Budgeting Not Dead in Big Business; CFOs Seek to Improve and Integrate the Budgeting Process Rather Than Kill It.

Business Editors

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2004

Budgeting and planning are still crucial to the success of Global 2000 businesses.

This is the conclusion of research into over 700 organizations by Ventana Research, sponsored by Business Performance Management specialist, Cartesis. The elimination of the annual budget in favor of continuous forecasting, as predicted by some industry analysts, is still a vision rather than a reality as nearly two thirds of companies (62%) still produce an annual budget and most (69%) review budgets and reforecast monthly rather than continuously, proving that budgeting is still an integral part of the performance management process.

Rather than doing away with the budget CFOs are focusing on how they can achieve better accuracy, agility, insight, and consistency from the budgeting and planning process. The need for process efficiencies is most apparent in large companies. 56% of companies with more than 2,500 employees believe they spend too much time on budgeting and planning. This number grows to 61% for companies with more than 50,000 employees.

According to Robert D. Kugel - CFA, VP & Research Director - Financial Performance Management, Ventana Research, one way these organizations can accomplish greater efficiency is by leveraging a packaged solution. "Companies using dedicated budgeting and planning software reported higher levels of accuracy in their budgets and greater consistency in the process. They also were able to identify the cause of deviations from their plan and implement change faster."

Kugal continued, "Using time more wisely in budgeting and planning should be a priority for Global 2000 companies. This research shows that a significant number of people believe they spend too much time on the process and that most of that time is spent on collecting and collating data rather than analysis. In fact the research found that 70% of the finance department's time is spent on non-strategic processes."

These results demonstrate that the focus in finance departments needs to shift towards more strategic goals - but to do this CFOs need the right tools.

"The budgeting and planning process is still an intrinsic part of the performance management process in big corporations. There are significant advantages that packaged applications provide to improve the value that this process brings to the organization. Once an application is implemented, resources previously bogged down in managing the process can be reallocated to more valued strategic actions," said Marie-Noelle Gauthier, Cartesis' CEO.

"Companies need solutions like ours to liberate themselves from the minutia and focus on the bigger picture," she continued.

About Cartesis

Cartesis provides CFOs with a unique business performance management solution to deliver the whole 'story behind the numbers' with unparalleled clarity and insight. Leading multinational companies around the globe rely on Cartesis software applications to get the full picture and offer timely and relevant information to their stakeholders. The company maintains offices in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Norwalk, CT, Paris, Tokyo and Utrecht. Cartesis products give global companies the analytic capacity and the flexibility they need to assess the rapid changes in their marketplaces. One in five of the Fortune Global 100 and more than 30% of the Financial Times European 100 use Cartesis solutions to obtain unprecedented command over their financial information and processes. www.cartesis.com