Accenture - SAP Innovation Awards 2026
Accenture\s leaders once relied on disconnected spreadsheets, slow forecasts, and siloed planning across Finance, Sales, and HR, causing delays and risk. Economic volatility made this fragmentation unsustainable. By adopting scenario-driven planning in SAP Analytics Cloud with a unified data foundation, planning became dynamic, connected, and confidence‑driven. Entry 26188 Download dokumentetInnovation Story
PUBLIC
The Future of Accenture’s strategic
planning and simulation
Accenture
Professional Services
Financial Futurist
PUBLIC
The Future of Accenture’s strategic
planning and simulation
Accenture
Professional Services
Financial Futurist
The Future of Accenture’s strategic planning
and simulation
A Multi-Year Scenario Modeling Platform Powered by
SAP Analytics Cloud
Before this initiative, enterprise leaders faced a volatile environment with planning tools that lagged reality.
Multi-year decisions on growth, investment, and talent relied on disconnected spreadsheets, static
forecasts, and slow reconciliation. Finance, Sales, and HR each planned with different technologies and
assumptions, creating multiple versions of the future and no shared view. Planning cycles took weeks, and
alignment often arrived after market conditions had already changed.
The urgency was clear. Economic uncertainty, rapid technological disruption, and rising expectations for
AI-driven insight meant fragmented planning was no longer just inefficient; it was risky. Without change, the
organization faced missed growth opportunities, misallocated capital, and decisions made with limited
confidence.
What followed was unexpected. Rather than building another model, planning itself was reimagined. A
multi-year, scenario-driven capability was introduced in SAP Analytics Cloud, supported by SAP Business
Data Cloud and SAP Datasphere as a unified source of truth across SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition,
SAP BW, and Google Cloud Platform. Planning became dynamic, connected, and explainable.
Today, leaders no longer debate numbers. They explore alternative futures, test assumptions together, and
act with clarity and confidence.
2© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
and simulation
A Multi-Year Scenario Modeling Platform Powered by
SAP Analytics Cloud
Before this initiative, enterprise leaders faced a volatile environment with planning tools that lagged reality.
Multi-year decisions on growth, investment, and talent relied on disconnected spreadsheets, static
forecasts, and slow reconciliation. Finance, Sales, and HR each planned with different technologies and
assumptions, creating multiple versions of the future and no shared view. Planning cycles took weeks, and
alignment often arrived after market conditions had already changed.
The urgency was clear. Economic uncertainty, rapid technological disruption, and rising expectations for
AI-driven insight meant fragmented planning was no longer just inefficient; it was risky. Without change, the
organization faced missed growth opportunities, misallocated capital, and decisions made with limited
confidence.
What followed was unexpected. Rather than building another model, planning itself was reimagined. A
multi-year, scenario-driven capability was introduced in SAP Analytics Cloud, supported by SAP Business
Data Cloud and SAP Datasphere as a unified source of truth across SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition,
SAP BW, and Google Cloud Platform. Planning became dynamic, connected, and explainable.
Today, leaders no longer debate numbers. They explore alternative futures, test assumptions together, and
act with clarity and confidence.
2© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHALLENGE SOLUTION OUTCOME
The Future of Accenture’s strategic planning and simulation
A Multi Year Scenario Modelling Tool powered by SAP Analytics Cloud
In a volatile market, leaders needed fast, defensible multi-year
decisions, but planning was constrained by fragmented
spreadsheets, disconnected functional models, and static
forecasts. Cross-functional teams (Finance, Sales, HR,
Strategy) operated with different assumptions and long cycle
times, limiting transparency into trade-offs and slowing
alignment.
Scenario analysis—critical for strategic resilience—was largely
manual and hard to explain, reducing confidence in outcomes.
Multiple Excel-based simulations existed, but insights were
isolated and rarely reusable across teams, reinforcing silos and
driving repeated effort.
We engineered a Multi-Year Scenario Modeling Tool built on
SAP Analytics Cloud, powered by SAP Business Data Cloud
strong data foundations and designed for intelligent,
scenario-driven decision-making.
The solution unifies financial, operational, workforce, and
external market drivers into a single, modular planning
ecosystem.
Using SAP Analytics Cloud Planning, versions, distributions,
and advanced analytics — with a clear path to AI and GenAI
agents — leaders can dynamically explore scenarios, test
assumptions, and understand outcomes with speed and
transparency.
Integrated, scalable scenario simulation models with several out
of the box analytic capabilities for C-level decision.
Planning shifted from static forecasts to continuous,
insight-driven exploration.
C-levels now evaluate multiple futures in hours instead of
weeks, align faster across functions, and make confident
decisions grounded in explainable logic.
The platform established a scalable foundation for AI-assisted
forecasting and enterprise foresight.
© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
Investment in
acquisitions
simulated during
2025
1.5 B C-suite users
2 Automation (Digitized
Multi-Year Scenario
Modelling Tool features).
90%
3
Multi-Year Scenario Modelling
Business Value
Planning and Simulation Outcomes
# of SAP Analytics
Cloud simulation
tools
2 Planning scenarios
created
50 Centralized data
models in SAP
Datasphere
15
CHALLENGE SOLUTION OUTCOME
The Future of Accenture’s strategic planning and simulation
A Multi Year Scenario Modelling Tool powered by SAP Analytics Cloud
In a volatile market, leaders needed fast, defensible multi-year
decisions, but planning was constrained by fragmented
spreadsheets, disconnected functional models, and static
forecasts. Cross-functional teams (Finance, Sales, HR,
Strategy) operated with different assumptions and long cycle
times, limiting transparency into trade-offs and slowing
alignment.
Scenario analysis—critical for strategic resilience—was largely
manual and hard to explain, reducing confidence in outcomes.
Multiple Excel-based simulations existed, but insights were
isolated and rarely reusable across teams, reinforcing silos and
driving repeated effort.
We engineered a Multi-Year Scenario Modeling Tool built on
SAP Analytics Cloud, powered by SAP Business Data Cloud
strong data foundations and designed for intelligent,
scenario-driven decision-making.
The solution unifies financial, operational, workforce, and
external market drivers into a single, modular planning
ecosystem.
Using SAP Analytics Cloud Planning, versions, distributions,
and advanced analytics — with a clear path to AI and GenAI
agents — leaders can dynamically explore scenarios, test
assumptions, and understand outcomes with speed and
transparency.
Integrated, scalable scenario simulation models with several out
of the box analytic capabilities for C-level decision.
Planning shifted from static forecasts to continuous,
insight-driven exploration.
C-levels now evaluate multiple futures in hours instead of
weeks, align faster across functions, and make confident
decisions grounded in explainable logic.
The platform established a scalable foundation for AI-assisted
forecasting and enterprise foresight.
© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
Investment in
acquisitions
simulated during
2025
1.5 B C-suite users
2 Automation (Digitized
Multi-Year Scenario
Modelling Tool features).
90%
3
Multi-Year Scenario Modelling
Business Value
Planning and Simulation Outcomes
# of SAP Analytics
Cloud simulation
tools
2 Planning scenarios
created
50 Centralized data
models in SAP
Datasphere
15
Project details
PROJECT OBJECTIVES USE CASE
DEPLOYMENT COUNTRY DEPLOYMENT DATE NUMBER OF END USERS TRANSACTION VOLUME
1. Enable Multi-Year, Scenario-Driven Decision-Making. Provide leadership
with the ability to model, compare, and stress-test multiple future scenarios
across several years, enabling faster and more confident strategic
decisions under uncertainty.
2. Unify Enterprise Planning Across Functions: Integrate Finance, Sales, HR,
and external market drivers into a single, consistent planning framework,
eliminating fragmented models and alignment issues across teams.
3. Standardize Drivers and P&L Logic: Establish a transparent, explainable
driver-based model (pipeline, wins, backlog, revenue, cost, profit) so
assumptions are explicit, traceable, and trusted.
4. Improve Planning Speed, Accessibility, and User Experience: Leverage
SAP Analytics Cloud to deliver a guided, role-based experience that
supports both C-suite level exploration and power-user scenario modeling
in the same tool.
5. Lay the Foundation for AI-Enabled Planning: Create an AI-ready platform
that can evolve toward data-science-driven forecasting and GenAI agents
that continuously refine assumptions and insights.
Executives and planning teams use the solution to evaluate financial,
operational, and workforce impacts of strategic decisions over multiple years.
Scenarios covering growth targets, investment levels, deal mix,
macroeconomic change, and AI adoption are tested by adjusting key drivers
in SAP Analytics Cloud. Immediate visibility into revenue, profitability,
headcount, and risk accelerates alignment and supports confident, enterprise-
wide decisions.
The solution is a driver based, modular planning model built in SAP Analytics
Cloud. Financial and operational drivers such as pipeline, win rates, pricing,
productivity, headcount ramps, and cost structures are mathematically linked
across time using planning models, versions, and distributions. Teams can
create parallel scenarios, automatically propagate assumption changes
through the Profit & Lose, and analyze results at multiple levels of detail.
Integrated SAP data continuously calibrates plans against actuals, while real
time dashboards visualize outcomes. Designed to evolve, the platform
enables advanced analytics and future GenAI agents, transforming planning.
Global operations November 2025 (Release 1)
March 2026 (Release 2)
June 2026 (Release 3)
September 2026 (Release 4)
2 C-suite levels.
25 Top leadership.
50 Finance team. Power Users.
11 reports
2 simulation tools delivered
46 Simulated KPIs
+35 Custom Data actions
4© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
PROJECT OBJECTIVES USE CASE
DEPLOYMENT COUNTRY DEPLOYMENT DATE NUMBER OF END USERS TRANSACTION VOLUME
1. Enable Multi-Year, Scenario-Driven Decision-Making. Provide leadership
with the ability to model, compare, and stress-test multiple future scenarios
across several years, enabling faster and more confident strategic
decisions under uncertainty.
2. Unify Enterprise Planning Across Functions: Integrate Finance, Sales, HR,
and external market drivers into a single, consistent planning framework,
eliminating fragmented models and alignment issues across teams.
3. Standardize Drivers and P&L Logic: Establish a transparent, explainable
driver-based model (pipeline, wins, backlog, revenue, cost, profit) so
assumptions are explicit, traceable, and trusted.
4. Improve Planning Speed, Accessibility, and User Experience: Leverage
SAP Analytics Cloud to deliver a guided, role-based experience that
supports both C-suite level exploration and power-user scenario modeling
in the same tool.
5. Lay the Foundation for AI-Enabled Planning: Create an AI-ready platform
that can evolve toward data-science-driven forecasting and GenAI agents
that continuously refine assumptions and insights.
Executives and planning teams use the solution to evaluate financial,
operational, and workforce impacts of strategic decisions over multiple years.
Scenarios covering growth targets, investment levels, deal mix,
macroeconomic change, and AI adoption are tested by adjusting key drivers
in SAP Analytics Cloud. Immediate visibility into revenue, profitability,
headcount, and risk accelerates alignment and supports confident, enterprise-
wide decisions.
The solution is a driver based, modular planning model built in SAP Analytics
Cloud. Financial and operational drivers such as pipeline, win rates, pricing,
productivity, headcount ramps, and cost structures are mathematically linked
across time using planning models, versions, and distributions. Teams can
create parallel scenarios, automatically propagate assumption changes
through the Profit & Lose, and analyze results at multiple levels of detail.
Integrated SAP data continuously calibrates plans against actuals, while real
time dashboards visualize outcomes. Designed to evolve, the platform
enables advanced analytics and future GenAI agents, transforming planning.
Global operations November 2025 (Release 1)
March 2026 (Release 2)
June 2026 (Release 3)
September 2026 (Release 4)
2 C-suite levels.
25 Top leadership.
50 Finance team. Power Users.
11 reports
2 simulation tools delivered
46 Simulated KPIs
+35 Custom Data actions
4© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
Innovations
INNOVATIVE USE OF SAP TECHNOLOGY
WHY SAP
• Enterprise-grade multi-year scenario modeling built on SAP Analytics Cloud,
extending SAP Analytics Cloud from planning to strategic decision
simulation.
• Driver-based planning models powered by SAP Datasphere, delivering
standardized, reusable data products within SAP Business Data Cloud.
• Unified planning foundation integrating SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP BW, and
Google Cloud data, eliminating silos and ensuring consistent semantics.
• Natural-language insights with SAP Analytics Cloud just ask feature, enabling
executives to explore scenarios without technical complexity.
• AI-ready architecture with SAP Analytics Cloud with Compass accelerator on
the roadmap, positioning the platform for predictive and
recommendation-driven planning.
Accenture is a more than 20-year customer of SAP, reflecting a uniquely
strong partnership. Our financial core runs on SAP, making it the natural
foundation for analytics and enterprise-grade GenAI.
SAP’s native integration across transactional systems, analytics, planning and
AI enabled us to simplify our landscape, unify semantics and safely deploy
intelligent automation on top of governed financial data.
“SAP Analytics Cloud platform was implemented for top-down corporate
scenario planning for V&A to move away from a complex set of
interconnected excel workbooks. This helps us make smarter strategic
decisions while ensuring accuracy and real-time access of the scenario
modelling to the senior leaders”.
Bhanu Br - Corporate Finance Strategy and Plan Director
“The new SAP Analytics Cloud strategic planning solution provides an
intuitive and accessible interface that enables senior executives at
Accenture to easily create and explore simulation scenarios, driving
enterprise-wide adoption and reinforcing a data-driven culture across
the organization.”
Eli Lambert– Managing Director, Global IT – Finance, Spend and SAP
Platforms, Accenture
"In a context of increasing demand variability and continuous iteration,
this new digital asset provides a disciplined and stable framework to
manage complexity while maintaining strategic alignment."
Roberto Lombas - Finance Platforms Analytics and AI Lead
5© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
INNOVATIVE USE OF SAP TECHNOLOGY
WHY SAP
• Enterprise-grade multi-year scenario modeling built on SAP Analytics Cloud,
extending SAP Analytics Cloud from planning to strategic decision
simulation.
• Driver-based planning models powered by SAP Datasphere, delivering
standardized, reusable data products within SAP Business Data Cloud.
• Unified planning foundation integrating SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP BW, and
Google Cloud data, eliminating silos and ensuring consistent semantics.
• Natural-language insights with SAP Analytics Cloud just ask feature, enabling
executives to explore scenarios without technical complexity.
• AI-ready architecture with SAP Analytics Cloud with Compass accelerator on
the roadmap, positioning the platform for predictive and
recommendation-driven planning.
Accenture is a more than 20-year customer of SAP, reflecting a uniquely
strong partnership. Our financial core runs on SAP, making it the natural
foundation for analytics and enterprise-grade GenAI.
SAP’s native integration across transactional systems, analytics, planning and
AI enabled us to simplify our landscape, unify semantics and safely deploy
intelligent automation on top of governed financial data.
“SAP Analytics Cloud platform was implemented for top-down corporate
scenario planning for V&A to move away from a complex set of
interconnected excel workbooks. This helps us make smarter strategic
decisions while ensuring accuracy and real-time access of the scenario
modelling to the senior leaders”.
Bhanu Br - Corporate Finance Strategy and Plan Director
“The new SAP Analytics Cloud strategic planning solution provides an
intuitive and accessible interface that enables senior executives at
Accenture to easily create and explore simulation scenarios, driving
enterprise-wide adoption and reinforcing a data-driven culture across
the organization.”
Eli Lambert– Managing Director, Global IT – Finance, Spend and SAP
Platforms, Accenture
"In a context of increasing demand variability and continuous iteration,
this new digital asset provides a disciplined and stable framework to
manage complexity while maintaining strategic alignment."
Roberto Lombas - Finance Platforms Analytics and AI Lead
5© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
Benefits and outcomes
BUSINESS AND/OR SOCIETY IT
We transformed enterprise planning from a slow, fragmented exercise into a source of foresight—
empowering leaders to explore futures, align faster, and act with confidence in an uncertain world.
• Decisions in hours, not weeks — multi-year scenarios answered
at leadership speed.
• One enterprise story — Finance, Sales, and HR aligned on
shared drivers, metrics, and definitions.
• Explainable strategy — a transparent P&L driver chain makes
assumptions traceable and defensible.
• Higher confidence forecasts — standardized relationships
reduce ad-hoc judgment and improve trust in results.
• Scalable planning capability — reusable modular models replace
bespoke spreadsheets and key-person dependency.
• Simplified planning architecture — shift from Excel sprawl to a
governed, platform-based model ecosystem.
• Reusable, standardized models — clear categories and defined
inputs/outputs reduce duplication and maintenance.
• SAP-native planning at scale — SAP Analytics Cloud planning models,
versions, and distributions enable controlled simulations.
• Connected data foundation — SAP + cloud sources integrated
via SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Datasphere data products.
• AI-ready by design — governance, relationships, and structure
set the stage for advanced analytics and GenAI agents.
6© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC
BUSINESS AND/OR SOCIETY IT
We transformed enterprise planning from a slow, fragmented exercise into a source of foresight—
empowering leaders to explore futures, align faster, and act with confidence in an uncertain world.
• Decisions in hours, not weeks — multi-year scenarios answered
at leadership speed.
• One enterprise story — Finance, Sales, and HR aligned on
shared drivers, metrics, and definitions.
• Explainable strategy — a transparent P&L driver chain makes
assumptions traceable and defensible.
• Higher confidence forecasts — standardized relationships
reduce ad-hoc judgment and improve trust in results.
• Scalable planning capability — reusable modular models replace
bespoke spreadsheets and key-person dependency.
• Simplified planning architecture — shift from Excel sprawl to a
governed, platform-based model ecosystem.
• Reusable, standardized models — clear categories and defined
inputs/outputs reduce duplication and maintenance.
• SAP-native planning at scale — SAP Analytics Cloud planning models,
versions, and distributions enable controlled simulations.
• Connected data foundation — SAP + cloud sources integrated
via SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Datasphere data products.
• AI-ready by design — governance, relationships, and structure
set the stage for advanced analytics and GenAI agents.
6© 2026 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved | PUBLIC