Although many organisations are still using spreadsheets and legacy systems to keep track of performance, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) has become an increasingly popular tool to help the finance function manage the business. While there’s no doubt that EPM was developed with finance leaders in mind, the rest of the business stands to gain just as many benefits from their EPM systems, provided that they are correctly deployed and integrated across the company.
Linking financial and operational metrics to insights—and ultimately driving strategies, plans, and execution – EPM can drive improved organisational performance by monitoring financial and operational results against forecasts and goals, using analytics to recognise key trends and predict outcomes. In an environment of constant change, new competitors, and economic uncertainty, EPM is the perfect tool to help organisations become more agile.
In addition to offering numerous efficiencies and benefits on the finance side, EPM can help improve resource management, optimise the sales cycle, improve supply chain management, and even help improve marketing efforts. For example, EPM can help with sales planning based on data collected from various sources, allowing sales teams to optimise or restructure an existing sales funnel if necessary. Similarly, EPM enables decision-makers to better manage crucial data related to the quality and performance of goods and other supply chain details.
Integrated Business Planning
EPM’s effectiveness across the organisation has led to the advancement of Integrated Business Planning (IBP). An evolution of sales and operations planning, IBP is becoming a finance-led process that leverages data from sales and supply chain operations to help decision-makers compose a neutral view that drives business performance effectively.
Unfortunately, companies trying to implement IBP without an effective EPM solution often encounter as many challenges as they do solutions. For example, technology during IBP implementations usually focuses only on reporting and visualization capabilities, disregarding other key capabilities such as data management automation, data cohesiveness, adaptive and intuitive process workflows and approvals, and calibration between insights and detail. EPM integrates all of these and more, enabling business leaders to deploy strategy and make faster and better decisions.
Tying It All Together
In the constant drive to create strategies capable of unlocking business potential, EPM is proving to be a forward-thinking organisations’ secret weapon. Unifying performance management processes across the business, EPM can help bridge the gap between goals and results.
When an EPM platform can meet the needs of, and provide key capabilities, to finance as well as the other areas of the business, the company gains access to more accurate forward-looking models, supporting risk-based decisions. In addition to obvious features like business intelligence and analytics tools, an effective Enterprise Performance Management solution must support agile planning and reporting processes and centralised controls to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information being delivered externally and internally.
As the volume, variety, and velocity of data continue to grow, and as stakeholders continue to increase their expectations, companies can no longer afford to create plans in departmental pockets. EPM not only helps provide different areas of the business with information anytime, anywhere, but it empowers the finance function to tie it all together, linking long-term business strategy with various budgets and plans, ensuring alignment across the organisation and optimal use of resources.
