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Host Analytics EPM in the Cloud
September 10, 2015

Host Analytics EPM in the Cloud

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Consolidation
  • Budget
  • Reports

Overall Satisfaction with Planful (formerly Host Analytics)

Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite is being used as a planning tool to build activity based budgets for 26 distribution centers and 2 corporate offices in North America. We are currently implementing a rolling forecast concept in the US. It is also being used as a global consolidation and reporting tool to generate monthly management reporting packages, including financial and operational (statistical) data for each country and area of the world.
  • Integration with Microsoft suite of tools, very easy to extract data from the application into formats non-system users can easily interact with. Excel look and feel is comfortable to finance.
  • Reporting flexibility, able to build dynamic reports and just update variables to run the same report in different views. Often look at schedules and reports that have historically been managed & maintained in Excel and when faced with updating, I resort to building a more automated reporting solution in Host.
  • User friendliness, Finance can own and manage 95% of the application, truly are the masters of our own destiny. No reliance on IT to build budget templates, reports, etc.
  • Full consolidation functionality; ability to book eliminations, dynamic and recurring/standard JE's for more than just the actual results. In the Excel world, we apply the same consolidation process for a forecast or a budget as we do for actual. System should be able to do this as well.
  • Cash flow functionality in a multi-currency environment is lacking. We have been on a very slow journey to improve. While making some small strides, we still have a long way to go.
  • Increased efficiency and more timely access to information
  • More responsive to ad-hoc requests from senior leadership
  • More visibility to data and impacts throughout the planning/forecasting process
  1. Host Analytics Cloud EPM was the most complete cloud based EPM solution we reviewed.
  2. Also seemed the most user friendly and intuitive to navigate.
  3. Seamless integration with Microsoft as well as a familiar Excel like look and feel we felt would increase user acceptance and adoption.
  4. Quicker implementation cycle and finance owned and managed.
Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite has been a great tool to automate monthly reporting and allow us to do scenario comparisons and understand the results in a more timely fashion.

Ask about compare scenarios and history scenarios for planning and how that translates to reporting.
Depending on your needs, ask about time sets, particularly in the budget module and how you get more granular than monthly.

Planful Feature Ratings

8.0
Long-term financial planning
Not Rated
Financial budgeting
8
Forecasting
8
Scenario modeling
7
Management reporting
9
7.0
Financial data consolidation
8
Journal entries and reports
8
Multi-currency management
5
Intercompany Eliminations
Not Rated
Minority Ownership
5
Local and consolidated reporting
9
Detailed Audit Trails
7
8.5
Financial Statement Reporting
Not Rated
Management Reporting
9
Excel-based Reporting
8
Automated board and financial reporting
Not Rated
XBRL support for regulatory filing
Not Rated
Not Rated
Personalized dashboards
Not Rated
Color-coded scorecards
Not Rated
KPIs
Not Rated
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
Not Rated
Benchmarking with external data
Not Rated
9.0
Flat file integration
Not Rated
Excel data integration
9
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
9
BI Standard Reporting ()
Not Rated
Ad-hoc Reporting ()
Not Rated
Report Output and Scheduling ()
Not Rated
Data Discovery and Visualization ()
Not Rated
Access Control and Security ()
Not Rated
Mobile Capabilities ()
Not Rated

Using Planful (formerly Host Analytics)

30 - Finance
2 - Sr. Financial Systems Analyst
Director of Global Reporting
  • Automate manual processes and reporting
  • Create an audit trail around month-end consolidation processes
  • Expand knowledge across the organization
  • Global visibility through a common chart of accounts
  • Statistical accounts to store operational data points and create calculated KPI measures
  • Ability to integrate financial and non-financial data into the same reports
  • Ability to create alternate views of account hierarchies using attributes to drive customer vs. internal reporting
  • Adopting an activity based rolling forecast process
  • User dashboards
  • Business Analytics charts for visualization
We have been using the application for over 5 years now. The Host support team has been great and very responsive to issues and questions. We've seen the application continue to grow functionality and evolve based on customer feedback.
We have a partnership with the Host Analytics team, they genuinely care about our success with the application.