We helped Specsavers gain visibility across their 17,000 stores worldwide

Specsavers urgently needed a new budgeting solution.

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Company:

Specsavers is the largest optical retailer in Australia and New Zealand. It launched in Australia in 2007 and now has more than 350 stores providing affordable optical healthcare across the region.

Industry:

Retail

Company Size:

21,000 + Employees

Region:

UK, Europe, Australia/NZ

Existing ERP:

Spreadsheets

Key Software Used:

WORKDAY ADAPTIVE PLANNING

The Challenge:

Specsavers, a British multinational optical retail chain, offers optician services and eyewear in stores throughout the British Isles, Australasia, and the Nordic countries. As the business became more complex, the team’s spreadsheet-based processes began to show their cracks. Specsavers urgently needed a new budgeting solution.

The challenges they were facing were:

Limited visibility into critical cost drivers, including headcount and travel
Lengthy budgeting process, requiring consolidation of 60 cost centres
Error-prone spreadsheets which detracted from finance’s more strategic responsibilities

The Solution:

With the help of technology partner Forpoint Solutions, Specsavers turned to Workday Adaptive Planning and was able to implement the solution in two months. Forpoint worked closely with Specsavers to prioritize and build out essential budgeting capabilities and helped build the required models to calculate costs related to headcount and travel—all in time for the annual budget.

“One of the best things about Workday Adaptive Planning is how fast and easy it is to get up and running and start seeing results.”

Head of Planning, Reporting, and Analysis, Specsavers

The Results

Deploying the Business Planning Cloud has dramatically reduced the time and effort Specsavers spends creating and consolidating budgets across 60 cost centres. More importantly, Specsavers now has visibility into and understanding of different cost drivers in order to control spending and manage growth. And soon they’ll be able to forecast more frequently as well as improve self-service reporting.

What they were able to achieve:

Streamlined budgeting and consolidation, which enables budget changes to be made and reflected on the P&L statement within seconds rather than days
Better understanding of cost drivers and what-if-scenario modeling
Finance focused on strategy and growth rather than manipulating spreadsheets

Forpoint continues to help Specsavers be at the forefront of their financial processes.