When it is time to improve or optimize your financial management solutions — specifically, your budgeting and forecasting processes — there are several factors to keep in mind. Often this involves implementing or upgrading your corporate performance management software. When it comes to the best corporate performance management system, what’s your business philosophy: best of breed vs industry specific, or a hybrid of the two?

A best-of-breed corporate performance management system can be great right ‘out-of-the-box,’ especially for financials. Many of these solutions are developed with the greatest range of features, thereby delivering real value in that they cover a wide array of needs. Many such packaged solutions offer a diverse range of options and are typically quite flexible, meaning you’re often, after initial set-up and training, ready to go right out of the gate.

Packaged also offers more broad support whereas customized solutions will tie you to the provider, or at least offer fewer, more limited support options, meaning packaged is typically more cost-effective and often more timely.

What about a customized solution? Sometimes customizing is the only way to go, especially if your specific processes are your competitive advantage. Often getting a solution built specifically for your company is the best way to get everything you need and this can be great when you have a variety of needs that may not be met by a general packaged solution. That being said, customized systems can sometimes create issues when upgrading to take advantage of new technology as support also needs to be customized.

When it comes to software befitting your specific business needs, there are many considerations that span functionality, budget, return-on-investment, and so forth. When making the decision about whether a customized or packaged corporate performance management system is the answer, the golden rule here is to understand your business needs and make sure the solution is a good fit.

Perhaps a hybrid solution is best. As mentioned, a packaged corporate performance management system is great, but you need just a little bit more to get everything you need. In this instance, a packaged solution plus custom industry specific add-ons can give you the best of both worlds. Better yet, when those same customizations are managed by your provider, support shouldn’t be an issue.

At True Sky, we have the packaged corporate performance management system that you can also tailor to meet your needs if desired. As we said, the best of both worlds. Find out more today by visiting www.truesky.com.