Our National Conference focusses on our individual communities of Leadership, Planning, Insight and Quality providing a community focus to develop topics, discuss challenges, share ideas and learn from fellow professionals. The last face-to-face Forum event was in November 2019 in Manchester. The pandemic gave us an opportunity to do something different and experiment with virtual events which have proved extremely popular. With the opportunity to hold face-to-face events now opening up, it gives us another opportunity to experiment. 

The question now is: How do we combine the best of virtual and face-to-face?

I recently saw on the BBC website that additional travel restrictions have been imposed on eight areas in the UK including where many of my family live.

This has been in place since Friday, but nobody knew about it. There was no announcement it was simply posted in a subsection of a governance Covid advice page. But since as far as anybody was aware there had been no change, there was no reason to visit that page.

You are the key to unlock opportunities, whether this be a personal change, a team development or a business transformation. In celebrating 21 years at The Forum, Phil Anderson looks at the part you can play in influencing the people around you, changing mindsets and overcoming the issues that block or slow down progress in our member organisations.

Budgets don’t typically create excitement, more of a necessary evil, “we need to do it”, it is often a long drawn out, boring process which often feels like a making the numbers fit, which few people follow anyway. Tedius detail, wild estimates, ambitious sales targets and even more ambitious handle times and shrinkage percentages.

In the fact the only thing potentially more tedious, unnecessary and, drawn out would be a keynote on the very topic.

As a result of Covid-19, each aspect of the employee lifecycle has been challenged. This has provided an opportunity to design and rebuild a new and joined up approach, supporting both the long- and short-term strategies. The uncertainty of planning during a pandemic has led to decisions being made with a short-term view in mind; some of these responses may turn out to be poor enduring solutions.

Have you thought about the awesome power of benchmarking? If not, maybe you should.

Regenerating, rejuvenating or just reviewing your role and responsibilities is a great way to continuously improve. 2020 has been a year to rethink and reflect on how we used to do things, how we need to respond now and to consider what the future could bring. There may have always been problems which have never been addressed, and the response to handling COVID-19 has exacerbated the problems; you may be under difficult cost challenges and need to adapt; or, you want to stay ahead of the game and look for new opportunities. It doesn’t matter why, what does matter is that you are willing to challenge your current state and think about positive change. Redefining the Planning team is a healthy way of re-engaging with stakeholders and the wider business, so everyone is clear on their role and responsibility.

See how strategic resource models are evolving and driving continuous improvement, consolidated onto a shared platform with Finance, fast & flexible, with a single trusted source of data.

Summary 

Learn how the Planning Team at RSA has developed as a trusted partner, with a place at the top table. It’s been a strong period for planning, with 15% efficiencies, rising engagement and hundreds of hours saved in the annual budget planning process. The new, standardised planning models evolved in agile sprints, with stakeholder scrum teams. It’s quicker and seamless, with a continuous improvement ethos. This creates flexibility, agility and confidence in the plan – serving 27 business areas, from Sales to Claims, Front to Back Office. Models have been simplified, automated and rebuilt in Anaplan. Savings in analyst time alone yield a compelling ROI, with further flow-through benefits later in the planning cycle and for the operation. Analysis can be turned around instantly or in hours, not weeks. It’s so good because the key data is always there, with a single model framework and robust governance.

See how planning and transformation teams worked with operations on an operating model that raised productivity 32%, employee satisfaction 13% and halved turn-round times for customers

Summary 
See the value that can be gained by visibility, control and engagement in back office operations. Remarkable transformation in Group Protection at L&G has driven growth and profitability on the back of outstanding service, with new corporate clients signing up for this. Brought about by a new model of collaboration, the Transformation, Planning & Operations teams (the ‘customer service triangle’) have engaged people, using powerful frameworks for change, planning, workflow and communication. Re-launching EG Workforce Manager has been key to establishing control and creating an emotional connection for colleagues. Results are impressive: 21% FTE savings, renewals 75% faster, outstanding premiums cut by 50% and double the consistency of service. The new ways of working are now driving sustained, incremental improvement far beyond the initial recovery. 

See how ‘inspired experts’ in the Sky Planning Team drive innovation in planning, to bring strategic value to the business and make life better for customers and colleagues.

Summary 
Sky considers 2019 to have been a vintage year for the organisation. Customer numbers, sales and profitability have all shown material increases and the Planning Team are at the heart of these impressive results. A strong commercial intellect coupled with a thirst for innovation, which puts people and customers at the forefront of their thinking, makes the team pivotal to the success. No longer just about operational efficiencies, this team is helping to shape the future strategy of the business. They run many concurrent projects, such as automation with robotics and apps, reducing customer effort and improving colleague work-life integration. Freedom to innovate, test, fail fast and learn is central to the team’s culture, whilst their career pathways programme provides inspiration and development for their own people. 

Empowerment and ownership has given analysts confidence to work in a new way with stakeholders across the business, build new solutions and improve forecast accuracy.

Summary
An empowering innovation culture is driving significant and sustainable change at Three Ireland, based on a core value ‘one team’. It’s a great place to work, where anything seems possible and a simple development can have huge impact when passionate people pull together. A collaboration by Planning & Capability Transformation teams, 3 Cal is establishing a culture of planning ahead — seamlessly building on their award-winning real-time model to focus earlier in the planning cycle. It is now used across the business to plan activity with customer or colleague impact and has helped reduce forecast variance (from 20% to 2.5%) because activity is visible and built into the plan. Engaging with the operation, including Tech Mahindra in Mumbai, built ownership and embedded changes in the culture, so that everyone now better understands the impact of their activities on customers.