Digital transformation through integrated business planning at Importaco

Integrated approach

Connected demand planning, sales, and finance teams using single platform

Granular forecasting

Implemented SKU-customer-destination level forecasting with 3 years historical data

Scenario planning

Enabled multiple budget scenarios (optimistic, realistic, pessimistic) with same effort

Process efficiency

Eliminated email exchanges of different Excel file versions across teams

More to explore

Financial planning in manufacturing

Financial planning in technology

Financial planning in maritime

Want to talk to an expert? Contact us below

epm@keyrus.com

The challenge

Importaco, a family business founded in 1940 with over 80 years of history, is an absolute leader in nuts and dried fruits in Spain and one of Europe's largest companies in the business. They are also the second largest producer of mineral water in Spain. Despite their market leadership, the company faced significant planning challenges as they sought digital transformation.

"We were doing planning in silos," explains Alejandro Alhambra, IT Director of Importaco. "The demand planning team was doing their own planning, the sales team was doing their own planning, finance their own planning, and based on Excel different versions of files changing through email."

Key challenges included:

Siloed planning across demand planning, sales, and finance teams
Excel-based processes with multiple file versions exchanged via email
Time-consuming annual budgeting exercise requiring significant effort from many people
Lack of integration between different business planning processes
Each team focused only on their local needs rather than company-wide objectives

The solution

Importaco implemented a comprehensive digital transformation strategy with Anaplan as the central platform to address integrated business planning needs.

Strategic approach: Alejandro conducted interviews with most company leaders across different business areas to identify business problems and designed a digital transformation plan focused on gaining efficiencies through better planning integration.

Tool selection: "I had to look at this problem from a broader perspective. It was clear that we needed to look for a tool that served all the needs of all the different business areas in an integrated way," Alejandro noted. He chose Anaplan based on previous positive experience with the platform.

Implementation scope:

Demand planning: Expanded from a tool that served well in one market to a broader approach accommodating all markets with their complicated variables, segments, and different objects
Financial planning: Implemented budgeting processes for Opex, Capex, and project planning, including P&L development
Data integration: Connected SAP and business data warehouse systems, requiring significant data cleaning work before loading into Anaplan
Granular forecasting: Implemented forecasting at SKU-customer-destination level using three years of historical data for statistical forecasting
Process connectivity: Linked demand planning with financial planning processes to create truly integrated business planning

The results

The implementation transformed Importaco's planning capabilities from fragmented, manual processes to an integrated, efficient system supporting strategic decision-making.

Planning integration:

Eliminated siloed planning across demand, sales, and finance teams
Connected all planning processes under single integrated tool
Reduced effort required for annual budgeting exercises
Eliminated multiple Excel file versions and email exchanges

Enhanced capabilities:

Enabled multiple scenario planning (budget, optimistic, pessimistic) with same effort as previous single-version budgeting
Implemented statistical forecasting using three years of historical data at granular SKU-customer-destination level
Created capability for "what-if" scenarios including new warehouse, production plant, or business acquisition analysis

Operational efficiency:

Reduced time spent on data input and calculations, increasing focus on decision-making
Enabled rapid model expansion and development due to platform flexibility
Facilitated agile implementation approach with incremental functionality delivery

Future expansion plans: HR planning integration: "We are working right now in expanding the model with HR planning as well. HR planning is very important for finance budgeting but also to plan the talent that we need to recruit every year."

Supply chain optimization: Developing what-if scenarios for supply chain team regarding new warehouses or production plants and their effects on production planning

Long-term strategic planning: Moving beyond basic demand and financial planning to facilitate long-term strategic scenario planning

Lessons learned: Alejandro noted that while they had to implement quickly to meet budget cycle deadlines without complete end-to-end process analysis, the agile approach worked well: "The tool is easy to expand and develop. Creating a new screen, creating a new formula, connecting things is quite fast, and if your model is clear, expanding it bit by bit is easy."

The implementation demonstrates how digital transformation can drive efficiency gains while providing the flexibility to evolve planning processes as business needs change.