DS Panel today announced the availability of Performance Canvas Planning 2.2, a fully unified information synthesis, performance management and planning tool designed with the business user in mind. Performance Canvas delivers a powerful product with an easy-to-use interface. Performance Canvas Planning is capable of performing real-time analysis through its revolutionary collaborative tool-kit. Users can control where data is pulled from and can pull data from a variety of internal and external sources. This ability to submit data directly from SharePoint, the Office Suite of products and the Web makes it an ideal companion for Office 2010. Further, the unique BI wiki platform enables users to collaborate on analytical and planning projects, ensuring accurate information is shared at all times. This multi-environment collaborative functionality fits in perfectly with an Office 2010 enabled web based collaborative functionality.
Robert Andersson, Partner and Sales Manager at Cadeia had this to say about Performance Canvas Planning: “When we started looking for planning software to augment our current selection of BI products, we knew that we wanted something that would be easy for our clients to use and that didn’t require our staff to learn an entirely new platform. We wanted something that could use existing Microsoft based software but added additional functionality. Performance Canvas Planning fulfilled this need because its tool kit is managed directly from within the Excel. There is no need to switch between databases depending on what you need to do at that time. Working within Excel, our clients are able to perform reporting and planning functions without switching between software platforms. Both operational and financial data can be synthesized and structured allowing users to gain control over the information. The best part is being able to search for the data using search engine structure. The data is indexed and searching is quick and easy. We have also found that our clients like being able to view data without having to be tied to a computer as well. They can view data from their mobile phones and this has enabled them to better monitor and control problems before they escalate.”
Performance Canvas Planning integrates flawlessly into MS SQL Server 2008 R2, the latest data warehousing release from Microsoft and as well as the newest release of SharePoint 2010. Working with Power Pivot, Microsoft Excel users will be able to further drilldown and perform comprehensive forecasting and modeling. They can create, monitor and control plans from every department. With native integration in Excel, Managers are able to instantly report not only financial and operational data, but to pull data from departments such as marketing, human resources. The limit to what data that can be pulled into a report is not just within the company, but users can pull data from external sources such as financial websites and news sources, making reports on customers and competitors valid, in real time. The best part about this software program is the native excel functionality and the ability to access these resources from the web without having to learn a complex, new software platform. Performance Canvas Planning goes beyond data collection and analysis but allows a management team to have a clear, common perception of the business and plan for its future.
