Emerging digital media and audio choices are increasing competition in the $14.7 billion radio broadcasting market. More than ever, companies need to diversify and modernize operations—or they risk going off the air. Cumulus Media Inc. has navigated this evolving industry landscape by expanding and incorporating new business channels. Further, Cumulus has implemented Workday Adaptive Planning to bolster the company’s competitive advantage. Not only has the system automated budgeting and reporting processes, it’s also improved executive decision-making by providing easy access to accurate, real-time information.
It’s singularly changed the culture and focus of our company. No other tool that we have ever rolled out, financial or otherwise, has ever received this level of universal adoption across our company.
Senior Vice President, Treasurer & Chief Financial Officer
Challenges.
- Increasing competition and a need to improve financial decision-making for executive leaders, sales managers, and business managers in 90 media markets
- Inability to do forecasting across all media markets in a timely manner
- Cumbersome financial reporting, lack of effective sales modeling
Results.
- Automating budgeting and reporting to quickly analyze data and obtain an accurate view of the business
- Weekly forecasting delivers visibility of business performance earlier each quarter and reveals variances to plans to help guide programming investments
- In-depth sales modeling provides instant visibility into metrics and trends to optimally set client advertising goals and price new advertising products
Ease of use and real-time analysis help decentralize rapid planning.
According to Anthony Mascitti, vice president of business systems at Cumulus, finance has always played a critical role, with dollars attributed to everything on the airwaves. Now, Workday Adaptive Planning provides the team self-service reporting and the ability to quickly generate data for improved decision-making for business managers in each of Cumulus' 90 media markets. Users can also take advantage of new sales modeling with instant, real-time visibility into metrics and trends. And, with cloud-based anytime, anywhere access, collaboration has improved between business managers, marketing managers, and senior managers, while IT infrastructure costs have been reduced significantly.
"Workday Adaptive Planning has been quickly adopted across the organization since it is so easy to input and analyze data in real time," said Mascitti. "Knowledge is power. It's all about going after business results."
It hasn't always been easy to get clear visibility into business performance. Financial reporting for media markets used to be very cumbersome, and it was virtually impossible to do forecasting in a timely manner. Mascitti knew that with the industry changing so quickly, Cumulus needed to decentralize and give media market business managers more financial control and responsibility. But these goals could only be achieved by streamlining financial operations.
Data transparency and automation changes company culture.
Workday Adaptive Planning integrates transactional and planning data into one place and provides a powerful, cloud-based solution for data-driven financial planning, forecasting, and sales analysis across the entire organization. Leaders have more trust in real-time data to drive more profitable decisions.
The first order of business with Workday Adaptive Planning was to automate the annual budgeting process. Now, Cumulus business managers start by rolling the prior year forward to set up baseline budgets, and then they simply input budget data. It is easy to review budget data and collaborate with senior management in real time to lock in budgets. Next, Cumulus instituted self-service reporting so users across the organization can create and run reports on demand, so it takes just seconds—not days—to access and analyze business performance data relevant to each manager.
On the forecasting front, business market managers have initiated "Flash Forecasting Fridays." Managers in each of Cumulus' 90 media markets update their forecasts for revenue and expenses on Friday. On the following Monday, senior leaders meet to review the overall revenue forecast and expense plan across all the market segments. According to Mascitti, executives now can better assess where they are going to finish for the quarter with an understanding of variances to plans to help guide decisions on programming investments.
The company is also making extensive use of new in-depth sales modeling. Using Workday Adaptive Planning, sales managers utilize a sales model based on sellers, advertising products, and media programming. The model provides instant visibility into year-over-year metrics and trends over time, such as client advertising spend analysis, with drill down visibility into industry segments, such as automotive or fast food, and whether campaigns were local market or nationwide. This helps Cumulus' market owners optimally manage client advertising goals and new advertising products.
CFO J.P. Hannan is very pleased with a cultural shift across the company to more data-driven decision-making. "Workday Adaptive Planning was everything we envisioned to move our finance organization forward," he said. "Reporting tasks that once took days to complete now take seconds. Moreover, it's singularly changed the culture and focus of our company. No other tool that we have ever rolled out, financial or otherwise, has ever received this level of universal adoption across our company."
Our FP&A system from Workday Adaptive Planning has been quickly adopted across the organization since it is so easy to input and analyze data in real time. It’s all about going after business results.
Vice President, Business Systems