Budgeting Software Journal

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

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

Centerline Capital Group (NYSE: CHC), one of the nation’s leading full-service real estate finance companies, has selected Cartesis 10, the integrated platform for financial planning, consolidation and analytics. The Cartesis 10 solution will support Centerline’s strategic business objectives in addition to tackling enterprise-wide performance management challenges.

With more than 500 employees in 10 offices throughout the United States, Centerline needed a fully integrated solution in order to keep the company’s various internal teams strategically aligned. Cartesis 10 will alleviate Centerline’s current reliance on spreadsheets for data collection and manipulation. Switching from a manual, labor-intensive spreadsheet process is necessary to meet the company’s increasing budgeting and reporting needs. [Read more →]

Adaptive Planning announced that its on-demand application has been selected by DentalPlans.com. Adaptive Planning’s easy-to-use solution has enabled the fast-growing discount dental plans provider to formalize their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes, increase managers’ accountability for financial results, and significantly improve decision making.

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.” [Read more →]

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has selected Clarity 6 software to enhance its corporate performance management initiative. Harvard Pilgrim is one of New England ’s largest full-service health benefits organizations providing a variety of insurance plan options and self-funding arrangements to more than one million members.

Driving Harvard Pilgrim’s decision to purchase and implement Clarity 6 was the company’s need for a single web-based suite of integrated solutions to manage, plan and forecast their budget effectively across the organization while leveraging their existing investment in both Oracle and Microsoft Analysis Services (MSAS) databases. [Read more →]

Business Objects has closed the acquisition of privately-held Cartesis S.A., a leading provider of finance and performance management software. The company first announced its intent to acquire Cartesis in April. Customer and shareholder approvals, as well as all customary closing conditions have now been completed.

With the addition of the Cartesis solutions, Business Objects can now provide its customers with a complete set of enterprise performance management (EPM) applications, delivering a comprehensive and powerful suite to the marketplace. The portfolio includes planning and budgeting, profitability and analytics, financial reporting and consolidations, and governance, risk, and compliance solutions. [Read more →]

Arbitron, Inc. selected Applix for its business analytics application. By deploying Applix’s platform, Arbitron is able to perform in-depth budgeting and forecasting for various aspects of its business, from revenue, revenue recognition, compensation and fixed assets to company-wide, activity-based reporting and planning.

Arbitron is focused on helping media companies, advertisers and marketers understand media audiences and how to reach consumers more effectively. Its services and software identify marketplace trends and opportunities, which it turn, translate to company growth. To help manage and meet its unique budgeting and forecasting needs, Arbitron required a highly customizable and scaleable business analytics solution. [Read more →]

Southwest Airlines has selected Clarity 6 software as a single integrated solution for corporate planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting.

Clarity Systems announced that Southwest Airlines has selected Clarity 6 software as a single integrated solution for corporate planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting. After evaluating leading corporate performance management software vendors, Southwest Airlines ultimately partnered with Clarity Systems because of its Excel friendly environment and their desire for a web-based, single suite of integrated solutions that will leverage their existing Hyperion Essbase investment and streamline their data entry and consolidation processes.

“With operating revenues of over 9 Billion dollars in a fast paced, highly competitive industry, we needed a better financial solution to control and integrate our current Excel based financial planning and reporting models,” said Spencer Van Ness, Senior Director Financial Planning, Southwest Airlines. “Clarity Systems did a superb job at demonstrating their ability to work with our current operational and data structures. From baseline financial forecasting, to what-if analysis, and ad-hoc reporting, Clarity Systems’ flexibility stood out in satisfying all of our business requirements.”

“Clarity Systems looks forward to growing our relationship with Southwest Airlines,” said Frank Pizzolato, CEO, Clarity Systems. “A leading Fortune 500 customer like Southwest Airlines demands a performance management solution with a proven track record in serving the needs of large, profitable organizations. In providing the industry’s only unified CPM solution, we’re pleased to help Southwest Airlines realize their performance management initiatives and help them meet the growing demands of their business.”

Four Hyperion partners are showcasing gadgets for Hyperion System 9 Smart Space at Hyperion Solutions 2007. Solutions 2007 is the company’s annual user conference hosted in Orlando, Florida, April 22- 25. The four partners demonstrating gadgets are Applied OLAP, Inc.; Kerdock Consulting; Ranzal & Associates; and TopDown Consulting, Inc.

Smart Space, announced in November 2006, is the industry’s first personalized information delivery solution that delivers “always-on” business intelligence (BI) and BPM to knowledge workers throughout the enterprise. Smart Space gadgets are mini-applications that provide content from Hyperion System 9 software, uniquely integrated into the Windows environment. End users can access a whole library of gadgets, assemble their own personalized environment, and modify the gadgets simply by dragging and dropping or with a single mouse click. Because the gadgets reside on the desktop, they provide users with fast, rich, and interactive access to the information they need.

Since the announcement of Smart Space, Hyperion partners have been actively building gadgets that present subsets of Hyperion System 9 functionality to users. [Read more →]

Brad Mauvais, Project Manager for AIMCO (Apartment Investment and Management Company), America’s largest owner and operator of apartment communities, conducted an exclusive interview with Ron Powell and the Business Intelligence Network. In this interview Mauvais explains why AIMCO needed a performance management solution and describes why they chose a Web-based solution from Clarity Systems to feed property budgets, capital planning and payroll data into a centralized repository. He also highlights the benefits received from successfully deploying Clarity 6, Clarity System’s corporate performance management solution, throughout their organization.

Since implementing the software, AIMCO has expanded their budget, adopted a forecasting system and accelerated the consolidation process with Clarity 6. “There is a level of efficiency we have realized by implementing Clarity 6 and it has allowed us to focus more on the operations rather than the process of getting the numbers where they need to be,” says Brad Mauvais, Project Manager for AIMCO. “The tool is no longer a constraint. All of the data standards are maintained because everyone is entering their information into the same Clarity 6 template. There is more consistency with our data which means we can get our budget out much faster.” [Read more →]

Connect 2007 to Showcase Product Innovation, Recognize Customer Successes and Shape Future of Performance Management Norwalk, CT, April 9, 2007 – Cartesis will convene its 8th annual North American User Conference, Connect, with nationally recognized industry thought leaders, customers and partners. Connect 2007 North America will be held from May 6-9, 2007 at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida.

This year’s event will highlight a new release of the Cartesis suite and focus on business topics such as enhanced business reporting, compliance, corporate responsibility and strategic innovations in financial reporting. The conference will spotlight the growing customer momentum around the Cartesis BPM suite, and best practices in implementation and deployments.

“We view our customers as key partners to help us to stay ahead of business trends and infuse our product suite with new and innovative functionality,” said Trevor Walker, vice president marketing North America. “Connect is a critical venue to showcase our product suite, but more importantly to share best practices and develop strategies to address emerging trends such as XBRL and Enhanced Business Reporting.” [Read more →]