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. 2/28/24, 12:43 PM Why are Contemporary EPM Solutions Critical to Business Growth?
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EPM
WHY ARE CONTEMPORARY EPM SOLUTIONS
CRITICAL TO BUSINESS GROWTH?
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 the
collation of all financial data and ensuring accuracy and timeliness, to embracing sophisticated
self-service tools and spending more time analyzing the numbers and making critical decisions.
These new EPM 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 Cognos, which have an extended EPM platform, some innovative and specialized Enterprise
Performance Management solutions such as Anaplan, OneStream, and 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. 2/28/24, 12:43 PM Why are Contemporary EPM Solutions Critical to Business Growth?
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Why choose an Enterprise Performance Management Platform?
– Addressing Performance Management Restraints
Earlier, most of the consolidation, planning, and reporting were done manually using excel
spreadsheets or a few on-prem EPM tools. It had its challenges with data integration, accuracy,
accessibility, aptness, and presentability.
A simple performance management 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 niche players like Anaplan and OneStream to flourish. They had some very
specific enterprise application solutions addressing the inherent challenges of these legacy
platforms. They addressed limitations in the database and presentation layers, which directly
impacted the performance and end-user delight.
What are the Key Functionalities of an Enterprise Performance
Management Platform?
Predictive capabilities and augmented analytics are some of the more advanced features of these
latest EPM tools. Functionalities like value driver trees, version management, collaboration,
approval workflows, and security and authorizations, ensure that the critical and time-consuming
FP&A activities are automated.
Users are now more focused on the core business performance management 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.
EPM Platforms Available Today
There are a variety of Enterprise Performance Management platforms available today. SAP offers
some very innovative SAP EPM solutions/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.

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SAP Analytics Cloud 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 modernized and is continuously enhancing the capability of its Cloud EPM
solutions suite. Anaplan has swept the market in the planning space of EPM. It offers an
Enterprise Performance Management 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. However, some of these have made 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.
Step into an era of dynamic decision making with SAP
Analytics Cloud’s advanced BI, Planning and predictive
capabilities
DISCOVER NOW!
Enterprises Need to Act Now
Organizations must 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 organization 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 necessitate for the old ways of workings to be discontinued and embrace the
new and advanced versions. Sometimes it may be forced by the OEMs because of maintenance
for the older platforms.

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Why Choose Techwave for your EPM Solution?
It is tricky to freeze on the most appropriate EPM tool that fits your organization with so many
options available. A detailed assessment of your internal functional processes coupled with the
existing technology landscape and the organization’s future journey will define the solutions. This
is where a systems integrator like Techwave can assist. We have over 17 years of experience
offering these services in the Enterprise Performance Management space and have successfully
implemented and engagements.
Techwave believes in partnering with the customers and provides the most viable and trustworthy
enterprise application solutions.
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