Planful Perform Europe 2025: European Expansion and AI Take Center Stage

Planful recently hosted its inaugural Perform Europe event in London on June 5, 2025, signaling a significant strategic emphasis on the European market, particularly the DACH region.

The event brought together customers, partners, and industry analysts like BARC to discuss Planful’s vision for the future of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) and corporate performance management (CPM). The atmosphere highlighted a vendor keen to address the evolving needs of finance professionals, particularly in a climate of increasing uncertainty and a persistent talent shortage in the finance and accounting sectors. Key themes revolved around leveraging AI for productivity, the convergence of planning and consolidation, and a commitment to rapid value delivery.

Key Takeaways: European Ambitions and AI-Driven Productivity

Several core messages emerged from the main sessions, notably from CEO Grant Halloran and CPO Steve Welsh, painting a picture of Planful’s strategic direction.

Targeted European Growth: A prominent theme was Planful’s commitment to expanding its footprint in Europe. The DACH region is a clear priority, with further expansion plans already in the drawer, aiming for a “truly global” presence within two years. This expansion is supported by a 30% global partner growth year-over-year, with a focus on establishing strong local partnerships in the DACH region, to cater to specific market needs.

AI as a Core Enabler: Planful positions artificial intelligence as central to its strategy for enhancing productivity and efficiency in finance. The current focus is on the “Analyst” persona, aiming to automate non-value-added tasks. The AI roadmap includes leveraging “chain of thought” reasoning and moving towards “Agentic AI” and AI assistants. Existing capabilities like “AI Signals” for anomaly detection and “AI Projections” are set to be augmented by GenAI, initially for contextual help, with a vision for AI-enabled assistant collaboration.

Integrated Platform for Speed and Simplicity: The message of a unified platform for planning and consolidation was consistently emphasized. Planful underscores its “consolidation-first” DNA, with FP&A capabilities built upon this foundation. The platform is designed for “configuration not coding,” aiming to empower business users and deliver “fast time to value.” This approach, often leading to quick initial implementations followed by phased rollouts of further applications, is presented as a key differentiator, particularly for mid-market organizations.

Addressing the Human Element: Beyond technical capabilities, there was a clear narrative around the people using the software. With a large number of finance and accounting professionals nearing retirement and a significant talent shortage, Planful aims to make finance roles more manageable and value-focused by increasing productivity and speeding up decision-making.

Product and Platform Analysis: Enhancing Capabilities and Integration

Planful showcased several product enhancements and strategic platform directions designed to support its core messaging.

Expanding Core Functionality: The upcoming “Consolidation Premium” (expected late summer) aims to address more complex consolidation requirements, including multiple layers of subgroups and differing management and legal views. “Workforce Pro” has been released as an improved packaged solution for advanced workforce planning and analytics, responding to customer demand for more out-of-the-box capabilities in this area.

Innovation through AI and Connectivity: AI is being woven into various aspects of the platform. Beyond the strategic roadmap, practical applications discussed included “Smarter mapping” (e.g., for chart of accounts) and leveraging “Signals” for risk analysis through variance detection. Integration capabilities are a key focus, with a goal to support multiple data loading methods and fit into the customer’s existing ecosystem. Planful is currently developing more native connectors. A new native connector for Power BI was launched in December 2024, with a Tableau connector in development and others, including SAP, planned based on customer requirements. A Snowflake connector is also available.

Market Positioning and Ecosystem: Planful primarily targets mid-market organizations, emphasizing its ability to deliver quick wins and a lower total cost of ownership. However, it also caters to larger enterprises, citing “hundreds of customers with more than 1000 users in planning.” The strategy involves growing the mid-market segment and then expanding into the enterprise, a model previously proven successful in the US and now being replicated in Central Europe. The “fast time to value” is highlighted as a unique selling proposition.

Industry Context and Implications: Meeting Modern Finance Challenges

Planful’s announcements and strategic direction align with several broader market trends and address key challenges faced by finance organizations.

The “convergence of planning and consolidation” is a significant market shift that Planful aims to address directly with its integrated platform. The intense focus on AI reflects the industry-wide push to automate, gain deeper insights, and alleviate the pressures of the talent shortage. Planful’s approach of “configuration not coding” and emphasizing ease of use caters to businesses seeking agility and reduced reliance on specialized IT skills for managing their finance solutions.

The vendor’s strategic investments in European expansion, particularly in the DACH region, demonstrate an understanding of the need for localized support and market-specific approaches. The development of new connectors to systems like Power BI, Snowflake, and eventually SAP, shows a commitment to interoperability within diverse enterprise IT landscapes.

Conclusion: What This Means for Planful Prospects and Customers

For organizations considering or currently using Planful, Perform Europe 2025 underscored several key takeaways. The vendor is heavily investing in its European presence, promising increased local support and a platform attuned to regional business needs. The emphasis on an integrated planning and consolidation platform that prioritizes “fast time to value” and ease of use through configuration rather than coding remains a central tenet of its value proposition.

Furthermore, Planful’s evolving AI capabilities, from anomaly detection with Signals to the future vision of AI-enabled assistants, suggest a commitment to augmenting the productivity and analytical power of finance teams. Customers can expect continued development in AI-driven insights, smarter data mapping, and process automation. The focus on expanding native integration options, particularly with popular BI and data warehousing solutions, should also enhance the platform’s ability to fit seamlessly into broader data ecosystems. Ultimately, Planful positions itself as a partner to help finance departments navigate complexity and resource constraints by delivering a more efficient, insightful, and user-friendly experience.