Case Study: Specialized Bicycles achieves faster, error-free global workforce planning with Planful

Specialized Rides a Workforce Strategy Across the Globe With Planful

Specialized Bicycle Components, a global bike maker with about 1,800 employees across nearly 30 countries and more than 20 currencies, needed to scale headcount planning amid pandemic-driven demand and workforce uncertainty. Complex local rules (62 employee types), disparate spreadsheets, and the need to integrate Workday data left FP&A teams spending weeks on error-prone manual rollups and gave leadership limited visibility.

Specialized extended its existing Planful deployment to workforce planning with a phased rollout starting in the U.S. and expanding across Asia and Europe, completing a two-month deployment to about 25 countries with a four-person team. The move eliminated roughly six weeks of manual work per planning cycle, removed spreadsheet- and currency-conversion errors, increased transparency, and freed FP&A to focus on higher-value activities with Planful as the single source of truth.

Specialized Bicycles

Barbara Schroeck

Finance Manager