Software
Review of: |
 If
there is one thing we learned in the last year, business requires strong
fundamentals in order to survive, much less thrive in our new millennium.
We’ve seen many upstarts come to the front with little or no “old market”
fundamentals in their business models and watched them dive within a year’s
time due to cash flow problems bleeding red ink.
If you have an existing business or wish to start one, an excellent way to avoid or at least be aware of the many pitfalls, is proper business planning. Palo Alto Software offers a full suite of products that as stand-alone applications or as an integrated suite can help you prepare for the future. Palo Alto Produces the Pro series, now the #1 selling business planning software in the world. The components are: Business Plan Pro, Marketing Plan Pro, Cash Plan Pro and Web Strategy Pro. We’ll take a look at the top three and also discuss the integration of the series in one’s overall business strategy. Business Plan Pro
In addition to boxed product, Palo Alto operates as an ASP. You can download the applications online as well as have access to Tim Berry’s best selling book, Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning. Business Plan Pro has been around long enough to evolve into a fully polished Business Planning package. Each year, it just keeps getting better. Setup is an easy intuitive routine that will take just a few clicks and about 5 minutes from the CD or the downloaded program. The minimum space requirement for the program is 20 Megabytes. A complete install runs close to 125 Megabytes. Once completed, you will find the program icon in your Programs folder as well as a desktop shortcut. Business Plan Pro works with all flavors of windows from W95 forward up to W2000. When you first run the program, you will be prompted for the serial number on the back of the CD case or from your e-mail purchase confirmation. Next, the program recommends you check for updates that may come out monthly. The check is a one-click process that will automatically check the Internet site and if an update is available, let you download and install it provided you have Internet access. The copy I installed already had a 15-megabyte update available that I downloaded. You will need to restart your system once you complete an upgrade or update. For the first-time user and whenever you start a new plan, there is an interactive wizard/tutorial that takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a professional, polished business plan. Business Plan Pro is intuitive to use for the beginner and has a full set of features for the sophisticated professional. I’ve successfully used the program for a $5,000 start-up and a $30 Million existing business seeking second round financing as well as many others within this range. The scalability of the program to use the features and sections you wish depending upon the audience you target for your plan is an excellent feature. Building your business plan in its simplest form is a 7-step process.
Just answer the key questions which are very broad ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and an outline for your type of business is created. You can do this in your own words and refer to the samples provided for hints and tips. Sample business plans for every type of business are included with many more available online at Palo Alto’s Website. Being able to see the samples while writing your own text has served to be an excellent help. Throughout the application, a dual window format is used. You can view the instructions, examples, formatting tips and any notes regarding a topic or section in the upper window while you input your data in the lower window. This is where you tell potential investors about your customers, the competition and market growth. A great feature used here and highlighted throughout the program is the resources tab. Here you can link to many online resources to find data you may need to support your realities or assumptions. The links alone are invaluable resources in and of themselves. Pre-Defined tables are included so all you need to do is provide your
data and guestimates. The Program automatically creates charts from the
data you provide.
Here you lay out your management team members in text and table form. Default table templates are provided. Table templates are provided with automatic charting. Another advantage in the program is you can adjust the numbers for what-if forecasting if you wish. Tables for planned, actual and variances are provided. Business Plan Pro provides all the typical business formulas one would expect in a business plan, laid out in templates again with automatic charting. Areas covered here include Sales forecasting, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, break-even analysis, business ratios and market analysis. You can use the defaults in the program to automatically format all your input in the correct order and print all text tables and charts for a polished business plan. Business Plan Pro includes some very impressive and useful additional features. You can publish your plan within the program itself, fully compiled and properly formatted. You can pick and choose the sections you wish to include in your plan depending upon your audience. You can publish a plan summary with key text and charts by default with just a few clicks. You can link and share data between Business Plan Pro, Marketing Plan Pro and Web Strategy Pro for a more robust marketing plan or to decrease duplication of effort. You can export your text data sections or the entire plan as HTML or MS Word; tables and charts can be exported to MS Excel. This is a great feature for those who may wish to get a bit more complex in their number presentations or would like to extend time periods beyond the program defaults. A welcome update in the latest version is the ability to do 5-year forecasting. The default currency in Business Plan Pro is US dollars. However, you can change your number display with the custom number feature to mimic other currencies. For example, I have done plans for the US market in dollars, Thai market in baht, Philippine market in pesos and International market in pounds sterling. It requires a bit of work to massage the initial plan, but once you have done it, it is relatively easy to use as a template for future plans or projects. For those who work in collaborative environments or long distance, Business Plan Pro includes a 3-month subscription to LivePlan.com provided by Palo Alto Software. With this service, you can publish your plan online with just a mouse click for others to see. You can also edit the completed plan if you wish online. Overall, Business Plan Pro is a great tool to map out your business and solidify your own thinking in a way that makes it easy to share with others, whether for loan, capital needs or to distill your vision for the organization as a whole. The program is stable and easy to use and help is just a mouse click away. Extremely welcome in this day and age is Palo Alto’s support and warranties. All products have a full 60-day money back guarantee. Additionally, support is available via phone, fax and e-mail as well as live Internet chat during regular office hours. Excellent and extensive printed and online documentation is provided for the program and business planning in general. You can order direct from the website or at our local computer retail stores for $99.95. The website offers discounts for the entire bundle of four programs or combinations of two or more programs. Palo Alto Software David Savage Savage is a management consultant. |