Budgeting Software Journal

Budgeting and Forecasting Software News And Reviews

PROPHIX Software Announces PROPHIX Express

By Budgeting Software Journal

PROPHIX Software announced the release of PROPHIX Express. PROPHIX Express is a complete financial performance management package with powerful budgeting and planning capabilities, specifically designed for organizations looking to implement a robust solution in as little as three business days without sacrificing flexibility.

PROPHIX Express complements PROPHIX Software’s existing suite of financial performance management solutions, including PROPHIX for SQL Serverâ„¢ and PROPHIX Enterprise. Providing budgeting, planning, analysis and reporting capabilities integrated in a single solution, PROPHIX Express also includes a pre-built dashboard and scorecards, financial reports and statements such as cash flow, balance sheet, headcount and profit and loss statements, as well as a personnel planning module and unique Delta Analysis tool, without forgoing ease of use. [Read more…]

Alight Planning Announces True Driver-Based Financial Planning Software

By Budgeting Software Journal

Alight Planning announced today the industry’s most robust driver-based financial planning and analysis software with a multitude of innovative features including a units, rates and amounts architecture, automated sensitivity analysis, goal seek operations and intuitive modeling with object-based linking. Aimed at mid-sized businesses through Fortune 1,000 divisions, Alight Planning automates complex business planning so users can move beyond the limitations of Microsoft Excel for more accurate strategic plans, revenue projections, budgets and rolling forecasts.

“Financial staff spends too much time struggling with the limitations of spreadsheets and not enough time doing real planning and analysis,” said Rand Heer, president of Alight Planning. “Alight Planning gives finance and line manager’s insights into the cause-and-effect relationships of the drivers of the business. This empowers them with better information to more quickly and accurately react to the market.”

Alight Planning offers a complete set of collaborative budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting capabilities with a unique architecture created from the ground up. Alight Planning’s flexible modeling interfaces with object-based linking lets finance staff build more accurate and auditable driver-based financial plans than with today’s spreadsheets. Automated algorithms help finance staff and line managers analyze data with on-the-spot insights into the important factors driving business results. Alight Planning also allows for easy importing and modeling of actuals data from outside financial and operational databases. This enables planners to quickly identify trends and incorporate them into rolling forecasts for more enhanced real-time decision making.

“Driver-based planning is now widely accepted as a best practice for developing any type of plan with financial projections such as strategic plans, budgets and forecasts,” said Robert Kugel, senior vice president and research director at Ventana Research. “By more closely relating planning processes and performance analysis to underlying operations, line managers and the finance organization can gain significantly more actionable insights into the business, which result in better decisions and allocation of resources. Alight Planning’s robust planning capabilities distinguish it from the pack and will help companies cut costs, shorten decision cycles and increase their ability to adapt to changing conditions.”

Alight Planning’s innovative architectures provide a host of differentiating features
including:
• Intuitive modeling tools with object-based linking that cut modeling time by as much as 50 percent compared to spreadsheets or other planning software packages.
• Easy importing and modeling of actuals data from any database at any level of detail for constructing variance reports and rolling forecasts.
• Automated causal analysis that identifies underlying unit volume and rate impacts that cause variances in financial plans.
• System-generated audit trails for tracing of complex activity driver relationships.
• Automated tools, such as sensitivity analysis and goal seek, that let finance staff instantly identify the most important assumptions that drive financial performance.
• Up to 100 unique scenarios within a single plan file for tracking and manipulating budget versions, rolling forecasts and alternate strategies.

Alight Planning customers are building more complex driver-based financial plans in a fraction of the time it would take in spreadsheets.
“We needed a multi-user solution that could be tailored to our needs with quick and easy deployment – spreadsheets just weren’t working for us,” said Larry Van Kuran, senior consultant, Pharmacy Strategy and Operations for Kaiser Permanente. “We are now using Alight Planning software to plan and monitor a large capital investment. Not only did Alight Planning significantly reduce the amount of time to get a model up and
running, but we were able to do complex driver-based operations and scenario analyses that we simply couldn’t do in spreadsheets.”

More Than 40 Healthcare Providers Implement Lawson Software in Past Year

By Budgeting Software Journal

More than 40 healthcare providers implemented applications from Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) in the company’s fiscal year 2007, which ended May 31. The Lawson applications are designed to help these customers simplify the business of healthcare via more accurate budgeting, enhanced reporting, and automated workforce management, supply chain and financial processes.

Healthcare organizations completing Lawson deployments in the past year include Altoona Regional Health System, Baptist Health, Bassett Healthcare, Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services, Inc., Carle Clinic, Carle Foundation Hospital, Catholic Health Initiatives, Catholic Healthcare West, Coffee Health Group, Gwinnett Hospital System, McLeod Health, Norton Healthcare, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Presbyterian Homes and Services, Providence Health & Services, Sherman Health, Sisters of Mercy Health System, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, UCLA Health System and University Medical Center at Princeton among others. [Read more…]

Insurance Company Unitrin Direct Selects Adaptive Planning

By Budgeting Software Journal

Unitrin Direct has selected Adaptive Planning on-demand software to optimize their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes. A leading direct auto insurance provider, Unitrin Direct is using Adaptive Planning to streamline its financial planning, resulting in lower operating costs, enhanced collaboration, and improved decision making.

Offering auto insurance to customers in 25 states, Unitrin Direct is a rapidly-growing group of companies that sells directly to consumers through the Web and its call center. As its business continued to expand, Unitrin Direct found that it needed a comprehensive budgeting, forecasting, and reporting solution that could be quickly and easily deployed. The company’s spreadsheet-based processes took too long, lacked flexibility, and were challenging to maintain. Executives and managers needed a better foundation for managing a dynamic, collaborative planning process. [Read more…]

Making Your Business Budget Work

By Budgeting Software Journal

If you have developed a budget for your business, the only way to make it work is to follow it!

Your business budget should not be something you fear or dread. It’s merely a set of guidelines for your saving and spending habits. Below, are some typical issues that arise with many established budgets, along with some solutions that will assist you in staying within your budgetary guidelines. [Read more…]