Posted by admin on July 1, 2011 under Budgeting and Business Intelligence | 
We recently completed a budgeting/reporting software selection project and PROPHIX made it to the Short List, so we decided to highlight them in this post.
Here are a few facts about PROPHIX:
• Formed 1987, privately held. Headquartered in Missaugua Ontario, Canada. 150 employees. 85% of 2,000 customers are U.S. based
• Wizard driven tool, with many graphical queues to assist infrequent users in budget preparation
• Graphical User Interface and navigation, with drill down/out to source data and systems
• Allows document attachment to budget line items
• Provides Business Intelligence reporting including financials, consolidations, roll-up’s, Dashboarding, etc. in addition to budget functions
• Business models are created with Microsoft SQL Server and Analysis Services 2008.
• Built-in Data Warehouse for reporting and storage of financial data/metrics
• Fully flexible capabilities and detailed budget algorithms out of the box
PROPHIX Software is a budgeting, planning, reporting, analysis, and performance management tool for the mid-market. The product allows for the automatic consolidation of data, eliminating the task of gathering and linking multiple workbooks or cutting and pasting data. It uses a spreadsheet interface, and has a workflow cycle to manage the budgeting process, which incorporates optional due dates and reminders for tasks, such as data entry, approvals, processes, or journal entry adjustments.
The system allows users to add line item schedules and user comments and budget using a top-down or bottom-up budgeting approach. PROPHIX automatically consolidates data from different departments to the corporate plan and provides access to users on the local area network, remotely connected over the Internet, or offline using data entry templates.
If you are a mid-market organization looking for a budgeting/planning/reporting solution – PROPHIX should be one of the vendors on your list for consideration.
Posted by admin on June 15, 2011 under Budgeting and Business Intelligence, ERP Software |
Solver BI 360 is a Budgeting and Business Intelligence tool for the mid to enterprise software market. Focused mostly on the Microsoft Dynamics suite of products, the solution leverages pre-built connections with the Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL and CRM and offers reporting, budgeting, and dashboarding. While the majority of Solver’s focus is the MS Dynamics product line, BI360 can also be implemented as a standalone budgeting tool suitable for integration with other financial systems.
Here are a few facts about Solver:
• Formed in 1996, privately held.
• Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with 60 employees and 800 customers.
• Microsoft centric tool; would be a viable replacement for MS Forecaster (formerly FrX) which is being sunsetted.
• Pre-built API’s to various Dynamics applications.
• Excel add-in, with workflow capabilities.
• Built-in Data Warehouse for reporting and storage of budget data.
• Typically sold through the Microsoft Partner channel.
• Solver was the Microsoft partner of the year in 2009.
Because the solution comes with out-of-the-box integrations to Dynamics as well as pre-built report templates, companies that use the Dynamics product family will benefit from the architecture of this tool and be able to leverage the BI capabilities of the software. The reporting and budgeting modules are based on Microsoft Excel and the dashboard module is based on Microsoft Silverlight; this means that users that are already familiar with Microsoft Office (particularly Excel) can quickly learn how to use the tool. The data warehouse is built on the Microsoft SQL Server platform, and is the main store for both financial and expenditure data to facilitate modeling, budgeting, reporting and dashboards. The system allows drill-down to the data contained within the data warehouse as well as data stores outside the warehouse.
In addition to its packaged applications, Solver also delivers customized BI solutions based on Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Services, SharePoint, SQL Server and related Microsoft technologies. The company works with over 200 Microsoft partners worldwide to deliver localized and vertical industry solutions to their customers. Companies who are currently using, or are considering Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions should seriously consider BI360 as a supplement to the base budgeting functions provided by the financial system. This is especially true in multi-company environments that use a distributed budget model requiring corporate consolidations.
