Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe improves strategic planning with Valsight

Case Studies

Incoming scenario train on platform Valsight

Driver-based planning process at Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe

The challenge

Complex data, lacking transparency

The Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe (LVB) organise the local public transport in the city of Leipzig. The effects of digitalization not only affect the areas of customer service or sales technology, but also the finance department. With its strategic orientation, LVB wants to respond to the change in mobility and the increasing mobility needs of people. With a high level of added value, transport companies are exposed to complex data interrelationships (including different fields of activity and vehicle types). This complexity makes the simulation of scenarios difficult, as the effects of measures such as the purchase of electric buses cannot be illustrated transparently. However, it was also not possible to enter assumptions, for example regarding the development of passenger volume, into a transparent system, which is why there was no deep understanding of cause-effect relationships in the company.

Particularly in the case of necessary changes in strategic planning, which extends over a time horizon of up to 30 years due to the nature of the plant, this procedure does not provide a flexible basis. Previous approaches to consistently integrate the driver logic into the business structures using Excel files resulted in an enormous amount of work.

The timetable

Value driver based simulations of scenarios

By using the Valsight cloud solution as financial planning software for value driver-based simulations, Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe created a comprehensible basis for decision-making within the company.

Due to the software’s user-friendly interface, end users were able to independently create individual financial models and value driver trees and connect them to various internal and external data sources.

Being rested on basic data, new scenarios can thus be created within seconds. Assumptions about the development of value drivers can be entered flexibly into the various scenarios, enabling LVB to simulate different financial scenarios. This approach supports the traceability of measures across all organisation levels and enables fact-based discussions in management meetings.

As a user, I can quickly create driver trees in numerous dimensions and adjust them as needed to enable a targeted planning process. Thanks to Valsight, we benefit from greater transparency about the cause-and-effect chains of factors affecting our planning, ensuring optimal resource allocation.

Uwe Pohlers

Head of Finance and Controlling, Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe (LVB) GmbH

The changeover

Increased efficiency in strategic planning

By implementing the value-driver-based planning approach, the LVB controlling department were able to make strategic planning more efficient by increasing both the transparency of the planning process and the speed of planning.

Due to the uniform driver logic throughout the company, there is no further need to discuss the calculation logic, as the results of the methodology are no longer questioned.

In addition, the integrated visualisations enable discussions directly along the tool. Despite the high complexity and an enormous number of different drivers, the project team was able to implement the solution independently in only two months.