Pointers On The Road To Financial AssistancePointers On The Road To Financial Assistance

Uncertain economic times call for better long-range financial planning. This week, Cognos Inc. will extend its financial-management suite with Planning, a Web-based application for plotting financial direction.

Many businesses use spreadsheets for financial planning, but they're ineffective for collaborative efforts and don't let managers respond fast enough to critical business conditions. Planning will help users build financial models and evaluate different business scenarios such as reduced sales projections or a sudden interest-rate hike. Changes are propagated throughout the model, letting executives see the impact on all aspects of the business and respond rapidly to problems and opportunities.

Financial planning is an ad hoc exercise, Aberdeen Group analyst Alan Yong says. He points to the Sept. 11 attacks and the immediate impact they had on many businesses. "Many companies went into planning mode," he says. "In one day, your business model can be shattered."

Planning helps managers collaborate on business plans. The software pulls financial data from other Cognos finance applications and planning results can be incorporated into Cognos' budgeting application. Users can also add data from other sources.

Fossil Inc., a retailer of watches, leather goods, and other accessories, is using Finance's budgeting and reporting applications and plans to use the consolidation, forecasting, and planning apps in coming months. The Richardson, Texas, company, which once had 85 spreadsheets for planning and budgeting, will use Planning to give department managers clearer financial goals, finance manager Christopher Lee says. The new tools should help Fossil do more budgeting and could also help executives provide better guidance to shareholders and financial analysts.

Planning is available as part of Cognos' Finance suite, starting at $75,000.