Vendor-neutral assessment of Board International. The enterprise platform that uniquely combines BI and EPM in a single environment.
Platform overview
Board International is an enterprise planning and business intelligence platform founded in 1994 in Chiasso, Switzerland. Backed by Nordic Capital, the company employs roughly 800 to 1,000 people across 25 offices globally and serves over 2,000 customers including H&M, BASF, Burberry, and Toyota.
What sets Board apart is its genuinely unified approach to BI and EPM. Rather than bolting analytics onto a planning tool (or vice versa), Board was designed from the start to combine both disciplines in a single environment. The platform includes a no-code application builder, allowing business users to create planning applications without IT dependency. In November 2024, Board acquired Prevedere, adding external economic data intelligence to its forecasting capabilities.
Board is firmly enterprise-priced. It works well for large organisations that want a single platform covering both analytics and planning, particularly in retail and manufacturing where operational data integration is critical.
The only platform genuinely combining business intelligence and planning in one environment. Analysis and planning share the same data model, eliminating the disconnect between reporting and forecasting.
Business users build planning applications without IT dependency. Drag-and-drop interface for creating dashboards, data entry screens, and workflow-driven processes.
External economic intelligence feeds market signals into your forecasts. Macroeconomic indicators, industry data, and leading signals to improve forecast accuracy.
Board's Hybrid Bitwise Memory Pattern engine delivers fast calculation across large datasets. Purpose-built for the kind of multi-dimensional analysis that enterprise planning demands.
Stable, proven platform with deep industry-specific solutions. Three decades of refinement means fewer surprises during implementation compared to newer entrants.
H&M, BASF, Burberry, and Toyota trust Board for mission-critical planning. Strong references across retail, manufacturing, and consumer goods.
Strengths
Board is the only platform that genuinely combines business intelligence and enterprise planning in a single environment. You get dashboards, ad-hoc analysis, and planning in one place rather than stitching separate tools together.
Business users can build and modify planning applications without writing code. This shifts ownership to the people who actually understand the business processes, not the IT team.
The Prevedere acquisition brings external market data directly into the planning process. Economic indicators, industry benchmarks, and leading signals feed your forecasts with real-world context.
Board bridges the gap between financial planning and operational data better than most EPM platforms. Demand planning, supply chain, and financial consolidation can share a single data model.
Years of deployment in retail and manufacturing have produced mature, industry-specific solutions. Demand planning, merchandise planning, and production scheduling are well-trodden ground for Board.
Board has an established UK implementation ecosystem with experienced practitioners and 150+ projects delivered. If you choose Board, you have a credible, established partner to work with locally.
Fit guidance
Board is a capable platform, but it is not the right fit for everyone. Here is our honest assessment of where it works well and where you should look elsewhere.
Large organisations wanting unified BI and EPM in a single platform, particularly in retail and manufacturing where operational data integration is critical to planning accuracy.
You would otherwise buy separate BI and planning tools. Your planning needs deep operational data integration. And you have £100K+ annual budget for the platform and are prepared for enterprise-scale implementation.
You are mid-market with simpler needs. Most companies under 500 employees find more focused, cost-effective options. Or if you already have Power BI or Tableau embedded in your organisation and just need a planning layer on top.
Enterprise pricing. Expect £50,000 to £100,000+ per year for licences. Implementation adds significant cost on top. Board's combined BI and EPM scope means you are paying for BI capabilities even if you already have Power BI.
How we can help
We help you assess whether Board's unified BI and EPM scope is genuinely needed, or whether focused FP&A plus separate BI tools delivers better value. If Board is the right platform, we can manage the implementation under the Bolt methodology.
Our 2 to 3 week diagnostic assesses your requirements against all leading platforms. We will tell you whether Board's combined scope genuinely saves you money, or whether separate best-of-breed tools deliver more value.
If Board is the right choice, we deliver the implementation under the Bolt methodology with senior oversight at every stage.
Questions
Talk to us before you commit. We will give you an honest, vendor-neutral view on whether Board fits your business, or whether a different platform delivers better value.