TOP FINANCE EXECUTIVES IDENTIFY SIGNIFICANT NEW TRENDS IN COMSHARE'S ANNUAL BUDGETING AND PLANNING SURVEY
Strategic Ability to Perform Rolling Budgets and Forecasts is Key
Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 28, 2002 -- Comshare, Incorporated, (Nasdaq: CSRE), the leading provider of software applications for management planning and control (MPC), recently announced the results of its fourth annual survey, The Comshare® 2001 Survey of Top Financial Executives: Planning and Budgeting Today. The survey uncovered a key trend: Rolling budgets and forecasts are the wave of the future. Almost half of the respondents indicated they plan to perform rolling budgets in the near future. Of the respondents who specified that they do not currently perform rolling forecasts, 72 percent have plans to do so.
The survey further reveals that the majority of respondents are not currently performing web-based budgeting, but that almost half reveal interest in doing so.
“Survey results underscore that financial executives still struggle with the need to synthesize financial and nonfinancial data and performance measurements in a single, web-based system in which they can also perform planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, reporting and analysis on the fly,” said Brian Hartlen, Comshare Senior Vice President. “Comshare MPC™ software handles all these processes seamlessly and helps decision-makers better manage their businesses, implement strategies, and more effectively prepare for the future — no matter what the economic or business climate is.”
Summary of Key Trends
- The top uses for financial software are:
- Variance analysis/management reporting (47%)
- Financial statement preparation (40%)
- Corporate/enterprise budgeting (37%)
- Operational budgeting (34%)
- Financial consolidation/reporting (34%)
- The top budgeting and planning trend continues to be the need for speed and simplification (31%)
- The top five criteria used when evaluating a planning and budgeting system are:
- Integrating the budgeting system with the planning and forecasting system (61%)
- Using a central database for integration of actuals for budget/forecast comparisons (60%)
- Integrating the budgeting system with the general ledger (57%)
- Achieving faster budget consolidation (55%)
The survey of finance, accounting and IT professionals was developed to uncover trends occurring in the planning and budgeting process in organizations across a wide range of industries, as well as to understand the frustrations or problems users are experiencing with financial software.
About Comshare, Incorporated
Comshare, Incorporated is a leading provider of software for implementing and executing strategy. Our integrated application for management planning and control (MPC) comprises planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation, management reporting and analysis. Comshare software helps companies implement, execute and track progress against their strategies, plans, budgets and performance metrics. In business since 1966, Comshare is one of the top independent software companies, with customers around the world, many of which are Fortune 500 and Financial Times Top 1000 companies. Comshare is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Business Intelligence, a Microsoft Data Warehousing Alliance Platinum Partner, an IBM Business Partner and an Oracle Business Alliance Partner. For more information on Comshare, call 1-800-922-7979, send e-mail to info@comshare.com or visit Comshare’s website at www.comshare.com.
CONTACT:
Sandy Ellinger
Comshare Corporate Communications
734-769-6194
sellinger@comshare.com
Christina Cameron
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
617-520-7109
ccameron@webergroup.com
Comshare® is a registered trademark and Comshare MPC™ is a trademark of Comshare, Incorporated. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
|