Prophix - providing flexibility to the office of finance
Updated April 07, 2020

Prophix - providing flexibility to the office of finance

Denise Feece | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Performance Management
  • G/L Reporter

Overall Satisfaction with Prophix

At Urschel Laboratories, Prophix is used for multiple applications including financial reporting to all department heads within the division, global consolidation of 18 foreign sales offices, Currency Exchange using 11 difference currencies, budgeting/forecasting, and analytics of the financial and non-financial results of the organization. Outside of the finance area, Prophix will be used for quoting, order, and shipment analysis by customer, product, sales representative, and region. Prophix is our analytical tool to solve all business reporting and analytical needs. Additionally it allows us to combine this information in a common set up metrics for management of all levels to monitor business performance.
  • Prophix is extremely flexible. Anything you can do in Excel, can be done in Prophix only 100% more efficiently while allowing additional analytics that an excel version would not easily allow.
  • The business processes within Prophix are easy to use and applicable across multiple types of business data. Users can analyze, flex, adjust, forecast, and use actual data to develop quick "what if" scenarios for a future time frame. Driver based forecasting becomes easy to create and monitor.
  • The user interface is easy to learn. Template designers and ad-hoc analysis tools are an "Excel" like feel that provides comfort for many users. Formulas and formatting within report templates are easy to learn because of their consistency with Excel.
  • Report templates can be easily bound into any type of output that is required; an Excel work book, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, PDF file, or SharePoint site. This allows for easy creation of management presentations on a recurring basis.
  • Clean looking visual dashboards can be created using the template designer and charting capabilities. These visual displays are drillable, which allow you to link multiple templates into a user driven experience to start with a visual and drill into the details behind the visualization.
  • Prophix is always improving their product and striving to provide those features that customers want. Prophix utilizes a feed back forum that allows customers to provide input into future features that will become available in the product.
  • Items that may have been a struggle in the past have been resolved...for example, a recent release featured a re-design of the template designer. The new functionality made it easier to create template formatting and retain that formatting when adding rows or other data sets.
  • Greatly increased employee efficiency.
  • Greater insight into data providing management with the ability to make data driven decisions.
  • Provides for "one source of the truth" which eliminates disagreements over which data is correct and focuses the discussion on the decision surrounding the data, rather than the accuracy of the data (because the data accuracy is a given)
  • Low cost of ownership, including finances ability to own the solution, limiting the time required from IT.
Over my 13 years of using Prophix at 3 different organizations, I've been able to pull data in from many disparate systems including, AS400 based systems, Windows applications, SAP, JD Edwards, Infinium GL, flat files, and many other sources. All data has been able to be easily integrated within Prophix.
Cloud functionality typically allows for more powerful analysis and AI applications that many companies do not have in house. The flexibility requirement really depends on the organization and their approach to having on-premise or cloud solutions available for their end user base.
Prophix does a really good job of training support staff and ensuring that personnel have the skill set required to meet the customer needs. Support is difficult to do well given the variety of ways that customers can use Prophix. Good support is important to Prophix management, which is evident by the emphasis and effort they put into providing quality and timely support.

I have used Cognos Finance at a previous employer. While the functionality is similar and sound, it's much more expensive and requires an extensive amount of IT involvement.

Additionally I have use Microsoft FRX, which was ok as a reporting tool, however didn't allow for forecasting or budgeting activities. Additionally, it didn't allow for "what if" scenario analysis as it only reported on data that was available in the ledger.

Other BI tools, such as SAP BI, are really powerful, but extremely expensive and require a massive amount of IT involvement. Finance ownership is low in this case.

Everyone can benefit from utilizing the features within Prophix. The only limitations are the creativity of your mind. Key questions to ask during the selection process include understanding the training that occurs during implementation. Prophix is focused on making this a product that is expandable by the end user, meaning users don't have to contract professional services every time a new model is desired. Understanding from the competition what is required to expand the use of models is a key differentiator in this space. Companies that encourage end users to take full ownership of the product provide more ultimate value. If necessary, Prophix can assist with model expansion, but they want the end user to be able to be self sufficient, if that is desired. Another key question to understand in the selection process is the amount of IT involvement. Prophix can be a product wholly owned by the finance office. Required IT involvement in using or creating new models within Prophix is extremely low, which allows finance to be self sufficient and provide value to the business without relying on the IT department for support.

Prophix Feature Ratings

Long-term financial planning
10
Financial budgeting
10
Forecasting
10
Scenario modeling
10
Management reporting
10
Financial data consolidation
10
Journal entries and reports
10
Multi-currency management
10
Intercompany Eliminations
9
Minority Ownership
9
Local and consolidated reporting
10
Detailed Audit Trails
9
Financial Statement Reporting
10
Management Reporting
10
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
9
XBRL support for regulatory filing
5
Personalized dashboards
9
Color-coded scorecards
8
KPIs
9
Cost and profitability analysis
10
Key Performance Indicator setting
9
Benchmarking with external data
10
Flat file integration
10
Excel data integration
10
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
10

Using Prophix

Easy user interface allows end users to learn how to use the application quickly. Time to get up to speed with the application is short and the functionality is straightforward and intuitive.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Reporting and ad hoc analysis are very easy and user friendly.
  • Model designer is a simple wizard that walks the user through the steps to create a new cube (model).
  • Business process manager is straight forward and easy to organize the processes in a logical order that represents the process.
  • The logic behind Smart Monitor is a bit counter intuitive. I find it easier to use template designer to monitor key metrics.
Yes, but I don't use it - Prophix provides a mobile interface so users can get access to their reports on the go using an iPad app. The app works well and involves a request for an updated report to be made to the server, through the app, followed by an updated report (with refreshed data) being delivered to the mobile app.

Prophix Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - Support is covered under the annual maintenance agreement, which also covers any and all software upgrades and new features when available. On occasion, some support requests may turn into professional services, which are billable. However, these type of requests are quoted and provided in advance of work being performed so I have an opportunity to determine if I want to pay for the additional services. These type of items are for enhanced functionality (like a custom MDX statement) and not typical support (something's not working) type of requests.
Yes - All support tickets are responded in a timely fashion that is on an equal basis with respect to the type of issue that the customer is having. If in a "system down" critical type situation, priority will be given to providing immediate support. If the support request is non-critical in nature, it will be scheduled for a call with support personnel at a time convenient to the customer. All support requests are responded to in a short period of time and scheduled for response within few hours.
Prophix has saved my "life". One year during budget season, a remove process was accidentally run that removed all of the budget data from our model, the same day that the final budget was due to corporate. Even though this was our company's error, Prophix got on the job quickly and helped us to restore the most recent back up of our system. This restore enabled us to get the system back up and running and the data relevant as of the previous night's backup. We made our budget deadlines, but only with their help.