What’s Integrated Business Planning?

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Integrated business planning (IBP) is an approach to considering all components of a business operation together, including how those components interact to help the business achieve its goals. By approaching the planning and strategic management of those components in this way, you can maximize the benefit generated by the operation, minimize waste, and generally allow your business to run as efficiently as possible. Responsible use of company resources often in turn means that operational planning results in higher profits, which in turn makes financial planning for future periods even easier to manage.

One way to perceive integrated business planning is as a general process of managing available resources, recognizing what the most judicious use of equipment, hardware and software, policies and procedures, and cultivating a certain type of business environment can accomplish. By understanding how all of these elements can improve or detract from success in each department within the company, it’s easier to see the operation as a whole rather than a collection of individual functions. This kind of holistic approach can often make it easier to trace each process through different stages of the operation and determine what is happening in one area that is making the process easier or more difficult in subsequent areas.

With integrated business planning, the function of each component is seen as related to the others. This means that the work of the communications department is linked to the efficiency of the administrative office, which in turn affects what happens on the production floor. The sales department is necessarily linked to both the administration and the production process, with one component relying on the efficiency of the others to achieve the goal of generating business and satisfying customer needs. Instead of seeing each function with the business as standalone, an integrated business planning approach can often eliminate duplication of effort at different levels and allow the company to be more productive overall. Higher levels of production and efficiency translate into satisfying customers in less time, which in turn will likely facilitate more customers who place more orders and increase the fortunes of the business.

Even a small business can benefit from the foundations of integrated business planning. For example, a store owner can use the approach to determine where certain merchandise displays are located in relation to related merchandise, where to place associates who can help customers find merchandise and complete transactions, and even what kind of services to offer to customers who are likely to encourage them to linger long enough to make a purchase. By better organizing the operation and workforce, the store earns more sales, develops a larger customer base, and has a better chance of turning a profit.

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