Scenario Planning Identifies Risks and Rewards

Scenario Planning Identifies Risks and Rewards

ClearTrack Information Network is a supply chain software and services company enabling the collaboration and management of global, inter-company trade and logistics processes. ClearTrack empowers retail, distribution and manufacturing companies to better manage global sourcing and direct importing activities. Offering cloud-based supply chain software across 20,000 vendors and 26,000 factories in 55 countries, ClearTrack enables customers to reduce costs, accelerate order flow and improve partner performance.

Challenge

Like many financial executives at small organizations, Traci Triplett, manager of accounting and finance, relied on traditional Excel spreadsheets and basic accounting software to manage ClearTrack’s financial health. Understanding cash flow is critical to the company’s success, yet the limitations of the current system created time consuming errors and redundancies this small business could not afford. With a lean financial team, Triplett needed a more efficient way to budget and forecast, and she conducted an industry-wide search to find an automated system that would best meet her needs.

Solution

After reviewing a number of options, Triplett invested in Centage to automate the budgeting and forecasting process for her growing organization. Like many companies, ClearTrack finds that personnel is it’s biggest expense and the ability to accurately forecast monthly cash flow was the #1 driver to Traci’s purchasing decision. Unlike its competition, Centage’s solution seamlessly scales to handle bi-weekly cash flow and provides accurate insight into this significant expense.

The ability to quickly and seamlessly customize reports has also been invaluable as Triplett works to effectively communicate the financial health of the organization to key stakeholders throughout the organization. Calling them versatile, easy to use and a true value add, Triplett now uses these reports for regular monthly and quarterly financial reporting across the organization. Previously, quarterly reports would take upwards of 2 weeks to create. By relying on Centage, Traci and her team have saved nearly 7 days of work, freeing her up to focus on more strategic initiatives, designed to support the ongoing success of the organization.

Benefits

Changes from within or beyond the organization can have big effects on the bottom line. The solution’s builtin “what-if” scenario planning has been empowering for Triplett to expose blind spots and identify unknown risks and rewards. In just minutes, she can highlight the company-wide implications of a business decision before it’s made. Armed with all the answers to every “what if” scenario, Triplett is now in the position to help key executives prepare for the future with more certainty and less risk.