Centage vs. Kepion Planning

Centage is suited for all types of business. This is what makes this tool so great. It requires some expertise in setting it up and depending on how complex the business is, it may take longer than expected. It's a complex system and if you are not involved in the implementtion it might be hard to learn what is does.

Incentivized

Well-suited: Migrating from planning in Excel, scenarios when multiple users are involved in the planning process, scenarios where there is a commitment to improve the planning process and accuracy.

Less appropriate: Where users are looking for a lower-overhead, more visual, less-connected solution.

• Planning personnel with all the related benefit expenses is very accurate and we are able to forecast increases as well.
• Storing separate versions of the budget allows us to finalize for the year and have access to the data while we update the default plan with any changes.
• I ilke the way you can add intelligence see the detail of calculations below th eline item.
• I like writing Planning Maestro reports to see drill downs of any item and tie them to our ERP Budget

Incentivized

• Customizable platform: Enables its users to handle just about any kind of budgeting scenarios tailored to each customer needs, whether based on drivers, allocations integrations with other systems (such as S&OP processes).
• Easy integration with other systems: As data is stored within an MS SQL database it is very easy to integrate other applications with it for reporting, such as Tableau or PowerBI or from other downline systems such as S&OP.
• Real-time: Enables the possibility to calculate bottom line results for all applications immediately allowing the possibility to calculate easily what-if scenarios.
• Not stuck: within a single way of budgeting. as part of the beyond budgeting movement, companies have been creating a more driver-based high-level forecasting which is often a problem with specific budgeting systems that are locked within the P&L statement. Here you can make it as simple or as complicated as needed.

• Head count is a bit strange as each period is considered one Headcount for a total of 12 per year, so we have to adjust when running reports
• would love to be able to attach related expenses in payroll to a kind of employee instead of doing each individually. It's time consuming.
• Have the help more available instead of having to log into separate place

Incentivized

• Interface: The interface is built in Silverlight, so is a little clunky and inflexible. Kepion are, however, planning to launch a HTML5 version in March 2018, which will greatly enhance the product.
• Visualisation: We usually use Kepion for data entry and deep analysis, and then leverage tools like Power BI or Tableau to visualise data or create aggregated management reports.

I've lived through the changes over the years, and I have found that most financially-minded professionals should have no problems using this system.

The team makes sure that you get what you need out of the software. They will do whatever is in their power to make sure you're happy and are getting back your investment (time and money).

I used to use an older consolidating product call FRX or something like that, very manual where accounts were adding line the reporting lines one by one.... Centage is far superior, the ability to create custom Dimension hierarchies as improved our reporting 100 fold

Incentivized

We are a Microsoft gold analytics partner. As such, we were looking for a Microsoft friendly solution which would fit into our analytics stack with Tableau on top. Kepion is a lightweight easy to use solution which integrates perfectly with the Microsoft framework. It is much easier to use and intuitive than the heavy Cognos and SAP/BO systems. However, if my existing infrastructure is Cognos, SAP or Oracle I would consider using that technology. For Microsoft SQL companies this is a great choice.

• Overall, I have only seen this product have a positive impact on a business. A business that chooses to use this product as part of its close and reporting process will not be disappointed in the results it can bring to the organization.