Every business needs a plan. It's like a roadmap, and you
can't expect to reach your goals -- success and profitability -- unless you
know the steps you need to take to get from your starting point to your final
destination. This is Palo Alto Software's niche: business planning software,
and their newest version, Business Plan Pro 2007, continues to build on
their planning and development expertise.
Like all Palo Alto Software planning tools, Business Plan Pro 2007
is wizard-based, and it is expressly designed to make the
development of a thorough and detailed plan easy for the layman. In this
latest version, I found the wizard to be greatly improved. It asks very meticulous
questions of the end-user as it tries to pinpoint the type of business you are
operating and what should be included in the plan.
In the past, I think more experienced plan writers might have
found the wizard got in the way of the actual writing of the plan, but the
wizard included in Business Plan Pro 2007
is quite frankly exhaustive.
It really is like having a professional plan developer sitting beside you,
asking critical questions, and guiding you every step of the way.
Past versions of Business Plan Pro included an integrated word
processor and spreadsheet. Some people may have found it easier to simply
export the whole plan to Microsoft Word and then use Microsoft Office tools to
flesh out the word processing document and embedded spreadsheets. The
new version includes much stronger integrated word processing and spreadsheet
tools, allowing the plan author to work entirely within Business Plan Pro 2007
at all times. This makes it faster and easier to build your plan.
As you delve deeper into the software and begin to develop
your plan, you will undoubtedly have questions about what to include or what a
particular section should look like. This is where Business Plan Pro 2007
really shines. In this version you have access to tons of examples with just a
click. Confused over a term? Just click on it to see a definition. Want to see
a complete sample plan? Just click and you've got one. On every screen, help
is provided, guidance is given, and sample are supplied.
One area I particularly liked was the Cash is King section.
Here you can develop your business-critical financials. Now this is not
everybody's strength. Unless you deal with spreadsheets and financials in your
day job, most people will be puzzled and scared of creating their business
financials; however, Business Plan Pro 2007
once again is there to
guide you, every step of the way. By using the wizards, you answer simple
questions. Once the application has enough information, it builds the
spreadsheet for you, allowing you to start entering your financial data.
Another feature I really liked was the ability to generate a
number of reports based upon the plan's content. So many times different
audiences will request either a detailed or summarized plan, or even insist on
receiving your plan in different formats. Using this report generation feature
you can quickly generate a mini-plan consisting of chapter highlights or even
a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation with a simple click of the mouse. This is
an incredible time-saver.
It's hard to go astray with Business Plan Pro 2007
leading the way. For more information, please click here.
Business Plan Pro 2007
