If you want help knowing what format to use for a business plan, then a tool like this can be quite good. I actually track business plan templates that are available for free and have 199 of these listed at http://www.esforum.org. However, keep in mind that:

-- The real value of a business plan is in the intellectual content, which these types of tools can't help you much with. At the most, they identify questions you should be answering.

-- What's in a business plan is only a small part of what is needed to make a business successful. My rule of thumb is that the probability of success is determined 20% by the market and strategy, 30% by the skills and experience of the founders (mostly the sales skills), and 50% by the personality and character of the founders (how committed, how credible, how capable of responding to a crisis, how flexible, how open to input from others, etc). Business plans tend to focus on the 20%, not the 80%.

-- If you really want your business to be successful, and this is your first time, you'll also want to surround yourself with others with experience you can trust to help guide you and coach you, and then listen and process their advice.

-- The structure of the business plan you write depends on: who the audience is (debt investors, equity investors, team members, yourself) and what industry you are writing it for. Business plans for software companies can look different than those for other businesses because the financial ratios and key success factors are different. Marketing is typically a much higher percent of the cost structure for a software business than a hardware business because (a) there is no manufacturing cost and (b) development costs tend to be lower. That's why there are so many more software products competing for each market opportunity than one finds for hardware products.

As most things, the value of software packages to help companies with strategy really depends on CEOs' "level of business maturity." To someone who has never developed a BizPlan, the software is great. To some who does it for a living, they're pretty dismal. Just a matter of education.

It seems in this case, this is (at least positioned as) "knowledge-ware:" more than just software.

On another note, using a non-scientific analysis of the CEO attendees at a seminar I put on (Seven Secrets: How to Attract More Customers), when I ask for brainstorming on "What strategic marketing things are you doing?" - Only 2 (out of about 200) have provided strategic answers. Most simply rattle off "tactical marketing stuff:" things they do, instead of KNOWING what they should be doing, and answering "How do you KNOW you should be doing it?"

My point? I (now) believe that humans are NOT wired to think strategically... more of "What is (tangibly) in front of me - right now?" And then respond to that. And most of these folks do not plan. So, from that standpoint, BP S/W can be great! At least to get them thinking about future-oriented focus.

Cheers!

Mark