Outlooksoft Review
By Michael Burns published in the CAmagazine
November 2003
Buzz
By now you have probably heard of business intelligence (BI) -transformation
of data into information that is useful for decision-making. BI
solves a problem shared by many organizations that have implemented
an expensive accounting or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
but have no easy way to get at the data locked up in a database.
However, BI is only one component of what many organizations require
to make decisions. Organizations are now turning to business performance
management (BPM), which includes not only BI, but also strategic
planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and scorecarding
(linking goals and objectives to corporate-wide key performance
indicators, or KPIs). BPM will often replace multiple systems and
unwieldy spreadsheets, thereby fulfilling different needs within
an organization.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which became law on July 30, 2002, has
created an even greater need for BPM. If a company is listed on
a US stock exchange, CEOs, CFOs and senior officers must personally
certify the accuracy and completeness of financial reports. Management
is also responsible for establishing and maintaining an adequate
internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting.
And companies must file their annual and quarterly reports on an
accelerated schedule. Many accounting and ERP systems lack the functionality
to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley.
There has also been a big shift in decision-making since the dot.com
meltdown. In the recent past, decisions were made for competitive
reasons, especially when it came to technology. Today, business
is back in the driver's seat and you will hear a lot about ROI,
alignment with corporate strategy, balanced scorecards and performance
improvement. But getting the right information can be tricky across
an enterprise that is decentralized. BPM includes the ability to
break down the silos and provide metrics that will show whether
strategic objectives are being attained.
There are a number of products that offer BPM, including Hyperion,
Comshare, Cognos and OutlookSoft. Here we'll focus on one of the
newer BPM products: OutlookSoft.
The product
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, OutlookSoft
Corporation (http://www.outlooksoft.com/) develops, markets and
supports BPM software. OutlookSoft has 140 employees, and about
120 customers worldwide (including Dell Computer, Bank of America,
Prudential and Winn Dixie), with five in Canada (including the Four
Seasons Hotel and Resort, Source Medical and Intrawest). It has
recently opened a Canadian office operating out of Toronto.
OutlookSoft targets companies with revenue greater than $100 million
or with the potential to reach this amount in the next few years.
The price
The package will cost you about $4,000 per user. From a licensing
perspective, OutlookSoft does not distinguish between power users
and regular users. A typical OutlookSoft customer will have 50 users.
The implementation costs will vary widely depending on your requirements
and resources. Some companies want OutlookSoft to build a custom
KPI system, since they don't have the internal resources. But this
solution costs a minimum of 30% of the licence costs.
Assets
OutlookSoft is a single application that combines all BPM functionality
mentioned above. It includes strategic planning tools, scorecarding,
budgeting, forecasting, distribution of reports in multiple formats,
including PDF, Excel, and HTML, and integration with many ERP systems.
It is also a web-based system with one central database (Microsoft
SQL Server). This means anyone anywhere can use the system; all
you need is a browser on the workstation. OutlookSoft uses Excel
as the user interface but you're still using only your browser on
your workstation. It is possible to save your work on your computer,
do some manipulation and later synchronize with the central system.
OutlookSoft's system includes consolidation with intercompany eliminations.
As long as all the intercompany accounts are set up in each subsidiary,
OutlookSoft will do the eliminations automatically and identify
subsidiaries that are out of balance. OutlookSoft will also allow
you to re-allocate costs from one account to a number of other accounts
(cost centres, divisions, etc.) based on allocation rules. Other
features include attaching dimensions to accounts for additional
analysis and security by user or by any dimension.
Liabilities
Although the Excel user interface has many advantages, it is not
as flexible in changing rows and columns as some of the other BI
or BPM products. In other BI or BPM products, you just need to drag
and drop another dimension to be analyzed to the rows or columns;
you can then slice and dice on a different dimension. With OutlookSoft,
you would set up another spreadsheet view with the dimensions you
want to slice and dice.
OutlookSoft has extensive consolidation features but it will require
customization if there has been a change in ownership. Consolidation
of companies that change ownership is tricky. The system needs to
track the percentage ownership effective dates. Things get even
trickier if there are indirect relationships where company A owns
company B which owns company C.
Despite its relatively small size, OutlookSoft has grown quickly
in this market. It is competing with much larger companies, which
continue to get larger through acquisition. In the past few months,
many BI and BPM companies have been bought out. Business Objects
acquired Crystal Decisions, Hyperion acquired Brio Software, Geac
acquired Comshare… who's next?
Bottom line
BPM needs more than good software. Standards are required to achieve
data consistency and management must break down the silo attitude
of managers who pursue individual goals rather than corporate objectives.
Once standards and shared performance goals are in place, OutlookSoft
will have the power to bring the decision-makers across a large,
sprawling organization under one roof.
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