Today we sat down with President of True Sky, George Braun, to chat. We wanted to know a little more about his own experience with the development of True Sky and why he believes it is crucial for companies looking to streamline their budgeting and forecasting process.

What have you found to be the biggest challenge CFOs face today?

Nowadays, the CFO is expected to be more of a visionary. They need to be able to predict and readily react to changes in the market. That’s where a CPM solution, like True Sky comes in. With True Sky, CFOs have better access to information to be able to react and make faster decisions. As well as to compare their organizations against their budget and forecasts and be able to adjust accordingly.

What has been one of the biggest surprises so far talking to CFOs about True Sky?

By far one of the most surprising things is how many enterprise-size companies are still using Excel as their budgeting tool even though there have been other tools developed over the years. On one hand this isn’t too surprising because of Excel’s reputation – is has such deep functionality and is so well known and trusted – but on the other hand there are major pains associated with using it on its own for budgeting. We believe that Excel is the best possible user interface for budgeting available, and that’s why True Sky pairs best with Excel.

Has anything changed with regard to your approach throughout the development process?

We continually reference how True Sky makes companies more flexible, and we’ve really come to recognize how valuable that approach is with everything. As a result, we’ve moved fully to an agile development methodology. We are continually working on developing features and functions quickly, testing them, rolling them out to customers to use and then taking their feedback and making improvements. This approach has allowed us to be more responsive to our customers and their changing needs. It has also made it easier for us to respond more rapidly to changes in the marketplace and makes system upgrades far less onerous.

How do you stay ahead of Microsoft’s updates?

Since we are an Excel-based software, this is critical. That being said, it is always a challenge, not just for us but for any software developer. The blueprint for our system architecture and the fact that we are using modern tools and agile development methodologies means that we are fairly shielded from any negative affects their updates might cause. At the same time, this approach allows us to react rapidly when Microsoft updates their technology.  As soon as we learn of an update we are able to react accordingly and make required updates to our software as they happen.

Finally, why should CFOs consider True Sky?

Budgeting and forecasting is a very expensive and time consuming process, but necessary to run your business more efficiently and effectively. With True Sky, you are able to significantly reduce the administrative tasks involved in the budgeting process. Typically, we can reduce the budgeting process by up to 50%, allowing you to spend more time to think, analyze and strategize so you can make quicker and more informed decisions.

Want to learn more about how True Sky can make your budgeting and forecasting process easier? Please visit www.truesky.com.