Upgrades financial consolidation, expense management functionality, adds strategy management module
Atlanta — December 5, 2003 — Solution provider Geac this week launched its new Performance Management product line intended to help companies bolster their effectiveness by tightening the linkage between business strategy formulation and operational execution, and by improving monitoring, reporting and decision-making.
Geac said that Performance Management includes improved financial consolidation and expense management functionality, as well as a new software module, Strategy Management, which supports the creation, communication, monitoring and management of strategic plans. In addition, the product line offers integration with various Geac and non-Geac enterprise financial, human resources and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.
The solution provider said that the new product line will allow Geac tap into a growing new segment of the enterprise software market and expand sales opportunities with its 18,000 existing customers. Industry research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) projects the market for business performance management software will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent through 2007, from a base of $1.1 billion in 2003.
The new product line encompasses 10 modules that embrace operational and management functions. Among the new features are:
- Strategy Management, a new module that offers enterprises a mechanism for linking strategic plans to operational plans and performance measures. Geac said the module gives users a method for visualizing and reporting on how the actions of operating units and individuals contribute to strategic goals.
- Financial Consolidation, which Geac says includes improved financial consolidation functionality that accommodates globalization and regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley while also helping companies reduce the time it takes to close the books. Consolidation and statutory reporting of financial data are streamlined with automated consolidation adjustments, multicurrency support, built-in audit trail capabilities and guided workflow capabilities.
- Expense Reports, intended to automate the expense report process from report creation to processing and approval. Users can save and reuse names that they regularly entertain, as well as incorporate guest databases from other systems such as customer relationship management (CRM) and sales contacts, a feature that could prove useful, for example, to pharmaceutical customers facing new federal regulations limiting the frequency of entertaining physicians. Expedited approval capabilities and enhanced support for per diem rules mandated by U.S. and other governments are also part of this latest release, according to Geac.
The product line also comprises planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis, travel plans, payments requests and timesheets.
The Performance Management product line is available immediately throughout North America from Geac's direct sales force.
The new product line represents the melding and evolution of two software suites that Geac acquired when it purchased solution providers Comshare and Extensity earlier this year.
"There is a confluence of powerful market, regulatory and technology forces propelling the business performance management market forward," said Tim Wright, Geac's chief technology officer and chief information officer. "With recent acquisitions, ongoing product development initiatives and key market partnerships, Geac offers customers the products they need to extend the value of current [information technology] investments by ... enhancing the capability, flexibility and strategic management of their existing systems."