What We Do

The name "Column5" is symbolic for what we do – help organizations through five stages of management process maturity. By helping you articulate the maturity stage you seek to achieve, we can define a roadmap that helps you avoid the issues that organizations often experience as they evolve their management processes.

Stage 1 – Automation Implement Enterprise Performance Management tools to automate and improve the accuracy of planning, budgeting, forecasting, measurement, reporting, analytics and consolidation processes. Replace error-prone spreadsheets with systems that enable broader collaboration and more sophisticated approaches, such as driver-based budgeting. In addition, make information more accessible with easy to use access tools and dashboards.

Stage 2 – Consolidation Consolidate data from EPM tools, data warehouses, data marts, ERP and other transaction systems into one system that provides easy access to a single view of financial, sales, marketing and operational data. One that is universally accepted across its functions, business units and legal entities. Leverage these "consolidation tools" to make information systems more responsive to organization changes and scenario analyses that are typically required to plan these changes. Improve reporting, analysis and key performance metrics by consistently applying universal business rules that reside in one place.

Stage 3 – Coordination Coordinate how strategy and related priorities are defined, communicated, executed and maintained throughout the organization. Establish formalized cost, performance, and prioritization frameworks and capabilities to achieve this, including the balanced scorecard, activity based costing and project and portfolio management.

Stage 4 – Integration Integrate strategic, financial and operational planning and performance measurement to expose performance risk, so that organizations can manage internal and external customer expectations and thereby execute strategy across multiple functions, business units and legal entities, while simultaneously improving planning effectiveness and business process performance.

Stage 5 – Transformation Establish a continuous and market driven planning process that can be executed monthly in 10 to 20 days. To support it, establish effective accountability for delivering customer value propositions and business results that span multiple functions, business units and legal entities. Equip Finance to leverage these capabilities to address recognized (cross functional) business issues, including product, customer and project portfolio optimization, cost and working capital reduction, managing shared and outsourced services, and realizing the full value of ERP and other IT initiatives.