How Omnicom Media Group improved its forecast process using colea.

The challenge

Omnicom Media Group performs a monthly forecast, consisting of financial KPIs in several categories.

Due to an increase in the number of customers, the spreadsheet-based planning process became difficult to maintain.

• Spending more than eight hours preparing numerous spreadsheet templates for users by prepopulating sheets with data (actuals and last month’s forecasts).
• Communication via email makes it difficult to follow the submission status. There are more than 60 sheets sent by over 30 planners, and submitted data needs to be corrected from time to time.
• Manual consolidation of all individual spreadsheets into one is cumbersome.
• It’s difficult to give management access to a centralized reporting system because data is only available in spreadsheet format.

The solution

Omnicom Media Group worked with our consultants to implement its forecast model in colea.

One requirement was to make the data entry experience similar to the old process. This was achieved using colea’s flexible form builder and its integrated formula engine.

Now, the preparation of the forecast is automated. The prepopulation of data entry sheets is done using colea jobs, so no manual work is necessary.

A consolidated forecast is available at any time. The status of the user’s submissions can be viewed in real time. A managed workflow feature allows re-openings if necessary.

colea integrates with their in-house BI environment seamlessly. Moreover, data for ad-hoc analyses is available via MS Excel.