Enterprise software provider Infor this week announced availability of its Performance Management (PM) Business Edition, designed specifically for small and mid-sized businesses looking to automate their planning and budgeting processes. While Infor PM Business Edition includes the basic functionality of the company’s PM offerings for larger enterprises, the product is priced and configured especially for SMBs, officials said.
“We made sure the necessary capabilities are there without [concentrating on] the complex needs of larger organizations,” said Christina McKeon, director of global product marketing for Infor’s PM solutions, in an interview. “We also designed the implementation so that companies can get up and running within 25 business days.”
Infor PM Business Edition sits atop a company’s existing ERP system and can pull in data from that system to drive planning and budgeting activities. The product allows companies to model and test various business scenarios when creating financial and operational plans, prepare for unknown events, or work backward from a key financial goal to identify contributing business drivers and required milestones, Infor said. The software is installed on premise at the customer’s location and includes built-in data security measures, McKeon said.
“One of the key things when dealing with planning and budgeting is compliance,” McKeon said of the product’s user access and reporting functionality. “You want to make sure you have a transparent auditing trail so you can see who logged in when, what changes they made, and why they made those changes.”
Individuals across an organization can submit regional or departmental budget information to PM Business Edition via a Web interface or a server-based Excel interface, McKeon said. A corporate budget collector or administrator can then manage the overall process within the software, tracking which budgets have been submitted and approved, and which require additional information. Infor PM Business Edition is ideally suited for companies using individual spreadsheets and manual processes to accomplish their planning and budgeting, she added.
The software also includes Infor’s PM Application Studio, which companies can use to keep managers informed of planning and budgeting activities and integrate information from other sources into their reports.
Pricing for the Infor PM Business Edition depends on individual customer implementations, officials said, and starts at around $20,000.