Business planning software. Software used to develop a business plan
36. Software products used to develop and analyze a business plan
When preparing a business plan, both universal, special, and specialized software can be used.
Universal software is text editors and spreadsheets, both within office suites and separate, independent programs. To the first include Microsoft Office, as well as office suites from Sun Microsystems - Star Office, an office suite from the Canadian company Corel Corp. - WordPerfect Office, the OpenOffice.org office software package (distributed free of charge), created as part of the Open Source Projects and others. To the second group universal software include independent text editors and spreadsheets. The most popular software products among text editors are PolyEdit, AbiWord, PatriotXP, CryptEdit.
To prepare the financial part a business plan can be used - Formula One, Tabad, SuperCalc, etc. It should be noted that if a business plan is created in an office suite, then there is no need for any additional program. Text part is created in the text editor of the package, and the calculation and analytical one is in spreadsheets of the same office suite
As practice has shown, in most cases, the development of a business plan using universal software is carried out in the Microsoft Office suite. This circumstance suggests that users consider it the most convenient for both preparing textual and analytical components of a business plan. In some cases, presentations are also developed in it (to attract and initially familiarize investors and partners).
To prepare the calculation and analytical part business plan, special software for statistical calculations and analysis, such as SPSS, StatSoft Statistica, Statit Professional, etc., can also be used.
At the moment, there are more than a dozen of both domestic and foreign software products on the Russian market of specialized software for calculating and analyzing the financial and investment part of the business plan and the business plan as a whole. Among the domestic ones, the following can be distinguished:- Project Expert of the consulting company "Pro-Invest Consulting"; - Inek-Analyst of the consulting company "Inek";- Feasibility Study-Invest of the Institute of Management Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences;- Alt-Invest of the research and consulting company "Alt";- Business Plan PL of the consulting company CJSC "Society for Financial and Economic Development of Enterprises ROFER"; - "Business Planning Workshop" of the company LLC "Corporate Management"; - "Master of Projects" of the consulting company "Consulting Group "Voronov and Maksimov"";
37. Tasks and content of the production plan of the enterprise
The development of a plan for the production and sale of products should begin with clarification of the volume of the product range of orders available at the enterprise , as well as orders included in long-term plans and confirmed by consumers of products. New contracts are concluded for the remaining capacities, preferably for a number of years. At the same time, it is important that the products meet the requirements of the customer (consumer) in terms of quality, design, and after-sales service. With incomplete provision of the enterprise with orders for the sale of products, as well as with a reduction in demand for manufactured products, active work is being carried out to develop new types of products and conquer new sales markets.
After establishing the volume of orders, developing a scheme for the sale of products, clarifying the timing of the delivery of products, production program development . The planning of the production program begins with an analysis of the technical and economic indicators of the enterprise in the reporting year, determining the volume of orders for the planned year, identifying reserves for production growth and determining ways for the efficient use of material and labor resources. The justification of the production plan provides for the calculation of production capacity, determines the necessary input of additional capacities to ensure the fulfillment of tasks for the production of products in accordance with the concluded contracts, as well as a decrease in production capacity due to the disposal of obsolete equipment. A special place in the justification of the production program is given to the development of measures that ensure high quality products that can maintain competitiveness in the sales market of commodity producers.
Manufacturing program is the main stage in the formation of a plan for production and marketing of products, which is one of the leading sections. Its task is to ensure the fulfillment of all orders and satisfy all the needs of customers in terms of assortment, quality, delivery time. On the basis of the plan for production and marketing of products, all other sections are developed - a plan for labor; for logistics; cost, profit and financial plan. Production and marketing plan products are developed in physical and cost terms. In physical terms, a production program is drawn up. Product range indicators reflect the list of the entire range of published publications. The annual and monthly plans plan the full volume of production and establish the conditions for its sale. When planning a production program in physical units of measurement, quality indicators and ways to achieve high quality products throughout the range are established.
With the development of IT technologies and the general computerization of Russia, software specialists could not bypass such a narrowly applied market segment as programs for financial calculations of business plans.
These software products appeared at the end of the 20th century, both domestic and foreign. Of the foreign software products, the most famous in Russia was the COMFAR software package, and of the domestic ones, the software products Project Expert (Pro-invest consulting), Alt-invest (Alt-invest), as well as software products of the company " INEK" (INEK-Analyst and others). However, it should be added that there are other software products that are less known to interested users, for example, the Business Plan-M software product.
All these software products are based on the UNIDO methodological approach, and most of the programs on the market are comparable, or rather conditionally comparable, in terms of their functionality, user interface convenience and degree of closeness of the software core.
Of course, consulting companies operating in this market offer not only software aimed at developing business plans, but also a number of other software products and software systems. More detailed information about the programs, the functionality of the programs can be obtained at the sites below.
Table 1
We are more interested in business planning programs.
Issue price
As potential consumers of this family of software products, first of all, we are concerned about the functionality of the programs and the price. That is, the cost expression with which we will need to part, having received the desired program.
If we look closely at tables 2, 3, 4, we can conclude that pleasure is not very cheap. The cost, frankly, is Moscow, which is an unaffordable luxury for many Rostov firms. And if we take into account the fact that a hacked version of the same "Project expert 7", which occupies a dominant position in the Russian business planning market, can be bought in the transition to B. Sadovaya for 100-150 rubles, then ... frankly, licensed the version is too expensive for us.
Other hacked versions are simply not traded with us. They are less popular and are freely available in Moscow on Gorbushka.
table 2
Table 3
Table 4
But yes, there is a price. We will not argue and discuss whether it is expensive or cheap. Let's also not discuss about hackers who keep hacking and hacking expensive versions of this same "Project", as well as other equally well-known programs. Let's talk about something else. About what we, as users, get in return. What are the benefits?
Firstly, you must immediately say that if you do not deal with investment projects and business planning on a daily basis, then you do not need these programs.
Secondly... I, as a specialist constantly involved in business planning and development of investment projects, a long-term user of the "Project" program of various versions, I can say that not everything in it suited me. As, however, did not suit some customers and investors.
Well, investors and customers understand. They "poke" into any cell and ask: "where does this figure come from? And this figure?". It is clear that if you don’t know exactly how the machine calculates, then “on the fly” ... it can be difficult to answer their question ... which may raise doubts about the competence of the specialist who performed the calculations. Therefore, I simplified the situation and calculate all financial calculations in Excel, and in "Project expert" - only at the request of the customer.
What did not suit me yet in this program?
- Income tax is not charged until all investment costs have been paid off. It is quite difficult for an investor, even if he is a banker, to explain why this expensive program thinks this way and not otherwise.
- The software core is completely closed, and in some cases there is no way to figure out, to check why the number in a given cell is exactly like this, and not otherwise. We have to assume that the calculation is "conditionally correct".
- Since our taxation is constantly changing, then, at one time or another, there may be problems with the "correct" calculation of taxes. For example, with a simplified system (6% of income), it is rather difficult for the program to "reduce" income tax by a certain amount of social benefits.
- There may be problems with taking into account "VAT refunds from the budget." Legislation on this topic is constantly changing.
- With a large array of data required to be entered into the program, it is quite difficult to check the results obtained "for reliability". There is a high probability of an error by a specialist working in the program.
- Not all investors "with a hunt" consider the financial report in this program, and they can be understood. In order to double-check the financial statement provided by him, other specialists (on the part of the investor) have to build cash flows in Excel, and, as a rule, there are discrepancies. This does not mean at all that the program calculates incorrectly. Not at all, she just thinks “in her own way”, and we “in our own way”. Well, what can you do? Cash flow is cash flow!
Of course, these are not claims against the developers, but rather the aspirations or "misunderstanding" of some functional or methodological problems by the user. But, as a user and a specialist, I clearly understand how difficult it is to implement a software product of this level.
Now for the benefits...
What does she allow?
- Develop a business plan for the development of the enterprise
- Determine the need for investments and credit funds
- Determine the best way to finance an investment project
- Evaluate possible options for production, procurement and marketing
- Monitor the implementation of the business plan
And most importantly ... if you have all the necessary information, do it quickly enough. In all other respects, the program is not even bad. The main thing is to learn how to work in it, and then you can quickly "calculate" some serious investment project, take a loan against it and feel very good!
Allaverdyan V.V., 2005
At the heart of the work of each program for business planning is the construction of a financial model of the enterprise. This requires a complete set of financial and management reporting. Based on the information provided, a financial analysis of the company's activities is carried out.
To build a financial model, it is necessary to divide all the information presented into several groups: info, characterizing the current status of the payment order; description of the required amount of investment; characteristics of production and investment activities; principles of income distribution; forecast of the macro- and microeconomic environment. After carrying out all the necessary calculations, the program brings the results into a consolidated balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. All listed reports are generated for each reporting period throughout the entire planning horizon. Further, on the basis of these reports, a financial analysis of the enterprise's activities is carried out, taking into account the implementation of the project. As part of this analysis, as a rule, the calculation and evaluation is carried out: indicators of the effectiveness of the investment project. These indicators include internal rate of return (IRR), net present value (NPV), profitability index (PI); indicators of liquidity, turnover, sustainability, profitability. Now let's move on to the question of what kind of business planning programs exist. 1.COMFAR. This business planning system has been developed by highly qualified experts. It is based on the UNIDO methodology, which to this day is considered the most complete and competent. However, this software product has one significant drawback, which crosses out all its advantages. This disadvantage lies in the absence of Russian taxes in the calculations, which makes this product useless for use in the Russian economy. 2. Products developed by Pro-Invest-Consulting. The most popular program of this developer is "Project Expert", which is recognized by many business plan developers as the standard for financial analysis. The main advantages of this program are a wide range of possibilities. In addition, the program has a very user-friendly interface. But despite the fact that this software product has a huge toolkit, it lacks any clear calculation methodology. The main distinguishing features of "Project Expert" include: international standards are used to build financial documents; the system contains a huge amount of technical details and supports various formats for reporting and monitoring intermediate results; the program has a built-in project management system and control over financial and time inconsistencies. 3. Products of the company "INEK". The main business planning products of this developer are Analyst and Investor. These programs are based on 2 fundamental ideas: financial analysis standards and terminology are based on Russian methods; the results obtained in the form of figures are not sufficient, and therefore appropriate conclusions are needed for them. 4. Products of the Alt-Invest company. The software products of this company are more like templates for MS EXCEL. The main feature of Alt-Invest products is the versatility of financial solutions with open algorithms. The main advantage of the program is the formation of clearly structured final documents. The business planning products described above are not an exhaustive list. There are many other programs that partially automate the process of business planning. However, it is important to know that no program can replace a professional who can correctly understand and interpret the results of the calculations.
Overview of the main software products
Among the class of software products under consideration, two main groups can be distinguished: universal specialized.
1. MS Excel is one of the universal ones. It offers the user ample opportunities to create and implement various financial models, and provides the necessary flexibility in use. However, its application in practice assumes that the user must be able to build financial models, be familiar with the methodology for developing and evaluating investment projects, and also have good skills in working with MS Excel. But even the high qualification and practical experience of the user cannot fully insure him against errors associated with the human factor. Certain difficulties are caused by the creation and comparison of alternative scenarios.
2. Specialized software products. This group includes:
- "Alt-Invest", developed by the company "Alt";
- "Business Planning Workshop" offered by the company "Corporate Finance";
- "INEK-Analyst", proposed by the company "INEK";
Project Expert and Prime Expert developed by Expert Systems (Pro-invest group).
The capabilities of the above software products are briefly presented in Table. 2.1.
Table 2.1
Features of software products for business planning
A feature of the software products "Alt-Invest" and "Business Planning Workshop" are the spreadsheet templates that are based on them, created in MS Excel, with the help of which users can conduct investment and financial analysis, calculation of an investment project.
"Alt-Invest" belongs to the category of "open" software products. Fluency in this software product assumes that the user has skills in working with spreadsheets.
The strengths of the program include:
Ample opportunities for adaptation to changes in the conditions for the implementation of the project (inflation, taxes, etc.);
Good adaptability for learning purposes;
Possibility to change the calculation step and calculation horizon;
Ability to create explanatory text in addition to output forms;
Possibility of carrying out a sensitivity analysis of the project, evaluating its effectiveness for various participants, evaluating the value of the business (Gordon model, etc.), automatic selection of a financing scheme;
Ability to account for the reinvestment of free cash;
Wide possibilities of graphical presentation of information, etc.
Some inconveniences of the Alt-invest software product are manifested in the following:
- “openness” of the package, which allows the user to intervene in the work and change the calculation algorithm. On the one hand, this can be considered as an advantage for the work of qualified users who can independently refine the calculation algorithms for evaluating their projects, on the other hand, as its weakness due to the lack of a guarantee of protection against errors and ensuring the reliability of the results;
A certain inconvenience of entering and preparing data, viewing spreadsheets, which is fraught with errors, both when entering data and when working with tables;
Some difficulties may arise when changing formulas and adjusting tables, which requires the user to have skills in working with spreadsheets;
Simplified modeling of the company's operations (production schedule matches sales schedule) may be sufficient for a rough estimate of the project and not enough for detailed modeling of the company's activities.
Software "Business Planning Workshop" appeared on the market in recent years and is intended for small businesses. Like Alt-Invest, it is based on the use of MS Excel spreadsheets. Its developer is the Corporate Finance company.
The Business Planning Workshop complex consists of three main modules:
1) business plan;
2) financial analysis;
3) investment analysis.
The Business Plan module allows you to create and edit document sections. Each section of the business plan is provided as a separate block of a single document that can be generated and edited independently. All sections of the business plan in the process of their development are accompanied by comments, blanks and recommendations for their completion.
The module "Financial analysis" is intended for the study and presentation of the company's financial statements for past periods. The program allows you to calculate a basic set of financial indicators, a number of complex methods of analysis, build the necessary graphs. Dialog boxes are used to enter parameters of the initial data.
The "Investment Analysis" module provides the main calculation tool used in the "Business Planning Workshop" complex. It allows you to carry out financial calculations of the project, taking into account all existing taxes, build financial forecasts for an investment project, investigate its effectiveness and possible risks, and develop a financial plan for the project. The description and use of three methods of financing the project are provided: loans, shareholders' funds, leasing.
The duration of the project can be up to 12 periods (calculation steps) for the standard version and 60 for the professional version. For small projects (for 1-2 years), it is recommended to choose a month as a step, and with an increase in the duration of the project, a quarter or a year.
A complete set of calculation results of the "Investment Analysis" module includes:
1) profit and loss statement;
2) balance forecast;
3) cash flow statement;
4) business valuation, integrated project performance indicators, financial ratios, sales and production cost details.
Additional features in the professional version - budgetary efficiency analysis, sensitivity and sustainability analysis of the project.
Series software project "INEK-Analyst" INEK is represented by a line of software products with increasing functionality from INEE-ADP to INEK-Holding, as well as the Bank Analyst. "INEK-Analyst" assumes "closed" software products, which combine retrospective financial analysis and activity planning in one tool. In the first case, the financial condition of the operating enterprise is assessed on the basis of its financial statements, in the second case, a separate project and its implementation at the operating enterprise are considered.
The strengths of this software product include:
1) a well-developed methodology for production, economic and financial analysis;
2) a wide range of opportunities for the analysis of investment projects (calculation of integral performance indicators, sensitivity analysis, etc.);
3) the ability to prepare various reports, charts, analytical financial statements.
Certain inconveniences are associated with the preparation and export of a report in Word, when it is not possible to include additional text in the report prepared in the program, which can be done directly in Word. The interface of the program is somewhat overloaded. The possibilities for conducting a project analysis in terms of the presented methods are limited.
Software Products Project Expert and Prime Expert developed by Expert Systems (Pro-Invest group) have the advantages of "closed" systems and are complemented by a user-friendly interface, a full range of project analysis techniques, and the possibility of their flexible configuration.
The Project Expert software product is a computer analytical system designed for business modeling, business plan development and analysis of investment projects based on the financial model created in the program.
Project Expert provides:
Business modeling within a separate project (start-up) or company (sales, purchases, production, planned investments, economic environment parameters, etc.);
Obtaining, based on the financial model, a forecast of cash flows from the planned activity;
Accounting for the initial state of the company at the beginning of the project;
Formation of predictive financial reports and additional management reporting;
Determining the need for financing, modeling its scheme and structure;
Project analysis - calculation of financial and investment indicators, analysis of sensitivity, break-even, profitability of divisions, scenario and statistical analysis, business valuation using income and comparative methods;
Evaluation of the effectiveness of participation in the project for potential investors;
Holding financial modeling, joint analysis of a group of projects;
Preparation of reports based on the results of the analysis - the actual financial plan of the project, the full structure of the business plan, various user reports.
The structure of the business plan complies with the UNIDO methodology. The financial statements comply with IFRS recommendations. It provides for its detailing and the formation of additional forms of predictive management reporting. It is possible to create your own analytical indicators, describe their complex dependencies, which ensures the creation of models that are adequate to the tasks being solved.
Benefits of Project Expert:
1) the possibility of creating and analyzing financial models of a project (a group of projects), a company, taking into account the task being solved and varying degrees of detail;
2) carrying out a project analysis in full, including financial and investment analysis, evaluation of the effectiveness and claims of the project, taking into account uncertainty;
3) flexible customization, adaptive structure for describing the external business environment (inflation, tax environment, etc.), taking into account Russian specifics;
4) user-friendly interface, the ability to effectively carry out calculations and prepare a project in terms of time costs and the correctness of the input data.
The Prime Expert software product is one of the analytical systems that provide modeling and analysis of value creation in the company. It is based on the use of a process-oriented approach to business modeling and planning, which makes it possible to identify value chains and analyze them, including in comparison with other companies in the industry. Provides the creation of a financial model of the company based on the reflection of the main (purchasing and logistics, production, sales of products / services) and supporting processes.
The financial model created in Prime Expert takes into account relationships with contractors (suppliers, consumers, creditors), which allows you to evaluate the predictive effectiveness of working with each of them. All this allows you to compare and choose the most effective areas of investment and market segments.
The program generates standard financial and detailed management reports, tables of predictive financial and investment indicators, value creation reports. Predictive reporting can be detailed, including in the context of processes, resources involved in them, and counterparties integrated into the company model.
Isolation of the main and supporting processes, spreading of costs in accordance with the principles of ABC (Activity Based Costing) provides forecasting of current costs for the project and not only for functional items (raw materials, materials, energy, wages, etc.), but also for operations. The application of the ABC method for allocating overhead costs makes it possible to correctly allocate direct and indirect costs, distribute them in accordance with the scope of work and the characteristics of their consumption in simulated projects.
Analysis of value chains is carried out in the context of consumer groups, resources used, cost items of production stages. Graphical and tabular interpretation allows you to trace the growth in value from resource consumption to the provision of services, to identify those elements in which potential is hidden.
For the convenience of forming and analyzing the model, a visual map of material flows and processes has been implemented. It is possible to import schedule stages from MS Project.
The report generator allows you to include text in it, comment on all tables, graphs and chains included in it. It is possible to form your own expert opinions using the calculated data.
The multivariate analysis implemented in the program provides a comparison of various scenarios of the company's investment program. Including those providing for the sale of individual assets or entire business units.
The program allows you to enter several discount rates into the project (for example, for flows from investment and financial activities). Provides the creation of options for calculating performance indicators and financial indicators, either by modifying the calculation formulas available in the program, or by creating your own indicators.
test questions
1. Is it possible, in your opinion, to fully automate the process of developing a business plan?
2. Name the strengths and weaknesses of the Alt-Invest package.
3. What are the main features of Project Expert?
4. Name the main tasks that can be solved with the help of Project Expert.
5. What are the main modules and their functions in the "Business Planning Workshop" complex?
Business planning technology
The business plan allows you to show the profitability of the proposed project and attract potential financial partners. A business plan will help prevent and adequately meet many of the inevitable problems in business development. Of course, it cannot eliminate all errors, but it gives you the opportunity to think over your actions. A business plan allows you to manage according to a preliminary plan, and not just react to events. The composition, structure and scope of the business plan are determined by the specifics of the type of activity, the size of the enterprise and the purpose of drawing up.
There is no rigidly regulated form and structure of the business plan. However, as a rule, it provides for sections that reveal the main ideas and goals of the business, characterize the specifics of the company's product and satisfy the market, give an assessment of the market and establish a strategy for the company's behavior in certain market segments, determine the organizational and production structures, form a financial project. business, including the financing strategy and investment proposals, describes the prospects for the growth of the enterprise. Below is a sample business plan structure.
1. Introduction.
2. Resume.
3. Market analysis.
4. Description of the project.
5. Production plan (commercial plan).
6. Marketing plan.
7. Organizational plan.
8. Financial plan.
9. Risk assessment.
10. Applications.
Introduction
The business plan begins with an introduction, which is the title page and takes up one printed page. The introduction contains the following provisions: the name and legal address of the company, the name and details of the head of the company, the scope of the company and the essence of the innovation project, the amount of the required loan and its coverage, an indication of the strict confidentiality of the document. The confidentiality memorandum may state that the entire business plan or parts of it may not be copied for any purpose, or that this information may not be shared with third parties.
Summary
This section is prepared after the business plan has been drawn up. The purpose of this section is to present in a concise form the main ideas of the business plan, as well as, if necessary, to attract the attention and interest of a potential partner, lender, investor. The summary should not exceed three printed pages. It is advisable to issue the calculated data in Table. 3.1.
Table 3.1
General information about the proposed project
| Indicator | Characteristics of the indicator |
| 1. Branch of the national economy | |
| 2. Region, location | |
| 3. Form of ownership | |
| 4. Type of legal entity | |
| 5. Founders (co-owners) | |
| 6. Project idea | Creation of a new product; new enterprise; reconstruction of the existing one, etc. |
| 7. Name of types of services (products) | |
| 8. Characteristics of the proposed market | |
| 9. Competitors | |
| 10. Results of the environmental impact assessment of the project | |
| 11. Planned volumes of sales of works, services, goods | |
| 12. Expected price per unit of service (product) | |
| 13. The number of personnel of the enterprise | |
| 14. Expected profit | |
| 15. Investment volume | |
| 16. ROI period | |
| 17. Profitability |
Basic requirements for a resume:
Simplicity and brevity of presentation;
Minimum of special terms;
Reliability of the information provided;
Brevity and capacity of presentation of information.
The summary should contain the following aspects:
The main activities of the enterprise;
The main characteristics of the product and its advantages in the market;
What activities will be carried out to ensure competitiveness;
Target markets and the place of the enterprise in these markets;
The main goals of the enterprise (for example, increasing sales, making a net profit, increasing the share of the company's products in the existing market, capturing new markets, and others);
Economic justification and efficiency of the project (main financial results, payback period, etc. calculations).
test questions
1. What basic information should be reflected on the title page of the business plan?
2. What are the limits on the scope of a business plan?
3. What is the purpose of the summary and summary of the business plan?
4. What is the fundamental difference between a summary and a summary?
5. What are the main elements of a resume and summary?
6. Why is the summary and summary placed at the beginning of the business plan, but written at the end?
Market analysis
This section is the beginning of all the activity of writing a business plan.
Its purpose is to provide the partner (investor) with sufficient facts in order to convince the competitiveness of the works, services, goods offered by the new enterprise. This is one of the more difficult and important sections, as the following sections build on this analysis.
Market research can be carried out independently, by the entrepreneurs who open a new enterprise, or entrepreneurs can resort to the help of specialists. Both of these research options have their advantages and disadvantages. Thus, research conducted on its own requires less money; entrepreneurs themselves, as a rule, know better the technical and organizational features of the performance of work, the provision of certain types of services, the production of goods; the confidentiality of research results is better preserved. At the same time, entrepreneurs do not always have the necessary knowledge, qualifications and experience for market research, they may not always be objective in assessing the current situation on the market for goods and services, they do not know various methods of conducting marketing research and processing the results obtained. Therefore, in each specific case, the question of choosing the option for conducting market research is decided accordingly. Given in Table. 3.2 the list of factors can be adjusted depending on the specific operating conditions of the firm.
Each factor should be rated from 0 (weakest position) to 5 (dominant market position). Grades are put down in each of columns, and then summed up.
Table 3.2
Assessment of product competitiveness
| Factors of competitiveness | Firm | Competitors | |
| BUT | B | ||
| 1. Product: 1.1) quality 1.2) technical and economic indicators 1.3) reliability 1.4) warranty period | |||
| 2. Price: 2.1) sale price 2.2) percentage of discount from the price 2.3) terms of payment (installment plan) 2.4) conditions for granting a loan | |||
| 3. Distribution channels: 3.1) forms of sale: - sales representatives - wholesale intermediaries - manufacturing enterprises - direct delivery 3.2) degree of market coverage 3.3) transportation system | |||
| 4. Promotion of goods on the market: 4.1) advertising 4.2) individual sale 4.3) promotion of goods through distribution channels | |||
| Total points |
The general characteristics of the enterprise, works, services, goods provided to the consumer must contain the following information:
Full and abbreviated name of the enterprise, its legal address;
– selection and justification of the organizational and legal form (joint stock company, limited liability company, additional liability company, general partnership, limited partnership, etc.);
The size of the authorized capital;
The founders of the enterprise, indicating their share in the authorized capital;
The main activity of the enterprise.
Application area;
What need does it satisfy?
Quality indicators (durability, ease of use, aesthetics, ergonomics, etc.);
External design and packaging;
Description of the benefits of the product planned for production;
Strengths and weaknesses of the product (Table 3.3);
Comparison with other products;
The main directions of product improvement.
Table 3.3
Basic information about the company's product
| Statement of a question | Strengths | Weak sides |
| 1. Can you identify the market segment your products are aimed at? | ||
| 2. Have you studied the requests of your customers? | ||
| 3. What benefits does your product provide to customers? | ||
| 4. Can you effectively bring your products to those consumers for whom it is oriented? | ||
| 5. Can your product compete successfully with other manufacturers' products in terms of: quality; prices; stimulation of demand; places of distribution | ||
| 6. Do you have ideas for new products? | ||
| 7. Do you regularly modify your products according to customer requests? | ||
| 8. Is it possible for competitors to copy your products? | ||
| 9. Do you track customer complaints? |
This section of the business plan is intended to provide a detailed description of the services that the new venture will provide. This section of the business plan is descriptive, but the wording should be clear and concise.
Here it is necessary to characterize the degree of usefulness of the service, provide data on its originality (higher quality) in comparison with existing ones. Justify the need for this service in the region under consideration, show the prospects for the development of the proposed types of services in this section of the business plan, the entrepreneur must show how high-quality and reliable the services provided to the consumer are, what are the guarantees for the quality of services.
It must be remembered that when conducting market analysis, two types of information are used: secondary and primary. The main sources of secondary information are budget reports of enterprises and organizations, reviews of consumer complaints, data from previously conducted marketing research on similar goods and services, official statistics, scientific research conducted by special marketing organizations, materials from various conferences and meetings.
Sources of primary information can be:
Survey data among consumers of works, services, goods;
Materials of individual or group interviews;
Observation of the behavior of consumers of works, services, goods and its registration;
Conducting experiments, for example, by manipulating the price in order to determine its impact on the volume of sales of works, services, etc.
An analysis of the current state of affairs in the industry shows that entrepreneurs may have certain difficulties in finding the necessary information to assess the state of the market, since there are few statistical and other materials, and those that are available are not always objective. At the same time, using the available information, production experience, and the entrepreneur's intuition, one should try to answer the question: "How many and what types of work, services are needed for the population of this region?"
In this section, attention should be paid to the following issues:
Description of market conditions;
Determining the size (capacity) of the market;
The degree of market saturation;
Selecting a market segment;
Analysis of the competitiveness of the proposed product;
Assessment of the main competitors.
Market conditions are a set of conditions under which activity is currently taking place in the market, in other words, the state of the market at a certain point in time. Market conditions are characterized by a certain ratio of supply and demand for goods, as well as a number of other factors.
The purpose of studying the market situation is to determine the influence of objective factors on the state of the market and identify measures to fully meet the demand of the population in goods and services, taking into account the resources available to the manufacturer.
First of all, market analysis should begin with establishing the volume of sales of works, services, goods for a certain period of time, which will be provided with demand, will find its consumer. Demand in the market and the volumes of sales of works, services, goods arising from it change over time, this circumstance must also be taken into account when analyzing the market. The entrepreneur has the opportunity to influence the demand and volume of sales of services by changing prices for them, improving the quality of their performance, responding to changing tastes, needs, etc. If the new enterprise intends to use these levers, then they must be mentioned in the business plan. When analyzing the potential of the market for goods and services, you can use the data given in Table. 3.4.
Table 3.4
Indicators for market analysis
| Indicator | Characteristic |
| 1. Quantitative indicators | Market capacity, market dynamics, market share of the enterprise, market potential, etc. |
| 2. Qualitative indicators | Structure of consumers, purchase motives, their dynamics, purchase process, consumer stability, informatization |
| 3. Competitive environment | The volume of sales of products by competitors, the marketing strategies used, the possibility of financial support |
| 4. Buyer structure | Number of buyers, types of buyers, dynamics of the number of buyers, regional features |
| 5. Structure of the industry | The number of sellers offering a similar service (goods), the type of seller and the level of organization of its production, the utilization of production capacities, potential opportunities in competition |
| 6. Distribution structure | Geographical features, remoteness from large centers, features of the distribution network, traffic congestion |
At the next stage of work, it is necessary to describe the market segment to which the production of the offered goods and services is oriented.
When the potential of the market has been studied, it is necessary to determine the segment (s) of the market that will be the main one for the newly organized enterprise.
The choice of a market segment is a process of segmentation, which refers to the division of the entire mass of consumers into certain groups. These groups are characterized by a commonality of main features and basic requirements for goods and services, as well as a common motivation for purchasing these services.
In this case, the following criteria for market segmentation by groups can be used:
1) customers - individuals (age, gender, social class, education, income level);
2) customers - enterprises (type of activity, location, financial stability of the customer, tax benefits);
3) the customer is the state.
For each group, it should be noted what is the main incentive for it to use the services of this particular enterprise: the complexity of the provision of services, the convenient mode of operation of the enterprise, the quality, the culture of service, the minimum time spent on using the service, short deadlines for fulfilling orders, etc.
The main factors (signs) by which you can analyze different groups of consumers and select a market segment can be divided into the following types:
1) geographic (region, administrative division, population, population density, climate);
2) demographic (age, gender, family size, type of profession, level of education, religion, nationality);
3) psychographic (social stratum, lifestyle, personal qualities);
4) behavioral (the degree of randomness of purchase, the search for benefits, the status of a regular customer, the degree of loyalty, emotional attitude);
5) social (level of income).
To collect information about a selected group of consumers, you can use catalog data, reference and information collections in libraries, publications of the results of other marketing research, but the most objective is the information of primary marketing research.
Primary marketing research is independent research of consumer groups using surveys, interviews, questionnaires, experiments, observations, etc.
Software (software) allows not only to automate the process, but also to expand the tools used in planning. This is ensured by analytical methods built into the software and additionally created, templates for final reports, a clear structure of the business plan, tips and comments on how to fill it out.
The planning process software should provide:
- data accumulation;
- data processing and creation of information for various types of analysis (marketing, financial and economic, etc.);
- performing calculations;
- graphical representation of information.
When choosing software, you should be guided by:
- the percentage of implementations in a specific segment you are interested in and in the area of optimizing priority processes for your business (choosing in favor of the maximum percentage);
- compliance of the automation tool with the scale of the enterprise;
- taking into account the specific methods underlying the software solution (must comply with the standards of Russian and international financial institutions).
Today, there are a number of software tools on the market for processing information, automating the process of developing business plans and evaluating investment projects. Among them, we note the domestic software products of Expert System (a division of Pro-Invest Consulting) and Alt-Invest, as well as the developments of foreign consulting firms, such as COMFAR and PROPSPIN application software packages created under UNIDO.
"Expert System". Expert System has been operating in the market of consulting services and business planning software since 1989. It is a leading consulting company and developer of professional solutions for business planning, financial modeling and financial analysis. It actively interacts with regional and federal administrations, banks, business incubators, technology parks, associations and business development centers. The characteristics of the company's software products are presented in Table. 7.2.
Table 7.2
Software products of the company "Expert System"
("Pro-Invest Consulting") 1
|
Program |
Characteristic |
|
A system that can not only analyze the submitted financial statements, but also conduct a preliminary revaluation of the balance sheet based on a detailed description of the structure of the company's assets and liabilities. This significantly increases the reliability of the results, and in some cases is the only acceptable approach to the analysis of financial statements. |
|
|
A system for creating and selecting an optimal business development plan, working out the financial part of a business plan, evaluating investment projects. Allows you to provide the necessary financial statements to potential investors and creditors, to justify for them the effectiveness of participation in the project. |
1 Comp. according to the materials of the official site "Expert System". URL: https://www. expert-systems.com/financial/
|
Program |
Characteristic Allows you to model the activities of various industries and scales - from small venture companies to holding structures. The program is widely used for financial modeling and development of business plans for production and provision of services in the banking business, telecommunications, construction, oil production and oil refining, transport, chemistry, processing and light industry, mechanical engineering, aerospace, energy |
|
Designed to build a time series forecast using an autoregressive model and an integrated moving average. Allows you to analyze the available data and build a forecast indicating the boundaries of the confidence interval (for a given forecast probability) for a period of time not exceeding the observation period of the original series. Determines the degree of influence of seasonal factors and takes them into account when building a forecast. Allows you to track the relationship between the obtained values and a certain series of threshold values when predicting a series |
|
|
Project Questionnaire & Risk |
Contains 81 risk factors, to which you can add up to 12,000 own risk factors. Allows one or several independent experts to conduct a qualitative examination of an investment project through multi-criteria analysis, calculate an integral indicator of its efficiency level. Means are provided that allow experts to analyze the risks of the project through dialogue, highlight the factors of the greatest risk and comment on the reasons for their occurrence. |
|
Business Plan Expert |
Online service for step-by-step development of business plans for projects, focused on small and medium-sized businesses and does not require special training to use. Contains 10 steps needed to write a business plan. Provides automatic receipt of predictive financial reports and indicators of the company based on data on planned activities, automatically sets the structure of the business plan, allows you to compose a text with all the necessary sections, financial calculations and indicators, store a finished business plan and provide it to banks and investors |
|
Program for planning and making investment decisions. It is especially effective for planning investment decisions and revising the investment programs of large companies. A working tool for the management of departments responsible for the formation and adjustment of the investment program, strategic planning, assessment of fundamental indicators, decision-making on mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, allocation of individual business lines |
Pro-Invest Consulting software products are recommended as a standard for developing enterprise development plans by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Sberbank, and a number of branches of regional administrations.
The Project Expert program is based on the structure of business plans provided by the UNIDO investment project analysis methodology. The program allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of the project from the perspective of a potential investor and supplement the report with data from the analysis. The pro forma financial reports generated in the product comply with the format defined by IFRS. For the financial analysis of the project, financial and investment indicators, approaches, and terminology generally accepted in international practice are used. Taken together, all this greatly simplifies the understanding of the results of working with the program by investors. Project Expert also complies with the "Methodological recommendations for evaluating the effectiveness of investment projects" - the main domestic document regulating project analysis.
The results of the work of the Pro-Invest Consulting programs can be documents that characterize the attractiveness of investment projects for investors.
"Alt-Invest". Alt-Invest has been operating in the market of consulting services and software for analysts since 1992. Its services are certified in accordance with ISO 9000. The company is also accredited by Vnesheconombank as a consulting company, whose services may be required as part of the examination and implementation of investment projects .
The characteristics of the company's software products are presented in Table. 7.3.
The user of "Alt-Invest - Summ" can calculate the effectiveness of the project from the point of view of federal and municipal government agencies. This is especially true for projects applying for financial, organizational or strategic support from the state.
It should also be noted that these software products do not perform mechanical functions: they require the experience of an economist-analyst who understands the essence of economic phenomena.
Table 73
The main software products of Alt-Invest 1
|
Software |
Characteristic |
|
Alt Finance |
A comprehensive analysis of the financial condition of the enterprise at the time of the study, determining the point of occurrence of financial imbalances and opportunities to improve the parameters of the most important financial indicators. Analysis of the balance sheet structure, net working capital, cost structures, profitability, liquidity, financial stability, turnover, profitability and labor efficiency |
|
Alt-Invest (1) Alt-Invest-Summ (2) |
Allows you to evaluate the financial viability and potential efficiency of the project, regardless of its scale and industry affiliation, to determine the acceptable limits for changing the initial parameters when an acceptable value of the final calculation indicators is reached. The use of "Alt-Invest" is associated with a wide coverage of various aspects of the financial and investment activities of the enterprise, carrying out calculations of increased accuracy. The difference between software products is that (1) it is used in projects from scratch, (2) - in projects at an existing enterprise |
|
Alt-Forecast |
Automation of the process of medium-term and long-term planning at the enterprise, including taking into account the implementation of investment projects. Modeling management decisions related to the financial activities of the enterprise. The program takes into account projected changes in production volumes, projected changes in product prices, projected changes in direct costs |
Differences of Alt-Invest software from similar solutions:
- wide range of options for choosing the calculation method;
- open software product (selection and setting of the necessary structure for describing the initial data for calculations, viewing and correcting the algorithm for performing calculations, supplementing the program with new tabular forms and indicators);
- quick user setup of all basic parameters;
- the opportunity to present the project in internationally recognized formats;
- analysis of the effectiveness of investments by groups of projects from the standpoint of its various participants;
- the software product is accompanied by methodological literature on the evaluation of investment projects, has a detailed user manual and is regularly updated taking into account changes in legislation;
- program users receive free consulting support from the company's specialists.
Alt-Invest software products use the Microsoft Excel operating environment.
COMFAR. COMFAR - a system created by UNIDO specialists, corresponds to the methodology used by the largest foreign investment institutions, such as the World Bank or the EBRD. According to experts, it is poorly adapted to the realities of the domestic market. Claims are related to the tax description block, with a number of restrictions that do not allow the description of some payment schemes for raw materials and materials, non-standard sales schemes for manufactured products, etc.
"Consi". Since in practice big problems arise at the stage of drawing up sections of a business plan related to the implementation of marketing analysis and the development of a marketing strategy for the project, we separately note software products for marketing research, marketing analysis and decision making. For example, the software product of the company "KonSi".
KonSi has been developing the specified software for conducting marketing research, making business decisions in various industries and activities since 1992. Its products are analytical programs that use mathematical methods of economics and mathematical statistics.
ConCy software products implement and support classical methods of conducting marketing research in various fields. They allow you to competently carry out:
- questionnaires and mass surveys of potential customers;
- market segmentation, micro- and macro-segmentation;
- product positioning;
- forecasting sales and economic indicators;
- competitor analysis, competitive intelligence, benchmarking;
- SWOT analysis and strategic planning;
- analysis of the effectiveness of retail chains, analysis of the operating environment, planning of improvements in work;
- price monitoring and price comparison, price analysis of competitors and suppliers;
- pricing, determining the optimal price for a new product;
- work with clients;
- regional marketing, sales and market analysis using geographic maps.
"Analytical Business Solutions". The main direction of work of the Analytical Business Solutions company founded in 2004 is the automation of the activities of analytical services (security services, marketing, PR services, information and analytical departments, etc.) of organizations in various fields of activity.
Other software products. There are also a number of systems that can be used for graphical support of ongoing work, the development of a work schedule and a network project, including duration and costs for its stages, but they are mainly used as project management systems. These are systems such as Microsoft Visio, Microsoft project, Timeline and Primavera, business modeling systems Business Studio from the company "Modern Management Technologies (STU)".
Microsoft Visio is a vector graphics editor, diagram editor and flowchart editor for Windows.
Microsoft project is a project, portfolio and resource management system that helps you run your business more efficiently. The main function is planning and project monitoring. The system supports network planning and management methods, advanced forms of resource analysis and project documentation, has a built-in report generator; provides processing and storage of information about any subset of the company's projects in the corporate database; supports integration with other information systems and has advanced forms of information access control.
Corporation Microsoft industry solutions have been developed for enterprises and organizations in the financial services, professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, government agencies and oil and gas industries.
Timeline - information systems in the field of computer-aided design of technological processes, management of reference data and systems of labor regulation of technological operations. Software Developer - SDI Solution- a domestic company, a participant in the Skolkovo project in the field of technological preparation of discrete industries.
Its main characteristics are similar to those of the Microsoft project.
Primavera is a suite of state-of-the-art project management tools developed in the US, UK and Russia. It is offered by the PMSOFT group of companies.
Its main functionality is similar to that of the Microsoft project.
Business modeling systems Business Studio were developed by the State Corporation "Modern Management Technologies (STU)". The developers note that “Business Studio has a wide range of functionality to make it as easy as possible to create a business architecture, from setting goals and designing business processes, providing employees with a knowledge base and convenient access to all necessary information, and ending with monitoring the state of the company, as well as analyzing deviations. and proposals of employees to improve the management system” 1 .
Summing up, we can say that a modern system of information support for the business planning process provides the opportunity to:
- plan based on reliable data and up-to-date information, which means making more informed decisions;
- reduce the complexity of developing, reviewing and approving business plans, increasing the efficiency of interaction between all participants in the business planning process: owners, management, department managers, company employees;
- improve the quality of developed project documents.
- Comp. according to the materials of the official site "Alt-Invest". URL: http://vwv.alt-invest,ru/index.php/ru/programmy
- 2 Comp. io materials of the official website of "ConSi". URL: http://www.marketing-soft.ru/
- Comp. Based on the materials of the old version of the official website of the Analytical Business Solutions company. URL: http://old.anbr.ru/about/about/