14 September 2010:


 

Budgeting forum: Preparing for the challenges ahead.

A half day forum presented at the CIMA offices (London) looking at the latest trends and best practice in planning and budgeting.

Organisations will benefit from examining the agility and flexibility of their solutions and processes to support current uncertainty.  Can your business survive with fragmented processes, unreliable data, insufficient attention to risk and compliance issues, and other factors?

A unified planning, budgeting, forecasting and consolidation approach allows your company to:

  • Develop and approve accurate budgets faster
  • Align with corporate objectives
  • Assess and manage risks
  • Increase productivity
  • Minimize business and compliance risk
     

 Outline Programme:

8.30am     Registration & Coffee

9.15am     Welcome & Introduction from Frederic Arrouays, UK CFO, SAP

9.30am     Why do companies struggle to produce an accurate forecast? 
                   Gary Simon, Editor, FSN

                    Gary Simon, author of the book “Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting to
                    the MAX”, explains how to improve forecasting in an uncertain
                    environment.

                    Why are forecasts inaccurate? What are the cultural, organisational,
                    process and technological impediments to forecasting and what practical
                    steps can you take to improve the forecasting process?

10.30am     How to build the business case for Performance Management
                     Mike Bourne, Head of Performance Management, Cranfield School of Management

                     - What are you trying to achieve with performance management?
                     - The evidence it makes a difference
                     - The quantifiaable benefits
                     - The intangibles

11.15am   Coffee

11.30am   Crossing the divide: Planning and budgeting best practice in public and private sectors
                   Chris Hall, Rinedata Limted

                    From his broad experience as a finance director and heading planning teams in both public and
                    private sector organisations, Chris will discuss the lessons that each can learn from the other in
                    implementing and running performance management systems.

12.00pm    Integrated Planning. Alignment of Operational and Strategic Planning
                    Chris Edwards and Marc Beierschoder, IBM Global Business Services

12.45pm    Panel discussion

1.30pm      Lunch & close