Budgeting forum: preparing for the challenges ahead

A half day forum 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
• minimise business and compliance risk.

• CEOs and CFOs
• financial directors and controllers
• managing directors
• management accountants and financial analysts
• operational directors and senior managers
• business planners and those involved in the budgeting process.

Usual price: GBP 199+ VAT

Early booker: GBP 149.00 + VAT on all bookings confirmed on or before 3 September 2010.

This half day forum will give you an understanding of the pitfalls and challenges with budgeting in the current climate, along with best practice approaches to overcome these challenges.

It will examine how your organisation can excel through economic uncertainty with a unified approach to planning, budgeting and forecasting, helping to explain why some approaches don’t appear to be working, and also through case study material, showcasing innovative approaches that are working.

Programme

8.30am     Registration and coffee

9.15am     Welcome and 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 Ltd

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 and close