Business Planning

Typical Scenarios

CCL have regularly been engaged by organisations to assist them in reviewing, preparing and developing their Business Plans, particularly with regard to supply chain, information technology and sales.

CCL's approach is detailed, practical and constructive. CCL's work is conducted by a Business Planning Team offering a wide range of functional skills and possessing substantial experience of business development and financial planning.

Typical Business Planning Project

A review would focus in principle upon:

  • A detailed review of the company's current operational activities and business plans within its supply chain, sales and IT functions
  • The identification of issues arising from this review and recommendations for their resolution
  • A detailed review of the existing business plans and a review of the critical dependencies and risks
  • A detailed review of the scalability and appropriateness of the company's existing infrastructure in each function to support the business plans, growth expectations and business enhancement opportunities.
  • The identification of issues arising from this review and recommendations for their resolution
  • Assistance with the drafting of a revised business plan

Typical Issues Considered

Sales

  • Organisational structure and future plans
  • Key dependencies and barriers to success
  • Sales management methodology
  • Sales key performance indicators
  • Recruitment, churn rates and retention
Information Technology
  • Current IT and business strategy
  • Current infrastructure (organisational structure, applications, networks, hardware etc.)
  • IT investment history, cost of IT and contractual obligations
  • Scalability of current infrastructure
  • Future investment requirements identified and IT options
  • Disaster recovery provision and business continuity plans
  • IT security
Supply Chain
  • Dependency upon IT; current and future
  • Interfaces with suppliers and customers - electronic or otherwise, the use of EDI
  • Goals and objectives (i.e. availability, fulfilment, lead times etc)
  • Supply chain visibility - internal and external
  • Demand forecasting tools
  • Forecasting methodology and analysis of historical trends and events; responsiveness to changes in demand (i.e. demand triggers)
  • Performance measurement
  • Drivers for change

Consultancy Resource

Alongside its core and extensive IT skills, CCL has consultancy resources that embrace specialist skills from Human Resources, Sales, Marketing, Operations and Finance functions.