Cascade delivers on its promise - is very easy to use and provides fantastic functionality

All my staff have access to see our plan, goals and projects. That has greatly assisted their knowledge of the bigger picture and how they can contribute. The reporting functionality is excellent for Board reports, management meetings through to controlling my own tasks or that of my reports.

Pros

easy to use, provides capacity to view projects at high level or to drill down to the weeds, very flexible with reporting options, allows various User permissions, brilliant support service and priced in the sweet spot

Cascade has transformed the way we manage our business goals and company strategy.

Transparency of goals, and alignment of priority. It also enables better accountability for all staff.

Pros

The Cascade program aligned strongly with the needs of our business. We needed a tool to help us manage our business strategy across 20 different functional departments. We chose Cascade as the concept of cascading goals matched the way our business performed strategic planning. The system allows each of the areas to manage their own strategic plan, whilst enabling visibility and accountability of alignment with the high level business strategy. The transparency of the system is one of it's biggest benefits. At the click of a button you are able to assess the health of the organisation according to its strategic objectives and associated goals. It is very user friendly and easy to customise. In a matter of minutes, anyone can set up team dashboards to use in meetings or as a general communication tool. The snapshot reports are great for sharing with others outside of the system and provide an up to date gantt chart of project status. I would highly recommend this tool to anyone.

Cons

Occasionally you will stumble across features that don't exist in the system which would be useful. The chat function allows you to communicate directly with the Cascade team and get a real time response to any issues you might have or any ideas for improvement. This is really great for efficiency, as you can just continue working through any challenges with the help of the Cascade team. They take the feedback on-board, and we have already experienced a number of system optimisations which have been rolled out as a result of our company's suggestions. It is empowering for the team to have that kind of influence on the software, and really aids in employee engagement.

Serious Strategy Execution Software

Mainly, we use Cascade Strategy with our clients that don't want their strategic plans to become BOTS (Books On The Shelf). Cascade allows for constant updating, new goals & initiatives, real-time reporting, etc. It provides an easy-to-use platform to keep the plan alive and active throughout the life-cycle of the plan.

Pros

Cascade Strategy Execution SaaS takes the complex area of generating accountability around strategic initiatives and makes it clear, concise, and transparent. The thought that has been put into the structure of getting it set up essentially forces you to consider the alignment of your goals, objectives, focus areas and ultimately vision. Cascade is one of the few that gets that the fundamental unit of strategy implementation is NOT individual goals or tasks - it is people, and Cascade re-emphasizes this point subtly throughout the platform.

Cons

The platform is quite elegant on the screen, but Cascade still has some work to do around the printed reports. Its a bit of a conundrum as showing the sometimes complex and always multi-layered relationships between people, tasks, goals, vision, etc is likely impossible given the static format of the printed page - but I do feel like it could still probably be a bit better than it is. Most importantly, if you go down the path of using strategy management software, just realize that the dynamic connections that you are able to create with the platform will not always easily translate to the printed page.

Cascade - The A Team

We wanted a tracking tool that would roll up only our priority projects for our leadership teams' reviews. The Cascade Team was so amazing. They created ways we could highlight and track so but the product was just was too sophisticated for our needs. I would recommend this product and the team to anyone if it meets their usage needs. It just wasn't the best fit for our team.

Pros

Cascade is a great tool for tracking initiatives and using those initiatives to drive performance and KPI's.

Cons

It was too complex for our company that mostly just tracks progress on initiatives. Our leaders found that they could not delegate the updates to their team members, which meant they were using other methods as working documents and then going into Cascade for only the purpose of updating the leadership team. Although it did have KPI tracking abilities it was hard for us to attach metrics for many of our initiatives by their very nature.

Implementations in Sweden

I use i tas a standard tool when I help my clients to create and implement business plans. In my experince the program makes it easier to understand the theory and the practical use of strategy to achieve company goals and success. In addition, once you have built the structure, its much easier to follow up departments, teams and even individuals in order to create engagement in the whole company

Pros

Its a perfect tool for helping companies to understand the importance of creating and implementing a strategy plan to achieve their visions and goals. Its easy to understand in most features, it has an excellent support, a very good thinking and backgrond theory that is generously shared and also very good tutorials

Cons

The price is a bit stiff for small mediumsize companies.

An effective, easy to use tool that has brought business strategy into daily conversation

Pros

The user interface is intuitive and allows for the creation instant, real-time outputs that can be used to assess/track/discuss business strategy without creating standalone PowerPoint slides. The tool allows for business strategy to be discussed and embraced by the organization, creating clear alignment of goals to strategic pillars and thus allowed for the broader business discuss, interrogate and contribute to the strategic direction rather than having it handed down.

Cons

The tool isn't something that can be used half-heartedly. To realize the benefit, it needs to be embraced by the entire organization where possible. This isn't a criticism of the tool itself, more an observation that it needs the buy-in of the organization to make it effective.

Cascade focuses attention on what is important

Real time tracking of key initiative status is difficult to achieve in absence of a tool like Cascade. Cascade is an effective environment within which to manage getting key things done.

Pros

Simple and intuitive - easy to populate focus areas and goals, track performance and extract status in real time.

Cons

UI could be enhanced to introduce drag and drop capability.

Simple yet comprehensive

Introduced significant efficiency gains in relation to performance management and reporting. tool agility enabled configuration to develop strategy for multiple circumstances (organisation strategy, channel management and joint venture partnership)

Pros

Supports engagement, establishes visibility and secures performance accountability, all of which combine to underpin workplace innovation and retain focus on strategy implementation. Reporting environments are agile and facilitate real-time understanding of performance status. Human capital management features enable creation of robust link between contribution and reward.

SUPPOSEDLY FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING BUT DOES A LOT MORE

Pros

I have been using Cascade Strategy for some time now and I have been very accustomed to it. Cascade Strategy is easy to use and does more than just strategic planning. The simplicity of the softwares layout allows its users to learn it easily. The task management, collaboration, workforce management and project management features are a great plus. Overall, a lot can be done with a single software.

Cons

It might be better if the software can be used in different other languages since it can only be used in English, but, it is a small negativity of the software that can be greatly overlooked.

Excellent tool, great design and user friendly

Pros

The alignment between strategy and projects, its very easy to understand how the strategic objetives align with the projects.

Cons

Only 1 language, its a great tool, I think its very important to expand to languages like spanish or french.

I've been looking for this app for 20 years.

What do you like best? Finally, an app that takes the big picture seriously. I've been looking for a project portfolio management app for a management-by-projects approach that begins with strategic planning. Cascade is a holistic strategy app, integrating strategy planning and strategy execution, two aspects or dimensions of strategy that should not be dissociated or bifurcated into separate apps to begin with. What do you dislike? Nothing to dislike so far. Although it offers Zapier integration with other apps, a must in today's web app world, I do wish it offered native integration with Google Apps, especially Google Calendar, Google Tasks, and Gmail, perhaps through a Chrome Extension. Recommendations to others considering the product Try it, you'll like it. I liked it so much I subscribed two days into the trial. What business problems are you solving? What benefits have you realized? Holistic closed-loop strategic planning & execution.

Great for organisational visibility/ oversight

Pros

It is so easy to get started on cascade, set up is pain free - so different compared to the software I've implemented in the past. It immediately combines strategy, accountability, progress, reporting, risk and governance so that you get a quick holistic view of the current status. No other software I've seen does this as effectively.

Cons

I think it would benefit in having more 'wins' for the end user. I'm not sure I know what these would look like... but i think it is important to keep working on the end-users experience as well as improving the management view.

Cascade Review

As a newly merged organisation we needed to be able to track ourselves against the Strategic Plan, and ensure that as a Board-led organisation we could clearly show this. Cascade team support to input our strategy, train our users and provide ongoing support to our administration has reduced the impact of another new system in a very busy time for change.

Pros

The ability to set up levels to match those within our Strategic Plan and Annual operating plans. The amazing support offered during and following implementation, particularly to align to our needs often thinking outside the box to provide a solution.

Cons

There are some areas that require some fine tuning (restricted access, formatting, ability for graphs) however the team listen to feedback and already some things we suggested have been included in updates.

World Class Customer Care

The customer service engagement was what really sets Cascade apart. The team are helpful and quick to reply. They have a very clear set of behaviors that align with their values.

Pros

The software is very powerful and flexible. I've not found a platform that consolidates such a wide range of strategy and talent alignment and management tools into one place.

Cons

The interface feels a bit dated perhaps.

A terrific product and some great professional advice to support strategic planning and execution

Pros

Cascade is easy to use, applicable to all staff and allows each staff member to see and track how they contribute to the company strategic goals.

This thing is powerful and we at only just starting to appreciate the strength of it now...

Simple

Pros

Ease of use and with the training videos released more recently it is even easier to understand. The power to change the culture to one of accountability is simply sensational

Cons

Worth every minute to set it up. Play around with it and don't be too scared to stuff it up at the beginning. The training videos and webinars are an absolute must to view. It really does to a-z and the biggest challenge is seeing how the a-z works together

Finally a strategy planning SW that is not only project management

Pros

Framework built up around causality Very quick to get started Dashboards that can display your most relevant KPIs. Customizable framework, so that you to a certain extent can apply whatever strategy execution framework you prefer.

Cons

Very quick to get started... A bit light on making things actionable. Like a proper integration to task list SW or Google Calendar. No place to document and rank environmental factors that you need to monitor and plan for. Currently no support for ideation around how to meet objectives. I believe they are working on implementing this.

It's a great platform to track the progress of projects.

Pros

What I liked most about this software is that it can send notifications to everyone that is responsibility for actions and makes them accountable for deliverables.

Cons

It is not easy to navigate, especially if there are corrections and updates that need to be made on actions.

Its just so simple to keep monitor and track when you take an IDEA & turn it into ACTION = RESULT

as expressed previously... Anecdotally, I hear that there are so many great features and so much to learn and just NOT enough time to devote! I'm therefore keenly aware, via, a previous employee here at CMA who was instrumental during the initial rollout of cascade ... that I have a Ferrari at my disposal and I'm driving it like a Holden :)

Pros

Its very intuitive and allows the user to comfortably navigate many platforms without being anxious about making irreversible mistakes! Please be aware that, "these are my personal views and not those of Cook Medical"

Changed how we run our business

We implemented Cascade because we are a remote team and found it hard to stay focused on a common goal. We found it pretty easy to create our strategic plan and then use the software to report on progress each month. The support team are great.

Great Price with Tons of Training

Pros

I love how easy and quick it was to implement, and with the available training, it made the process even simpler

Cons

Like to see expanded features like multilingual functionality, but I may have not spent enough time exploring it yet