Latest news with #HughCumming


Business Wire
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Vena Recognized as a Leader With Outstanding Overall Rating in 2025–2026 Performance Management Vendor Landscape Matrix from BPM Partners
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today shared its eight total Outstanding and Excellent rankings in the new 2025–2026 Performance Management Vendor Landscape Matrix (VLM) produced by BPM Partners, the leading independent authority on business performance management. Vena was ranked as an all-around Outstanding provider, the highest possible ranking, with a score of 4.69 out of 5, signaling its ongoing success in providing customers with a holistic financial planning solution that meets their needs. In addition to its overall ranking, Vena was a Top-rated provider in the Budgeting and Planning and Customer Support categories with scores of 4.85 and 4.62 respectively, well above competitors in both categories. The company also earned Excellent rankings in the following five categories: Performance and Scalability, Financial Reporting, Financial Consolidation, Finance Self-Sufficiency and Ease of Use. The VLM found Vena's key strengths to be its intuitive interface, the platform's flexibility, the low total cost of ownership and its integrated business planning and AI-powered capabilities. In BPM's report, 73% of survey respondents ranked the use of AI in CPM as either important or very important, showcasing Vena's future-forward focus and emphasis on providing customers solutions that integrate with the platforms they already know and trust. Vena is leading the way in FP&A with its agentic AI deployments and integrations, including industry-first reporting and analytics agents as well as Vena Copilot for Microsoft Teams, an integration that brings these powerful tools directly into business workflows and collaborations. 'Our VLM score jumped from 4.54 last year to 4.69 this year—concrete proof that Vena's AI-powered, customer-oriented approach is resonating more than ever with customers around the world,' said Hugh Cumming, CTO of Vena. 'We are particularly honored by the continued recognition for our integration capabilities. During times of volatility, a business needs better information flow and increased agility. Vena's integration and AI features help finance teams make more strategic decisions faster.' Finance teams are facing more pressure to provide fast and accurate information, reflected in 67% of VLM respondents saying pre-built templates were important or very important to them when evaluating a vendor's platform. In addition to its native integration with the Microsoft technology ecosystem, Vena offers a quick startup time and easy adoption no matter the industry, thanks to its robust library of 50+ pre-built templates that include everything from Power BI dashboards to employee growth kits. 'The VLM is an invaluable tool for anyone looking to purchase, upgrade or replace a performance management system,' said Craig Schiff, President and CEO of BPM Partners. 'We currently track more than 50 vendors that provide software to address one or more aspects of business performance management and related business intelligence. Only the most active vendors competing for and successfully delivering BPM solutions are included in the VLM report, and Vena is certainly making its mark.' From high-growth startups to global enterprises, finance and operations teams are turning to Vena to unify their planning in a single platform that's fast to deploy, flexible to use and powered by the tools finance teams already trust—Excel, Power BI, Teams and more. With agentic AI, real-time analytics and a seamless Microsoft-native user experience, Vena empowers finance leaders to go beyond the numbers and make confident, insight-driven decisions that move their business forward. To learn how companies are planning with confidence using Vena, visit our Customer Stories. To download a copy of the 2025–2026 Performance Management Vendor Landscape Matrix (VLM) report produced by BPM Partners, click here. About Vena Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world's leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit


Business Wire
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Vena Recognized as a Leader Across All Categories in 2025 Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® EPM Market Study
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today announced that it has been named an Overall Leader in both the Customer Experience and Vendor Credibility models in the 2025 Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Market Study. Vena was also recognized for delivering high value with low total cost of ownership (TCO) and received a perfect recommendation score from customers. 'This recognition by Dresner Advisory Services reflects our commitment to delivering powerful, intuitive planning solutions that drive agility and resilience for our customers,' said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer at Vena. 'With our deep Microsoft integrations and AI-powered platform strategy, we're proud to empower FP&A and operations teams with the tools they need to lead through change.' According to the 2025 report, Vena stands out as best-in-class in areas such as sales professionalism, overall value, technology reliability and ease of upgrade or migration. The company also earned high marks for customization, technical support and integration with third-party technologies—capabilities that underpin Vena's strengths in extended and integrated business planning. 'Vena showed high marks across the board, with key improvements for product, technical support, overall value, and integrity,' said Howard Dresner, Founder and Chief Research Officer at Dresner Advisory Services. 'Ratings in our annual market assessment are driven solely from the voice of the customer, and we congratulate Vena on their excellent performance in this year's study.' This latest recognition builds on a series of recent honors that highlight Vena's leadership in the market: Ranked among the top two technological leaders for the second consecutive year in the QKS SPARK Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis 2025 report. Earned eight Outstanding and Excellent rankings in the 2025–2026 Performance Management Vendor Landscape Matrix (VLM) from BPM Partners, including top ranks in the Budgeting and Planning and Overall Customer Satisfaction categories. Achieved 55 top or leading rankings in The Planning Survey 25 from BARC. Recognized as a Niche Player in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions and a Challenger in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software. Received TrustRadius Top Rated Award for Fifth Consecutive Year. To download a copy of the 2025 Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® EPM Market Study, visit here. About Vena Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world's leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit


National Post
22-07-2025
- Business
- National Post
Vena Recognized as a Leader Across All Categories in 2025 Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® EPM Market Study
Article content Article content Article content TORONTO — Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today announced that it has been named an Overall Leader in both the Customer Experience and Vendor Credibility models in the 2025 Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Market Study. Vena was also recognized for delivering high value with low total cost of ownership (TCO) and received a perfect recommendation score from customers. Article content 'This recognition by Dresner Advisory Services reflects our commitment to delivering powerful, intuitive planning solutions that drive agility and resilience for our customers,' said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer at Vena. 'With our deep Microsoft integrations and AI-powered platform strategy, we're proud to empower FP&A and operations teams with the tools they need to lead through change.' Article content According to the 2025 report, Vena stands out as best-in-class in areas such as sales professionalism, overall value, technology reliability and ease of upgrade or migration. The company also earned high marks for customization, technical support and integration with third-party technologies—capabilities that underpin Vena's strengths in extended and integrated business planning. Article content 'Vena showed high marks across the board, with key improvements for product, technical support, overall value, and integrity,' said Howard Dresner, Founder and Chief Research Officer at Dresner Advisory Services. 'Ratings in our annual market assessment are driven solely from the voice of the customer, and we congratulate Vena on their excellent performance in this year's study.' Article content This latest recognition builds on a series of recent honors that highlight Vena's leadership in the market: Article content Ranked among the top two technological leaders for the second consecutive year in the QKS SPARK Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis 2025 report. Earned eight Outstanding and Excellent rankings in the 2025–2026 Performance Management Vendor Landscape Matrix (VLM) from BPM Partners, including top ranks in the Budgeting and Planning and Overall Customer Satisfaction categories. Achieved 55 top or leading rankings in The Planning Survey 25 from BARC. Recognized as a Niche Player in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions and a Challenger in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software. Received TrustRadius Top Rated Award for Fifth Consecutive Year. Article content About Vena Article content Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world's leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content


Business Wire
16-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Vena Once Again Named SPARK Leader in the SPARK Matrix Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis 2025
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, has been recognized as a SPARK Leader in the SPARK Matrix Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis 2025, ranking again as one of the top two providers by technological excellence. This continued recognition from QKS, based on its in-depth analysis of cloud financial planning and analysis vendors and its industry knowledge, signifies Vena's ongoing leadership as a future-forward, AI-focused platform designed to scale with the growing responsibilities of the office of strategic finance. Vena placed among the leaders in both the technological excellence and customer impact rankings, with Vena Copilot for FP&A standing out as one of the major differentiators. Vena Copilot, built from the start as an agentic-AI-capable solution, orchestrates the operations of both the Vena Analytics and Vena Reporting agents, with additional agents planned for release in the near future. Most recently, Vena Copilot received Microsoft Teams support, bringing agentic AI directly into financial professionals' everyday workflow. 'Vena's second straight year of Technological Excellence leadership is all the more impressive given the increased competitiveness and need for technological differentiation in the cloud FP&A space. We designed our entire platform, Vena Copilot included, for maximum flexibility to accommodate both changes in the technology available and the role of strategic finance alike, and that adaptability is a major reason our customers come to and stay with Vena,' said Hugh Cumming, CTO, Vena. 'We're honored by QKS' recognition and plan to use their findings to continue fueling our innovations to help customers navigate this market volatility and go from good to great.' Vena's technological and operational flexibility positions it well to lead the next generation of AI-augmented, autonomous enterprise performance management. With a vast library of native integrations and API connectors, QKS writes the platform has 'deep, bi-directional data connectivity across ERP and CRM ecosystems,' connecting finance to other strategic functions and easily ingesting data for improved AI-driven insights, analysis and reporting across industries. Furthermore, Vena's extended planning (xP&A) and Beyond Planning solutions give the platform additional use cases, offering more strategic functions, such as operations, the same smooth experience. "We are proud to acknowledge Vena as a SPARK Leader in the Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis 2025,' said Akhilesh Vundavalli, Senior Analyst at QKS Group. 'Vena's top ranking for Technology Excellence emphasizes its strong AI implementation via solutions like Vena Copilot, its continued focus on robust integrations with the Microsoft ecosystem and other key enterprise software platforms, and its readiness for the new cross-functional age of finance.' From high-growth startups to global enterprises, finance and operations teams are turning to Vena to unify their planning in a single platform that's fast to deploy, flexible to use and powered by the tools finance teams already trust—Excel, Power BI, Teams and more. With agentic AI, real-time analytics and a seamless Microsoft-native user experience, Vena empowers finance leaders to go beyond the numbers and make confident, insight-driven decisions that move their business forward. To learn how companies are planning with confidence using Vena, visit our Customer Stories. About Vena Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world's leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vena Earns 100% Product Satisfaction Rating and 55 Leading Rankings in BARC Planning Survey 25
Recognized with 18 top ranks and 37 leading positions across four peer groups, highlighting industry leadership in customer satisfaction, price to value, project success and product satisfaction TORONTO, June 03, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vena, the only Complete FP&A platform powered by agentic AI and purpose-built to fully amplify the Microsoft technology ecosystem, today shared it has been named a top-ranked or leading product in 55 categories across four peer groups in The Planning Survey 25 conducted by the Business Application Research Center (BARC). With 18 top ranks and 37 leading positions, Vena continues to stand out as a customer-centric, technologically advanced leader in the FP&A software space. Survey participants reported exceptional results with Vena: 100% are satisfied with Vena.* 94% are satisfied with Vena's performance.* 97% achieved a better quality of planning results with Vena. 97% increased the transparency and traceability of planning with Vena. 97% achieved more precise/detailed planning with Vena. "Vena's top-tier rankings in key performance indicators such as project success, price to value and customer satisfaction underscore its commitment to excellence and customer-centric innovation," said Dr. Christian Fuchs, Senior Analyst for Data & Analytics at BARC. "The strong customer feedback in our survey reinforces Vena's ability to deliver rapid, effective implementations while maintaining very high satisfaction levels." A number of surveyed customers cited Vena's deep synergy with the Microsoft technology ecosystem, particularly its integration with Microsoft Excel, as a major strength. The "seamless" Excel integration played a key role in Vena's top ranking in the ease-of-use category, outperforming the peer group average by almost two full points. In addition, Vena's recent launch of workflows embedded directly within Microsoft Teams continues to enhance productivity and collaboration, enabling finance professionals to plan, report and share insights where they already work. Vena also ranked as the top provider for user experience in the Integrated Products for Planning and BI & Analytics peer group, which combines scores for self-service, flexibility, ease of use and performance satisfaction, underscoring the platform's overall usability and strength. "These recognitions highlight our commitment to delivering innovative, high-impact solutions that empower our customers with the flexibility, insights and support they need to plan with confidence. We're especially proud of our rankings across price to value, customer satisfaction, project success, sales experience and implementer support—all on par or even ahead of the biggest players in this space," said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer at Vena. "From launching the first FP&A-specific AI agents to expanding our footprint through Microsoft Azure Marketplace availability, we're dedicated to delivering solutions that meet FP&A professionals where they are." The Planning Survey 25's validation of Vena's leading FP&A technology adds to a number of recent accolades, including: Recognition in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions A leading position on the 2025 Nucleus Research CPM Value Matrix Being named a Provider of Assurance in four ISG Buyers Guides Winning the inaugural Dresner Applications Innovation Award for Workforce Planning and Analysis A G2 2025 Best Software Award A 2025 BIG Innovation Award for Software The Planning Survey 25 is based on the world's largest survey of planning software users conducted from November 2024 to February 2025, with 1,187 respondents and analysis of 19 products. It evaluates user feedback on 33 criteria (KPIs), such as Business Benefits, Project Success, Customer Satisfaction and more. Click here to view The Planning Survey 25. About Vena: Vena is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft technology ecosystem for finance teams everywhere. Vena amplifies Microsoft's world-leading productivity tools, cloud technology and AI innovation to make FP&A, operational planning and adjacent strategic processes more flexible, efficient and intelligent. Thousands of the world's leading companies rely on Vena to power their planning. For more information, visit View source version on Contacts Media Contact: Jonathan PaulVice President, Content Marketingjpaul@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data