Knowledge Base
Welcome to the deFacto Global Knoweldge Base.
Our Company & Products
deFacto Global
deFacto Power Planning is a top-ranked, award-winning, financial and operational performance management solution that provides enterprise-quality budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, predictive analysis, and reporting.
deFacto Global has outranked every comparable competitor including SAP, Oracle, IBM, OneStream, Adaptive Insights, and Tagetik. Yet, it is highly affordable. Deployed in the cloud or on-premise, deFacto Power Planning is a single solution that replaces multiple spreadsheet applications and disparate legacy systems. It integrates, streamlines, and synchronizes all business and decision-making processes across every level of an organization, enabling it to operate in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software manages and defines the strategies that mid-level to large organizations require to monitor the performance of their organization’s activities such as budgeting, forecasting, planning and predictive analytics.
CPM software is used to create and implement processes, which allows an organization to track key performance indicators in relation to their corporate business objectives. CPM software is typically implemented across the entirety of the organization and is utilized by managers and department executives responsible for impacting the business performance of their company.
CPM systems typically consolidate multiple types of vital business information (financial, operational, HR, sales, etc.) across all the departments. For this to happen efficiently and effectively, CPM software needs to integrate with other products such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, accounting software, or Customer Relations Management (CRM) software.
deFacto Power Planning
deFacto Power Planning is the newest generation of our product that organizations around the world use in every business function to make informed decisions and drive faster, more effective planning processes.
deFacto Power Planning empowers business managers throughout an organization to take full command of their company’s performance through real-time budgeting, forecasting, analysis and reporting across all financial and operational areas, including finance, tax, sales, supply chain, operations… you name it. Using a single, unified platform, business users within each functional area can build and maintain models of their specific business, then use those models as the basis for integrating their planning activities with all other functional areas across their company. The result is a fully synchronized, cross-enterprise planning capability that allows any business manager to make the best decisions and plans for their business area and the entire company.
deFacto Power Planning is specifically designed for Microsoft customers. Its architecture is synchronized with Microsoft’s product roadmaps including Azure, Dynamics, and data integration tools. It features a patented MicrosoftSQL tabular engine for unmatched performance, a proprietary write-back capability for Power BI that empowers users with the full range of planning capabilities, and Azure Cloud for unlimited scalability.
It also seamlessly integrates with any ERP system or data source – anywhere.
deFacto Power Planning offers a wide range of applications such as Strategic Planning, Financial Planning and Reporting,Sales and Revenue Planning, Cash Flow Analysis, Tax Provisioning, HR/Salary Planning, Intercompany Reporting and Reconciliation, Demand Planning, and Supply Chain Management.
deFacto Power Planning is a mission-critical component of an organization’s business analytics strategy. It offers customers the opportunity to maximize the business value of their information systems and drive operational efficiency in a range of ways such as:
- Synchronizes strategic, operational, and financial plans and initiatives
- Provides cross-organization insights and visibility
- Automates business processes, financial close, planning, and reporting cycles
- Unlocks the full value of ERP systems, BI tools, and operational systems
- Reduces costs and complexities of operating multiple legacy systems
- Integrates data onto a centralized platform to establish a ‘single version of the truth’
- Drills back/through to any data source to view transaction details
- Utilizes ML and AI to support analysis, forecasting and customer support
Functions & Tech
Integrated Planning
xP&A, a term recently coined by Gartner, identifies the emerging trend of Extended Planning & Analysis – an enterprise planning strategy that extends and combines Financial & Operational Planning by utilizing the same vendor platform and architecture.
According to new research, “by 2024, Gartner expects FP&A to evolve to encompass xP&A, a strategy where the “x” denotes breaking down traditional silos between enterprise financial and operational planning processes in order to deliver new levels of transformative business value. The “x” represents consistent and continuous planning that extends beyond the finance domain into other areas of enterprise planning and analysis.”
Integrated Planning, defined as the ability to manage both financial and operational performance across an organization using a single tool (xP&A), has been the Holy Grail of the Business Performance Management industry since its inception. Unfortunately, up to this point, that reality only existed in marketing materials. Thanks to advances in the use of SaaS and big data technology, Integrated Planning is coming of age. This technology evolution is well-timed since the use cases Integrated Planning can support have become even more critical today.
Our latest product – deFacto Power Planning utilizes deFacto Planning V10 + PowerBi for fully synchronized, cross-enterprise integration – plus the ability to take advantage of PowerBi’s Write-Back capabilities – a feature unique to deFacto Power Planning.
Power BI provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities with a simple interface allowing end users to create their own custom reports and dashboards. These visual interfaces allow non-finance users the ability to easily enter and view data.
This web-based experience and data visualization empowers end users to take advantage of data visualization, drill down capabilities and all the advantages of a powerful Bi tool.
With the strength of deFacto V10 integration plus PowerBi – deFacto Power Planning is completely integrated into the reports, allowing users to :
- easily enter reports and select & edit any version of their data
- easily enter data – actuals always stay actuals
- enter data at the lowest level of granularity to the highest level – updates are reflected in the database and data model – but also refreshes in every single PowerBi visual for instantaneous feedback
- utilize Smart Formulas over multiple spreads and multiple dimensions, empowering you to do any type of data entry, data collection, commentary, data manipulation within the comfort of the PowerBi interface
- utilize Excel’s Goal Seeking function directly within PowerBi – allowing users to pick and choose allocations to only affect chosen data points, and auto-refresh to see results in real-time.
- take advantage of PowerBi’s interactive experience to slice & dice and filter data, easily get to the subset of data you need, make changes & comments easily – consolidation, real-time data collection and insights are instantaneous – making the operational planning process easy and efficient while bringing everyone in your organization into the same platform.
- enable commentary into individual data points – intuitive, easy to use and quick to implement
- take advantage of drag and drop planning and driver based modeling utilizing the visuals in PowerBi – easily allowing the user to manipulate PowerBi’s visuals which will then update transactions across the database and model. This feature can be used for any type of spreading, custom allocations tags and even driver based modeling.
Reports in deFacto Power Planning can be viewed to reflect both PowerBi visuals as well as the deFacto Power Planning functionality – allowing end users to manipulate data in a multitude of ways within the drivers to better understand how any changes will effect their data across their organization from the lowest level to the top before implementing those changes.
Modeling
The ability to create a single comprehensive model of a business gives decision-makers a more powerful, reliable, and accurate means of forecasting and planning, including real-time analytical capabilities. Once a business model is created, planners can simulate different scenarios to assess potential outcomes, perform what-if analyses, and make the best strategic decisions.
deFacto Global has advanced the art of business analytics by pioneering new methods of business modeling and simulation. Just as computer modeling and simulation have been used to solve mankind’s most challenging problems in areas like aeronautics, weather prediction, biological systems, geophysics, economics , and industrial engineering, deFacto Global has harnessed computer modeling to enable business planners to solve the most challenging forecasting and planning problems.
Pre-built, Database-based Financial Business Logic Capabilities
- Allocations / Apportionments
- Foreign Currency Exchange
- Copy Data (e.g. from one Scenario to another)
- Intercompany Matching/Eliminations
- Unit X Rates
- All Kinds of What-ifs
- Machine Learning Predictive Analytics
- and many more…
Sales & Revenue – Learn more HERE
Financial Planning – Learn more HERE
Departmental Building – Learn more HERE
Insurance – Learn more HERE
Financial Reporting – Learn more HERE
Human Resources – Learn more HERE
Intercompany Reporting & Reconciliation – Learn more HERE
Strategic Planning – Learn more HERE
Driver-based modeling utilizes “operational drivers” to predict financial results.
These models are equations that represent mathematical relationships between key operational drivers such as rates, volume, brand awareness, conversion ratios, etc. in addition to anticipated financial outcomes.
With deFacto Power Planning,Driver Based modeling is made easy with the integration of Microsoft’s Power Bi.
deFacto Power Planning allows you to take any equation, across any business unit and pick out a driver or factor of the equation and manipulate it with a drag and drop experience within PowerBi’s visuals and allow you to see the effects real time.
Reporting
Forecasting
Budgeting
Consolidation
Machine Learning (ML) & AI
Machine Learning (ML)
Machine learning (ML) refers to the application of algorithms that are capable of learning automatically through analyzing data without being explicitly programmed. ML is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that learns from historical data, detects patterns and trends, and ultimately makes decisions automatically.
Key benefits of ML are realized through models that are not explicitly programmed and are able to adapt when given new data. Models are constantly trained from previous results to yield accurate, reliable predictions about the future.
Modern-day ML predictive forecasting extends traditional forecasting techniques and addresses many of its weaknesses. A common forecasting example is determining future sales. There have been many traditional techniques over the years that have been developed for this purpose, but when data is fed to different machine learning algorithms and models, the accuracy has been found to increase. With the ongoing research and popularity, the investment in machine learning to forecast data is leading to better results.
deFacto Planning Leads the ML Revolution
At deFacto Global, we understand the value of obtaining more accurate and reliable forecasts quickly and cost effectively. As one of the first companies in the world to join the new Microsoft AI Inner Circle Partner program, deFacto Global has been at the forefront of incorporating AI into business solutions. The elite Microsoft Inner Circle program selects partners for their unique expertise in specific industries and their ability to drive business transformation using the power of AI and data.
deFacto Global’s flagship product, deFacto Planning, is an AI-enhanced corporate planning product that helps business managers and financial officers manage their company’s performance across every functional area.
deFacto Planning seamlessly integrates ML technology into its core architecture, making it completely invisible to users. With a push of a button, business manages can automatically generate reliable forecasts that continually get better as they learn your business.
Business Intelligence (BI) & Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Cross-enterprise intelligent applications—including business planning, business intelligence (BI), and artificial intelligence (AI)—are core building blocks of an intelligent analytics strategy. The most current generation of these products are making the best use of the large volumes of data that are now available.
The path to intelligizing your business is a process that involves laying a strong foundation. The three basic building blocks to intelligize your business are:
- A business intelligence solution, which in our 100% Microsoft stack is Power BI.
- An intelligent business planning solution, which for us is deFacto Power Planning.
- An AI capability, which is built into deFacto Power Planning and is supported by Azure Machine Learning, SQL ML and other AI and ML components.
BI tools are somewhat tactical, in that they are good for visualizing data but not for structuring data, especially financial data, across your organization. And BI tools do not have the robust planning and analysis capabilities found in corporate planning systems. In fact, in an intelligent company, corporate planning systems should be able to act as the “brains” of your information infrastructure. A good corporate planning system will aggregate key data from around your organization, structure it, and add the necessary business intelligence to model parts or all of your business.
Once your company understands how data impacts business decisions and the key data has been acquired and incorporated in a form that can be easily analyzed and accessed, then more advanced analytics can be applied in a meaningful way. Examples include machine learning for predictive forecasting and recommendation engines, and AI applied to business processes.
AI solutions like chatbots can be employed to generate specific data that your organization may not have but needs. For example, you may need to acquire data for personalization, product planning, and customer service. As you acquire the appropriate data, you will have a strong corporate planning system in place to integrate and leverage the data.
As you accumulate valuable data, you can take the next step, which is to apply AI to that data to enable you to make higher-level decisions. Once you have your Intelligize foundation in place, data gathering and analysis becomes a virtuous cycle that enables you to transform your business and achieve greater business results.