Optimizing investment drivers planning with Mercado Libre

The challenge

Mercado Libre connects millions of buyers and sellers across Latin America through its e-commerce ecosystem, which also includes fintech solutions like Mercado Pago and logistics services. As one of the region's largest digital companies, Mercado Libre faced the challenge of managing complex investment decisions across multiple business units and countries.

The company struggled with:

• Lack of traceability over time
• Numerous manual steps in spreadsheets
• No standardized criteria across countries
• Inefficiencies caused by traditional, siloed processes

The challenge was clear: how could Mercado Libre standardize and streamline the analysis and approval of extra-plan investments while overcoming these inefficiencies?

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The solution

Based on a comprehensive design developed by Anaplan Gold Partner Keyrus, Mercado Libre selected Anaplan to transform the way investment initiatives are analyzed, approved, and tracked across the organization. The goal was to replace manual, decentralized processes with a unified, scalable solution capable of providing a single source of truth for all Investment Drivers.

Working side by side with Keyrus, the Mercado Libre team built a collaborative platform that centralizes Business Cases and Post-Audit data while standardizing methodologies across all business units and countries. The implementation connected multiple stakeholders—from Finance to Commerce and Strategy—under a common governance process with clear approval flows and full visibility of changes and results.

The approach prioritized:

• A unified, scalable system that allows users to input, approve, and track extra-plan investments
• Multi-level approvals and standardized methodologies
• Full visibility of Business Cases and Post-Audit results
• A centralized platform ensuring reliability, traceability, and faster reporting

The Anaplan solution also established a foundation for integration with other corporate models, such as Finance, enabling automated data flows and future connectivity with IBP for demand estimation.

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The impact

The implementation delivered significant benefits:

• Traceability of Investment Levers over time: Ability to track every approval and change related to investment levers in real time, ensuring transparency and control throughout the entire process
• Automated end-to-end approval and tracking process: Eliminating manual steps and streamlining workflows
• Ability to consolidate and analyze investments in real time: Enhanced reporting accuracy and visibility
• Collaborative Workflow: Multi-level approval process enabling transparency and alignment between Finance & Methodology approvals, and Site Planners
• Increased Decision-Making Speed: Ability to quickly approve Investment Levers in real time
• Standardized Methodology: Common criteria across countries to evaluate, approve, and monitor investment levers consistently
• Single Source of Data: Single platform consolidating all Business Cases and Post-Audit information

Most importantly, the project fostered a new culture of transparency and alignment across teams. The Palancas platform empowered users to independently manage and analyze investment data in real time, strengthening governance, consistency, and confidence in every decision.