How Planr transformed Calligo's revenue performance
Planr assesses the health of deals in our pipeline and analyses whether they will be sufficient to reach sales targets. Our sales strategy is now based on intelligent data and focused on the types of deals we need to ensure revenue performance. I credit this with a 3% increase in revenue performance.
CEOs typically spend a lot of time processing presentations, reports, opinions and data from multiple sources. Now I have an objective view of the impact of decisions taken across the business on sales and revenue performance and its future trajectory.
Calligo is a global leader in transformative data services. Calligo supports organisations in the creative and continuously safe use of their data to define their strategies and execute accurately, serving customers around the world from key locations in the UK, Ireland, Luxemburg, Jersey, Guernsey, US and Canada.
CEO Julian Box has founded and exited multiple award-winning technology firms in the past 25 years. Julian saw the opportunity for Corporate Performance Management tool Planr to give a tighter financial grip to his C-Suite and their stakeholders in investment firm Investcorp Technology Partners. Planr constantly churns business data, interpreting it and applying advanced logic.
Julian and his team can now accurately see Calligo’s future revenue performance and identify growth inhibitors before they impact results.
Calligo's early results with Planr
Our sales strategy now uses intelligent data to focus on the types of deals we need to ensure revenue performance.
I was always confident in our future revenue performance but that has increased tenfold.
I have gained 1 hour a day thanks to the financial grip Planr gives me at a glance.
Julian's goals
Calligo has a global track record in innovating to create value, namely improving organizations’ productivity & profitability by making their data more available, secure and safe.
The goal is to grow Calligo’s revenues and profitability by 25% and further strengthen its position as a leader in managed services. Key to this growth is a comprehensive M&A strategy which saw Calligo complete its 10th acquisition in February 2021.
I was working with data from 5 different systems, and none were giving me the clarity and AI insights provided by Planr.
Planr presented the opportunity to have an objective view of our future revenue performance, and to achieve predictable growth by looking at multiple factors including pipeline health, revenue and sales performance and sales team capacity.
The challenge
Visibility of future revenue performance
Calligo has a global track record in innovating to create value, namely improving organizations’ productivity & profitability by making their data more available, secure and safe. The goal is to grow Calligo’s revenues and profitability by 25% and further strengthen its position as a leader in managed services. Key to this growth is a comprehensive M&A strategy which saw Calligo complete its 10th acquisition in February 2021.
In working to meet targets, Julian and his team were facing a challenge around the visibility of future revenue performance within the business, and the level of insight it was producing.
Why Calligo chose Planr
Julian was looking for an objective and intelligent view of business data that was built specifically for him as CEO and his senior leaders. He needed a system that would tell him instantly whether today’s performance would get him tomorrow’s revenue and sales results.
"A fellow CEO uses Planr and recommended it. I hadn't seen anything like it before - it's exactly what I was looking for."
How Julian uses Planr
I describe Planr as an executive overview that I can drill down into. There are no more surprises. I have instant access to a clear, independent view of the business that was impossible to reach previously.
CEOs typically spend a lot of time processing presentations, reports, opinions and data from multiple sources. Now I have an objective view of the impact of decisions taken across the business on sales and revenue performance and its future trajectory.
I can see exactly what’s happening in sales, marketing, finance and resourcing. We can also build a reporting narrative around performance, to understand the impact of past and future decisions. Planr has become the key resource for bi-weekly updates with the CFO, CRO and Director of PMO, and board meetings.
The rapid deployment of Planr meant Julian and his team were using the application within days. It comes with pre-built models and visualisation layers and has a comprehensive depth of data that is sourced both internally and externally.
The power of Planr is how well it presents key information, exposes insights, and the depth of detail that’s accessible if needed.
The simplicity of the UI means any member of the C-Suite team can quickly customise views for our own needs. Calligo delivers value in diverse ways that are grouped into three service areas and Planr needed to reflect that. Planr is set up to show the metrics impacting each of these three areas, plus the main growth drivers of the business. For example, it shows all revenue figures in line with Calligo’s revenue recognition timelines.
The team in Planr were on hand for any questions while we got up and running. The data migration process was simple despite Calligo collating data from multiple CRM and finance systems as part of recent acquisitions. Paul in Planr led the way so the input required on our side was minimal.
We now have an agreed set of metrics that act as a shared language between departments. We can focus our time on high-impact data and decisions, rather than interrogating the data and its sources. We have already made strategic decisions based on Planr’s insights. For example one insight led us to recognise revenue earlier.
I had a high-degree of confidence in our strategy and revenue activities before Planr. However, since seeing our actual data interpreted in Planr, I have ten times more confidence in hitting revenue targets, and know where to intervene if issues arise. For the first time, I have the data accuracy to realistically scenario plan in case of new global economic events, or to accelerate performance for any reason, like company valuation.
I have ten times more confidence in hitting revenue targets, and know where and when to intervene if issues arise.
The results
Planr has shifted our behaviour in Calligo. It has been the basis for key improvements in how we plan, model, project, and report for revenue accuracy, forecasting, and assurance. The knock-on effect of these changes is informing our product, customer, and growth strategies.
The first 9 weeks with Planr: Julian's Top 6 Results
I now have a Revenue Assurance Number (RAN) that shows at any time how we are tracking against targets. The management team have a stronger financial grip and can model scenarios based on the RAN to identify and address inhibitors to growth for Calligo.
CEOs typically spend a lot of time processing presentations, reports, opinions and data from multiple sources. Now I have an objective view of the impact of decisions taken across the business on sales and revenue performance and its future trajectory.
I can see exactly what’s happening in sales, marketing, finance and resourcing. We can also build a reporting narrative around performance, to understand the impact of past and future decisions. Planr has become the key resource for bi-weekly updates with the CFO, CRO and Director of PMO, and board meetings.
The accuracy of Planr’s modelling has already exposed tangible scenarios that would increase Calligo’s EBIDTA and revenues.
Planr assesses the health of deals in our pipeline and analyses whether they will be sufficient to reach sales targets. Our sales strategy is now based on intelligent data and focused on the types of deals we need to ensure revenue performance. I credit this with a 3% increase in revenue performance.
Calligo operates multiple revenue streams and most are recurring, but not all. Planr highlighted the opportunity to recognise non-recurring revenue sooner, which improved cash flow and has given us greater accuracy and visibility when planning future periods.
We have seen a big impact within the sales and marketing team since introducing Planr, namely a 10% decrease in time taken to close new business. We can now connect leads to booking, revenue and cash, and understand what is and isn’t working.
I estimate I have been able to repurpose 1 hour a day, now that Planr gives me an instant, always-on view of our revenue and cash performance.”
Looking ahead
I feel there is no limit to what Planr can support us to achieve. As we refine our processes and grow our data, Planr is delivering even more value, enabling us to make decisions with greater speed and confidence. It’s supporting us to streamline other systems so we can continue to optimise team capacity and revenue performance.
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Planr is enabling Calligo to grow predictably, to optimise sales and marketing capacity and to deliver revenue and sales assurance, profitability and cash flow. Get in touch to learn how we can do the same for you.
