Messe Berlin, one of the leading organizers of trade fairs, congresses and international events, is transforming its financial planning processes with Board’s Enterprise Planning platform. The objective is to create a more centralized, transparent and agile environment to better manage its activities.
With more than 200 years of history as a venue for economic and professional exchanges in Berlin, Messe Berlin now manages an ecosystem comprising several entities and activities. This complex organization required an evolution in planning methods to improve efficiency and visibility.
Moving beyond fragmented Excel processes to strengthen financial management
Before Board was implemented, Messe Berlin’s planning processes relied heavily on Excel files and manual consolidations. This approach could limit the speed of budget cycles, complicate information sharing between different teams and reduce overall visibility into performance.
The company therefore wanted a solution capable of bringing planning, analysis and reporting together in a single environment, while preserving the ability of the different entities to contribute to financial processes.
A central platform for planning and analysis
Implemented with the support of partner H&Z.digital, the Board solution is becoming a true hub for financial planning and performance management.
In an initial phase, Messe Berlin is implementing several key functionalities:
- budget management;
- monthly financial forecasts (forecast);
- multi-year strategic planning;
- integrated financial planning, including the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow;
- management reporting;
- performance indicator analysis.
Connected to existing systems, particularly SAP, the platform aims to provide a shared data foundation to improve the consistency of financial information and facilitate decision-making.
More agile and collaborative planning
One of the project’s major challenges is enabling decentralized planning while maintaining a consolidated view at the management control level.
Thanks to simulation and scenario analysis capabilities, teams can better anticipate different possible developments and support strategic decisions with more reliable data.
For Messe Berlin, this transformation should reduce manual tasks, improve data quality and accelerate planning cycles.
By progressively developing Board as a central FP&A solution, the company aims to build a sustainable foundation to support future decisions and strengthen collaboration between its different teams.
This project also demonstrates the evolving role of finance, which is now more focused on analysis, anticipation and strategic support for the business.
source: Board
