Finance and IT Unite: A New Enterprise Performance Management Model Emerges
For decades, enterprise planning has been fragmented. Finance teams build budgets and forecasts in Excel. IT departments manage operational data in Power BI. Strategic execution happens in silos, creating friction, delays, and misalignment between departments that should be driving unified organizational performance.
Vena, the FP&A platform purpose-built for the Microsoft ecosystem, is eliminating this divide. The company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Managility Pty Ltd, operating as Acterys, the industry’s leading Power BI–based operational planning platform. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, this acquisition creates what both companies are calling the first Microsoft-native environment for Orchestrated Planning—a framework that goes beyond integrated planning to synchronize strategy, systems, and execution in real time.
The move represents a fundamental shift in how enterprises approach performance management. Rather than simply connecting disparate plans, Orchestrated Planning harmonizes people, processes, technologies, and data across planning and execution cycles. It ensures that decisions and actions align with strategic goals, transforming planning from a periodic exercise into continuous, enterprise-wide performance momentum.
Bridging the Excel-Power BI Divide With Unified Analytics
The strategic logic behind the acquisition is straightforward: Vena brings Excel-native financial planning and analysis capabilities powered by agentic AI, while Acterys provides a proprietary Power BI write-back engine and unified analytics within Microsoft Fabric. Together, they create a shared environment where Finance and IT can collaborate using the tools they already trust.
For Finance teams, this means maintaining the familiarity and flexibility of Excel while gaining access to real-time data and advanced AI-driven scenario modeling. For IT leaders and CIOs, it means the ability to build and scale custom planning, analytics, and data applications within Power BI and Microsoft Fabric without sacrificing governance or integration.
“Our vision has always been to help companies run better by connecting people, data and processes,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO of Vena. “With Acterys, we’re unlocking the full potential of the Microsoft ecosystem by helping enterprises that leverage Excel, Power BI and other Microsoft technology to meaningfully increase the value they are creating for their teams, organization and the customers they support.”
Mike Zack, CEO of Acterys, echoed this sentiment: “Vena and Acterys bring together the best of both worlds—Excel for Finance and Power BI for IT—to deliver a unified planning and analytics experience. It’s the solution enterprises have been waiting for to align strategy, systems and execution across the Microsoft stack.”
Enterprise Impact: Scalable Planning Across Functions and Geographies
Acterys currently serves more than 300 global organizations, enabling business innovators to build purpose-built operational applications within the Microsoft environment. Both platforms are available via the Microsoft Marketplace, streamlining procurement and offering direct Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) decrements for organizations already invested in Azure.
This acquisition positions Vena to deliver functional and operational planning at enterprise scale, extending beyond the finance function into sales, supply chain, workforce planning, and other operational domains. By operationalizing real-time scenario modeling and connecting financial models with operational data, the combined platform empowers organizations to respond to market shifts with agility and precision.
Orchestrated Planning is not just a product evolution—it’s a redefinition of planning maturity. As enterprises demand tighter alignment between strategy and execution, Vena and Acterys are offering a roadmap: leverage the Microsoft tools already embedded in your organization, unify Finance and IT under a common platform, and turn planning into a continuous engine for performance.
About Vena
Vena Solutions Inc. (“Vena“) is the only agentic AI-powered FP&A platform purpose-built to harness the full power of the Microsoft ecosystem for finance and IT teams everywhere. Thousands of leading enterprises rely on Vena to connect planning, analytics and execution. Learn more at venasolutions.com.
About Acterys
Acterys provides enterprise-grade planning, analytics and application development solutions for Microsoft Power BI, Azure and Fabric. Its modular, scalable platform empowers organizations to build connected, data-driven applications at scale. Visit Acterys.com for more information.
