Catalyst, by EBM Software vs. Prophix

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Catalyst, by EBM Software
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Catalyst from EBM Software in Minneapolis is a cloud-based business performance application suite, designed to provide an environment and workflow for understanding business profitability.N/A
Prophix
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Prophix One, a Financial Performance Platform, is used to improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making within a harmonized user experience. To reduce complexity and uncertainty, the software offers automated insights and planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and consolidation functionalities.N/A
Pricing
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsFlexible and tiered pricing structures available - monthly, 1-3-5- contracts, and more
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
Features
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.1
Ratings
7% below category average
Prophix
5.8
Ratings
27% below category average
Customizable dashboards7.10 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.10 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings5.20 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.7
Ratings
6% below category average
Prophix
8.8
Ratings
8% above category average
Drill-down analysis7.10 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
8.0
Ratings
3% below category average
Prophix
8.6
Ratings
4% above category average
Publish to PDF7.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.7
Ratings
1% above category average
Prophix
4.4
Ratings
53% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.00 Ratings4.40 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
8.0
Ratings
9% below category average
Prophix
9.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Prophix
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
8.0
Ratings
3% below category average
Prophix
8.8
Ratings
6% above category average
Long-term financial planning7.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Financial budgeting8.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Forecasting8.00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Scenario modeling8.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Management reporting8.90 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.2
Ratings
10% below category average
Prophix
8.0
Ratings
1% above category average
Financial data consolidation9.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Journal entries and reports8.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Multi-currency management6.00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Intercompany Eliminations5.00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Minority Ownership7.00 Ratings6.80 Ratings
Local and consolidated reporting8.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Detailed Audit Trails00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
Prophix
8.2
Ratings
1% above category average
Financial Statement Reporting8.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Management Reporting9.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Excel-based Reporting7.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Automated board and financial reporting8.00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
XBRL support for regulatory filing00 Ratings5.40 Ratings
Analytics and Reporting
Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.2
Ratings
11% below category average
Prophix
6.4
Ratings
23% below category average
Personalized dashboards7.10 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Color-coded scorecards6.00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
KPIs7.00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis8.00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Key Performance Indicator setting8.00 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Benchmarking with external data7.00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Integration
Comparison of Integration features of Product A and Product B
Catalyst, by EBM Software
7.4
Ratings
12% below category average
Prophix
8.9
Ratings
6% above category average
Flat file integration8.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Excel data integration7.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources7.10 Ratings8.30 Ratings
User Ratings
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Catalyst, by EBM SoftwareProphix
Likelihood to Recommend
Catalyst works well, when it works and is very well suited for an ABA environment. But the app development process and the continual list of bug fixes that are never-ending makes this product very hard to recommend.
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Prophix is substantially out of the box product to be easy to use but flexible enough to allow for varied business modelling. No technical skills are required to deploy and maintain the solution. Owing to its out of the box nature, departing from Prophix sweet spot e.g. when leveraging transactional data, the solution is not as capable, however this is being addressed by the new Prophix release.
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Pros
  • The GUI is easy to navigate on the iPad mini, which we use for charting.
  • The options are simple so there is very little room for mistakes.
  • Charting is easy and the setup allows for necessary fields that must be completed so charting stays uniform.
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  • Reports are very customizable - once you learn how to create reports, it is really easy to design the final output you'd like.
  • The tool is easy to use, especially for those that don't work in the finance function.
  • It offers an excellent workflow capability to send out tasks to cost center owners all over the company.
  • We love the ability to create and customize cubes.
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Cons
  • The browser closes unexpectedly at times when refreshing the page and you get logged out
  • The incorrect vendor is chosen by Catalyst a few times
  • The Catalyst file is occasionally not placed on time in the folder
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  • Version control; there are issues using the same budget version in multiple years if adding detail (line item detail). What Prophix has explained as a benefit is a huge detriment for us and we've been working with them for 6 months on a fix and it's yet to get resolved
  • There are certain aspects that a messy; within our budgeting and forecasting detail, we have "unexplained balance" lines that show up that are distracting and add no value.
  • Lack of a centralized location for content outside of tool; for example, training, help, support, intranet, etc are all separate websites and not easy to get to. I'm not sure why all of this isn't linked to the same account and accessible through the tool. Why should we need separate passwords for everything Prophix?!
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
The system works well for us, and meets all of our needs. All of our future plans can and will be achieved within Prophix, so there is no need to pursue another product. Prophix has continuously proven to improve their product over the years, which provides an even higher level of confidence in this tool, and future developments
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Usability
Well.... when it works... it's good. When it doesn't it is very frustrating for our staff.
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The
data can be sliced and diced many ways, and each user is able to do it however
they like. It is easy to create or run existing reports. We have made many of
our processes more efficient, and Prophix has allowed us to save more time than
you can imagine. We
are able to use Prophix for Expense tracking, Expense and Capital planning, reforecasting,
Compensation planning, Project tracking, Expense allocation, GAAP PLOB
reporting, and still have several more tasks to implement through Prophix
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
The availability in Prophix is relatively good. We have occurred random outages in different versions that wipe out data, which can be brought back. Or we have ran into system wide slowness that impacts all users in the system, but we have been able to get more capacity to supply our performance.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Prophix has always performed consistently. We are using on-premise so many factors can contribute to slower than desired performance, most having nothing to do with Prophix itself. If we move to the web-client cloud based solution I believe performance will even be better.
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Support Rating
The support for Catalyst is great and they are usually within the 48 hour response time. There could be a little quicker upload time for invoices that are submitted. They usually show up until the next day on the system and sometimes gives us a stress on time. Overall, the support is quite good
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The Prophix staff is very helpful and quick to respond. I like that they teach me instead of doing it for me when possible, so I don't have to contact them as often! Never talked to anyone at Prophix that I didn't respect or think highly of! Very professional, great customer service!
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
The initial integration consultant was very helpful in making sure we were set up with all the essential uses we required: reporting/budgeting/forecasting. There was a learning curve but our consultant made it very easy to understand and helped me be comfortable in my Global Admin role in the system. Even after integration, we were given support whenever I came up with an idea I would get in touch and I would be trained on how I can implement it.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
We used our system and created a test cube to work with our own data. We ran through the different functions of Prophix and covered alot of material. We did two sessions a week, with homework tasks assigned. We were able to ask questions and cover any questions during the followup sessions.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Planning, planning, planning. Prophix will send you some Excel spreadsheets ahead of implementation. If those spreadsheets are complete, implementation will be smooth. Also, set aside some time during implementation to work with the Prophix staff and ask lots of questions. The knowledge they share is invaluable.
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Alternatives Considered
[Catalyst, by EBM Software] is a very easy system to use and is very user friendly. It gives you different ways of researching an invoice and not just one. Catalyst also helps to allow us to research an invoice within seconds and eliminates a lengthy and confusing process. It is a great software for first time users to learn quickly and efficiently.
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I have used other budgeting and forecasting tools at different companies, and Prophix is a much easier product to use and implement. I have received better user feedback from Prophix compared to other tools I have used at other companies. Other tools lacked dashboard capabilities and account reconciliations.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
I gave Prophix a 10 on scalability because we currently deploy the solution to department heads across our entire organization and never have any issues with those individuals using or accessing the system to look at their financial information within premade templates . They currently enter budgets and review reports within the system currently. The only issue is they cannot typically use the ad hoc functionality because that would require higher level licenses that cost more and it is not worth it to give them more costly licenses since they really aren't working in the system quite like the robust finance users
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Return on Investment
  • Helps to keep our vendors happy
  • Helps to keep our systems updated
  • Helps to manage our expenses
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  • Prophix has made it possible to move away from some Excel reporting we were doing, which allows for 50% quicker reporting on a monthly basis.
  • Although it has saved us time, an improved PowerPoint feature that automatically updates our decks would save an additional 75% on top of what we already do.
  • Our Board Reporting has improved by 10 hours by moving our reports fully into Prophix.
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ScreenShots

Prophix Screenshots

Screenshot of Prophix One Portal: One single point of entry into Prophix One through its portal simplifies access and authentication but also allows seamless movement between applications.Screenshot of Chart Insights, one of the AI Insights capabilities that utilizes Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to provide enhanced business awareness.  Chart Insights extends the important details contained within dashboards, and analyzes the complete dataset behind the dashboard, automatically surfacing the data relationships not obvious in dashboard visualizations alone. It then provides a summary of key performance metrics found buried within Prophix charts.  It also summarizes the important insights in plain English.Screenshot of Prophix One Financial Planning & Analysis: Prophix's self-serve dashboards and visualizations are directly integrated with data, workflow tasks, announcements, and external URLs and databases. Dashboard Studio helps users to be informed and make better business decisions.Screenshot of Detailed interactive charts and graphs that Prophix offers to uncover insights. Prophix’s visual analytics are linked directly to data with transaction details.  There is no need to input the numbers.  Prophix does this tedious work, automatically.Screenshot of Prophix’s Workflow Manager, used to assign tasks to users and facilitate approvals across the business.  Stakeholder input can be captured directly with the ability to add comments and notes in a single unified database.Screenshot of Cell Comments, that allow users to add supporting details like notes and attachments to data.  Since comments are stored with the data, they can be viewed in any template along with their trailing history. Cell Comment Reports can also be generated to show all comments from any data view in one convenient report.