From the Field: FP&A Improving Everyday Decision-Making

There are numerous FP&A tools that, once set up correctly, can help organizations forecast, budget, and streamline operations.  FP&A is more important than ever as things seem so uncertain these days.  Many companies face challenges such as inefficient manual processes, difficulty consolidating data, and slow decision-making due to outdated systems. In this multipart series, we dive into the specifics of tools and how companies are saving time and money with FP&A solutions.

1. DataRails: Automating Financial Consolidation While Retaining Spreadsheet Functionality

Datarails is a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) platform that provides (FP&A) solutions for businesses. The platform is designed to work with Excel, allowing users to maintain their existing spreadsheet models while adding automation and collaboration features.  

Key features of Datarails include:

1. Automation of data entry and report generation

2. Real-time data syncing across multiple sources

3. AI-powered chat for scenario planning and analysis

4. Collaboration tools, including a feature called Storyboards

5. Sensitivity analysis capabilities

6. Dynamic forecasting using machine learning algorithms

7. Custom calculations for industry-specific formulas

8. External data integration

Datarails is primarily targeted at small to medium-sized businesses focusing on streamlining their FP&A processes and improving budget/forecast accuracy and efficiency.

Pricing for Datarails generally starts at $24,000 per year, with costs varying based on company size and data requirements.

Key competitors include:

1. Vena: A cloud-based financial planning tool with Microsoft 365 integration

2. Cube Software: An FP&A platform combining spreadsheet familiarity with automation

3. Planful: A comprehensive financial performance management platform

A Positive Outcome for Montreal Mini Storage

Montreal Mini-Storage (MMS), Quebec’s largest privately-owned self-storage company with 20+ facilities and nearly 10,000 customers, transformed its finance and operations through Datarails — a financial planning and data consolidation platform.

The Challenge: Disconnected Data, Delayed Decisions

MMS struggled with fragmented reporting across CRM, ERP, call centers, web analytics, and Excel spreadsheets. There was:

• No standardized reporting

• No real-time visibility across individual facilities

• A heavy reliance on manual data consolidation

• Bottlenecks in decision-making, reporting, and cross-functional collaboration

This lack of visibility made it difficult to measure site performance, impaired investor reporting, and slowed internal responsiveness.

The Solution: Datarails for Real-Time, Cross-Functional Visibility

By deploying Datarails, MMS automated data consolidation, standardized reporting, and enabled powerful dashboards that empowered:

• Finance teams to shift from data preparation to analysis

• Operations to make faster, data-driven decisions

• Site managers to optimize performance metrics independently

• Executives and investors to track growth and KPIs in real-time

Key functionality leveraged:

• Real-time dashboards

• Excel-native interface for ease of adoption

• Integration with core systems (CRM, ERP, Excel)

• Companywide visibility into occupancy, collections, $/sqft, delinquency rates, customer reviews, and more

Quantifiable Business Impact:

Strategic ROI:

• Empowered site managers now make pricing and operational decisions using real-time dashboards

• Cross-functional adoption: Sales, HR, and customer service teams use Datarails to uncover trends and enhance performance

• Agility and scalability: The platform supported rapid growth without needing additional headcount or IT resources

• Excel integration ensured seamless user adoption and flexible, self-service reporting

Product Demo Video:

Conclusion: Data-Driven Growth at Scale

Montreal Mini-Storage’s adoption of Datarails is a prime example of how finance-led digital transformation can yield measurable results:

• Over $600,000 in total value unlocked annually

• Real-time, proactive decision-making

• Platform scalability that enabled 3x growth without compromising data agility or accuracy

2. Anaplan: Centralizing Financial and Operational Planning for Rapid Change

Anaplan is a cloud-native enterprise planning platform built for connected planning across finance, HR, supply chain, and sales. It enables dynamic, real-time scenario modeling and enterprise-wide collaboration to support agile decision-making. With its powerful Hyperblock™ engine, Anaplan helps large and fast-growing businesses to plan and adapt at speed and scale.

Key Features of Anaplan:

• Connected planning across finance, HR, supply chain, and sales

• Real-time scenario modeling and forecasting

• Granular user-level access and audit-ready workflows

• Integration with ERP, CRM, and HRIS systems

• AI/ML-driven predictive analytics

• In-memory modeling for lightning-fast data calculations

• Compliance-ready approval trails and governance tools

Anaplan is primarily targeted at mid-sized to large enterprises with multi-department planning needs, helping them transition from static spreadsheets to dynamic, enterprise-grade planning environments.

Pricing for Anaplan typically starts in the range of $100,000–$500,000 per year, depending on the size of the business, number of users, and planning modules required.

Key Competitors Include:

• Workday Adaptive Planning: Unified workforce and financial planning

• Oracle Cloud EPM: Enterprise-grade planning and analytics suite

• SAP Analytics Cloud: Combines planning and BI in a single platform

• Planful: Agile planning for mid-market finance teams

• Vena Solutions: Excel-based FP&A with automation and governance

A Connected Planning Success Story: Pandora Media

Pandora, a music streaming and audio ad platform, turned to Anaplan to transform its disconnected, spreadsheet-heavy planning into an agile, integrated financial system.

The Challenge: Fragmented Forecasting Slowing Strategic Agility

Pandora’s finance team struggled with:

• Disconnected Excel models across departments

• Manual updates and version control challenges

• Minimal coordination between finance, HR, and other teams

• Time-consuming reforecasting and planning bottlenecks

• Limited visibility into real-time financial scenarios

These challenges slowed decision-making, impaired planning agility, and hindered cross-functional collaboration at a time when the company needed to scale and adapt quickly in a fast-evolving digital media environment.

The Solution: Anaplan’s Unified Planning Ecosystem

Pandora implemented Anaplan to centralize its financial and workforce planning processes, improving responsiveness and organizational alignment.

With Anaplan, Pandora:

• Replaced manual Excel processes with a centralized, cloud-based solution

• Gained real-time modeling for workforce and financial forecasts

• Enabled faster collaboration across finance and HR

• Empowered users to run "what-if" scenarios without IT support

• Enhanced governance with audit trails and structured approval workflows

Key Functionality Leveraged:

• Real-time scenario planning and rolling forecasts

• In-memory modeling engine (Hyperblock™)

• HR and financial plan alignment

• Dynamic dashboards for stakeholder visibility

• Change tracking and approval workflows

Quantifiable Business Impact:

Strategic ROI:

• Faster planning cycles helped Pandora adapt to shifting ad market dynamics

• Cross-functional visibility between finance and HR improved decision-making speed

• Enhanced governance with approval trails and user access control

• Scalability enabled Pandora to support continued growth without increasing headcount

Product Demo Video:

Conclusion: Connected Planning that Powers Business Agility

Pandora’s adoption of Anaplan illustrates how finance-led transformation can drive enterprise-wide agility. With centralized planning, faster forecasting, and integrated data visibility, Pandora shifted from reactive to proactive financial management.

Key Outcomes:

• 25% improvement in forecast accuracy

• Weeks of time saved per scenario update

• Stronger collaboration between finance and HR

• Faster responsiveness to market volatility

Anaplan proved instrumental in giving Pandora the tools and insights to scale its business, improve planning accuracy, and strengthen cross-functional strategy—all while reducing reliance on IT and eliminating spreadsheet chaos.