There's Much More Than Credits at Vena Nation Week 2021

Vena Nation week is back and better than ever, taking place virtually from June 14–18 and hosted on PlantoGrow.com. For Vena’s customers and community of finance and operations professionals, there will be plenty of opportunities to learn, connect and grow—with more than 20 sessions, 80 live conversations, 30+ CPE/CPD credits and over 100 speakers including inspiring conversations with Rainn Wilson, Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan and more.

The theme of this year’s Vena Nation week is “Strength in Numbers,” which is all about enabling business leaders, finance professionals and operations experts to connect, collaborate, learn from each other and excel together as we all find ways to adapt to new ways of working and powering growth. The event will connect attendees from around the world to explore stories of resilience and innovation, the ongoing evolution of strategic finance, the transformation of operations and how to bring people, process, technology and data together to power your Plan to Grow™.

“Businesses need to be able to build agility and resilience into their planning and operating processes to power growth,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO at Vena. “Vena Nation week 2021 will provide our customers and community with a forum where they can connect, and share insights and strategies to help power their Plan to Grow with proven methodology and flexible technology.”

Vena Nation 2021 will feature new ways for attendees to connect and grow, learn from experts and thought leaders and network with other business planning professionals. There will be more live and interactive roundtables, a brand new CFO Confidential breakout discussion and the the launch of the ultimate Excel Nerd experience, featuring talks by Excel legends Chandoo and SumProduct and the chance to submit your Excel questions on our Excel Nerds Unite website.

“While many of us are physically distancing, we need to build social and professional connections now more than ever, especially in a time of so much change,” said Allison Munro, Chief Marketing Officer at Vena. “With this year’s Vena Nation week, we’ve focused on creating live and interactive experiences to facilitate those connections, share best practices and support finance, operations and business leaders in their Plan to Grow.”

We also have an exciting lineup of keynote speakers who will be sharing their insights, experience and success stories. Joining us will be our celebrity guest, Rainn Wilson, who will be speaking about how creativity and self-expression create a more meaningful and collaborative hybrid work model. He’ll be sharing the virtual stage with other luminaries, including:

Mark Donovan, President of the Kansas City Chiefs
Jeanne Lam, Chief Business Officer at Wattpad
Kendra James-Anderson, Virtual CFO and Founder of The Finance Femme
Punra Duggirala, Director of Chandoo.org and Excel influencer
Liam Bastick, Director of SumProduct and Excel influencer

They will cover topics such as how to build winning teams with a winning culture, life and business hacks, the new era of storytelling, new Excel features and shortcuts, and effective data storytelling in Excel.

To save your spot for Vena Nation week 2021 at Plantogrow.com/vnw21.

And for Vena Nation week updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Vena Introduces Vena Copilot, a Complete Planning AI Assistant Purpose-Built for FP&A Teams

Vena Copilot for FP&A harnesses the power of Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service to unlock the strategic potential of FP&A teams and the organizations they support TORONTO - April 3, 2024 – Vena, the Complete Planning platform loved by finance and trusted by business, today announced that it is bringing state-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams with Vena Copilot. Vena Copilot for FP&A combines Vena’s category-leading FP&A expertise with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service large language models, including GPT-4, to help FP&A teams and their collaborators increase productivity, operational efficiency, and business agility so they can focus on driving strategic impact. Today, 75 % of an FP&A team's work is gathering data and administering processes. That stops now with Vena Copilot. Vena Copilot acts as an extension of the FP&A team, doing tactical work and producing insights using the most intuitive interface there is—natural language—to unlock everyone’s strategic potential. With Vena Copilot for FP&A, teams can: Easily create and train a dedicated Complete Planning AI assistant that is built on their organizational knowledge, and learns from feedback and preferences to get smarter over time. Gather data, generate reports, analyze trends, optimize forecasts and more, doing work that used to take hours in minutes with a simple prompt. Empower anyone to interact with data and insights quickly and easily using natural language, such as identifying seasonal patterns in revenue by product or identifying departments that have the highest in period actual to budget variances. Create a seamless flow of work alongside Copilot for Microsoft 365 only through Vena’s native integrations with Microsoft 365, from unlocking insights to visualizing data. "Vena Copilot for FP&A is a game-changer for FP&A teams, empowering them to do more with less effort and better use of their resources," said Hunter Madeley, CEO of Vena. "It’s not just a new tool, it's a trusted ally that helps FP&A teams and their collaborators achieve their full strategic and operational potential, driving agility and resilience in the face of dynamic business conditions." Vena Copilot uses the combined power of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service advanced AI models including GPT-4—the largest and most powerful language model in the world—and Vena’s central analytical data model, CubeFLEX™, enabling FP&A teams to put the power of generative AI to work across Complete Planning use cases and unique data sets. Vena Copilot is also enterprise-ready, built with industry-leading generative AI enterprise security, compliance, and privacy capabilities driven by ethical principles, including role-based access controls and prompt compliance management. This allows FP&A teams to deploy Vena Copilot easily, safely, and responsibly within compliance requirements—no IT, data scientists, or AI engineers required. "Vena Copilot for FP&A is the result of our close collaboration with Microsoft to bring together the best of both worlds: Microsoft's world-leading AI technology and Vena's deep FP&A domain expertise," said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer, Vena. "By integrating Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service large language models with Vena CubeFLEX, we are giving our customers a powerful addition to their Vena Complete Planning solution that leverages their existing data, systems, and workflows and enables generative AI capabilities that are tailored to their specific FP&A requirements." "Vena’s use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create Vena Copilot for FP&A has resulted in a transformative generative AI assistant that empowers all teams to be more productive, efficient, and strategic," added Sylvia MacPherson, National Unicorn Leader, Microsoft Canada. “This solution is a great example of how our partners are using Microsoft AI technology to build innovative and customized AI solutions that address specific business challenges and opportunities, and how Vena is transforming the strategic office of finance."  Vena Copilot is the latest addition to Vena’s industry-leading AI offering, which harnesses Microsoft AI technology for Complete Planning. This includes Vena Insights, an intelligent, AI-powered reporting and analytics solution, and native integration with Copilot for Microsoft 365 as well as Microsoft Excel’s powerful AI toolset. Vena Copilot is currently in beta. To learn more about Vena Copilot and see it in action, register for Excelerate Finance 2024, the annual conference where attendees can discover the skills, methodologies, and next-gen technologies that will empower them to architect the future of finance. About Vena Vena is the only Complete Planning platform natively integrated with Microsoft 365. Vena streamlines financial and operational planning, simplifies reporting and analysis processes, and provides advanced analytics and modeling capabilities to help business, finance, and operations leaders make agile and more informed business decisions. With Vena, you can leverage the power of Excel and AI-powered insights in a unified, cloud-based platform that enhances productivity, collaboration, and insights. Over 1,700 of the world’s leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit  venasolutions.com.  Media Contact  Jonathan Paul  Vice President, Content Marketing  jpaul@venacorp.com 

April 3, 2024 |

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Vena Unveils Best-Practice Preconfigured Solution for Franchises in Conjunction With Industry-Leading Services Firm Citrin Cooperman

The Complete Planning platform provider has integrated operational and financial data for strategic management of franchisor and franchisee businesses TORONTO - March 12, 2024 – Vena, the Complete Planning platform trusted by diverse industries and businesses, announced the availability of Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman, a preconfigured solution (PCS) designed for the unique needs of franchise professionals. Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman includes pre-built planning templates, data models, report templates, business logic and workflows designed to meet the needs of the franchise ecosystem. Working on top of the world’s most widely used spreadsheet platform, Microsoft Excel, Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman provides franchise businesses with the ability to make data-driven decisions, enhance customer satisfaction and improve the bottom line. The PCS provides predefined workflows for planning, budgeting, reporting and forecasting and comes with integrations to enterprise resource planning systems including Microsoft Dynamics 365, Netsuite and Quickbooks. “For more than 40 years, Citrin Cooperman has been a critical provider to the franchise community, having the opportunity to work with and learn from many different types and sizes of franchised systems,” said Citrin Cooperman’s Partner and Franchise Practice Co-leader Michael Iannuzzi. “Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman,” benefits from that experience by consolidating our best practices into an easy-to-use platform, providing franchisors and franchisees with the tools they need to optimize their operations and achieve their growth objectives. This solution is designed to empower franchised businesses with the insights and efficiencies necessary to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.” Franchise finance is complex for both the franchisee and the franchisor, with laws and regulations that vary by state or country. As one of the largest professional services firms in the U.S., Citrin Cooperman has supported some of the biggest franchise operations and has incorporated its decades of experience into Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman. Agile financial reporting and modeling can improve financial decision making in the franchise industry, as well as forecasting and performance measurement, enabling these companies to adapt to changing customer expectations and market trends. For franchisors, Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman provides tailored reporting structures that provide insight into up-to-date topline revenue and key operating metrics so they can better deliver value and real-time operational performance statistics to their franchisees by reducing manual reporting and allowing the franchisees to see live data and benchmarking across the system. The solution enables them to track key performance indicators (KPIs) in real time, identify trends, and analyze the information by region, state, or other groupings the franchisor deems appropriate, and compare their performance against industry benchmarks and competitor data. The solution also supports franchisees with personalized management reports, centralized and improved budgeting processes, projections and streamlined labor planning for multi-unit franchisees. The offering can reduce costly and time-consuming manual data collection and eliminate errors and version control issues by providing a single source of truth. “Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman demonstrates how the strength of collaboration delivers more value to our mutual customers,” said Vena Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer Allison Munro. “It combines Citrin Cooperman’s trusted industry expertise with Vena’s Complete Planning platform to increase financial intelligence across a business, empowering businesses to model, plan and scale based on their specific needs. We're excited for our franchise customers to benefit from this solution.” Vena for Franchising by Citrin Cooperman is available now. For more information on this solution, please visit venasolutions.com/industries/franchising. About Vena Vena is the only Complete Planning platform natively integrated with Microsoft 365. Vena streamlines financial and operational planning, reporting and analysis processes, and provides advanced analytics and modeling capabilities to help business, finance and operations leaders make agile and more informed business decisions. With Vena, you can leverage the power of Excel and AI-powered insights in a unified, cloud-based platform that enhances productivity, collaboration, and insights. Over 1,700 of the world’s leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit venasolutions.com.  About Citrin Cooperman "Citrin Cooperman" is the brand under which Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP, a licensed independent CPA firm, and Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC serve clients’ business needs. The two firms operate as separate legal entities in an alternative practice structure. The entities of Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP and Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC are independent member firms of the Moore North America, Inc. (MNA) Association, which is itself a regional member of Moore Global Network Limited (MGNL). All the firms associated with MNA are independently owned and managed entities. Their membership in, or association with, MNA should not be construed as constituting or implying any partnership between them. Media Contact  Jonathan Paul  Vice President, Content Marketing  jpaul@venacorp.com 

March 12, 2024 |

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March Is Network for Women Month at Vena

Vena employees champion equal opportunity for all in the workplace March promises to be a month of inspiration, empowerment and advocacy at Vena as we come together to honor women's contributions and champion gender equality in the workplace, thanks to Vena’s employee resource group, Network for Women (N4W VRG). It’s Women’s History Month, but they have officially named March, Network for Women (N4W) Month at Vena, a time to celebrate and recognize the remarkable contributions of women within our organization and around the world. "We are thrilled to kick off N4W Month at Vena where we'll be celebrating the strength, resilience and accomplishments of women in our workplace and beyond," says Diane Frysztacki, N4W Co-Chair and Senior Practice Manager at Vena. "This month is an opportunity for all of us to come together, learn from each other and work toward creating a more equitable world." Vena employees are encouraged to take part in a variety of events aimed at raising awareness and facilitating dialogue on gender equity, diversity and inclusion. Some of the month’s highlights include: The unveiling of a special art installation honoring inspirational women from diverse backgrounds at Vena’s headquarters in Toronto. A presentation and interactive discussion hosted by Fora: Network for Change on breaking down barriers and promoting gender equality in the workplace. A social for employees hosted by N4W which includes an in-office movie screening complete with theatre snacks. And much more ... Carrie White, N4W Co-chair and Partner Account Manager at Vena, shares, “N4W Month is a platform for us to celebrate the achievements of women, acknowledge the progress we've made and reflect on the work that lies ahead. Together, we can break down barriers and create an environment where everyone can thrive.” “N4W Month is a platform for us to celebrate the achievements of women, acknowledge the progress we've made and reflect on the work that lies ahead.” —Carrie White N4W Co-chair and Partner Account Manager at Vena Network for Women is one of Vena’s eight employee resource groups. Earlier this year, we announced the formation of Vena Families, our VRG committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment where family caregivers and allies can connect, share experiences, access resources and receive the support they need to thrive both personally and professionally. Our other VRGs are: Mental Health – Mental Health and Well-Being Melanite – Black Employees and Allies Vena Cares – Charitable Giving Va11y – Disability and Accessibility Advocacy Spectrum – 2SLGBTQIA+ Employees Green Team – Sustainability and Green Initiatives Vena, one of Greater Toronto’s 2024 Top Employers, is dedicated to fostering a workplace culture that prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion. To learn more about Life at Vena, click here. For more information about Vena’s award-winning Complete Planning platform, please visit www.venasolutions.com.

March 1, 2024 |

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There's Much More Than Credits at Vena Nation Week 2021 | Vena

Recommended

Vena Introduces Vena Copilot, a Complete Planning AI Assistant Purpose-Built for FP&A Teams

Vena Unveils Best-Practice Preconfigured Solution for Franchises in Conjunction With Industry-Leading Services Firm Citrin Cooperman

March Is Network for Women Month at Vena