BARC Score Financial Performance Management 2023

Senior Analyst Christian Fuchs offers his thoughts on the new edition of BARC Score Financial Performance Management (FPM). Published in March 2023, it provides support in the selection of a suitable software solution for FPM requirements and processes. It analyzes the strengths and challenges of all leading providers and gives an up-to-date, independent and reliable summary of the software market.

The monitoring, management and control of financial performance is essential to ensure survival, especially in economically uncertain times. Market dynamics, fueled by current crises, disrupted supply chains, scarcity of resources and high costs, currently pose challenges for many companies. These include not only transparency in financial processes but, above all, securing liquidity.

The support of modern and requirements-oriented software solutions is an essential element in facing these challenges head on. In this context, the integration of various FPM processes in uniform software platforms creates a central source of information for decision-making. The core processes here include group consolidation and financial statement management, financial planning and forecasting as well as reporting and the analysis of financial data.

The software market for financial performance management

The vendors evaluated in this BARC Score focus on group consolidation, financial planning, financial reporting and related areas. They must cover a good range of FPM functions with the evaluated product portfolio and achieve a minimum level of license and maintenance revenue with the solutions under consideration. In addition, criteria such as the geographical distribution and reach of a provider must also be met.

This BARC Score is published in two versions – a global version and a version that concentrates on the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

The providers that met our criteria this year are:

Vendor	Included in BARC Score FPM Global	Included in BARC Score FPM DACH
Anaplan	✓	✓
Board International	✓	✓
Corporate Planning		✓
IBM	✓	✓
insightsoftware	✓	✓
Jedox	✓	✓
LucaNet	✓	✓
OneStream	✓	✓
Oracle	✓	✓
Planful	✓
Prophix	✓
SAP	✓	✓
Serviceware		✓
Unit4	✓	✓
Wolters Kluwer	✓	✓
Workday	✓	✓

Figure 1: Products featured in BARC Score Financial Performance Management 2023

In addition to the providers listed above, the appendix contains a short summary of many of the other interesting and emerging players in this competitive market.

The results of the BARC Score Financial Performance Management 2023

The global FPM software market offers numerous powerful and mature products.

While the market-leading providers have expanded their leading positions in 2023, many others are emerging as challengers. Products in the “Challengers” segment are often corporate performance management tools that also focus on topics such as group consolidation and financial statement preparation, financial planning and financial reporting. Other vendors have strengthened through acquisition and face the challenge of seamless portfolio integration.

In comparison, the “Market Leaders” offer a comprehensive portfolio for FPM. In addition to established market penetration, they enjoy strong brand recognition and convince with a solid product strategy and financial position, sales and marketing programs, and a strong partner network and ecosystem.

Many providers are working on broadening their own offering. Those that come from areas such as corporate consolidation and financial planning have a strong focus on expanding their capabilities for reporting and operational planning, while those from the areas of corporate planning and analytics are rounding out their offerings with solutions and functions for group consolidation.

The current high demand for commercial software solutions is reflected in particular in the area of market execution (y-axis). Several providers experienced growth in 2022, which is reflected in a strong gain in new customers and significant revenue growth.

Figure 2: BARC Score Financial Performance Management Global 2023
(The unredacted graph is available in the full report)
© BARC 2023

Support for your software selection process

You can find more information about the current edition of BARC Score Financial Performance Management here. The detailed market analysis offers well-founded descriptions of the providers and their solution portfolios including a strengths/weaknesses analysis. This will help you drive your own software selection process and allow you to compare the solution offerings with your own requirements.

BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics 2023