What is Connected Planning?
TL;DR
A planning approach that links plans across finance, sales, supply chain, and HR in one model, so a change in one function's assumptions ripples instantly to the enterprise-wide plan. Anaplan/Pigment/o9 provide the foundation.
Connected Planning: Definition & Explanation
Connected Planning is a corporate planning approach in which plans that each function once built in isolation — finance, sales, supply chain, HR, marketing — are linked and made interdependent on a single integrated model. Popularized by Anaplan. Traditionally, sales planned in their Excel, finance in theirs, and supply chain in its own system, with humans reconciling them monthly or quarterly. With Connected Planning, a change in one function's assumptions ripples to the enterprise-wide plan in real time — for example, "if the sales forecast changes, the required production, inventory, headcount, and budget recalculate automatically." Benefits include (1) eliminating inconsistencies between plans, (2) faster response to change (recalculating scenarios in minutes), and (3) higher-quality cross-functional decisions. Extending this concept beyond finance is what "xP&A" describes. AI's role includes automated forecasting, automatic extraction of drivers (the factors that move revenue), anomaly detection, and natural-language plan queries. Foundational tools include Anaplan, Pigment, o9 Solutions, Board, and Workday Adaptive. Success hinges on planning-model design skill and securing cross-functional alignment.