Phocas' FP&A software achieves top recognition in global planning survey

Phocas Software evolved its business intelligence (BI) software for manufacturers, distributors and retailers to also solve their financial planning, reporting and analysis needs. Today, Phocas achieved standout results in the BARC 'The Planning Survey 24' and confirmed its place on the FP&A map.

Phocas Budgets & Forecasts and Financial Statements products built on its BI foundation were put to the test in the BARC survey. “Phocas is ranked number one in several KPIs” says Carsten Bange, founder of BARC. In total, Phocas has secured 8 top rankings and 26 leading positions across three peer groups, outperforming dominant players in the FP&A software market.

Showcasing its BI roots, Phocas achieved a perfect score from customers in the ‘Reporting/Analysis’ category¹ along with a top-ranked position for Innovation in two peer groups². These results highlight the critical need for both finance and management teams to have consolidated data within FP&A software to build budgets and forecasts and a live BI platform for comparing budget figures with actual results. This integration ensures budgets are not just set-and-forget tools.

The unique combination of FP&A and BI is appealing to product-oriented businesses and the BARC results reflect ongoing customer feedback. Myles Glashier, Phocas co-founder and CEO says “What sets Phocas apart from FP&A software providers in market today is the solid BI foundation for the Financial Statements and Budgets & Forecasts modules. Our competitors require a BI solution to be added which means multiple integrations and more expense for the customer. Whereas we began by mastering a single source of truth and a BI foundation to help our customers understand performance and collaborate across the business”.

Ease of use is a recurring theme for Phocas in BARC surveys, achieving a leader position in the ‘Integrated Products for Planning and BI & Analytics’ peer group in 'The Planning Survey 24’. And referencing ease of use the Survey reported that Phocas is more widely adopted across a business than most of its rivals. An average of 27% of employees use Phocas FP&A, compared to the overall survey average of 10%.

Glashier adds “FP&A software that can be easily understood and used by the whole business is essential. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers that we serve have to get all their key people contributing to planning and understanding the performance numbers. They can’t afford to invest in a FP&A tool that is siloed in finance. Instead, the sales team needs to capitalize on unexpected spikes in demand or purchasing need to reallocate resources as needed.”

“The market for planning software is incredibly competitive, and dominated by some particularly big players, which makes this achievement even more impressive. Phocas’ continued efforts to listen to our customers, sustainably innovate and create user friendly solutions is testament to our product teams’ ability to deliver software that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations” said Glashier.

Other high performing KPIs in which Phocas achieved either top rank or leader positions in its peer groups include Product Satisfaction, Predefined Connectors, Predictive Planning and Planning Content.

About BARC

Further information can be found at: barc.com/reviews and barc.com/reviews/data-tools.

¹Products for Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Integrated Products for Planning and BI & Analytics and Midsize/Departmental Implementations peer groups

²Integrated Products for Planning and BI & Analytics and Midsize/Departmental Implementations peer groups