A Sneak Peek at the 2022 BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics (IP&A)

Dr. Christian Fuchs and Regina Schmidt preview the 2022 edition of BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics, which will be published on March 31st.

Over the past 18-24 months, market dynamics and competition have increased in many industries. The growing pressure on companies to generate revenues and profit margins while remaining agile and liquid has led to a massive increase in demand for modern performance management solutions. Specialist software support for short-term as well as rapid updating and adjustment of corporate planning and forecasts is a key requirement for many organizations.

The integration of corporate planning and its link with analytics (integrated planning and analytics (IP&A)) is essential for modern and integrated corporate management. This is important because constant adaptation to dynamic market conditions requires sound software support that enables short and flexible planning and forecasting cycles – even during the year – and a method of linking these with data analytics. In view of these increasing requirements, the software market for integrated planning and analytics products is now highly competitive.

To help you find the right software solution for your needs, our upcoming ‘BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics (IP&A)’ evaluates the market for integrated planning and analytics solutions and portfolios. Based on in-depth analyst knowledge as well as feedback from user companies from the world’s largest surveys on the use of BI, analytics and planning tools, vendors are evaluated on a variety of criteria. This BARC Score provides an up-to-date, independent and reliable summary of the market for integrated planning and analytics.

Which vendors are represented in BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics?

The software market for integrated planning and analytics has been highly competitive for years. In addition to globally active vendors, many local specialists offer their own solutions. Regional vendors in particular often impress with local know-how, while international providers score points with their distribution and comprehensive product portfolios.

Vendors considered in this BARC Score must meet a number of requirements. Comprehensive functionality for planning, budgeting and forecasting is the ‘entrance ticket’. Relevant core functions include the creation of planning models and masks, the coordination of the various planning activities and participants (e.g., via workflows), and supporting planning functions (e.g., for simulations). This BARC Score not only focuses on the planning of financial topics, but also evaluates the support of operational sub-planning (e.g., sales, production, resources, etc.).

In addition to supporting planning processes, vendors must demonstrate integrated and comprehensive functions for analytics and business intelligence (BI), for example, in the areas of reporting, analysis and dashboards. For business use, products and product portfolios must be easily accessible and user-friendly. Seamless integration between all solution components is a key feature of market-leading solutions.

To ensure that our analysis focuses on market-leading vendors with frequently used products, vendors must meet a set of general criteria as well as having the aforementioned functional capabilities. In addition to license and maintenance revenues of at least EUR 20 million with the evaluated product set, the geographical distribution and reach of each vendor is taken into account. Since there are two versions of BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics – a global version and a version that focuses specifically on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) – vendors must be able to demonstrate a significant number of implementations as well as license and maintenance revenues in the respective regions.

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The vendors that met our criteria this year and qualified to appear in BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics are:

In addition to the vendors evaluated, it should be mentioned that there are a number of other interesting and emerging players in the market, but they were not included in our analysis because they do not yet meet the inclusion criteria listed above.

BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics 2022

A comparison with previous years shows that the global vendors are converging with many offerings having now reached a high level of maturity. The six ‘Market Leaders’ are being challenged by eight ‘Challengers’, with one new vendor joining this year. We classify well-established vendors who achieve strong market penetration as ‘Market Leaders’. Their product portfolio enjoys a high level of recognition on the market and covers an extensive range of integrated technologies and requirements. They have a solid product strategy and financial position, convincing sales and marketing programs, and a strong partner network and ecosystem. The ‘Challengers’ segment comprises smaller, innovative vendors with a promising product portfolio but lower global penetration, as well as larger vendors that either pursue a specific product and application focus or face the challenge of seamless portfolio integration after acquisitions.

While some vendors are further expanding their functions for analytics and BI, others are primarily strengthening their functions for operational application scenarios and planning processes.

The Y-axis shows that the market continues to grow and demand on the user side is high. The go-to-market and sales strategies and thus the growth of the individual providers are quite different. Many are growing organically under their own steam (often supported by the use of venture capital), while others are growing primarily inorganically through acquisitions and takeovers.

Final recommendations and next steps

This year’s BARC Score Integrated Planning & Analytics will be published on March 31st, 2022 and can help you drive your own software selection process. In addition to the chart, the BARC Score document contains in-depth descriptions of the vendors and their solution portfolios, including a strengths & weaknesses analysis for comparison with your own requirements.

In addition, if we’ve piqued your interest in integrated planning and analytics, you are welcome to join us at our annual Digital Finance & Controlling online event on April 27th and 28th, 2022 (German-speaking). Register now for free to exchange ideas with experts and get feedback on your own project or to get deeper insights into specific software solutions and see them live in action.

In our next blog post, we will preview ‘BARC Score Financial Performance Management’ 2022. Stay tuned!