Unit4 named a winner in the Dresner Advisory Services Technology Innovation Awards

We’re extremely pleased to announce that Unit4 has been recognized in Dresner Advisory Services’ 8th annual Technology Innovation Awards.

These awards are presented to the top ranked vendors in 12 Dresner Advisory 2022 Wisdom of Crowds® thematic market reports. A series of annual thematic studies based on data collected from end users that provides a real-world perspective on various technical capabilities related to Dresner’s annual research. Each report examines current deployment trends, user intentions, and industry capabilities.

We’ve been named one of the top 3 vendors in the Financial Consolidation, Close Management, and Reporting category. We’re very happy to receive this honor.

Here’s a little more about what the thematic study had to say about both the market, and about our FP&A product.

Click to read FP&A product brochure - blog - FG 

The Report

As part of their ongoing research into the enterprise performance management (EPM) market, this report constitutes Dresner’s first ever market study of Financial Consolidation, Close management, and Financial Reporting (FCCR) software.

We’re pleased to have been able to participate in this study – and to have our FP&A solution recognized as an important player in this key strategic and operational area of enterprise finance. Check out the full report below to learn why.

The FCCR market – established, but static

Organizations use FCCR software to produce key financial data and then provide analytics to enable managers and users to analyze and understand these insights. This has a clear impact on their approach to decision-making. 69% percent of organizations that currently use FCCR software state that all decisions are data-driven, compared to 47% percent of organizations in which only some decisions are data-driven.

Although the finance function is clearly the primary user of FCCR software, it is also widely used by executive management and leadership (59 percent, with a further 11 percent either evaluating or considering its use).

Financial reporting is the only FCCR category that has wide appeal across all industries. This is because FCCR software produces consolidated financial information and analyzes financial performance against budgets, both of which are key elements of management information.

Organizations view flexible financial reporting tools as a critically important management reporting capability – but not all of them are using specialized tools to do the job.

Although 60% of firms currently use this software (down from 62% last year), most others (33%) have no intention to adopt it. These organizations likely depend on in-house systems, custom Excel based solutions, or specific modules of ERP solutions for their FCCR needs. However, the benefits of usage seem clear – as do their effects on overall data, analysis, and planning maturity.

Cloud is the most widely supported delivery model for FCCR solutions. In a significant shift from 2021, all vendors now claim support for a SaaS delivery model with both public cloud or private cloud / hosted deployment. Suggesting that the flexibility and scalability afforded by cloud deployment has now become an accepted industry reality.

Although the technology industry has the lowest current usage of FCCR software, respondents from this industry rate its capabilities as more important than any other sector – suggesting an opportunity to expand adoption.

Close management remains the least mature segment of the FCCR software market, with the greatest number of functional gaps in vendor offerings – although many vendors plan to address these gaps within the next 12 months.

How Unit4 FP&A performs against the competition

The study ranks vendors across the following categories:

• Financial Consolidation – model definition and structure
• Financial Consolidation – data entry and upload
• Financial Consolidation – processing
• Close management
• Financial reporting
• Architectural features

It also identifies that there is a very narrow field in terms of competition, with the lowest ranked vendors only scoring marginally lower than the highest. Given such stiff competition, we’re very happy that Unit4 FP&A has been ranked among the best solutions in the 2022 Awards.

Want to know more?

For a complete picture of Dresner’s analysis of the FCCM solution category, check out the complete 2022 Wisdom of Crowds® study here.

To learn more about Unit4 FP&A and how it can transform the way your organization handles financial consolidation, close management, and financial reporting, check out our dedicated product pages here or click here to book a demo.