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10 Best Strategic Planning Software Tools in 2024

Senior Content Marketing Manager

February 14, 2024

Building a strategy takes a huge amount of effort and time. You need to build your vision for the business, set your goals accordingly, and outline how you’ll get there. The number of variables and uncertainties involved, along with the long planning horizon, can quickly turn the creation of that strategic plan into a headache.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. With the right strategic planning software, capturing and tracking key metrics makes it easier for teams to prioritize the right work.

What is Strategic Planning?

What should you look for in strategy software, 2. achieveit, 4. charthop, 5. lucidspark, 9. clearpoint strategy, 10. peoplebox.

A strategic planning process involves outlining the vision for your organization’s future along with the direction everyone needs to take to get there. The ultimate goal is a formal strategic plan that lets everyone know exactly what they’re working toward.

Every industry and organization approaches planning and progress tracking in different ways. But strategic planning always includes a few core components.

To start, you need a future vision. That’s exactly where leadership sees your organization end up in the future, and it helps stakeholders visualize progress over time.

Then you need to identify the more specific goals that the organization needs to accomplish on the way to fulfilling the vision. They’re still high-level, overarching goals that everyone uses to prioritize their work , track performance, and daily tasks.

Finally, you need a plan of action, the approach you’ll take to accomplish your strategic plan. This final step can become complex as it reaches into the day-to-day tactical plans of every organizational unit.

When going through our list of the best strategic planning software below, you’ll quickly notice just how different they are in their attempts to help you plan more effectively and strategically. Every complete solution you research, however, should include at least a few core strategic planning features on one centralized dashboard:

• Organization: Data visualization capabilities and tools to organize complex timelines, using tools such as Gantt charts or flowcharts
• Flexibility: More free-flowing dashboards and interfaces, such as whiteboard templates, that enable brainstorming and creative thought early in the process
• Customization: Customizable features that allow you to make the software work for your strategic planning process and track progress
• Agility: The ability to adjust on the fly is necessary, keeping potential contingency plans in mind
• Team-focused: Collaboration tools that allow more than one user to contribute to the project, especially in virtual environments where the strategy planning team may be distributed remotely
• Integration: Integration options with other tools, including those you use for project execution or secondary plans, such as product roadmaps ; this sets the stage for a complete product management solution
• Reporting: Customized performance reports to help monitor key performance indicators and optimize resource management throughout all of your strategic initiatives

Not every tool you find will be equally strong in these features and benefits. The key, then, is finding strategic planning software that matches your specific business game plan, situation, and environment.

The 10 Best Strategic Planning Software Tools to Use in 2024

It’s tough to make an argument for anything other than strategic planning to be the most important process in your organization. Tactics without the strategy behind them likely won’t succeed. These tools can simplify creating that strategy and streamline the process for everyone involved.

ClickUp is the perfect strategic planning software for any organization. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools to help teams organize plans, prioritize tasks, and manage projects. Plus, its visual strategic planning templates give project managers a jumpstart in the creation process.

And if you’re looking for a complete product management solution, ClickUp integrates with thousands of other work apps to streamline portfolio management into one central hub!

ClickUp best features

• A huge library of templates, including Gantt charts, visual timelines, whiteboards, board views, and ClickUp’s Strategic Roadmap Template !
• ClickUp Goals feature that allows you to turn your organizational vision into measurable and intuitive goals you can track and work on directly in the software
• Interactive Dashboards that allow key users to view organizational analytics and adjust their strategic plans
• A visual and user-friendly interface that works largely on dropdowns and drag-and-drop, enabling anyone involved in the planning to contribute
• Integrated document management that can house the outcome of the strategic planning process—the written plan—in a centralized and easily accessible space
• Communication tools that enable multiple members of the organization to collaborate on the planning process from beginning to end

ClickUp limitations

• The comprehensive nature of the software and its many features can make for a longer learning curve for new users
• This is a desktop-first strategic planning software; while there are some mobile capabilities and a mobile app, its functionality will always be most effective on desktop devices
• The pre-built automation can sometimes be limiting, causing some users to request more customized automation opportunities

ClickUp pricing plans

• Free Forever: A free service for users
• Unlimited: $7/month per user
• Business Plus: $19/month per user
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

ClickUp ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)

The first dedicated strategic planning tool on our list, AchieveIt focuses on automating and digitizing the planning process. That includes not just creating plans but also monitoring them across the organization and toward long-term success.

The planning process becomes more visible and transparent across the organization. With the intuitive dashboard, everyone remains on the same page regarding the goals, what they’ve achieved, and what they still need to do.

AchieveIt best features

• Planning templates optimized for industries, including healthcare, government, education, banking, manufacturing, and more
• A visual dashboard for users to keep track of both the planning and execution process across the organization
• A scorecard system to measure ongoing progress toward particular strategic goals
• An extensive knowledgebase complete with both video and written content to simplify onboarding and starting your planning process
• Close vendor-client relationships that lead to strong customer support and a higher chance of using the software successfully

AchieveIt limitations

• Limited ability to customize some fields in the templates and dashboards depending on the customization needed
• Fewer integrations than some leading software solution tools on this list, making it more difficult to plan and track outside the platform
• The pre-built reporting functions can be somewhat limiting, requiring time spent on custom reports in many industries

AchieveIt pricing plans

• Core: Contact for pricing
• Plus: Contact for pricing
• Pro: Contact for pricing

AchieveIt ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (45 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (21 reviews)

Built by former strategic organizational leaders, Elate helps others streamline their strategy sessions and planning. Like most of the best strategic planning tools , it focuses on three stages: planning, execution, and success tracking.

Each stage focuses on ongoing cross-unit alignment and optimization to keep your business on track.

Elate best features

• Set objectives and strategic goals in the platform, then communicate them to your larger teams via integrations, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams
• Create a unified dashboard view of your strategic plan that users and everyone else in the organization can easily see and reference
• Monitor the status of the plan’s execution through real-time success and progress reports in the platform
• Use the intuitive interface for easy planning without getting off target

Elate limitations

• The intentional simplicity of the product can sometimes be a limitation for more complex planning processes
• External data can be difficult to import into the software, which doesn’t always read typical file types
• There is currently no integration with project management tools, such as ClickUp, Asana, or Monday, that could lead to more complex execution projects

Elate pricing plans

• Contact for pricing

Elate ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.9/5 (11 reviews)
• Capterra: No reviews recorded

As a people management tool, ChartHop offers a digital solution for effectively tracking, analyzing, and understanding your workforce. It centralizes data such as employee information, roles, skills, and performance metrics, providing a holistic view of your organization.

By having access to this comprehensive dataset, you can gain valuable insights into your workforce and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, talent development, and organizational strategy.

ChartHop best features

• A comprehensive employee and people management tool that provides all the depth and insights you need for strategic planning
• Integration abilities into other websites, such as your organization’s intranet
• A great mix of user experience and customizability to create an easy tool for all employees and leadership alike

ChartHop limitations

• There are so many features that it can be easy to lose the overview of what matters most in managing your people and plans
• The search function within the platform has some bugs and doesn’t always return comprehensive results
• Reports could use more segmentation abilities to analyze individual employees and data groups in greater detail

ChartHop pricing plans

• ChartHop Basic: Free for up to 150 employees
• ChartHop Standard: $8/month per employee
• ChartHop Premium: Contact for pricing

ChartHop ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.2/5 (98 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (65 reviews)

Strategic planning almost always has to start with creative brainstorming and ideation. That’s where a tool like Lucidspark, which thrives on its virtual whiteboarding features, truly shines. Companies, including Google, General Electric, and NBC Universal, use it in the strategic planning process.

Lucidspark best features

• Strong desktop and mobile capabilities that make whiteboarding and collaboration simple in any situation
• An integrated chat function that allows multiple users working on the same whiteboard to stay in real-time contact
• Templates from decision trees to roadmaps that make getting started in the planning process simple

Lucidspark limitations

• Somewhat limited features and templates for any multi-layered planning process
• Pricing is not listed publicly, and some reviews have called it out as more expensive than other whiteboarding tools

Lucidspark pricing plans

Lucidspark ratings and reviews.

• G2: 4.5/5 (2,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (350+ reviews)

Designed specifically for small businesses, Empiraa employs an established strategic framework that’s easy to integrate your organization and plan into. Simplicity is front and center for all users involved, whether you’re creating a vision or collaborating toward achieving that vision.

Empiraa best features

• Simplicity is intentional throughout, and this makes Empiraa one of the easiest tools available to start your planning process
• Streamlined functionality for switching directions or changing alignments to account for shifting business environments
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrations that use industry trends and data to suggest both business goals and strategies help achieve these goals

Empiraa limitations

• Simplicity is its downfall in scenarios where more complex tools and integrations, such as basic task management or calendar functionality, become necessary
• Lacks a clone function to quickly duplicate content, features, or set-up items when creating more complex or multiple plans and reports

Empiraa pricing plans

• Empiraa Starter: $4.90/month per user
• Empiraa Pro: $13.90/month per user
• Empiraa Max: $23.90/month per user

Empiraa ratings and reviews

• G2: 5/5 (1 review)
• Capterra: 5/5 (1 review)

Similar to ClickUp, Hive integrates strategic planning with more task-oriented project management. It has goal and milestone features, visualization tools, and an easy ability to move directly from the more overarching goals and strategy into managing individual projects connected with them. Meanwhile, Hive Pages is a dashboard specifically designed for strategic tracking.

Hive best features

• Robust templates that come with full customizability, allowing you to build repeatable processes that help the planning process
• Centralized and automated reporting and tracking of your goals to keep everyone who needs to stay in the loop involved
• Automated notifications for every aspect of the strategic planning process, maximizing visibility when building or adjusting the plan

Hive limitations

• The chat function is a great collaboration tool in theory, but some users report lost messages that make it less reliable than other collaboration tools
• The mobile app exists largely for checking tasks and notifications and doesn’t have the same functionality as the website and desktop app

Hive pricing plans

• Free: A free service for users
• Teams: $12/month per user

Hive ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.6/5 (400+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (150+ reviews)

Envisio is designed to manage complexities. What makes it especially unique is its focus on planning transparency when it comes to external stakeholders, who take on a more significant role in these industries compared to most others.

Envisio best features

• A customizable plan structure that allows every organization to account for its nuances and complications in the process
• The ability to build multiple plans on a single account, enabling especially complex healthcare and nonprofit organizations to better manage their strategic planning infrastructure
• Fully customizable public dashboards that can generate automated reports to email lists and sign-ups who are interested in the execution of the plans

Envisio limitations

• The platform is still evolving, which means new features or layout changes can pop up unexpectedly for users
• A single plan with custom pricing makes it difficult to plan exactly how much you’ll need to spend on this software without in-depth engagement

Envisio pricing plans

Enivisio ratings and reviews.

• G2: 4.6/5 (10 reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (26 reviews)

ClearPoint Strategy builds its business model on AI automation, and its strategic planning solution is no different. An AI assistant helps organizations with any type of strategic planning, including balanced scorecards, GTSM planning mechanisms, and beyond. The software also automates the execution of that planning process through automated tasks, notifications, reporting, and more.

ClearPoint Strategy best features

• An AI-enabled budget forecasting that adds a tangible component to the strategic planning process without any calculations needed
• A fully customizable dashboard that helps all levels of management in both the planning and execution of the plan
• Plenty of customization possibilities, including custom fields and reports, that allow for a more personalized planning process

ClearPoint Strategy limitations

• A relatively long learning curve, thanks in part to features, such as AI, that aren’t always intuitive to set up at the beginning compared to other strategic planning solutions
• Relatively rigid time frames with a standard monthly cadence that is difficult to change in the software

ClearPoint Strategy pricing plans

Clearpoint strategy ratings and reviews.

• G2: 4.7/5 (100+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.9/5 (38 reviews)

How does your people strategy connect to your business strategy? Find out with Peoplebox. It’s a performance management platform that combines traditional strategic planning tools with those that improve employee engagement and performance management.

Peoplebox best features

• Performance management tools that allow you to see where and how your teams are performing, which you can connect to your strategic forecasting efforts
• Objectives and Key Results (OKR)-focused software that’s especially beneficial for organizations using the OKR approach to strategic planning
• Automated notifications for any red flags that may impede business progress or employee performance

Peoplebox limitations

• User roles are not always well-defined, with all users being able to create company-wide goals that can confuse the reporting
• Integrations are still in development, currently limiting the software to a relatively self-contained planning platform

Peoplebox pricing plans

• Professional: $7/month per user
• Premium: $15/month per user

Peoplebox ratings and reviews

• G2: 4.5/5 (250+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (120+ reviews)

Ready to Start Mastering Your Business Strategy?

ClickUp offers features such as collaboration tools, goal tracking, and real-time data analysis. This allows you to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed. You can also invite stakeholders and assign tasks to ensure everyone is working towards the same end goal. With ClickUp’s help, your team will reach its objectives faster than before.

Start with a free ClickUp Workspace and leverage strategic planning features for your next project!

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17 Best Strategic Planning Software of 2024 (Free & Paid)

The world is rapidly vacating the era of spreadsheets and archaic business solutions. These days, businesses that prefer an advanced approach to their development and organization opt for strategic planning software.

Put simply, strategic planning tools help business owners to map out, analyze, monitor, and follow through on plans that would help them achieve their business goals. There are multiple functions they can help achieve in this regard. These include but are not limited to:

• Providing a platform to create, share, and monitor strategic objectives.
• Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) necessary to accomplish said objectives.
• Managing and monitoring employee performance to make sure every fiber of the organization is on the same page.
• Providing a collaborative platform that ensures transparency and lets you monitor all objectives and projects from one location.

Those are all criteria that standard strategic management software should meet to afford better organization and project management . Regardless of the scope and size of your organization, you’ll want a user-friendly tool that can also offer advanced features like flexible third-party app integrations, agile project management, an intuitive interface, and a central dashboard plus intelligent reporting .

We’ve gone to the trouble of reviewing and shortlisting the 17 best strategic planning software for businesses. Our analysis is based on functionality, adaptability, user-friendliness, price , and of course, customer reviews .

Whether you’re a growing small business or a large enterprise, you’re sure to find a solution that aligns with your business infrastructure and budget.

Best Strategic Planning Software

1. monday.com, all-in-one strategic planning software with great visualizations.

Usually, strategic planning software offers different functionalities from project management software but Monday.com has somehow bypassed that rule to provide an all-in-one platform that lets you manage and strategize every level of activity, whether it be day-to-day tasks or your ultimate long-term goals.

With Monday.com, you can easily manage and monitor the workflows of multiple aspects of your business, be it Sales, Marketing, Project Management, or Human Resources . Apart from the intuitive and very user-friendly interface that makes the app so easy to use, you can also visualize your data in several formats e.g. a map, chart, calendar, or timeline.

Strategic Planning Features

With access to over 200 workflows, you can choose one or several that pertain to specific departments or teams in your business. The workflows are flexible and linkable, so you can streamline your work processes and maintain a complete view of every project and activity.

You can automate some actions and notifications to make communication and updates to your teammates faster and easier.

Visualizations

With multiple visualizations to choose from, like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, or maps and timelines, you can view your data and track work progress in your preferred format.

Flexible Templates and Intuitive Interface

There are several pre-designed and very easy-to-use templates to choose from, so you can start planning and executing in a manner of minutes. These templates are customizable, so you can always tweak the interface to suit your mode of operations.

Integrations

You would find it convenient setting up Monday.com to suit your business operations, because the platform integrates with over 40 popular tools that are used by businesses for different purposes e.g Mailchimp and SurveyMonkey for marketing, Salesforce, and Zendesk for CRM, plus Slack, Zoom, Google Drive and Excel.

• 3 Work Boards
• 2 Team Members
• Unlimited Docs
• 500 MB Storage
• 200+ Project Templates
• Unlimited Boards
• Unlimited Team Members
• Unlimited Viewers
• 5 GB Storage
• 1-Week Activity Log
• Calendar, Timeline, Map Views
• 250 Actions for Automations
• 250 Actions for Integrations
• 20 GB Storage
• 6-Month Activity Log
• Unlimited Guest Access
• 25000 Actions for Automations
• 25000 Actions for Integrations
• 100 GB Storage
• 1-Year Activity Log
• Dedicated Customer Agent
• 250000 Automations
• 250000 Actions for Integrations
• Enterprise Analytics

Find out more Monday pricing or Monday review

• Monday.com is affordable even for individuals because it has a free plan . This free plan does offer nice, usable features like unlimited docs, unlimited boards, and the ability to track workflow.
• Those looking for more functionality should consider the Standard plan , which offers Gantt chart views, automations, and multiple integrations. This plan goes at $10 per seat per month , and you can choose up to more than 200 seats.
• Advanced features are available in the Pro and Enterprise plans . These include advanced reporting and analytics, time tracking, a dependency column, and many more. The Pro plan is billed at $16 per seat per month .

You have to select a plan to enjoy the 14-day free trial for new users and an 18% discount for yearly subscribers.

Best Collaborative Tool For Agile Teams

Wrike is a work management platform with several interactive and custom options that are well-suited for remote and agile teams. It lets you track and complete both short and long-term projects.

With customizable workflows, instant communication tools, and the ability to share real-time analytic reports , you can achieve the streamlined process and effective collaboration needed to complete your projects as efficiently as possible.

The custom workflows mean you can set up workspaces that suit each team's mode of operations. You can also streamline their work processes and make sure every department is working in synchrony to achieve that main objective. You'll be able to use these workspaces to create and manage multiple projects at a time.

The Gantt chart is interactive so apart from monitoring progress, you can easily set tasks, dependencies, and even adjust progress in real-time using the simple drag and drop feature.

Data visualization options include Gantt charts, calendars, and workload view for resource management. The dashboards are customizable so you can create, select, and prioritize specific tasks as you see fit.

Fast Reporting

Data can be prepared in one-click reports which can then be shared and altered or updated in real-time.

Automations

Wrike speeds up the progress of your workflow by helping you automate updates, notifications, and certain actions and assignments. You can also create your own custom automations.

Communicative Features

Many standard strategic planning software will let you import files, Wrike goes further and lets you interact with them by making comments and giving or receiving immediate approvals.

Apart from having an open API, Wrike integrates with over 400 apps, both cloud, and on-premise.

• Unlimited Users
• AI-Powered Processes
• Custom Work Views
• Different Project Templates
• Available in 8 Languages
• 2-25 Users*
• 2 GB Storage/User
• Custom Fields & Workflows
• Project Dashboards
• Calendar and Gantt Chart Views
• 5-200 Users*
• 5 GB Storage/User
• 200 Automations/User
• Enhanced Collaboration
• Resource Management Features

Find out more Wrike pricing

• Wrike has a free plan that allows unlimited users and also offers centralized task management. This plan provides interactive boards and cloud storage integrations.
• The most popular option for businesses is the Business plan, which affords custom workflows, time tracking, real-time reports, and more. The plan is billed at $24.80 per month per user with seats for up to 200 users.

By choosing a plan , you get to enjoy a free trial that lasts for 14 days.

3. Teamwork

Best strategic planning tool for project management and client interactions.

Teamwork does far more than help you plan, execute and monitor projects. It also optimizes collaboration between team members with real-time communication features and the ability to share the entire scope of the project with each member.

The collaborative functionality also extends to clients, as you can include clients on the app and carry them along by sharing updates and tagging them on tasks and comments. You can even grant them access to view certain performance metrics. The client billing feature lets you generate invoices based on hours worked and expenses incurred.

With the task management functionality, you can break down projects into tasks and assign each task to personnel. Progress can be tracked with data visualization options like Kanban boards and Gantt charts.

The workflows are customizable so they can be tweaked to suit your team’s unique process.

You can immediately get started on planning your projects with multiple pre-set templates that can also be customized to suit your style.

Communications

The ability to use tags and comment on tasks facilitates real-time communication with teams and clients. The document management functionality lets teams upload and share important documents.

• Different Project Views
• 2 Project Templates
• Time Tracking & Dashboards
• 2 Projects & 100 MB Storage
• Customer Support
• Gantt Filtering
• 10 Project Templates
• 500 Automations/Month
• 100 Projects & 50 GB Storage
• Unlimited Client Access
• 3 Custom Fields
• 20 Project Templates
• 1000 Automations/Month
• 300 Projects & 100 GB Storage
• Project Budgeting
• Unlimited Custom Fields
• 50 Project Templates
• 2000 Automations/Month
• Workdown Capacity

Find out more Teamwork pricing

• Teamwork, like several strategic planning software, provides a free plan for lone entrepreneurs or small businesses.
• If you’re a growing, mid-sized business you can get the best of the app with the Grow plan, which is billed at $18 per month and allows a minimum of five users. This plan provides the essential project and task management capabilities along with nifty features such as Hubspot integrations and workload resource management.
• Enterprise-level organizations and fast-growing teams can opt for more powerful and flexible plans by contacting Teamwork’s sales reps.

There’s a generous 30-day free trial available for those who choose either the Deliver or Grow plan .

Best Strategic Planning And Performance Management Platform For Enterprises

Jedox is a cloud-based enterprise-grade performance management software that has been robustly equipped to make strategic planning in complex organizations an automated and seamless experience.

With intuitive technology supported by artificial intelligence, the software can give you a reliable outlook on the potential of your current business planning processes through predictive analytics and intelligent forecasting .

Planning and Analysis

Jedox can fast-track planning and performance management by automating relevant processes such as forecasting and reporting. The app makes it easier to analyze and react to financial data by providing ready-made financial models and allowing all relevant accounting data to be accessed from a central source.

The software’s infrastructure allows you to integrate new and old sources (both cloud and on-premise) of data so they can all be accessed from the same location. Jedox’s powerful integrations allow connections to databases and services like Microsoft SQL, Salesforce, and Microsoft Excel . There’s also a user-friendly interface that allows non-technical savvy users to conveniently perform their own integrations and utilize their own data sources.

Central Functionality

Organizations will especially benefit from the cohesive structure of Jedox. With functionalities for the various departments, including but not limited to finance, sales, and HR, the app improves collaboration by allowing users to access data from a single source .

Apart from the central collection and distribution of data, the workflows are another feature that improves collaboration. Users from other departments can communicate and transfer data with the help of workflows, which can be automated to not only make things faster but keep relevant personnel updated consistently.

There are no readily available pricing models for Jedox but you can check out the free trial and personalized demo before tailoring your preferred solution.

Best Roadmap Software For Growing And Agile Teams

If you’re an organization or a startup with a great idea for a product, you might want to consider using Aha! to handle your strategy for making the product a reality. Aha! is a full product management suite that was built to help teams plan and visualize the various stages of their product development.

The user-friendly interface allows you to easily prioritize tasks and data. It also provides some work management capability by helping you track deliverables and dependencies across your teams.

With Aha!’s product roadmap, you can visualize your whole strategy as well as the progress of your projects or launches.

Crowdsourcing

This is a very nifty feature for startups and new products since consumer feedback is absolutely crucial to the existence of the product. This component lets you communicate your ideas to your target audience. You can also get their feedback through votes and comments or in real-time while they’re using the app. Capturing in-app feedback is a very realistic way to identify improvements.

Agile Functionalities

Aha! Is a practical agile software tool. You can coordinate your agile team and track their performance with sprints, interactive kanban boards , and stories that help you present prototypes and descriptive information.

Aha! integrates with more than 30 services that range from product development, analytics, and CRM to communication and file storage software.

With an open and customizable infrastructure that allows you to write your own extensions , you can modify the platform to suit how your team operates. The open-source infrastructure also lets you manage backlogs and import issues from other agile systems.

The product offers three separate tools, all of which can be integrated to enjoy a streamlined and fully robust process. They are each offered at different pricing models with a free trial and demo available:

• Aha! Roadmaps offers the Enterprise plan at $99 per user per month while the premium plan is billed at $59 per user.

• Aha’s most popular plan is billed at $59 per user with a minimum of three users.

• Aha! Develop has its highest plan at $18 per user for a month.

By selecting the option to pay annually , you can enjoy a discount of 20% to 25% from any of the plans.

6. ClearPoint Strategy

Strategy management software for small and large organizations.

Clearpoint Strategy is an ideal solution for organizations that need a tool to manage and streamline their strategic processes. The app simplifies how you track your performance by automating the bulk of your reporting.

With the ability to create strategy maps and link your projects and initiatives, you can maintain a bird’s-eye view of the overall performance and progress of your organization towards that ultimate goal.

ClearPoint Strategy turns reporting into an easy and automated task. Not only are the reports customizable, you can create unique and visually pleasing reports with an easy drag-and-drop interface . You can also use preset layouts like graphs and Gantt charts depending on the purpose of the report.

The app lets you integrate data from different sources so you can manage them in one location. This contributes to the convenience of overseeing and managing your strategy centrally. The integrations let you load data directly and automatically from Excel, SQL, and CSV.

Project Management

A few of the project management functionalities include the ability to track budgets, create project dashboards, use milestones, and automate report distributions and team updates. Your team can also collaborate on projects through workflows.

• There’s no free trial or free version but the software offers a demo for interested users.
• The Basic plan allows 5 users at $250 per month. This plan might be a good choice for small organizations that only need the basic functionalities for creating reports and visualizing strategies. The major downside is that inexperienced users will have to pay an onboarding fee of $1000.
• The ideal plan for any growing and active organization is the Professiona l which is billed at $800 per month for 10 users.

By choosing the Professional plan , you will be able to use scheduled and automated reports, custom designs, and advanced KPI analysis.

Best Project Management Software For Startups and Growing Businesses

With its super enjoyable and easy-to-use interface , ClickUp has become one of the top project management software for businesses. It’s a complete solution for those who need a simple, but powerful tool to manage and track tasks.

Communicative features like chat rooms, comment sections, and automatic notifications make it a great collaborative platform for agile and remote teams. Also, the simple interface and drag-and-drop approach mean virtually any member of a team can easily use the app.

Communication Tools

The communicative features function in a way that makes team updates convenient and quick. For instance, you can configure notifications to only be sent for specific items. Also, users will be alerted if they’re tagged in comments or discussions.

Integrations contribute the most to the robustness of ClickUp. Apart from the available 100+ integrations, you can create custom imports to import data from tools that aren’t supported. This level of flexibility means you can synchronize your old resources and streamline your existing process.

Automations are an essential feature that covers several functions like assigning tasks, sending alerts and notifications, updating statuses, and creating comments.

The interface is not only intuitive, it’s also customizable. By moving visual widgets , you can assign tasks for team members, track time and sprints, create documents, statuses, and many more. Projects and assigned tasks can be tracked in real-time via customizable dashboards.

ClickUp has preset templates built to meet the needs of various departments, ranging from engineering and marketing to design and HR. Powerful documents and whiteboards can be created and managed together by teams.

• 24/7 Support
• 100 Automations/Month
• Built-in Time Tracking
• Kanban & Calendar View
• 100 MB Storage
• Live Chat Support
• Guest Access Control
• Unlimited Map & Gantt Views
• Unlimited Storage
• Unlimited Dashboards
• 10000 Advanced Automations/Month
• Unlimited Teams
• Timesheets Integration
• Unlimited Timeline Uses
• Priority Customer Service
• 25000 Pro Automations/Mo
• Unlimited Subtasks in Multiple Lists
• API calls: 1000/Minute
• Custom Capacity for Workload

Find out more ClickUp pricing or ClickUp review

• ClickUp has a free plan that is suitable for lone entrepreneurs. With features such as real-time chats, kanban boards, email access, and sprint management, it’s a very usable option.
• Billing starts at $5 for each member per month for small teams. This plan comes with unlimited integrations, resource management, and agile reporting.
• Enterprise-grade organizations can contact sales to get a tailored plan with more robust features.
• A very ideal option for fast-growing teams is the Business plan.

Select the Business plan to gain access to advanced automations, mind maps, custom exporting, and many other nifty features.

Best Strategic Planning And Work Management Platform For Teams

Asana is ideal for organizations that want to automate their routine workload and also keep a tight lid on the progress of their big projects or ultimate goal. Essentially, it’s a strategic planning software and task management platform rolled into one .

There are various ways to interact with created tasks to make collaboration with your team easier. You can upload attachments to tasks and also share notes on task descriptions. Tasks that have been made public can be searched for and followed so that interested or relevant members of the organization can keep tabs.

Workflows and Workspaces

The customizable workflows enable you to work with various departments on specific processes, depending on the goal you’re trying to achieve. With the ability to create multiple workspaces, you can organize multiple projects and work with multiple teams simultaneously.

Asana automates many routine tasks, including the assignment of tasks and personnel, updating of changed project schedules, and approval notifications.

With three project views to choose from, including list view, Gantt charts, and kanban boards you can assign, organize, and track tasks while monitoring both the minute and major aspects of your team’s performance. With project overviews, you can launch long-term projects, set milestones, and deliverables, and also assign relevant personnel.

Customizations

You can choose from several templates on which to start a project or process, or you can create your custom template. You can also create custom rules to set the tasks and notifications you want to automate.

Progress can be tracked in real-time. The reports are interactive too, so you can navigate to relevant tasks and take action immediately. The ability to create custom charts and access data from other teams or projects is great for collaborative reporting.

Apart from the multiple integrations, Asana has an open API that lets teams develop custom solutions that fit their work processes.

• Unlimited Projects & Tasks
• Unlimited Storage & Logs
• 100+ Free Integrations
• Status Updates
• Calendar View
• Workflow Builder
• Task Dependencies
• Task Templates
• Timeline & Milestones
• Workload Management
• Advanced Reports
• Create Custom Rules
• Premium Integrations

Find out more Asana pricing

• As a flexible solution for flexible teams, Asana’s plans range from totally free to $25 for each user per month.
• The recommended Premium plan is affordable at $10 per user and equipped with such features as task templates, Gantt chart views, and the ability to set milestones.

While the free plan lets you organize unlimited projects and tasks, teams will benefit a lot more by choosing the Premium plan .

Strategy Execution Software For Enterprises

Large organizations looking to transform their work processes or make large-scale changes should consider Amplify . It’s a strategic planning and execution software that focuses on meeting a company’s major targets as opposed to completing periodic tasks.

A few of Amplify’s powerful functionalities include benefit maps , which measure the performance of your initiatives along with your program objectives, and scenario planning , which allows you to evaluate and compare initiatives to improve return on investment.

Amplify’s powerful reporting compares your set KPI’s performance in real-time to your target. Stakeholders are given access to log in to the system and view all the relevant metrics directly. The reporting also comes with intelligent analysis that helps spot issues early on.

Transformational Management

Several resources that aid various levels of business transformation— cost reduction, merger integrations, enterprise system implementation (ERP) , and digital transformation are provided on the platform.

The reports can be customized with embedded Power BI technology so you can track performance for tailored metrics.

The app integrates with popular project management tools like Jira and Smartsheet so you can utilize your existing resources and work process.

Amplify would also track and manage your risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies.

There are no available pricing plans and interested users will have to contact sales to get a tailored. There’s a tour and demo available.

10. Smartsheet

Work management tool for businesses.

If you need a platform that has a familiar spreadsheet environment and also provides robust project and task management capabilities, then Smartsheet is an ideal option for you. With workspaces, Smartsheet lets you plan, track, and manage projects together with your team.

There are workspaces and resources available for departments in various industries, including marketing. IT, finance, and healthcare.

Strategic Planning Features:

Smartsheet is built to automate much of the repetitive work in workflows. There are preset automations that are available for default workflow templates. Some automations can be triggered for custom workflows as well.

With functionalities such as document and resource management and file sharing, teams can collaborate with shared resources in a workflow. The platform’s no-code structure makes it employable by non-technically savvy teams or personnel. You can build custom workflows for unique teams or projects in your organization.

The platform lets you build custom reports for your unique data. Real-time analytics are captured in dashboards and the reports can be broken down periodically to help you mark potential outcomes or actions.

You can assign tasks and track project performance in real-time with customizable dashboards and activity logs. To manage data and tasks, you can either use a Gantt chart or choose between card, grid, and calendar view.

Smartsheet integrates with popular tools like Gmail, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, and many others. Communicative tools like Skype and Hangouts are also supported to foster collaboration between teams.

• 1 User + 2 Editors
• 2 Project Sheets
• 500 MB File Storage
• Several Project Views
• 100 Automations per Month
• 10 Users + 10 Paid Editors
• Unlimited Project Sheets
• 20 GB File Storage
• Unlimited Reports
• 250 Automations per Month
• Unlimited Users & Free Editors
• Activity Log
• Proofing Support
• Easy-to-Use Document Builder
• Unlimited Automations

Find out more Smartsheet pricing

• There are three pricing plans with free trials available for two. The cheapest plan costs $7 for each user per month when billed yearly. This plan allows unlimited dashboards as well as grid, Gantt, card, and calendar views.

You are advised to choose the more robust Business plan , which goes at $25 per user in a month if billed annually. This plan provides an Adobe Creative Cloud extension, custom workspaces, and unlimited automations.

11. Cascade Strategy

Strategy management and execution platform for businesses.

Cascade Strategy gives businesses a bird’s eye view of their multiple processes by providing a suite of strategy modules. These modules are seamlessly integrated so you can watch and make sure all projects and teams function cohesively towards the main goal.

With this type of approach, teams can be run separately, but they can also be operated as one connected unit. You are enabled to track each team and project’s performance in relation to the overall objective.

There are preset templates that teams can work with, but you’re also allowed to create custom strategy modules as well as add fields and templates that will suit your unique strategy. The reports and charts are also customizable so you can tweak visual information to your unique taste.

You can visualize your performance and data through customizable dashboards as well as graphs, tables, Gantt chart formats, and more. You can share insights very easily with teams by taking snapshots of real-time reports . Reports can also be exported as PDF or in Excel format.

While the software is oriented towards maximizing the creation and execution of strategy thanks to great visualizations and customizable modules, it also fosters collaboration within complex organizations. Its transparent structure enables every team member to create, view, and track plans, goals, and progress.

Workboards are where you organize teams and watch their performance as they execute strategy. You can create objectives and KPIs as well as set custom notifications to keep everyone updated and on track.

Cascade Strategy’s supported integrations make it a central platform where you can access and make use of all your resources (old and new). It supports over a thousand applications, including popular tools like Google Outlooks, Analytics, and even HubSpot.

• The paid plan is billed annually at $59 per month for each user. You can pay for a minimum user. When billed monthly it costs $64 per month.
• Organizations that need the most powerful features will have to contact sales to get a custom price quote.

Cascade Strategy lets you enjoy a 14-day free trial after which you have to use the paid plan.

12. Rhythm Systems

Strategic planning software for mid-sized businesses.

Just like several great strategic planning software, Rhythm eliminates the need for silos in organizations and focuses on cohesive progress towards main objectives. Teams can collaborate on projects while you maintain a transparent view of their performance.

The platform is equipped with resources to help organizations create and execute seamless strategies, both long-term and short-term. Planning can be organized periodically or according to each department’s role.

Strategic Planning Software

Rhythm lets you view your long-term progress and task updates at the same time. The simple interface and dashboards make it easy to track metrics and team performance.

The easy-to-use and intuitive interface helps users to easily set up and track KPIs and other performance data. Using the job scorecard, you can assign responsibilities and keep members of your team accountable.

You can hire Rhythm’s facilitators to help you organize productive planning sessions . Sessions can be planned for periodic goals or according to a department’s mission. They can also be tailored depending on the nature of your strategy or the objectives you’re trying to achieve.

There are no immediately available pricing plans for Rhythm. You’d have to book a demo or contact sales to get a price quote.

Strategy Execution Software For Growing Organizations

Perdoo is for ambitious organizations that need to visualize their strategies and keep every employee on the same page. As an execution-oriented software, users will benefit from tailored resources that will help them define and stick to OKRs (objectives, keys, results) and KPIs.

The tool’s structure enables 360-degree transparency that ensures every relevant personnel is up-to-date and on par with the company’s progress. It also gives you an overall view and comparison of each team’s metrics.

Data can be gleaned through preset report templates or customizable dashboards. You can filter dashboards to visualize information according to several relevant metrics.

With the visual roadmaps , you can connect all the dots linking your strategy to your tasks and objectives. This feature can also help team members see and understand the impact of their roles.

Perdoo integrates with more than 65 apps to help you create and maintain a streamlined process. Project management tools, analytics, and major communication platforms are supported.

Updates are a vital part of Perdoo’s functionality because they foster communication and keep your team up-to-date with progress. Updates can be automated using the Check-in feature, making progress reviews faster and easier.

• There’s a free version available, although it doesn’t offer much of the true functionalities. The free version can build custom reports and integrate with Slack and Microsoft teams.

To get the best of Perdoo, you should select the Premium plan which has a pricing model that reduces depending on the number of users added per month. For instance, adding less than 100 users is billed at $9.50 per user per month while 259 users are billed at $7.60 each.

14. Shibumi

Strategic portfolio management software for enterprises.

Shibumi is an ideal tool for organizations and enterprises that need an easy-to-use but powerful solution to aid with strategic initiatives and transformational changes. The platform’s robust capacity is proven in its ability to simultaneously manage thousands of initiatives across an enterprise.

The software centralizes decision-making by providing users real-time visibility to all managed projects and initiatives. With features like customizable dashboards, scorecards, and fields, you can assign objectives to teams and track their performance metrics.

Analytics are a key aspect of the reporting. Intelligent insights and forecasts can be provided to relevant stakeholders and personnel through automated presentations. Data is also presented in real-time through the dashboards.

Roadmaps allow you to visualize and link strategies to ideas and related tasks. You can trace the lifecycle of a goal from idea through strategy to execution and impact. The app’s flexible structure not only allows interaction between programs and projects, it provides a level of transparency that helps collaboration between teams.

An important part of Shibumi’s flexibility and functionality liesins its API. The REST-based model allows you to build custom applications and engineer unique integrations. You can also add external data or resources that suit your work process.

Interested users get a custom quote after booking a demo and speaking to sales.

Best Product Development Tool For Agile Teams

Startups and agile teams that need a tool to facilitate product development from planning to product launch can rely on Jira . A core of the software’s functionality is roadmaps, which allow teams to visualize, link, and work through all stages of a project.

The intuitive drag-and-drop interface gives you freedom over every detail of a project. There are essential software development features within the workflows, including the ability to plan sprints, create user stories, epics, and custom queues for issues, as well as create and assign tasks.

Apart from dynamic workflow presets such as Scrum or kanban boards, you can create custom workflows that suit your unique work process. Users will benefit especially from the simple interface, which makes workflows easy to manage for even non-savvy teams. With the ability to create multiple workflows, Jira can be used to manage multiple projects across various departments simultaneously.

Data is displayed in real-time and in a centralized manner so every member of a team can stay updated and contribute. Not only are reports available for dozens of unique metrics and in ideal visual representations, they also contain intelligent analysis that aid forecasts.

Jira has a flexible backend and multiple plugins and integrations that make it usable with many agile tools, including communication platforms, design tools, source code software, and productivity apps.

• There’s a free version available, but users that want to scale and get the best of Jira will have to go for a paid plan.
• When billed annually, the Standard plan goes at $6.25 per user per month, allowing a maximum of 20,000 users. Enterprises with the need for more robust features like advanced roadmaps and unlimited storage will get custom price quotes.
• Organizations that need a self-managed and completely flexible on-premise solution can opt to purchase the Data Center, which costs $42,000 annually for the first 500 users. The price increases as the figures increase, with a maximum of 50,000 plus users going at $885,000 per year.

You can start a free trial regardless of whether you’re choosing a cloud-based or on-premise solution.

16. KPI Fire

Strategy execution and project management software for mid-size businesses and enterprises.

Like its self-explanatory name suggests, KPI Fire is meant for organizations that want to track and get a hold of broad initiatives and projects with ideal KPIs. There are several visualizations of KPIs to choose from, but you can also configure the dashboards to manage and track metrics as you like.

Workflows are an integral feature. With dynamic workflows that are custom-built for powerful project models like Sigma Six, Hoshin Kari, and lean structures , organizations can create, manage, and align multiple processes with a strict view of the bottom line.

Preset workflow templates include but are not limited to PDCA, DMAIC projects , and Kaizen events . You can then create charters in each workflow to prioritize and manage objectives. The workflows are also customizable so you can set them to match your organization’s unique processes or style.

Idea Funnels

The ability to capture ideas and prioritize before turning them into projects is a nifty functionality of the platform. Submitted ideas are reviewed by teams with effort and impact matrixes before a decision is made.

Centralization

KPI Fire simplifies things by letting you manage and oversee multiple projects from a single location. The linkable structure allows cross-functional teams from various departments to collaborate as well.

KPI Fire helps you track the real-time progress of your workflows with Huddle boards. Performance metrics can be viewed by all team members to ensure transparency and keep teams motivated.

The ultimate goal is for projects to increase the organization’s value and performance, so the app lets you view and compare the performance of each project and the companies’ overall metrics.

To keep the whole team on track and in sight of the main goal, collaborative features like alerts and email notifications are accessible.

Interested users can get a price quote after requesting a demo and choosing a tailored plan.

17. ProductPlan

Product roadmap software for teams.

ProductPlan is great for teams that need full visibility into their product development processes, from the idea and planning stage to launch. With the customizable roadmap templates , you can add or edit milestones, legends, and timeframes, all of which can be used to coordinate and track important projects.

A huge plus of the platform is its intuitive and highly customizable interface. Virtually any member of a team can understand and use it. Also, with the drag and drop functionality, you can move details like progress bars and milestones to make changes to projects.

Collaborations

ProductPlan doesn’t only share roadmaps with users, it also lets you customize views so you can control the level of data you show different audiences. The app’s integrations let you send Slack and email notifications to update teams of changes.

Apart from flexible integrations that support essential industry tools like Slack, Jira, and Zapier, Productplan’s API allows users to create custom integrations.

Ideas can be visualized and prioritized from the earliest stages. The subsequent strategy and process can then be captured in roadmaps and shared with teams to keep involved personnel on track. Multiple roadmaps can be aligned to simultaneously manage multiple teams and processes as a cohesive unit for major, bottom-line projects.

• Robust functionality is available in the Professional plan, which provides some useful integrations, as well as access to the platform’s REST-based API. Interested users will get a tailored price quote upon a consultation session.

To enjoy the 14-day free trial, you have to choose the Basic plan , which is billed annually at $39 per month.

Key Features of Strategic Planning Software

There are key functionalities that every strategic planning or management software must provide before it’s deemed capable of organizing projects and facilitating the strategic execution of any business:

1. Real-time and Customizable Reporting

The ability to view relevant data in real-time is needed so your organization can make informed decisions on the get-go. A customizable interface that lets you tweak the data in a manner that uniquely suits your team’s work process is also essential.

Extensions and integrations should let you use relevant tools like Microsoft BI and Excel as well as export in PDF and other supported formats.

2. Visualizations and Roadmaps

A key aspect of strategic planning tools is the ability to visualize not only data but your strategic processes. They’re equipped with the ability of roadmap software to let you visually track created initiatives and the project’s progress.

The visualizations should be able to compare the projects to the company’s main goals and overall performance.

3. Workflows

Workflows are where you set the plans in motion by creating objectives, assigning tasks, and managing issues and dependencies as well as the completion of projects.

By providing features of workflow management software , planning systems allow managers to assign tasks, track project deliverables , and generally improve productivity.

Irrespective of the preset visualizations and workflow templates, the interface should be customizable so you can tweak the workspace to suit your team’s unique style.

4. Integrations

Strategic planning tools function as a central location where you can access and utilize all your needed resources. For these reasons, flexible integrations with various industry tools are a must.

You should be able to add extensions and import resources from your existing software. Platforms with open APIs that let you build your custom integrations and extensions are always a huge plus.

5. Automations

Any standard tool would help you automate much of the repetitive stuff like reports, notifications, and updates.

Some apps let you create custom rules so you can edit and choose which commands you’d like to be automated.

6. Collaborations

The ability to share reports, resources, and updates with teams is a needed functionality in any planning platform. Apart from sending emails and automated notifications to teams, some software will let you make comments and tag team members.

Since projects often have separate departments completing different objectives that are tied to the same goal, strategic planning tools should allow for cross-functional interaction.

7. Analytics

Businesses that use strategic planning software should expect intelligent reporting that can help them spot potential drawbacks early.

Some systems will integrate with industry analytic tools so you can maintain your work process and receive your preferred data.

What Is Strategic Planning Software?

Strategic planning software are used by organizations to define, visualize, and achieve their strategic goals, both long-term and short-term. Not only do they visualize the path to completing said goals, but they also provide a flexible model that helps teams easily adapt to minor or major changes in their approach or objectives.

What Does Strategic Planning Software Do?

Strategic planning tools provide a central platform for businesses to view, track, and manage various levels of planning and execution, from enterprise-wide planning to minute tasks. Through integrations, imports, and extensions, businesses can access the resources and tools necessary to carry out their initiatives.

They present metrics and analytics to help businesses properly track the progress of their projects. Often, custom features are provided so teams can track unique data pertaining to their objectives and work process.

Decision-makers rely on the visualizations of Gantt-chart software and kanban tools to improve project management and accountability within the organization, planning platforms can provide this functionality.

Benefits of Using Strategic Planning Tools?

The following are the benefits of using strategic planning software:

1. An Unparalleled Level Of Visibility

Executives and managers need to be able to view the links between their strategies, initiatives, and resources in order to keep a smooth and progressive operation.

The ability to be in touch with the most relevant and detailed data at any given point in time is never easy for typical organizations because of the several moving parts of any strategy.

Strategic planning tools provide decision-makers with the line of vision they need to make better decisions. It becomes easier to connect the dots and keep track of the constituents of the operations. But more importantly, they have the latest data at their fingertips.

2. Quick Adaptability To Change

With the ad-hoc and real-time reporting and great visualizations planning software provides, businesses can immediately tell what’s working and what’s not.

it becomes easier to adapt to change. Executives can quickly rearrange priorities and still stay focused on what’s most important.

3. A Central Base Of Operations

Organizational silos within many businesses not only make them resistant to change, they also become a huge disadvantage for projects that need cross-functional teams.

Silos can also sometimes become a breeding ground for inaccuracy in reports and inconsistency in delivery.

With strategic planning tools, organizations can eliminate discrepancies and maintain a well-connected and highly-functional environment. The infrastructure of these tools provides a central location for teams from varying departments to collaborate and share resources.

With a bird’s-eye view on operations, project managers and executives can simultaneously and successfully manage multiple projects .

4. Improved Collaboration

Most planning systems are built to boost collaboration between cross-functional teams . Users can easily work together since they can interact on projects as well as share resources and information.

Some tools adapt the functionalities of team collaboration software through integrations.

5. A Single Source Of Truth

Businesses with a need for transparency can rely on planning software as a reliable source of information.

Decision-makers, who often need to be able to view all relevant data as linked parts of a complex whole, can rely on the visualizations and reports for a 360-degree perspective.

For project-management-oriented platforms, all the essential project management reports are usually available at the click of a finger.

6. Intelligent Data Analysis And Improved Risk Management

Organizations need to be able to identify risks as early as possible and evaluate their impact on resources.

With the level of insight and analysis afforded by the reporting tools of planning software, they can spot potential compromises and deal with them very quickly.

By being able to view dependencies, make forecasts, and project what-if scenarios, businesses can realize how to tweak their strategies where needed and prioritize their investments and resources.

How Much Does Good Strategic Planning Software Cost?

Due to the quality of features and resources strategic planning tools provide, they tend to be expensive, especially for enterprise-level operations and scale-oriented subscriptions.

There are free versions available for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses, but growing businesses often need a degree of functionality only paid models can provide.

Strategic planning software are usually billed monthly or annually. They can range from as low as $6 per month to as high as $750. Typically, systems with enterprise-level functionality and robust resources start at $40 per month.

Sometimes paid applications might require extra fees for extra modules or features. There are often custom plans available for businesses that need tailored and powerful functionality.

Which Strategic Planning Software Should I Try?

As always, the ideal software for your business depends on these factors: your business needs and initiatives, your available resources, your existing infrastructure, and the size and complexity of your business.

Remote teams and agile businesses with a fast-moving and very adaptable infrastructure can rely on scrum tools like Jira due to the level of visibility and flexibility they provide. Product development teams and software startups that need roadmaps and an open API to build their own unique applications should opt for agile tools like Aha! and Asana .

Growing businesses and startups that need a great cost-to-functionality ratio will enjoy a project management software like ClickUp . Its easy-to-use interface and communication-based model make it great for cross-functional teams and businesses that rely heavily on collaboration.

A business management platform like Monday.com with its simple and yet very robust structure is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Organizations in need of enterprise software solutions and transformational management can opt for platforms like Jedox and Amplify .

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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Without a properly calibrated strategy, your business will suffer. However, with proper strategic planning, your business can create a clearly visible roadmap, which increases productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

While it sounds great in theory, strategic planning can be quite challenging in reality. For instance, if you develop a business strategy but some employees don't have a clear picture of it, or you get so consumed by processes that the company's objective is eclipsed. To avoid these pitfalls, there are strategic planning solutions available on the market that can help you sail smoothly.

This Buyers Guide details the considerations you need to take before making a purchase decision.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is strategic planning software?

Common features of strategic planning software, what type of buyer are you, benefits of strategic planning software, key considerations.

Strategic planning software is a tool that helps organizations identify and define short- and long-term goals and priorities. It helps users choose different paths to reach their desired goals and measure their progress. It also helps them gather and track information all in one place, from the formulation to the execution stage.

Overall, the software provides users the ability to create a detailed and transparent action plan for an organization's growth and helps users make more informed decisions.

Strategic planning process in  Aha! Software  ( Source )

Different vendors offer different features in their strategic planning software solutions. Selecting the right option for your business is easier when you know what common features to look for and what they can help you accomplish.

To further understand these features and learn about strategic planning software vendors, call our advisors at  855-998-8505  for free, no-obligation help. They'll help you narrow down your options by listening to your requirements and recommending the best-suited solutions for your business.

Before you start evaluating strategic planning software options, you'll want to know what buyer category you belong to. Most buyers will fall into one of the below categories:

Sole proprietors:  These buyers are mostly transitioning from paper records to digital platforms or have just started their business. Though they might not have a team with which to collaborate on strategy planning and execution, having a platform to define business strategy is crucial to growing their organization. They may look for an affordable system with basic features such as strategy maps and strategic frameworks to efficiently manage their planning processes.

Small and midsize businesses:  These buyers are often looking to improve their business efficiency and planning coordination. These buyers have teams that need to be on the same page and thus, need products that offer collaborative features. They'll require additional features such as user management and notifications.

Large businesses:  These buyers usually have dedicated project management departments, and handle a large volume of projects and business plans at any given time. They can opt for a complete project management suite that offers strategic planning as an integrated module.

While some of the benefits of strategic planning software may be clear from our discussion above, we've called out the most notable ones below:

Long-term goal planning:  Strategic planning software allows businesses to define roadmaps for achieving desired long-term goals. Businesses can breakdown these goals into monthly, quarterly, or yearly milestones to track progress and mediate processes to realign if required.

Increased transparency:  Strategic planning software gives all relevant stakeholders visibility into the larger organizational growth vision. This helps them identify their role within the vision and understand how their contributions help achieve the vision.

Here are some important questions to consider before you purchase strategic planning software:

Mobile app availability:  If you and your team are constantly on the move, then mobile apps can be useful for you. Check whether the strategic planning software you're considering offers access on mobile devices such as iOS- and Android-based smartphones or tablets. The mobile app will help you manage your business strategy from any location.

Customer support:  Find out if the vendor offers support 24/7, only during business hours, or not at all. Also, ask about available support options, such as email, phone, or live chat.

Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.

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The 11 Best Strategic Planning Software On The Market in 2024

• Julie Simpson
• March 11, 2024
• 11 min read

Table of Contents

By definition, strategic planning is the process of establishing a vision for the future and creating a strategy for achieving shared business goals. Strategic planning involves making decisions that allocate resources, setting performance standards, and assessing results over time. Typically, this sort of visionary planning is done by leadership, and is communicated to teams throughout the business.

Over the last few years, keeping strategic planning front-of-mind has become even more critical in our new hybrid and remote world. As businesses navigate their way through this unprecedented time of disruption, it is now essential to develop strategies tailored to their particular needs and challenges, which is where strategic planning tools become essential.

What is strategic planning?

With acronyms like KPI to ROI to CI, it can be challenging to keep up with all the terminology and jargon that comes with strategic planning. However, if we remove the acronyms and focus on the nuts and bolts, strategic planning is simply a process that helps organizations maximize their resources and achieve long-term goals.

Strategic planning involves:

• Analyzing an organization’s current state.
• Setting overall objectives.
• Developing action plans to reach those objectives.
• Measuring progress.

This process can be simplified using strategic planning software that helps streamline the process by automating and tracking many of the manual steps associated with it. It’s a magic wand for planning, tracking, and achieving your long-term business goals .

Not all strategic planning software is created equal

There are specific features that help teams ensure success when planning for the future, but that doesn’t mean that the same strategic planning software is right for everyone. Here are a few elements that you should think about before committing to a strategic planning software for your team:

User-friendly interface : Look for software that is easy to navigate and understand, even for non-technical users.

Customization options : Don’t just settle for the cookie-cutter option. Choose a software that allows you to tailor its features to meet the unique needs of your business – think integrations, automations and more.

Collaboration tools : Make sure the software you choose has full ability to communicate via chat, as well as within the project and tasks themselves.

Data visualization and reporting : Look for software that can help you quickly and easily understand complex data and present it clearly and concisely.

Integration options : Your business should not be built in a silo and only use a single type of software (at least, I hope not). Make sure that the software you choose integrates with any other tools and systems you already use in your business, such as project management platforms , financial tools, and customer relationship management software.

Mobile compatibility : While this isn’t a make or break element for most teams, ensure the software can be accessed from any device, including smartphones and tablets. It’s nice to be able to work on your plan on the go – but keep your work-life balance manageable!

Scalability : Always, always, always look for software that can grow and evolve with your business. Changing software to meet your needs can be extremely pricy and resource-draining. So pick one and stick with it for the long haul.

Support and training : A good customer service portal (not just an AI asking/responding to arbitrary prompts) and good training are always necessary. Pick one that provides comprehensive support and training to get the most out of it and maximize its benefits.

Top Strategic planning software tools of 2024

Now that we’ve reviewed the basic components of strategic planning solutions, here’s a roundup of the best strategic planning software to help you zero in on the best choice for your business. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it will help you determine some of the key features offered and if they would compliment your workflow.

Hive is a strategic planning software built for teams that need to plan, coordinate and track their work. Made by teams, for teams, Hive has thought of everything within the project management pipeline.

Our unique strategic planning features help teams define objectives, set milestones, and assign tasks to whole teams. Hive Goals, a new goal setting and OKR software, is also used by teams to create, set and visualize progress, keeping everyone aligned under one large company-wide goal.

Underneath the company-wide goal, teams or individuals can set sub-goals which help route strategy across the business. Goals in Hive can be measured either by the completion of associated tasks, by team progress or with manual updates. Teams can also bring their Goals, tasks, projects and Notes into one centralized dashboard with Hive Pages – a one-stop shop for strategic tracking.

The best part? You can try Hive free for 14 days to see why thousands of teams choose Hive to plan their projects and achieve their strategic goals.

Key features:

• Assign, review and track progress on multiple tasks
• Use Hive Goals to centralize and automate your goal-tracking and reporting
• Automated notifications keep teams informed of changes in a project
• Gantt charts and Calendar views help visualize project timelines and roadmaps
• Portfolio management for keeping track of multiple projects
• Reporting and analytics

ClickUp is a much-loved project management platform with versatility for strategic planning. It offers a range of third-party integrations and is easily accessible on mobile devices. While it may be more involved than some of our other choices, it has an excellent customer service department and in-depth how-to articles if you ever get lost along the way. 

• Strategic planning whiteboard templates to get your team started 
• Users can set and track goals, monitor progress, and adjust plans as needed.
• Facilitates team collaboration and communication through features like comments, mentions, and real-time updates.

3. Airtable

Airtable is a cloud-based platform allowing users to create, organize and store data for their projects. It isn’t just a strategic planning software, as it is often used for reporting and customer relationship management and can easily align with strategic planning. With Airtable, you can create custom boards in minutes to track goals, monitor progress and assign tasks efficiently. While we love a good customized option, if you’re unsure where to start, the strategy planning templates are excellent and simple to follow and understand.

Key features: 

• Create custom fields as needed to track specific data points
• Designed for remote teams – access from any device.
• Real-time collaboration allows for seamless communication between team members.

4. Adobe Workfront 

For those enterprise clients, Adobe Workfront is a massive centralized hub for all your work activities and processes. It integrates with many of Adobe’s products, including Creative Cloud and Acrobat, to make it easier for teams in larger organizations to collaborate on complex projects.

As far as your strategic planning goes, Adobe Workfront offers various strategic planning features that allow teams to set goals, track progress, and analyze results. This might be the best program for you if you are a creative business and use Adobe projects religiously.

• Customized reports that tie in from all adobe platforms
• Real-time reporting capabilities so you always know where you stand
• Advanced analytics tools that let you measure success over time

Any.do is a strategic planning software that offers a free planner and customized managed workflows — ideal for any business looking to keep track of its strategic planning. You can easily access and share your plans across teams and with clients. Any.do also lets you assign tasks, chat in real-time, and onboard an entire team. Plus, Any.do can be accessed online from multiple devices, making it a great solution for remote and hybrid teams. 

• Multiple views dashboard — try personal space, workspace and my day views 

From easy access (mobile app and web-based) to flexible dashboard views (kanban-style, calendar, list views), Trello is a strategic planning software with several capabilities to track strategic planning. 

It allows you to invite new members to collaborate in your workspace, track tasks, and use color-coded labels to organize your data. Its no-code automation features help you optimize the time spent on repetitive tasks, keeping your team on target. Trello has a free version; its paid plans start at $5 per user/month. 

• See your work from multiple angles: Kanban board, timeline, table, calendar, and more
• Automate repetitive tasks and enhance workflow
• Integrate with over a hundred of your favorite tools
• Dozens of premade templates

Unito Strategic Planning Software is an innovative and intuitive tool that helps organizations develop and manage their business and project plans. Its powerful features provide users with a streamlined and results-driven framework. Unito’s unique methodology is on open-source software to ensure flexibility, scalability, and security. With an intuitive interface, users can quickly and easily access the features they need to create and maintain strategic plans.

• Team management
• Portfolio tracking
• Quick start templates – use a custom-made workflow from personal to industry-related templates.
• Protect your privacy – limit boards to a private viewing for you alone or a selected group of users.

8. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management software with highly customizable features, making it adaptable to your specific strategic planning needs. It offers robust collaboration capabilities, powerful automations, timeline and Gantt chart views for project planning, and a multitude of integrations to seamlessly connect with your other tools. With the ability to create dashboards for high-level insights, Monday.com is able to provide a comprehensive overview of your plans, helping ensure everyone on your team stays aligned with the overall objectives. You can get started with Monday.com for free and plans start at $8/user/month.

Key Features:

• Time tracking
• Document management
• Task dependencies
• Remote collaboration tools.

Check out some alternatives to Monday.com and compare them to find the best strategic planning platform for your organization.

9. Planview AdaptiveWork

Previously known as Clarizen, Planview AdaptiveWork helps project managers gain real-time visibility across all their work, automate workflows and proactively manage risks. When it comes to strategic planning, one of the coolest features of Planview is the ability to create “what if” scenarios, where you can gain insights about your resources and reallocate them accordingly.

Planview Adaptive Work makes reporting easy with its Slide Publisher feature. It creates automatic real-time (up-to-the-minute) status reports with impressive accuracy. Planview also integrates with most common third-party applications, such as Slack, Jira and Salesforce, and offers great customization and integration capabilities. But all this flexibility comes at a price, Planview AdaptiveWork does not have a free plan and its initial plan starts at $1,495/month. You can, however, get a free trial before making the commitment.

Key Features: 

• Resource Planning
• Portfolio Management
• Request Intake 
• Dynamic Reports and Dashboards

Wrike is a project management platform with robust features tailored for strategic project monitoring. Wrike has built-in time tracking, advanced reporting, and resource management features that make it more suitable for larger teams working with complex, multi-stage projects. Wrike also offers a variety of integrations with other tools, such as CRM systems, ERP systems, and BI tools. This can help teams to streamline their workflow and automate tasks while targeting their strategic goals and projects.

Wrike has a free plan with limited capabilities. Their most popular plan starts at $24.80 per month/user, but you can get great features under a lower tier called “Team” for $9.80 per month/user.

• Integrates with various applications like Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, and Adobe Creative Cloud
• Personalized dashboards for important tasks, updates, and project overviews
• Workflow automation to eliminate manual tasks

11. MindMeister

Some people are visual learners and for those, MindMeister works as a great strategy planning tool. The software allows users to create visual mind maps effortlessly, making it an ideal tool for brainstorming and organizing thoughts. With real time collaboration features and integration capabilities, MindMeister also works as a decent task manager. MindMeister has a free plan with limited capabilities. Its Pro plan — ideal for teams —costs at $6 per user/month and include word export, PowerPoint export and Google Workspace for domains sign-on.

• Visual mind maps
• Real-time collaboration
• Presentation Mode 

What’s next for your team’s strategic planning?

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when choosing a strategic planning software platform. From small business to enterprise-level, you need to determine what specifics you want for your business and then try out a few tools to see if it fits the mold. Hopefully, this roundup will offer you an excellent starting point as you explore your options.

Have a strategic planning software platform you love? Tell us in the comments below.

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18 Best Strategic Planning Software Reviewed For 2024

Our reviewers evaluate software independently. Clicks may earn a commission, which supports testing. Learn how we stay transparent & our review methodology.

Based on my experience as a COO, I’ve reviewed and evaluated the top strategic planning software to shortlist the best tools to manage the process of creating, executing, and monitoring your strategic plans.

10 Best Strategic Planning Software Shortlist

Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.

• 1. AchieveIt — Best strategic planning software for the entire organization
• 2. monday sales CRM — Best for customizable automations for your sales pipeline
• 3. Miro — Best for visual innovation workspaces
• 4. Hirebook — Best strategic planning software for employee engagement
• 5. Profit.co — Best strategic planning software for goal setting
• 6. Perdoo — Best strategic planning software for performance management
• 7. MPOWR Envision — Best strategic planning software for identifying problem areas
• 8. Sciforma — Best strategic planning software for resource allocation
• 9. Cascade — Best strategic planning software for strategy execution
• 10. Workboard — Best strategic planning software for achieving OKRs

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With so many different strategic planning software available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to streamline the strategic planning process and ensure your business objectives are aligned with actionable strategies but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different strategic planning tools with various teams and projects, with my picks of the best strategic planning software.

What Is Strategic Planning Software?

Strategic planning software is a digital tool that helps organizations in developing, implementing, and monitoring their strategic plans. It provides functionalities for setting goals, creating strategies, tracking progress, and analyzing business scenarios. This software integrates various aspects of strategic planning into a unified platform, facilitating organized and coherent planning processes.

The benefits of strategic planning software include enhanced alignment of organizational goals with actionable strategies, leading to improved business efficiency. It aids in data-driven decision-making, allowing businesses to adapt their strategies based on real-time insights and changing market conditions. The software also promotes collaboration among team members and stakeholders, ensuring cohesive and well-informed planning. Additionally, it provides effective tracking and monitoring of strategic objectives, helping organizations to stay on course and achieve their long-term goals.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Strategic Planning Software

Here you’ll find an in-depth review of each strategic planning software that highlights what it does best. Plus, you’ll find product screenshots, notable features, software integrations, pricing information, and the pros and cons of the software.

Best strategic planning software for the entire organization

• Free demo available
• From $70/user/month

AchieveIt is a cloud-based software that helps businesses with strategic planning, business development, and performance management. It provides tools for organizations in various industries, including state and local government, healthcare, education, commercial, banks and credit unions, manufacturing, and non-profit organizations.

Why I picked AchieveIt: Usually, businesses have several plans, such as marketing plans, business strategy, financial strategy plans, and so on. In that case, it's difficult to integrate and keep track of different plans. However, AchieveIt solves this problem with its one-stop solution. It lets users create unlimited plans, regardless of their planning method. It also offers a variety of views, including Kanban boards, Gantt, Dashboard, Tree, List, Embedded widgets, and multi-plan view.

Another good thing about this software is that it automates manual processes so that you can focus on creating plans. For example, it sends notifications and alerts to stakeholders when updates, changes, or critical milestones are approaching. It generates automated reports and provides interactive dashboards with real-time visualizations of key performance indicators (KPIs) and strategic metrics. This automation saves time on manual reporting and allows for quick access to critical insights.

AchieveIt Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include performance tracking and analytics features that help organizations monitor the progress of their strategic initiatives. It provides customizable dashboards, reports, and visualizations that allow users to track key metrics, identify trends, and gain actionable insights.

Integrations are available natively through the software’s open API. Their implementation team will work with you directly to connect to other tools.

• Check out AchieveIt on their website

Pros and cons

• Easy to learn and use
• Robust performance tracking
• Customizable dashboards and reports
• Limited automations
• Limited reporting features

monday sales CRM

Best for customizable automations for your sales pipeline

• 14-day free trial
• From $8/user/month (billed annually)

monday sales CRM is a customizable platform designed to centralize client interactions, automate sales workflows, and offer a comprehensive view of sales deals. It stands out for its extensive automation capabilities, robust data visualization, and user-friendly low-code/no-code environment, positioning it as a top choice for businesses seeking customizable automation solutions in their customer relationship management.

Why I Picked monday sales CRM: monday sales CRM offers extensive customization options that allow for tailoring the CRM to fit specific sales cycles and strategic planning needs. Its standout feature is the ability to centralize client communication and automate sales processes, which is critical for managing complex strategic plans. I believe Monday sales CRM is best for customizable automations due to its comprehensive data visualization and low-code/no-code platform, which enables teams to save time and focus on strategic decision-making.

Monday Sales CRM offers unique 'automation recipes'– customizable, pre-set automation rules that users can apply to streamline their sales processes. These recipes automate routine tasks like lead follow-ups, status updates, and notifications, significantly reducing manual effort.

monday sales CRM Standout Features & Integrations

Features include AI-assisted email composition, which aids in crafting relevant emails quickly, and email sync and tracking, which integrates email accounts with the CRM for direct management of communications and tracking of interactions. Additionally, the CRM provides mass email capabilities, activity management to log and track sales-related activities, performance tracking tools, customizable dashboards for visual sales insights, and sales forecasting.

Integrations include Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible through a paid plan with Zapier.

• Check out monday sales CRM on their website
• Advanced reporting and analytics
• Robust integration capabilities
• High customizability & automation-friendly
• Slight learning curve
• Limited native email marketing features

Best for visual innovation workspaces

• Free plan available

Miro is a visual workspace tool that provides a platform for project management, collaboration, and integration with other applications. It is distinguished by its capacity to support visual innovation workspaces, enabling teams to efficiently build, iterate, and design.

Why I picked Miro: I chose Miro because it offers a comprehensive suite of collaborative tools and templates that facilitate the entire strategic planning process. Its standout feature is the ability to visualize complex strategies and data, which is crucial for aligning teams and communicating plans across an organization. I believe Miro is best for visual innovation workspaces due to its interactive presentation mode, central hub for tracking projects and resources, and seamless integration with other platforms, which collectively enhance the strategic planning and execution experience.

Miro Standout Features and Integrations

Features include real-time collaboration tools, such as sticky notes and comments, an infinite canvas, custom frames and shapes, presentation mode, TalkTrack to record process explanation videos, Miro Assist AI, document and image embedding, voting and polling features, mind mapping tools, screen sharing, timeline and roadmap planning, access control and permissions management.

Integrations include Zoom, Figma, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Monday.com, Confluence, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex. Some integrations are limited to paid plans only.

• Check out Miro on their website
• Built-in communication features for streamlined collaboration
• Free forever plan available
• Intuitive and easy setup
• Visitor/guest accounts locked to paid plans only
• Free version does not allow high-quality export to pdf

Best strategic planning software for employee engagement

• Free trial available
• From $10/user/month

Rhythm is an enterprise software that helps organizations with strategic planning, goal setting, and execution management. It helps businesses align their objectives, track progress, and drive performance.

Why I picked Rhythm: Rhythm has a great onboarding and implementation process that ensures the successful adoption of the software. The process begins with a discovery phase where Rhythm's implementation team collaborates with the client to understand their unique needs, goals, and existing processes. They gather information and conduct workshops to prepare a tailored implementation plan.

Then, Rhythm's implementation team works closely with the client to configure the software according to their specific requirements. This involves setting up account structures, defining metrics and goals, and customizing the platform to align with the client's organizational structure and terminology.

They also encourage clients to provide feedback and suggestions for enhancements, which ensures that the software meets the evolving needs of the organization.

Rhythm Standout Features and Integrations

Features: Rhythm has a clean interface, and it is designed to be intuitive, user-friendly, and visually appealing. It provides a clean and organized layout that enables users to navigate the software and access key features and information efficiently.

Integrations include WordPress, Zoom, CloverConnect, QuickBooks Online, Canvas, CampaignMonitor, AWS EventBridge, Sitefinity, Clowder, and Elevate. You can also get additional integrations through Rhythm API and Zapier.

• Check out Hirebook on their website
• Provides valuable insights
• Facilitates team collaboration and communication
• Intuitive interface
• Learning curve for new users
• Limited customization options

Best strategic planning software for goal setting

• 30-day free trial + free plan available
• From $7/user/month

Profit.co is planning software with features such as progress tracking, collaboration tools, and analytics. It enables teams to drive performance, foster transparency, and make data-driven decisions.

Why I picked Profit.co: It's great for goal setting because it provides a structured framework based on the widely adopted OKR methodology. It guides organizations through the process of defining clear objectives and measurable key results, ensuring that goals are specific, aligned, and actionable.

Profit.co Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include the task management feature, which provides organizations with a robust system for organizing, assigning, and tracking tasks related to their goals and objectives. Profit.co allows users to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. Deadlines can be set for tasks, ensuring that team members know the expected completion dates and can manage their workload effectively.

Integrations include Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Zapier, Outlook, Power BI, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, and monday.com. You can also connect it to Zapier to get additional integrations.

• Check out Profit.co on their website
• Good reporting feature
• Easy-to-use features
• Good interface
• Limited documentation
• Limited customizations

Best strategic planning software for performance management

• From $6.50/user/month (billed annually)

Perdoo is performance management software that helps organizations align their goals, track progress, and drive employee engagement. It enables companies to create a culture of transparency, alignment, and accountability by ensuring everyone in the organization is working towards the same objectives.

Why I picked Perdoo: The feature I liked the most is the KPI board, which are visual dashboards that allow organizations to track and monitor their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in real-time. KPI Boards present KPIs in a visual and intuitive format, making it easier for individuals and teams to understand their performance at a glance. Visual representations such as charts, graphs, and progress bars enhance quick assessments.

Another great feature is strategic pillars, which represent an organization's core areas or focus areas. They are the fundamental building blocks that support the achievement of organizational objectives. By breaking down the strategy into specific pillars, teams and individuals can set goals that directly contribute to these strategic areas.

Perdoo Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include peer recognition that enables managers and colleagues to recognize and praise employees for their achievements, fostering a positive work environment and boosting employee morale.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Slack, Asana, Jira, Google Sheets, and Zapier. You can also avail additional integrations through Zapier and the Perdoo API.

• Check out Perdoo on their website
• Easy to navigate
• Promotes collaboration and transparency
• User-friendly interface
• Limited mobile app features
• Setup takes time

MPOWR Envision

Best strategic planning software for identifying problem areas

• From $500/month

MPOWR Envision is a strategic planning platform designed to assist organizations in effectively developing, executing, and monitoring their strategic plans. It is designed to help both large and small and non-profit and for-profit organizations.

Why I picked MPOWR Envision: I picked MPOWR Envision for its Strategy Health Map feature. It is a unique feature that utilizes health algorithms to help users identify areas of improvement. It provides an overview of which projects are critical, at risk, or healthy.

The strategy health map offers a clear and concise visual representation of the organization's strategic initiatives and their progress. This allows executives to quickly grasp the current state of strategic initiatives.

MPOWR Envision Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include a digest summary report, which provides key highlights and insights from the performance data and metrics tracked within the software. This allows stakeholders to grasp the overall performance and progress of the organization quickly.

Integrations include Google Docs, Microsoft Excel, Slack, Gmail, Trello, Dropbox Business, Google Sheets, Asana, Jira, and Microsoft Teams. You can also get additional integrations through Zapier.

• Check out MPOWR Envision on their website
• Helpful training videos
• Facilitates collaboration and engagement
• Outdated interface
• No mobile app

Best strategic planning software for resource allocation

• From $60/user/month

Sciforma is a project and portfolio management (PPM) software solution designed to help organizations effectively plan, execute, and manage their projects and portfolios. It provides a range of features and tools to support project managers, team members, and stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.

Why I picked Sciforma: Sciforma is the best platform for resource optimization because it provides a centralized platform for managing and allocating resources across projects and portfolios. It offers a holistic view of resource availability, skills, and workload, allowing project managers to make informed decisions when assigning resources to projects.

The software enables organizations to plan and optimize resource capacity effectively. It helps in identifying resource constraints and determining if resources are underutilized or overbooked. This allows project managers to balance workloads, avoid resource bottlenecks, and ensure that resources are allocated efficiently.

Sciforma Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include a time management feature that allows team members to track their time on project tasks. It provides time tracking functionality where users can enter their worked hours, providing accurate data on actual time spent. This helps monitor project progress, track task completion, and compare it against planned timelines.

Integrations include Salesforce Sales Cloud, Jira, Google Calendar, Quickbooks Online, SharePoint, QuickBooks Payroll, Salesforce Service Cloud, Yammer, and VersionOne.

• Check out Sciforma on their website
• Accurate progress tracking
• Includes accountability feature
• Good for enterprises
• Steep learning curve
• Pricing details are not transparent

Best strategic planning software for strategy execution

• Offers a 2-week trial of any premium plan. Cascade also offers a freemium version of their product with 2 dashboards and up to 4 users.
• Besides the free plan, Cascade offers a premium plan that starts at $29/user/month with a minimum of 5 users. For a 5-person team, this would be $145 per month.

Cascade is a performance management software designed to help organizations manage their strategic goals effectively. More than 45,000+ global teams, such as KFC, Toshiba, Honeywell, American Express, and UNICEF, use Cascade for strategic planning.

Why I picked Cascade: I found Cascade to be the best solution for strategy execution. It achieves this by eliminating silos and promoting collaboration, transparency, and alignment across teams and departments. Cascade provides a centralized platform for managing and communicating strategic goals and initiatives. This ensures that all teams and individuals can see the overall strategy and align their efforts accordingly.

It facilitates the cascading of goals from the organizational level to individual contributors. This process breaks down silos by connecting the objectives of different teams and aligning them with the overarching strategy. It also encourages cross-functional team collaboration through collaboration tools, such as commenting, document sharing, and real-time updates.

Cascade Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include customizable and interactive dashboards that visualize performance metrics and allow users to monitor progress in real-time. Also, it automates report generation, saving time and effort in gathering and analyzing data. Additionally, it offers various templates for goal-setting, such as the SMART goal-setting template.

Integrations include Salesforce, Google Calendar, Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, Jira, Agile CRM, Airtable, Bitrix CRM, Gmail, and HubSpot. You can also get additional integrations through Zapier. The Cascade API is only available to Enterprise subscription users.

• Check out Cascade on their website
• Good for strategy execution
• Interactive dashboard
• Easy to use
• No free trial is available

Best strategic planning software for achieving OKRs

• 14 days free trial
• From $20/user/month

Workboard is a cloud-based strategy planning software. It provides features and tools for strategic planning, goal management, and performance tracking. It is used by a wide range of organizations across industries, including enterprises, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies.

Why I picked Workboard: OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are a goal-setting framework that helps organizations define and track their objectives and measure their progress toward achieving them. Workboard is a software platform that specializes in implementing and managing OKRs.

Workboard provides a centralized platform where teams and individuals can align their objectives with the organization's overall goals. It enables cascading of objectives from the top level to individual contributors, ensuring everyone is working towards the same strategic priorities.

Workboard allows teams to track and monitor their real-time progress toward key results. It provides visual dashboards and progress indicators that help teams stay on track and make data-driven decisions. This visibility enables timely course corrections and helps identify areas where additional support may be needed.

Workboard Standout Features and Integrations

Standout features include collaboration and communication features such as goal commenting, status updates, and task assignments. These tools help teams discuss progress, share insights, and provide feedback, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.

Integrations include Slack, Asana, GitHub, Jira, Google Calendar, HubSpot CRM, Zapier, Pipedrive, Zendesk Suite, and Microsoft Azure. You can also connect it to Zapier to get additional integrations.

• Check out Workboard on their website
• Great automation features
• Mobile app is available

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Other Options

Here are a few more software that didn’t make the list:

Best strategic planning software for performance reporting

Best strategic planning software for strategy reporting

Best for creating and managing dynamic project plans

Best strategic planning software for visualizing and analyzing data

Best for data-driven decision-making and performance analysis

Best for integrated business planning and budgeting

Best for managing software development projects and tracking progress

Best for project portfolio management

Best for aligning goals across the organization

Best strategic planning software for collaborative planning.

Selection Criteria For Strategic Planning Software 

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best strategic planning software for this article:

Core Functionality

Strategic planning software should help the user:

• Develop clear and well-defined goals for their organization
• Help them formulate strategies to achieve those goals
• Foster accountability towards the goals through performance tracking

Key Features

While looking for the best strategic planning software, I looked for the following features:

• Project management : Enables organizations to plan, execute, and manage projects effectively
• Resource management : Helps businesses allocate resources, such as budget and  equipment, to achieve strategic goals
• Performance management : Involves monitoring, tracking, and evaluation of performance related to strategic initiatives

Since you'll regularly log into a strategic planning software to track progress and follow up with team members, the software should have a good user interface. The layout should be clean, and the features should be easy to navigate for better user adoption. 

Another important factor I assessed was the level of support provided. The customer support team should provide quick and timely solutions to problems. It should also have a short onboarding period and simple navigation so that teams can get up to speed quickly.

Software Integrations

Software integrations allow data synchronization between different software. Hence, the planning software should provide integrations with various third-party tools to enhance its functionality. These include project management software, CRM, human resource systems, and communication tools.

Before investing in any software, you need to be sure that you’ll get the most value out of it. Hence, you can get a freemium plan or use the free trial to give you a better understanding of the ROI. 

In terms of pricing, since the software listed in this article is cloud-based, you can expect to pay a per month fee. This fee can range between $20 to $50/user/month. 

People Also Ask

Here are the answers to some questions about strategic planning software that we are frequently asked:

What are the benefits of strategic planning software?

According to Bridges Business Consultancy’s research, only 52% of organizations met their strategic goals. One reason could be that there is often a gap between strategy creation and execution. Here’s when business planning software can help you convert a strategic plan into an action plan and ensure accountability. With business planning software, your team members will have clear direction regarding which goals they need to work on, and it also enables leaders to track progress.

Who uses strategic planning software?

It is utilized by various individuals within an organization. These typically include executives, senior managers, and team leaders who play a crucial role in setting the strategy and direction. Project managers may also use strategic planning software to align project objectives with the organization’s strategic goals. Cross-functional teams from various departments or business units can benefit from strategic planning software to collaborate, share information, and align their efforts towards common strategic goals.

How do I choose the right strategic planning software?

When choosing strategic planning software, it is crucial to consider several key factors. First, evaluate the software’s features to ensure they align with your specific requirements. Additionally, scalability is important to accommodate your organization’s current size and future growth. Look for user-friendly software that can be easily adopted and utilized by your team. Finally, factor in the software’s cost and value proposition. By carefully considering these aspects, you can make an informed decision and select the strategic planning software that best meets your organization’s needs.

Other Revenue Operations Software

If you’re looking for similar software, here are some reviews from our experts:

• Best KPI Software
• Best Free CRM Software
• Best E-signature Software
• Best Sales Performance Management

With a focus on features, scalability, integration, customization, and support, I have presented a detailed overview of the top 10 strategic planning tools in this article. Each software has unique strengths and advantages and caters to different organizational needs.

Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, these software options offer the tools and capabilities to improve your strategic planning processes, foster collaboration, and drive business success. By carefully evaluating your requirements and considering the features and benefits of each software, you can make an informed decision.

To stay up to date about the latest revenue operations tools, subscribe to The RevOps Team newsletter . 

Strategic planning software to build, manage, and communicate your organizational plan.

Our strategic planning software combines everything you need to build an actionable organizational strategy, align your leadership team, and create a rhythm of execution and learning..

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Strategic planning software for leaders to create a central place for organizational strategy.

Align your team with the only strategic planning software designed for collaboration..

Use virtual whiteboards, insights from your planning team, and thoughtful facilitation modules to co-create and collaborate on your organization’s bold vision of the future.

Build an actionable strategic plan with on-demand courses, guided workflows, and AI.

Whether you need to build a plan or refresh your current one, the StrategyHub provides your team the on-demand courses and exercises to build a great winning strategy. No other strategic planning software is backed by a planning suite this comprehensive.

The only app that shows if your strategy is delivering results.

Use OKRs or goals to create shared visibility into how everyone contributes to your organization’s bold vision of the future. Connect everyone’s day-to-day activities to what is absolutely critical to your success.

Bring your stakeholders along for the journey. They’ll love you for it.

Inform and engage your board of directors or community stakeholders with the only strategic planning software that pushes on-demand, customizable, dynamic dashboards and beautiful reports.

Run a data-driven strategy review with zero prep.

Easily manage business health check-ins with real-time dashboards that provide dynamic insight into the performance driving your success.

Weekly calls with a community of peers and experts.

Every StrategyHub subscription includes access to weekly calls in the Strategy Collaborative to cover strategic topics, questions, and feedback from a community of peers and OnStrategy Senior Experts.

INTEGRATIONS

Integrate strategy into your Teams or Slack workflows.

Use OnStrategy’s pre-built integrations with Microsoft Teams or Slack to stay connected to your team’s priorities, get notified when items are due for a check-in, and update results inside Teams or Slack.

Meet the Virtual Strategist AI – your strategic planning copilot.

Tap into the Virtual Strategist AI to collaborate on building a great plan. This AI expert is your always-on expert trained in the best practices for strategic planning, OKRs, and implementation.

The Virtual Strategist AI (Beta) is available now!

Get Started Today

Build and implement your strategic plan today. or, take a free video tour., forget the suits and the ivy-league mbas..

We’re a team of low-ego experts serious about supporting your strategy, OKRs, and organizational results. Meet a few of our experts:

Erica’s Accomplishments & Experience

Planning & Execution Sessions Led Last Year

Clients Executing their Plans

Strategy Reviews Led Last Month

Industries:

• Construction
• Non-Profit & Government
• Patagonia, Gabriel & Co.
• MGM Resorts, Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority
• Brycon Corporation
• Washoe County, City of Reno, Make-A-Wish

Erica Olsen

Ceo/co-founder, jeff’s accomplishments & experience.

• Technology & SaaS
• Professional Service Organizations
• Intuit, IBM
• Miller Heiman
• Maryland Food Bank, Outdoor Industry Association
• YMCA, Reno Rodeo Association

Jeff Brunings

Senior strategist, kim’s accomplishments & experience.

• Non-Profits
• University of Santa Cruz, Oxford School District
• Ronald McDonald House Charities

Kim Perkins

Kamryn’s accomplishments & experience.

• Government/IT
• Agriculture
• The King Center, Regional Foodbank of OK
• City and County of SF, Digital Service
• Costa Farms

Kamryn Mock

Engagement lead & strategist, leigh’s accomplishments & experience.

• Technology and SaaS
• Colobus Hospital
• Smithsonian
• US Marshals Services, Canada Revenue

Leigh Abbott

Frequently asked questions, we help ceos, chief strategy officers, executive directors, and superintendents create sustainable growth and impact through strategic planning and agile implementation. here are some of our most frequently asked questions..

Our strategic planning software guides your team to build your great strategic plan using our strategic, pre-built exercises and self-guided, on-demand courses that follow a proven planning model used to build 1000s of strategic plans. After your plan is built, use our strategic planning software to manage and collect your team’s performance data, aggregate reports, data outputs, and keeps your team focused and accountable for achieving their results.

Every StrategyHub subscription includes access to weekly calls with a community of peers who are focused on strategy, OKRs, and organizational performance. These weekly calls cover monthly strategic topics, workshops, and Q&A sessions with experts to answer your most pressing issues related to planning and performance. OnStrategy is way more than just a strategic planning tool – we’re your partners in helping you see success in strategy.

We’re not just an app company and software solution. We’re the only planning software that includes guided courses and pre-built exercises to build strategic plans. Plus, every StrategyHub subscription includes access to our Strategy Collaborative community with 1,200 members with weekly calls to help you with planning, performance, and creating a winning culture. And if you need experts to help with your strategic planning, our team can jump in to finish your organizational strategy, build annual action plans with OKRs, and help set a consistent rhythm of execution.

All planning software comes with dedicated tech support as you build and implement your plan. But, if you need experts to jump in and help lead your strategic planning process, we’ve got you covered. Our team of experts can help you build an actionable organizational strategy, create annual plans with OKRs, and set up your rhythm of execution and learning. Need something else? You can also purchase hourly blocks of consulting to tackle whatever challenge you may face.

We have 1000s of available integration available through Zapier. OnStrategy also has pre-built integrations with Microsoft Teams and Slack to help your team stay connected and aligned to meeting your goals, making us one of the best strategic planning solutions in the marketplace.

Every strategic planning software subscription includes our entire suite of features to build and implement your plan, including Miro whiteboard collaboration tools, self-guided strategic planning courses, tools to create your team’s goals and OKRs, customized performance reports, and everything you need to manage the quarterly implementation and review cycle for your organization.

We help leaders achieve their visions of success.

We dig in deep and help clients solve their biggest challenges. listen in to see how our clients work everyday to achieve their visions of success:.

The Best Visions Connect to Your Head, Heart, and Soul

Tony Quiñones, Bright Path Labs

Strategy Stories

Using a Bold Vision to Solve Homelessness

Dana Searcy, Washoe County

Strategy is Communication, Communication is Strategy

Meg Kimmel & Carmen Del Guercio

Creating the Next Generation of Leaders and Stewards of our Waterways

Aligning an Organization & Leadership Team to Save the Planet

Committing to a Bigger Impact to Grant Wishes to Every Eligible Child

Make-A-Wish

Growing an Organization to Create Clear Ownership & Accountability

Authority Partners

Unifying a Team with a Clear Focus to Transform the Construction Industry

Defining an Ambitious Strategic Plan to Preserve & Protect Lake Tahoe

Okr & strategy software backed by experts..

• 287 Planning & Execution Sessions Led Last Year
• 175+ Years of Planning Experience
• 56 Strategy Reviews Led Last Month

Join 60,000 other leaders engaged in transforming their organizations.

Subscribe to get the latest agile strategy best practices, free guides, case studies, and videos in your inbox every week..

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Reveal the future of Strategy AI.   Cascade’s perspective on how AI will shape the future of strategy  ->

#1 Strategy Execution Platform

Say goodbye to strategy spreadsheets.

Accelerate results by 30%. Save millions in efficiency gains.

Cascade works the way you work, business transformation, operational efficiency, portfolio management, strategy frameworks & okrs, strategic planning, strategy execution, command the chaos from one single platform, metrics library, dashboards & reports, team management.

Automatically connect your strategy silos 🪄

Cascade Enterprise

Humans that get strategy, strategy execution experts.

Full access to a designated Customer Success Manager to help make sure you get the most out of the tool at every step.

Personalized Implementation

Enterprise-grade Security

Love spreadsheets? Nah. Choose strategic excellence!

The online tool for strategic planning

Propel your plans from strategy through execution. Run engaging kickoff sessions, build visual presentations, and manage and track progress collaboratively, all in one online planning tool.

Over 70M+ users love Miro.

Build strategy, manage execution

Collaboratively build strategy and manage projects by combining your thought process and data in one workspace. Use Miro’s planning tools to develop strategy, align teams, and communicate plans across the whole organization.

Visualize projects and dependencies

Organize all your project tasks and resources in one place. Draw dependency lines, manage workloads, and make adjustments on the fly to stay aligned and on track. Easily visualize timelines and the strategic planning process from start to finish.

Present strategy and execute with the latest info

Turn strategic plans into engaging presentations with live dashboards, wireframes, and diagrams on beautiful frames. Give more context in real time, or make a board recording async and ensure everyone is in the loop.

Why Miro is the best online planning tool

Run strategic meetings.

Facilitate strategic planning sessions where everyone can participate regardless of location. Generate ideas, discuss, and build plans in real time or continue work async. You'll never run out of space or get erased.

Present your vision

Develop, implement, and evaluate strategic plans and turn them into beautiful presentations with just a few clicks. Present live, or export as an image or PDF. Embed boards as visual documentation in Confluence, Jira, and more.

Bring agility to teams

Establish a culture of trust and transparency through visibility & inclusion. Structure your strategy in a way everyone understands, streamlining communication and workflows.

Maximize resource and time efficiency with cross-functional alignment, no duplicated work. Use Miro’s planning tools to automate processes and jump to execution faster.

Related templates

Strategy Map Template

Visually build your strategy and help your team move forward.

Strategy Diamond

Consider all the elements you need to create an integrated and powerful business strategy using our template for the Strategy Diamond Model.

Strategy Presentation Template

Ensure that your team understands the direction to take and how to execute plans.

PI Planning Template

Manage your team's backlog, increase productivity, and build the foundation for a successful PI Planning event.

Competitive Analysis Template

Identify the other companies you're competing with and how your product or service compares.

Business Model Canvas Template

Determine and align your business priorities in a simple and visual way.

More than just an online planning tool

Miro is designed to do much more than just streamline your strategic processes. With intuitive features, collaborative capabilities, and precision in execution, transform your planning into an inspiring and engaging experience, and lead with confidence in any organization.

Strategy Development

Propel your plans from strategy through execution. Run engaging kickoff sessions, build visual presentations, manage and track progress collaboratively, all in one online planning tool.

SWOT Analysis

Understand the market landscape and anticipate opportunities and threats with a SWOT analysis tool. Make better-informed decisions and align teams on company goals and strategies.

Project management

Unleash your team's potential and bring your projects to life with Miro, your all-in-one workspace for project management.

Communicate timeframes, context, priorities, and deadlines, and create workflows that bring projects to life.

Gantt Charts

Design projects efficiently and visualize all tasks in one timeline. Run engaging sessions, and manage progress collaboratively.

Visualize information with Miro’s T-chart maker. Easily identify patterns and improve decision-making.

Supply and Demand Graphs

Quickly create a supply and demand graph and get insights on pricing and the best way to target consumers.

How to use Miro for strategic planning

Select the ready-made templates

From SWOT analysis to project planning and  Gantt charts, find all the resources you need.

Use the template frameworks to guide you, or simply add your data to the board. Include diagrams, notes, and context to your plans.

Invite others to join

Share your board link and brainstorm how to move forward.

Keep your board as the single source of truth, so people can refer to it whenever they need.

Planning tools FAQs

What are the most common planning tools.

There are many planning tools you can use to move projects forward. Every tool supports you at a different stage of your process, from Porter’s Five Forces to Balanced Scorecard and Ansoff Matrix. Miro’s online workspace lets you add as many frameworks as you want without any space constraints, making it easy for teams to have everything they need in one shared tool.

How can I choose the best strategic planning tool for me?

Start by analyzing your project needs and scope to see which frameworks are fitting your needs. Make sure to choose an online planning tool that is intuitive and easy, so everyone is kept in the loop and works collaboratively. Miro lets you work in real time or async, making it easy for teams to connect and develop actionable plans and strategies, no matter where they are.

Are Miro’s planning tools free?

Yes! Sign up for free, browse through our Templates Library, and start your planning immediately, right on the board.

How to write a strategic plan (and what it should include)

How to use the Ansoff Matrix for strategic planning (with examples)

How to hold a strategic planning meeting: A simple, step-by-step guide for facilitators

What is the Strategic Management Process? + How to Get Started

How to facilitate an OKR planning workshop

What is a Lean Canvas?

What is an action plan and how to write one

What is a business model canvas (BMC)?

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide

What is a key performance indicator (KPI)?

Get on board in seconds

Join thousands of teams using Miro to do their best work yet.

Everything you need to deliver your plans, manage strategy and report progress.

• Customizable plan structure
• Automated and on-demand progress reports
• Save time with AI features

Centralize, analyze and visualize your performance data. Align performance measures with plans.

• Centralized performance data
• Scorecards and interactive dashboards
• Slice and dice for new insights

Manage, deliver, and communicate projects. Align projects with plans for end-to-end visibility and reporting.

• Gantt view of projects, tasks and dependencies
• Interactive maps and dashboards
• Plan alignment and reporting

Share your strategy story with external stakeholders via customizable public dashboards.

• Progress dashboards with roll-up reporting
• Matched to your branding
• Fully ADA Compliant

Strategy and Performance Management Integrations Learn More

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Execute strategy, track performance, and report progress.

Envisio’s performance management software helps you move from strategy to action by operationalizing your plan, aligning your people, tracking performance, and sharing results.

The #1 Strategy Software Platform

Envisio is used by hundreds of government, education and nonprofit organizations to manage their strategic plans. It is the most widely used strategy and performance management solution in the public sector and is consistently rated the easiest to use strategic planning software.

Cascade your strategic goals into actions and assign them to the right people from across your organization. Get visibility into progress and keep your team focused on what matters.

Collect, analyze, and visualize your performance data to drive better decisions. Embed performance measures into your plan and reports for a complete view of performance.

Manage, deliver, and communicate your capital improvement projects. Align projects with plans so progress updates roll up into reports. Share with residents via project dashboards.

Share your story with external stakeholders via interactive public dashboards. Choose exactly what gets shared with staff, partners, donors, or your community.

" We now have a system we love that is easy for our team to use and provides us with the priorities, goals, actions and performance measures needed to track the success of our strategic plan. "

Angela Smith, City of Rowlett, TX

Move from planning to action.

Get all of your strategic and operational plans centralized and on track. Envisio’s strategy execution software gives you total visibility into your organization’s plan and progress. Your team will love having a simple way to submit progress updates, identify roadblocks, and celebrate successes. You’ll love delivering on your promises—on time and on budget.

Automate your progress reporting

Produce beautiful, easy-to-read progress reports in minutes. You can create reports by any element of your plan—department, priority, status, you name it—so it’s easy to tailor them for different audiences. Set a schedule so your reports automatically generate. Combine performance measures with progress updates for maximum context. Leverage Envisio’s AI Assist feature to do more of the heavy-lifting in crafting progress updates and work plans— freeing up time and energy for you and your team to focus on strategy execution.

Organize and visualize your data

Where performance is measured, performance improves. Bring together key performance data from across your organization. Envisio’s strategy software makes it easy to analyze and visualize progress made against your goals and align them with your plans. Create scorecards and other interactive dashboards, then embed them into your plans and reports.

Our Team And Services

More than just strategy software.

Every Envisio customer is backed by their own strategy execution team. We also offer professional services geared towards strategic planning, strategy execution, and getting started fast with a strategy and performance management platform. Speak to an Envisio Strategy Expert today and learn how to get from where you are today to where you’d like to go.

Performance Measures Development Workshops

This workshop provides organizational leaders with an initial set of performance measures that tell a meaningful story of the progress made against your plans and your organizational performance.

Action Planning Workshops

Operational planning lies at the heart of successful strategy execution. During this action planning workshop, we’ll guide your team through a process to define SMART actions that are clear, actionable, and aligned with your strategy.

You're in good company

Some of the highest performing organizations in the world use Envisio to execute strategy, manage performance, and report on results.

" “We used the roll out of Envisio as an opportunity to take stock of the hundreds of measures we were tracking and streamline these into meaningful measures that track progress towards our departmental goals and strategic priorities.” "

MaryBeth VanTill, Kent County, MI

Book a demo.

Let us show you around Envisio and answer any questions. We work exclusively with government, education, healthcare, and non-profit organizations. We love what you do!

Take Planning Assessment

Not sure where to start with strategy implementation or performance management? Take our planning & performance assessment and get tailored insights for your organization.

Grow 10X Faster

Get your team focused, aligned, and accountable.

A simple system of AI-powered software, coaching, and methodology built for growing companies to successfully execute strategic plans quarter over quarter and year over year.  Are you ready to Execute without Drama?

Find your rhythm

Set your business into a Rhythm of Work™ using our Think Plan Do™ methodology proven over 20 years to help companies succeed and become high-performing teams.

Bring in the experts

Turn your strategy sessions into actionable plans for your team to execute with discipline and focus using our expert facilitators. Evolve alongside your growing business with leadership coaching.

Master company execution

Execute strategic goals that drive alignment and accountability at multiple levels of the organization using the most advanced AI powered strategy execution software in the market.

The Strategy Execution System

Pioneered and tested for nearly 20 years, the Rhythm System is a complete solution for ambitious CEOs who want to achieve the next level of growth. Our framework helps you develop a clear growth strategy, execute it masterfully and achieve organizational alignment.

Join hundreds of successful CEOs who have achieved results using this same framework.

What’s hindering your ability to execute your strategic plan? Take our 5-min assessment and learn.

Our clients are top in their industry. Rhythm helped them get there.

“Rhythm helps you stay accountable to the strategic plan and then to execute. With Rhythm, we have achieved 140% growth 3 years in a row."

Dr. Steve Vogt CEO, BioPlus Pharmacy

“Rhythm gives us total alignment with over 800 people in 8 locations. The software is very simple and easy to use."

Randy Carr CEO, World Emblem

"Rhythm has been our secret weapon for aligning our company's strategy and teams. As we grew from 50 to 1,600 employees, Rhythm has kept our executive team and functional groups focused on the right goals quarter over quarter."

Michael Praeger CEO, AvidXchange

Quarter over quarter, year over year, Rhythm Systems is a consistent winner of multiple awards including:

We guarantee wins within 30 days.

Every business that works with us sees an overwhelming execution improvement. If you don’t see improvements after 30 days, we’ll give you double your money back.* Let's discuss your challenges, goals, and get you started!

*All your money back, plus all additional associated costs in month 1

Rhythm A.I. - Patrick

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Strategic Planning Software.

The difference between ordinary and best-in-class is execution. Maus is an all-in-one platform for strategic, financial, and exit planning that turns big ideas into action.

Planning, execution, and reporting today to build a better business for tomorrow.

In one easy-to-use strategic planning platform you can plan, implement, measure and grow your business. It’s not enough to simply create a plan. With Maus you can turn your strategy into the roadmap for success while aligning with your financial and business value goals

Make Your Vision Reality

Create strategic plans

Analyze your entire business and come up with a strategic plan that fuels growth. Maus lets you see the big picture for your business, understand what’s motivating your customers, and provides insight into what you need to level up.

Implement the strategy

Stay on Track with Strategic Plans and Goals

Ensuring you stay on track to your strategic plans and goals is one of the biggest hurdles for a business’s success. Create a clear and actionable roadmap for you and your team to ensure everyone is working towards clear, defined goals.

Efficient Visibility

Spend less time reporting and more time doing

Quickly produce in-depth, financial and non-financial reports that show exactly how your business is performing. Import your data directly from Xero, QuickBooks, Excel and more for instant, customizable dashboard. No more losing days, or hours scraping data together. With a few clicks your business’s performance is visible & understandable.

Close value gaps

Accelerate business value and achieve the exit you’ve always desired

Exit planning is a critical part of a business’s strategy. Start with the end in mind and ensure you unlock your business’s true value potential. Maus gives you the tools and roadmap you need to achieve a successful exit. Know the questions potential buyers are going to ask, generate thorough reports to then see how the value of your business has improved as you fill the gaps.

#1 For Strategic Planning

With Maus, your financial and non-financial goals are connected, so you can see your strategic plan in action!

Maus Customer Reviews

With a 20 country global network, 10,000+ customers, and over 25 years of experience . Maus has your back every step of the way! But don't take our word for it, check out what our customers have to say about Maus!

Exit Planning Software Trusted By

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Enhancing Strategic Planning with Strategy Mapping Software

In today’s business environment, strategic planning is vital for the success of any organization. To stay ahead and tackle challenges effectively, businesses require a roadmap that efficiently aligns their goals, actions, and resources. This is where the use of strategy mapping software becomes crucial.

By providing a range of tools and features, strategy mapping software enables organizations to enhance their strategic planning endeavors. Let’s delve into how leveraging this innovative technology can revolutionize the approach to planning.

Table of Contents

1. Enhancing Communication and Collaboration

An important benefit of utilizing strategy mapping software is its capacity to enhance communication and collaboration among departments within an organization. Traditionally, strategic plans were mainly limited to boardrooms or the desks of a few decision-makers. However, modern organizations recognize the importance of involving teams in decision-making.

Businesses can bring together all stakeholders on a shared platform by employing strategy mapping software. This encourages team collaboration, from functions ensuring that everyone is aligned regarding the organization’s goals and initiatives. Organizations can establish a planning environment that facilitates improved decision-making by breaking down barriers and fostering communication.

2. Enhance Clarity and Openness

Having transparency is crucial in the realm of planning. It ensures that each team member comprehends how their efforts contribute to achieving objectives. Strategy mapping tools offer real-time visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs) by showcasing data through dashboards and visual representations.

This improved clarity enables teams across all levels of an organization to grasp which initiatives are fueling outcomes and which areas need attention or enhancement. Through data-backed insights from strategy mapping tools, organizations can make informed choices regarding resource allocation and adjust strategies based on comprehensive analytics.

3. Facilitate Planning for Uncertain Scenarios

Dealing with uncertainties is an aspect of strategic planning. Given shifting market conditions, priorities, or unforeseen circumstances, businesses must adjust their strategies accordingly. Strategy mapping tools provide the capacity for scenario planning, enabling organizations to explore “what if” scenarios and test strategic approaches.

By utilizing scenario planning functionalities, organizations can assess the effects of their decisions in scenarios. This empowers them to anticipate challenges or opportunities and make strategic modifications. Whether it involves exploring market sectors, adapting to emerging technologies, or mitigating risks, strategy mapping tools assist organizations in maintaining agility in their decision-making processes.

4. Align Initiatives with Key Objectives

Utilizing strategy mapping software enables organizations to connect their objectives with initiatives and action plans. This software helps break down overarching goals into steps, assign responsibilities, and align initiatives with objectives. This alignment assists teams in understanding how their efforts contribute to achieving goals.

Moreover, strategy mapping software supports the tracking of progress on initiatives through real-time updates and automated notifications. This transparency encourages accountability for assigned tasks and provides a view of the organization’s advancement toward strategic objectives.

5. Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Creating a culture of improvement is essential for business success. Strategy mapping software nurtures this culture by providing tools for monitoring and evaluating strategic endeavors. By capturing feedback, monitoring performance metrics, and assessing outcomes in real-time, organizations can pinpoint areas for enhancement efficiently.

Data-derived insights within strategy mapping software empower businesses to refine strategies based on results and draw lessons from endeavors.

This iterative approach encourages proactive adjustments and fosters a mindset of continuous learning and development. Employees become more engaged as they see the tangible impact of their contributions on the organization’s progress. Moreover, the transparency provided by the software ensures that everyone is aligned with the strategic goals, promoting a unified effort towards improvement.

Ultimately, this culture of continuous improvement can lead to sustained competitive advantage and long-term success.

Leveraging strategy mapping software can significantly boost an organization’s strategic planning endeavors. Encouraging teamwork, improving access to performance data, incorporating scenario planning tools linking projects to goals, and nurturing a culture of enhancement can help companies thrive in today’s fast-paced business landscape.

The crucial aspect lies in selecting strategy mapping software tailored to the organization’s requirements. Factors like user-friendliness, scalability, integration options, and customer assistance should be considered. By using technology to simplify planning and decision-making procedures, businesses can pave the way for progress and prosperity.

Forgotten Password

Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform experts providing comparisons and opinions for the CRM selection process.

10 Pitfalls to Avoid for a Successful Dynamics 365 Customization Project

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is incredibly flexible, perfectly suited to meet various business demands. When it comes to Dynamics 365 customization , there’s a lot you can do to make it your own. But it’s easy to get carried away. To really get the most out of your customization efforts without falling into common traps, it’s crucial to know what to look out for. In fact, we've recently written about the importance of having a Dynamics 365 consultant, such as enCloud9 . In our article, we explore how expert guidance can significantly enhance your customization journey.

Common Pitfalls in Dynamics 365 Customization

This blog post provides a detailed exploration of common pitfalls in Dynamics 365 customization and offers practical advice on how to avoid them, thereby helping businesses make the most of their Dynamics 365 system.

1. Over-Customization

It’s tempting to add as many custom features as possible, thinking it’ll solve all your problems. But this often leads to a tangled system that’s hard to keep up with. Always weigh the necessity of each feature against the potential complexity it adds. Remember, sometimes less is more, and Dynamics 365’s built-in features are quite robust on their own.

For example - imagine a medium sized manufacturing company who overly customizes Dynamics 365 to fit their specific needs, resulting in a complex and costly system. Frequent software updates required expensive maintenance, and the rigid customizations limited the company's ability to adapt to new business changes. Additionally, the custom interfaces confused new users, leading to longer training times. Overall, excessive customization made the system expensive and inflexible, diverting resources from key business activities.

2. Lack of Planning

Jumping straight into customization without a clear roadmap can lead you off course quickly. Effective Dynamics 365 planning ensures the implementation aligns perfectly with your business objectives. It also helps manage resources effectively and reduces risks, setting a solid foundation for the entire project. Think of it as setting up a GPS before a road trip—it’s all about plotting your route in advance.

Good planning facilitates seamless system integrations and ensures compliance with security protocols, while also preparing clear training plans to boost user adoption. It allows for targeted customization and future scalability, making sure your Dynamics 365 system can grow alongside your business. In essence, thorough planning is crucial for leveraging the full potential of Dynamics 365 and securing its success over the long term.

In our experience, we have seen CRM projects fail, not because the solution is a failure – but for lack of proper planning. With a little proper planning, you can ensure a successful Dynamics 365 implementation .

Having a well-organized deployment plan increases the odds for success by 90%.

3. Ignoring User Feedback

This is a big one. Your team uses (or will be using) Dynamics 365 every day, so their input is invaluable. Skipping out on gathering Dynamics 365 user feedback can leave you with a system that looks good on paper but fails in practice. Make it a habit to check in with your users; their insights can lead to more targeted and useful customizations.

Along with over-customizing, ignoring user feedback are two of the most common pitfalls that enCloud9 sees in Dynamics 365 implementation and customizing projects. Many times, we see these "superusers," or people making the decisions deciding what customizations are needed while neglecting what the day-today users would like to see. These "superusers" might consist of managers, owners, etc. Brian Begley, owner of enCloud9, recommends including a salesperson or regular user in the decision-making team. Not only will their feedback and input can be invaluable but having them involved helps create a sense of ownership, making adoption smoother.

4. Poor Documentation

Neglecting to document your customizations is like cooking a great meal but forgetting to write down the recipe. Comprehensive Dynamics 365 documentation ensures that anyone who comes after you can understand what was done and why, making future updates or troubleshooting a breeze.

According to Brian Begley of enCloud9, documenting is the “cornerstone of a successful customization.” When we begin a Dynamics 365 customization project at enCloud9 , our first step is always to document your business processes. Not only does this give us a clear picture of how your business operates, but it also lays the groundwork for any enhancements we’ll suggest.  Learn how enCloud9 meticulously captures company processes, by utilizing Microsoft Visio.

5. Inadequate testing

Imagine this : you’ve rolled out a new feature, only to find it clashes with existing functionalities. Avoid this by implementing rigorous testing protocols. Thorough testing helps catch conflicts and bugs before they affect your users, ensuring a smooth operation.

In addition, inadequate testing can also lead to poor user experience and higher operational costs - which could potentially cause business disruptions and delaying project completion. enCloud9 believes thorough testing is crucial to avoid these issues and ensure a smooth and secure system implementation. When you team up with enCloud9 as your Dynamics 365 consultant, you can have peace of mind knowing we'll ensure thorough testing for your Dynamics 365 to run smoothly.

To emphasize the importance of testing during a Dynamics 365 project, think about everyday items like cars and smartphones, which undergo rigorous testing before they reach consumers.

6. Neglecting Training

Custom features won’t do much good if your team doesn’t know how to use them effectively. Offering robust training sessions on any new customization will empower your employees, boost their productivity, and encourage adoption. You don’t want your users’ productivity to suffer because they’re struggling with unfamiliar features. Not only can neglecting training lead to lower adoption rates and decreased productivity. but it could potentially increase support costs and slow down the return on your investment.

For example : Imagine a restaurant introducing a new point-of-sale (POS) system designed to streamline order processing, inventory management, and customer billing. Now, picture how disastrous it would be if the management team decided to implement the new system without providing adequate training for the staff.

7. Ignoring Security Considerations

When tweaking your system, keep security top of mind. Custom features can inadvertently open up security gaps if not carefully designed. Applying Dynamics 365 security best practices during the customization process is crucial to keep your data safe.

For example , enCloud9 had a large company that had a lot of private data stored in their Dynamics 365 and when we took this client over from another partner, we did a security audit. As a result of the security audit, we discovered that all users were able to export the data in CRM into excel. We then reviewed the security roles and the users that should be able to export data into Excel (which should be a small percentage of users). We then removed that functionality from people that shouldn't have it.

8. Overlooking Compatibility

Make sure your shiny new customizations play nicely with the systems you already have in place. Compatibility issues can throw a wrench in your daily operations, causing more headaches than the customization was supposed to alleviate.

enCloud9 recently worked with a company that had previously customized its Dynamics 365 platform to improve sales and customer relationship management. However, their IT team neglected to ensure compatibility with their existing Office 365 suite. We often encounter clients needing fixes for customizations attempted on their own or by other companies. We recommend choosing a Dynamics 365 consultant who deeply understands your business processes and your company's specific needs, and who listens attentively to the client. enCloud9's Rescue and Repair service quickly diagnoses and fixes your Dynamics 365 system to better meet your business needs.

Brian suggests that for the best experience with Dynamics 365 Sales and Copilot, make sure you are using all the latest versions of Office 365. Microsoft offers various programs that can integrate with each other. As a consultant, if these programs don't integrate directly, it's your responsibility to ensure there's a mechanism in place to facilitate their integration.

9. Not Seeking Expert Advice

There are many good videos and blog articles on how to do basic customizations, but sometimes, it’s best to call in the cavalry. If customizations are getting too complex, consulting with Dynamics 365 experts such as enCloud9 can save you from many pitfalls. They can offer fresh perspectives and specialized knowledge that ensure your customizations are both effective and efficient.

Seeking expert advice during a Dynamics 365 project ensures proper customization, seamless integration, and efficient implementation, ultimately maximizing ROI and minimizing risks. Experts apply best practices, provide essential training, and future-proof the system for business growth.

Companies choose enCloud9 for our expertise, experience, and ongoing and personalized support. Our reputation is built on competence and dependability, established over a decade. "When our clients are successful, we are successful." But don’t just take it from us. Learn what some of our satisfied clients are saying .

10. Relying Solely on Customization

Remember, Dynamics 365 comes with robust Sales features right out of the box. While custom solutions can enhance your system, they work best when used alongside the platform's existing capabilities to maintain stability and supportability. Microsoft designs Dynamics 365 applications to integrate smoothly with each other and with your existing systems, providing a seamless solution that spans your entire business. We advise leveraging what’s already available; for instance, there's no need to build a new case management or planning system since Microsoft offers these robust applications as part of its suite.

As a reliable partner, enCloud9, in its role as a Dynamics 365 consultant, is also tasked with challenging clients or providing "pushback." We encourage clients to thoroughly consider whether their desired implementations will truly benefit their business or if there are more effective alternatives.

In conclusion two crucial considerations should guide any Dynamics 365 customization or implementation project:

• Necessity and Impact : It's important to assess the significance of your requirements. Are the features you're considering essential or merely nice to have? Reflect on whether the effort is worth it—will it be useful for your users, and how will it advance your business?
• Effective Communication and Partnership : Brian emphasizes the value of a partnership where the partner genuinely listens to the client's needs and bases their decisions on this information. A successful partnership relies on clear and open communication, ensuring that all actions are in line with the client's objectives.

Take Your Dynamics 365 to the Next Level with enCloud9

Ready to elevate your Dynamics 365 experience? Connect with enCloud9 today and let our team of experts guide you through a seamless customization process. Whether you're looking to enhance functionality, improve user adoption, or secure your system, we're here to help you avoid common pitfalls and achieve optimal results. Don't navigate the complexities of customization alone.  Let enCloud9 be your partner in success! Learn more about enCloud9's customization approach.

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Our 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report

May 15, 2024 | Brad Smith – Vice Chair and President; Melanie Nakagawa – Chief Sustainability Officer

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Today, Microsoft published the 2024 Environmental Sustainability Report. This report covers fiscal year 2023, and measures progress against our 2020 baseline. You can read the foreword below and explore the report in its entirety  here.

Accelerating innovation and partnership for people and the planet

Four years ago, Microsoft committed that, by 2030, we would become carbon negative, water positive, zero waste, and protect more land than we use. Since that announcement, we have seen major changes both in the technology sector and in our understanding of what it will take to meet our climate goals. New technologies, including generative AI, hold promise for new innovations that can help address the climate crisis. At the same time, the infrastructure and electricity needed for these technologies create new challenges for meeting sustainability commitments across the tech sector. As we take stock as a company in 2024, we remain resolute in our commitment to meet our climate goals and to empower others with the technology needed to build a more sustainable future.

At the end of last year, the world met in Dubai at COP28 to assess global sustainability progress. The results were sobering. The world is not on track to meet critical climate goals, and we see many of the world’s challenges reflected in our own situation. During the past four years, we have overcome multiple bottlenecks and have accelerated progress in meaningful ways. As we report here, we are on track in several areas. But not in every area. We therefore are mobilizing to accelerate progress in areas where we’re not yet on track.

In four areas we are on track, and in each of these we see progress that has the potential to have global impact beyond our own sustainability work. These are:

• Reducing our direct operational emissions (Scope 1 and 2)
• Accelerating carbon removal
• Designing for circularity to minimize waste and reusing cloud hardware
• Improving biodiversity and protecting more land than we use

At the same time, there are two areas where we’re not yet on track, and in each of these we are intensively engaged in work to identify and pursue additional breakthroughs. These are:

• Reducing our Scope 3, or indirect, emissions
• Reducing water use and replenishing more water than we consume in our datacenter operations

Even amid the challenges, we remain optimistic. We’re encouraged by ongoing progress across our campuses and datacenters, and throughout our value chain. Even more, we’re inspired by the scores of executives and employees across Microsoft who are rolling up their sleeves and identifying new and innovative steps that are helping us to close critical gaps. We all recognize the same thing: There is no issue today that connects everyone on the planet more than the issues around climate change. We all need to succeed together.

Carbon negative

Our carbon negative commitment includes three primary areas: reducing carbon emissions; increasing use of carbon-free electricity; and carbon removal. We made meaningful progress on carbon-free electricity and carbon removal in FY23. Microsoft has taken a first-mover approach to supporting carbon-free electricity infrastructure, making long-term investments to bring more carbon-free electricity onto the grids where we operate.

In 2023, we increased our contracted portfolio of renewable energy assets to more than 19.8 gigawatts (GW), including projects in 21 countries. In FY23, we also contracted 5,015,019 metric tons of carbon removal to be retired over the next 15 years. We are continuing to build a portfolio of projects, balanced across low, medium, and high durability solutions.

Carbon reduction continues to be an area of focus, especially as we work to address Scope 3 emissions. In 2023, we saw our Scope 1 and 2 emissions decrease by 6.3% from our 2020 baseline. This area remains on track to meet our goals. But our indirect emissions (Scope 3) increased by 30.9%. In aggregate, across all Scopes 1–3, Microsoft’s emissions are up 29.1% from the 2020 baseline.

The rise in our Scope 3 emissions primarily comes from the construction of more datacenters and the associated embodied carbon in building materials, as well as hardware components such as semiconductors, servers, and racks. Our challenges are in part unique to our position as a leading cloud supplier that is expanding its datacenters. But, even more, we reflect the challenges the world must overcome to develop and use greener concrete, steel, fuels, and chips. These are the biggest drivers of our Scope 3 challenges.

We have launched a company-wide initiative to identify and develop the added measures we’ll need to reduce our Scope 3 emissions.

Leaders in every area of the company have stepped up to sponsor and drive this work. This led to the development of more than 80 discrete and significant measures that will help us reduce these emissions – including a new requirement for select scale, high-volume suppliers to use 100% carbon-free electricity for Microsoft delivered goods and services by 2030. As a whole, this work builds on our multi-prong strategy, this year focusing on the following:

• Improving measurement by harnessing the power of digital technology to garner better insight and action
• Increasing efficiency by applying datacenter innovations that improve efficiency as quickly as possible
• Forging partnerships to accelerate technology breakthroughs through our investments and AI capabilities, including for greener steel, concrete, and fuels
• Building markets by using our purchasing power to accelerate market demand for these types of breakthroughs
• Advocating for public policy changes that will accelerate climate advances

Water positive

We take a holistic approach to becoming water positive, which includes water access, replenishment, innovation, reduction, and policy. In 2023, we achieved our water access target by providing more than 1.5 million people with access to clean water and sanitation solutions. We contracted water replenishment projects estimated to provide more than 25 million m 3 in volumetric water benefit over the lifetime of these projects – enough water to fill about 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Finally, we continue to drive innovation in water , through first-of-their kind replenishment projects like FIDO, which leverages AI-enabled acoustic analysis to reduce water loss from leakage.

Looking ahead, as our datacenter business continues to grow, so does the need to minimize our water consumption and replenish more than we consume in these operations. In FY23, our progress on water accelerated, and we know we need to implement an even stronger plan to accelerate it further. We therefore are investing in our water positive commitment in four ways:

• We are taking action to reduce the intensity with which we withdraw resources by continuing to design and innovate in order to minimize water use and achieve our intensity target
• Our new datacenters are designed and optimized to support AI workloads and will consume zero water for cooling. This initiative aims to further reduce our global reliance on freshwater resources as AI compute demands increase
• We are partnering to advance water policy . In 2023, we joined the Coalition for Water Recycling. Over the coming year we will finalize a position and strategy for water policy
• We are developing innovative scalable replenishment projects in high water stress locations where we operate datacenters. We recently announced Water United, a new initiative to unite public and private sectors in reducing water loss from leakage across the Colorado River Basin

Our journey to zero waste includes reducing waste at our campuses and datacenters, advancing circular cloud hardware and packaging, and improving device and packaging circularity. In FY23, we achieved a reuse and recycle rate of 89.4% for servers and components across all cloud hardware, a target that is increasingly important as needs for cloud services continue to grow. In 2023, we also diverted more than 18,537 metric tons of waste from landfills or incinerators across our owned datacenters and campuses, and we reduced single-use plastics in our Microsoft product packaging to 2.7%.

From expanding our Circular Centers to piloting programs that give a second life to used fiber optic cables through partnerships with local technical schools, we are working to keep materials in use longer and approach our work at every stage with circularity in mind. We are accelerating our work to reuse and recycle cloud hardware wherever possible, and launched two new Circular Centers in Quincy, Washington, and Chicago, Illinois in 2023.

Protecting ecosystems

We have committed to protecting more land than we use by 2025, while preserving and restoring ecosystems in the areas where we live and work. As of FY23, we exceeded our land protection target by more than 40%. At this point, 15,849 acres of land have been legally designated as permanently protected compared to our goal of 11,000 acres.

We are incorporating green business practices that support the surrounding ecosystems near our campuses and datacenters. This includes regenerative design solutions around our datacenters that enhance local biodiversity, improved stormwater management, and contributing to climate resilience. We are also piloting AI-driven Microsoft technology to provide insights into the overall health of the ecosystem and inform future actions.

Customer and global sustainability

In last year’s Environmental Sustainability Report, we announced that we were expanding our ambition to help advance sustainability for our customers and the world. In 2023, we continued this work to empower our customers and partners on their own sustainability journey by creating the technology needed to better manage resources and optimize systems. On a global scale, we focused on accelerating innovation, research, and policy, not only for ourselves but also to support a more sustainable world for all.

The shift from pledges to progress requires action, transparency, and accountability. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability is helping customers unify data and garner richer insights into the sustainability of their business. In 2023, we expanded Microsoft Sustainability Manager to include Scopes 1, 2, and all 15 categories of Scope 3 carbon emissions to help track progress and inform action across an organization’s operations and value chains.

As the world experiences worsening impacts of climate change, we are also helping to put planetary data into the hands of researchers, governments, companies, and individuals through the Planetary Computer. We are providing open access to petabytes of environmental monitoring data to help empower people with actionable information to protect their communities.

Microsoft’s sustainability progress requires global engagement. We are investing in innovative solutions, advancing research, and advocating for policies that we believe can drive progress at scale. A hallmark of this effort has been our Climate Innovation Fund (CIF) – our $1 billion commitment set in 2020 to advance innovation beyond Microsoft’s four walls. To date, the CIF has allocated $761 million toward innovative climate technologies including commercial direct air-capture technologies, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), industrial decarbonization, and more.

Our science, research, and AI for Good teams are also working to accelerate solutions and develop climate resilience with AI. In November 2023, we published a whitepaper and playbook that expands on the incredible potential of AI for sustainability. Through our AI for Good team, we are collaborating with the United Nations to research the use of AI to advance the Early Warning for All Initiative, with a goal of better understanding the populations that may be at risk of extreme weather events and other threats.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called climate change “the defining issue of our generation.” To meet this generational challenge, we are putting sustainability at the center of our work. With each emerging technology, with each new opportunity, we ask ourselves an important question: How can we advance sustainability?

As we strive to answer that question, we are developing new approaches, experimenting with new partnerships, and learning as we go. We are optimistic about the role technology can continue to play in accelerating climate progress, and we look forward to working with others on this critical journey for all of us.

Tags: carbon emissions , carbon neutral , climate change , Climate Innovation Fund , COP28 , Environmental Sustainability , Environmental Sustainability Report , net zero , water positive

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