From Customer to Trusted Partner: How BE-terna's Farseer Journey Created a New Service Offering
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From Customer to Trusted Partner: How BE-terna's Farseer Journey Created a New Service Offering

7 min read

Financial planning is becoming increasingly complex. Organizations today need to react faster to market changes, make informed decisions based on reliable data, and collaborate across multiple business units. Yet many finance teams still rely on disconnected spreadsheets, manual consolidations, and time-consuming planning processes.

Modern planning platforms are helping companies move beyond traditional budgeting by enabling continuous forecasting, scenario modelling, and real-time collaboration. But choosing the right solution is only part of the journey, the real value comes from successful implementation and adoption.

At BE-terna, we experienced this transformation ourselves. Before offering Farseer to our customers, we implemented it internally to modernize our own financial planning processes. The experience not only transformed the way we work but also inspired us to build a dedicated consulting team that now helps organizations achieve the same results.

This article shares BE-terna's own experience with implementing Farseer and explains how that internal success evolved into a customer offering. We'll explore the planning challenges many organizations face, how modern planning software addresses them, and the business benefits companies can expect from moving beyond spreadsheet-based planning.

Our Challenge: Growing Beyond Spreadsheet Planning 

As BE-terna continued to grow internationally, so did the complexity of our planning and controlling processes. Traditional spreadsheet-based planning made collaboration difficult, version control increasingly challenging, and scenario planning both time-consuming and error-prone. Financial data was spread across multiple files, making it harder to maintain consistency and respond quickly to changing business conditions.

We needed a planning platform that would provide: 

  • One source of truth for financial planning  
  • Faster budgeting and forecasting  
  • Real-time scenario modelling  
  • Better collaboration across departments  
  • Improved reporting and transparency   

Rather than recommending a solution we hadn't experienced ourselves, we decided to become our own first customer.

Common Problems Companies Face 

The challenges we encountered are common across many growing organizations. 

Finance teams often struggle with: 

  • Multiple spreadsheet versions creating uncertainty  
  • Manual consolidation of budgets and forecasts  
  • Time-consuming reporting cycles  
  • Limited collaboration between finance and business departments  
  • Difficulty modelling different business scenarios  
  • Delayed decision-making because data isn't available in real time   

As businesses expand, these challenges only become more pronounced, making planning less efficient and reducing confidence in financial information.  

Ivan Papak, VP of Professional Services and Delivery at Farseer:

"BE-terna's finance team had clear objectives and a strong understanding of their planning processes, which made the implementation highly collaborative. Together, we replaced spreadsheet-based planning with a centralized platform that provides greater transparency, faster reporting, and more reliable decision-making."  

Implementing Farseer Internally 

Working closely with the Farseer team, we implemented the platform across our financial planning and controlling processes. 

The project enabled us to: 

  • Standardize budgeting across business units  
  • Reduce manual Excel work  
  • Accelerate management reporting  
  • Enable flexible scenario planning for business decisions   

Most importantly, our finance teams gained more time to focus on analysis and strategic decision-making instead of manually collecting and validating data. 

Miroslav Marković, Group Controlling Process Manager:

"Farseer transformed the way we approached planning. Instead of spending time collecting and validating data, our team can now focus on understanding the business and supporting better decisions." 
Our successful implementation gave us more than improved internal processes, it gave us confidence to help other organizations modernize their planning as well. Today, BE-terna supports customers throughout the complete Farseer journey, from business process assessment and planning model design to implementation, integration, user enablement, and continuous optimization.

FP&A Data Integration: The Decisions That Make or Break Your Farseer Implementation

Want to learn what makes a Farseer implementation successful?

Implementing the right planning platform is only part of the journey. A successful project also depends on data quality, integration architecture, ETL design, and ownership across systems.

Read our guide

Main Benefits

Organizations implementing Farseer commonly experience significant improvements across their planning processes. 

  • Faster planning cycles: Automation and centralized planning reduce the time required for budgeting and forecasting.
  • Better collaboration: Finance and business teams work together within one shared environment instead of exchanging countless spreadsheets.
  • More accurate forecasts: Real-time data and scenario planning improve forecasting quality and support better business decisions.
  • Increased transparency: A single source of truth increases confidence in financial information across departments.
  • Scalability: Planning models grow together with the business without adding manual effort.  

As customer demand increased, BE-terna expanded its expertise and established a dedicated Farseer team focused on helping organizations successfully modernize financial planning. 

Dejan Hadžiosmanović, Business Unit Manager Farseer:

"Our own implementation gave us an invaluable experience. We know what works because we've been through the same journey ourselves. That allows us to guide customers with confidence and practical insight." 

From Internal Success to Customer Success

Our own implementation became the foundation for a new consulting practice.

Today, BE-terna supports organizations across multiple industries in replacing spreadsheet-driven planning with collaborative, data-driven financial planning. Digital transformation in finance is about more than replacing spreadsheets - it's about enabling faster, more informed business decisions.

By implementing Farseer within our own organization, BE-terna experienced these benefits firsthand. That experience now enables us to support customers with practical expertise, proven methodologies, and a dedicated team committed to delivering successful planning transformations. If your organization is looking to modernize financial planning, forecasting, or budgeting, our Farseer experts are ready to help you take the next step.

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About the Author

Dragana Krčum Klepić

Regional Business Development Manager
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