Japanese Construction Equipment
Rental Giant Aktio Removes Mountains of Spreadsheets with
Adaptive Planning
Japan's Leading Heavy Equipment Rental Company Decreases Budget
Cycle, Engages Hundreds in Reporting Process with 800-seat
Implementation
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA March 11, 2008 Adaptive
Planning, the worldwide leader in on-demand financial planning
and reporting solutions, today announced that Japanese
construction equipment rental company AKTIO has deployed its
suite of budgeting, forecasting, and reporting applications.
AKTIO's 800-seat on-premise implementation of Adaptive
Planning's commercial Enterprise Edition, which originated as an
open source project, marks Adaptive Planning's entrance into the
Japanese market and represents the software company's largest
single-company deployment to date.
The new financial budgeting, forecasting, and reporting
capability provided immediate benefits in time savings and
accuracy during AKTIO's 2008 planning process. Going forward,
Adaptive Planning's software will enable AKTIO to improve
overall financial management, making the company an even
stronger player in a competitive industry and allowing them to
better serve their customers.
AKTIO Corporation, with 40 years in business and sales of $850
million, is a dominant player and among the top rental equipment
providers to construction firms and leading general contractors
in Japan. The company provides rental solutions in all fields of
construction, from large public works projects to office
buildings and residences. With over 500 financial reporting
sites and 800 users, AKTIO's Excel-based budgeting and reporting
process was time consuming and unable to support dynamic
changes. By developing and deploying a localized version of the
Adaptive Planning application, AKTIO's financial managers were
able to shorten their budgeting cycle, enable improved budget
vs. actual comparisons, and enhance overall management
flexibility. The implementation included complex modeling to
accommodate AKTIO's unique business processes, resulting in a
substantial performance improvement for hundreds of users.
The AKTIO sale and implementation were driven by Adaptive
Planning's business partner in Japan, Fukushima Jouhou Service (FJS),
which is an IT subsidiary of Fukushima NISSAN, a major Japanese
auto dealer and an IBM business partner, that focuses on open
source solutions. Product development involved source code
modification, Japanese panel and message translations,
Japan-specific quality assurance, and maintenance of unique
functions. FJS also translated educational materials and
delivered a customized education course. Adaptive Planning's
client services team provided remote support.
The AKTIO deployment illustrates the tremendous power and reach
that can be achieved by combining open source techniques with
the software as a service business model, said William A.
Soward, CEO of Adaptive Planning. By providing commercial open
source options in addition to our hosted offerings, we are able
to identify partners and customers worldwide that would
otherwise be out of reach. There is significant global demand
for alternatives to Excel-based planning and reporting, and this
implementation opens the door to attractive new opportunities in
Japan and throughout Asia.
About Adaptive Planning
Adaptive Planning is the worldwide leader in on-demand financial
planning and reporting solutions that increase efficiencies and
drive agile decision making in midsized companies and divisions
of corporations. 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
streamlining and elevating your financial management. Adaptive
Planning is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. and can be
reached at 650-528-7500 or www.adaptiveplanning.com
