FinancialForce was renamed Certinia on May 3, 2023. The company was founded as FinancialForce in 2009 and built its software natively on the Salesforce platform, so Certinia shares one data model with Salesforce CRM and needs a Salesforce subscription to run. In July 2023, the private equity firm Haveli Investments acquired Certinia from Advent International and TCV in a deal valued at close to $1 billion, and Salesforce stayed on as a shareholder. Now it offers cloud ERP solutions and professional services automation with a Services as a Business (SaaB) Platform.
Read the article to learn more about Certinia’s products, pricing, implementation, supports, pros, and cons.
What is Certinia?
It is a Services-as-a Business model that facilitates a single source of certainty by providing solutions for Professional Services Automation, Customer Success, Services CPQ, ERP, and Financial planning and accounting.
It links service operations, including service estimation, delivery, customer success management, financial planning, and accounting.
On ownership, which the vendor pages do not lead with: Certinia was acquired by Haveli Investments, with participation from General Atlantic, from Advent International and Technology Crossover Ventures. The deal completed on 26 July 2023 and was reported at close to $1 billion including debt. Salesforce remains a shareholder, which is worth knowing given that the product runs on the Salesforce Platform: the commercial relationship between the two companies is closer than a normal partner arrangement.
Products and Their Features
It offers 3 products. Let us have a look at products and their features.
Professional services cloud
- Professional services automation
- Services CPQ
- Services billing
- Services revenue management
- Services analytics
- Services Communities
ERP cloud financial management software
- Accounting and finance
- Revenue management
- Subscription and usage billing
- Financial planning and analysis
- Procurement
- Order and inventory management
- ERP analytics and reporting
- ERP communities
Customer success cloud
- Customer engagement
- Success playbooks
- Stakeholder engagement
Some Screenshots of Certinia
Billings overview
Accounts page view
Revenue page view
Pricing
Certinia does not publish a price list. It sells per user per month on an annual or multi-year contract, quoted by module, either as priced bundles or as a la carte licences, and every figure in circulation is a third party estimate rather than a vendor rate. What follows is what buyers and procurement benchmarks report, clearly labelled as such.
The cost most buyers miss: you are also buying Salesforce
Certinia is built natively on the Salesforce Platform, and that is not a marketing detail, it is a licensing prerequisite. You cannot run Certinia without Salesforce licences underneath it, so the quote you receive from Certinia is only part of the bill. Procurement benchmarks put the Certinia subscription itself at roughly $150 to $350 per user per month depending on which modules you licence, with the required Salesforce licensing adding materially on top, and the combined stack commonly reported in the region of $200 to $400 per user per month. Ranges that wide exist because the module mix, user count and contract length move the number a long way.
What to ask for in writing
- The Certinia subscription broken out per module, not as a single bundled figure, so you can see what dropping a module actually saves
- The Salesforce licence type and count the quote assumes, and who is contracting for them, because that line often sits outside the Certinia paperwork entirely
- Implementation, data migration and training as separate one off lines, since these are quoted by Certinia or by a partner rather than included
- The renewal uplift cap, since a multi-year term is where the per user rate is actually negotiated
If you already run Salesforce across the business, that prerequisite is a sunk cost and Certinia looks comparatively cheap. If you do not, the Salesforce layer is the item that decides whether this is competitive against a standalone ERP such as NetSuite, and it belongs in the comparison from the first meeting rather than the last.
Implementation
It is a cloud deployment software solution that consists of product specialists and well-experienced managers who direct the customer through the implementation process. Some authorized service providers of this ERP also help to implement apps successfully.
These service providers have access to the latest implementation tools and training materials, so they help the users to implement new releases.
Supports and Services
Professional Services
The platform provides expert product specialists and experienced project managers to help its client implement the applications. As the business grows, it offers additional services, including training, health checks, and expert services.
Integration
Certinia offers a security and application programming interface (API) model for integrating with many other platforms like AccessPay, ADP, Avidxchange, SAP Concur, etc., with the help of SalesForce.
Training
The software provides virtual, instructor-led training. One of its training models is subscription-based training. The end-user can get training on a subscription basis. You need to contact certinia for the details.
Users can also take up certinia on-demand courses, including videos and on-demand training library. These courses are task-based and help users get hands-on exercises.
Certinia Community
The software provides one more support to its users, which is the Certinia community. You can log your issues through this community or by phone. Once the issue is logged, the community allocates a support team member to resolve the issue.
Success Plans
Standard success plan
It comes with a certinia application subscription without additional charges. Users must submit online tickets through the Certinia community or by phone. Then it contacts the user within 48 working hours.
Premier success plan
This type of subscription provides users with a customer success manager (CSM). He helps users to reach their goals by doing regular business reviews. Users with this subscription will get four sessions yearly with certinia technical CSM. It also offers one free pass to its annual customer event.
In this type of subscription, users will get a response within one hour for a business standstill case. For critical issues, they respond within 2 hours, and for major problems, they respond within 6 hours after the ticket submission.
Pros
- It provides real-time insight into resource utilization, project status, and financial performance.
- The software is flexible and scalable.
- Integration of software with other salesforce flatform is intuitive.
- The software provides training sessions for new users.
- Seamless upgradation of PSA and the upgradation process does not disturb your business.
- It allows you to create project templates easily.
- The software is straightforward to use, implement, and customize.
- This ERP allows users to drill and view their data through a reporting dashboard.
- All applications are located on a single platform. Hence users will get only a single version of data. This makes compliance and audit easier.
- It allows users to monitor the important account fields, and also, users can view evidence of transactions and scan documents on a single platform.
Cons
- The software needs more configuration and development resources to meet the company’s requirements.
- The software will be complex and difficult to work with for users who are unfamiliar with the Salesforce platform.
- When you work with large datasets, the software will be unstable.
- Sometimes, finding and solving the bugs is difficult because of ambiguous error messages.
- Its home page does not show all completed projects. It shows only the first ten projects.
- The software does not provide basic functionality like bank feeds and BAS reports.
- Sometimes, the user interface will be confusing and clumsy to end-users.
- You must depend on an implementation partner to use the software smoothly. Or you need to spend more time understanding the software and its operations.
- The project plan feature must be downloadable, printable, and convertible to other formats.
- Sometimes, the loading speed of the software is slow and crushes without reason.
- The software does not provide detailed documentation.
Supported Industries
It supports industries like
- Business services
- Healthcare
- Life science
- Media and digital communications
- Professional services and consulting
- Software
- High-tech
- IT services
- Telecommunications
Alternatives
- Netsuite
- Acumatica
- Microsoft Dynamics GP
- Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise
- SAP ERP
- Sage Intacct
Customers
- QA Limited
- Lorven Technologies
- Self store
- Acumen Solutions
- AHEAD
- Blue Clover Devices
- Camfed
- CDI Spaces
Other details
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-based |
| Support | Knowledge Base, Email/Help Desk, Chat, FAQs/Forum, 24/7 (Live rep), Phone Support |
| Training | Live Online, Documentation, Videos, In-Person, Webinars |
| Customer ratings | Capterra: 3.8 out of 5 (44+ reviews), G2: 4.1 out of 5 (1027+ reviews) |
FAQs
What is Services-as-a-Business (SaaB)?
Services as a business refer to a company or organization primarily providing services rather than tangible products to its customers. In this type of business model, the primary focus is on offering expertise, knowledge, or specialized skills to meet the needs and requirements of clients.
The services offered can be diverse, ranging from consulting, technical support, and professional services to personal services such as healthcare, education, and hospitality.
Service businesses can operate in various industries, including information technology, financial services, marketing, and management consulting. The success of a service business often depends on the quality of the services provided, customer satisfaction, and the ability to build long-term relationships with clients.
In recent years, the service industry has become increasingly important in the global economy, as more companies outsource non-core functions and consumers demand specialized services to meet their needs. Consequently, service businesses are crucial for economic growth and employment opportunities.
Is Certinia the same as FinancialForce?
Yes. FinancialForce renamed itself Certinia on May 3, 2023. It is the same company and Salesforce-native platform, and only the name changed. Certinia was then acquired by the private equity firm Haveli Investments in July 2023, with Salesforce staying on as a shareholder.
Does Certinia require Salesforce?
Yes. Certinia is built natively on the Salesforce platform, so you need an underlying Salesforce subscription in addition to your Certinia licenses. Certinia is priced per user through bundles or a la carte licenses, and you request a quote from Certinia.
Conclusion
Certinia products offer features to meet the needs of businesses. The Certinia community provides customer support, and success plans are available for end users.
The article covered all the important information about the Certinia platform, including products, features, implementation, supports, supported industries, pros, and cons. By considering Certinia’s advantages and disadvantages, you can make buying decisions.
Ultimately, whether or not it is the right solution for your business will depend on your specific needs and budget.
You can find more cloud ERP software similar to Certinia.