Keep Excel, but lose the headaches.
We’re a Vena implementation partner, and when a new platform is the right answer, it’s the one we implement. Here’s why we chose it, and where it isn’t the answer.
Why we chose Vena
Excel is brilliant. Most finance teams already know it inside out, and it’s more flexible than anything built to replace it.
But on its own, it can’t run a proper process. For that you need:
- One database. A single set of numbers, big enough for all your data, that everyone reads from.
- Proper security. Everyone sees only what they’re supposed to, with a full record of who changed what.
- Workflow. Tasks, approvals and reminders, so a budget round doesn’t run on email and chasing.
So organisations buy a specialist tool. Most of those tools move you off Excel, and into their own screens and their own formula language, and your team has to learn a new way of working just to get back to where they were.
Vena takes a different route. It gives you the database, the security and the workflow, and Excel stays as the way in – the same interface and the formulas you already know. People actually use it, which is most of the battle.
What we use it for
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Planning
Budgets, reforecasts, headcount and driver-based plans, with budgetholders entering their numbers straight into Excel templates.
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Consolidation
Group results, intercompany and currencies, from the same data as the management accounts.
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Reporting & analytics
Management packs and board reporting that refresh from the database rather than being rebuilt each month.
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Data integration
Vena’s own connectors plus dedicated integration tooling, so the numbers arrive by themselves.
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AI
Ask in plain English, and Vena’s AI agents can build you an ad-hoc report or make changes to your plan – in Excel, in Teams or on the web.
Changing ERP? Vena can be the bridge. Your history and your reporting stay put while the ledger underneath changes, and the same goes when you buy a company.
And because it’s Excel, whatever Microsoft adds to Excel comes along too.
Where it isn’t the answer
We can work with whatever tooling you use today.
If a workbook does the job, keep it. One company, a simple budget and one person who looks after it probably doesn’t need a platform. We’ll say so, and help you tidy the workbook instead.
If your team wants to leave Excel behind. Vena’s main strength is that people keep working in Excel. If they’d rather not, another tool will suit them better.
If the problem is the process. Software won’t fix a budget round nobody trusts. That’s usually the first conversation, whatever you end up buying. Planning and reporting software isn’t a magic wand.
See Vena in action
Our own run-throughs of Vena. Pick the short one or the long one.
Northexis - Vena Solutions in 7 Minutes Plays from YouTube, which may set its own cookies. Subtitles are auto-generated – the CC button on the player will turn them off if you don’t need them.
Northexis - Vena for Budgeting, Forecasting and Reporting Plays from YouTube, which may set its own cookies. Subtitles are auto-generated – the CC button on the player will turn them off if you don’t need them.
Buying Vena
The software is Vena’s, the implementation is ours. Vena prices the licences; we scope the implementation and price it on a fixed fee.
Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, if you prefer. If your organisation
already buys software there, you can buy Vena there too, with us as your partner on the
deal.
More on buying through Azure Marketplace
Already on Vena?
Plenty of our work is with teams who already have Vena. Quite often the tool is fine and the model built in it has drifted.
A health check is a fixed-price look at the model, the data and the process, with the findings written down and the fixes ranked.
Questions people ask
Are you tied to Vena?
No. When a new platform is the right answer, Vena is the one we implement. But a lot of our work doesn’t involve a new platform at all – integrating the systems you already have, fixing reporting, or getting AI to work on your numbers.
Can you help us compare Vena with other tools?
Yes, but we’re a Vena partner, so we’re not neutral, and you should know that. What we can do is tell you where we think Vena won’t fit, and give you the test we’d run on any vendor.
Does the partner matter as much as the software?
More, probably. You’ll spend a lot more time with the people implementing it than with the people who sold it to you.
You’re probably worrying too much about the software, and not enough about who’s implementing.
How long does an implementation take?
Usually weeks rather than quarters, but it’s a little bit “how long is a piece of string” until we know the state of your data, and what you want to do.
Start with a conversation that has a scope.
Thirty minutes, free, and you’ll know by the end whether there’s anything here for you. Most of the organisations we speak with aren’t looking to buy anything right now – we’re happy to educate and inform, for when the time is right.