VFA Enables Better Control of Capital Costs with Enhanced Spend Management Software

BOSTON – January 28, 2008 – VFA, Inc., the leading provider of end-to-end solutions for facilities capital planning and asset management, today announced the latest release of its capital spend management software, VFA.spendManager™. This release gives CFOs and capital planners better ability to understand and manage spending with new tools for categorizing cost data, reporting in local currencies, and consolidation of capital project status and financial information.

"To effectively control capital spending, organizations need real-time information about the progress of capital expenses from the budget through requisition and invoicing,” said Deborah Wilson, Research Director, Procurement Strategies & Systems at Gartner.  “Capital spend management software facilitates the process of synthesizing data about capital projects from across the enterprise and provides organizations with tools to keep spending on track.”

In VFA.spendManager 8.0, a new multi-level cost structure enables customers to easily replicate the cost categories in their existing purchasing system.  This parallel structure allows greater accuracy in tracking forecast and actual expenses, and facilitates the exchange of data between systems. 

“Organizations use VFA.spendManager in conjunction with a variety of other enterprise systems, including enterprise resource planning, purchasing and other financial systems,” said Melanie Ziegler, Vice President of Software Development.  “Our goal is to make the sharing of data among these systems as seamless as possible.”

Enhanced project tracking capabilities in VFA.spendManager 8.0 allow users to more easily track the progress of a capital project against milestones.  For example, they can readily compare the percentage of a project’s total budget that has been spent to date versus the planned percentage, and monitor project completion timelines against goals.

Also new in the release is the ability to report on capital spending in local currencies based on current exchange.  “This capability is important to VFA’s growing base of multi-national customers who manage capital spending in multiple currencies,” notes Ziegler.

Other new features in VFA.spendManager 8.0 include the ability to add custom attributes to reports on capital needs and requisitions, and a comprehensive online user guide and help capability.

About VFA
Headquartered in Boston, VFA, Inc. is the leading provider of end–to–end solutions for facilities capital planning and asset management. VFA’s Capital Planning and Management Solution (CPMS™) uniquely combines facility assessment services, Web-based software and business consulting services to enable customers to manage every stage of the capital asset lifecycle — from requirements gathering and long-term planning to capital budget creation and spend management. VFA has helped over 350 organizations in corporate, education, government and healthcare markets to strategically manage more than two billion square feet of real estate. For more information, please call 800-693-3132 or visit http://www.vfa.com.