PowerPlan reviews

PowerPlan's management is a victim of its own indecisiveness and incompetence. They aim to enter the Oil and Gas vertical market, but make zero overtures to develop customized modules for the target demo or overhaul subject matter expertise for industry fluency. The software product platform itself had a timeline to shift from the declining Powerbuilder platform to a web offering, but that initiative was stunted by the surprise layoff of roughly half of the Development team. In recent years, hiring practices within Professional Services have shifted heavily towards recruiting new (i.e. cheap and naive) college graduates, and yet there has been no requisite evolution in product or industry education or training to prepare new hires for the day-to-day job requirements. Given these issues (not to mention the office politics and general opaque nature of management transparency), there's really no surprise here that PowerPlan is struggling to maintain a credible image in the eyes of its stakeholders.

The company lacks a strategic vision and a coherent value proposition. They have a complex, niche accounting product that is impossible for anyone to explain concisely, so the "elevator pitch" takes about a half hour. Not surprisingly, it's been difficult for them to break into any industry outside of utilities. While there are a lot of product experts, there are almost no industry SMEs, so everyone talks in terms of features and functions rather than how the software can solve executive pain points. Too many managers and senior leaders started at PowerPlan right out of school, which has created an insular mindset that's pervasive throughout the organization.