Succession Planner Upgrade Now Available for Businesses of All Sizes

Online, February 5, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Melbourne, Australia - The succession planning software market is saturated with highly complex, expensive and difficult to learn systems. Until now, small businesses and medium-sized businesses have not been well served. This week, Business Performance P/L answered their call with the release of the new version of their popular Succession Planner software.

Succession Planner Version 2.0 is designed to benefit anyone who needs to track their leadership potential economically and efficiently. It is well suited to human resource managers and consultants, SME business owners, directors and anyone else with a need to manage and report leadership succession.

The tool is packed with features that are only found in more expensive systems. For example, Succession Planner displays the succession status of incumbents in an informative Organization Chart that is automatically updated with changes. Another useful feature is the C-P Matrix that plots the distribution of staff using the key variables of contribution and potential. Automatically generated reports inform key leaders about any individual and any position in the database, plus a simple scorecard displays some key succession metrics for the organization.

Releasing the new Succession Planner this week, Managing Director Leslie Allan said, "Smaller business owners don't have thousands of dollars to spend on a sophisticated talent management system. Nor will they use more than a fraction of the features in these expensive tracking systems. In an effort to save costs and reduce unnecessary complexity, we designed Succession Planner using the familiar Microsoft Excel interface. Most people in business are already used to using Microsoft Excel, so we can get all of these customers creating their first succession plan very quickly."

The tool's author, Andy Beaulieu, outlined some of the enhancements included in the new version of Succession Planner. "In this new version," he said, "I expanded the capacity of the Organization Chart and the Position Profile report, added a cell occupants report to the C-P Matrix and altogether made the tool more configurable for users." "Given the broader spans of control common in organizations today," he added, "users will find the added capacity on the Organization Chart very helpful. In addition, users can now copy any chart or list to paste as a graphic into Word, PowerPoint or another application."

The tool is supplied as a Microsoft Excel template and can be used on any Microsoft Windows-based PC with Excel 2002 or later installed. Accompanying the tool are two key resources: a User Guide for those administering the tool, and a Process Guide to assist HR in setting up a strong succession planning process. Both resources are supplied as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, which are readable on almost any computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available as a free download from the Adobe website.

For those wanting to try out the tool before purchase, Business Performance P/L has made available a trial version of the tool as a free download. The trial version is complete with sample data that can be modified, so customers can see how the tool will work in their organization. The tool's author is also available to help organization's implement their succession planning process.

The complete succession planning pack and the free trial version are available for download from the Business Performance P/L website at www.businessperform.com/succession-planner

About Andy Beaulieu
Andy has over 20 years of performance improvement experience as both an internal specialist in global organizations and as an external consultant. Based in Washington DC, USA, his services span the spectrum of technical and interpersonal interventions. He has developed and implemented large-scale tools and systems to improve organizational effectiveness, and he has also coached and trained managers to improve their individual effectiveness.

Andy holds a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, and undergraduate degrees in engineering and business from the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored ten chapters in books on organizational effectiveness, most notably multiple entries in the renowned "Pfeiffer Annual" series published since 1971.