Furniture retailer Courts has reduced the time it takes store
managers to implement financial plans from five days to just four
hours, since rolling out collaborative planning software.
The company, which has 60 stores across the UK, has calculated that
the total time saved by using the Web-based application, from
Adaytum, is two man years.
Mark Muller, finance director at Courts, said the Adaytum software
has transformed planning at Courts from a top-down structure, to a
bottom-up approach.
"Managers can access information from any location, helping them
forecast business plans looking at sales as well as past trends,"
he said. "It has reduced significantly the time it takes to produce
the plans."
The software splits the financial reporting into controllable
items, such as product categories and deliveries; and
non-controllable items, such as rent and insurance. This gives
Courts a clearer picture of how stores are performing, Muller said.
"Feedback from store managers has been positive because they feel
more in control of their budgets," he said. "It gives the company
greater flexibility, with different plans every quarter or month
rather than just a single annual plan."