SINGAPORE – The Philippines is ripe for analytics, said Grant Halloran, chief marketing officer of anaplan, a company that combines “analytics and planning” and now considers the country as its “fastest moving market in Asia and the Pacific.”
A good business vision, said Halloran, is to bring analytics to people who do planning in businesses. “Traditionally, this was thought to only be of merit when doing financial planning. But that process is long gone. Now, everybody is involved in planning,” Halloran said. This is so that – as a case in point – “the CEOs become always aware with what’s happening to the departments under them. Otherwise, a business ends up having departments that are disconnected to each other.”
This was also the point stressed by Serb Jodha, VP for marketing of anaplan. “Most companies continue to have disconnected departments. For instance, sales forecast that the corporate planning team looks forward to having was once considered as relevant only when looking at possible revenues. What is not seen is how this actually also impacts on costs. Because of this, “connecting the numbers in the business is important,” Jodha said.
The goal for companies should be to “connect numbers” so that businesses “can act on ripple effects,” Halloran said. “Instantaneous flow of numbers in businesses becomes a powerful tool.”
Since going commercial in 2014, anaplan now has over 120 apps in its app store, all attempting to offer services for this particular business need. Pricing is per user (i.e. standard, premium, and enterprise version).
In the APAC region, the company now has over 20 partners, serving 65 clients.
In the Philippines, major companies that already use analytics include JG Summit, San Miguel Corp., Jollibee, NutriAsia, General Electric and Del Monte.
In the end, “we need to create empowerment into the business,” Halloway said. And here, “analytics is a step in the right direction.”
