Any Adaptive Planning, Host Analytics, or PlanGuru References?

Hi Mark,

I saw your post and I can provide insight to the Host Analytics product. I work for a midsized manufacturing company and we implemented Host Analytics last year. Please note that I may refer to Host Analytics as Host in my responses below.

- How long did it take you implement? Did you self-implement or do a guided implementation? [CT] We did use an outside consulting company when we were in the initial stages of identifying a product. This consulting company introduced us to Host Analytics. I believe that they used the other companies that you mentioned and can probably give you a fair comparision. Message me if you are interested in contacting them. We do not have a large IT staff and this consultant company worked as our IT project manager. Although I do want to make it clear that IT does not need to be involved with the Host implementation. All IT related functions are handled at Host by Host because it is a SaaS product. Our budget implementation was about 12 weeks. As you design you can deploy to the end users so you do not necessary have to wait until everything is completed to roll out to the end users. I was 100% dedicated to the project and host dedicates 1 person that they call a design architect. The Design Architect came for an on-site visit and then all other correspondence was handled through WebEx. We had weekly meetings and then daily meetings when needed. I personally liked that I was getting one on one attention. While you are in design mode the design architect is also training you so that going forward you can make changes to the software. You will not need a consultant to make changes to Host Analytics in the future. You will be in control of your own application and can add companies, accounts, templates, reports, etc.

- Did you customize at all? (We are not planning to) [CT] Host is customizable to each client. Examples:
• Account string (also known as dimensions)
o IPG: Company-Department-Account-Product-Intercompany
o Your Company: Company-Department-Customer-Region-Market
• # of Years – This will be the number of years budgeted
o IPG: 5
o Your company:2
• Input Templates – Host will initially setup some templates with you. You can modify these templates and add templates without additional cost. The templates are very excel like and accept excel formulas. The columns will be setup for the time period established in your application but the rows will be determined by you. Each line in a template can be either an input, calculation or a reference from another template (like linking files or tabs in excel). You can create one template that is used for all subsidiaries or departments or can have specific templates for each company and/or department if needed. It is really flexible. You are not boxed into to a "standard" setup.
• Reports – Similarly to input templates, Host will setup a certain number of reports with you. Again you can modify and or add reports without additional costs. The income statement for your company may look very different from our company. You are not locked into a specific format.
- How have your department managers accepted the product for budget management and reporting? [CT] Our first year we tried to mirror the excel reports that we were already using as closely as possible. The system is very excel like so it makes it easy for the end user to be trained and accept the system. There are also “forecasting methods” built into the system. These would be things like % growth year over year, month over month, annual growth, etc. The end use can pick by line item which forecasting method they want and the system would auto-populate. Manual input is also always as option and as I have mentioned before excel formulas are accepted.
- What would be your advice for getting executive buy-in?
[CT] 1. Definitely let the “big” players sit through a demo so that they can see all the functions Host has to offer. I have used some of the bigger vendors in the past and Host is very comparable. 2. Stop offering manual excel reports. Explain to them that they will receive reports more timely. Before you begin designing in Host ask the executives what reports they want to see. This will give you a basis for the data that needs to be gathered. If there is a report that they are currently used to seeing and like then mirror it in Host. Give them access to adhoc reports (similar to pivot tables in excel) in Host so that they can analyze data on their own. 3. Setup scorecards for the data they want to monitor. This can be customized for each user.

- What dashboards did you find particularly useful for your organization and management? [CT] You are not limited to a certain number of dashboards or certain type. Each user can have its own set of dashboards. You can also have multiple tabs of dashboards. The dashboard for the CFO and a department head are probably very different. Host also has the “Decision Hub” this is a feature that automatically can pull exchange rates, publically traded financial data, and 1000+ KPIs. These KPIs can be used in the dashboards or can be used as a reference for calculations.

- How much did you spend for implementation? Annually? If you self-implemented, do you have prior implementation experience? [CT] You will need to speak directly with a Host representative. Your company “model” may be very different for ours and I would not want you to base your decision on our setup. However I will tell you that the sale team was informative and went out of their way to meet with us and discuss the options. They were thorough but not pushy. The price was very competitive compared to other quotes and we are satisfied that we got a good deal.

- How was the scalebility to connect to your ERP system? If no ERP, how well would you say your QB connector work? [CT] We currently have multiple ERP systems and some our ERP tables are very customized so we decided to load actuals by file. We were already receiving actuals through files so it was not a change from our current practice. There are ways to automatically connect to the ERP systems which we plan to explore in the near future.
- How well would you say non-accountants understand the software or the reporting/dashboards coming out of it? [CT] If they understand your current reports and dashboards then they would understand the outputs from Host because you will customize it for your company’s needs. If they can input into an excel worksheet then they would be able to input into Host.

- How would long did it take you to get used to the formula programming in software? How long do you think a heavy excel would take getting used to it? It would not take any time for a person to get used to inputting into a template especially a heavy excel user. An administrator who is creating input template would need a little training but a heavy excel user would grasp the setup quickly. Running adhoc reports a non excel user could understand with a 30 minute training and excel user who has used pivot tables would understand it in 10 minutes. Static reports will take a little bit longer to get used to but can be figured out. If you do have trouble with reports or anything else in Host, the support team is VERY receptive. They also have a community where you can post questions and get responses from other host users.
- How adapative are these products if your doing budgets quarterly (We do this because we are growing so fast)? [CT] Host is very adaptive. You can change your hierarchies as needed. You cannot delete anything that has data posted against it but you can add companies, accounts, products, etc as needed without having to bring a consultant in. You can change the templates and reports as needed. You can create multiple scenarios with in the matter of minutes. You can copy data from one scenario to another. You have the option to map different templates to different scenarios. You can use different templates for each scenario so if you complete a detailed budget and a summarized forecast you can have separate templates to accomplish this. You can also use separate scenarios to model. You can have a “base” scenario which is the inputs from the subsidiaries, copy this scenario and then post topsided adjustments through a template to come up with “best case” and “worse case” scenarios. You can create scenario that use different exchange rates to see how currency will impact your budget. You can pull multiple scenarios into reports for comparisons.

- How user friendly is the FTE planning? [CT] It depends how you set it up in Host. The calculation can be a template input or you could use the HR module that host offers.

- Can any of these products breakout the detail of the budgeted items (e.g. - If someone puts $2,500 a month for software expeditures are you able to include the detail that makes up this $2,500) [CT] Yes, the input template allow sublines. This is a place where the enduser can break out detail for a specific line item. They can also input notes and documents to each line item as needed. The overall document can also have a document attached so if you have specific requirements or guidelines you want them to follow you can attach it to the template itself.

I can not stress enough how flexible the system is. Also, being a Saas company you also will reap the benefits of product releases and you do not have to worry about the cost of a server or maintaining the databases. I also want to to mention that they are extremely customer focused. They want you to succeed and be happy with the product.
I hope that you found this useful. If you have any additional questions about Host please let me know.

Thanks,

Colleen

This is great information Colleen I really appreciate you taking the time to answer such a detail request. I did forget to ask if the software allows you to show actual detail. I know Adapative demoed this upcoming feature to when they showed me their demo and that is a really attractive feature to have as this is a very common request from budget managers.