Mercado Libre leaves spreadsheets behind with connected planning
Business planning is facing growing pressure as organizations operate in more markets and must integrate financial, commercial and operational variables.
The growth of markets, teams and information sources is increasing the complexity of business planning processes, in a context where organizations need to anticipate scenarios and make decisions more quickly.
That challenge led Mercado Libre, an e-commerce and digital financial services company operating in 18 countries, to evolve its planning processes through a new business model developed together with Keyrus and based on Anaplan technology.
A model to centralize planning.
The organization had processes supported by multiple spreadsheets, manual tasks and different sources of information, making it difficult to track the different planning iterations and consolidate a common view among the teams involved.
Through an agile methodology, the project made it possible to centralize commercial planning and connect financial, supply and demand planning teams on a common platform.
Different areas thus began working with a shared source of information, linking commercial plans to their financial impact.
The change helped strengthen collaboration, increase data visibility, track the different iterations of the process and compare scenarios with greater traceability.
Pressure on technology investments.
Beyond the technology implementation, the case unfolds in a context in which business planning is seeking to move toward models that connect strategy, finance and operations and make it possible to evaluate different scenarios before making decisions.
According to PwC’s 2026 Digital Trends in Operations Survey, 89% of the operations and supply chain leaders surveyed say their technology investments have not fully delivered the expected results. The obstacles identified include integration complexity, data quality and tool adoption.
For Keyrus, these factors show that the adoption of platforms must be accompanied by models that connect technology, data, processes and people around concrete business decisions.
“When an organization reaches Mercado Libre’s scale, planning is no longer just a financial exercise. Every commercial decision can have implications for demand, operations, resources and results. The true value lies in connecting these variables and enabling teams to analyze scenarios based on the same source of information before making a decision,” said Julio César Carlino, EPM Director at Keyrus.
The scope of business planning.
The scope of Enterprise Performance Management has also expanded to variables related to operational capacity, costs, demand and workforce, with the aim of anticipating how different decisions may impact the business.
For Latin American companies, this capability is developing in a context characterized by volatility, cost pressures and the need to do more with available resources.
The Mercado Libre case shows that connected planning can go beyond replacing spreadsheets or automating budgets by linking information, scenarios and business areas within the same planning process.
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