CBRE is the world’s largest commercial real estate and investment services firm, operating in more than 100 countries and serving clients across property, facilities, and project management. With such a vast global footprint, CBRE’s finance teams manage a highly complex planning environment, from regional revenue forecasting to global cost allocation.
BUSINESS CHALLENGES
CBRE’s finance organisation faced significant friction: disparate spreadsheets, inconsistent data sources and a slow consolidation process. These issues inhibited global planning agility, prevented fast “what-if” scenario analysis, and reduced transparency and responsiveness in financial planning.
They also needed to scale planning across multiple geographies while maintaining local relevance — a balance many companies struggle with.
SOLUTION
CBRE, with Profit& as Anaplan partner, adopted a structured transformation:
First, they cleaned and structured their data, assigning clear ownership across regions.
They built a modular Anaplan model enabling global consistency while allowing local input and flexibility.
They empowered finance teams with real-time “what-if” scenario planning capabilities to handle volatility (tariffs, supply-chain disruption, currency swings) via Anaplan.
They invested in change management: local champions, training and user adoption to embed the model in everyday planning.
BENEFITS
CBRE now benefits from faster, more agile planning thanks to scenario-capable models, moving beyond static budgeting
Improved global-local planning balance with consistent frameworks that still allow regional nuance.
Enhanced data quality and ownership, which underpins all planning accuracy and supports future planning-areas expansion (e.g., workforce/investing).
Stronger finance-to-strategy alignment: the organisation is laying the groundwork to expand beyond FP&A into enterprise planning.
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