Umicore refines its planning environment for rapid decision-making

Modern life relies on metals, and Umicore helps fill that need sustainably through closed-loop recycling and refining. The business can be volatile, and legacy planning technology sometimes got in the way of decision-making, so Umicore adopted Anaplan for finance and supply chain planning. Starting small with Anaplan and expanding rapidly, Umicore has accelerated key forecasting cycles by 80% and enabled scenario planning that has improved decision-making.

Metals are indispensable in the technology supply chain. As key metals become more scarce, Umicore’s closed-loop metal recycling and refining business helps the technology-powered world be more sustainable.

To stay ahead of change, Umicore sought to extract actionable information from its financial and supply-chain data — but legacy technology got in the way. “We spent most of our time populating spreadsheets, keeping them alive, updating the models,” explains Filip Van Echelpoel, CFO of Umicore Business Group Recycling. “There was little time left to do the analysis. We were lucky to be ready on the deadline with the data.”

Start small, expand rapidly

Umicore chose the Anaplan platform for financial planning and analysis (FP&A) and sales and operations planning (S&OP). Anaplan met three important criteria established by the Umicore team: Easy integration with existing transactional systems, a low- to no-code environment that empowers business users, and a modular structure that enabled the company to start small and extend incrementally.

They started quickly in 2021, standing up a cost-controlling model in the Precious Metals Refining (PMR) business group. “I remember the first implementation of Anaplan,” says Van Echelpoel. “It was one of the few software implementations where we experienced strong and wide user adoption, from the start.”

Anaplan swiftly became the platform of choice for finance and supply chain planning in other Umicore business units. The company’s Anaplan environment today includes reporting and forecasting for revenue controlling, and global supply chain planning and optimization. Anaplan serves as a single, interconnected source of truth that helps Umicore stay ahead of volatile market conditions.

Less manual work, better scenario planning

By replacing manual tasks done on legacy technology with Anaplan, Umicore has reduced financial forecasting time by around 80%. “Before Anaplan, a full forecast cycle took us a full week of work,” Van Echelpoel recalls. “Now we can do it in less than a day.”

Accelerated forecasting and other routine processes leave the finance team more time for analysis and scenario-driven decision-making. “Scenario planning with Anaplan allows us to be better prepared on the multiple scenarios that can materialize in the future,” says Van Echelpoel.

And there’s more to come, as the company refines its knowledge and experience with Anaplan. “It’s in fact already amazing to see how many modules we have built over the past five years,” Van Echelpoel says. “There’s still multiple opportunities to build it up as a honeycomb structure across all the functions in the organization.”