Specsavers, a British multinational optical retail chain, offers optician services and eyewear in stores throughout the British Isles, Australasia, and the Nordic countries. As the business became more complex, the team’s spreadsheet-based processes began to show their cracks. Specsavers urgently needed a new budgeting solution.
With the help of technology partner Forpoint Solutions, Specsavers turned to Workday Adaptive Planning and was able to implement the solution in two months. Forpoint worked closely with Specsavers to prioritize and build out essential budgeting capabilities and helped build the required models to calculate costs related to headcount and travel—all in time for the annual budget.
Deploying the Business Planning Cloud has dramatically reduced the time and effort Specsavers spends creating and consolidating budgets across 60 cost centres. More importantly, Specsavers now has visibility into and understanding of different cost drivers in order to control spending and manage growth. And soon they’ll be able to forecast more frequently as well as improve self-service reporting.
One of the best things about Workday Adaptive Planning is how fast and easy it is to get up and running and start seeing results.
Head of Planning, Reporting, and Analysis
Challenges.
Limited visibility into critical cost drivers, including headcount and travel
Lengthy budgeting process, requiring consolidation of 60 cost centres
Error-prone spreadsheets which detracted from finance’s more strategic responsibilities
Results.
Streamlined budgeting and consolidation, which enables budget changes to be made and reflected on the P&L statement within seconds rather than days
Better understanding of cost drivers and what-if-scenario modeling
Finance focused on strategy and growth rather than manipulating spreadsheets
We can make changes to the budget in seconds and understand how increases in headcount or salary will impact the business this year and the next. We couldn’t do these things in spreadsheets.
Head of Planning, Reporting, and Analysis