Resetting the Vena Narrative
Where We Are, What Comes Next, and Why It Matters
Hi everyone,
Over the past few months, we’ve heard a lot of feedback about Vena, both through the user survey and through many direct conversations. Thank you to everyone who shared their experience. It’s clear that while we’ve made meaningful progress, we have not done enough to clearly explain what Vena is solving right now, what is still to come, and how we are phasing the rollout across the business.
This message is here to reset expectations, explain the reasoning behind our phased delivery plan, and give full transparency into what is being worked on next.
Vena was introduced to solve a core business problem. We lacked a single, consistent way of planning across markets, teams, and cost centers. Forecasts were stored in disconnected trackers, structured differently by each team, and manually managed by Finance. Consolidation was extremely time-consuming and largely invisible to most contributors. While the end result often delivered aligned and confident reporting, the process behind it was unsustainable. As Colart shifts focus toward growth, we need to reposition Finance processes to ensure time is spent on value-adding analysis rather than manual coordination.
Aligning with Colart’s re-focus for growth objective we need reposition Finance processes to ensure value-add is accommodated. The first phase of the Vena rollout focused specifically on solving that issue. It gave us a structured and governed input process, connected to our key systems, and supported data control and auditability. It created one version of the truth and removed hours of work across Finance.
That part of Vena is working. But we also know that for many of you, especially outside of Finance, Vena may not yet feel like it’s delivering the value you expected. And in some cases, it has made things feel more difficult, but that’s partly by design, as the added structure is what enables efficiencies in areas that were previously far more manual and time-consuming.
What We Heard and What We’re Doing About It
- System Performance and Template Flexibility
You told us Vena can feel slow, and some templates feel too locked down or overly rigid. Many contributors prefer their own trackers because they feel easier to use.
What we’re doing:
Vena relies on a large volume of structured data to create validation rules and enable integration with M3 and AARO. This was previously performed by Finance behind the scenes off line and took significant time (much more time than the Vena data refresh takes). This introduces some delay compared to a personal Excel file, but it enables control and standardization (all the good things we need it to do, quicker than any person can do manually). That said, we’ve been working with our Vena partner to identify ways to reduce performance issues. We’ve already made improvements and will continue to refine how data is handled behind the scenes. We’re also reviewing where flexibility can be introduced without breaking the structure that supports data accuracy.
- Training and Support
You asked for better training, more examples of best practices, and guidance on how to use the tool confidently.
What we’re doing:
We’re changing how we approach enablement. Instead of only training key leads, we are planning deeper and more hands-on workshops, including one we just completed with the Liquitex and North America Marketing teams. This was positively received with participants recognising;
- How preparing and evaluating actuals, a process that previously took days and required Finance and Business support, can now be completed in minutes within a single system, largely independently
- Increased confidence using Vena, recognizing both its business value and the improvements it brings to Finance processes
- Greater flexibility and transparency in planning, especially the ability to iterate forecasts and maintain a “latest view” in the system:
“That’s actually one of the main benefits of us having a program like this” - Improved efficiency when re-forecasting or updating assumptions
- Appreciation for the hands-on, collaborative format of the session, focused on fixing what’s not working for users
- The ability to provide feedback in real time, address issues directly, and shape new reports and outputs based on actual needs
- Awareness of key features like transaction drill-downs, audit tracking (drill saves), and scratchpads for notes and collaboration
These workshops will focus on how teams are actually using the tool, what’s not working, and how to fix it. We will continue to run these workshops across other teams and regions before expanding Vena to new business units.
- A Gap in Expectations
Many people expected Vena to solve broader problems like brand-level planning, reporting, and insights. But so far, the improvements have mostly helped Finance.
What we’re doing:
That expectation was fair, and it’s on us for not being clearer about what each phase of Vena would deliver. The long-term vision has always been broader. But we had to start with the foundation. By solving the input and consolidation problems first, we’ve built the structure needed to support better reporting, insight, and contributor experience. That next phase is what we’re now preparing to deliver, supported by the training workshops outlined above.
Implementation Recap: What We’ve Done So Far
- Launched Vena for Finance-driven forecasting in the UK, US, and CIHL
- Standardized input templates across revenue, cost centers expenses, A&P , and workforce planning
- Integrated Vena with M3 and AARO for aligned data flow
- Eliminated manual consolidation and versioning work for Finance
- Identified performance and user experience issues that are now being addressed
What Comes Next
We are now shifting our focus to the next set of priorities.
- Reporting and Insight
We are building new reporting experiences based on what users want to see, not just what Finance needs to consolidate. This means designing reports and dashboards that help you answer real business questions. We have already started this work and will roll out updates focused on your specific reporting needs. - Contributor Experience
We will continue to review and improve the usability of templates. Some simplifications are already underway. Future templates will better balance structure with flexibility in mind when possible, and we will revisit controls that feel unnecessarily limiting. - Expansion to Other Regions and Functions
We will not expand Vena to new teams until we are confident that the current experience works. Once we resolve key issues, we will extend Vena to commercial teams across Europe, then manufacturing, and eventually other business units.
Immediate Next Steps
To ensure we address current pain points before moving forward, we are launching a new round of small-group workshop sessions. These sessions will guide users step by step through the existing templates and how they work. They are fully collaborative, with space for users to ask questions, flag problems, and identify areas of confusion. If something can be clarified or fixed in the moment, we will do so. If not, we will take the feedback away and build a plan to address it.
The second half of each session will focus on reporting. We want to deeply understand what reports, dashboards, and outputs you need from the system to support the full planning lifecycle, from initial input through to tracking variances or maintaining current expectations. We will ask you what questions you want to be able to answer and collaborate with you to design outputs that meet those needs.
Final Thought
This is a long-term investment. We are building a system that will support how we plan, forecast, and analyze across all of Colart. That takes time and iteration. We know that some of the early experience has been frustrating. But we are listening, we are acting, and we are committed to making it work for everyone.
Thank you for your feedback and patience. If you have ideas, concerns, or want to be part of a deeper workshop in your area, let us know. We want this to work for you.
You can also suggest new features, ideas, or improvements at any time through the Vena backlog submission form here: https://workflows.colart.com/workflow/tech-add-to-backlog/
Vena Steering Committee
(Steph, Ben, Jonathan, Bernardo, Sanjay)