OutlookSoft CPM for Planning
Date:
By: Philip Howard
Classification: Product Evaluation
OutlookSoft CPM for Planning offers a fairly conventional (if modern) planning
solution for both financial and operational purposes. As one might expect there
are also complementary (financial) functions available from OutlookSoft, such as
consolidation and financial reporting. However, there are two additional points to
be made: first, Planning does not exist in isolation (even leaving aside other financial
functions) and OutlookSoft also provides predictive planning (OutlookSoft Insight)
as a complementary facility to Planning itself. This is a reflection of the fact that
chief financial officers do not simply want to report, they also want to be able to
take action. For this reason, this report also considers Predictive Planning in some
detail.
Secondly, OutlookSoft CPM for Planning and Predictive Planning forms a part
of the company’s unified corporate performance management product, Outlook-
Soft CPM. This is not a suite in the sense of a series of integrated applications but
rather a unified approach to performance management utilising one product, one
database and one user interface. This is of such significance, at least as far as OutlookSoft
is concerned, that the company will strongly question an opportunity
where companies are only interested in implementing a planning solution and
have no current or future interest in performance management. For this reason
there is little purpose served in discussing OutlookSoft Planning in isolation, as
it can only be properly appreciated within the broader context of corporate performance
management. Thus we will concentrate on the specifics of planning but
always within its wider context.