Host Analytics
Solving Financial Challenges with Cloud-based EPM Suite

On-premises software has dominated the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) market for over 20 years. However, the legacy EPM tools have failed to fully address the overgrowing demands of businesses today. They are expensive to license, difficult to deploy and implement, costly to maintain, and challenging to upgrade. Although there are a number of packaged software applications that address the key EPM requirements; financial departments in organizations are still relying on excel spreadsheets for processes such as budgeting, planning, financial reporting and analytics. Redwood City, CA headquartered Host Analytics was founded to enable enterprises to replace these traditional tools and utilize more advanced solutions that meet the needs of today’s financial landscape. “Our Cloud-based EPM suite provides a secure and scalable alternative to error-prone, excel spreadsheets and legacy applications that many firms are struggling with. Our suite has an Excel-like interface that is easy for finance users to learn and use,” says Dave Kellogg, CEO, Host Analytics.

The Host Analytics Cloud EPM suite is comprised of several modules, each one having unique flexibility and capability. “Our suite helps clients align their planning and forecasting processes, streamline the financial close, deliver financial results accurately to key stakeholders, as well as measure and monitor performance consistently across the entire organization,” says Kellogg. Host Analytics Planning Cloud is one element of the EPM suite that facilitates connected and streamlined planning and forecasting processes without the ongoing reliance on IT-resources required by on-premises solutions. With Planning Cloud, Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams can reduce cycle times by up to 75 percent, and gain rapid insight into the health of their organization. Reporting Cloud is also a part of the suite that provides reporting and analysis capabilities across the organization, from formatted financial statements, ad-hoc queries, and operational metrics to sales and marketing statistical views. The other components of the EPM suite range from modeling to close management, scorecarding and analytics, all offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

The extension of the company’s portfolio also encompasses services such as ongoing training, implementation consulting, technical support and a robust customer community.

The unified suite of cloud-based EPM applications has allowed Host Analytics to become a viable alternative to mega vendors that deliver EPM tools.

With this edge, over the years, the company has successfully gained more than 450 customers, across 90 countries, which includes NEC, Burlington Coat Factory, Crocs, EarthLink, Evernote, GoPro, Marketo, OpenTable, Splunk, Tesla Motors, and Time Warner Cable.

Groupon, a billion dollar public firm that uses its collective buying power to encourage groups of people to purchase goods and services in exchange for deep discounts, leveraged the expertise of the Host Analytics to resolve their challenges. Groupon lacked a formal process and adequate tools that made the financial consolidation process slow and inefficient. The Host Analytics EPM suite reduced the consolidation process of Groupon from three days to one hour. As a result, executives are able to more quickly access critical financial information, which meets the requirement for managing a fast-expanding world-wide business. Based on the value Host Analytics has delivered for customers, and its product strategy, Gartner has recognized the company as a visionary in the Corporate Performance Management Magic Quadrant report for three years running.

Our Cloud-based EPM suite provides a secure and scalable alternative to error-prone, excel spreadsheets and legacy applications that many firms are struggling with

The company is now looking forward to capitalizing on the potential of EPM to connect and align operations with finance to make firms more agile. “Business users want more automation of planning, reporting and modeling processes, greater visibility, and better alignment across functions and we are developing and enhancing our EPM suite to address those needs,” Dave concludes.