Board & ISG Series | Episode 1 – What Makes a Planning Platform Stand Out?

Hi, this is Stanton Jones with technology research and advisory services firm ISG.

Companies in sectors like retail, CPG, and manufacturing are indicating a strong

desire to redesign their business around AI in order to drive more profitable

growth. And this is one of the big reasons why we see companies in these sectors

wanting to move towards an integrated business planning model, often supported by

enterprise performance management or EPM software.

So with me today to talk about this topic is Björn Maaz.

Björn is the practice lead for the Office of Finance at Board. Welcome, Björn.

Hello, Stanton. Thanks for having me.

So Björn, as you know, the EPM space is very competitive, which means that

enterprises have a lot of options today.

So let's talk about what you think differentiates Board from your competitors.

Yeah. So there is one major differentiator in my mind, and that is that

we are really running everything on one platform, on one technology stack also.

So that means your financial close, your actuals, is on the same platform as your

financial planning, so there's no reconciliation between the two or duplicating of

data. And this is not only true for financial planning and actuals, also for

all the other use cases on the platform.

So going really from strategic planning down to daily liquidity management or even

down into operations, something that's very important for the industries you

mentioned at the beginning.

And this also translates into the technology roadmap.

So you will not see your use case being sunsetted because the technology stack

behind that or the tool that was acquired is sunsetted.

This is something that's not happening with Board, and every new development that

flows back into the platform, every new feature is also usable with that in every

single use case. And this is one

differentiator that has a real impact for the customers.

Thanks, Björn. So our research shows a lot of interest in using AI to improve

planning, but also enterprises are really struggling to get their applications

prepared to interact with AI agents.

So let's talk a little bit about the architecture of your agentic AI solution and

how you think that's going to benefit customers.

Yeah, important points. And this is, again, something where the shared technology

stack, the one platform, plays into because our agents are part of the platform.

So they make use of the functions of the platform.

They access the data right in the platform.

And really important, they never hand out your data outside of the platform.

And this allows us in the same way as

I described before with the use cases, our agents also they are use case specific.

They understand our own solution, the functional context, but also the specifics of

the

client solution. And they are able to interact with each other.

And this, in my mind, is the only way to provide truly agentic AI on one platform.

Thanks, Björn. So just to summarize here, Board is one integrated platform with

planning, consolidation, and reporting all running on the same tech.

So for customers, that means no additional reconciliation is going to be required,

which can help to improve accuracy and speed.

But it also means that it's a system that is AI agent ready, which we believe will

be a key area for enterprises to consider going forward.

Exactly that, Stanton. And I would say if you're in a position that you're in the

middle of a finance transformation or in need of a new steering concept,

and have also the AI topic on your desk, then I would invite you to

approach us. We offer workshops regardless of the maturity of your project, at your

beginning of the journey or at the end.

But with Board, together, you can shape this new future rather than follow the

trends that are already there.