast and ‘what if’ analysis, enabling you to see the impact of business decisions before making them
With data spreading and allocations
Success Stories
ANALYTICS DRIVES PROFIT FOR SANFORD
“Mero is delivering analytics that are improving the way Sanford sells and operates – financials were just the start. The biggest return on investment is our ability to forecast on a timely basis – it’s directly improving our growth and profitability.”
Paul Turnbull
Commercial Manager Operations, Sanford
MERO SAVES THE DAY FOR PĀMU’S PLANNING ANALYTICS
“It’s one of the success stories here at Pāmu, it has changed how people view the whole budgeting, forecasting and planning process. We can see the future of doing even more in the system because people see the value of it now.”
Shannon Lynds
Planning & Performance Manager, Pāmu
MANAGING GLOBAL DEMAND AT FISHER & PAYKEL HEALTHCARE
“Our data is now in one spot. It’s stable, simple to get data out, and easy to review and process forecast changes.”
Gary Sawers
Demand Planning Manager, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Like to talk to us about IBM Planning Analytics?
Break Free of Spreadsheet Based Planning
If you have recognised the risk of business planning in a spreadsheet and are tired of the time-consuming and inefficient process of consolidating multiple spreadsheets every month-end, our team can help you transform your forecasting practices and dramatically streamline your compilation process.
Don’t let your budgeting and planning processes be cumbersome, slow and error prone. Let’s discuss how we can help you find innovative ways to reinvent your core financial forecasting, enabling greater efficiency, accuracy, and strategic decision-making.
We are experts at analysing your existing planning processes and leveraging industry leading technologies to optimise your budgeting and forecasting capabilities. Our solutions offer a comprehensive suite of features, including:
Get Started With A Business Discovery Session
Great conversations lead to great outcomes. Get in touch below, and we’ll contact you to arrange a 15 minute business discovery session.