Disrupting and Transforming the EPM Space: Host Analytics Inc

“Host Analytics’ Cloud-Based Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) suite provides an alternative to error-prone desktop spreadsheets that many companies have struggled with – by providing an Excel-like interface that’s easy for Finance users to learn and use along with a centralized, scalable, secure cloud platform. And for companies looking to replace legacy, on-premises EPM applications, Host Analytics provides a robust, proven solution that is budget-friendly and saves time. The company supports more than 450 customers with users in nearly 90 countries.”

The EPM market has been dominated over the past 20 years by on-premises software that has been expensive to license, difficult to deploy and implement, costly to maintain and challenging to upgrade. And despite the availability of packaged software to address key EPM requirements, many organizations still rely on desktop spreadsheets for processes such as financial budgeting, planning, reporting and analytics. It is in these circumstances that Host Analytics offers a cost-effective suite of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) applications to organizations of all sizes. It includes modeling, budgeting, planning, forecasting, close management and consolidation, reporting, scorecarding and analytics, offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite delivers greater agility, finance ownership, lower overall costs, and better security than traditional on-premises alternatives. Industry analysts such as Gartner and Forrester validate that the cloud is the future for EPM. Indeed, Host Analytics is now recognized as the leader in cloud-based EPM software.

With Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite, companies can drive improved financial and operational performance. Its suite helps organizations align their planning and forecasting processes, streamline the financial close, deliver financial results accurately to key stakeholders and measure and monitor performance consistently across the entire organization.

The domain leader with focused business objectives
“We face competition from two primary groups – mega vendors with non-integrated, on-premises EPM applications, as well as other cloud-based EPM software vendors. We think that our superior product and customer-aligned cloud business model give us the opportunity to build an amazing company with strong IPO potential as the EPM market shifts to the cloud. We also think that there is tremendous opportunity to use EPM to better connect and align operations and finance to make companies more agile. Therefore we are completely focused on providing successful solutions to our customers and having a long-term relationship with them”, says CEO Dave Kellogg.

In 2008, the founders of Host Analytics foresaw the emerging market demand for cloud-based financial applications and took in an initial venture round to allow the company to expand the product portfolio and attack the $4B market for EPM software.

Since its initial funding in 2008, the company has raised $77 million in venture capital, backed by Advanced Technology Ventures, Centerview Capital Technology, Next World Capital, Star Vest Partners and Trident Capital. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA in the heart of Silicon Valley, with offices across the U.S. and India, the company claims many industry leaders as customers, including Crocs, EarthLink, Time Warner Cable and many more.

Looking ahead
The enterprise software market is going through a major transition from on-premises products to cloud-based SaaS solutions, driven by a customer desire for solutions that are more flexible with lower ownership costs. While other cloud-based start-ups have disrupted large players in the enterprise software market – such as Salesforce.com in CRM and Workday in HR, finance executives have been cautious in embracing the cloud and the traditional market leaders have been slow to respond. Host Analytics’ vision is to disrupt the EPM market with its cloud-based suite and maintain its position as the up-market leader in cloud-based EPM by consistently delivering EPM customer success and bringing the value of EPM applications to users beyond finance.

“Our solution is cross-industry in nature. Some key industries include Technology, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Energy/Utilities, Financial Services, Hospitality/Media, CPG/Retail, Education, and Services businesses. We have a large ecosystem of partners who also bring specific domain expertise and complimentary solutions across different industries”, adds Dave.

Knowing the Key Executive
Dave Kellogg – CEO
Host Analytics CEO Dave Kellogg is on a mission to “disrupt then transform” the EPM space. His drive for operational excellence, passion for quality and seemingly unquenchable capacity to consume data has enabled Host Analytics to experience unparalleled growth since his tenure began in 2012.
Prior to Host Analytics, Prior to Host Analytics, Dave was CEO at MarkLogic and also held executive positions at Salesforce.com and Business Objects. He is also an active advisor and has worked with companies such as Aster Data (acquired by Teradata in 2011), Gainsight, Granular, Hadapt, MongoDB developer 10Gen, and Tableau Software.
With bachelors’ degrees in geophysics and applied mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Saint Mary’s College of California, the highly-regarded blogger is also a recognized thought leader on topics ranging from venture capital and Silicon Valley culture to cloud, big data and social enterprise technologies.