Planning: a moving target

A recent study conducted by the BARC Institute illustrates the dynamics of planning and budgeting in European companies. 77% of the companies surveyed change their planning processes at least once a year, and more than half alter them several times each year. The study, which was sponsored by Tagetik, examined the time, effort, methodologies and technologies involved in planning and budgeting in 500 companies across Europe.

These high dynamics and fast-changing requirements also explain why Excel is still the most commonly used planning tool among the companies surveyed. Although only 5 percent of “very satisfied” users plan with Excel but without specialized BI tools, 82% of companies still rely on e-mailing Excel spreadsheets for at least part of the planning process. In contrast, 76 percent of “very satisfied” or “satisfied” users work with an integrated planning system and can avoid this type of manual data transfer altogether.

“This survey has been very important for Tagetik because it confirmed that our strong investment in creating a unified product, supports market demands on CPM processes from planning, budgeting and forecasting on both strategic and operational levels to other processes such as financial closing and reporting,” comments Manuel Vellutini, Chief Operating Officer of Tagetik Software. Barc’s analysis also states that spreadsheets are still an undisputed leader in this market due to the strong need for continuous change of the budget process. We believe that Tagetik CPM can help 95% of users who are unhappy with their solutions based on spreadsheets: our solution guarantees flexibility and traceability, bringing real benefits to IT and Finance departments. These type of projects increasingly require innovative solutions both from a technological point of view as well as a “cultural” approach.”

The study also showed that compliance requirements have changed the role of planning applications in European companies. In addition to ‘traceability for users’, ‘plausibility checks’ and ‘process documentation’, 41 percent of the companies ranked ‘traceability for auditors’ as a core requirement for planning systems.

“The results of this study show that planning applications are truly embedded in the market and have become an integral part of performance management throughout Europe,” summarizes Dr. Carsten Bange, Managing Director at BARC. “In most cases, Excel alone is no longer enough and it has the lowest satisfaction rates. As a whole, there is significant potential for the deployment of specialized planning tools. The current percentage of companies that only use a single system for planning and budgeting is rather low. By implementing a single enterprise planning system, companies can reduce the time and costs related to administration and system integration while increasing user satisfaction in the process”.

» Download the 24-page summary of the study

Tagetik is a global provider of the new generation of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and Financial Governance (FG) solutions. The extensive experience in the Corporate Performance Management market has enabled Tagetik to offer a software solution that helps companies automate processes, obtain the necessary transparency and data accuracy for compliance, improve governance, reduce costs as well as meet industry-specific requirements.
Tagetik CPM is an innovative single solution that leverages cross platform technology and delivers unified and faster process cycles, powerful scalability, short implementation time and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) thanks to its out-of-the-box CPM Processes. Tagetik CPM is the first completely financial closed-loop, double entry solution, that unifies in a single product all core CPM processes (budgeting, planning & forecasting, profitability modeling & optimization, dashboard & scorecarding, financial consolidation, statutory & management reporting), extended CPM processes (such as credit reporting & analysis, ICT performance management, compliance), vertical CPM processes (such as regulatory accounting, cash flow management by project and regulatory reporting) and Financial Governance processes (Intercompany transaction management, Reconciliations management, Financial controls and compliance, Financial close management - “The Last Mile of Finance", Financial risk management, Access and segregation of duties controls, Financial analytics).

Tagetik employs over 250 people in Italy and abroad with offices in United States, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, UK & Ireland. Tagetik shares their successful strategy with over 300 worldwide satisfied customers representing all industries including Unicredit, Telecom Italia, Mediaset, Barilla, De Agostini, Gucci, Fininvest, BNL, Altair Engineering, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bank Austria, Bank Pekao, Banco Privado Portugues, Talanx AG, Nationale Suisse, IFI-Ifil, CIR, Impregilo, Aries Complex, Astaldi,
ERG, Iride Energia, Acea, Cremonini, SDA Express Courier, Yamaha Motor Italia, Techint, Milan AC, Menarini, RAI, Costa Crociere.