Host Analytics Becomes Planful
Craig Schiff , President and CEO, BPM Partners
The Name Change
Last week Host Analytics announced a name change to Planful. Why you ask? After nearly 20 years they felt the name Host Analytics had outlived its usefulness in describing their business. As for their choice of Planful as a replacement let me allow their CEO to explain: “Planful is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘full of plans’ — organized, systematic, thoughtful. We felt there was no better word to describe our customers’ mindsets, aligning well with the type of impact we can help them achieve in their organizations.”
While I have heard people comment on the name – at a quick glance it can look like Painful or Playful, neither of which you would want to be associated with planning, they miss the bigger picture. This is about a relatively new CEO preparing his company for its next stage of growth. They have a new logo designed to stand out from the pack (see below), a fine-tuned vision, and most importantly: a new senior team to drive the company forward.
The Vision
Their vision is to enable Planful clients to quickly and confidently make financial decisions both large and small. It is important to note that their focus on planning and decision-making doesn’t lessen the role of financial consolidation – streamlined closing cycles and reliable reporting are critical to the entire process.
Our Take
We have always believed Host Analytics/Planful has one of the most capable native cloud budgeting and planning solutions. Their consistently high customer satisfaction ratings in our annual BPM Pulse survey confirm this. In recent years with innovations such as ‘MyPlan’ they have greatly enhanced their ease of use, which is a top priority for performance management buyers. On the financial consolidation side they have perhaps the most robust solution in their target market. With the additional financing provided by Vector Capital last year, new energy in the senior management ranks, their solid product set, and this modest new re-branding effort, we think Planful is well positioned to expand its role as one of the key performance management solution providers.