Integration promises initial deployments of Solverâs cloud planning and reporting for Dynamics 365 in as little as one day to drive quick-time-to-value for Microsoft customers
LOS ANGELES, Calif. â January 26, 2021 â Solver, Inc. today announced a strategic cooperation agreement with Microsoft to deliver advanced cloud-based planning and reporting from Microsoft Azure to Dynamics 365 customers world-wide. One of the unique benefits of the agreement is QuickStart, a rapid deployment technology that Solver has designed as an add-on for Microsoftâs Dynamics 365 Finance. This enables Dynamics 365 customers to get up and running with pre-built, fully functioning forecasts, budgets and reports in as little as one day. In a time of economic uncertainties, this quick-time-to-value will also help Microsoft partners deliver Solverâs advanced planning to their customers in record time.
Solverâs solution will enable customers to simplify day-to-day planning and reporting tasks, foster collaboration, increase productivity and enhance security.
Customers will also benefit from the Solver multi-tenant cloud solutionâs utilization of Microsoft technologies, which includes: Availability on global Azure data centers; Use of Azure Active Directory for single sign on; Integration to Microsoft Teams for collaboration; Cloud-connected Excel add-in for flexible report and input form design; and out-of-the box Power BI connector for professional dashboards.
Driving better and faster decisions in times of change
As organizations adjust and adapt to changing business environments, the need for connected, real-time planning capabilities is accelerating. Making faster, informed decisions across all areas of the business requires a continuous planning process. Solver offers customers a modern Azure-cloud based platform that now, with the new QuickStart integration to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, will make it much easier and faster to connect strategic goals and KPIs with annual budgets and forecasts, as well as, with historical data from Dynamics 365. Ultimately, the deep two-way integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 delivers consistent dataflows that provide customers with one version of the truth.
Furthermore, companies are increasingly spreading their data across various cloud business applications, such as ERP, HRM, and sales automation.  Solver and its ability to combine these data sources into Solverâs business data warehouse enables deep planning capabilities. In addition, it also drives scalable modern analytics and reporting for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 community.
Deep integrations enable quick-time-to-value for Microsoft and Solver customers
Todayâs announcement also includes the following additional integrations and support, focusing on easier access, collaboration and security between Microsoft and Solver applications.
The Solver QuickStart wizard makes it very easy for customers to deploy the initial integration and data loading between Dynamics 365 and Solver applications.
Solver QuickStart templates saves weeks of report and input form design work by delivering out-of-the-box industry standard financial reports and planning forms that can be used immediately without customization.
Ability to directly drill-down from Solver planning input forms and reports into related Dynamics 365 screens for immediate visibility and rapid decisions related to underlying historical data.
Solverâs automated direct write-back of approved budgets and forecasts to Dynamics 365 speeds up and simplifies accountantsâ work at the end of the planning process. It will also enable immediate visibility of Solver budget and forecast data in Dynamics 365 for additional budget control and reporting.
Microsoft Teams integration enables users across the organization to access Solver from within Teams to view budgets, forecasts and reports.
Microsoft Azure Active Directory integration provides customers access to enterprise data and applications easily and securely through single sign-on. With expanded integrations, joint customers that use Microsoft and Solver applications can confidently secure end-to-end identity lifecycle and entitlement settings for greater privacy and security management. This feature was launched in January, 2020.
Comments on the news
âContinuous planning that is effortlessly connected with backend financial systems is quickly becoming a requirement as organizations adapt their strategies to our rapidly changing world,â said Nils Rasmussen, CEO at Solver.
âWith our Solver cloud planning and reporting platform and the new two-way QuickStart integration to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, our goal is to change the game of planning by making it very easy for finance teams to manage annual budgeting and reiterative forecasting processes across an organizationâs silos of information,â explains Tad Remington, Chief Commercial Officer at Solver.
Georg Glantschnig, General Manager, Microsoft Dynamics 365 said, âAt Microsoft, weâre laser-focused on empowering the Office of Finance and their counterparts across the organization to drive productivity and business performance with innovative and secure cloud-based financial applications. Â Solver delivers deep corporate performance management directly integrated into Dynamics 365 Finance.â
Availability
Solver is a Premier Tier Dynamics 365 Finance solution, available today on Microsoft AppSource (Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Business Central). The new Solver QuickStart integrations for Dynamics 365 Finance and Business Central are scheduled for release in the coming months.
About Solver
Solver is a leading provider (Dresner and G2) of cloud applications for the office of finance that help drive faster and better decisions. Founded in 1996, Solver delivers a unified planning, financial reporting & consolidations and analytics platform for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance,  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, as well as, the legacy Dynamics ERP solutions and ERPs from other leading vendors (Solver Suite & Dynamics 365 Finance Tours).
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Solverhttps://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngSolver2021-01-25 21:45:292021-01-26 03:45:47Solver Announces Agreement with Microsoft to Integrate Cloud Planning and Reporting Solutions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance
New retail store forecasts and budgets are considered essential planning tools in retail corporations and are used by financial managers and analysts to forecast revenues and expenses for a planned store opening. Some of the main functionality in this type of forecast model is that it allows the user to select data from a similar existing store that automatically will be pulled into the model. The user also selects the start (store opening) month, which will zero out prior months that year. At this point the forecast can be saved and it is done, or you can adjust any of the figures and then save.. An example of this type of forecast model can be found below.
Purpose of Automated Forecasts for New Store Openings
Retail businesses use Automated Forecast Models to provide a very quick and easy way to create a forecast for a new store location based on actual or budget data from a similar size, existing store. It also makes it easy to perform what-if analysis and simulations related to potential store openings. When used as part of good business practices in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) department, a company can improve its decisions, timing and success with business expansions as well as reduce the chances that poor financial planning results in bigger, operational issues.
Automated Forecasts for New Store Opening – Example
Here is an example of an Automated Financial Forecast Model for a new store based on data from an existing store location.
Example of an Automated Forecast for New Retail Store Opening
The typical users of this type of forecast model are: Store planners, CFOs and analysts.
Other Forecast models Often Used in Conjunction with Automated Forecasts for New Store Openings
Progressive Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) departments sometimes use several different Automated Profit & Loss forecasts, along with general sales forecasts and budgets, sales dashboards, KPI dashboards, consolidation reports, balance sheets and cash flow statements and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From?
The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from management systems or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others.
In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards?
Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
Native ERP report writers and query tools
Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Industry_Retail14-scaled-1.jpg14382560Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-21 07:31:122021-02-14 02:13:37Automated Forecast for New Retail Store Opening
This article is part 8 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 8 focuses on why and when to use third-party rankings from analysts when evaluating the best CPM software applications.
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While some companies donât need to go through a detailed selection process to come up with a list of the top Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software solutions for their organization, others have their work cut out for them. If you belong to the latter category, here is a vendor evaluation tool that may be of help.
One of the key items on many CPM product evaluation checklists is to look at how third-party firms, usually referred to as analysts or analyst websites, review and rank vendors.
Below, we will discuss the use of analysts to help evaluate and score the best financial reporting and planning solutions for your business requirements. This type of third-party research can complement the findings and opinions from your internal team.
When analyst firms are of less importance
Before we go into detail about analyst firms, letâs briefly cover some situations where analyst reports with CPM vendor rankings are not as useful and, in some cases, cost extra time and money in the selection process. One such example is when there is already a leading CPM solution partnered with your ERP vendor and offering pre-built integrations and other benefits that outweigh other potential vendor differences.
Another example is when multiple people on your staff have deep knowledge of a leading CPM solution that they have used before, ideally while they worked at a company from the same industry to ensure that there is still a fit.
Which analyst firms should you use?
While there are a few firms with analysts that are CPM industry experts who do months of research every year to analyze trends and rank vendors, there are many more analysts that are a waste of time or are even directly misleading in their rankings.
Examples of professional CPM analyst firms
Analyst and survey-driven rankings: Gartner and Dresner Advisory Services
User-driven rankings: G2
Unqualified or misleading âanalystâ firms
Clickbait websites that will come up with their own vendor lists with no proper research, purely to get ranked on a search engine in order to sell advertising or get âsponsorshipâ money vendors pay to be on (e.g., a âTop 10 CPM Vendorsâ list)
Websites owned by CPM vendors ranking themselves
âResearch reportsâ from âanalystsâ paid for by a specific CPM vendor
So, if you consult analyst reports to help find the best CPM tool for your company, be conscious of who or what is proving the advice.
How do you know if analyst reports are biased or fair representations of vendors?
It is clear that almost all research performed by a human being is biased one way or another, either consciously (e.g., based on vendor sponsorships or who they speak with the most) or unconsciously (e.g., based on the knowledge of the analyst). Even a firm as well-known as Gartner arguably has some bias in their reports because they include analyst comments, and they include vendor revenue as one of the drivers in their âMagic Quadrantsâ â something which may or may not indicate who a âleaderâ should be in a specific industry. Especially with the pace of technology changes and acquisitions in the marketplace, the best CPM solution for your business 6 months ago may no longer be the top choice today.
Other analyst reports or vendor rankings are websites that are driven by user feedback as compared to analyst research. You could argue that these websites provide the most neutral feedback although not as detailed and analytical as the major reports produced by full-fledged analyst firms.
Then there are the countless firms that provide âawardsâ and rankings based on payments from vendors. These are highly biased and should be avoided. It is fairly easy to detect them by reviewing the firmâs website and observing the lack of depth in CPM research and content.
What professional analysts get right (and sometimes donât)
The top CPM analyst firms typically do one major CPM report per year. All or parts of the data in the report is driven by customer surveys completed by each vendorâs customers. Because of all the work that goes into these reports and because customers donât want to be constantly bombarded with surveys, the reports will represent data that is up to 15-16 months old. This lag is because customer surveys typically start 3-4 months before the report is released and then the report will be out on the market for a year until next yearâs report is out.
Because many cloud software vendors have monthly releases, and new features arrive all the time, these reports could be missing important vendor features. Websites like G2 and others are starting to follow the same model; they are constantly updated whenever a customer decides to leave their feedback. However, they are less detailed and structured.
Examples of analyst firms that review CPM software
There are a number of companies that provide CPM vendor reviews and market research. Here are examples of three different categories of such firms:
Gartner: Analyst + customer survey-driven vendor rankings. Also provides research reports across almost all categories of IT firms. A major CPM report is produced once per year.
Dresner Advisory Services: Customer survey-driven vendor rankings. Also provides research reports. Almost exclusively focused on CPM (they refer to it as EPM, or Enterprise Performance Management). A major CPM report is produced once per year.
G2: Customer feedback driven. Ranking reports are produced automatically on their website (g2.com). Rankings are continually updated as customers enter their feedback on the G2 website.
How much does it cost to use an analyst firm?
Some CPM vendor research reports are free while many are licensed by the CPM vendors themselves and shared with customers. However, be aware that vendors naturally will only license and share research reports that shed a good light on their product, so there is a bias here to be cognizant of.
Some analyst firms also provide selection services, either as paid calls with their CPM advisors or as full-blown gigs where they will lead or participate in the entire selection process as a âconsultant.â In past years, they used to then provide clients with RFP templates with hundreds of pre-defined questions. These have become less popular in recent times as both vendors and internal evaluation teams dread lengthy narratives always shaped to sound good, or they can miss entire functionality areas that are up and coming.
In any case, it is almost always beneficial to do your own homework first by listing your current pain points in as much detail as possible and quantifying ($$) the cost and effort of running the current reporting and planning processes. This âhomeworkâ should also include the management teamâs vision of the business benefits they want to achieve with a new CPM solution.
Conclusion
The leading cloud CPM software solutions have a lot of features and functionality, and changes and improvements are being released all the time. So, when you and your internal team are coming up with a shortlist of the best CPM solutions for the companyâs needs, it is advisable to do your own research, review product demonstrations, and make sure the top candidates integrate easily with your ERP and other important systems. If you have special complexities or a lack of time and evaluation skills on your team, then an analyst firm can assist you in various ways.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 04:18:062021-01-18 04:21:19Using Analyst Rankings to Help Select the Best CPM Software Apps
This article is part 7 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 7 focuses on methods for calculating ROI to find the best CPM software applications.
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A business software selection process can be exhausting, involving weeks or months of product demonstrations, meetings, vendor scoring, and other time-consuming tasks. Usually, the most attention is paid to the product demos. However, one of the most important but ignored areas of a vendor evaluation is a Return on Investment (ROI) estimate.
As the name implies, an ROI calculation aims at estimating the return the company is expecting to get over time based on the investment they put into the software subscription, training, and implementation.
A best practice to select the best CPM software and vendor is to perform an ROI calculation and make it part of the total vendor score as you compare the finalist candidates with each other. Here is a free interactive vendor comparison tool that has three dashboard pages:
Scoring of 8 major functionality areas (insert screenshot below this section)
Calculator to arrive at ROI
Summary dashboard comparing your top two CPM software finalists
Your team can use the sliders to adjust all scores according to your evaluation results:
Why should ROI always be used when you evaluate business software?
Many companies skip or miss the ROI step in their evaluation process to compare the top CPM vendors on their finalist scorecard. Why are so many organizations missing this ROI step? Usually it is due to one or more of these reasons:
They donât have an ROI calculator
They feel there are too many variables to come up with a good ROI estimate
They have a bias toward a solution known or recommended to them
The vendor in the lead does not want to be compared to the runner-up competitor
However, because the vendorsâ CPM features and prices both change over time, a good ROI estimate helps capture this to provide a picture of what business benefits would look like compared to the investment in subscriptions and implementation services.
How to calculate ROI for the best CPM software selection
It is almost always easy to get software costs and implementation estimates from the vendor because these are already part of standard price lists and quoting tools they use in their sales processes. Â However, what is harder is to calculate your own costs and savings related to the project.
It is important to do your own homework first by listing and quantifying ($$) the pains of NOT having the new solution. Many organizations do list current pains before approving a new software purchase. Such metrics are also valuable after the project implementation in order to validate the degree of success. It also helps keep vendors and internal project members accountable for promises of outcomes, and keeps them focused on what is most important when there are obstacles in the implementation and to help support hard choices that have to be made.
Here is a list of the typical ingredients in an ROI calculation:
Benefits
This part of an ROI calculation is always the hardest to estimate. Here is where you quantify the annual value (amount) your business expects to gain from the improved and speedier decisions you expect to achieve from the CPM vendors you evaluate. Try to put a number on the resulting benefit to the business when managers can make faster and better decisions because the new solution provides self-service access, drilldown to answer questions, charting for better analysis, more accurate budgets, and other advantages.
Note: Donât include any costs or time savings from the cost section (see below).
Costs
Here is where you capture the costs of the new and old solutions. Your numbers should include software, hardware, and labor expenses.
Cost of New Solution:
Annual software subscription
One-time implementation services
Cost of Old Solution:
IT costs to operate: This includes any server hardware and electricity, upgrade costs, annual maintenance/renewal costs, etc.
Cost of manual labor: This should be the excess time your IT and finance staff spends compared to what you expect from the new solution. Use a fully loaded hourly cost of own and/or contractor staff.
Cost of risk: This is where you capture the estimated annual cost of risks like errors in monthly reports, and the resulting cost of managers not having access to timely and detailed information.
If you leave all the figures in the ROI calculation as positive numbers, then the calculation can look like this: (Cost of Old Solution â Cost of New Solution + Benefit of New Solution) / Cost of Old Solution
Using one year or multiple years in your ROI calculation
Although there may be some firms that provide industry benchmarks to quantify the standard ROI of a new CPM software solution and its expected automation of financial reporting and planning processes, results can be highly individual based on how good or bad the old solution was and how well the new solution is implemented and utilized.
In very special cases, you may achieve a positive ROI in year 1, but in most cases it will take longer. For this reason, a good rule of thumb is to calculate both the 1st year and the 5-year (accumulated) ROI. This will also better capture discounts that vendors provide for one or more years before their price resets to list price.
Also, when you ask for the 5-year subscription cost from each vendor, make sure it includes annual price increases.
Do ROI calculations have an extra cost?
All decision makers like to see ROI calculations when staff members propose investments in new technologies. Sometimes, these calculations can be the major deciding factor in a decision if all other areas are somewhat equal. In other words, it may be well worth the hours it takes to come up with the estimates for ROI.
If you are using a professional software selection firm or third-party consultant to help with your selection, make sure to ask if their services include assistance with an ROI calculation or if this a separate cost.
You can use this vendor comparison tool, which includes an ROI calculator. It has three tabs: 1) Feature comparison, 2) ROI comparison, and 3) Summary score. You can use it as-is, or it may give you some ideas if you want to apply it, for example, to an Excel spreadsheet model that calculates ROI in a different way.
Conclusion
The best CPM software solutions have a lot of features and functionality. They are also very flexible. This means that implementation estimates can vary greatly based on the number of your reports or the complexity of your budget and forecast models.
Assuming you have a successful implementation, it is typical to stay with a solution for five to ten years or more. In such time periods, and if you choose a stable vendor, you can expect to see numerous improvements along the way that should further support your managers in making faster and better decisions. This future expected value can be captured in your multi-year ROI calculation to help ensure that you are making the best possible decision to pick the top CPM vendor for your organization to partner with.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 04:16:412021-01-19 07:15:25Using Return on Investment (ROI) to Help Select the Best CPM Software Apps
This article is part 6 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 6 focuses on the many Microsoft integration capabilities to look for in the best CPM software applications.
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Most organizations in the world use one or more technologies from Microsoft. So, when selecting a new cloud Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution the benefit of close Microsoft alignment can be from âslightâ to âvery importantâ or ârequired.â
As the worldâs businesses have migrated one application after another to the cloud, they have had to re-establish whatever connectivity they had between their solutions when they hosted them in their own server room.
For the reasons mentioned above, most of the top CPM vendors have integrations to the most popular Microsoft technologies in order to increase their customersâ productivity.
Here are some of the top Microsoft integrations to look for in the best CPM solutions
Based on which Microsoft technologies your organization uses, one or more of these integrations may be beneficial (or even highly important):
Excel integrations can offer everything from the CPM report designer being an Excel add-in, to report export to Excel and data import from Excel.
PowerPoint integrations are typically used to display and refresh reports or dashboards within a corporate financial presentation.
Word integrations are less popular but can be critical for governments and other organizations that need to refresh financial and other figures inside lengthy annual or quarterly report documents.
Example of a Power BI dashboard live inside a PowerPoint presentation:
Power BI integration
Power BI (closely followed by Tableau) has risen to be the most popular dashboard tool in the world. A large number of companies use it already and more will do so in the future. For this reason, an increasing number of CPM vendors have developed Microsoft-certified connectors that easily transfer data and dimensions to Power BI.
Some CPM vendors even go as far as offering Power BI as their main best-of-breed dashboard solution and include out-of-the-box financial dashboards to get customers ramped up quickly. If you already own or plan to buy Power BI, this approach eliminates the need to buy a CPM vendorâs proprietary dashboard licenses and enables the finance team to learn only one visualization tool.
Microsoft Teams integration
Teams is Microsoftâs widely popular collaboration portal. Numerous third-party vendors have built apps to surface their cloud applications inside the Teams portal.
While all of the best CPM solutions can export fully formatted reports to Excel, and these can be imported to Teams, not many have built apps that enable you to open the CPM app from Teams and, for example, run reports while inside a Teams group discussing profitability or liquidity with other managers.
Microsoft Dynamics integrations
Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Business Central are Microsoftâs cloud ERP applications. If you already own or plan to implement one of these ERPs, it is important to closely review how well the CPM vendors you are evaluating connect to those solutions.
A tight and easy integration between your ERP system and the CPM solution enables dynamic reporting, as well as budgets and forecasts that have updated historical data. Some integrations even allow for easy write-back of budgets to the General Ledger (GL).
If you are on a legacy Microsoft Dynamics ERP such as GP, SL, NAV, or AX, the new CPM solutions integration is equally as important. If you plan to migrate to Dynamics 365, you can even use the CPM as a storage of your old historical ERP data, making the migration to the new ERP faster and easier.
Azure deployment
Since CPM vendors manage their own cloud applications, it is typically not visible to an end user which cloud platform, such as Azure or AWS, their CPM portal is running on. Azure may be more important for certain IT departments if they already have plans or projects using other Microsoft Azure tools such as Power Apps.
Does deep Microsoft alignment have an extra cost?
This will depend on each CPM vendor. The cloud platform (in this case Azure) is always built into vendor pricing, but oftentimes vendors charge a price per integration connector (e.g., to Power BI, PowerPoint, or Dynamics 365).
While it is important to do your homework to ensure that the vendor you choose has the key Microsoft integrations needed for a successful and efficient deployment, the total savings in time and effort, as well as improved decision making, are just as important.
Here is a free vendor comparison tool to help you compare vendors across a number of different features. This tool also includes a simple return on investment (ROI) calculator that is part of the total vendor score.
Conclusion
In summary, ensuring that a new CPM solution integrates well with productivity and ERP applications helps ensure longevity of the solution as well as user satisfaction. In other words, integration should be on the checklist of features to review in demonstrations and vendor conversations.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 04:03:212021-02-22 18:15:58Top Microsoft Features in the Best CPM Software Apps
This article is part 4 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 4 focuses on evaluating the range of dashboard features within the best CPM software applications.
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While the financial reporting, consolidations, and budgeting functionality of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools are highly valuable to accounting and finance professionals, most executives want to also see the organizationâs key figures represented graphically.
Graphical analysis tools generally fall into two categories: 1) Static charts; and 2) Interactive dashboards. Both can be desirable because static charts can significantly highlight the most important information in financial reports such as revenues, profits, and margins, while well-designed interactive dashboards provide deep, user-guided analysis.
When you are looking to acquire a new financial reporting or planning solution and you are comparing your vendor finalists, it is important to review which of the above graphical analysis methods they provide.
Here are some of the top dashboard architectures to look for in the best CPM software solutions
In general, one or more of these three types of graphical analyses below are provided by leading CPM vendors:
Charts embedded inside financial reports
These are typically bar charts, column charts, pie charts, or trend charts embedded inside of financial statements like Profit & Loss reports and Balance Sheets. While financial report writers are purpose built, and much better than dashboard tools, to manage account structures and financial statement formatting than dashboard solutions, they can significantly benefit from charting and traffic lights to highlight the most important figures. This type of âhybridâ report is offered by some CPM vendors and should not be confused with dashboard solutions.
Native dashboards in CPM portal
A number of CPM vendors have developed proprietary dashboards inside their cloud portals.
A benefit of native dashboards is that they typically derive from the same data structure/tables as the CPM solutionâs reporting and planning module. Another benefit is therefore a shorter implementation time and one place to set up user security. However, companies are increasingly investing in purpose-built dashboard solutions like Power BI and Tableau, and therefore it is less efficient to use multiple dashboard tools than one enterprise-wide solution that can easily be supported internally.
Additionally, these purpose-built solutions like Power BI and Tableau offer much more advanced capabilities than most proprietary dashboards.
Integrated best-in-class dashboards
Professional dashboard solutions have risen in popularity over the years, and solutions like Microsoftâs Power BI and Tableau have become market leaders. Because of the singular focus the vendors of stand-alone dashboard solutions can put behind their products, the pace of development is rapid and the breadth and depth of functionality is very solid. As a result, a large number of organizations have deployed these solutions as a standard across one or many departments internally and use them to present data from their various transaction systems including their CPM solution.
Based on their customersâ standardizations for these best-of-breed dashboard solutions, a number of CPM vendors have built connectors that make it very easy to pull data, dimensions, and database logic from the CPM product and into the dashboard tools. The result is a quicker implementation of dashboards, as well as a lower learning curve and a lower license cost compared to also implementing a proprietary dashboard inside the CPM solution.
How much does a dashboard solution cost?
While it is important to do your homework to ensure that the vendor you choose has the key features needed for a successful deployment, the total savings in time and effort as well as improved decision-making capabilities are just as important.
Here are some things to think about when you get prices from your vendor finalists:
Does the annual subscription from each vendor contain the same user count and modules?
If you are receiving a discount, how long until it resets to the list price?
Does the vendor offer a written policy for annual price increases?
Are the implementation estimates from each vendor for exactly the same work?
A good rule of thumb is to ask each vendor for the total subscription cost for the first 5 years. Make sure this includes any potential price increases. And, if the vendor is owned by a private equity firm, chances are that they will be sold while you are still a customer so you must ensure that you receive a document stating the policy for price increases in the future â including if they are sold to another company.
Here is a free vendor comparison tool to help you compare vendors across a number of different features. This tool also includes a simple return on investment (ROI) calculator that is part of the total vendor score.
Conclusion
In summary, choosing a new dashboard solution to compliment the companyâs financial reporting and budgeting tools is increasingly becoming a strategic priority for organizations across all industries. As we discussed earlier, certain features are more important than others and can be key drivers of success, in addition to a well-executed implementation process.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 03:41:542021-03-01 18:13:20Top Dashboard Features in the Best CPM Software Apps
This article is part 3 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 3 focuses on Excel functionalities that strengthen the best planning and financial reporting software applications.
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Almost every financial professional both loves and hates Microsoft Excel. It seems like we canât live with it and we canât live without it!
So, when you are looking to acquire a new financial reporting or planning solution and you are comparing your vendor finalists, how well each solution interacts with Excel tends to be part of the top user requirements.
It should be noted that while an increasing number of cloud solutions emerged between 2010 and 2015, the popular sentiment from the browser-based vendors was that their tools would completely get rid of Excel. But, in short order, their customers started to miss the formatting and calculation power of Excel (as well as its familiarity) when they were creating reports and budget models. As a result, the early cloud vendors added Excel add-ins to provide an alternative design experience for Excel fans, and several newer vendors such as Vena and Solver made Excel an integral part of their cloud solutions.
For most companies, Excel functionality is THE key to success when using the best planning and financial reporting software.
Here are some of the top features to look for in reporting and budgeting Excel add-ins
Most finance, accounting, and budgeting users would consider strong Excel integration to be one of the top 5 or top 10 features when evaluating and comparing planning and reporting vendors. Below, we will discuss some important features to consider in this regard.
The difference between Excel export/import and Excel add-ins
While pretty much every reporting, planning, and corporate performance management (CPM) solution can import data from and export reports to Excel, these processes should not be confused with Excel add-ins, which are plugins to Microsoft Excel that appear on its ribbon.
With an Excel add-in design tool, users build dynamic, parameter-driven reports that pull data from the ERP or CPM database. Data can be refreshed and written back (budgeting and forecasting) without any type of export and import process, which provides self-service for end users.
On this page you can find hundreds of examples of reports and budgeting forms built with an Excel add-in and made to run in a browser. Reviewing vendor examples of the types of templates you want to build with your new solution can be a very good assurance that the design and layout capability in your chosen solution is going to take care of your organizationâs needs.
Examples of pure Excel tools versus web portals with Excel add-ins
In the past, Excel add-ins were stand-alone reporting tools that needed to be installed on every userâs desktop (or virtual machine). So, if you had 50 users your IT department would be maintaining and upgrading 50 Excel add-ins. Luckily, this has changed. Since cloud architectures emerged in the CPM market, almost all vendors have built multi-tenant web portals that are managed and automatically upgraded by the vendor.
Today, there are still a few of the classic Excel add-ins left and most have the ability to connect to cloud ERPs and âtrickleâ the data to Excel when reports are processed. All major vendors, however, have web portals where reports are stored and, in some cases, also executed in the userâs browser without requiring Excel to run them. This architecture is particularly useful for planning processes where a significant number of end users can simply open their browsers and enter budgets and forecasts that are stored directly in the CPM solutionâs cloud database.
The importance of dynamic Excel rows and columns versus static ones
Most organizations add accounts, departments, and other dimension members to their ERP during the year. For older Excel add-ins, this usually requires manual maintenance of reports and budget templates in order to insert new rows or columns, or to maintain the content of dropdowns for parameters (e.g., a list of departments). This is because these add-ins can only put formula references at the cell-level in the spreadsheet.
With modern Excel add-ins, you can have dynamic listing of rows or columns and global report parameters.
Here are some quick examples:
Dynamic rows
If you have, for example, 20 Operating Expense accounts, you can create a range formula on a single row in Excel that automatically expands out to 20 rows. If someone adds 1 new account number in that range, you automatically get 21 rows in the report (or budget form). In older Excel add-ins, you have to manually create each row and, since they are static, new accounts will not become new rows automatically.
Dynamic columns
Letâs say you want actual data from January up to the current month and a forecast from next month through December. In a modern Excel add-in this report can be done dynamically, regardless of which month you run it for. With static, legacy Excel add-ins, you will need to manually change the formulas each month, make 11 versions of the report, or do major âtricksâ in the report to make it more dynamic.
Template design with dynamic rows and dynamic columns
Dynamic global parameters
Typical examples of these are report filters for company, department, period, or budget version. In legacy Excel add-ins, these are designed as regular Excel dropdown boxes that populate based on data (e.g., a list of months or departments) hidden somewhere in the workbook. In modern Excel add-ins, these parameter selectors are dropdowns on a side menu or in the Excel sheet that pulls their content directly from the database.
In other words, they are always fresh and donât need hidden dimension lists in each report or budget template.
In summary, modern Excel add-ins with dynamic rows, columns, and global parameters provide quicker report design and less maintenance work. They are also less likely to produce wrong reports because they can automatically include new accounts and other ERP dimension members that tend to change.
Is Excel the primary design tool or an additional solution to learn?
Finance and accounting people tend to be very busy and few like to spend more time than necessary to build or maintain reports. As we discussed earlier, this is a major reason that Excel add-ins are so popular and have returned as part of cloud CPM solutions. However, when you compare vendors with Excel-based report designers, it is important to research whether their Excel tool is their second (âoptionalâ) report writer or THE report writer.
Cloud solutions where there is a proprietary web designer, plus an optional Excel designer, result in users having to not only learn two tools but also having to constantly deal with decisions regarding whether a new report should be built in Excel or in the proprietary browser tool. Making a monthly package of reports from both tools, if possible, can be messy and lead to too much manual effort.
Solutions with a single, purpose-built Excel designer have the advantage of delivering one single tool to learn for users, and packaging and distributing reports can all be done in one place.
Built for cloud
While some legacy Excel add-ins are still pure on-premises tools, most can now connect to cloud ERPs. The latest generation of Excel add-ins can not only be managed (installation, user security, etc.) from cloud portals, but some, like Solver, can even âconvertâ templates automatically from Excel to web reports and input forms. In these tools, users can choose to run the same report as a web report without requiring an Excel add-in. Alternatively, they can use the Excel add-in to open the report in Excel and execute there.
In other words, part of the research and comparison of the vendorsâ reporting and budgeting solutions should be to find out if their planning and financial software relies on legacy tools or purpose-built cloud architectures.
How much does a CPM solution with Excel-based reporting and planning cost?
While it is important to do your homework to ensure that the vendor you choose has the key features needed for a successful deployment, your total cost and savings in time and effort matter â as does your improved capacity for better, faster decision-making at your company.
Here are some factors to consider when you get prices from your vendor finalists:
Does the annual subscription from each vendor contain the same user count and modules?
If you are receiving a discount, how long until it resets to the list price?
Does the vendor have a written policy for annual price increases?
Are the implementation estimates from each vendor for exactly the same work?
A good rule of thumb is to ask each vendor for the total subscription cost for the first 5 years. Make sure this includes any potential price increases. Also, if the vendor is owned by a private equity firm, chances are that they will be sold while you are still a customer, so you will want to ensure that you receive a document that states their policy for price increases in the future (including if they are sold to another company).
In summary, choosing one of the best financial reporting software solutions to automate monthly reporting, as well as to cover other management reporting needs, will ultimately drive better and faster decision making at your company. This is why the task of finding the best planning and financial reporting tools is increasingly becoming a strategic priority for organizations across all industries.
As we discussed earlier, certain features are more important than others in the evaluation process and can act as key drivers of success â in addition to a well-executed implementation process, of course.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 03:34:472021-01-19 05:58:06Top Excel Features to Look for in the Best Planning and Financial Reporting Software Apps
This article is part 2 of an 8-part series on evaluating the best CPM tools for your business. Part 2 focuses on feature sets within the best financial reporting software applications.
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Financial reporting software that also offers consolidations and planning functionality belongs to a software category typically referred to as Corporate Performance Management (CPM). Some also refer to this as Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). Since most organizations are either currently planning to or have recently moved their ERP systems to the cloud, cloud-based financial reporting solutions are now more popular than ever.
While native ERP report writers are able to produce financial statements and sub-ledger reports, they are generally not great at formatting and advanced formulas. Plus, since they are built into the ERP system, they canât report on data in other data sources. So, almost always, companies export some or many of their reports to Excel to finalize and assemble them there. As a result, an entire industry of cloud-based reporting solutions has sprung up to take companiesâ reporting automation and month-end close processes to the next level.
There are numerous software vendors that now deliver independent reporting solutions, either stand-alone or as part of a CPM suite. As a result, during a software selection process youâll need to carefully choose the solution that is RIGHT for your business. This means that the functionality must be right for your unique business and that it should support your industry-specific requirements. And, of course, the return on investment (ROI) needs to be positive.
When working through a software selection process to find the best financial reporting software for your organization, there are always some features that are more important than others.
Here are some of the top features to look for to find the best financial reporting software
While most vendors can probably showcase more than 100 features in their product (something which can make software selection a painful process), the main success criteria can be narrowed down to a few key areas. Each one is listed and discussed below.
Advanced report formatting
Per definition, all good report writers have a âtemplate designerâ to create reusable, parameter-driven reports. In addition to the pre-built reports that leading vendors should provide out of the box, the report designer is where a trained user or consultant can build new templates such as Profit & Loss reports and Balance Sheets specific to the needs of the business.
About half of the CPM vendors offer add-ins to Microsoft Excel where templates are designed. This typically provides the best formatting and layout flexibility. Plus, almost all finance department team members are very familiar with Excel already, so having a report writer built into Excel shortens the learning curve. Other vendors have built proprietary report designers so users can design financial reports, but these never contain all the formatting capability of Excel. A few vendors not only provide Excel report design, but they provide a cloud web portal where end users can run the templates as web reports from any device and with no Excel add-ins needed.
Note 1: Be aware of CPM vendors that offer two report designers because that means twice as much training for power users. It can become messy in the month-end close process, report packages, and other areas if templates are created with two different technologies. The reason for two tools is almost always that the functionality in the vendorâs proprietary designer was not enough for their customers, so they later added an Excel designer to handle complex customer models with a lot of formatting.
Note 2: In addition, be aware of sales pitches that use âsexyâ dashboards to draw your attention away from questions around great formatting in financial statements. While dashboards are awesome management tools focused on graphical analysis, they are NOT built to be financial report writers that can easily develop and maintain things like GL account structures behind Profit & Loss, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow Statements, and other critical reports. Â
Without a report designer in your new planning solution, you are at high risk of significantly having to change your favorite report formats to fit the capability of the vendorâs tool. In many cases, you may even find yourself and your staff relying still on your overloaded Excel spreadsheets because youâll be exporting reports to Excel and then manually reformatting them every month.
Here is list of about 500 examples of reports, dashboards, and budgeting templates. It is a good idea to ask your vendor candidates if you can see examples from their template libraries. The more examples they provide, the more you can be assured that their solution has a good report designer.
Advanced formulas
Financial reports are some of the hardest reports to build due to diverse accounting calendars, complex or changing charts of accounts, and the custom ratios and calculations needed to measure performance. These formulas and ratios, typically created in Excel, can be difficult or impossible to translate into a solution that uses proprietary formulas or pre-set calculations.
Formula familiarity is also important. Again, Excel is the de facto standard, not just in formatting but in formulas. For this reason, most reporting vendors either create their report designer in Excel or try to mimic Excel formulas in their proprietary tool.
Without a strong and familiar formula capability in your new report designer, there is a high risk that you will be dependent on consultants to help with report design on an ongoing basis, and/or that your finance team will waste hours every month dumping reports into Excel to âfixâ them.
Advanced consolidations
While all financial report writers can aggregate data across accounts and departments, a much smaller number of solutions can perform true consolidations. In addition to consolidating financials across subsidiaries and divisions to produce high-quality corporate reports, important features include:
Manual intercompany elimination entries with comments and audit trail
Automatic intercompany eliminations
Currency conversion
Roll-up of balances from subsidiaries with different chart of accounts
Ability to enter and track additional âtopsideâ adjustments where needed
A best-of-breed solution will also have business rules such as trees and/or dimension attributes that automatically include new accounts without having to manually update reports or run the risk that monthly financial reports are wrong or incomplete.
Some ERP systems do a pretty good job at handling this internally, but usually with a lot less flexibility than a true CPM reporting solution.
Advanced closing and reporting process checklist
While most modern cloud-based CPM reporting solutions offer a workflow module, checklists are rarer. A financial reporting process checklist is typically a chronologically organized list of all the items a controller has to perform or oversee in the month-end close as it relates to reporting. Sometimes this includes 100 or more individual tasks with many people involved.
Major steps include:
Closing of the books in the ERP system and transferring the data to the reporting solution
Viewing exception and reconciliation reports to flag issues and reconcile items
Running trial balance reports
Adjusting entries (in ERP or CPM tool)
Running of all month-end reports
Performing variance and trend analysis with comments
Publishing (web viewing, email, or Excel) monthly reports with comments
Sending PowerPoint presentations to the executive team
The top reporting solutions offer interactive checklists to help ensure that everything gets done on time. They often include functionality like checkboxes, descriptions, responsible people, links to activity, deadlines, and notifications.
Interactive Checklist for Monthly Reporting
Without a good workflow module and checklists, chances are good that you are spending a lot more time reminding people of deadlines and asking them for feedback or comments. This level of constant follow up can get even more frustrating and complex if you are stuck managing tasks manually in companies that have multiple subsidiaries and large accounting teams involved in the month-end close.
Pre-built ERP integrations
All good CPM reporting solutions, by definition, have to be able to integrate with your ERP systemâs General Ledger balances at the minimum. However, not all tools are great at reporting on other data. Along the same lines, some reporting solutions have better integrations to certain ERPs than others.
Here are some questions to ask different vendors during your evaluation process:
Is the integration to your ERP in real time or is data exported to the CPM solutionâs cloud database? (There are pros and cons of both.)
How frequently can the data from the ERP be refreshed within the reporting tool?
Is the ERP integration pre-configured or do you have to map and configure it?
Does the report writer only work well with GL data or can you also bring in sub-ledger transactions and non-ERP data?
Will the integration pick up changes such as new accounts and companies?
When you are evaluating different CPM vendors for your financial and operational reporting needs, you should request detailed information about each solutionâs integration to your systems, including estimates on the time and cost it takes to get them configured. A really good, pre-built integration should take at the most an hour to configure, while âtoolboxesâ can take days to set up and connect to each data source. Which one your vendor offers will therefore usually become clear when you see their estimates for the integration step in the implementation.
Without good, automated integrations to your source systems, your users will end up spending a lot of wasted time on loading and possible âcleaningâ of data.
Built for cloud
While on-premises financial reporting solutions were the standard technology for decades, today it is cloud solutions that rule. CPM reporting tools that are built with native cloud architecture offer many benefits over the classic on-premises solutions. These benefits include back-end functionality such as multi-tenancy to allow for efficient and frequent upgrades, spreading of processing and data loads across hardware resources, and otherwise taking advantage of what large public cloud data centers and platforms have to offer.
As an example, in the old on-premises world, it was normal to do an annual upgrade for your software, while in the cloud world it is the norm to expect completely free and automated monthly updates. These regular updates also provide users with a continuous stream of new features and bug fixes.
Highly flexible cloud solutions will still allow end users to run and view reports in both Excel and their web browser (no software installation needed on usersâ computers). Make sure that both interfaces use the same report definitions (not two different reporting technologies) and allow for live drill-down into transaction details whenever the user needs to analyze at a deeper level.
Without a purpose-built cloud architecture, a vendor will fall behind their competitors over time. A number of the legacy on-premises vendors did not rebuild their technologies to be optimized for the cloud and, as a result, they will at some point have to rebuild their product or their customers will migrate to other vendors.
How much does a financial reporting solution cost?
While it is important to do your homework to ensure that the vendor you choose has the key features needed for a successful deployment, it is also important to consider your total cost and savings in time and effort, as well as the solutionâs potential to improve decision making at your company.
Here are some things to think about when you get prices from your vendor finalists:
Does the annual subscription from each vendor contain the same user count and modules?
If you are receiving a discount, how long until it resets to the list price?
Does the vendor have a written policy for annual price increases?
Are the implementation estimates from each vendor for exactly the same work?
A good rule of thumb is to ask each vendor for the total subscription cost for the first 5 years. Make sure this includes any potential price increases. And, if the vendor is owned by a private equity firm, chances are that they will be sold while you are still a customer. In these cases, it is a smart choice to ensure that you receive a document that states their policy for price increases in the future, including if they are sold to another company.
Here is a tool to help you compare vendors and calculate return on investment (ROI).
Why not use Excel or the financial reporting functionality in my ERP system?
Excel is by far the worldâs most popular reporting tool because it is free (if you already own Excel), incredibly flexible, and almost all accounting and finance professionals know how to use it. If you have a simple chart of accounts and not too many business units and departmental users, Excel may very well be the best financial reporting software for your business.
However, everyone knows when it is time to replace their homegrown spreadsheet reports. Warning signals include:
Painful manual report distribution
Troubles with consolidation of spreadsheets
Broken links
Poor reporting flexibility
Lack of user security
Versioning issues
and so onâŠ
All ERP systems have basic reporting functionality, but these tools usually fail at great formatting, their ability to include non-ERP data, and their flexibility to manage account and company hierarchies dynamically within report definitions. The truth is that, regardless of an ERP vendorâs promotion of their built-in reporting features, companies almost always end up back in Excel for some of their reporting even after they buy a brand-new cloud ERP solution. Then, when Excel gets too painful, they acquire a CPM solution.
Conclusion
In summary, choosing a new financial reporting solution to automate monthly reporting, as well as to cover other management reporting needs, promises to ultimately drive better and faster decisions at a company. This is why financial reporting ease is increasingly becoming a strategic priority for organizations across all industries. As we discussed earlier, certain features are more important than others and can be key drivers of success in addition to a well-executed implementation process.
Links to useful software research and evaluation assets
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.png00Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2021-01-18 03:31:132021-03-01 18:33:05Top Features to Look for in the Best Financial Reporting Software Apps
What is a Report that Benchmarks Your Business versus an Industry Average?
Industry benchmarking reports are considered comparative analysis tools and are often used by CFOs, executives and analysts to measure their own company’s performance versus the average of a select group of competitors. Some of the key functionality in this type of benchmarking report is that it is based on available data from a pool of competitors. Often, this is data from a web-site like Yahoo Finance or a government web-site like Edgar. The example consists of eight charts, each one displaying the trend for a specific metric for the past eight quarters for your own company and the industry average. The metrics include Current Ratio, Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Profit Margin, Gross Margin, Debt to Equity, Revenue and Revenue Growth. Each chart shows data for your own company as well as the average of other companies selected when the report was executed. Underneath Below the chart sections you find tables with the data.. You find an example of this type of benchmarking report below.
Purpose of Industry Benchmarking Reports
Companies and organizations use Industry Benchmarking Reports to supplement internal variance analysis with external comparisons to ensure that the business is keeping pace with its industry peers. When used as part of good business practices in a Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Executive department, a company can improve its strategies as well as reduce the chances that it falls behind the industry averages in areas such as revenue growth.
Industry Benchmarking Report Example
Here is an example of an Industry Benchmark Report with comparison of KPIs for your own business versus the industry average.
Report Example – Benchmarking Your Own Company versus an Industry Average
The typical users of this type of benchmarking report are: CFOs, executives, board members, and analysts.
Other Benchmarking reports Often Used in Conjunction with Industry Benchmarking Reports
Progressive Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Executive Departments sometimes use several different Industry Benchmarking Reports, along with benchmarking dashboards, comparative reports, KPI reports, strategy summaries and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From?
The Actual (historical transactions) data for competitors typically comes from web sites like Yahoo Finance and Edgar, as well as internal financial data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others.
In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards?
Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
Native ERP report writers and query tools
Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FinancialOperational_65-1.jpg9751733Nils R.https://www.solverglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/solver-logo-final.pngNils R.2020-12-03 04:13:202020-12-09 21:21:30Benchmarking Your Own Company versus an Industry Average
Competitor benchmark reports are considered comparative analysis tools and are often used by CFOs, executives and analysts to measure internal company performance versus that of other companies. Some of the key functionality in this type of KPI benchmark report is that it is based on available data from competitors. Often, this is data from a web-site like Yahoo Finance or a government web-site like Edgar. The example consists of eight charts, each one displaying the trend for a specific metric for the past eight quarters. The metrics include Current Ratio, Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Profit Margin, Gross Margin, Debt to Equity, Revenue and Revenue Growth. Each chart shows data for your own company as well as the other companies selected when the report was executed.. You find an example of this type of KPI benchmark report below.
Purpose of Competitor Benchmarking Reports
Companies and organizations use Competitor Benchmarking Reports to supplement internal variance analysis with external comparisons to ensure that the business also measured against the performance of specific external companies. When used as part of good business practices in a Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Executive department, a company can improve its strategies as well as reduce the chances that it falls behind other companies in the industry.
Competitor Benchmarking Report Example
Here is an example of a Competitor Benchmark Report with comparison to selected companies.
The typical users of this type of KPI benchmark report are: CFOs, executives, board members, and analysts.
Other KPI benchmark reports Often Used in Conjunction with Competitor Benchmarking Reports
Progressive Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Executive Departments sometimes use several different Competitor Benchmarking Reports, along with benchmarking dashboards, comparative variance reports, KPI reports, strategy summaries and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From?
The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from data services and manual entry from web-sites like Yahoo Finance and Edgar, as well as internal data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others.
In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards?
Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
Native ERP report writers and query tools
Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
