Catalyst, by EBM Software vs. Wolters Kluwer CCH® Tagetik

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.

Incentivized

Well suited for large multi-entity international, multi-currency, multi GAAP groups with excellent report writing features, customizations, and validation traps with minimal IT support. The ability to customize dimensions and dimension structures is a key strength. The intuitive user interface enables easy adoption by new users and training times are short. Upload features via embedded customisable ETL and standardised Excel templates are very efficient. Error checking is intuitive and helpful. Less appropriate for small single entity businesses.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Processes are clearly described in CCH Tagetik ; users can easily find where they are and which action they have to make
• Interaction with Excel is really fluid ; the Excel add-in is easy to deploy and to updgrade, in the hand of users. It is reliable provided the internet connection is fast.
• Managing hierachies is obvious in CCH Tagetik. Hierarchies are fundamental for a good reporting ; CCH Tagetik has obviously a deep experience of this feature.
• SaaS : our experience with CCH Tagetik is of only 1 year, but it technically performs well, the system is reponsive, no shut-down, and updates (every quarter) do not disturb production.
• AIH seems to be able to manage very large quantity of data, and to provide advanced analysis functionalities. We did not have time to explore them.

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• The steps of setting up the loading of data is slightly painful.
• The steps and error message while connecting the process workflow has to provide a hint on which area needed to be fixed (because it could be anywhere or anything).
• The combination of 2 segments for the excel upload on what's needed to eliminate is yet to resolved. Which made the entire list very long.

Incentivized

Based on our business requirements, its current implementation and way of use (in terms of the efficiceny) it's more than certain that we will renew our contract with CCH Tagetik. CCH Tagetik increased our efficiency regarding reporting and provides more features which made it easier to take decisions. Besides of that, it provided he best solutions for reporting according to the Solvency II standards. Since this is still the case, it is also a reason to stay with CCH Tagetik.

Incentivized

Well.... when it works... it's good. When it doesn't it is very frustrating for our staff.

Incentivized

On a general level, it is a flexible, streamlined system, that can integrate operational data with accounting data for a better financial overview and budget planning. Reporting wise, the types and the amount of data analysis available or that can be created are close to endless. Having a quicker, more flexible way of analysing data certainly means better, faster reporting and better use of the data itself.

Incentivized

CCH Tagetik has alwyas been there in case we need help. In almost 20 years of commercial relationship, I have no evidence of times in which they were not available to answer a question or to solve an issue linked to their products, timely and efficiently.

Incentivized

As you can see, speed depends on the applications but also on the hardware that runs them. As far as CCH Tagetik improved, we saw the benefit of a cloud-based solution which could solve many speed performance issues.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

I have had the pleasure of attending some courses at the dutch offices of CCH Tagetik. These were very educational with excellent trainers, a very enjoyable accomodation and they helped me a lot with regards to starting to use CCH Tagetik.

the training was not bad, but we got more training from working with the consultants. This because it is based on our system

Incentivized

Online training is the only form of training we could deploy during the pandemic. This service has been nonethless delivered with the same standards and the same results of the traditional training procedures.

Incentivized

we did it in a coaching model. This allowed us to have 2 key advantages: we got to know the system very well and managed to save on the implementation cost. This worked well, was maybe a bit slower since we had to do this in our spare time. Nevertheless I strongly recommand

Incentivized

[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.

Incentivized

Oracle Essbase is another EPM software that we used but compared to Tagetik, it's not user friendly and the creation of dimensions and describing rules are more technically difficult. Drill down and analysis are not as easy as double clicking on Cch tagetik for immediate information. But as I have not used this software much and tagetik more, this is all I can say

A good and performing scalability both on a geographical and a legal entity scale. The link with MS Office suite allows an easy deployment of the application, especially for contributors.

Incentivized

• Helps to keep our vendors happy
• Helps to keep our systems updated
• Helps to manage our expenses

Incentivized

• It has definitely helped to standardize reporting across the company. Teams are able to pull the same reports and everything has the same feel to it.
• Since there are so many standard reports that we are able to create, it makes the analysts jobs easier since they are not spending so much time re-creating reports.
• With any system, there is going to be some admin work required. Creating new reports, accounts and entities does take time, but it is fairly simple and doesn't take a ton of time.

Incentivized