Established in 1941 as Japan’s first manufacturer of optical glass, HOYA Lens has diversified globally into several business areas including electronics, optics, photonics, crystal and vision care, with establishments throughout Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Amidst a global recession, HOYA Lens Australia initiated an evaluation of their existing business and financial processes designed to identify areas for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. One clear opportunity was to automate their budgeting and forecasting processes, which would reduce budget cycle times and provide greater visibility into the key financial performance metrics necessary for managing their rapid growth.

The budgeting and forecasting process was originally driven within the finance department and constrained by the limits of spreadsheets. HOYA Lens Australia wanted a system which would alleviate the frustrations of Excel and engage stakeholders throughout the region. The company’s previous spreadsheet based processes took too long, were incomplete at times and resulted in significant consolidation and version control challenges. HOYA wanted a system which would give stakeholders input, be flexible, easy to use, secure, and deliver dependable results — and which would be low cost, quick to implement and include payroll.

While analyzing budgeting and forecasting tools, Brad Weatherstone, CFO at HOYA Lens Australia, quickly saw how flexible and easy Adaptive Planning was to implement and use. He was impressed with the payroll function, the infrastructure and particularly the quick implementation. The cost/benefit analysis and the value Adaptive Planning delivers made it the stand out choice. “Even if Adaptive Planning only did 50 percent of what it can actually do, it would have stood out,” remarked Weatherstone. “Now instead of spending time chasing down information, we can focus on value added activities, such as conducting analysis and making better, more informed decisions,” stated Weatherstone.

Adaptive Planning’s award-winning financial planning and reporting solution represents an alternative to both manual, Excel-based processes and costly, complex enterprise software. Offered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, the solution is particularly attractive in the current economic climate, starting at just $600 per user annually with no additional hardware or software required.

“Our Australian clients continue to recognize the immense value that Adaptive Planning provides,” said Greg Clarke, President of ABM Systems. “The SaaS model of delivery allows our customers to quickly and easily deploy the solution and begin to more efficiently budget, plan and forecast.”

“Current economic conditions are driving an increased need for timely re-planning, re-forecasting, and ‘what-if’ scenarios,” said William A. Soward, CEO of Adaptive Planning. “We are pleased to be able to help companies of all sizes, worldwide, make better business decisions and execute with discipline as they manage through the downturn and recovery.”

Adaptive Planning works with over 200 partners worldwide. This partner network is comprised of best-in-class solution providers in four key categories — Value Added Reseller, Referral Advisory, Technology Platform and Strategic Solution Provider — who resell, refer, or provide strategic consulting to finance organizations.

Adaptive Planning’s solution for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and “what-if” analysis represents an alternative to both manual, Excel-based processes and costly, complex enterprise software. Because the solution is offered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, it is extremely affordable, starting at just $600 per user per year; does not require any new hardware, software, or IT support; and deploys quickly, averaging just two weeks of consulting for implementation.

Adaptive Planning 6.5 introduces numerous features that improve usability, including enhancements to data presentation, data access, and administrative roles and permissions. Additionally, the popular “Cell Explorer” feature, which allows users to thoroughly analyze any cell within their financial model by drilling down into the sequence of values and formulas used to calculate the final result, is now available within the reports module.

Adaptive Planning 6.5 also extends its best-in-class integration with NetSuite’s on-demand business management suite. Adaptive Planning customers that are integrated with NetSuite, as well as NetSuite Financial Planning Module customers, can drill through from Adaptive Planning reports directly into NetSuite, where they can see the details of the underlying transactions. These users are now also able to export plan data from Adaptive Planning into NetSuite.

Adaptive Planning 6.5 also introduces new local language support, adding Chinese and Russian to the previously supported languages, which include English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

“Adaptive Planning 6.5 not only delivers new capabilities to our customers, but also represents the next step in our company’s ongoing evolution,” said William A. Soward, CEO of Adaptive Planning. “The release demonstrates an important aspect of the SaaS model – unlike the on-premise model which requires internal IT or professional services resources for upgrades, our on-demand customers get immediate access to all of the new functionality. And from our company’s perspective, the expanded features and additional language support will help to further accelerate our rapid, worldwide growth.”

Adaptive Planning Version 5.5 further extends the solution’s leading collaboration capabilities through the addition of two features – Cell Notes and Audit Trail – that allow end users to access key information about their financial model and the underlying planning process. The release delivers increased openness, enhancing data integration with the availability of new connectors, a secure web services API, and new mapping capabilities. And it broadens accessibility by supporting local languages as well as the Firefox browser.

“We are pleased with the progress that we’ve made with Adaptive Planning 5.5,” said William A. Soward, CEO of Adaptive Planning. “In particular, we’ve integrated the new features in a way that makes it incredibly easy for business users to access key information about not just actual and plan results, but also the underlying process and assumptions contributing to the numbers. With this information, users can achieve greater insights into the management of their business — which is especially important and valuable in today’s challenging economic climate.”

“With this release, Adaptive Planning is introducing features that raise the bar in terms of improved functionality versus its competitors, continuing to strengthen its position not only in the mid-market, but also in larger enterprise opportunities,” said Craig Schiff, CEO of BPM Partners, a leading authority on business performance management solutions.

“We are excited about the new capabilities in Version 5.5,” said Patrick Fleck, VP & CFO, Sitzmann Morris & Lavis, an Adaptive Planning customer. “One of the best aspects of Adaptive Planning is that the solution keeps getting better and better. And with the on-demand model, we don’t even need to upgrade. We just log in and automatically get access to the new capabilities.”

The new features introduced in Adaptive Planning 5.5 are:

* Cell Notes: A new interface allows users to add notes to individual cells on sheets, extending the solution’s existing collaboration options which include sheet-based notes and full-featured private collaboration spaces. Fully integrated throughout the application, Cell Notes can be viewed on sheets, accessed in the Cell Explorer view, and automatically included as footnotes in reports. Full search capabilities further improve the value over other solutions’ notes capabilities.
* Audit Trail: A new feature allows users to easily track, view, and search the history of user-entered changes for every cell in the plan. It provides insight into both the financial model and the overall planning process, improving accountability and control by enabling users to see what changes were made, where, when, and by whom. And by exposing Audit Trail within the Cell Explorer view, the solution places actionable information at business users’ fingertips.
* Enhanced Data Integration: Extends Adaptive Planning’s existing data import and export capabilities with several new features:
o Adaptive Planning Connectors: Enable automated imports of data into Adaptive Planning from a variety of different general ledgers, databases, and files. With a library of connections to hundreds of business systems, coupled with remote implementation, Adaptive Planning Connectors dramatically simplify data integration for end-customers.
o Mapping Enhancements: Simplifies the management of data import and export maps, supporting both manual and automated data integration.
o Web Services API: Supports automated import of actual and plan version data via a secure web service interface.
* Internationalization & Localization: Displays the Adaptive Planning application in different languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. The application is now fully internationalized, with a local language interface, local language data entry, and locale-specific number and date formats.
* Firefox Browser Support: Allows users to access Adaptive Planning using the Firefox browser on Windows and Red Hat Linux operating systems.

Availability and Pricing

Adaptive Planning Version 5.5 is available immediately. Local language support will be available in Q1 2009. With the exception of the Adaptive Planning Connectors, the features are available free of charge to customers with a current Adaptive Planning subscription. The Adaptive Planning Connectors are available for a separate fee: $50 per user per year for the first connector, and $25 per user per year for each subsequent connector.

All of the features are available in both Adaptive Planning Corporate and Enterprise Editions. Firefox support and Internationalization / Localization are available in the Adaptive Planning Express Edition.
About Adaptive Planning

Adaptive Planning is the worldwide leader in on-demand financial planning and reporting solutions that improve financial agility, strengthen collaboration, and drive better-informed, more strategic business decisions in companies of all sizes. Adaptive Planning makes it easy to move beyond spreadsheets and automate budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, without the cost and complexity associated with traditional business intelligence and BPM software. With free software, free trials, and both on-demand and on-premise deployment options, Adaptive Planning provides the fastest and easiest approach to streamline and elevate your financial management. Adaptive Planning is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and can be reached at 650-528-7500 or www.adaptiveplanning.com.

Within a five year span that began in 2002, SourceForge has transformed itself from a hardware company to the global technology community’s hub for information exchange, goods for geeks, and open source software distribution and services. The company’s network of web sites serves more than 32 million unique visitors each month and includes SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org, ThinkGeek.com, Linux.com, and ITManagersJournal.

“SourceForge and our network of sites bring the global technology community together, but internally we found that certain financial processes were still very manual,” said Jeffrey Chalmers, corporate controller, SourceForge. “Since standardizing on Adaptive Planning, we’ve been able to streamline our budgeting and forecasting processes. By integrating Adaptive Planning with our general ledger system, Oracle Financials, we have made it easier for business users throughout the company to receive more accurate information on a more timely basis, and to better analyze both historical and forward-looking information.”

Prior to implementing Adaptive Planning, SourceForge’s financial planning system revolved around 17 interconnected Excel spreadsheets. The process of reporting to department heads involved another eight spreadsheets.

“Department heads had little say in the planning process because they lacked visibility into the information,” said Chalmers. “The situation came to a head when we were faced with presenting our annual plan to our board of directors. With our deadline fast approaching, we knew we needed a more efficient and reliable system.”

After implementing Adaptive Planning, the SourceForge team was able to create an annual plan, review it with senior management, and revise it in a brief two-day period. As a result of the application’s intuitive, spreadsheet-like interface and browser-based access, business unit owners and department heads from across the company were able to login and begin collaborating on the planning process.

Using Adaptive Planning, the company now revises its forecasts on a monthly basis, enabling key stakeholders to work with the most current actual and plan information in a single, easily-accessible online application.

“People who had never participated in the planning process are now creating their own budgets and managing monthly forecasts, which increases their financial accountability and gives department heads greater visibility for better decision-making,” added Chalmers.

SourceForge chose to deploy Adaptive Planning’s on-demand, software as a service option, allowing them to implement the solution quickly and easily, without placing any burden on IT resources. Another benefit of the on-demand model is that they receive automatic upgrades to new versions of the application, such as the recently-released Adaptive Planning 4.0.

SourceForge has integrated Adaptive Planning with their Oracle Financials system, enabling the company to more easily create reports and perform analyses that compare actuals to plan or forecast data. This integration will also help streamline month-end closing and SEC reporting.

“Automating our integration with Oracle eliminates manual uploading and report generation tasks during the month-end close process, when time is very valuable,” added Chalmers. “With Adaptive Planning’s latest 4.0 release, our department managers now have an extremely easy-to-use drag and drop reporting tool that incorporates actual data, allowing them to view their performance against plans and up-to-the-month forecasts.”

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.

“Unitrin Direct is a customer-driven family of companies that is committed to providing outstanding auto coverage at a great value, so we’re constantly seeking ways to improve our operations, reduce costs and pass those savings along to the consumer,” said Bryan Rogers, Vice President of Finance, Unitrin Direct. “Adaptive Planning provides the tools for us to better understand our business, optimize our operations and improve our budgeting and planning processes.”

After evaluating a number of solutions, Unitrin Direct selected Adaptive Planning because the company’s on-demand service was affordable, easy to use, and could be deployed in weeks.

“Because we are focused on providing extraordinary value to policyholders, we are extremely disciplined in how we invest our resources, including personnel, time, and capital,” said Rogers. “Adaptive Planning’s subscription-based, on-demand service allowed us to get up and running quickly, without requiring purchases of new hardware or software, or any involvement from our IT personnel.”

Adaptive Planning provides businesses worldwide with an attractive new alternative to spreadsheets for managing their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes. Designed for companies that have outgrown Excel, the solution combines the flexibility of spreadsheets with the structure and process of enterprise applications. Adaptive Planning delivers a single, integrated solution with capabilities for budgeting and forecasting, reporting and analysis, graphical dashboards, collaborative modeling, and administration. To meet a wide range of client needs, Adaptive Planning is offered in three editions, all of which are available both on-demand and on-premise.

Less than a decade after its founding, DentalPlans.com has emerged as a leader in delivering comprehensive discount dental plans to individuals, families and groups. To continue its profitable growth, DentalPlans.com realized it would have to increase the scrutiny and accuracy of its internal controls, accounting and collections. “We had gained enough momentum and resources to start preparing for the future, rather than just reacting to what was happening,” said Buddy Johnson, chief financial officer of DentalPlans.com. “Our new solution had to meet two key criteria: one, help us build a formal budget process that would hold people accountable; and two, enable us to run forecasts that would appeal to potential investors.”

After evaluating eight different budgeting, forecasting, and reporting systems, DentalPlans.com found that most solutions were either too simplistic for the company’s business needs or too costly and complex for its personnel to support. Only Adaptive Planning offered the right balance.

“Adaptive Planning let us meet our critical needs with one system,” said Johnson. “It’s a perfect fit for companies that want an enterprise-class budgeting, forecasting, and reporting system but haven’t yet reached enterprise size.”

After configuring their model in Adaptive Planning’s online application and providing access to users throughout the company, DentalPlans.com was able to significantly enhance its planning, budgeting and forecasting processes. Using the system, DentalPlans.com has, for the first time ever, created a formal budget—enabling performance management that just was not possible before.

“We’re using our budget as a management tool to increase everyone’s accountability,” said Johnson. “Budget participants are really taking ownership of the process. After not having a formalized budget process, suddenly everyone is ‘talking budget’ around here.”

With Adaptive Planning, DentalPlan.com’s executives can collaborate more effectively as they refine and implement performance measures for the company. Managers meet monthly to make key business decisions based on consistent, accurate reports.

“Once we were up and running on Adaptive Planning, we began using a collaborative process to forecast monthly revenues. For the first month of the fiscal year, I expected to be off by about 10 percent,” said Johnson. “But we were only off by one-half percent! Adaptive Planning’s forecasting tools really helped us hone our results.”

DentalPlans.com uses Adaptive Planning’s dashboards to deliver self-service and ad-hoc reports to managers and executives. The company also uses the solution for its ongoing monthly reporting process—producing a management model that integrates reporting, forecasting and business planning.

“With the reporting we used to do out of our general ledger, there was no way of validating numbers,” recalled Johnson. “With Adaptive Planning, there are checks and balances to help point out inconsistencies so that we can quickly make adjustments when our numbers are out of sync.”

“Not only is the Adaptive Planning system user-friendly, but the customer service unbelievable,” noted Johnson. “Our support contact is like an extra member of our staff. She’s very responsive, always available, and any issues are always resolved quickly.”

Adaptive Planning announced the availability of Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand, a free entry-level addition to its suite of budgeting, forecasting, and reporting solutions. Designed to revolutionize the BPM market, Express Edition On-Demand removes the obstacles that have previously prevented small and midsized companies from adopting enterprise-class performance management solutions. With the addition of this new product to its suite, Adaptive Planning has changed the rules of the game, redefining how easy it can be for mid-market companies to move beyond Excel-based budgeting and dramatically improve their business results.

For decades, managing budgeting, forecasting and reporting has simply been too hard for too many companies. Most businesses use manual spreadsheets, which takes too much time, creates too many errors, and results in poorly informed decision making. A subset of companies has moved beyond spreadsheets and adopted BPM or business intelligence (BI) alternatives for automating these financial processes. However, these enterprise solutions create a new set of difficulties—they are costly to acquire, time consuming to implement, and complex to use. Given the problems with BPM and BI applications, over 80% of companies have elected to endure the pain of spreadsheets.

Now, Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand provides a breakthrough new alternative to both Excel spreadsheets and enterprise BPM and BI tools. Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand is a powerful, enterprise-class solution that is available for free and that can be instantaneously accessed around the world with only a web browser. With no software to install, no fees, no restrictions on the duration of use, and access for up to 50 users per company, Adaptive Planning has finally removed the key barriers that have historically prevented small and midsized businesses from moving beyond spreadsheets to automated BPM and BI software.

Companies worldwide can now visit www.adaptiveplanning.com, register for Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand, and get instant access to the application. By using Express Edition On-Demand, companies can immediately begin to cut months of time from their budget process, improve the accuracy of their plans, and enable more informed business decisions—all of which drive increased competitiveness.

Designed for small and midsized companies and teams, Adaptive Planning Express Edition features include an intuitive, spreadsheet-like user interface; standard sheets for planning expenses and revenues across multiple dimensions; a specialized personnel planning sheet; formula-based modeling; and management of organizational hierarchies and user access rights. The product also includes a Get Started Wizard to help new users set up their company plans.

“For years, companies of all sizes, and especially small and midsized companies, have settled for second best by managing their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes using spreadsheets. Many companies simply do not have the resources—personnel, time, or capital—to implement an enterprise BPM solution,” said Craig Schiff, chief executive officer, BPM Partners. “With the introduction of a free on-demand budgeting solution, Adaptive Planning is providing small and midsized companies with an attractive alternative that reduces or even eliminates personnel, time, and capital resource requirements. By removing these barriers, Adaptive Planning is making it easier for companies to try out, and use, enterprise performance management applications.”

Budgeting, Forecasting, and Reporting Made Easy

In addition to Express Edition On-Demand, Adaptive Planning’s suite includes an on-site version of Express Edition, as well as two commercial versions, Corporate Edition and Enterprise Edition, which are available on-demand and on-site and provide enhanced features, expanded support, and indemnification. By adding Express Edition On-Demand to its suite, Adaptive Planning solidifies its position as the easiest solution for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting:

* Easy to “Test Drive.” It takes less than 30 seconds to sign up for and access the on-demand application, or you can take advantage of the “1-click” download and install process for on-site software. Alternatively, you can evaluate an online demo or talk with a product expert at your convenience.
* Easy to Get Started. Free versions of entry-level software are available, and full-featured commercial versions start under $500 per user. No new hardware or software is required, and fixed bid services contracts mean there is zero implementation risk.
* Easy to Customize. You can begin immediately, using the Get Started Wizard to create your company-specific plan in hours. Client services are also available, with implementations that take only 2-4 weeks on average. Source code is available for even deeper customization.
* Easy to Use. Power user training takes only 2 hours on average, and business user training takes under 30 minutes. Both can be completed using self-service video training. The software eliminates manual spreadsheet consolidations and errors due to broken macros. Graphical dashboards and charts can be created on the fly by business users, who appreciate the familiar spreadsheet-like interface.
* Easy to Collaborate. Unlike spreadsheets, Adaptive Planning delivers one version of the truth for all employees in a company. Because it supports 1,000’s of simultaneous users across every department, you can harness the collective intelligence of employees throughout your company.

“The introduction of Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand marks an important milestone for the industry—and more importantly, for customers,” said William A. Soward, chief executive officer, Adaptive Planning. “Never before have companies had access to a free enterprise software alternative to Excel-based budgeting. By introducing Express Edition On-Demand, Adaptive Planning is delivering on our mission to dramatically expand the market by providing the easiest, most accessible, highest-value BPM solutions to companies worldwide.”

Adaptive Planning Express Edition On-Demand is available now by registering at www.adaptiveplanning.com. Registrants receive instant access to the software and can begin automating their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting immediately. The software is free for companies with fewer than 50 users.

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.

In 2006 Adaptive Planning also launched a worldwide partner program and tripled its roster of partners. By committing marketing, sales, and technical resources to the partnership, these organizations are helping Adaptive Planning expand its reach and successfully support growing international demand.

Other key corporate milestones achieved by Adaptive Planning include:

* Introduced First Open Source BPM Solution. In August 2006 the company launched the industry’s first open source BPM solution, Adaptive Planning Express Edition, which provides an entry-level set of capabilities for collaborative budgeting and forecasting. Available for free, this application features a simple “one-click” approach to downloading and installing powerful enterprise software. To date, the project has generated over 35,000 downloads from 69 countries, demonstrating broad market acceptance for solutions that address the unmet need for affordable, easy-to-use BPM solutions. Adaptive Planning Express Edition consistently ranks as the top project in the “Spreadsheets” and “OLAP” categories at SourceForge.net, among the top five highest ranking projects in the Finance and Accounting categories, and in the top 50 out of 143,000 total projects. Adaptive Planning was also a founding member of the recently announced Open Solutions Alliance, a consortium of leading open source companies dedicated to driving adoption of comprehensive open source business solutions.
* Significantly Expanded Product Suite. During 2006, Adaptive Planning introduced new product configurations, offering its solutions in three editions—Express Edition, Corporate Edition, and Enterprise Edition—to meet the varying needs of different types and sizes of companies. The company also introduced an on-site version of its leading software as a service (SaaS) solution, providing customers with flexible deployment options. And finally, Adaptive Planning released three new versions of the software, with each release continuing to add new product features that help companies automate their budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analysis. Notable new features include graphical dashboards and charting, a Get Started Wizard, workflow, multi-currency support, and numerous user-requested enhancements. All told, these flexible choices, together with the software’s powerful, affordable, and easy-to-use features, deliver unprecedented value to budgeting, forecasting, and reporting clients worldwide.
* Completed Executive Team. Adaptive Planning completed its executive team in 2006, with three key hires that contribute both operational excellence and domain expertise to the company. William A. Soward joined as chief executive officer. Previously, he was general manager of FRS, S1 Corporation’s most successful business unit, as well as interim CEO of S1 Europe and S1’s Edify business unit. Neil Thomas was named vice president of sales. Previously, Neil was a sales executive at Cognos and a founding member of the budgeting and planning company Adaytum. And Kumar Thiagarajan joined as chief community officer, responsible for spearheading the company’s open source and on-site initiatives. Prior to Adaptive Planning, Kumar was founder and CEO of CastBridge, a real-time collaborative spreadsheet company.
* Received Prestigious Industry Awards and Recognition. Adaptive Planning was named the “2007 Mid-Market Vendor of the Year” by BPM Partners, a noted authority on budgeting, forecasting, and reporting solutions. In granting the award, BPM Partners cited Adaptive Planning’s leading-edge product offerings, as well as its outstanding customer satisfaction marks—the company placed in the top four out of more than two dozen BPM vendors whose customers were surveyed. In addition, Adaptive Planning was named a finalist in the Best Financial Software Solution category of the 2007 CODiE Awards, which honor outstanding achievement and vision in the software industry. And, Adaptive Planning’s unique business model and customer value were highlighted in leading industry publications and analyst reports including The Wall St. Journal, Inc. Magazine, Business Finance Magazine, Financial Executive Magazine, Intelligent Enterprise, and Gartner, Inc.’s Magic Quadrant for CPM Suites, 2006, among others.
* Closed New Round of Venture Funding. Adaptive Planning recently completed a new round of funding, with a $7.5 million investment led by new investor Cardinal Venture Capital. The new funds will be used for additional product development to expand the breadth of solutions it offers its customers, as well as to extend its marketing, sales, and business development activities.

“We are delighted with our 2006 growth and corporate achievements,” said William A. Soward, chief executive officer, Adaptive Planning. “We are particularly pleased with our strong rate of customer adoption and stellar customer satisfaction scores, which testify not only to the value that our solutions deliver to mid-market clients, but also to our company’s commitment to world-class support. We are now building on these successes to make 2007 a breakout year for Adaptive Planning.”

Adaptive Planning enables companies to move beyond Excel spreadsheets and improve decision making by automating their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes. Optimized for the needs of midsized companies, Adaptive Planning is available in three different product editions. Express Edition is a free open source version for entry-level budgeting and forecasting. Corporate Edition and Enterprise Edition are commercially-licensed versions that provide enhanced features for company-wide performance management, as well as expanded support and indemnification. The software can either be accessed as an on-demand, web-based service, or deployed on-premises in a company’s datacenter.

New features and expanded capabilities in Adaptive Planning 3.5 include:

• Get Started Wizard. This new feature provides an automated, step-by-step guide that takes new users through the process of setting up their companies’ financial models. The wizard makes it even easier for companies to transition from Excel-based budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes to Adaptive Planning, allowing business users to get up and running with customized plans in a matter of hours.
• Dashboards and Charts. New capabilities for adding graphical dashboards and charts enable managers throughout a company to gain an at-a-glance view of their business performance, improving the timeliness and quality of decisions. Intuitive and easy to use, the dashboards and charts can be created and personalized by non-technical users, without IT support.
• Platform Refinements. Numerous refinements to the underlying Adaptive Planning platform include further support for multidimensional modeling and analysis, additional capabilities for importing and managing data, and enhanced usability features.

The new dashboards, charts, and data import capabilities are available in Adaptive Planning Corporate and Enterprise Editions. The Get Started Wizard and other platform refinements are included in all Adaptive Planning editions.

“Our research shows that companies of all sizes-and especially small and midsized businesses-continue to rely upon spreadsheets for managing key financial processes,” said Robert Kugel, Senior Vice President and Research Director at Ventana Research. “In these situations, spreadsheets waste time and often prevent companies from making these key processes more effective. Small and midsize companies have been reluctant to change because of the technical complexity of the performance management and business intelligence solutions designed for large corporate deployments. By developing solutions that are easy to deploy and use, Adaptive Planning provides an attractive alternative for midsized companies and departments of large corporations.”

“In order to make informed decisions and compete effectively, managers in every organization need timely access to key financial and operational information,” said William A. Soward, Chief Executive Officer of Adaptive Planning. “With the new dashboards, charts, and modeling features in Adaptive Planning 3.5, business users throughout a company can now access powerful tools to quickly understand and manage their businesses. With this release, Adaptive Planning brings the benefits of BPM to even more business users in the mid-market.”

Availability and Pricing
Adaptive Planning 3.5 will be available Friday, February 9. All Adaptive Planning customers will receive the new features at no charge as part of their annual subscriptions. On-demand customers will be automatically upgraded, while Adaptive Planning’s client services team can assist on-premises customers with the upgrade.

Users of Adaptive Planning Express Edition can download and install the new release of the application from www.adaptiveplanning.com/download. Companies that are interested in evaluating the features of Adaptive Planning Enterprise Edition can register for a free on-demand trial at www.adaptiveplanning.com/trial.

The “Mid-Market Vendor of the Year” award was presented during BPM Partners’ fifth-annual “Beyond the Hype” webcast. The event, produced in conjunction with Business Finance Magazine, reviewed industry trends and revealed the results of vendors’ customer satisfaction ratings collected in BPM Partners’ “BPM Pulse Survey.”

“Adaptive Planning stands out as a company that clearly understands the mid-market, delivering innovative new solutions optimized for the needs of midsized companies,” said Craig Schiff, chief executive officer, BPM Partners. “They recognize that mid-market companies have the same information needs as major corporations, but lack the resources—personnel, time, and capital—typically enjoyed by large enterprises. And by aggressively leveraging new ‘BPM 2.0’ technologies, such as software as a service and open source, Adaptive Planning provides midsize companies with exciting new alternatives to spreadsheets for managing their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes.”

“We are pleased to be recognized as the ‘Mid-Market Vendor of the Year,’” said William A. Soward, chief executive officer, Adaptive Planning. “We are also proud that our customer satisfaction score ranked among the highest of all firms surveyed. Taken together, the industry award and excellent customer marks demonstrate that Adaptive Planning is continuing to execute on our mission of providing unprecedented value to midsized companies through low-cost, high-quality, quick-to-implement solutions and world-class customer support.”

Adaptive Planning provides flexible choices to customers through three different product editions and multiple deployment options. Adaptive Planning Express Edition, the free open source version, provides entry-level budgeting and forecasting capabilities for departments and teams. Adaptive Planning Corporate Edition and Enterprise Edition, which are available under commercial licenses for low annual subscription fees, provide enhanced features for company-wide budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analysis, as well as expanded support and indemnification. The software can either be accessed as an on-demand, web-based service, or deployed on-premises in a company’s datacenter.