The pace of business today is lightning quick. And if you're not prepared to move at the proper pace, you could be dooming yourself to failure.

All companies engage in financial planning and rely on various business analytics to make complex decisions. But historically, the problem with that model is how long it takes to gather and analyze all the necessary business metrics and make an informed decision. It can take months (and sometimes more than a year depending on the size of the project and company involved) to gather information that exists in separate systems and even longer to coordinate data mining with IT. The end result is information that arrives too late, giving you a peek in the rearview mirror instead of into the future.

That's why the Business Intelligence industry has been thriving as of late, giving business owners tools that put everything in the same place with cloud-based services which allows business owners to gather critical data and make important decisions in a matter of days instead of months. 

It's important to note these tools are not just for large companies with gargantuan data warehouses. Companies like GPX Software, LLC have developed tools to streamline the development of financial plans and associated business analytics, providing menu driven, pre-programmed plug-and-play models, web data mining of salary and business comparable information.

Using these tools, it is now possible for accountants, consultants, bankers, and small business managers to predict and stress test future business assumptions with forecasted balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. In short, it is an integrated business planning tool critical for long-term strategic decision-making.

So if you're a business owner still struggling to pump out Excel spreadsheets that are already outdated and useless by the time the printer ink dries -- or you're being held back by the time it takes to funnel information from different systems into the same place -- it's time to find a tool that's best for you.