Market Perspectives

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Planful, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal and vendor selection process for business planning. We evaluated Planful and 13 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability) and two related to the vendor (Total Cost of Ownership/Return on Investment and Vendor Validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our expertise and research.

Planful provides applications for planning and consolidation to help finance and business be more effective in managing performance. Its cloud-based Continuous Planning platform enables a high participation, collaborative and action-oriented approach to planning built on frequent, short planning sprints to enhance accuracy. We note that, regardless of its ranking, Planful offers a product that advances the accuracy and effectiveness of planning.

Planful was categorized as a Vendor of Merit, ranking 12th overall in this Value Index evaluation. It ranked 13th in Product Experience, where it performed best in Manageability. It ranked 10th in Customer Experience, TCO/ROI and Validation. Planful’s overall performance was impacted by its lower ranking in Adaptability, Capability and Reliability, which represent 50% of the weighting in the overall Value Index.

Planful could perform better in Reliability, where it ranked 13th, in the area of performance and scalability for more depth in its metrics to support planning. In Adaptability, where it ranked 12th, Planful could examine its depth in customization for specific needs in planning, and its business and data integration support. The change in ownership several years ago has accelerated Planful’s investment into its products for advanced planning and analytical technology to enhance its overall capabilities. This assessment was based on Planful’s Continuous Planning platform, available in September of 2021.

As a result of the rapidly changing business landscape since 2020, and the need to quickly – and intelligently – change business plans and budgets to be agile and build resiliency, many organizations have decided to adopt dedicated software to support a planning approach that offers speed and flexibility. Transforming how organizations plan and budget has become a top-of-mind issue for chief financial officers and CEOs. Our Value Index can help organizations make better informed decisions on software that is best suited to business needs.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of business planning software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here, and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.