BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics 2023
Senior Analyst Christian Fuchs discusses the new edition of BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics (IP&A). Published at the end of March 2023, it assesses the market for integrated planning and analytics solutions and portfolios, helping readers to find the right software solution to meet their needs.
The market and competition remain dynamic and complex for many companies and industries. The future is characterized by cost pressure, resource scarcity and volatility. In particular, satisfying customer needs and securing liquidity in volatile markets require quick decisions and decisive action.
These increasing dynamics require adjustments in corporate management and planning in order to meet growing demands. Flexible decision support and the short-term updating of targets and forecasts are becoming increasingly important. Corporate planning and forecasting must be done efficiently and in shorter cycles and must be updated quickly to promote sound decision-making. This cannot be achieved without the proper software support.
Modern corporate management focuses on increasing the organization’s own performance (performance management). Decision-makers need up-to-date and high-quality information in order to make the right decisions quickly. For this, plans and forecasts must be regularly updated and interlinked with data analytics. The integration of corporate planning and analytics is therefore of particular importance.
To help you find the right software solution for your needs, BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics evaluates the market for integrated planning and analytics solutions and portfolios.
The software market for integrated planning & analytics
The market comprises a wide range of offerings. In addition to globally active providers, many local specialists are thriving.
Solutions considered in this BARC Score must meet a number of requirements. Comprehensive functionality for planning, budgeting and forecasting is essential to be included in the analysis. Relevant core functions focus on the entire planning process (creation of planning models and masks, handling of the planning process, supporting planning functions). Here, the planning of financial topics is every bit as important as operational planning (e.g., sales, production, resources, etc.).
In addition, solutions must have comprehensive functions for analytics and business intelligence (e.g., for reporting, analysis and dashboards). A high degree of user-friendliness and seamless integration between all solution components is a decisive feature of market-leading solutions.
This BARC Score focuses on the market-leading providers with widespread product portfolios. For this reason, vendors must also meet general criteria in addition to their functional capabilities. These include a minimum licence and maintenance turnover as well as their geographical distribution and reach. Since there are two editions of BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics – a global edition and one that focuses specifically on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) – providers must be able to demonstrate a significant number of implementations as well as licence and maintenance sales in the respective regions.
The vendors that met our criteria this year are:
| Vendor | Included in BARC Score IP&A Global | Included in BARC Score IP&A DACH |
| Anaplan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Board International | ✓ | ✓ |
| Corporate Planning | ✓ | |
| IBM | ✓ | ✓ |
| insightsoftware | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jedox | ✓ | ✓ |
| OneStream | ✓ | ✓ |
| Oracle | ✓ | ✓ |
| Planful | ✓ | |
| Prophix | ✓ | |
| SAP | ✓ | ✓ |
| Serviceware | ✓ | |
| Unit4 | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wolters Kluwer | ✓ | ✓ |
| Workday | ✓ | ✓ |
Figure 1: Products featured in BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics 2023
In addition to the providers listed above, there are numerous other interesting and emerging players that were not included in our analysis because they do not yet meet the aforementioned inclusion criteria.
The results of BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics 2023
Many of the solution offerings evaluated have now reached a high degree of maturity. Six “Challengers” are now hot on the heels of the seven “Market Leaders”. We classify well-established providers that achieve strong market penetration as “Market Leaders”. Their product portfolio enjoys a high degree of recognition in the market and covers an extensive range of integrated technologies and requirements. They have a solid product strategy and financial position, convincing sales and marketing programs, and a strong partner network and ecosystem. The “Challengers” segment often includes smaller, innovative providers with a promising product portfolio but lower global penetration, as well as some larger providers that either pursue a specific product and application focus or face the challenge of seamless portfolio integration following acquisitions.
Some vendors have posted impressive growth figures over the past year. At the same time, there is still plenty of demand for commercial software solutions on the user side, despite concerns about the economic future. Many providers therefore expect further growth in 2023 and plan to expand their portfolios.
Figure 2: BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics (Global) 2023
(The unredacted graph is available in the full report)
© BARC 2023
Support for your software selection process
BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics was published on March 30, 2023. The analysis we present can help you to drive your own software selection process. Well-founded descriptions of the providers and their solution portfolios, including a strengths/weaknesses analysis, allow you to compare them with your own requirements.
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