Many organisations spend more time collecting and reporting information than in the high-value activities of planning and analysis. The real issues confronting management are often obscured by the sheer volume of information, hidden like a needle in a haystack.
The launch of Comshare BudgetPLUS 3.0 tips the scales in the favour of users by significantly reducing the time required for data collection, consolidating, and reporting, and immensely increasing the time available to analyse and plan.
BudgetPLUS version 3.0, an integrated application for planning, budgeting, management reporting, and analysis for relational and multidimensional databases, is available locally through SPL.
With the release, Comshare takes a leadership position in the planning and budgeting application marketplace. BudgetPLUS 3.0 combines support for multiple databases; rich budgeting, reporting and analysis; and advances in ease of deployment and use. This next-generation software is Web-architected and based on mainstream relational technology of industry giants, Microsoft and Oracle, and Hyperion Solution`s multidimensional database. BudgetPLUS 3.0 is the world`s first enterprise management planning and control application that exploits the Web as a platform. Other products might provide Web access for data browsing and information delivery, and they might even allow data entry over the Web," says Gavin Steinberg, Comshare manager at SPL, a member of the Dimension Data Group, "but BudgetPLUS 3.0 is the first Web-centric application of its kind. It is not just Web-enabled. It is architected for the Web. It embraces Web technology as a comprehensive, integrated solution for planning, budgeting, reporting, and analysis."
Steinberg says BudgetPLUS lets the user see the entire organisation at a glance, automatically highlighting every out-of-range condition across the operation. "BudgetPLUS is the only product that supports an enterprise-wide view of your performance. Problems and opportunities become easy to see amid a sea of data noise. BudgetPLUS 3.0 is a powerful solution for analysts, budgeting managers, controllers, financial directors, and IT professionals all of whom need to concentrate on their business, not data manipulation."
BudgetPLUS is easy to implement, deploy and use, because it comes "Ready-to-Go." It leads users through an integrated business process of planning, budgeting, management reporting, and analysis. The software is ready-made to automate the processes of target setting, data collection, consolidation, rolling forecasts, management reporting, and "what-if" analyses. BudgetPLUS 3.0 also includes built-in business modelling that applies best practices in management planning and control applications.
It is an integrated application complete with a flexible methodology and easy adaptability to any company`s management planning and control process.
"Organisations are often frustrated with the time and effort required for budgeting, especially as more people are getting involved in the budgeting and reporting process," says Steinberg. "Comshare`s application methodology reduces implementation time and effort, limits on-going application maintenance, and streamlines users` work to focus on critical business-planning issues."
BudgetPLUS supports both client/server and browser-based approaches to planning, budgeting, reporting, and analysis. Companies are able to implement their applications using one or the other, or an optimum mix of both. This ensures that the cost of supporting and maintaining a BudgetPLUS 3.0 application will be minimal, based on what is best to meet the needs of the customer.
Unlike primitive file-based budgeting products and many home-grown spreadsheet solutions, BudgetPLUS has a centralised database, so plans, budgets, forecasts, and actuals are readily available for reporting and analysis. The data integrity issues associated with file-based systems are a thing of the past. Data maintenance and organisational restructuring are only carried out once, with changes instantly available to all users. As a result, customers are able to deploy and support BudgetPLUS 3.0 broadly across their organisations to truly serve the planning, budgeting, management reporting, and analysis needs of the enterprise, with confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the data and process.
From an IT standpoint, BudgetPLUS 3.0 is designed to work on the most popular databases used by companies around the world. BudgetPLUS 3.0 adds compatibility with relational databases to Comshare`s established version for Hyperion Solutions Essbase.
"With BudgetPLUS 3.0, organisations with strategic investments in Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server do not have to purchase additional proprietary OLAP technology," says Steinberg, who adds that this ability was demonstrated locally at the recent Oracle SA User Group Conference. "BudgetPLUS 3.0 enhances the value of the data in general ledgers, ERP systems, and data warehouses by providing world-class management planning and control systems. Companies can use the relational technology and people skills they already have to minimise their overall investment."
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Dimension Data Holdings
Dimension Data Holdings is South Africa`s largest Information Technology integration company with turnover of R4,7-billion (1997/98). Based in Johannesburg and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Group is fast becoming a global organisation with offices in Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom. Its subsidiary, Datacraft Asia, is listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Singapore.
Dimension Data Holdings` key business focus is on Network and Systems integration and on the technologies associated with electronic commerce, voice/data convergence and customer management.
SPL, part of the Dimension Data Group, has long been recognised as a high value IT partner to South African corporations and government. The company focuses on customer management, information management and enterprise systems.
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