The complete EPM platform evaluation guide

01. Before you begin your assessment

“Do we even need business planning software?”

That’s a question worth asking. A survey of finance professionals revealed that small businesses with fewer than 50 employees were unlikely to have an FP&A function, and of mid-sized companies with up to 500 employees, only 28 percent had an in-house FP&A team. So the individuals tasked with financial planning, forecasting and budgeting processes
in these markets are probably happy with, and able to do their jobs adequately,
using Excel or Google Sheets.

But at 500+ employees a full FP&A team becomes an absolute necessity, to deal with the complexity of the business planning required to steer a company of that size. Likewise, it’s at this point where a proper planning platform is required to run your business effectively.

Is your business ready for implementing a FP&A solution?

Another indicator favoring successful implementation is the presence of well organized and integrated ERP, CRM, HR and other systems.
Their presence suggests that the underlying data that FP&A solutions require is available and that there are technically-sophisticated, non-finance staff that can be leveraged, along with finance professionals, to ensure a successful implementation.

An upcoming upgrade to your tech stack need not delay your implementation though - the data integration capabilities
 of an EPM solution allow for
a quick and easy process for changing sources of
incoming data.

What are the problems that you want to solve?

There are a number of different reasons you’d want to implement a new EPM solution, but these are the biggest problems we see:

• Data is disparate and siloed: With multiple SaaS tools and data sources scattered across an enterprise, no single source of data truth can be found. Businesses need a credible, real-time view of all information sources to plan effectively.
• Disparate teams make collaboration difficult:
What businesses need is a way for teams to 
work together, at the time of their choosing, 
via an easy-to-use platform to drive the 
business forward.
• It’s hard to change direction:
Rigid, legacy tools lack the features and integration necessary to quickly execute and pivot to new strategies. Businesses require a full-view of their operations and the means to achieve this unified perspective, so they can quickly adapt their plans when their business needs change.

While you’re assessing a potential solution, keep your biggest problem in mind - it’ll inform how much weighting you give the evaluation criteria we’ll list in the next part of the guide.

02. The nine critical success factors

With so many business/financial planning solutions available, evaluating the choices is simplified by understanding the critical success factors (CSFs) whose actions and activities enable a business to achieve its goals.

Ease of Integration

Companies have invested a lot of time and money in their technology stacks, building them with a multitude of functional systems (e.g., ERP, CRM, HRIS) and the business applications that comprise the systems (e.g., Workday, Personio, MS Azure, Sage Intacct, Excel, NetSuite, SAP).

But to collect accurate data in real-time from these systems, providing you with a single source of truth is difficult. Look for EPM platforms that easily integrate with your existing tech stack to free your team from time-consuming data consolidation work while avoiding data transfer errors. In addition to offering native integrations, a prospective vendor should be able to offer generic APIs to enable in-house building of custom integrations using standard extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes.

At the end of the day, accurate, large-data imports that occur readily, while reducing dependency on the enterprise’s IT infrastructure, should be easily obtained.

Process Automation

Process automation is all about the need for speed. Does the solution shorten the time required to build dynamic, multidimensional models? Can it provide interactive reports based on real-time data for everyone to use, from analysts up to the C-suite? Can you run what-if-scenarios on the fly, to plan for contingencies and estimate the impact of events and decisions, within minutes?

Ask for demonstrations, evidence-backed specifications and other proof points regarding process automation.

Ease of Use

Every business application comes with its own branding, graphics and format. Does your future planning application combine the information into stunning reports and forecasts, using a visually pleasing (and productivity enhancing) interface? Specific to running comprehensive what-if scenarios in minutes, the ability to easily change assumptions and compare scenarios often hinges on easily created tables and waterfall charts.

These visualizations make it easy to see what lies behind the numbers. But it’s not just about the end product. An interface with superior visualization qualities also makes interrogating the data easier. Ensure your vendor’s offering provides an elegant,
clear interface to users.

Additionally, offering separate BI tools for reporting needs on planning data should be a red flag. They add unnecessary complexity and costs to an EPM solution, which should already have the needed reporting abilities built-in.

There’s another, more forward-looking point on ease of use to consider. Wouldn’t it be nice if anyone within your company could get quick answers to the financial questions that matter to them in an intuitive way? Ask your potential vendor about how AI fits into their product roadmap - with Pigment AI, soon anyone in your company will be able to interact with the software using natural language in a familiar chat-like interface.