Ronald Baden, Host Analytics

SuperNova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Company

Host Analytics is the leader in cloud-based financial applications for planning, close management, reporting and analytics. Host Analytics Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) customers benefit from improved business agility, lower total cost of ownership, faster time to value, increased security and a faster pace of innovation compared to traditional on-premises alternatives.

The Problem

Host Analytics business has grown very rapidly as demand for cloud-based applications continues to accelerate. The company struggled to plan resources, which led to an imbalance of sale from coast to coast. Additionally, it handled projects in a uniform manner, depending on manual processes and Word documents to communicate tailored requirements between Sales and Services, creating risk of clean hand offs and a consistent view of project requirements.

The Solution

Host Analytics implemented FinancialForce PSA which gave the company the information it needed to streamline its business and fix many of the problems it was experiencing prior. The application’s detailed reports and dashboards allowed the company to better allocate resources based on project needs.

The Results 

Using FinancialForce PSA, Host Analytics was able to save 1-2 days per month in the project management cycle, better allocate its resources regionally and ensure a seamless Sales to Services hand off. Additionally, the company was able to measure how long projects were taking and view other metrics it didn’t have access to before, enabling the company to efficiently deliver high customer satisfaction and optimize internal resources.

The Technology

FinancialForce PSA, FinancialForce.com

Metrics

• Project completion tripled from 20 per quarter to more than 60 per quarter
• Backlog was reduced by 70 percent from 30,000 hours to 9,000 hours
• Close rate decreased by more than 15 percent.

Disruptive Factor

FinancialForce PSA gives companies a strong competitive advantage by helping to eliminate the borders between the front and back office. Companies that use FinancialForce PSA experience utilization rates as high as 86 percent, which is 25 percent higher than the average service company. Additionally, they experience $85,000 more revenue per billable employee than the industry average and 17 percent more projects are delivered on time.

Shining Moment

Host Analytics customers gave the company the highest combined overall ratings for reported measures in each of the Vendor, Product and Implementation experience categories in Gartner’s recently-published “User Survey Analysis: Customers Rate Their CPM Vendors, 2012.” They were also named to JMP Securities “Hot 100: Best Privately Held Software Companies” list for 2013.