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BusinessObjects Strategic Planning Resource
Guide
Business Objects Planning 10.8
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Patents
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Initiatives and Scenarios Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Creating the Initial Set of Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Custom Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Templates and Global Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Planning the List of Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Defining the Initiatives in the Dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Creating the Initiative Workbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Initiative Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Creating New Initiatives Using SaveAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Saving the Current Initiative as an Existing Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Modifying the Grouping Settings of an Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Deleting Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Working in Initiative Workbooks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Interfacing Initiative Workbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Defining Scenarios Using the Scenario Manager . . . . . . . . . .20
Scenario Manager Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Managing a Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Reporting on Scenarios and Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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Contents
Pushing Down Results to Other Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Preparing for a New Cycle of Strategic Planning . . . . . . . . . . 24
Option One: Archiving Old Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Option Two: Retaining Old Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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Introduction
Introduction
BusinessObjects™ Strategic Planning allows you to develop and model strategic
initiatives. The potential impacts of these initiatives can be analyzed individually, or as
part of defined strategic scenarios. Once a particular strategic scenario is approved as the
official strategic plan, the plan data can be “pushed down” to forecasts and/or budgets, at
whatever level desired.
Each individual initiative has its own plan workbook, where the specifics for the initiative
are developed. These initiatives are created from templates, or by using an existing
initiative as a base.
Using the Scenario Manager, you define which initiatives to include in each strategic
scenario. You can define up to four different scenarios. The Scenario Manager is a
dynamic environment allowing for quick “what-ifs”, and providing summary-level results
for analysis. For more detailed comparison of scenarios and scenario analysis, reporting
functionality can be used.
Intended Audience and Scope
This document is intended to provide the Master System User with a general overview
necessary to work with Strategic Planning. As with other Business Objects Planning
applications, Strategic Planning is personalized to meet each client’s unique needs. The
examples shown in this document may not be representative of your system.
All Master System Users of Business Objects Planning are expected to have completed
official Business Objects Planning training. This document should be considered as a
resource to trained users, and as a guide to assist those preparing for official training.
This document discusses functionality specific to the Strategic Planning application. For
more details on Business Objects Planning setup, utilities, and general planning and
reporting functionality, please see the standard Business Objects Planning Resource
Guides. Specific references to sections in these guides will be called out where applicable.
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Initiatives and Scenarios Overview
Initiatives and Scenarios Overview
Strategic planning efforts in Strategic Planning are organized by two primary concepts:
initiatives and scenarios.
Initiatives
In Strategic Planning, each individual component of the strategic plan is known as an
initiative. There are two different kinds of initiatives:
z Baseline – The baseline initiative projects your organization’s future financial
results based on your current operations. You might have multiple versions of the
baseline initiative using different assumptions – for example, one assuming general economic growth, and one assuming a recession. Each scenario will only
include one version of the baseline initiative.
z Strategic Initiatives – Strategic initiatives project the marginal financial results
of undertaking a specifically defined strategic activity. For example, the defined
activity might be building a new clinic, or opening five new bank branches, or
increasing the sales force by 25%. A scenario can include any number of strategic initiatives.
Each initiative has its own plan workbook, where the financial data for the initiative is
modeled.
To help organize and manage initiatives, a number of grouping codes can be established.
By default, initiatives are assigned a Category and a Parent, as explained below. You can
define additional groupings as needed.
Category
Initiatives are organized into categories that describe the general “focus” of the initiative.
For example, initiative categories for a bank might be New Branches, Loans and Equity,
whereas categories for a retail organization might be Capital, Sales, and Cost Reduction.
Baseline is always a category.
Categories assist in decision-making by providing a “snapshot” of how your strategic
efforts are being allocated. As part of implementing the system, you should determine
what major categories would be most helpful to you to define and track.
Parent
Strategic Planning uses the Parent grouping to determine whether an initiative is
independent or if it belongs to a mutually exclusive set of initiatives.
For example, imagine you have three versions of the baseline initiative: a best case, a
worst case, and a status quo. When building a scenario, you will include only one version
of the baseline initiative. These initiatives are mutually exclusive initiatives under the
Parent designation of Baseline.
As another example, consider a single strategic initiative of building a new facility. By
itself, this is an independent initiative. It can be included or excluded regardless of what
other initiatives are included in the scenario.
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System Setup
Now, imagine you want to build a new facility in Chicago, but this facility will either be
10,000 sq ft or 25,000 sq ft. You create two initiatives, one modeling the financial impacts
of a 10,000 sq ft building, and the other modeling the impacts of a 25,000 sq ft building.
When creating a scenario, you will choose to include either the 10,000 sq ft initiative or
the 25,000 sq ft initiative – not both. These are mutually exclusive initiatives under the
Parent designation of New Chicago Facility.
Scenarios
A scenario is a collection of initiatives. Each scenario consists of one baseline initiative
and any number of specific strategic initiatives. The consolidated financial figures of the
baseline plus the strategic initiatives represent your strategic financial plan.
Strategic Planning allows you to develop up to four scenarios for analysis and
comparison. For example, you might compare the results of “Baseline Only” versus
“Baseline + Critical Initiatives” versus “Baseline + Critical + Desired Initiatives”.
Once your organization decides on a specific scenario to adopt as the official strategic
plan, the consolidated results for that scenario can be “pushed down” to forecasts and
budgets as desired.
System Setup
This section discusses some of the general setup issues specific to Strategic Planning. For
more details on Business Objects Planning Setup functionality, see the Help files or the
General Concepts, Setup and Utilities Resource Guide.
Data Structures
Strategic planning is performed at a more summary level than budgeting or forecasting.
The primary planning dimension is typically Initiative. Each initiative is modeled at a
summary account level, named Measure to differentiate it from the detailed Account
dimension used in the BusinessObjects Forecasting or BusinessObjects Budgeting
modules. Your system may have additional dimensions depending on your unique needs
and industry – for example, a Group dimension to plan by lines of business, or in the case
of financial institutions, a DataType dimension.
The default time horizon for strategic planning is five years. Your system may be
configured differently. Typically the time series in an Strategic Planning system are
defined using quarterly periods, with a naming convention similar to CYFQ (Current
Year Forecast), N1PQ (Plus one year plan), N2PQ (Plus two years plan), etc.
The time series in strategic planning are not configured to allow summary periods.
Instead, the total for each time series is held in an other column. For example,
CYF_TOT, N1P_TOT, etc.
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System Setup
Dimensions
Important: Do not manually edit the contents of the SRCInclude columns on
the Initiatives sheet in the Dimensions. Doing so may cause the results in your
reports to deviate from the information displayed in the Scenario Manager. See
the “Initiatives” section below for more details.
Each validated dimension in the system has a sheet in Setup > Dimensions, where the
individual elements of the dimension are listed. Grouping columns are used to define
grouping levels and drive other functions of the system.
The Dimensions workbook for a Strategic Planning system has a few unique
characteristics, as discussed below.
Measures
The Measure dimension is comprised of summary groupings of the Accounts used in the
more detailed budgeting and forecasting processes. Your Business Objects Planning
consultant will work with you to determine the list of measures used for strategic
planning.
Initiatives
The Initiative dimension list operates differently from BusinessObjects Budgeting
functionality, in that you do not complete the dimension list before planning. Instead, the
list is populated as you plan and create new initiatives.
For example, in a BusinessObjects Budgeting system, the planning dimension is typically
Department. The list of departments is generated based on your General Ledger, and each
department is defined in the Dimensions before planning starts. By contrast, in a Strategic
Planning system, there is no “set” list of initiatives. You develop the list as you proceed in
your strategic planning process and determine which initiatives you want to model.
The following is an example Initiative Dimension listing:
The example above displays a list of initiatives with descriptions, as well as two columns
for the default groupings of Category and Parent (SRCCategory and SRCParent
respectively). Additional grouping columns can be defined here as needed. New
initiatives can be created by either manually adding them to this listing, or by using the
SaveAs functionality within initiative workbooks.
To the right of the grouping columns are four SRCInclude columns, representing your
system’s four available scenarios. The settings in these columns are populated based upon
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System Setup
your choices in the Scenario Manager. Y indicates that the initiative is included in the
scenario, and N indicates that it is not included. These columns should never be edited
manually – always use the Scenario Manager to define the settings in the SRCInclude
columns.
The SRCInclude column titles are reserved words and cannot be changed. However, you
can define alternate scenario names for display elsewhere in the system. See the “Custom
Tables” section below for more details.
Custom Tables
The Custom Tables (Setup > Custom Tables) contains two sheets defining settings for
the Strategic Planning system: SRCScenarioDesc and SRCSaveAsGrp.
SRCScenarioDesc
The SRCScenarioDesc sheet allows you to define names for your scenarios that will
appear when using the Scenario Manager. You can also reference these names in reports
using the SRCTABLE function. To edit these names, complete the Scenario Description
column, as shown in the example below:
SRCSaveAsGrp
This sheet is necessary for the SaveAs functionality available within initiative workbooks
(see “Creating New Initiatives Using SaveAs” on page 14). If you are not using the
SaveAs feature, the SRCSaveAsGrp sheet will not be present.
The SRCSaveAsGrp sheet serves several functions:
1. It allows you to display additional initiative groupings on the SaveAs dialog.
2. It allows you to define a set of values for users to select from within the SaveAs
dialog.
3. It allows you to define a tooltip for each grouping displayed on the SaveAs
dialog.
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System Setup
The following is an example SRCSaveAsGrp sheet:
By default, the initiative groupings Category and Parent will always appear on the SaveAs
dialog. If you want users to define additional initiative groupings when saving initiatives,
enter them on this sheet. Up to eight additional groupings can appear on the SaveAs
dialog.
Each column on this sheet represents a field that will appear in the SaveAs dialog. The
name entered into the Group Code Column Name row must match the name of a
defined grouping column on the Initiative sheet in the Dimensions. When the user saves
an initiative using SaveAs, their selections will be saved into the appropriate grouping
column within the Dimensions.
The ToolTi p N o t e row allows you to define a tooltip that will appear when the user’s
cursor hovers over the field in the SaveAs dialog. This input is optional.
The Default Dim List area allows you to define the set of values that will appear in the
drop-down list for the field in the SaveAs dialog. If no values are defined here, the dropdown list will populate based on the values within the corresponding grouping column in
the Dimensions.
Note: You cannot define additional settings for the Parent grouping column. If
you attempt to add the Parent grouping column to the SRCSaveAsGrp sheet, it
will create a duplicate Parent field in the SaveAs dialog, which may be
confusing to end users. On the other hand, you can define a tooltip and list values for the
Category grouping column, as shown in the example.
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Creating the Initial Set of Initiatives
Templates and Global Assumptions
For general details on Business Objects Planning functionality relating to Templates and
Global Assumptions, see the Help files or the Plan Workbooks and Plan Administration
Resource Guide.
Te mp l at e s
Templates define the default structure of initiative workbooks, and also contain codes
used to control interfaces, printing, and save-to-database functionality. Your initial set of
initiatives will be built from a template or templates.
Strategic Planning is typically delivered with one “Baseline” template tailored to your
needs. Additional templates may be delivered depending on your needs and your industry.
For example, in the banking industry a very common strategic planning initiative is
opening new branches. This type of initiative is very well-defined and can justify the
development of an additional template.
Global Assumptions
The Global Assumptions provides a centralized area to hold information that can be
referenced in initiative workbooks and in reports. The Global Assumptions typically
contains three main types of information used in the strategic planning process:
z Global statistics and rates to drive calculations in initiative workbooks.
z Information to drive headers or other settings in initiative workbooks, such as
date headers.
z Narrative on strategic goals or SWOT analysis, for users’ reference while work-
ing on initiatives.
Security Considerations
Strategic Planning has two special security considerations that are not addressed in the
standard Business Objects Planning Security documentation. For full details on Security
options, see the Help files or the Security chapter of the General Concepts, Setup and
Utilities Resource Guide.
z Scenario Manager – Access to the Scenario Manager can be controlled by one
of the following Security settings on the Access tab: Reports - Update or Utili-
ties. Which security setting is being used by your system is determined at implementation. If you are unsure which setting is being used, or if you would like to
change the setting, contact Support.
z SaveAs – To have access to the SaveAs functionality, the user must have read-
write rights to initiative workbooks. The View Only setting on the Initiative Settings tab must not be checked.
Creating the Initial Set of Initiatives
Initiatives can be created in one of two ways:
z After manually adding the initiative information to the Dimensions list, you can
create the initiative workbook using a template.
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Creating the Initial Set of Initiatives
z The SaveAs functionality can be used to create a new initiative based on an
As the Master System User, you will create the initial set of initiatives manually. Later in
the process, you have the choice of either using SaveAs or continuing to manually create
the initiatives. In environments where multiple users are creating initiatives, the end users
will be restricted to using SaveAs, as typically end users do not have access to the
Dimensions.
Creating the initial set of initiatives does more than simply provide a starting point for
strategic planning. It defines your initiative categories and establishes the initial parent
relationships.
This is most important if multiple users will be using the system to create and model
initiatives. If the Master System User is the only user, he or she can create new initiatives,
categories and parents on-the-fly as needed. But if end users are involved, they are
restricted to using the existing categories and parent assignments, and can only create new
initiatives based on existing initiatives. In this case it is most efficient and user-friendly to
have these areas well-defined before rolling the system out to end users.
existing initiative. In this case the Dimensions list is populated based on the
selections made in the SaveAs dialog.
Planning the List of Initiatives
To begin, draft a list of your initial planned initiatives. Determine what category
groupings will be most useful to you, and identify where parent assignments are needed.
If you will be using any additional initiative groupings, define them now.
It is also a good idea to decide what initiative coding conventions you will use.
Remember, the initiative list is not driven by any external lists or systems, like General
Ledger account or department codes. The initiative dimension is set up to accommodate
“string” codes (text or alphanumeric codes), but you should decide if you will apply any
particular naming convention for your organization. Initiatives will be listed by code and
description throughout the system. The coding will also determine the sort of the initiative
list within the Dimensions.
One issue you should consider when deciding on coding conventions is how you plan to
manage the Strategic Planning system from year to year. Will you “start fresh” each year
or will you retain the old initiative workbooks in the system? If the latter, you will want to
define a coding convention that identifies the planning year of each initiative. See
“Preparing for a New Cycle of Strategic Planning” on page 24.
Note: Certain naming rules must be followed in the Dimensions. In general,
special characters other than the underscore should not be used. Spaces cannot
be used in your initiative codes. See the Help file for more details.
Note: If multiple people in your organization have the rights to create new
initiatives, make sure to communicate any naming conventions you may be
using.
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Creating the Initial Set of Initiatives
Defining the Initiatives in the Dimensions
When you have finalized the list of initial initiatives, open the Dimensions workbook
(Plan > Setup > Dimensions) and add the initiatives to the Initiatives sheet. Each row in
the sheet represents a separate initiative. Enter a code and description for the initiative,
and then complete the SRCCategory and SRCParent grouping columns, as well as any
additional grouping columns.
Important: Remember, do not edit the SRCInclude columns at the far right of
the Initiative listing. These columns will be filled in with your selections using
the Scenario Manager.
When completing the initiative list, note the following:
z Do not leave the Parent column blank for any initiative. If the initiative is inde-
pendent, assign it a unique parent name. The mutually exclusive designation
only occurs when multiple initiatives are assigned the same parent name. For
example, if you are creating multiple Baseline initiatives, they all should be
assigned the parent name of Baseline.
z If you want to add a grouping column, we recommend inserting a column after
the Description column but before the SRCInclude columns.
When you are finished with the list, choose Plan > Save to save the Dimensions.
Creating the Initiative Workbooks
Each initiative must have a plan workbook where the financial data for the initiative is
developed. To create a workbook for an initiative that is already listed in the Dimensions:
1. Choose Initiatives from the Plan menu or the Treeview.
2. The Open Initiatives dialog appears. Select the name of the initiative that you want to
create, and click OK.
3. A dialog box appears, notifying you that the workbook file for the currently selected
initiative does not exist. Click the Te mp la te button to create the initiative workbook
from a template.
4. The Select Template dialog appears. Select the name of the template that is appropriate for this particular initiative, and click OK.
5. A plan workbook is created for the initiative based on the selected template. Before
exiting this area, you must choose Plan > Save or the new workbook will not be
retained.
Note that the dialog in Step 3 also allows you to create the workbook from an existing file
(click the Existing button). You might use this feature instead if you have altered an
existing initiative workbook, and that altered workbook is more appropriate to the new
initiative than starting from a template. However, you can only use this capability on
initiatives that are already added to the Initiative list in the Dimensions. If you were
creating an entirely new initiative, you would use the SaveAs functionality instead.
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Initiative Management
Initiative Management
Once the initial set of initiative workbooks are created, the SaveAs functionality can be
used to create new initiatives or modify the attributes of existing initiatives. If end users
have the ability to create new initiatives, SaveAs is the process they will use.
Creating New Initiatives Using SaveAs
The SaveAs feature allows you to create a new initiative using an existing initiative as a
base. Using SaveAs, you define a name, description, and grouping information for the
new initiative. A copy is created of the existing initiative and the new settings are applied.
You can then modify the initiative workbook to reflect the new initiative.
To create a new initiative based on an existing initiative:
1. Open the initiative that you want to use as the base for the new initiative.
2. Choose Plan > SaveAs. (Do not choose Save As from Excel’s File Menu – this
simply brings up the standard Excel Save As window.)
3. The Modify or Save As dialog appears. Type a name for the new initiative in the field
at the bottom of the dialog. The name cannot contain any spaces or special characters.
An example is shown below:
Note that this “name” is the initiative code. If you have employed a particular coding
convention for your initiatives, be sure to communicate this convention to your end
users.
Click the OK button to continue.
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Initiative Management
4. The Create Initiative dialog box opens. Complete the settings described below. The
settings from the base initiative are displayed in the fields as a default. When you
have completed the settings, click OK.
Description
Type in a long description for the new initiative. The description should be
informative enough to clearly define the initiative, for example, “Build New Facility
in Portland”. The description is utilized in other areas of the system such as the
Scenario Manager.
Parent
If the new initiative belongs to a mutually exclusive set of initiatives, select the name
of the appropriate Parent assignment from the drop-down list. If the new initiative is
independent, select the name of the new initiative from the drop-down list
(essentially, the initiative is its own parent). See “Parent” on page 6.
Keep in mind that the concept of Parent assignments may not be obvious to end
users. Make sure to communicate this concept before allowing end users to create
new initiatives.
Category
Select a category from the drop-down list. By default, the categories displayed here
are gathered from the Initiative list in the Dimensions.
Remember, as the Master System User, you can override the default list and define a
specific list of categories to display in the drop-down list. For example, you might not
want end users to be able to save a new initiative to the “Baseline” category. In this
case, you can define a set of category names in the SRCSaveAsGrp sheet (see
“SRCSaveAsGrp” on page 9).
Additional Fields
You can have up to eight additional fields on this dialog box for your initiative
grouping needs. These additional fields must exist as Initiative grouping columns in
the Dimensions, and be setup on the SRCSaveAsGrp sheet (see “SRCSaveAsGrp” on
page 9).
The following screenshot shows an example dialog, with three additional fields.
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Initiative Management
5. The current initiative workbook is saved as the new initiative workbook. (The new
initiative is also added to the Dimensions list with the selected grouping information.)
You can now edit this workbook for the new initiative.
Note: SaveAs does not save the workbook’s data to the database. SaveAs saves
the workbook file, and saves the initiative settings to the applicable grouping
columns in the Dimensions. To save the workbook data to the database,
perform an Plan > Save.
Saving the Current Initiative as an Existing Initiative
To save the current initiative workbook over an existing initiative workbook, follow the
steps detailed in “Creating New Initiatives Using SaveAs”. In Step 3, instead of typing a
new name into the field, select the name of an existing initiative from the drop-down list.
The following screenshot shows an example:
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Initiative Management
When you click OK, the system prompts you to confirm that you want to overwrite the
selected initiative with the current workbook. Click Ye s to continue.
The Save Initiative dialog opens, and you have the opportunity to change any of the
grouping settings (Parent, Category, etc.). Make any necessary changes and then click OK
to complete the save.
Modifying the Grouping Settings of an Initiative
You can modify an initiative’s grouping settings (Parent, Category, etc.) at any time using
the SaveAs command. To modify the settings for an initiative:
1. Open the initiative that you want to modify.
2. Choose Plan > SaveAs. (Do not choose Save As from Excel’s File Menu – this
simply brings up the standard Excel Save As window.)
3. The Modify or Save As dialog box opens. Select the checkbox next to Modify
Grouping Columns. The following screenshot shows an example. Click the OK
button to continue.
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Initiative Management
4. The Modify Grouping Columns dialog box opens. This dialog gives you the opportunity to modify the Description, Category, Parent, and any other initiative settings
defined for your system. Make any desired changes and click OK.
5. The modified settings are saved and you are returned to the initiative workbook.
Note that as the Master System User, you have the option of editing these values manually
within the Dimensions workbook.
Deleting Initiatives
If the initiative itself is still valid but you want to “start over” with a new initiative
workbook, you have two options:
z You can use the SaveAs functionality to save over the existing initiative work-
book (see “Saving the Current Initiative as an Existing Initiative” on page 16).
z You can manually delete the existing workbook for the initiative. To do this, use
Windows Explorer to navigate to your User directory, and then look in the Bud1
folder for the appropriate Excel file. The file naming conventions are based on
the initiative code. (There may also be a prefix, for example, SBaseline.XLS.)
Then, create the workbook from a template or existing file as described in “Creating the Initiative Workbooks”, page 13.
If the initiative itself is no longer valid or was created by mistake, the only way to delete it
is to enter the Dimensions workbook and manually clear the appropriate line from the
Initiative list. This will remove the initiative from any future system use, but it does not
delete the initiative workbook or the associated data in the database (if applicable). You
can also archive or delete the associated initiative workbook located in the Bud1 folder.
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Remember to run the Verify utility after deleting dimension elements that may be
associated with data in the database.
Note: The reference to the Bud1 folder above assumes the use of a single data
set, which is common in Strategic Planning systems. For more details on data
sets, see the Help files or the Plan Workbooks and Plan Administration
Resource Guide.
Working in Initiative Workbooks
The design of initiative workbooks and the level at which you will modify them is one of
the most variable components of Strategic Planning, since the initiatives are aligned with
your particular business model. Your implementation consultant will review your
system’s templates with you, and will provide guidance on developing new initiatives.
Interfacing Initiative Workbooks
The term interface refers to the process Business Objects Planning uses to bring data from
the database into plan workbooks. In Strategic Planning, typically only the Baseline
initiatives are interfaced, and the only data brought into the workbooks is the current year
forecast (possibly also next year’s budget). Assuming you are using a Business Objects
Planning system to create the forecast, Strategic Planning uses a special inter-system
interface to bring data into the initiative workbook directly from the other Business
Objects Planning system database.
Interfacing Initiative Workbooks
To enable this, a special grouping column is created in your forecasting system that tells
Strategic Planning which accounts are consolidated into which measures. When the
interface is performed, the account data is mapped to the appropriate measures, and the
initiative workbook is populated with the measure data.
In most cases, the Strategic Planning system is configured to perform this interface
automatically. This means that when you open an initiative workbook, the interface is
automatically initiated and the workbook is populated with the most current data from
your forecasting system. You do not need to manually perform the interface.
However, at certain times during the process you may decide that you do not want this
automatic interface to occur. In this case, you can disable the interface entirely or disable
the automatic initiation of it. To do this:
1. Choose Initiative Administration > Utilities > Interface Settings from the Plan
menu or the Treeview.
2. Locate the settings sheet for the desired interface. The sheet will be named similar to
Interface_SRC. The name of the interface is listed at the top of the settings sheet. If
you are not sure which interface sheet applies, contact Support.
3. You have two options to stop the interface from occurring automatically when
initiative workbooks are opened:
z To disable the interface entirely, set the Activate this Interface setting to No.
This means the interface cannot be executed until this setting is set back to Yes.
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Defining Scenarios Using the Scenario Manager
z To disable only the automatic execution of the interface, set the Execute on Plan
Workbook Open setting to No. This prevents the interface from running when
the initiative workbook is opened, but does allow users with the appropriate
rights to manually execute the interface.
4. Choose Plan > Save to save the change.
To enable the interface again later, enter the Interface Settings and change whichever
setting you altered back to Yes.
For more details on interfaces, see the Help files or the Interface chapter of the Plan
Workbooks and Plan Administration Resource Guide.
Defining Scenarios Using the Scenario Manager
Strategic Planning allows you to define four different scenarios. Each scenario is a
collection of initiatives. Using the Scenario Manager, you define which initiatives belong
to each scenario. You can then evaluate and compare the impacts of each scenario.
The Scenario Manager is typically configured as a main menu item. To open the Scenario
Manager, select it from the Plan menu or the Treeview.
Scenario Manager Overview
The Scenario Manager is set up to meet your specific implementation requirements,
but will appear similar to the following:
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Defining Scenarios Using the Scenario Manager
All of your defined initiatives are listed in the Scenario Manager, grouped first by
category, then by parent under each category.
In the case of mutually exclusive initiatives grouped under a parent assignment, the Parent
name is listed first and the “child” initiatives are listed underneath. For example, under
the category Capital, there are two parent groupings (Capital1 and Capital3) with two
child initiatives under each parent.
The Select Scenario field at the top of the Scenario Manager identifies which scenario’s
settings are being displayed. The example is showing the settings for the “Baseline Only”
Scenario. The initiatives included in this scenario appear in bold and are marked with a
Ye s in the Include Initiative column. (In the case of parent groupings with mutually
exclusive initiatives, the parent title is marked with Yes and then the selected child
initiative appears in bold underneath.)
To the right, summary financial figures for each initiative are displayed. The total for the
entire current scenario is listed at the top of the screen.
Finally, to the far right is a set of columns indicating which scenarios each initiative
belongs to. In this example, a blue dot indicates that the initiative is included in that
scenario. This is just for your reference as you are making selections for the current
scenario.
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Defining Scenarios Using the Scenario Manager
The Refresh button at the top of the screen will refresh the Scenario Manager with the
saved settings for the selected scenario. The Update button saves any changed settings to
the current scenario. See the following section for details on defining scenario settings.
Managing a Scenario
To define which initiatives belong to a scenario:
1. Select the scenario that you want to manage from the Select Scenario drop-down list
at the top of the Scenario Manager. The screenshot below shows an example:
Note that the Scenario names shown here are the names defined in the
SRCScenarioDesc sheet (see “SRCScenarioDesc” on page 9).
2. Click the Refresh button in the top left corner to refresh the screen with the initiative
settings for the newly selected scenario.
3. You can include or exclude specific initiatives for the current scenario by selecting
Ye s or No from the drop-down list next to each initiative name. Each initiative
marked Yes will have its data included when the scenario figures are calculated. The
screenshot below shows an example.
4. If you choose to include a parent grouping with mutually exclusive initiatives, you
must select which child initiative to make active. To do this, select the name of the
desired child initiative from the drop-down list in the yellow field next to the parent
name. Only one child initiative can be active. The following screenshot shows an
example:
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Reporting on Scenarios and Initiatives
Note: If you mark a parent grouping with Yes but do not select a child
initiative to include, the parent initiative will default back to No when you
save the scenario settings.
5. To save your settings and update the figures for the scenario, click the Update button
in the top left corner. The system consolidates the financial impacts of the selected
initiatives, updates the summary figures shown in the Scenario Manager, and saves
your settings for that particular scenario.
Repeat this process for each scenario you want to manage.
When a scenario is saved using Update, Strategic Planning updates the appropriate
SRCInclude grouping column on the Initiative sheet in the Dimensions. The Y and N
designations in the SRCInclude columns correspond to the selections made in the
Scenario Manager.
Reporting on Scenarios and Initiatives
Your implementation may be delivered with a handful of reports. You can build any type
of additional report using the standard Business Objects Planning reporting capabilities.
For more details on Business Objects Planning reports and how to build them from
scratch, see the Plan Reports Resource Guide.
To report on only the initiatives within a given scenario, the SRCInclude grouping codes
should be used. Use of these grouping codes (SRCInclude, SRCIncludeA, etc.) will keep
the data in the report up-to-date as you change the scenario configurations. For example, a
filter of Init.SRCIncludeA=“Y” would restrict a report to the data for your second
defined scenario.
Pushing Down Results to Other Systems
As part of the implementation, your consultant may have created a utility to transfer data
from the Strategic Planning system to other Business Objects Planning systems such as
BusinessObjects Budgeting and/or BusinessObjects Forecasting.
Strategic Planning can support a variety of methods for “pushing down” the strategic plan
to other levels of planning. These methods are always tailored to the client’s specific
requirements, and as such cannot be specifically documented in this guide.
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Preparing for a New Cycle of Strategic Planning
If you have any questions regarding your particular system, please contact Support for
assistance.
Preparing for a New Cycle of Strategic Planning
Long-range strategic planning is typically performed annually. When you are ready to
begin a new year of strategic planning, certain steps should be taken to prepare and update
the system for the new planning cycle.
While every system is unique and will require different preparation steps, the basic
approach that you employ will depend on whether or not you want to retain the prior
year’s initiatives within the system. The following sections explain the steps associated
with these two options.
If you are having difficulty determining which is the best method is for your organization,
or if you require assistance with any system preparation steps, contact Support for
assistance.
Several of Business Objects Planning’s setup features and utilities are referenced in these
discussions. For more details on data sets, creating other columns, and using the Copy
Data utility, see the Help files or the Business Objects Planning Resource Guides.
Option One: Archiving Old Initiatives
If you do not need to actively access the initiative workbooks from the prior planning
cycle, you can start the system fresh each year. Remember, you always have the option to
store the associated data from the old initiatives in the database, so the decision should be
made based on whether you think you will need to access the workbooks.
If you are archiving the old initiatives and starting the system fresh, the basic steps are as
follows:
1. If desired, you can archive the data from the prior year’s planning cycle within the
database for comparison purposes. If so, we recommend creating new other columns
and then using the Copy Data utility to transfer data. For example, you might create
5 new other columns to hold the data from N1P_TOT, N2P_TOT, etc.
You can use any naming convention you like for the “archive” other columns, as long
as it does not replicate any existing other column or time series conventions. For
example, you might use a naming convention like N1P_05SP to indicate the first year
of the 2005 strategic plan, and so on.
2. Archive the data set (BUD folder) used for the prior year’s planning cycle. You can
use the Backup utility or simply use Windows Explorer to save a copy of the appropriate BUD folder to a secure archive location.
3. Once you have archived the data set, clean out the BUD folder by deleting all
initiative workbooks. These workbooks will have a naming convention similar to S +
initiativecode – for example, SBaseline.xls and SNewFacility.xls. Be careful to only
delete the initiative workbooks and not any supporting files such as the Global
Assumptions or the templates. See the Help files or the Plan Workbooks and Plan
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Administration Resource Guide for details on what files are included in a data set, or
contact Support if you need assistance.
4. Zero out all time series and other columns relating to the current planning cycle using
the Zero Database utility. (If you created archive other columns as discussed in Step
1, remember not to zero those!)
5. Clear the list of initiatives in the Dimensions. Be sure to keep the Baseline initiative
and any other initiative that you want to re-create for the new year of planning.
6. Review the Global Assumptions and Custom Tables to see if any information in these
areas needs updating for the new planning cycle.
7. Review and update your templates for any necessary changes.
8. Create the Baseline initiative using the Baseline template (see “Creating the Initiative
Workbooks” on page 13). If applicable, check the Interface Settings and make sure
the interface which brings current forecast information into the Baseline workbooks
is enabled. (For more information, see “Interfacing Initiative Workbooks” on
page 19.)
From this point, you can begin building your initiatives and scenarios for the new year.
The same steps detailed in this resource guide for creating the initial list of initiatives
apply.
Option Two: Retaining Old Initiatives
If you need to access last year’s initiative workbooks while starting a new planning cycle,
then your system must be configured to allow both sets of workbooks to co-exist in the
system. This section describes the recommended method of achieving this.
To allow current year and prior year initiatives to co-exist in the system, your system
should be setup using the following conventions:
Initiative Code Names
Initiative code names should be appended with the year of the planning cycle that
they apply to. For example, BaselineP05 or NewFacilityP05.
Planning Period Grouping Column
The Initiative dimension list should contain a grouping column named
PlanningPeriod (or similar). In this column, each initiative should be associated with
the planning period that it applies to. For example, the initiative BaselineP05 would
be assigned to 2005 in the PlanningPeriod column.
This grouping column should also be listed in your SRCSaveAsGrp sheet in the
Custom Tables, so that users can assign a value when creating new initiatives using
the SaveAs feature.
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Preparing for a New Cycle of Strategic Planning
Planning Period Filters
Your Scenario Manager and your reports should each have a Supplemental Filter
defined that limits the data to the current planning year. For example:
Initiative.PlanningPeriod=2005.
SRCBgtCode Mapping
An SRCBgtCode column should be defined in the Dimensions to map all of the prior
years’ initiatives into one “placeholder” initiative. The placeholder initiative should
be named something like zzzOldInitiatives. This will keep all of the old initiatives
from showing up in your Initiative picklists (only the item for zzzOldInitiatives will
display).
In this situation, the basic preparation steps for a new planning year are as follows:
1. Create a new data set for the new planning year and toggle it to active. Your prior
year’s initiatives are archived and available within the old data set. For details on
creating and populating a new data set, see the Help file or the Plan Workbooks and
Plan Administration Resource Guide.
2. Zero out all time series and other columns using the Zero Database utility.
3. Update the Dimensions for the new planning cycle. Several updates are required:
z Create an entry in the Dimensions for the new year’s Baseline initiative (for
example, BaselineP06). Remember to enter the new planning year into the PlanningPeriod grouping column.
z Review the PlanningPeriod column to ensure that all initiatives are assigned to
the correct planning period. The existing entries for the strategic initiatives
should be correct, unless you want to carry a particular initiative forward into the
new year. In this case, edit the PlanningPeriod entry.
z Update the entries in the SRCBgtCode column so that all old initiatives are
mapped to zzzOldInitiatives.
4. Review the Global Assumptions and Custom Tables to see if any information in these
areas needs updating for the new planning cycle.
5. Review and update your templates for any necessary changes.
6. Create the Baseline initiative for the new year using the Baseline template (see
“Creating the Initiative Workbooks” on page 13). If applicable, check the Interface
Settings and make sure the interface which brings current forecast information into
the Baseline workbooks is enabled. (For more information, see “Interfacing Initiative
Workbooks” on page 19.)
7. Edit the Supplemental Filter in the Scenario Manager and all reports to reflect the
new planning period. Note that you will need to unhide the Settings Sheet in the
Scenario Manager to access the Supplemental Filter.
For more information on the Supplemental Filter, see the Help files or the Plan
Reports Resource Guide.
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From this point, you can create any new initiatives for the new year of planning, and use
the Scenario Manager to manage your scenarios.
If your system is set up as described in this section, you would need to do a few things
before you could access an initiative workbook from a prior year of planning:
z In Initiative Administration Settings, switch the data set to the one containing the
desired initiative workbook. Most likely, you would do this using the Change
Current Session Only option (this leaves the current data set as the active data
set for all users, but allows you to temporarily access a different data set).
z If you are using an SRCBgtCode column in the Dimensions to map old plan
workbooks (as described earlier), clear out the mapping entry for the initiative
workbook that you want to open. This removes the mapping and restores the initiative workbook to the list of workbooks to open. When you are done viewing
the workbook, remember to replace the entry in the SRCBgtCode column.
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