Adaptive Changed our way of looking at FP&A
March 26, 2018
Adaptive Changed our way of looking at FP&A
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Adaptive Insights
Miles uses Adaptive as the standard system for all financial and budgeting/forecasting data. It is used at the executive level down to the project managers. It is the system that we use to evaluate and compare business units and their respective financial impact to the company.
- Forecasting and Budgeting. We went from Quarterly forecasting to Monthly.
- Ease of use. Adoption was very from users that are familiar with Excel.
- Reporting and Variance Analysis.
- Dashboarding and KPIs
- Reporting. Could use a little more functionality, Pivot tables are an example. And Formatting of Reporting. Although, they do offer Office Connect which we use to circumvent these shortfalls.
- Versioning levels. It would be much easier if we could activate or deactivate a level within a version. Right now a level is global.
- Formulas have a quick way to see where a formula is applied and be able to add or change it across all instances. They have a way of doing this but it is a little time-consuming.
- We [started with] one annual budget and 4 quarterly forecasts. After implementation, we are now a monthly forecast and rolling budget.
- The business managers take ownership of the data. Prior to Adaptive, there were always excuses for why the data was incorrect or it was not their fault. Now they own their data and are held responsible for it. Managers now take ownership and the accuracy has improved dramatically.
- The role of our FP&A team has gone from a supportive or IT role to a team member. The FP&A team now helps the business managers make informed and effective decisions and are not just the keeper of an Excel file.
We now have a place where executives down to project managers can go to get real-time progress reporting. Our board reporting is automated through Office Connect. And the Waterfall Reports in Discovery are the best I have seen, and also super easy to create.
My role has changed from what felt like an IT support role to a contributing member. I now do what FP&A managers should do, help business managers make educated and sound decisions that benefit the organization.
- Excel
Real-time roll up, no waiting for VB scripts to complete.