Leading International Food Manufacturer Implements Host Analytics for More Flexible Budgeting and Planning

REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwire - March 16, 2010) - Host Analytics, the leading provider of cloud-based financial performance management solutions, today announced that The Bama Companies, Inc., a leading international manufacturer of proprietary dough products and baked goods, has implemented the Host Analytics Budget and Host Analytics Revenue Planning applications. Bama, whose hand-held pies, biscuits and pizza crusts are sold internationally, will use Host Analytics' web-based tools to understand the full financial impact of business decisions, both risks and returns, before they're made.

Bama products are used by many of the world's leading fast food and casual dining chains. Serving this market is complicated, given fluctuating demand for product and significant staff, equipment and factory costs. On a regular basis Bama's finance team analyzes these variables and forecasts the impact of potential changes on budget. Bama finance professionals use Host Analytics Budget to perform this "what-if" analysis and results are generated in near real-time. Scenario data prepared by Host Analytics Budget is used by Bama finance execs to understand the variables that drive future profits and by senior management to make fully informed business decisions.

Prior to deploying Host Analytics, Bama was using a home-grown budgeting system. The switch to Host Analytics was prompted by the need to do rolling budget forecasts and the desire for more automation, increased ease-of-use, and more sophisticated scenario planning functionality. Bama considered a wide variety of financial performance management solutions, including on-premise and other Software-as-a-Service products. Host Analytics was selected for its power, flexibility, ease of use and cost.

Along with Host Analytics Budget, Bama is using Host Analytics Revenue Planning. Divisional sales leaders use the system to forecast revenue, which seamlessly feeds into the overall finance plan. This integration between finance and operations means sales managers can assess sales productivity and finance can understand whether the company will make its revenue goals.

In addition to being flexible, Bama needed a budgeting solution that would be easy to administer, with as little support as possible from IT. The decision to use Host Analytics was made by finance and IT together, but finance owns the system so it had to be highly functional without being overly complicated. The Excel-like templates within Host Analytics Budget and Host Analytics Revenue Planning are interfaces with which Bama finance and sales staff are comfortable, which helped make the transition process smooth. The applications are delivered "in the cloud," so Bama workers can access the system any time, any place.

"We needed a set of tools that were powerful as well as flexible," said Kimberly Joyce controller and director of finance at The Bama Companies. "With Host Analytics Budget we can do scenario planning in 15 minutes and have the answers we need in record speed. Instead of basing decisions on gut feel we know precisely what will be the impact on budget if we move product production from one plant to another, for example. We can review scenarios a hundred different ways, which leads to more strategic business decisions."

About Host Analytics

Host Analytics helps executives see the full implications of decisions -- both risk and reward. Our leading on-demand corporate performance management solution helps financial executives improve budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidations, dashboarding, scorecarding, reporting and analysis. Most importantly, it helps drive fact-based decisions based on sound financial justification. Host Analytics delivers its product suite using Software as a Service (SaaS) on-demand delivery to increase security while reducing cost and deployment time. Founded in 2000, Host Analytics serves enterprise, large, and midsize companies across industries, including industry-leading companies JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Otis Spunkmeyer, Pitney Bowes, and Red Roof Inn. Host Analytics was included in JMP Securities' prestigious "Hot 100: The Best Privately Held Software Companies" and was the recipient of the Best of SaaS Showplace Award from market research firm THINKstrategies. For additional information, visit http://www.hostanalytics.com/ or call (314) 588-2121.

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Contact Information: Media Contact: Kevin Wolf Host Analytics 650-327-1641