Smarter CapEx starts here: How modern planning powers agile investment decisions

In recent years, an increasing number of U.S. companies have been making a strategic shift to reshore operations. According to Boston Consulting Group, more than 90% of North American manufacturing executives surveyed said that they have moved some of their production and sourcing to different countries over the past five years and will continue to do so during the next five years. But what does this really cost? 

The decision to reshore is driven by many factors — companies want to protect supply chains, mitigate the impact of geopolitical risks, and take advantage of new government incentives. Rising overseas costs, trade uncertainty, and advances in automation have made domestic production more attractive than ever.  

But as a finance leader, you know that reshoring isn’t just about moving operations; it’s about making smart capital expenditure (CapEx) decisions that ensure long-term success. From upgrading facilities to investing in automation, you must carefully plan your expenditures to remain competitive at a time when change is constant.  

CapEx planning needs are evolving 

Today, agility is everything when it comes to CapEx planning and reshoring success. This crucial business process is no longer just about funding large projects — it’s about strategic foresight. As markets evolve and priorities shift, finance teams must be able to pivot quickly, make smart investment decisions, and ensure capital is aligned with long-term business goals. 

Financial considerations of reshoring include: 

• Facility costs – Companies must decide whether to build new plants or retrofit existing ones to accommodate modern manufacturing needs. 

• Technology investments – To manage labor costs, businesses need to invest in automation, AI-driven production, and robotics. 

• Supply chain realignment – Reshoring requires capital to establish domestic supplier networks and reduce reliance on foreign imports. 

• Workforce development and training – Companies must allocate funds for training programs to ensure workers have the necessary skills. 

Despite this complexity, many organizations are still managing CapEx planning with outdated tools and disjointed processes. But spreadsheets and disconnected systems simply aren’t built for this kind of pressure. Investment decisions must be made quickly to capitalize on opportunities, but this can't happen when there is a growing disconnect between capital strategy and business execution.  

Planning gaps jeopardize return on investment 

CapEx planning presents a range of challenges that can hinder strategic execution. Many organizations struggle with lengthy and inefficient approval processes that delay critical investment decisions. There's frequently a disconnect between corporate leadership, business units (BUs), and operational teams, leading to misaligned capital-spend strategies.  

Limited visibility into the performance of approved projects makes it difficult to track progress or adjust plans in real time. Compounding these issues is the lack of integration between capital projects and projected financial statements, which can obscure the true financial impact of investment decisions.  

These issues don’t just create operational headaches — they can seriously impact strategic outcomes. Inaccuracies and blind spots in CapEx planning can lead to missed opportunities, underperforming investments, and poor stakeholder confidence. 

A smarter way forward: CapEx planning with Anaplan

Anaplan offers a modern, connected approach to capital planning that simplifies the process and empowers finance leaders to drive strategic value. With our Integrated Financial Planning application built on a centralized, cloud-based platform, Anaplan delivers the agility, transparency, and control needed to manage capital investments in real time. 

This enables finance teams to: 

• Standardize and streamline approvals: Business-owned logic replaces siloed processes, making it easy to consolidate and accelerate approvals across departments and geographies. 

• Collaborate securely and in real time: Anaplan offers transparent access control and a shared data foundation that allows internal stakeholders — from project managers to bankers — to collaborate efficiently. 

• Model scenarios with complete visibility: Finance teams can use "what-if" analysis to evaluate multiple investment paths and accurately model and understand how assumptions impact financial viability. 

• Enable top-down and bottom-up planning: Set corporate-level targets and allow BU planners to align with strategic priorities without losing operational detail. 

• Track actuals and reforecast dynamically: Import actual results, compare against budgeted projections, and adjust forecasts as needed to reflect changing conditions. 

• Evaluate project-level impact with confidence: By factoring in details like project cost, asset type, and useful life, you can evaluate the financial impact of individual investments and make more informed decisions. 

• Drastically reduce implementation timelines: Adopt best practice processes, models, and reporting out-of-the-box, and fully deploy in 8-10 weeks. 

• Drive efficiency and accuracy: Leverage best practice-based drivers and trends to reduce manual effort and improve forecast accuracy. 

Vena Energy’s connected planning transformation 

Vena Energy, a renewable energy developer growing rapidly across the Asia-Pacific, faced the challenge of managing dozens of capital projects across a complex enterprise. When they turned to Anaplan to modernize their planning process, they saw the following results: 

• 80% time savings in monthly consolidations, giving leadership more time to focus on business direction 

• 33% faster annual budgeting, enabling quicker execution on growth strategies 

• 300+ business entities now unified on one financial planning platform, supporting consistency and clarity across the organization 

Vena Energy’s success shows what’s possible when organizations trade spreadsheets for speed and visibility. “With Anaplan, we have a complete and accurate picture of our capital projects, no matter where they are in development,” says the organization's Chief Financial Officer. 

Make CapEx planning your strategic force 

As the reshoring trend continues in many industries, CapEx decisions are top of mind for finance leaders.

With so much at stake, you can no longer rely on traditional planning tools that can’t keep up. You must equip yourself with technology solutions that match the complexity and pace of today's business landscape.  

With Anaplan, you bring people, data, and plans together in one platform — transforming CapEx from a tedious administrative task into a strategic advantage. Finance teams are released from the drudgery of collecting disparate enterprise data and the limitations of modeling in stand-alone spreadsheets. This allows you to:

• Plan smarter, move faster: Create and compare scenarios to see the impact of potential decisions before you make them. 

• Build and adapt models without calling IT: Give your team the freedom to create and update models on their own — no coding or IT help required.  

• Collaborate openly and securely: Make it easy for everyone — finance, project leads, even external partners — to work from the same set of data in real time.  

Anaplan provides the foundation for smarter, faster, and more resilient capital planning — so your organization can invest wisely, act decisively, and stay ahead of change.