Budgeting Software Journal

Budgeting and Forecasting Software News And Reviews

Archives for March 2007

Longview Solutions and DataSynapse Announce Partnership

By Budgeting Software Journal

Longview Solutions and DataSynapse announced that they have entered into an agreement to optimize the Longview Performance Management Platform for operation with DataSynapse GridServer® software. The application is now configured to automatically draw upon underutilized processing power that exists within the IT environment of most organizations. This enables end users in large organizations to quickly and easily handle the large volumes of financial data required to do daily, and even intra-day, P&L reporting on a global basis, a common requirement for a growing number of organizations, especially in the financial services sector.

Using DataSynapse GridServer technology, organizations can create a cost-effective High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment by tapping into the unused processing and storage capacity of existing servers across the enterprise. Applications that are virtualized can be split into functional components, such as individual calculations, modeling and simulations, that can all be processed in parallel across a distributed computing infrastructure, significantly reducing the overall processing time. [Read more…]

Adaptive Planning Achieves Record Results in 2006

By Budgeting Software Journal

Adaptive Planning announced that it achieved record growth in new customers and partners in 2006. This growth complements key corporate milestones for Adaptive Planning, which include the introduction of the first open source BPM solution, significant expansion of its product suite, completion of its executive team, and receipt of prestigious industry awards and recognition. These fiscal and corporate achievements come as Adaptive Planning closes a $7.5 million round of venture funding led by new investor Cardinal Venture Capital, creating strong momentum for the company in 2007.

In 2006, Adaptive Planning demonstrated exceptional momentum in the BPM market by signing a record number of new customers. Customer growth was strong across multiple industries, including the software, nonprofit, high technology, healthcare, and manufacturing segments. New customers ranged in size from less than $5 million to over $500 million in annual revenues, and included both privately- and publicly-held companies from across the globe. Notable new clients from select industries include Black Duck Software, StepStone, and SuccessFactors (software), DentalPlans.com, Gilsbar Inc., and Passport Health Communications (healthcare), Cortina Systems, Tennant Company, and Uponor (manufacturing), and numerous others including AAA, Jaguar Mining, and Med-Eng.

In addition to adding new customers, Adaptive Planning also deepened relationships with existing clients. As confirmation of its sterling customer satisfaction, over 90% of Adaptive Planning clients renewed their subscriptions. [Read more…]

Business Objects Honors Customers for Excellence in Enterprise Performance Management

By Budgeting Software Journal

Business ObjectsBusiness Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) announced that Catholic Healthcare West, North Fork Bank, and the Securities and Exchange Commission have been named the winners of the 2007 EPM Customer Excellence Awards. The EPM Customer Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding achievements of these companies in using Business Objects enterprise performance management solutions to improve their organization’s performance. The awards were formally presented at Business Objects Insight for Performance Management, the company’s user conference for finance and business professionals taking place this week in Orlando, Florida.

“This year’s winners are representative of the leading organizations that are using our enterprise performance management solutions to address their most challenging organizational issues,” said Mark Doll, senior vice president and general manager of EPM and global services at Business Objects. “I am pleased to recognize these organizations, and congratulate them on their innovative use of planning, budgeting, forecasting, and profitability solutions to improve their organization’s performance.” [Read more…]

Microsoft Announces General Availability Plans for Microsoft Forecaster 7.0

By Budgeting Software Journal

Microsoft ForecasterMicrosoft’s subsidiary FRx Software Corp. today announced that Microsoft® Forecaster 7.0, the latest release of the company’s budgeting and planning software, will be released to manufacturing on March 28, 2007. This latest version of Microsoft Forecaster focuses on enhanced usability, adaptability and visibility, giving organizations confidence that their budgets are realistic and accurate, and enabling them to monitor business conditions and respond to new business opportunities and challenges to improve overall performance.

“Our customers and partners have told us they want an affordable application that will make budgeting and forecasting less cumbersome, faster to implement and easier to use and that will offer greater adaptability to changing business conditions, all of which are addressed in Microsoft Forecaster 7.0,” said Andy Kamlet, director of marketing and sales of Denver, Colo.-based FRx Software. “We seem to have struck a chord with customers as they have reviewed this release, with survey results from our customer preview program showing that 95 percent of them are ‘satisfied’ to ‘very satisfied’ with what they’ve seen.” [Read more…]

City of Little Rock Completes Multi-Suite Lawson Software Implementation

By Budgeting Software Journal

Enterprise software applications from Lawson Software (Nasdaq:LWSN) are now helping the city of Little Rock, Ark., speed data-sharing across departments, enhance reporting and consolidate key administrative information on a single database. The city completed implementation of the Lawson Enterprise Financial Management and Supply Chain Management application suites – and Lawson System Foundation 9.0, Lawson’s latest technology platform, in January 2007.

The city of Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas and the state’s largest city. Its 2,500 employees serve more than 183,000 citizens. Faced with disparate business systems that limited data access to a small group of employees, the city turned to Lawson to help it improve access to key financial and purchasing information and streamline business processes. [Read more…]