Specsavers sharpens financial focus with cloud BI

Adaptive Insights has helped high street optician chain Specsavers overhaul its financial planning processes with the help of the cloud.

Specsavers opted for the cloud BI vendor’s Adaptive Planning product to make tasks like budgeting, financial planning and data analytics easier.

Previously, the firm relied on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to manage its business planning procedures, but this set-up was prone to human error and didn’t lend itself well to collaboration, the retailer said.

The company claims the product has improved the accuracy of its overall finances, allowed it to cut costs and made its operations more efficient.

Matt Buckley, group planning and reporting lead for finance at Specsavers, said the system means the firm can plan for the future with greater ease.

“Adaptive has uniquely allowed us to drive discussions based on a single view of the entire business, giving us the historic picture that allows us to look forward based on real trends, proving that the entire business can now benefit from a more collaborative, better informed and empowered finance team,” he said.

Ian Preston, vice president of sales in the UK & Ireland at Adaptive Insights, added: “Specsavers’ use of Adaptive shows the significant gains that can be achieved with more consolidated, accurate and automated financial planning.

“These gains go far beyond the time savings achieved during the planning process. Specsavers’ finance team now has the tools and the information to fundamentally influence the company’s business and decision making.”