7-Eleven Malaysia has adopted the Anaplan platform to transform its financial planning and analysis (FP&A) process and systems and streamline planning and reporting processes, enabling operational efficiency and more accurate predictions via unified data sources.
By leveraging the cloud-based platform that counts some of its biggest retailers in the world as customers, 7-Eleven Malaysia seeks to knock down organisational silos and replace manual spreadsheet-based processes, with a data-driven, single source of truth environment. The FP&A project with Anaplan is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2024.
The convenience store chain operates more than 2,400 outlets nationwide and serves more than 900,000 customers daily.
“To optimise our operations effectively, we needed to efficiently manage and interpret vast amounts of data,” said Aaron Ng, finance director of 7-Eleven Malaysia.
“Transitioning from labor-intensive spreadsheets and siloed ways of working are crucial for pro-active business management, as we strive towards a fully automated and centralised data environment,” said Ng. “By adopting the Anaplan platform, we can unlock real-time visibility into critical performance metrics, foster improved collaboration and empower informed decision-making across departments.”
Additionally, 7-Eleven Malaysia will be guided by data science partner Metora, in tailoring the Anaplan platform and customizing reporting dashboards to meet its unique business needs.
As key enablers in the long-term success of a business, 7-Eleven’s finance teams will have the ability to provide more accurate predictions from unified data sources as well as create projections, modeling, and scenarios, to effectively partner the wider organisation in strategising overall business directions.
“AI and machine learning tools have revolutionised financial planning and analysis, generating relevant insights for actionable outcomes,” said Kumaran Singaram, CEO, Metora. “Internal finance teams now have the power to gain deeper insights, visualize real-time data, and make timely decisions.”
FP&A plays a critical role in retail businesses, where profit margins tend to be low and costs have a significant impact on profitability, as consumer preferences continue to rapidly evolve.
The Anaplan platform brings significant benefits across the entire retail value chain, including store and supply chain planning and operations, to improve cost efficiencies, revenue predictability, maintain market segment, and ensure adequate staffing.
“With Anaplan, 7-Eleven Malaysia’s FP&A will evolve to become a strategic function that drives data-informed decisions with predictability and agility,” said Mark Micallef, Anaplan SVP and managing director in APAC.
