Finance sits at the center of planning. It pulls in numbers from sales, supply chain, operations, and every system in between, then turns them into one view of where the business is headed. While 92% of leaders say they're confident they could handle a major disruption, only 47% say their planning accounts for one. That gap shows up as annual plans that go stale mid-quarter, competing forecasts across functions, and data you have to fix before you can use it.

Join us for a moderated panel with practitioners in finance planning, integrated business planning, and data modernization. They'll share what it takes to move from a static annual plan to one operating forecast that holds up when conditions shift. Drawing on Highspring's Planning for the Unexpected study of more than 1,100 leaders, panelists will discuss:​

• Moving from a static annual plan to a rolling 12- to 18-month forecast with a three-year anchor
• Getting finance, operations, and demand planning aligned on one set of numbers
• Why variance is your best friend, and how to use it to learn instead of assigning blame
• What data readiness looks like when planning data lives in many systems
• When to build, buy, or blend, and where AI fits once the foundation is in place

You'll walk away knowing what's holding your planning process back, how other organizations closed the gaps between functions, and which first moves to make before your 2027 planning cycle. The panel's advice is simple: process over perfection. You don't need a perfect system to start planning better.

Who should attend?

This session is for financial planning and analysis leaders, controllers, and CFOs. It's also for demand planning, operations, and data leaders who are tired of reconciling competing forecasts every time conditions shift.

Learning objectives

This webinar is available for 1 CPE credit. By the end of the webinar, you'll be able to:

✅ Identify where planning breaks down across finance, operations, and data handoffs

✅  Explain what has to be true before a rolling 12- to 18-month forecast can work

✅ Describe how integrated business planning moves functions to one operating forecast

✅ Use variance review to diagnose problems and improve forecasts without assigning blame

✅ ssess data readiness and use it to guide build, buy, or blend decisions

How to earn your credit
Attend the live broadcast for 50+ minutes.

Answer 3+ polling questions during the session.

Note: Partial credit isn't available.