In our experience, it's always good to start a budgeting & forecasting project during a quiet part of the year. Get it in for a forecast month so that if the project end-date slips, go-live can be shifted a month with no major business disruption. It also gives you the benefit of a soft start on a non-critical forecast, where everyone gets used to the system and transitions smoothly into the budget when this rolls around.
On the other hand, implementing only at budget time can lead to long hours for the project team and, because the project end date (budget start) can’t change, final testing is sometimes only completed during the budget process.
A lot of companies start their Business Intelligence / Performance Management purchase cycle in the latter half of the year leading up to the budget cycle. The vendor selection process and contract signing often take longer than expected, leaving only a couple of months to spare before the system has to be scoped, implemented, tested, trained and rolled out. In other words, getting the system in and ready for budgeting immediately whatever stop-gaps this may include. The compromise is often the planned rolling forecast which takes the backburner for another day. A lot of momentum is lost as resources focus on the budget and other new projects demand attention. Unless the initiative is focused back on completing the rolling forecast capability, then, apart from reporting, the model sits in stasis until the next budget.
Whichever approach you take, we'll be happy to work with you to get the job done on time and on budget, but we also like to think that with a bit of foresight, we can help you remove some stress and accelerate your ROI.
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