Alight Planning, developers of the first solution to make driver-based planning easy, today announced the immediate availability of a new methodology for quantifying the return-on-investment (ROI) of implementing a dedicated budgeting and planning solution.
“This industry needs an ROI calculator, something tangible that finance teams can use to measure the effectiveness of their planning systems,” said Rand Heer, Alight Planning’s CEO. “I outline a framework for getting a handle on the ROI in my article How Agile is your Planning which was featured in a recent issue of Strategic Finance Magazine.”
According to an audience of 100 finance professionals who attended Heer’s webinar “Measuring the ROI of Planning Software,” earlier this year, 73% of those purchasing planning software responded “Unsure” when asked about ROI.
Alight Planning’s ROI Calculator is aimed at helping organizations prioritize initiatives to improve planning. The calculator measures cost reductions associated with streamlining existing processes and the value of introducing advanced planning processes such as rolling forecasts, driver-based planning, and scenario analysis on-the-fly.
While saving time can contribute to ROI, companies reporting major ROI with Alight Planning implement planning protocols they would not attempt in spreadsheets. For example, Gary Kinman, Vice President of Finance and Analytics at SoftLayer, a cloud computing and storage provider, noted, “We now have the balance sheet and cash flow statements integrated right into our financial model, something we wouldn’t even try in our legacy planning process. When we make a change to revenues or expenses, the impact immediately flows through to the balance sheet and cash as well as an updated P&L.”
About Alight Planning
Alight Planning is a true driver-based financial planning and reporting software package that automates business modeling for more accurate strategic plans, revenue projections, budgets and rolling forecasts. Its unique architectures and intuitive interfaces provide enable finance teams to rapidly build any driver-based planning model, while delivering traditional budgeting and planning structures such as line item detail, integrated financial statements and multiple-user security. Rapidly deployed and IT-independent, Alight Planning has been embraced by organizations of all sizes. Alight has over 250 customers including Kaiser Permanente, British Telecommunications, Pittsburgh Mercy Health, the Swan and Dolphin Resort at Disney World and Verizon Wireless. For more information about Alight Planning, visit http://www.AlightPlanning.com or call 800-960-7717.