Company Profile

The Planning Factory Ltd was established in 1996 in the United Kingdom and ceased trading as a limited company in 2022. John Hobson continues to operate as a consultant trading as The Planning Factory.

We believe that planning and budgeting systems are of pivotal importance in the search for increased profitability.

To be effective they must combine flexibility with ease of use and low cost.

Our goal is to demystify the planning process and to provide solutions tailored to your business.

The Planning Factory combines in depth knowledge of our market with leading edge technology to provide our customers with cost effective consultancy solutions to their problems.

VISION

We know the impact that properly designed and implemented systems can have on profitability. Our approach is based on the understanding that business needs should drive systems implementations and not the other way round.

We also believe that the tools used should be appropriate to the problems addressed. As a result of this we are not tied to any one supplier for our base technology. We recommend the appropriate tool for the job in hand.

EXPERTISE

We believe that by limiting our market to areas that we knew well, that we can provide the highest levels of service to our customers. As a result we focus on the areas of Data Analysis, Financial Budgeting and Merchandise Planning & Reporting, with a particular emphasis on the Retail market.

We understand the dynamics of our target markets. To us this means that every implementation is different. We provide solutions not packages. We use a flexible toolkit – and then create the most appropriate solution in consultation with our clients.

Our specific skill areas are in  Jedox Palo and IBM TM1 for financial analysis and budgeting and in Targetta (Retail Optimizer), Jedox Palo, IBM TM1, Makoro, Buyers’ Toolbox and JDA Arthur for merchandise planning.

The business model is essentially multi-dimensional, the principal dimensions being Time, Product and Location. Our expertise in using multi-dimensional databases allows us to deal with this reality by reflecting it in the way systems are constructed.

DELIVERY

We don’t believe in leaving you with “recommendations” or a “prototype” when what you need is a fully working system. When we talk about “results”, we mean it!

You need to know that your existing investment in technology is secure. Our systems are not intended to replace transactional systems, but rather to enhance them. Where appropriate we also dos what we can to protect and enhance the investment that you may already have made in spreadsheet technology.

The Planning Factory is the UK based consultancy company dedicated to giving you a fresh perspective to consultancy and implemented systems in the areas of Merchandise & Assortment Planning and Financial Budgeting and Decision Support using OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing).