Stop Adapting to Your Software. Build a Planning Platform That Adapts to You.
Develop a custom, AI-powered FP&A solution like Anaplan, tailored to your exact workflows. Eliminate license fees and gain a true competitive advantage.
Are you trapped in "Excel hell" or constrained by a rigid, one-size-fits-all planning tool? It's time to break free. We build bespoke, scalable Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) platforms that unify your data, empower real-time collaboration, and embed AI-driven insights directly into your financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes. Gain the agility to navigate market volatility and the foresight to seize opportunities before your competitors even see them.
Get My Custom Platform EstimatePowering Financial Strategy for Industry Leaders:
Go Beyond Off-the-Shelf: The Case for a Custom FP&A Platform
Anaplan is a powerful tool, but your business isn't standard. A custom-built solution offers unparalleled advantages in flexibility, ownership, and strategic alignment that pre-packaged software simply can't match.
Total IP Ownership & Control
You own the code, the data model, and the roadmap. Your platform evolves with your business needs, not a vendor's release schedule. This asset appreciates in value and becomes a core part of your competitive infrastructure.
Perfect-Fit Workflows
We map the software to your exact business processes, not the other way around. This eliminates awkward workarounds, boosts user adoption, and maximizes efficiency across your finance and operations teams.
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Escape the endless cycle of per-user, per-month license fees. A custom build has a predictable upfront cost and significantly lower ongoing expenses, delivering a superior ROI over a 3-5 year horizon.
AI-Accelerated Delivery
Leveraging our AI-enabled development frameworks and CMMI Level 5 processes, we deliver faster than you think. Get a functional MVP in your hands in weeks, allowing you to realize value early and iterate based on real user feedback.
Uncompromised Security
Build security protocols and data governance rules that align perfectly with your corporate and regulatory requirements (like SOC 2, ISO 27001). You control the entire security posture, from infrastructure to application layer.
Seamless Integration
Connect to any data source, legacy system, or proprietary application without limitations. Our architects design robust APIs to create a true single source of truth, breaking down data silos for good.
Vetted, In-House Experts
Your project is handled by our full-time team of 1000+ certified professionals, not freelancers. This ensures consistency, accountability, and deep domain expertise in both finance and technology.
Performance at Scale
Design a system architected for your specific data volume and calculation complexity. Avoid the performance bottlenecks of multi-tenant SaaS platforms and ensure lightning-fast reporting and scenario analysis, always.
Dedicated Long-Term Partnership
We don't just build and leave. We offer ongoing maintenance, support, and strategic guidance to ensure your platform continues to deliver maximum value as your business grows and evolves.
Core Features of Your Custom Anaplan-like Platform
We build modular, interconnected features that form a comprehensive and powerful Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solution. Select the capabilities you need now and add more as you grow.
1. Centralized Data Hub & Integration
The foundation of your planning platform. We create a single source of truth by seamlessly integrating data from your ERP, CRM, HRIS, and other operational systems.
- Automated ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines for real-time data accuracy.
- Connectors for popular systems like SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and Workday.
- Full data governance and quality control dashboards.
2. Multi-Dimensional Modeling Engine
Build complex, yet intuitive, financial and operational models that reflect the true drivers of your business. Go beyond the limitations of rows and columns.
- Create custom dimensions for products, regions, departments, and channels.
- Develop driver-based models for revenue, expense, and workforce planning.
- Ensure calculation transparency with clear, auditable logic.
3. Collaborative Budgeting & Forecasting
Streamline your planning cycles with intuitive, web-based workflows that enable real-time participation from stakeholders across the organization.
- Top-down, bottom-up, and zero-based budgeting methodologies.
- Rolling forecasts that are easy to update and manage.
- Built-in commentary, version control, and approval workflows.
4. AI-Powered Predictive Analytics
Move from hindsight to foresight. We embed machine learning models directly into your platform to generate more accurate, data-driven forecasts.
- Time-series forecasting for demand and revenue projections.
- Anomaly detection to flag potential risks and opportunities.
- Identify key business drivers using regression analysis.
5. Interactive Scenario & What-If Analysis
Instantly model the impact of different business decisions or market conditions. Create and compare multiple scenarios side-by-side to find the optimal path forward.
- Build best-case, worst-case, and most-likely scenarios.
- Adjust key drivers with simple sliders and inputs to see immediate P&L impact.
- Save and promote scenarios to become the official plan or forecast.
6. Customizable Dashboards & Reporting
Empower executives and managers with self-service access to the information they need, presented in a clear, visual, and actionable format.
- Drag-and-drop report builder for ad-hoc analysis.
- Interactive charts, graphs, and waterfalls for data visualization.
- Automated generation of board-ready financial statements and management reports.
Deconstructing the Cost: What Drives Your Investment?
Building a custom FP&A platform is a strategic investment, not an expense. We provide full transparency into the factors that influence the cost, empowering you to make informed decisions. Use our interactive estimator for a preliminary budget range.
Key Cost Drivers
- Data Source Complexity: The number and type of systems (ERP, CRM, etc.) we need to integrate with.
- Modeling Complexity: The intricacy of your business logic, calculations, and custom dimensions.
- User Roles & Permissions: The granularity of access control required for different user groups.
- AI & ML Features: The inclusion of predictive forecasting, anomaly detection, or other advanced analytics.
- UI/UX Customization: The level of bespoke design for dashboards, reports, and input forms.
- Reporting & Compliance Needs: The number of automated reports and specific audit trail requirements.
Typical Project Tiers
While every project is unique, here are some common starting points:
- MVP / Core Planning Platform: Focuses on essential budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. (Est: $50k - $80k)
- Strategic Growth Platform: Adds advanced collaboration, dashboards, and more integrations. (Est: $80k - $150k)
- AI-Powered Enterprise Platform: Includes predictive analytics, scenario modeling, and complex security. (Est: $150k - $300k+)
Estimate Your Platform Cost
Estimated Investment Range
This is a preliminary estimate. For a detailed, fixed-price quote, let's have a quick chat about your specific requirements.
Get a Detailed QuoteOur Proven Path to Your Custom Platform
We've refined our CMMI Level 5 certified process over 3000+ projects to ensure transparency, mitigate risk, and deliver exceptional value at every stage.
Discovery & Strategic Blueprint
We immerse ourselves in your business, collaborating with your finance and IT teams to understand your current processes, pain points, and strategic goals. The output is a comprehensive project blueprint, including technical architecture, feature roadmap, and a fixed-price proposal.
Interactive Prototyping & UX Design
Before writing a line of code, we design an interactive prototype of your platform. This allows your team to click through screens, test workflows, and provide feedback, ensuring the final product is intuitive and perfectly aligned with user needs.
AI-Augmented Agile Development
Working in two-week sprints, our dedicated POD of experts builds and delivers your platform feature by feature. We use AI-powered tools to accelerate coding, testing, and deployment, providing you with regular demos and maintaining complete transparency.
Rigorous Quality Assurance & Security
Our independent QA team conducts comprehensive testing—functional, performance, and security—throughout the development lifecycle. We ensure your platform is robust, scalable, and secure from the ground up, adhering to best practices and your compliance needs.
Seamless Deployment & User Onboarding
We manage the entire deployment process to your chosen cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) or on-premise infrastructure. We then conduct thorough training sessions with your users to ensure a smooth transition and rapid adoption.
Ongoing Support & Strategic Evolution
Our partnership doesn't end at launch. We provide continuous support, monitoring, and maintenance. We also work with you as a strategic partner to identify new opportunities and evolve the platform's capabilities over time.
Real-World Results: From Concept to Competitive Edge
See how we've transformed financial planning for organizations like yours.
Replacing a Legacy EPM for a Global Manufacturer
Industry: Manufacturing
Client Overview: A $2B manufacturing firm with 15 global production facilities was struggling with an outdated, on-premise Oracle Hyperion system. Their planning cycle took over six weeks, data was constantly out of sync, and they had zero capability for real-time scenario modeling.
- Michael Brooks, VP of Finance
Key Challenges:
- Extremely slow data consolidation from disparate ERPs.
- Inability to model the impact of supply chain disruptions.
- High maintenance costs and reliance on specialized IT for simple report changes.
- Lack of user adoption due to a clunky, unintuitive interface.
Our Solution:
We designed and built a cloud-native, AI-enabled planning platform on AWS that provided a single source of truth.
- Developed automated data pipelines to integrate their 5 different ERP systems.
- Created a multi-dimensional model for demand, production, and financial planning.
- Implemented an AI forecasting module for raw material costs.
- Delivered intuitive, self-service dashboards for plant managers and executives.
First Centralized Planning Tool for a High-Growth SaaS Company
Industry: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Client Overview: A rapidly scaling $50M ARR SaaS company was managing their entire business on a complex web of interconnected Google Sheets. This led to version control nightmares, constant data entry errors, and an inability to accurately forecast key SaaS metrics like MRR, churn, and LTV.
- Jenna Raynor, CFO
Key Challenges:
- No single source of truth for subscription data.
- Manual and error-prone process for calculating SaaS metrics.
- Inability to perform cohort analysis or build a driver-based revenue model.
- Wasted hundreds of hours per month on manual data reconciliation.
Our Solution:
We developed a custom FP&A platform focused on core SaaS metrics and subscription lifecycle management.
- Integrated directly with their Stripe billing system and HubSpot CRM.
- Built an automated SaaS metrics engine (MRR, ARR, Churn, LTV, CAC).
- Created modules for headcount planning and marketing budget allocation.
- Designed dashboards for board reporting and departmental budget owners.
Integrated Financial & Merchandise Planning for a Retail Chain
Industry: Retail
Client Overview: A national retail chain with 200+ stores found their financial plans were completely disconnected from their merchandise and inventory planning. This disconnect led to stockouts of popular items and overstocking of slow-movers, directly impacting revenue and margins.
- Carter Fleming, Director of Retail Operations
Key Challenges:
- Financial budgets were set without input from merchandise plans.
- Inability to forecast sales and inventory needs at the SKU/store level.
- Slow reaction to sales trends, leading to missed opportunities.
- High cost of capital tied up in excess inventory.
Our Solution:
We built an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) platform that unified merchandise, inventory, and financial data.
- Integrated with their POS system, warehouse management system (WMS), and NetSuite ERP.
- Developed a granular forecasting model to predict demand by item and location.
- Created an "Open-to-Buy" module that was directly linked to the P&L forecast.
- Built exception-based dashboards to flag stores with potential stockout or overstock issues.
Enterprise-Grade Technology for a Rock-Solid Foundation
We build your platform using modern, scalable, and secure technologies, ensuring high performance and future-readiness.
What Our Clients Say
We're proud to be a strategic partner in our clients' success.
"The custom platform CIS built for us is more flexible and powerful than any off-the-shelf EPM we evaluated. The level of detail in their discovery process was incredible; they truly understood our business before proposing a solution."
"I was skeptical about the timeline for a custom build, but their AI-augmented agile process delivered. We had a working MVP in 10 weeks that already provided more value than our mess of spreadsheets. Highly recommend."
"The team's expertise in both retail operations and financial modeling was the key differentiator. They weren't just coders; they were strategic partners who helped us solve a core business problem."
"From a technical standpoint, the solution is flawless. It's scalable, secure, and the integration with our legacy ERP was handled perfectly. The CIS team's communication and project management were top-notch throughout."
"We needed a HIPAA-compliant solution with complex allocation models. CIS's understanding of our regulatory environment was crucial. The final platform has passed all security audits with flying colors."
"As a startup, we couldn't afford Anaplan's license fees. CIS built us a tailored solution for a fraction of the 5-year TCO, and we own the IP. It was the smartest investment we've made."
Frequently Asked Questions
Your most common questions about building a custom FP&A platform, answered.
While off-the-shelf tools like Anaplan are powerful, they force you to adapt your processes to their software. A custom build provides perfect-fit workflows, eliminates recurring per-user license fees (leading to a lower TCO), gives you full ownership of your intellectual property, and allows for limitless integration with your unique tech stack. It's about creating a long-term strategic asset, not just renting a tool.
It's faster than you might think. Thanks to our agile POD model and AI-accelerated development, we can deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with core functionality in as little as 10-16 weeks. This allows you to start generating value quickly while we iteratively build out more advanced features based on your feedback.
The upfront investment for a custom build is typically higher than the first-year cost of a SaaS subscription. However, when you calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over 3-5 years, the custom solution is often significantly more cost-effective. You eliminate escalating annual license fees, per-user costs, and charges for premium features, resulting in a predictable and ultimately lower long-term cost.
You'll get a dedicated, cross-functional "POD" of our in-house experts. This typically includes a Project Manager, a Solutions Architect, UI/UX Designers, Senior Developers with expertise in finance and data modeling, and dedicated QA Engineers. All our team members are full-time employees, ensuring project continuity and accountability.
Security is paramount. We are a SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified company, and we build security into every stage of the development process (DevSecOps). We implement robust role-based access controls, data encryption at rest and in transit, and comprehensive audit trails. We can build the platform to be compliant with any industry-specific regulations you require, such as HIPAA or GDPR.
Our engagement is a long-term partnership. We offer flexible and comprehensive support and maintenance plans to ensure your platform runs smoothly. This includes 24/7 monitoring, performance tuning, security updates, and a dedicated help desk. We also work with you on a strategic roadmap to continuously enhance the platform's capabilities as your business evolves.
Ready to Build Your Unfair Advantage?
Let's schedule a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your vision. We'll analyze your current processes, identify key opportunities for improvement, and provide a detailed strategic blueprint and transparent cost estimate for your custom FP&A platform.
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