AJB Systems

Managing Forecast Accuracy in IFP Video

richard.bysouth — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:30:46 GMT

A new video is now available on Managing Forecast Accuracy in IFP 3.0. This is a follow-up to the Sales Planning video.

This video looks at a small sample of tools available in IFP for assessing accuracy of forecasts produced by users.

View Managing Forecast Accuracy in IFP

P&L (Profit and Loss) Forecasting Video

tony.bysouth — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:47:01 GMT

A new video is now available on editing of P&L forecast data in IFP 3.0.

This video illustrates the use of basic tools available in IFP 3.0 for planning of P&L related expenses.

The video includes examples of forecast manipulation at account and P&L line levels. This demonstrates automatic recalculation of base level data via pro-rata adjustment of existing monthly values at base level of detail.

View P&L (Profit and Loss) Forecasting Video

IFP and Mergers/Acquisitions

tony.bysouth — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:16:07 GMT

IFP has been successfully used in many countries over the last 18 months for building consolidated databases for companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.

These databases allowed users to analyse sales and P&L data for all companies involved, even though each company used completely different coding of products, cost centres and accounts.

IFP can accommodate multiple charts of account, product grouping structures and definitions of key schedules (e.g. P&Ls) in a single database. This made it much easier than might be the case in some other systems to validate and check consolidated data.

Users quickly produced analyses showing data both from each company and consolidated across all companies. It was also easy to integrate data for all companies into standard grouping structures designed by management.

A particular advantage of IFP was the ease with which sales and P&L data could be combined in a single database using flexible importing procedures that could accept data from files created by a variety of host systems. The process involved creating simple templates that were populated by the host system using simple queries (e.g. SAP, Navision). Data from these templates were imported directly into the relevant IFP databases.

Another advantage was the ease of applying mapping tables that converted one company’s cost centre, account and product coding into equivalent coding for the master company. In practice these mapping tables require a lot of fine tuning through several stages and the ease of creating multiple simulations of converted databases was found to be particularly useful.

In many cases, the ability to simulate mapped and consolidated data in IFP databases before attempting to populate local sales and general ledger databases provided a means of avoiding many errors and misjudgements in less flexible host systems.

Employment Expense Planning Video

tony.bysouth — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:06:03 GMT

A new video is now available on Employment Expense Planning in IFP 3.0.

This video shows the basic approach used in IFP 3.0 for planning of employment related expenses by employee.

View Employment Expense Planning video:

IFP Secondary Sales by Customer Database

tony.bysouth — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00:30 GMT

The S.Africa subsidiary of a major global animal health corporation receives actual secondary sales data from many customers/wholesalers in a wide variety of formats. Previously, it was a huge exercise to aggregate all of this data and put it into a usable format for analysis. The IFP solution has produced great savings in resources and a vast increase in analysis options for many more users now that the database is stored on the local server under IFP. Some key aspects of the IFP solution are:

single database containing consistent secondary sales (units, values and prices) from all customers (wholesalers, co-operatives etc)
analysis of trends in secondary actual sales by SKU, product, species, channel, wholesaler, customer and sales representative
setting of targets by product and customer
analysis of variances of actual sales vs. target
a powerful tool in the hands of the sales representative when visiting the practitioners

IFP used for Employment Expense Planning

tony.bysouth — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:15:49 GMT

In many organisations, one of the most complex and time-consuming parts of the planning process is the planning of employment related expenses. Normally, this is the responsibility of H.R. departments and planning is executed by employee for each relevant account and cost centre. The Portugal subsidiary of a major global pharmaceuticals corporation implemented an IFP solution to support this process and the links to the planning of other P&L expenses.

This solution includes the following:

IFP database organised by company, cost centre, account and employee
Simple import of monthly actual data from files created by local payroll accounting system
Powerful editor for monthly forecast amounts at any level of detail
Models for automatic application of relationships between accounts e.g. social charges and salaries
Database held in secure location to maintain confidentiality of data
Many reports for analysing variances between actual and forecast data
Easy export of consolidated data by company, cost centre and account to main IFP P&L database to provide significant savings of time and resources at busy times in the planning process

Watch a video about Employment Expense Planning in IFP:

IFP used to Create an Integrated Planning Process

(Unknown) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

The S.Africa subsidiary of a major global animal health corporation had been using Microsoft Excel as their main planning tool for many years. This involved the use of many Excel files in various formats, each designed to satisfy a particular set of needs. It was becoming progressively more difficult to manage the planning and analysis process as the organisation grew, particularly after a recent merger with another corporation.

After working with AJB Systems on possible configurations for IFP databases they have now implemented an integrated solution which includes the following:

analysis of actual and forecast sales data by product, country, sales person and region
demand forecasting by SKU for domestic and export sales
analysis of actual and forecast P & L data
monthly updates to P & L current year projections and annual updates to plan for future years

IFP used for Regional Analysis & Consolidation

tony.bysouth — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:37:00 GMT

The Singapore regional headquarters of a major global pharmaceuticals corporation uses SAP as its general accounting system. However, they needed a tool to provide convenient analysis of data across the many Representative Offices and Branches in the Far East which form part of the legal entity.

Their IFP solution includes the following:

IFP databases organised by company, country, cost/profit centre, account and product
Simple import of monthly actual P&L and balance sheet data from SAP
Simple tools to identify and correct inconsistent entries in SAP before closing actuals for each month
Simple methods for importing daily/monthly actual sales data
Powerful tools for comparing and consolidating both P&L and balance sheet data from multiple companies/countries
Many reports for analysing variances between actual and forecast data

IFP used for Regional Requirements Planning

tony.bysouth — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:05:00 GMT

Until recently, several different local systems and database configurations have been used throughout the Far East region for demand forecasting and requirements planning. A tool was required to provide convenient and consistent analyses of demand forecasts and associated requirements from suppliers across the many representative offices and branches in the Far East region for a major global pharmaceuticals corporation.

Their IFP solution includes the following:

For each SKU data are available on monthly demand forecasts, current inventory levels, open purchase orders, minimum order quantities, safety stock requirements and minimum shelf-life.
Each set of demand forecasts is updated by product managers each month and may be retained for analyses of changes in forecasts and accuracy of forecasts in both numerical and graphical format.
A model is available to convert demand forecasts into monthly requirements plans and associated order details required to satisfy the parameters for each SKU.
The model allows for changes in item codes over time and differences between consumption/sales units of measure and purchase unit of measure.
Projected monthly closing inventory levels and associated months on hand ratios are produced automatically.

IFP used for Building an MIS

richard.bysouth — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Like many other companies, the Turkish subsidiary of a major global pharmaceuticals corporation had been using Microsoft Excel as their main data analysis tool for many years. This involved the use of many Excel files in various formats, each designed to provide a particular set of analyses. It was becoming progressively more difficult to manage the analysis of the large volumes of data involved.

Working with AJB Systems, they implemented an IFP solution which combined both internal data and external data from the market research organisation, IMS. The solution produced a management information system including the following:

analysis of actual and forecast ex-factory sales data by product
analysis of actual and target in-market sales data by product, region and brick
analysis of total market, competitor sales and market share data by product, region and brick
comparison of monthly ex-factory and in-market data
automated updating of actual data and the publication of large collections of numerical and graphical analyses of sales data