AccorHotels achieves an accurate financial forecast with the Anaplan platform

Watch the video Contact us
With 3,800 hotels in 90 countries, France-based hospitality company Accor was challenged to build a consistent, unified process for budgeting and a 12-month rolling forecast. They found a platform for that purpose in Anaplan and anticipate ROI in two areas: time savings for hotel managers (which will give them more time for customers), and improved margins thanks to greater forecast accuracy.
We expect an improvement in our hotels’ margins…thanks to the reliability of the Anaplan forecast.
Deputy Director of Group Financial Control

3,800+

Hotels

180,000+

employees

  • SOLUTIONS

    Finance

  • INDUSTRIES

    Business & Professional Services

Challenge

Global hotel group AccorHotels operates over 3,800 hotels and 1,500 subsidiaries across 90 countries, employing more than 180,000 employees worldwide. It was the group’s extensive global reach that consistently challenged the abilities of its existing-and contrasting-financial planning processes. With each country managing its processes and tools in its own way, AccorHotels needed to find a unified process and platform that could allow them to streamline and support a better budgeting and forecasting approach.

 

Solution

After benchmarking and vetting many different solutions in the market for planning, budgeting, and forecasting, AccorHotels unanimously selected the Anaplan platform for its innovative features. Its quick implementation allowed the project team to focus its objectives on improving the forecasting process to be faster, more efficient, and more reliable for its entire portfolio of hotel and the business.

 

Results

AccorHotels found that the platform not only saved business analysts and hotel general managers time, but it also allowed them to focus on creating customer value. Additionally, the reliability of the Anaplan forecast is expected to improve hotel margins, and after its implementation in the pilot country, Switzerland, the group anticipates a full, international roll-out.

 

Natacha Loinger: My name is Natacha Loinger. I manage the Finance Information Systems at AccorHotels.

Marie-Agnes Guy: My name is Marie-Agnes Guy, and I’m Head of the Forecast project.

Deputy Director of the Group Financial Control: I’m Deputy Director of the Group Financial Control department and a Business Analyst for the Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and African regions.

Natacha Loinger: AccorHotels is a global hotel group. We are present in over 90 countries throughout the world and we have a network of about 180,000 employees in AccorHotels brands globally. Our challenges related to the forecasting and budgeting process are closely related to our business and our organization. Our group comprises over 3,800 hotels, including 1,500 subsidiaries for which we wish to put together, each month, a 12-month rolling forecast, i.e., a projection for the next 12 months. Among these 1,500 hotels, there are small Ibis hotels without catering facilities; bigger hotels like Pullman, with over 500 bedrooms and conference centers, and there are also some Sofitel with thalassotherapy services.

Deputy Director of the Group Financial Control: The main strategic reason behind our decision to adopt a new approach was the lack of data convergence between teams and the duration of our budget and forecast process. Today, each country has its own process and its own tools, but none really meet the expectations and time constraints of the business analysts and the hotels. We want our forecast process to be faster, more efficient, and more reliable for the hotels, the countries, and the group.

Marie-Agnes Guy: The selection process took place in two phases. The first phase involved benchmarking the different solutions in the market in terms of planning, budgeting, forecasting. Following this phase, we chose four editors: two were rather traditional and two were rather innovative, one of the latter was Anaplan. We suggested a practical case study that was quite light in terms of both volume and operational technicality, but really covered all of the features we needed. After the presentation, the project team was unanimous in its choice of Anaplan because all the necessary features were covered and also because the presentation was very professional. The implementation of Anaplan is happening in a very natural way; we are currently in a six-month pilot phase, with the objective of approving a certain number of business topics.

Deputy Director of the Group Financial Control: We are expecting two kinds of ROI in this project. First, not only the business analyst but also the hotel general managers will save time, so they can focus on creating customer value. We expect an improvement in our hotels’ margins, with actions that could be anticipated by the hotel general manager and business analysts, thanks to the reliability of the Anaplan forecast.

Natacha Loinger: The next step is the implementation of Anaplan in our pilot country, Switzerland. We are going to ask our Swiss representatives to carry out the forecast for the next three months in such a way as to build a business case that we will then be able to present to the executive committee of AccorHotels, in order to achieve a “go” for an international roll-out.