Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) has announced the launch of Collaborative Planning version 8. The latest version of the software company’s budgeting and forecasting system helps organisations to further increase the accuracy and strategic value of their financial plans.
Leading industry analyst firms, such as Gartner, suggest that traditional budgeting and forecasting solutions are restrictive. This is due to finance teams needing greater flexibility to access several separate data sets to support periodic planning with more detail. Making financial data available on a daily, hourly or real-time basis is also required to aid more strategic operational planning.
Nick Wilson, Managing Director of Advanced Business Solutions (Public Sector & Enterprise division), says: “Many organisations are still facing intense pressure to cut spending and work smarter. Technology can play a key role in unlocking substantial efficiency savings which are almost impossible to uncover while finance departments are bogged down with outdated software systems and spreadsheet consolidation.”
To meet the demand for more integrated financial planning, Collaborative Planning version 8 includes the introduction of ‘in memory’ processing, assisting organisations to improve financial transparency and control by facilitating shared knowledge. The new functionality provides enhanced real-time reporting and improved budget modelling capabilities which offer up to 20 times better performance compared to earlier versions of the solution, in addition to greater scalability.
Users are now able to clone information from current and historical budget models in real-time, simplifying the analysis of huge volumes of financial data sets in minutes, not hours. Version 8’s comprehensive scenario modelling functionality allows managers to make accurate and informed plans based on a better understanding of their current financial position.
Wilson adds: “The enhancements in Collaborative Planning version 8 are as a direct result of existing customer feedback. By further simplifying the entire budgeting process, the solution provides time savings typically in the region of 50 to 60%, freeing up finance professionals to add greater value and ensures organisations can plan with confidence for the future.”
Collaborative Planning integrates with all leading financial management, HR and payroll systems to easily create and analyse financial information within one unified solution, eliminating time-consuming and error prone spreadsheet consolidation.
