How Manufacturing Companies Can Leverage FP&A to Defend Against Economic Uncertainty

External forces are increasingly complicating factors across many industries, particularly manufacturing. Between tariffs, inflation, supply chain issues, and producer price indices, companies are seeing their revenue and margins threatened in new and unprecedented ways.

Amid the changes, companies need to implement financial planning and analytics (processes) that allow them to better prepare for uncertainty and mitigate risk. Yet this is much easier said than done. SAPinsider’s SAP S/4HANA Finance benchmark research report found that FP&A was the biggest pain point companies have when it comes to financial areas or processes, with 44% of companies indicating it was a major struggle.

Implementing Successful FP&A Practices

To help companies ensure their FP&A processes are seamless and successful, CCH Tagetik is hosting a two-part webinar aimed at helping manufacturing teams to pivot quickly to changes while driving meaningful growth. Attendees will learn how to leverage an AI-powered, predictive solutions that simulate the effects of macroeconomic changes and models the potential revenue impact.

The first webinar will have expert insights to help you build a strategy for growth, best practices for leveraging technology to mitigate risk, and frameworks for developing your 3- to 5-year manufacturing plan.

Attendees will learn how successful FP&A strategies need a combination of the right technologies and processes to maximize accuracy and efficiency for their manufacturing processes. For instance, businesses need high performance reporting and analytics that offer real-time data insights.

Merging Technology and Practices

Finance leaders in manufacturing organizations need accurate financial projections in dynamic environments. This requires the ability to transform large data sets into strategic insights and streamline access to variance analysis. Companies can only achieve these goals if they select the right partner.

For SAP organizations, CCH Tagetik offers the only non-SAP solution that natively ensures continuity with existing SAP strategies. It has pre-built connectors that simplify integrations for key planning modules.

In 2025, companies are growing more comfortable infusing AI into essential processes like FP&A. CCH Tagetik’s webinar will demonstrate to attendees how to leverage an AI-powered, predictive solution that seamlessly simulates the effects of macro factor changes and shows the impact on revenue.

SAP organizations have demonstrated a hunger for AI to be infused into their FP&A processes, as 45% of companies would be willing to switch their finance and accounting system if it the new one contained an AI-powered FP&A offering and capabilities.

This may be why many manufacturing organizations are turning to CCH Tagetik and its AI-powered solutions that allow users to model the impact of macroeconomic changes on their revenue. This allows companies to be prepared for whatever comes, setting themselves up in an advantageous position to react to external forces.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Stay on the front foot. In 2025, the only certainty is uncertainty. Manufacturing organizations may be especially affected by changes in pricing, tariffs, and inflation. These businesses cannot say for certain what changes are coming, but they can model each of these scenarios and understand how best to respond if they have the right FP&A tools. Companies like CCH Tagetik can help SAP organizations understand the importance of resiliency in the face of change.

AI and FP&A go hand in hand. While AI capabilities are being infused throughout numerous capabilities, advanced planning may be one of the most impactful. Using AI to better understand potential future scenarios and ensure companies can react if they end up playing out is a crucial capability for modern enterprises.

Risk mitigation must be a priority. Businesses often focus on growth and expansion as their top-line goal. However, failing to mitigate risk may be a more impactful oversight. Companies that do not adequately account for inflation and other macroeconomic indicators can damage their revenue and fall behind their competition. Finding a partner like CCH Tagetik is an essential process in identifying risk areas and ensuring resilience.