News

Planner goes with Comshare for SQL Server tie-in

• By Rich Seeley
• August 6, 2003

Managers at RSA Security Inc. are now able to compare plan vs. actual performance on a monthly basis through the use of Comshare tools, according to Dave Stack, the firm's manager, corporate financial planning and analysis.

Since announcing its implementation of the Comshare performance management software earlier this year, the Bedford, Mass.-based e-security vendor has reported a 50% improvement in the timeliness of budgeting, forecasting, planning, reporting and performance tracking, said Stack. The Comshare tools have been integrated with the Microsoft Windows and SQL Server platforms RSA utilizes, and are now tied into Excel so managers can extract data from Excel spreadsheets for the Comshare management applications, as well as update the Excel numbers, he added.

The integration of the Comshare management tools with Microsoft desktop applications is a key goal in the implementation, Stack noted.

In other news, the merger of Comshare with Markham, Ontario-based Geac Computer Corp. Ltd. (http://www.geac.com) is nearing completion. In August, the two firms announced that Geac's tender offer succeeded in obtaining 83.5% of Comshare's outstanding shares. The tender offer needs to gain 90% of the shares by Aug. 11 for the deal to be finalized. If Geac does not have the additional 6.5% of the outstanding shares by that date, the merger will require a meeting of Comshare's stockholders to win final approval, which is expected, according to representatives at both companies.

With the merger, global management software vendor Geac gains Comshare's tools for budgeting and tracking key expenses and headcount data.