Welcome to all things Connected Planning. I'm Simon Tucker, Chief Planning Officer. Firstly, Connected Planning is really not a new concept. We used to call it integrated business planning. There are other acronyms that people have used in the past, but it really isn't anything new. What is new today is that there is a platform--of course, Anaplan,--that can now connect all these different processes across what are disparate companies and can practice Connected Planning quite easily. That's really what's different that concept isn't new. Really, if you think about it, why do people plan in the first place? This is a question I ask quite often because, really, it has changed. It's not budgeting anymore, that's done. That's not really even planning anymore. It's really a continuous cycle of decision-making. The reason you plan, is because you want to execute on your strategic objectives-- --or at least you want to take your strategic objectives, translate them into operational goals, and push those goals--and the transparency of the assumptions and the drivers that you've made-- out to the outer edges of the organization and empower people to make decision on a local level-- given all the information they've got. That is really why the game has changed. The game has changed in terms of the way you conduct business now, and the way you make decisions and the way you perform. Because there's more volatility out there, there's more competition, there's more consumer choice, which means that there's more complexity. Those business conditions: macroeconomic, trade tariffs, etc...pandemics-- whatever they might be--those new business conditions, swarming around us, demand a very new way of working. It really means that you have to have a constant cycle of planning and decision making, with constant tweaks, with greater collaboration, involving people to make those decisions quickly, and giving people greater visibility. That really is what has driven the need for the Chief Planning Office, the CPO. Because frankly, people have taken a step back and said, "...Look, this is a critical process; this process of decision making." It's critical. It's being done in this messy middle, with disparate data sources, and by people that aren't really communicating with one another. It's really not owned holistically by any one executive. Enter in the Chief Planning Officer, of which now we're seeing more than 100 plus in our customer base, become Chief Planning Officers. The reason for that is because, of course, there's change; change is everywhere. Companies are getting changed. Industries are getting changed. Now the game is really to learn to embrace and harness change, because it's going to be another constant. That is going to give you the ability to be more agile and to make course corrections quickly, while still keeping an eye on the goals of the organization, as known as the strategic objectives. That together is really driving that need for digitization. Pre-2020, digitization was on the top of people's agendas, or at least it was very high. Today, we know pre-COVID--or post-COVID rather, that it's top-of-mind for executives now. Because of that need to make faster business decisions. That calls for more automation and more digital connection with the people, the processes, and the technologies inside of the company.
