Buyers Guide

Table of Contents

• What is Strategic Planning Software?
• The benefits of Strategic Planning Software
• Typical features of Strategic Planning Software
• The cost of Strategic Planning Software
• Considerations when purchasing Strategic Planning Software
• Relevant project Strategic Planning Software trends

What is Strategic Planning Software?

Strategic Planning Software gives companies a centralized place to define business performance objectives, collect data, track progress, analyze trends, and predict outcomes. The software automatically collects key performance metrics from throughout a business’s software ecosystem to assemble a historical record of past performance. Decision-makers can then analyze trends and use predictive modeling to make informed decisions about future resource allocation.

The benefits of Strategic Planning Software

• Automatically collect performance analytics: Once you've defined your quantifiable key performance indicators (KPIs), strategic planning software can begin collecting data from other integrated software. Data collection and calculation happens in the background, which provides faster results that are more accurate and affordable than manual KPI tracking methods.
• Save time managing projects: Continuously checking in with employees regarding goal status costs everyone valuable time. Strategic planning software creates a fast, readily-accessible location where everyone can view progress statistics and scorecards without interrupting each other to check on them.
• Test decision scenarios in advance: Many strategic planning software solutions offer scenario testing. This capability allows managers to input complex starting data and calculate outcomes based on historical metrics. Scenario testing gives managers valuable insights for making good strategic decisions.
• Develop historical performance baselines: Tracking performance over time creates rich data that can help companies discover and predict cyclical business trends. They also capture the results of unexpected crises and unique opportunities for later study. Knowing what happened in the past helps organizations plan for the future.

Typical features of Strategic Planning Software

Strategic planning software features vary by platform, but many solutions include the following features:

• Goal setting: Establish measurable goals and objectives and track and review those over time. Configure quantitative benchmarks based on qualitative improvement goals such as improved customer support.
• Key performance indicators: Establish and track KPIs that help evaluate progress and results.
• Milestone tracking: Manage project status by monitoring task progress and intermediate accomplishments.
• Strategic planning: Visualize a preferred outcome, define goals, and identify specific steps to achieve them.
• Dashboard: Review statistics in a centralized collection of attractive and informative graphs and charts.
• Predictive modeling and simulation: Perform what-if analyses by configuring possible performance scenarios based on defined inputs. Use the calculated outcomes to analyze yield and project cash flow.
• Collaborative roadmapping: Create a plan for achieving desired outcomes by setting important milestones in an environment where all stakeholders can view progress and contribute ideas.

The cost of Strategic Planning Software

Most products in this market are priced on a per user, per month basis. Pricing can be divided into three pricing tiers based on the starting prices:

Price ranges*:

• $3 - $21
• $21 - $229
• $229+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest priced offering found on vendor websites on October 12, 2020. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

Considerations when purchasing Strategic Planning Software

Keep the following considerations in mind when choosing strategic planning software:

• Factor in the cost of training employees on how to use strategic planning software: Configuring automation integrations can take some time and this process may not always be as intuitive as other more common types of software. The resulting learning curve is an important factor when choosing a platform. If your team has never used strategic planning software before, look for products that have received positive reviews for simplicity, documentation, and customer support.
• Calibrate the number of features you need against ease of use: Some of the most advanced, best-of-breed platforms offer so many features and customizations that companies sometimes struggle to use and understand the tools. Look for solutions that focus on the greatest needs you currently have, the needs you anticipate as you grow, and your talent pool during implementation.
• Prepare your team for possible modifications to certain workflows: Some strategic planning tools require employees to manually update certain completion milestones so the software can register progress. This extra step is usually easy, but it can represent a small change in how work is accomplished. At least initially, some employees may need training and reinforcement to keep the strategic planning software up to date.

Relevant Strategic Planning Software trends

• Mounting global uncertainty is making predictive modeling more popular than ever before. Companies want to feel like they have more control over the future. Strategic planning software helps make predictions about future performance and gives managers that sense of control. The democratization of technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence are making predictive modeling more mainstream among small and midsized businesses. This technology is also becoming more affordable.
• Strategic planning software can support Agile and lean planning methodologies. Agile frameworks generally split large projects into smaller sprints with predefined, iterative milestones. Many strategic planning software platforms are built around this structure. Therefore, strategic planning software is increasingly becoming part of how modern companies manage Agile operations.