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Ventana Research today released its 2022 Value Index on Business Planning, a quantified, research-based index evaluating technology providers and products. This Value Index assesses 14 vendors’ products using our methodology and blueprint, evaluating software in seven key categories that are weighted based on our expertise and research to reflect buyers’ needs. The structure of the Value Index reflects our understanding that proper evaluation involves far more than just examining product features, potential revenue or customers gained. We believe it is important to take this comprehensive research-based approach, since making the wrong choice of technology can raise the total cost of ownership, lower return on investment and hamper an organization’s ability to reach its performance potential.

Using the Value Index, businesses can mitigate risk and reduce the time it takes to assess and select business planning software and applications that support planning and budgeting processes. Ventana Research's Value Indexes are the result of decades of experience and over 19 years of research and knowledge of the market for business planning software. It provides an in-depth analysis of technology suppliers' products working to streamline the budgeting and planning processes, evaluating their strengths and gaps compared to competitors’ products.

The Value Index for Business Planning is based on a comprehensive examination of 14 vendors' products in seven evaluation categories, five that evaluate the products' experience and the ability to support the breadth and depth of business and technology needs for business planning and two that address customer experience and the supporting vendor validation and total cost of ownership/return on investment.

The Value Index for Business Planning demonstrates the maturity of the business planning software category. The top finishers are tightly clustered and even those at the bottom of the list have well-developed capabilities far beyond what was available a decade ago. The Overall Value Index Leaders are IBM, SAP and Oracle. Companies that rank in the top three in any category earn the designation Value Index Leader, and eight of the vendors evaluated qualify in this respect. SAP ranked as a Value Index Leader in five of the seven categories; Oracle in four; IBM and Anaplan in three; Board International and OneStream in two; and Vena Solutions and Workday in one. The Value Index leaders for overall product experience across five categories are Oracle, IBM and SAP. Leaders in customer experience across two categories are Anaplan, IBM and SAP.

The Value Index, through the thorough analysis of product and customer experience, has categorized vendors into four classifications: Exemplary, Innovative, Assurance and Merit.The vendors awarded Exemplary are Anaplan, Board, IBM, OneStream and SAP. The vendors awarded Innovative are Infor and Oracle. The vendors awarded Assurance are CCH Tagetik and Workday. The vendors awarded Merit are insightsoftware, Planful, Prophix, Unit4 and Vena Solutions. Criteria for inclusion in the Value Index include minimum annual revenue, countries of operations and product areas of support for business planning software, which are outlined in more detail within the report.

“Technology plays a key role in elevating the business value of planning and budgeting in an organization,” observes Robert Kugel, Senior Vice President and Research Director at Ventana Research. “Dedicated planning software has demonstrated its value over the past two years in promoting organizational resilience and agility in times of turmoil.”

Unlike many IT analyst firms that rank vendors from an IT-only perspective or consider futures or vision over what is available in the products today, Ventana Research has designed the Value Index to provide a balanced perspective of vendors and products that is rooted in an understanding of business drivers and needs. This approach not only reduces cost and time but also minimizes the risk of making a decision that is bad for the business. Using the Value Index will enable your organization to achieve the levels of efficiency and effectiveness needed to use business planning software. Organizations can also use the Value Index as a guide to assess existing technology providers and determine if their provider best meets their needs today and in the future.

"We are ecstatic to bring the Value Index for Business Planning to market, the research that is essential to every organization's success in enabling business planning for the entire organization in a continuous and integrated manner," said Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer. "Our firm strives to focus on categories of software that are essential for every organization and the need to enable forward looking business planning that provides the organizational agility and readiness to ensure business continuity and outcomes desired."

The Business Planning Value Index is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT through advisory services, benchmark assessments and workshops. Ventana Research's goal is to help guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT. To read the market report of the 2022 Value Index for Business Planning, please click here.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including Benchmark Research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This Benchmark Research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our community and benefit from Ventana Research’s insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations’ use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

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