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Data
IBP is a process, but data is its fuel. Without reliable data, even the best-designed planning process will produce plans nobody trusts — and plans nobody trusts don't get executed.
This section covers the data foundations that make Integrated Business Planning work: what data you need, when you need it, and how to structure the master data that underpins every planning decision.
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What's covered
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Who should read this
- IT partners building data feeds for the planning process
- Data stewards responsible for master data quality
- IBP process owners setting up a new implementation or diagnosing data-related trust issues
- Demand and supply planners who need to understand where their inputs come from
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The key message
You don't need perfect data to start IBP. Many successful implementations launch with spreadsheets and imperfect history. But you do need to understand what you have, what's missing, and what you're working toward. Start with the essentials, build a data roadmap, and improve iteratively — the same way you'd mature the IBP process itself.
See Planning Horizons for how data granularity connects to planning timeframes, and KPIs & Metrics for the measures that depend on clean data.
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First 30 Days Quick Start
- Identify owners for demand, product, customer, supplier, and cost data
- Confirm product and customer hierarchy versions for planning
- Load and validate 12-24 months of demand history
- Establish monthly data refresh calendar aligned to IBP cadence
- Log top 10 data quality issues and assign remediation owners
- Define base planning units (volume, value, capacity) and conversion rules
If these six items are complete, you are ready to run an initial IBP cycle and improve quality iteratively.