This is the latest post in our blog series on how we solve problems. Each blog post focuses on a real-world client experience where Revelwood was presented with a unique or thorny problem.  We’ll explain our approach to how we solved it.

Revelwood Client: A private university with campuses throughout New York and New Jersey.  

Planning Environment: IBM Planning Analytics

Problem: The university was planning revenue using an Excel-based spreadsheet. The spreadsheet contained many repetitive sheets, had very complex formulas and had some erroneous calculations built into the file.

How We Helped: Revelwood reviewed their existing model and helped convert it into a driver-based planning approach that used a combination of headcounts with various lookup tables. The model accommodated various review sources such as tuition and other fees, while also calculating contra accounts such as tuition and bad debt. Users planned by semester. We converted the results into calendar months, taking into consideration both calendar years and school years. This simplified approach allowed the client to easily load and update data into the model and then make modifications for what-if analyses.

Do you have a challenge with your Planning Analytics environment? Let us tackle the problem! Send us a quick email!