Series Overview
What's BizForecast ?
From "No more Excel" to "Use Excel"
It has been generally thought not good to use Microsoft Excel files (and macros) in processes related to business systems for core business operations or back-office operations. Reasons behind these claims are the facts that Excel is inferior in information sharing and security functions to client-server type or web systems and that Excel-driven operations tend to be highly personalized. So much so that a keyword "No more Excel" circulated in the IT industry. On the other hand, many business people do admit that Excel has an excellent interface for data input and that it is an exceptionally useful tool for data compilation and analysis when utilized with worksheet functions, pivot tables, graphs, and charts.
BizForecast Series has incorporated these advantages of Excel's convenient input interface and flexible, easy-to-use compilation and analysis functions. At the same time it has overcome the disadvantages of its limited information-sharing capability and the lack of security. It's a system solution for this golden age of web (cloud) services, developed with the goal of "Use Excel" not "No more Excel." You can make the most of your Excel files filled with your company's history and know-how with BizForecast Series.
Infinitely Possible Applications
In group management, a group consisted of multiple business entities acts as one and aims for optimizing their business strategies and the allocation of management resources as a whole. Information systems support functions that achieve optimal group management. The following are three important processes or roles of information systems:
Information Collection
This process accurately and quickly collects various important information, for business decision-making, from many physically distant locations, where different languages and currencies are used.
Compilation and Processing
This process compiles and processes collected information to attain granularity necessary for decision-making at different levels in an organization.
Reporting
This process visualizes processed data and information in reports, graphs, or charts.
BizForecast Series was created as a solution to optimize management of a business group and solve various issues. It consists of two origins: a base system for data collection and reporting that carries out (1) information collection functions and (3) reporting functions; and a consolidated accounting system that carries out (2) compilation and processing.
The process of (1) information collection is exceptionally complex. Different languages and currencies can be used. Data may be scattered in multiple operations or in various Excel files. Data can be monetary values, non-monetary numbers, or text information. Even though the process is full of valuable information for decision-making in group management, because of the complexity, it has been slow to be systemized. We at Primal believe that the cornerstone of good group management is a solid foundation of data collection (and reporting), which carries out this information collection process. On this conviction, we've pursued for functional convenience and advancement, and since the release of BizForecast's predecessor in 2009, our efforts have been focused on improving and upgrading data collection functions. As a result, BizForecast has developed into a well-rounded platform capable of collecting, compiling, processing, and reporting a wide variety of information in units of people, goods, and locations such as company, department, store, and office. On top of financial accounting for legal requirements and budget (performance) management, it can be used in a wide range of applications, including management of personnel evaluation data and profit⁄loss data in units of department, project, store, and person.
