Speed agility, disruption, and innovation have become new the normal in the contemporary world. Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is no exception. We have seen a tremendous shift in how business leaders manage their respective organizations’ performance in the last five years. Technology is a huge enabler facilitating real-time access to critical information at the desired granularity.

1. DIGITAL
DEFINING ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT (EPM) IN DIGITAL ERA
Key Points
What are the contemporary EPM options?
What are the key functionalities these latest tools offer?
How different is it from erstwhile tools and options from the past?
Why should organizations latch on to these tools ASAP?
Future roadmap
Speed agility, disruption, and innovation have become new the normal in the contemporary world.
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is no exception. We have seen a tremendous shift in
how business leaders manage their respective organizations’ performance in the last five years.
Technology is a huge enabler facilitating real-time access to critical information at the desired
granularity.
EPM Platform Solutions – Market Leaders
Chief Financial Officers and their finance teams have moved from manual processes involving
collation of all financial data and ensuring accuracy and timeliness to embracing sophisticated
self-service tools and spending more time analysing the numbers and making critical decisions.
These new tools seamlessly connect with various sources like on-prem/cloud systems, flat files,
and data from diverse ERP systems. Apart from the major ERP OEMs like SAP, Oracle and IBM
Congnos, which have an extended the EPM platform, some innovative and specialised EPM
solutions such as Anaplan, OneStream, Host analytics have sprung up lately and are taking the
market by storm. Most of these new products are cloud versions that offer the platform services
on a yearly subscription basis, extending the benefits of OPEX as opposed to huge upfront cash
outflows through CAPEX.

2. Why EPM Platform? – Addressing Performance Management
Restraints
Earlier, most of the consolidation, planning and reporting was done manually using excel
spreadsheets or a few on-prem tools. It had its challenges with data integration, accuracy,
accessibility, aptness and presentability. A simple process would take anywhere between 15 to 20
days. The more complex the process, the more cumbersome the solution would be. The solutions
were neither sustainable nor scalable; any small change would involve considerable effort to
incorporate the same. It was easier for the niche players like Anaplan and OneStream to flourish.
They had some very specific solutions addressing the inherent challenges of these legacy
platforms. They addressed limitations at the database and presentation layers, which directly
impacted the performance and end-user delight.
Key functionalities of EPM platforms
Predictive capabilities and augmented analytics are some of the more advanced features of these
latest tools. Functionalities like value driver trees, version management, collaboration, approval
workflows and security and authorisations ensure that the critical and time-consuming FP&A
activities are automated. Users are now more focused on the core process. Accurate budgeting
and forecasting have become more accessible and reliable due to the built-in algorithms that can
be applied to a data set in a few easy steps. Intuitive dashboards, graphs and grids make it
aesthetically appealing and convey the crux of the story in the most effective way. The best part is
that these are self-service tools; even without much technical background, users can navigate
through the various options and build ad hoc stories themselves.
Variety of EPM Platforms Available Today
SAP offers some very innovative EPM products available to suit various needs. From a
consolidation perspective, Its on-prem solution, SAP BPC, addresses the most complex
calculations relating to currency conversions, eliminations, and consolidated reporting. SAP also
offers group reporting as a consolidation solution for customers who have already embraced SAP
S4 as their ERP solution. Group reporting is a value-added feature that sits on top of S4 and
provides near real-time consolidated results. SAP’s solutions include SAP BPC Planning and SAP
Analytics Cloud (SAC) Planning for budgeting and forecasting. At the same time, BPC is capable
of handling voluminous data and complex budgeting and forecasting solutions. SAC provides the
flexibility of connecting the data sources in real-time and replicating the data after importing it. It
also provides the latest abovementioned functionalities and offers an advanced, interactive, and
highly intuitive presentation layer. Likewise, Oracle offers its on-prem EPM solution Hyperion
Financial Management for consolidation and Hyperion Planning for financial planning and
forecasting. Lately, Oracle has modernised and is continuously enhancing the capability of its

3. Cloud EPM suite. Anaplan has swept the market in the planning space of EPM. It offers a platform
for complex planning solutions on Cloud at a lower cost compared to the established and older
players like SAP, Oracle and Cognos We can connect many of these platforms to the source
irrespective of their existing transactional ERP systems. But some of these have made the data
integration more accessible and real-time if it is within their landscape. For example, SAP
Analytics Cloud has some native connectors connecting with SAP S4 and SAP BW sources live.
Why do Enterprises Need to Act Now and How?
It has become necessary for organisations to latch on to these new technologies and leverage the
offerings to become ever more productive, increasingly accurate, and operate in very controlled
and sustainable platforms. While these platforms can publish the results at an overall
organisation level, users can dig into the details at the desired granularity. Solutions are more
scientific and process-driven Vs high-level assumptions. Dynamic Changes in the technologies
also needs the old ways of workings to be discontinued and embrace the new and advanced
versions. Sometimes it is forced by the OEMs through the end of maintenance for the older
platforms.
Why choose Techwave for your EPM Solution?
It is tricky to choosen the most appropriate tool that fits your organisation with so many options
available. A detailed assessment of your internal functional processes coupled with the existing
technology landscape and the organisation’s future journey will define the solutions. This is where
a systems integrator like Techwave can assist. We have over 15 years of experience offering
these services in the EPM space and have successfully Implementated and engagements.
Techwave believes in partnering with the customers and provides the most viable and trustworthy
solutions.
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