Business performance management software developer Cartesis, which started life within Price Waterhouse, has embraced the humble spreadsheet in its latest release.
Version 9 of the Cartesis Suite is designed to handle the reporting and performance management needs of complex, multinational organisations. The new release takes the integration of planning, budgeting and forecasting to new levels by accommodating spreadsheets within its integrated data model, said Cartesis UK managing director John Taylor.
"The big innovation in v9 is that we've embedded Excel components at the business unit level, so users get a common business model that they can play with in an Excel window to do local level detail work," he said. "When you meet the people who do planning and forecasting, they are often elbow-deep in spreadsheets and are doing work off the system that they have to rekey and fiddle about with.
"Much as vendors like to treat spreadsheets as a tool for the hobbyist, end-users like the interface. It's good at some things, but not at maintaining a conrolled data model. We offer that within a constrolled, consistent environment to stop them going off into the wild - so you get the best of both worlds."
Cartesis has also enhanced the the suite's invoice matching capabilities. Using the Intercompany Server module, users can now carry out intercompany reconciliations via the Web to further shorten their reporting timetables, the company said.
Earlier this year, while version 9 was in the final stages of testing, Cartesis completed its exit from PwC with finding from a consortium of venture capitalists that included Apax Partners.
The affiliation with PwC ran into trouble with the auditor independence constraints imposed by the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act and was cramping the company's growth.
Taylor said that with the launch out of PwC, "There's been a lot greater clarity and freedom to grow into the key markets. We're seeing an endorsement of our direction from the investors and an accelration of the strategy with a lot more muscle behind it. The new owners feel they've acquired something with huge opportunities to grow in the US, UK and mainland Europe."
