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This release edited for length and clarity, originally distributed by AFP on PRNewswire. Association for Financial Professionals' Latest FP&A Guide Covers Excel Best Practices and New Applications for Finance Professionals BETHESDA, Md., June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — While Excel is a tool that every financial planning and analysis (FP&A) professional knows well, practitioners may not be aware of recent advances that expand its connectivity and capabilities to keep pace with a data-centric world, according to AFP's new FP&A guide, Making Excel Work for FP&A, underwritten by Vena Solutions. The new guide explores the ways in which Excel has evolved, including recent advances, add-ins and third-party solutions. It features insights from multiple practitioners—some who are true Excel evangelists and others who only use it sparingly—to give you a broad view on how you can get the most out of this ubiquitous application. “As this FP&A guide illustrates, finance professionals need to jettison their old perceptions about Excel,” said Jim Kaitz, president and CEO of AFP. “This guide features real-world practitioners explaining how to leverage Excel for maximum effect.” “Excel provides finance teams the power and flexibility they need in a platform they know and love, but the Excel of today is a lot different from the Excel you learned in school,” said Rishi Grover, chief solutions architect of Vena Solutions. “Most users have just scratched the surface of Excel's potential, and solutions like Vena make it even better – integrating with different data sources to support powerful BI, data analytics and reporting for FP&A and company-wide decision making.” To Excel or Not to Excel Today's FP&A professionals apply Excel to a multitude of tasks, including financial models, visualization, data analysis, data storage, textual and quantitative data, and regression and statistical analysis. Still, many teams miss the mark in terms of leveraging everything Excel has to offer. Designed to help FP&A professionals fill the gap, the guide covers: Excel's evolution over time, including new features that accelerate end-to-endworkflow and that help uncover hidden data insights. “Hidden secrets” or functionalities that only the most Excel-savvy FP&A practitioners know about, and how to address program limitations. Use-cases from peers on the spectrum of ways they apply Excel in their own organizations. Learn from Excel evangelists and others who use it sparingly in various contexts: Stand-alone Excel adapted for enterprise use. “Add-in Tools” such as Power BI to maximize FP&A reporting and output tasks. Hybrid approaches that enable advanced data analytics and system management using third-party vendor tools, all while maintaining Excel – the tool FP&A already knows and loves. About AFP Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) is the professional society that represents finance executives globally. AFP established and administers the Certified Treasury Professional and Certified Corporate FP&A Professional credentials, which set standards of excellence in finance. The quarterly AFP Corporate Cash Indicators serve as a bellwether of economic growth. The AFP Annual Conference is the largest networking event for corporate finance professionals in the world. About Vena Solutions Vena Solutions redefines how medium and large companies manage their budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting. Vena combines Excel with a centralized database, sophisticated workflow, powerful reporting analytics in a cloud-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) solution. Over 400 of the world’s best companies use Vena to get trusted insights that drive faster, smarter business decisions. Vena is the fastest growing company in its sector and recognized leader in customer satisfaction and product usability.

FacebooE-mail Vena is proud to host an evening of music and celebration in support of a great cause Taking place June 7 on the rooftop 'cube' at the company's Toronto headquarters in Liberty Village, Vena is hosting an exciting concert featuring: A headline performance of Between the Lines, featuring Vena's founding CEO on guitar and lead vocals Performances by Zoe Sky Jordanand The Grid Unlocked, Vena's official house band Vena is covering the ticket cost for all the company's more than 200 employees. All proceeds from the concert are going to support G(irls)20 and their globally recognized programs to place young women at the center of decision-making processes. Long before co-founding Vena, Mal dropped out of school to be the front man for Between the Lines, pursuing a lifelong dream of being a rock star. The band signed a record deal, went on tour and enjoyed regular airplay on Canadian radio before software sales lured Mal away from his rock star dreams…for the time being. This February, Between the Lines reunited for the first time in 25 years at a sold out benefit concert for Princess Margaret Cancer Research at the Great Hall. The June 7 concert will be their second performance in as many years, and a celebration of Don's accomplishments at Vena as he steps back from the full-time CEO role to get back to his rock star dreams. A limited number of tickets are available online. For more information and pictures from the event, follow the social media links below: G(irls)20 G(irls)20 website G(irls)20 on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram @Girls20 on Twitter Between the Lines Between the Lines on YouTube Zoe Sky Jordan Zoe's Website Zoe on Facebook and YouTube Vena Solutions @venasolutions on Twitter and Instagram @LifeAtVena on Twitter Vena on Facebook and LinkedIn

This release originally appeared on NASDAQ Global Newswire. Experienced Technology Executive to Drive Continued Growth, Industry-leading Customer Satisfaction and Best-in-class Corporate Performance Management Solution TORONTO – May 2, 2018 – Vena Solutions, the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) software, today announced the appointment of chief operations officer (COO) Shawn Cadeau to the role of CEO. Cadeau will replace current CEO and co-founder Don Mal, who will stay on with Vena in the capacity of ambassador and advisor. Bringing to Vena years of general management and leadership experience at high-growth and established global technology firms, Cadeau will assume the CEO role starting June 1, 2018. This transition is the culmination of a more than 18-month succession plan and Cadeau will continue to work closely with Mal to ensure a seamless transition of leadership for customers, investors, partners and employees. “Shawn has proven himself as the obvious choice to lead Vena moving forward, consistently driving industry-leading customer satisfaction, exceeding growth targets and bringing a culture of operational excellence to the departments he led as CRO and COO,” said Mal. “I look forward to supporting him in his role as CEO, and seeing Vena continue its growth as an innovative industry leader.” The move represents an exciting new chapter for Cadeau and the Vena team, as the company continues to build on its impressive growth trajectory and industry-leading customer satisfaction. “We thank Don Mal for his vision and hard work in leading Vena to become the success story it is today,” said Eric Byunn, partner, Centana. “As Vena matures into its next stage of growth, we have complete confidence in Shawn Cadeau to expand on the company’s impressive momentum and continue to serve a wide range of mid-market and enterprise customers, including some of the world’s largest financial institutions.” Since co-founding Vena with Rishi Grover and George Papayiannis in 2011, Mal led the company to become the fastest growing vendor in its sector with five straight years of triple-digit revenue growth. Today, Vena has more than 200 employees and continues to experience upward momentum and demand for its award-winning software, trusted by finance departments at more than 400 corporate customers worldwide. Under Cadeau’s leadership, Vena will remain focused on its vision of becoming the number one CPM vendor worldwide, and its mission of empowering finance professionals to work the way they think. “I am honored to take leadership of Vena as CEO as we enter our next phase of corporate growth,” said Cadeau. “Our success lies in the robustness of our technology used by customers worldwide, our amazing, world-class team and our shared passion for customer success. We are at an exciting moment in the company’s history, and I look forward to steering it toward continued success.” Shawn Cadeau Background Cadeau joined Vena as chief revenue officer (CRO) in January 2017, where he was responsible for leading sales, marketing and other growth initiatives. He was later promoted to COO where he assumed additional responsibility for Vena’s product development, customer success and professional services departments. Throughout Cadeau’s tenure in both roles, Vena saw continued record revenue growth from new customer wins and existing customer expansions, as well as recognized market leadership in product usability and customer satisfaction. Cadeau brings to Vena an impressive management track record at high-growth and established, global technology firms. Prior to Vena, he was chief marketing officer (CMO) at FreshBooks and senior vice president of global marketing at Corel Corporation. He also was responsible for product marketing for Adobe’s enterprise and server business, having joined the company via its acquisition of JetForm. For more information visit: Vena’s Website @VenaSolutions on Twitter Vena on LinkedIn Vena’s Blog: The CFO Playbook About Vena Solutions Vena Solutions redefines how medium and large sized companies manage their budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting. Vena combines a centralized database, sophisticated workflow, powerful reporting and advanced analytics with Excel to create a cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution. The best companies in the world use Vena to get trusted numbers and insights fast. Vena is the fastest growing cloud CPM company and the recognized leader in product usability and customer satisfaction. Visit us at venasolutions.com.

Vena’s latest product release includes collaboration, data discovery and modeling features for improved, company-wide adoption of integrated financial planning. This release originally appeared on NASDAQ Global Newswire. Latest Product Release Includes Collaboration, Data Discovery and Modeling Features for Improved, Company-Wide Adoption of Integrated Financial Planning TORONTO – Feb. 15, 2018 – Vena Solutions, the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) software, today unveiled its latest product release to make the promise of integrated financial planning a reality for medium and large sized organizations. New functionality in the release includes support for collaboration across departments, improved modeling for business users, and new data discovery and analysis capabilities. “Taking the top spot for usability on the recent Nucleus Research CPM Value Matrix, Vena has proven its software is accessible and user-friendly for finance applications including budgeting, planning, forecasting and financial close management. In this release, Vena is delivering the same value for integrated financial planning,” said Joe Mathias, research analyst at Nucleus Research. “From its Excel integration to new collaboration and data discovery features, Vena is bringing integrated planning to companies through a single application to reduce complexity and provide new avenues of financial insight.” Vena offers a unique approach to managing financial processes such as budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting by combining Excel integration with enterprise-grade features including a centralized cloud database, workflow automation, reporting and analytics. Unlike traditional, rigid and hard-to-use solutions, Vena is the easiest way for finance professionals to get trusted insights – fast. With this release, Vena offers the easiest way to implement real, company-wide integrated financial planning. “Integrated financial planning is a best practice that is often discussed but rarely fully realized,” said Rishi Grover, chief solutions architect at Vena Solutions. “Today’s release offers new features designed to help companies overcome the most common roadblocks to adopting the practice. It’s the latest example of Vena’s dedication to our customers’ success and track record of industry-leading customer satisfaction.” Key features and benefits of Vena’s new integrated planning functionality include: Collaboration across business units for smarter, more comprehensive plans. Further engage financial planning stakeholders with improved report books and automated report distribution through PowerPoint and Excel. Make business planning decisions based on readily available facts with Vena’s document embedding and collection features. Always work with up-to-date information and guaranteed data integrity, with ETL job fail notifications and automated ETL job scheduling. Data discovery and analysis to make the best decisions with all the right information. Drill further into your data, to parent or transactional levels when required. Find important information faster with improved search functionality and page option viewing with Vena’s detailed audit trail data. Easy modeling for finance and business users. Improve modeling efficiency and simplified maintenance with shared dimensions. Manage process variables more efficiently by viewing and editing processes without having to open separate templates for each process. As a matter of practice, Vena’s latest release also includes updates for the continuous improvement of its software performance, ease of use, user adoption and engagement. Vena’s new functionality is available to existing and new clients today. Pricing is built into the company’s annual subscription plans. To learn more, visit: www.venasolutions.com. About Vena Solutions Vena Solutions redefines how medium and large sized companies manage their budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting. Vena combines a centralized database, sophisticated workflow, powerful reporting and advanced analytics with Excel to create a cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution. The best companies in the world use Vena to get trusted numbers and insights fast. Vena is the fastest growing cloud CPM company and recognized industry leader in customer satisfaction. Visit us at www.venasolutions.com.

New technology “game changer” for business leaders to understand what truly drives business growth ALBANY, NY and TORONTO – Dec. 14, 2017 – Vena Solutions, the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) software, today announced Revenue Performance Management (RPM), a new, industry-first solution designed for SaaS and subscription-based businesses to better allocate resources and align departments to maximize revenues, profitability and business growth. “Vena’s Revenue Performance Management provides companies with a unified understanding of what really drives their revenues, enabling them to act on the metrics that matter most for business growth,” said Craig Schiff, president and CEO, BPM Partners. “The focus on all aspects of revenue growth and not just expense tracking makes RPM a potential game changer for organizations that haven’t had access to this type of information before.” Vena’s RPM solution provides executives with an integrated, deep look into KPIs and other data from across revenue-driving departments including sales, marketing, customer care and finance. Personalized RPM dashboards provide both top-level and drill-down views of insights from previously disparate sources – including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), web analytics, marketing automation, customer support and general ledger (GL) systems. “Bringing together data from across the business, Vena’s RPM software gives companies a clear understanding of the factors that drive (or get in the way of) optimal revenue growth,” said Don Mal, CEO of Vena. “With this industry-first technology, we’re not only helping companies redefine their core financial processes, but giving them new insights into the best way to grow their business. Where most financial software focuses on companies’ expenses, RPM tells the untold story behind their top line.” By using data-driven business models, executives can use RPM to understand the potential impacts of almost any decision or investment on other departments and overall corporate objectives. Department-specific benefits and capabilities of RPM include: Finance: Make every funding decision with confidence. Draw on real-time data from sales, marketing, customer care and finance for top-level and deep-dive insights into the most important indicators of business growth. Marketing: Maximize the impact of every dollar. Integrate data from marketing automation, web analytics, CRM and other systems to measure the revenue impact of every campaign, channel and tactic. Sales: Spend less on the chase and more on the close. Combine CRM, marketing funnel, sales rep productivity and financial data for real-time visibility into existing pipelines and accurately forecast current and future sales. Customer Care: Nurture the right customers for life. Integrate disparate customer data, such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS), product usage, customer acquisition and support costs, to see the health, opportunities and risks facing every customer. Pricing and Availability Vena RPM is currently available in beta for select customers, with general availability planned for Q1 2018. The software is offered on an annual subscription basis, either as a standalone application or as part of one of Vena’s Enterprise Suite packages. To join the beta program and for more information, contact Vena at https://venasolutions.com/try-vena/ For more information visit: Vena’s Website @VenaSolutions on Twitter Vena on LinkedIn Vena’s Blog: The CFO Playbook About Vena Solutions Vena Solutions redefines how medium and large sized companies manage their budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting. Vena combines a centralized database, sophisticated workflow, powerful reporting and advanced analytics with Excel to create a cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution. The best companies in the world use Vena to get trusted numbers and insights fast. Vena is the fastest growing cloud CPM company and the only one to embrace – not replace – Excel. Visit us at www.venasolutions.com. Media Contacts Danielle Salvato-Earl Kulesa Faul for Vena Solutions (650) 922-7287 vena@kulesafaul.com Michael Corcoran Vena Solutions (416) 529-5709 mcorcoran@venacorp.com

Vena CEO Don Mal weighs in on the value of BPM’s new certification for next generation performance management vendors Vena CEO: Next generation certification should help buyers separate the best from the rest This week BPM Partners launched a new certification program to identify select vendors that represent the next generation of corporate performance management (CPM). The research firm named Vena one of only nine certified vendors in its inaugural list, based on four criteria to be considered next generation solutions: Comprehensive Collaborative Connected Cloud The program is a smart move on BPM’s part. A much-needed resource for companies considering a new or replacement solution for budgeting, financial close management, reporting and other processes that fall under the ever-widening umbrella of CPM (or EPM or BPM, depending on your source). The Table Stakes are Set…and Just Got Higher Between the constantly evolving definition of CPM – some analysts are even doing away with the term entirely – and the number of vendors emerging in the space, navigating the sea of competing solutions is a huge challenge for the companies that need CPM software the most. As we enter the next generation of CPM, these waters aren’t going to get any clearer. BPM's certification program goes a long way in clearing these muddy waters. Its criteria provide customers with clear, up-to-date table stakes customers should expect from any CPM vendor. Quite simply, vendors not meeting these criteria don't have the minimum stakes to compete for most customers’ CPM business. Table stakes in CPM used to mean automating a core set of financial processes – from budgeting to regulatory reporting – with a similarly core set of enterprise-grade features. Workflow automation, audit trails, basic systems integration and business rules come to mind. Today those stakes are higher, and that’s only going to continue as the market matures. With the overall value of the certification program clear, let’s explore its criteria and their importance to current and future CPM customers. Comprehensive In Vena’s earlier days, a comprehensive solution largely meant offering software to automate the full gamut of core financial processes – mostly budgeting, planning, financial close management and reporting – not just one or two. BPM’s own research shows the value in this approach, with 72% of clients surveyed preferring CPM offered (in part or in whole) as a platform, not point solutions for budgeting or account reconciliation, for example. For Vena and other next generation CPM vendors today, a comprehensive solution doesn't stop at finance the way traditional ones did. Managing performance with operational and non-financial KPIs has quickly evolved from useful feature to essential capability. Integrated strategic planning requires a team effort and – also seen in BPM’s research – data from across sales, marketing, customer care and other departments. Vena's revenue performance management product is a prime (and standard- setting if you ask me) example of this concept in action. Connected Offering a single source of the truth by automatically consolidating data from different financial systems has been a mainstay of CPM for years. Any CPM solution should be able to pull real-time data from your budgeting software, actuals from your GL or sub ledgers, and additional metrics from your ERP system. Consistent with the move to more collaboration and integrated planning, connected with today's CPM software means integrating with tools, metrics and data sources well outside of finance, including: Non-GAAP financials like Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Marketing data like lead generation and sales conversion for every channel and campaign Sales metrics including regional targets, sales rep performance and average time to close Customer insights, from satisfaction scores like NPS, to which customers are costing you more to support than the revenue they bring in Where BPM hits on a topic close to my heart is integrating directly with Microsoft Office and other productivity software. Management needs familiar software to analyze and present their numbers, without having to learn an entirely new interface or proprietary syntax. More than anything else (spoiler alert: shameless plug) I put Excel integration atthe top of the must-have connectivity list. When we started Vena six years ago, we went against the grain by embracing Excel in our product. Instead of trying to get customers to throw away their spreadsheets, we built our software from the ground up around full-featured Excel as its main end-user interface. As I’ll touch on in a second, this decision is still paying off. While we’re definitely seeing more integrated, cross-departmental planning, it's still finance that needs to lead much of the process and bring the right numbers together. And it's in finance more than anywhere that Excel remains the most flexible, powerful and beloved software. Try asking an accountant or FP&A director to give up Excel for a month and see what happens. I'm on a Vena plug again here, but it's only to highlight the value of using real, native Excel – not a plugin or 'Excel-like' grid – as our primary, most noticeable competitive advantage. Even more telling, Excel is the number one reason more than 75% of our customers chose Vena for their CPM needs. Add a centralized database, workflow and audit trail, and you've got a magic formula: the security and control you need with the software you already know and love…the best of both worlds. I digress. Vena's 'embrace Excel' approach is vital to our success, but I'd be naive if I thought we could hold onto that advantage for ever. Others are catching on, which is why it's so important to keep investing in product innovations, like those highlighted by BPM's certification criteria. Collaborative As annual budgeting and isolated planning processes give way to rolling forecasts and integrated planning, one thing is clear. Finance is a team sport. The days of planning and budgeting in silos is (thankfully) behind us…at least for leading finance departments. Those leaders need to know which vendors are keeping up with advances in collaboration functionality. From automated workflow to a marketplace for sharing customer-reviewed templates, collaboration is as much a requirement for CPM solutions as user permissions and version control. Vena isn't the only one to have a marketplace, workflow or other collaboration features, but our early investments in these areas put us among the handful of next generation vendors who do. For vendors who don't have such capabilities already, BPM's certification should be a wakeup call to invest in what’s become a must-have for CPM solutions. BPM made another smart move by including ease of use in its definition of collaborative solutions. To this end, I have to bring up Excel one last time. BPM’s research tells us that 84% of CPM customers continue to hit the 'Export toExcel' button to analyze, model and report on data with the software they know best. This single figure – 3 points up from a year ago – neatly sums up: What ease of use really means, and how it’s inextricably linked to Excel in CPM The futility of trying to replace Excel with CPM software Why we focused on Excel as a defining feature of Vena I know Vena's lead in this regard won't last forever. We're already seeing competitors incorporate Excel more and more into their solutions. But in the meantime it remains the top reason customers buy Vena, and a big reason why they love using it. To be sure, Vena has been the leading CPM vendor (or tied for first) in customer satisfaction studies from BPM, Forrester, Nucleus Research, TrustRadius and more. Cloud The benefits of cloud delivery in CPM should be self-explanatory by now, but recent months have shown a slight resurgence in the adoption of on-premise solutions. Clearly some customers remain unconvinced of the cloud’s superior scalability, performance, reliability and – yes – even security. That said, I see BPM’s inclusion of cloud-first delivery as one more leak in the dam holding enterprise cloud software back from its full adoption potential. With a growing chorus of supporting voices – including BPM and other industry analysts – I’m confident that next year will see the lion’s share of enterprise customers recognizing that cloud providers are better at security than their own IT departments. In recent months at Vena, we’ve helped some of the world’s largest, most recognized financial institutions migrate to full cloud solutions. If conservative Wall Street giants can make the move, mainstream adoption can’t be far behind. What's Next? What's next for CPM evolution or vendor certification? BPM surely has its own ideas – see the conclusion section in their certification report – and other research firms may well follow with their own certification models. After 10 years in the CPM space, I suspect future iterations will put more emphasis on: Easy to use and self-serve dashboard, management and regulatory reporting Ready to use BI for (and owned by) the finance user, especially with readily available tools like Tableau, PowerPivot and PowerBI Not just integration with other systems, but with simple drag and drop tools that let finance users do it themselves Complete finance ownership of CPM solutions, compared to some that still require vendor consultants or IT to make simple template or report changes Modeling and accurately forecasting future revenues as equally important (maybe more so) to performance management as tracking and analyzing past expenses…the untold story behind your top line, as I like to put it In the meantime, I'm not only proud to be among BPM’s first round of certified vendors. I'm happy to be part of an innovative program that does a valuable service to companies seeking new or replacement CPM solutions. BPM’s certification gives customers a quick, simple but objective way to focus on the vendors who are doing CPM right. For more information please see: Report: Performance Management: The Next Generation Report: BPM 2017 Pulse of Performance Management Survey Press Release: BPM Partners Certifies “Next Generation Ready” Performance Management Vendors

This article originally appeared in Retail Touchpoints. Finance teams may not be on the front lines, but the value they bring could have an impact everywhere. As someone who talks regularly with CFOs in retail and related industries, I found the numbers that came out of the U.S. government about retail sales a few months ago…less than encouraging. Much like the previous two months, sales at retailers across the country fell in August. This time, however, the 0.2% decline represented the biggest drop in the previous six months. This is not, of course, just a U.S. phenomenon. Across Canada, Europe and elsewhere, many retailers are either closing up shop or coming perilously close to it. Those on the front lines are suffering as a result. According to a research survey from Glassdoor, for instance, four out of the 10 companies voted as the worst places to work in the UK were retailers. Even in the more senior ranks there is turmoil, with many retail CFOs making a hasty — and sometimes involuntary — departure. Consider Bloomberg’s eye-opening look at CFO comings and goings from earlier this year: while one-fifth of American retailers put a new head of finance in place in 2015, another 45 walked out the door in 2016. Some of the forces roiling the retail sector have been brewing for a long time, of course. This includes the rise of e-Commerce giants such as Amazon, which have disrupted traditional incumbents through technological prowess, as well as some surprise acquisitions of brick-and-mortar merchants like Whole Foods. Beyond that, however, retail has always been an industry with razor-thin margins that can be adversely impacted by any number of economic fluctuations. Of all the areas where retailers could turn for help, however, their finance departments have never been high on the list, if they’ve ever been on it at all. To many other lines of business within a retail firm, the finance department is still viewed as a cost center, where people and systems are a necessary evil at best. What if, instead, retail CFOs and their teams could reposition themselves as not only a source of value creation, but a strategic asset that help provide direction to retail organizations during periods of challenge and uncertainty? This is already happening in many other sectors, for a number of reasons. Let’s go through a few of the big ones: 1. Technology Costs And Availability It doesn’t cost a lot to put together an Excel spreadsheet, but taking what’s in those spreadsheets and turning them into dashboards filled with actionable insights has traditionally been very expensive. That’s changing, with a lot of the software aimed at finance departments being commoditized and offered at a minimal monthly subscription rate. The objection of “we don’t have the budget” is no longer relevant when CFOs want to take advantage of these tools. It also means you don’t need an army of consultants to perform analysis or create reports that haven’t been done before. Perhaps even better, those lower price points have not come with a trade-off in terms of functionality. It’s easier than ever for the average finance user to build new dashboards and connect multiple data sources that would have been very hard to do historically. This leads to the next driving factor: 2. Greater Analytical Capabilities Of course, the potential benefit of doing better analysis to improve the bottom line, or why finance is uniquely qualified to do it, is something CFOs have to pitch to their CEOs. I’d suggest you start by taking a look at other industries where budget hasn’t been as big of an issue, such as financial services, or newer industries with more modern finance departments. You’ll find case studies and success stories at countless conferences, blogs and other sources. This is no longer a matter of theory, it’s a matter of application. Let’s take one of the most popular tales of retail disruption as an example. As streaming services began to emerge, retail entertainment firms like Blockbuster worked hard to improve the process of coming into their stores, opened more locations and so on. As everyone now knows, however, Blockbuster missed a fundamental shift in the way consumers were spending on digital entertainment. Scenario or “what-if” modeling is one key way to identify some of those shifts before they happen, and finance teams are closer than others to all the data to feed such models. You can look at how changes in strategic direction or customer behavior will affect your bottom line in the short and long term. True scenario modeling is a very collaborative process, forcing CFOs to work cross-functionally with the entire organization. Retailers have an advantage here because, in general, their employees are also consumers of retail products. They have the perspective of the industry as a buyer, not just a supplier. That opens up rich opportunities for people at every level to contribute to a scenario modeling process led by finance. 3. The Rise Of The Transformational CFO Merely providing data — “crunching the numbers,” in the finance team’s case — is no longer enough to provide value. CFOs, both inside and outside of retail, are realizing this and reimagining their roles, as well as those of the people they manage. When you think like a “transformational CFO,” you’re not just focused on reporting what has happened in preparation for a quarterly earnings call or annual report. You’re looking for ways to learn from the treasure trove of data at your disposal to create meaningful change in business outcomes. What does this look like in practice? Besides making better use of technology, it also means factoring in non-financial data as part of our analysis. Operational metrics such as store locations, in-store promotion results or product returns can all offer insight that a granular focus on sales figures alone cannot provide. However, it’s also important to correlate those numbers to financials so that you can measure against your short- and long-term plans. Transformational CFOs are eager to learn, to get closer to the customer experience and to arm their senior executive team with the best advice possible to work through an organization’s challenges, regardless of the industries in which they work. In fact, many CFOs have discovered that by looking outside their own sector, they find ways to apply common best practices and support each other through seminars, courses and other avenues. The most successful retailers in history have survived because they don’t see what they do as simply stocking shelves and taking payments at a cash register. They have made deep investments in whatever is necessary to build strong relationships with their customers and develop brands that can pivot as shopper behaviors evolve. As all retailers strive to do the same, they may be surprised to realize their CFO is the secret weapon they never knew they had.

The untold story of revenue performance and why you’ll always hear disparaging remarks about Excel, especially from the “replace Excel vendors." This article originally published by Innovation Enterprise. You'll always hear disparaging remarks about Excel, Especially from the “replace Excel vendors.” — Clark Muse, VP, Corporate Development at Vena Solutions Ahead of his presentation at the CFO Rising West Summit in San Francisco on October 16 & 17, we spoke to Clark Muse, VP, Corporate Development at Vena Solutions. Clark is responsible for various corporate development initiatives at Vena Solutions including strategic partnerships, new product offerings, and other projects that drive inorganic growth at Vena. For the better part of two decades, Clark has helped hundreds of organizations streamline their decision making processes to become more effective. Clark has held many management positions within the software industry including sales, channel management, sales engineering, customer advocacy, and corporate development at companies such as IBM, Clarity Systems, OutlookSoft (SAP), and Comshare. Most recently, Clark was responsible for Global Channel Development for IBM financial performance management solutions. In this role, he was responsible for all aspects of sales enablement, execution, partner recruitment and partner demand generation activities. Clark holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University. How did you get started in your career? I started in this space back in 1993 helping companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Bellsouth, and Oxford Industries deploy marketing and finance decision support systems. I have focused most of my career in the Corporate Performance Management (CPM) category of solutions. My career evolved over the years with increasing responsibilities in sales and sales management, channel management, and corporate development at companies such as Comshare, OutlookSoft/SAP, Clarity, IBM, and Vena. Why is Revenue Performance Management important? Revenue Performance Management is hugely important and in many cases difficult for many organizations to manage, especially fast-growing technology companies with subscription-oriented business models. Many companies are challenged with aligning corporate objectives across the organization and generating 'over-the-horizon' revenue forecasts that are accurate and predictable. Further, it can be difficult to understand the impact of various investment decisions and how these decisions can affect the marketing funnel, sales pipeline, bookings, and customer care requirements. Lastly, many organizations spend an enormous amount of time and effort wrangling spreadsheets and data sets to help their decision making. This activity is often repeated each month and quarter, delivering risks, ambiguity, and uncertainty to the organizational leaders. Imagine a solution that provides a flexible yet systematic approach to planning, forecasting, and monitoring revenue from multiple business perspectives in a holistic way. This solution considers all key influencers of revenue including Marketing, Sales, Finance, Customer Care, and others to provide a single business model with prescriptive business rules that drive predictable results. This single business model is fed from data sources such as the ERP, CRM, digital-marketing systems like google analytics, marketing automation systems, and customer care systems like Zendesk. This approach streamlines the various processes and auto-generates forecasts that can be compared to the long-term plan, identifies capacity gaps, and provides a decision support platform for investment decision making and optimizing customer renewals and expansions. This holistic approach is Revenue Performance Management. How can CFOs best drive the corporate revenue system? Great question! CFO's can lead the charge by coordinating all the influencers of revenue to drive the performance of their organization to towards common corporate goals. With Vena RPM, CFO's can automate and streamline the repeated tasks of analyzing results of marketing initiatives, forecasting short-term and long-term sales forecasts and bookings, and identifying risks of customer churn and opportunities for customer expansions and cross-selling. The CFO can pull everyone together in an integrated planning environment for investment decision make while illuminating capacity gaps in people and technology before they become problematic. What challenges do companies encounter when managing revenue forecasts across the organization? How do you overcome these? As mentioned, many companies are challenged with aligning of corporate objectives across the organization and generating 'over-the-horizon' revenue forecasts that are accurate and predictable. Further, various corporate departments tend to work in isolation with little coordination or sharing. And, there's always the issue of data integration, version control, and the manual tasks and risks associated with wrangling spreadsheets. Sales and Finance leaders are often trying to explain why their forecasts were wrong and constantly reacting to events outside of their control versus analyzing their forecasts for opportunities and optimization. Vena RPM overcomes these obstacles by delivering a single, holistic business model that is tightly integrated with source systems used by marketing, finance, customer care and sales teams. This provides a single view of a customer, thus revenue, throughout the customer supply chain. With Vena RPM, customers and revenue are carefully planned for and monitored from the initial marketing lead, through the sales pipeline, onward to a financial booking, and lastly to becoming an evangelical customer base who faithfully renews and expands their commitment. Vena RPM provides a flexible modelling environment for refining prescriptive business rules that deliver predictive results, with confidence. What new technologies do you see as having the most impact on budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting in the future? You often hear solutions providers make disparaging remarks about Excel, but does it still have a role to play? Another great question! These biggest technologies impacting these types of solutions are the improvement in Cloud-based technologies. For example, Microsoft Office 365 delivers a great browser-based and cloud-based spreadsheet solution. Vena is leveraging this technology to deliver device-independent interfaces for Vena users. Cloud infrastructure is evolving rapidly that greatly impacts Vena customers by providing improved performance and scalability at reduced costs. You'll always hear disparaging remarks about Excel, especially from the “replace-Excel-Vendors”. I remember around 1998 or so, at a FEI conference in Orlando, the CEO of a prominent software vendor proclaimed the demise of spreadsheets and claimed that Excel would no longer exist in 2 years. He predicted, in front of 350 finance and accounting executives, that internet-based platforms would disrupt desktop solutions and Excel would simply go away. The fact is, Excel is used more so now that ever. Excel use to be considered the “language of Finance”, but today, it has become the “language-of-business”. Vena leverages Excel for what it's good at, and the reason why people use it. Vena also removes the impediments of using Excel across the enterprise and enables collaboration and sharing of information without distributing files and spreadsheets. The result is an agile and responsive system that's actually maintainable by business professionals versus teams consultants that are required for legacy solutions. It's that simple. You can catch Clark's presentation at the CFO Rising West Summit in San Fran

This article originally appeared in Techvibes Vena Solutions’ three co-founders dreamed up the idea for a financial software company in a Starbucks in 2011. Their vision was simple: Excel will always be a vital tool for financial information and performance management, and there should be software that makes the spreadsheets even more valuable for businesses. That’s exactly what Don Mal, Rishi Grover, and George Papayiannis set out to do. It was that principle, along with decades of combined experience, which turned Vena Solutions into the fastest growing company in corporate performance management. With their cloud-based corporate performance management solutions, Vena helps medium and large-sized companies handle budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting. The software integrates with Excel, combining the mainstay tool with advanced analytics and a centralized database to monitor workflow and reporting. Today, the Toronto-based company has more than 200 employees and 33 partners across four continents. They have nearly 400 clients around the world in industries ranging from financial services to energy to retail—including Marks & Spencer, White Castle, and Street Capital. In 2017, Vena moved into their new Liberty Village space in the former Canada Bread Factory, a building constructed in the 1890s. Vena embraced the space’s history and maintained the building’s quirks. Co-founder and CTO George Papayiannis was hands-on in almost every aspect of the office, wearing the hat of a virtual architect during the design and re-construction by KAVE and Harrington and Associates. Papayiannis is a driving force behind the company’s culture and made sure the space reflected Vena’s values. Work Walking into the expansive 27,000-square-foot office space, features from the bread making days are evident. Starting with the unfinished, original walls in the main office area where wall sconces showcase decades of original paint layers. Three 6×4-foot canvases spray painted by Vena’s team hang around the office, serving as a nod to both the building’s past and the future of the company. Repurposed materials from the original bakery were also incorporated into the new design, including lighting fixtures and heavy sliding industrial doors. The brick-and-beam office has soaring 25-foot ceilings, polished concrete floors, and 20-foot windows pouring natural light into the two-floor space. All employees work in the same room—from interns to the C-level executives. “From the character and emotion the building evokes, to the variety of board rooms and informal meeting spaces, we designed every detail to give our growing team an inspiring place to do what they love.” — George Papayiannis, cofounder and CTO Collaborative breakout spaces serve all meeting needs, from two-person phone booths for privacy and conference calls to meeting rooms that can seat 15 people. Meeting rooms are named after notable city streets and neighborhoods. The largest rooms bear the name of Toronto hoods like Liberty Village and Cabbagetown, whereas the smaller break out and telephone rooms are named after streets like King and Spadina. Food The mezzanine and its cafeteria-style tables double as a venue for learning opportunities and a spot to bunker down and grab a bite. The office has two fully stocked kitchens complete with breakfast staples including bagels and spreads, freshly brewed coffee and fresh fruit and veggies. On Wednesdays, the team passes around popsicles, and on Fridays after five, the beer is flowing. Culture The space was designed with company core values in mind from freedom and self-discipline to leading with passion and by example. These values are featured prominently on the walls with quotes of inspiration, like Stay Calm and Make the Tough Decisions. “All too often companies try to buy their way to a new corporate culture through their office space. For us, we let the building, the brick and beam architecture and the unpainted walls speak for themselves. We let the character of our people and the values they embody define us.” — George Papayiannis Since the move, Vena’s executive and talent teams have launched two new company initiatives. The social and charity committees were started to help Vena proactively plan company-wide social events, extracurriculars and charitable campaigns. Some initiatives already rolled out include office teams for soccer, softball and ultimate frisbee, as well as Movember and Chum Christmas Wish. As for perks, employees can tap into a subsidized membership at the GoodLife gym, a five-minute walk from the office. To rinse off post-workout, two in-office showers and 10 unisex washrooms are open to all staff. Education Vena is a high-growth company where there’s always an opportunity for learning. The company offers an educational assistance program in addition to certifications and professional development activities. The program is open to all full-time employees. Throughout the year, Vena hosts cross-departmental lunch and learns and internal expert-led seminars. When Vena moved into their new space, they also rolled out monthly town halls to update staff on milestones and company plans. Every quarter, they open the floor for questions in an “ask me anything” style Q&A with the leadership team. Fun Nothing gets the party started at Vena quite like its official house band: the Grid Unlocked. Members hailing from across the company joined musical forces to create a classic rock band that features vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, keyboard, sax, bass and drums. Fronted by their rockstar CEO Don Mal, the band practices twice a week after work before taking the stage at the town halls. Whether you’re in the band or a solo artist, musically inclined staff can rock out in a dedicated jamming space. If you’re a bit tone deaf, you can always hit one of the ping pong tables or pull out a board game in the cafeteria. The company-wide meetings feature musical performances and wrap up with social activities from Sumo wrestling to gladiator jousting. Most departments also host social outings every few months that see the teams heading to baseball games, ax throwing, and even indoor skydiving. When staffers need a break from spreadsheets, the space offers two spectacular patios to help balance the proverbial books.

Vena Provides Industry-Leading Customer Satisfaction and Unique Approach to Financial Software ALBANY, NY and TORONTO – July 5, 2017 – Vena Solutions, the fastest growing provider of cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) software, is proud to announce that Gartner, Inc. has named Vena in the June 2017 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Strategic Corporate Performance Management Solutions. The report evaluates select CPM vendors based on a combination of detailed vendor briefings, analyst research and an in-depth customer survey. “We are thrilled to be named in the Magic Quadrant, particularly alongside vendors who had a 10-15 year head start on us,” said Don Mal, CEO of Vena Solutions. “We see this as a great testament to what Vena has been able to accomplish in just six years, and believe it’s further validation that the market is taking notice of our unique approach to meeting the needs of finance departments the world over.” This latest recognition comes on the heels of two analyst reports validating Vena’s market leadership: For the second year in a row, Nucleus Research named Vena a Leader in its 2017 Technology Value Matrix Report on Corporate Performance Management. Evaluated on the usability and functionality of its software, Vena was positioned as a Leader alongside other global vendors including IBM and Oracle. Vena was the only company to earn a perfect customer satisfaction score in the 2017 BPM Partners Pulse of Performance Management Survey. Vena also earned the highest vendor score in finance self-sufficiency, “giving the office of finance full control over its software and the processes it automates,” according to BPM. In recent months Vena has also made a significant product, partnership and personnel announcements that help illustrate why the company continues to earn such recognition. Highlights include Vena’s partnership with FinancialForce, its integration with Office 365, the rollout of a new best-practices template library and significant additions to the company’s seasoned leadership team. About the Magic Quadrant Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About Vena Solutions Vena Solutions provides budgeting, planning and revenue forecasting software for medium and large-sized organizations. For finance and executive teams, Vena combines a centralized database, sophisticated workflow, powerful reporting and advanced analytics with Excel to create a cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution. The best companies in the world use Vena to get trusted numbers and insights fast. Vena is the fastest growing cloud CPM company and the only one to embrace – not replace – Excel. Visit us at www.venasolutions.com. Media Contacts Danielle Salvato-Earl Kulesa Faul for Vena Solutions (650) 922-7287 vena@kulesafaul.com Michael A. Corcoran Vena Solutions (416) 529-5709 mcorcoran@venasolutions.com