Before Northexis, I worked for some vendors in the FP&A space, and I also worked at another implementation partner that worked with some others. I've been kicking around this industry for a long time, in fact, so I'm generally aware of how all the tools are marketing themselves.
And this blog post is to just have a little vent about the fact that it's often ridiculous.
The silly thing is, there are many good tools out there. In fact, some of the worst offenders below are excellent tools. But that kind of...annoys me more?
As a small FP&A consultancy, I try to write useful things in my blog posts. However, the software companies tend to write things just for better SEO (search engine optimisation), and so often you see posts that are clearly just attempting to capture random searches. So they say a lot of useless things. Some of my favourite examples:
- "Businesses will focus on expanding the top line while keeping an eye on the bottom line." (I...hope so?)
- "Interest and tax expenses include any interest a company pays and taxes." (I suppose...correct?)
- "What is financial reporting and why is it important?" (If you're asking, it's probably too late)
The silliest:
- "More than 80% of small businesses have failed due to cash flow issues."
True, in that that is broadly the way to fail as a business? Because...obviously?
How about 10x or 50x "simpler" than Excel? I appreciate the chutzpah in the high numbers, but they are clearly wildly made up - I can't think of a way to measure that.
There's also been a handful I've seen that back up my thoughts on why "predictive is probably not for you". Here are some sensible sounding things:
- "Informed planning decisions cannot be made using historical data alone. Insights provided by predictive analytics can help identify future data trends and guide the decision-making process."
- "Another method which has gained traction throughout the COVID-19 pandemic involves leaning less on historical sales results as a benchmark for future forecasts. Demand has shifted. Entire industries have been forced to rethink their sales and distribution strategies. Forecasting needs to follow by embedding predictive insights and predictive lead scoring into the process. These insights can work alongside internal knowledge and data to drive more accurate forecasting."
Wonderful contradictions: we can't look to the past, we must use predictive analytics! Except, you know, predictive analytics function literally EXCLUSIVELY based on the past.
The worst of the worst is the insistence on generating a name for an essentially basic thing and pretending they invented it. xP&A, Connected Planning, Active Planning, Dynamic Planning, there's a million of them. And there's an incredible generation of the enemy - like "Static Planning". It's all nonsense - forget it.
Talk to vendors, and just look for a tool that is:
- Cloud based
- User serviceable
- Modern and getting more so
Remember, reviews are nonsense.
Last one, here's a stupid thing which I actually enjoyed, and will allow: "The history of business planning goes back to as early as the 18th century, when the Sumerian civilization recorded livestock trading in clay tablets."
(except that actually happened 3000 years BC, and that typo is from a real blog post)
