Strategic planning software: how to choose one for KPIs and OKRs

Choosing strategic planning software determines whether a company can deploy goals, track KPIs and OKRs, and correct course in time.

In practice, the platform brings objectives, performance indicators, and action plans in one platform. It replaces the manual patchwork of spreadsheets, presentations, and isolated tools that is still common in mid-sized and large Brazilian companies.

For strategy, PMO, and corporate performance leaders, the decision goes beyond swapping tools: it is about choosing what will sustain governance, execution, and results tracking over the long term. In this article, we present the criteria for evaluating these platforms and show where Stratws fits.

What is strategic planning software and what does it do?

Strategic planning software is a management platform that brings strategic objectives, indicators, goals, and initiatives in one platform. It lets you deploy strategy from top leadership down to teams and operational areas, with indicator-based managementopens in a new tab at the center of the routine.

Unlike a spreadsheet or a generic BI dashboard, this kind of system ties each indicator to an objective, an owner, and an action plan. It also keeps the history of decisions and results over time.

The BSC (Balanced Scorecard)opens in a new tab is usually the foundation for this deployment. Depending on the tool, you can combine more than one management methodology and adapt the goal structure to each organization. Stratws offers this natively, with support for BSC, OKR, and other management models.

Why do large companies still struggle to deploy goals and track results?

Data fragmentation is among the main obstacles to executing strategic planning. Companies have goals and objectives, but they track data and action plans with no clear link between them.

A common case is KPIsopens in a new tab tracked in spreadsheets or BI tools separate from the plan. Goal deployment down to operational teams then depends on checkpoint meetings to manually update what has already changed, and corporate performance managementopens in a new tab loses momentum.

Sompo Segurosopens in a new tab, an insurer within Sompo Holdings, with about 700 employees in Brazil, faced the challenge of taking leadership’s strategy into the routine of each area. With Stratws, it built its strategy map and deployed goals by area. Within three months, it was running 26 departmental BSCs, with about 260 indicators monitored every month.

The Panorama Nacional de Remuneração Variável 2026opens in a new tab (National Variable Compensation Overview), a Siteware survey of 338 respondents from Brazilian companies, points to a similar weakness: 61.3% still use spreadsheets in some stage of the variable compensation process.

Keeping goal deployment and tracking going, without information getting lost between areas, is usually what companies are missing to better execute what they planned.

Which criteria should you evaluate before choosing a strategic planning platform or software?

Five criteria define whether the platform can sustain the operation of a mid-sized or large company, or whether it becomes yet another underused system.

• Governance: does the platform keep a history of decisions and changes, role-based access control, and an audit trail for indicators and goals?
• Execution: is each strategic objective tied to an indicator, an action plan, and an owner, with no manual step in between?
• Tracking: are indicators updated in real time or on a defined routine, with automatic alerts when a result drifts from the goal?
• Methodology: does the platform natively support OKR, BSC, or another goal deployment methodology, without manual adaptation?
• Scale: can you deploy goals from the corporate level down to the team or the individual, keeping the link to the original objective?

A complete platform answers yes to all five questions. When the answer is no on governance or tracking, companies tend to go back to side spreadsheets to fill the gap.

It is also worth checking whether the platform delivers an executive dashboardopens in a new tab that brings goals, indicators, and execution into a single view for senior leadership.

How does Stratws connect strategic planning, KPIs, and OKRs in practice?

Stratws, the strategic and performanceopens in a new tab management platform from Siteware, breaks company objectives down into indicators and goals by area, all the way to the individual level. The link to the original objective holds at every step, in a single source.

For teams that use BSC, the Scorecard is the visual map that organizes strategic objectives in cause-and-effect relationships. It breaks them down into indicators, goals, and projects.

Indicators live in panels such as the Indicator Traffic Light, with tracking at different frequencies and comparison with previous cycles. They can also be uploaded as spreadsheets inside the platform, with permission controls.

When an indicator misses its goal, the linked action planopens in a new tab is visible in the same environment, with room to record the cause and the corrective action. This process closes the loop between planning, execution, and course correction.

73.32% of the nearly 8 million goals tracked in Stratws were met or exceeded, and 77% of the 1.9 million action plans managed in Stratws were completed on time. The numbers describe the management done on the platform, not a guarantee of hitting goals.

Read next: Stratws: what it is, how it works, and who it’s foropens in a new tab

Get to know Stratwsopens in a new tab and see how to organize your company’s strategic planning, KPIs, and OKRs in a single platform.

Frequently asked questions

How is strategic planning software different from a spreadsheet or BI?+−

Spreadsheets and BI show numbers, but by default they don't tie each indicator to a strategic objective, an owner, and an action plan. Strategic planning software keeps that link and the traceability of decisions over time, with no manual updates between systems.

What governance features should a strategic planning platform have?+−

A history of decisions and changes, role-based access control, and an audit trail for indicators and goals. With these features, leadership can answer not only what the result is, but also what changed and who decided.

How do you choose the right strategic planning platform for a large company?+−

Start by mapping the methodology you already use or want, how many management fronts must sit on the same dashboard, integration with other systems, and the level of traceability governance requires. With that map, comparing platforms becomes more objective.

Does Stratws work with OKR or BSC?+−

Both. The Scorecard covers BSC, with objectives by perspective linked by cause and effect, and OKR runs inside it, with key results and periodic check-ins. The company picks the model or combines the two.