Adaptive Planning and BPM Forum Poll Shows Financial Professionals Facing Unprecedented Uncertainty; Federal Stimulus Expected to Have Little Impact

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - March 16, 2009) - Nearly two-thirds of company financial professionals, and an even higher proportion within large companies, say they're facing significant uncertainty in their businesses. As a result, 71 percent of all finance professionals in North American companies expect to do more re-planning, re-forecasting, and what-if analysis going forward, a significant increase over the 58 percent expecting to do so last quarter, according to the results of a Performance and Planning poll released today by Adaptive Planning and the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum.

The study also shows a substantial decline in business confidence looking forward, with only 8 percent saying they are very confident they'll hit their financial forecasts this quarter, compared to 22 percent last quarter. On average, less than one-third of companies (32 percent) are "somewhat" or "very" confident that they will hit their forecasts over all planning horizons -- this quarter, next quarter, the next year, and the next 2 years. This is down from 41 percent last quarter.

Surprisingly, the government's stimulus and bailout measures are not expected to have much of an impact, according to the survey. Across a number of aspects of business, including revenue growth, capital spending, employee growth, profit margins, R&D, and access to credit, an average of 68 percent of respondents expect no impact from the government's measures, while 18 percent expect a positive impact and a surprising 14 percent expect a negative impact.

The online poll surveyed financial professionals from companies in over twenty industries and ranging in size from under $10 million to over $1 billion in revenues, with two-thirds categorized as midsized or large companies (over $10 million in revenues). This is the second quarterly poll examining perspectives on key economic conditions, individual company performance, and the role of planning and forecasting in the current economic downturn.

Key findings include:

Economy will get worse before it gets better

--  86 percent say conditions are worse or much worse now than they were 6
    months ago.
--  43 percent expect economic conditions in 6 months to be worse or much
    worse than they are now; 42 percent say they'll be the same.  This shows
    significant deterioration compared with last quarter's survey, in which
    only 27 percent expected the economy to be worse in 6 months.
--  Larger companies are more downbeat -- a full 73 percent of enterprise
    companies (over $500 million in revenues) expect conditions to be worse or
    much worse in 6 months.
    

Long road to recovery, with business performance continuing to deteriorate

--  63 percent say the economy will begin to recover in 2010 or later,
    compared with just 28 percent who expected that last quarter.
--  In terms of how the economy will affect the performance of their own
    companies, 51 percent expect lower revenues in the next 6 months; 48
    percent expect decreased capital spending; 52 percent expect decreases in
    headcount; and a whopping 61 percent expect erosion of profit margins. All
    of those responses showed a worsening outlook compared with last quarter.
    
    

Frequent forecasting and what-if analysis

--  33 percent of companies re-planned, re-forecast, or created what-if
    scenarios 3 or more times last quarter, which is more than double the
    percentage (16 percent) who reported doing so in last quarter's poll.
--  71 percent of respondents expect to re-plan, re-forecast, and create
    what-if analyses more frequently going forward, versus 58% last quarter.
    For midsized and larger companies (over 100 employees and greater than $10
    million in revenues) it climbs to 85 percent, versus 52 percent last
    quarter.
    

"These results underscore the importance of improving planning and forecasting capabilities, so that finance organizations can effectively navigate their companies through what's expected to be a protracted recession," said William A. Soward, CEO of Adaptive Planning. "And, while the short-term outlook may be gloomy, those companies that are able to prepare for the future by creating what-if scenarios for a variety of circumstances, and that can take quick action based on real-time information, will be able to optimize their results during the downturn and emerge stronger than their competitors when conditions improve."

The Planning and Performance poll will be conducted once per quarter and the results tallied against those of previous quarters to identify trends in overall economic conditions and planning practices. For more information on the summary report of the findings, visit http://marketing.adaptiveplanning.com/forms/ppindex.

About the BPM Forum

The Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum is dedicated to advancing performance accountability, process improvement, operational visibility and compliance in global organizations. It provides support to thousands of senior executives and practitioners representing enterprises with more than $500 billion in combined annual revenues. The BPM Forum's C-level members engage in research, thought leadership, and knowledge exchange programs around a variety of strategic issues and challenges. More information is available at: www.BPMForum.org.

About Adaptive Planning

Adaptive Planning is the worldwide leader in on-demand planning and reporting solutions that streamline financial processes, strengthen collaboration, and drive better-informed, more strategic business decisions in companies of all sizes. Adaptive Planning makes it easy to move beyond spreadsheets and automate budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, without the cost and complexity associated with traditional business intelligence and BPM software. With free software, free trials, and both on-demand and on-premise deployment options, Adaptive Planning provides the fastest and easiest approach to streamline and elevate your financial management. Adaptive Planning is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and can be reached at 650-528-7500 or www.adaptiveplanning.com.

Contact Information: Media Contacts: Mark DiCello GlobalFluency 650.433.4161 Greg Schneider Adaptive Planning 650.810.0525