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Knowledge Universe(R) Gives Spreadsheets a Failing Grade, Opts for Large Global Implementation of Adaptive Planning's Accelerated and Easy-to-Use Forecasting, Budgeting and Reporting(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/13/13 -- Adaptive Planning, the worldwide leader in cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) solutions for companies and nonprofits of all sizes, today announced that Knowledge Universe®, a global education leader, has done away with cumbersome Excel-based budgeting and instead implemented Adaptive Planning at its Singapore headquarters, as well as its operations in other countries around the world, allowing more than 300 users to benefit from vastly improved planning, forecasting and reporting processes. Knowledge Universe® operates more than 3,000 education centers and schools across the globe, and employs over 30,000 educators and education professionals. The finance team faced significant challenges and complexity managing the budget process across this vast network. They relied on spreadsheets to collect budget data and then had to consolidate hundreds of spreadsheets into a single view. This process was very time consuming and it was difficult to get visibility into key business drivers quickly. "After implementing an Oracle solution in our Singapore business, we decided the investment needed for a wider roll-out was cost prohibitive," recalls Reg Singh, global CFO at Knowledge Universe®. "We now use NetSuite's OneWorld platform for accounting and CRM and learned about its integration with Adaptive Planning. Adaptive Planning stood out for its ease of use and strong forecasting and reporting capabilities. In addition, the ease with which non-finance users are able to utilise the tool was a critical element in our decision to select Adaptive Planning. Furthermore, it reduced the time spent managing very large volumes spreadsheets and allowed us to more effectively manage our global business." After successfully implementing Adaptive Planning in Singapore in 2010 for the 2011 budget, Knowledge Universe® extended the solution initially across Malaysia, India and the United Kingdom over the course of 2011 and 2012. Today, the company has more than 300 users of Adaptive Planning. They rely on the solution for budgeting, personnel planning and revenue planning, which is driven by student enrollment and programme pricing. They also conduct monthly forecasting across all of their education centers. Recently, they added Adaptive Discovery, the visual discovery application within the Adaptive Planning suite of performance management solutions, which provides dashboards and scorecards for financial and non-financial data. "The real value of Adaptive Planning is not only the automation aspect, but that it provides a much richer budgeting environment, with which we can think through our strategy, better understand assumptions while delivering a more thought-driven budget to the organization," said Singh. "Adaptive Planning is much more than just a planning tool and enables us to deliver management reporting across the organization." "Adaptive Planning is proud to support the world-class education innovation that Knowledge Universe® represents; it has eliminated a lot of manual effort for the finance team and delivered improved consolidation and enhanced visibility to the organization, enabling better collaboration and a more comprehensive budgeting process," said John Herr, CEO, Adaptive Planning. "As Knowledge Universe® continues to expand and prosper, we are excited to deliver a valuable solution to automate the budgeting, forecasting and reporting process across its global network of education centers." "From our perspective, Adaptive Planning is a pleasure to use," confirms Marianne Behrens, CFO, South East Asia, Knowledge Universe®. "We now have critical data at our fingertips. The dashboard capabilities give us immediate insight and the ability to drag and drop variables on the fly when creating reports is very helpful. Adaptive Planning has added tremendous value to our FP&A function." About Knowledge Universe® Knowledge Universe® is a global education leader with a network of more than 3,000 education locations worldwide employing over 30,000 educators and education professionals. It offers services in all education sectors through well-recognized institutions in early childhood, primary and secondary, and higher education, touching the lives of over 300,000 students daily around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.kueducation.com. About Adaptive Planning Adaptive Planning is the worldwide leader in cloud-based business analytics solutions for companies and nonprofits of all sizes. The company's software as a service (SaaS) platform allows finance and management teams to work together to plan, monitor, report on, and analyze financial and operational performance. With capabilities for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, dashboards, and business intelligence, Adaptive Planning enables finance, sales, and other business leaders to make better, faster, more collaborative decisions that drive a true competitive advantage. Adaptive Planning is used by over 1,500 organizations worldwide, from midsized companies and nonprofits to large corporations, including AAA, Boston Scientific, CORT, Konica Minolta, NetSuite, Philips, and Vail Resorts. The company is the 5th fastest growing software company in Silicon Valley on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ list; has the #1 brand in midmarket CPM; and ranks #1 in customer satisfaction in independent industry surveys. With customers and partners in 80 countries worldwide, the company has the strongest channel ecosystem in the cloud CPM space, with over 400 worldwide partners including Armanino McKenna, Intacct, IntuitiveTek, Plex Systems, SAP, and NetSuite, which offers a specialized version of Adaptive Planning as the NetSuite Financial Planning module. Adaptive Planning is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and is funded by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), ONSET Ventures, Monitor Ventures, and Cardinal Venture Capital. Contact: GlobalFluency Stephanie Evans 650-433-4163 [email protected] Adaptive Planning Derek Kober 650-810-2486 [email protected] Adaptive Planning 650-528-7500 www.adaptiveplanning.com Source: Adaptive Planning |