Harnessing Agility With Adaptive Planning

While the term “Adaptive Planning” might one day come to hold the same sort of eponymous recognition as “Googling” something or “Ubering” somewhere, it’s still working toward that stage of recognizability. But this isn’t due to any flaws in its own design or utility.

The term “adaptive planning” is directly associated with Workday Adaptive Planning. Corporate stakeholders who don’t know the specifics of Adaptive Planning should really look deeper. There are many ways harnessing agility with adaptive planning can lead to better business outcomes.

What Is Workday Adaptive Planning?

Workday Adaptive Planning, which came about when the software application masters at Workday acquired the company Adaptive Insights in 2018, is one of the most useful tools for enterprise planning today. It’s a strong addition to an organization’s software lineup and can do some seriously impressive things.

Agility is the keyword when thinking about the benefits of Workday Adaptive Planning. As the name suggests, Workday Adaptive Planning is an enterprise cloud-based solution for planning for and reacting to the future. One of the aspects of Adaptive Planning that distinguishes it from other products is the fact it democratizes the ability to plan ahead throughout an organization.

While this has traditionally been a capability mostly reserved to the finances department, Workday Adaptive Planning allows for things like staffing solutions, sales optimization, and realizing operational efficiencies. The key to Adaptive Planning is that it’s able to take a successful model and replicate its best aspects across many use cases. Leveraging these capabilities at the enterprise level can lead to massively improved performance and productivity.

Why Should Enterprises Deploy Adaptive Planning—and How?

All of the previous information certainly leaves a positive impression on the general capabilities of Adaptive Planning. But what are some of the more specific reasons why enterprises should deploy Adaptive Planning?

Here are a few things to consider:

• Competition is only increasing – We live in a globalized world interconnected by increasingly frictionless technology. Conditions like these are ripe for disruption. This is exactly why enterprises should think hard about deploying Adaptive Planning. With it, businesses can do more to prepare for the future. A recent study by McKinsey found the average tenure of companies listed on the S&P 500 continues to decline, with their estimate putting it at a mere 12 years by 2027. This is just more proof that being quicky to adapt is key in today’s business environment. Utilizing Adaptive Planning can help enterprises realize essential efficiencies across the board.
• Think about finding a Workday partner – Workday provides some of the best cloud-based applications on the planet. Just because something has a lot of potential, however, doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily be used to its fullest. This is why finding a Workday partner to help facilitate the deployment of Workday Adaptive Planning can be a smart decision. Not only will the platform be up and running sooner—allowing for realized efficiencies and return in less time—employees and stakeholders can get direct instruction on how to use the system for their specific work case. Furthermore, some certified Workday partners, such as Mercer, will even give access to their own data sets when organizations deploy Adaptive Planning through them. For those who want to make the most of their Workday investment, finding a partner can be a smart choice.
• Greater flexibility and foresight – The combination of being able to change course, while also having stronger forecasting abilities, is a defining feature of Workday Adaptive Planning. These are going to be essential capabilities going forward. Any enterprises that want to give themselves a leg up against their competition should think long and hard about adopting these tools.

Harnessing agility through Adaptive Planning is a way for future-focused organizations to seize opportunities and run with them. Integrating these capabilities into enterprise operations is a recipe for sustained success.