Since its early OutlookSoft days, BPC has always been touted as a tool that enables finance teams to become independent from IT so they can wield control of the system during crunch time. Fast forward to SAP acquiring BPC, many SAP shops pride themselves on have the internal capabilities to own their systems, period. It isn’t shocking that many of our clients have come ready to meet the challenge of proper care and usage with an internal team. Column5 applauds this approach and has created numerous tools to help your team succeed:
Topics:
Center of Excellence,
Project Management,
Training,
Innovation,
best
This past weekend, I was cleaning out a closet and I came across a box that once contained a 14.4k baud PC Modem. Already a relic in its own right, to further drive home the point that this particular device is obsolete, I saw the box complete with some marketing slogans splashed across the top: “Lightning fast!”, “Get more done in less time!” I couldn’t stop the smile from coming across my face as I half snorted, thinking these phrases were very humorous.
Topics:
Process Improvement,
Thought Leadership,
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM),
Innovation,
BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)
You arrive to work after dealing with traffic during the 45 minute morning commute. After opening your online calendar the queasy and immediate reminder of the back to back meetings that begin your day. Suddenly, the familiar ding of the new email notification. You open the email to read that, despite your looming project deadline, your boss wants the team to attend an 8 hour mandatory training session held by the ACME training company on the new widget software application...tomorrow.
Topics:
Training,
Innovation,
Value
SAP released the latest update to the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) roadmap on March 19th. Although I won’t go into great detail on the roadmap or discuss every new feature, I will provide high level overview of the highlights as I see them.
Topics:
HANA,
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM),
Innovation,
Roadmap,
Value,
Data,
BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)
I've been implementing planning solutions for many years. One of the areas that we often find on the agenda for a planning application design meeting -- or, if it's not on the agenda, something we will bring up -- is the question of whether the organisation has a separate budgeting cycle or whether the budget has been subsumed into a rolling forecast process.
Topics:
Process Improvement,
Excel,
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM),
Project Management,
Innovation,
Performance,
Roadmap,
Forecasting
As Column5 continues to reach out to the global marketplace and engage clients with an international presence and user base, developing Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) with multiple language capabilities has become all the more important. I recently came across a customer challenge that illustrates how getting it right often means keeping it simple.
Topics:
Best Practices,
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM),
Training,
Innovation

When testing and enhancing BusinessObjects Planning & Consulting (BPC) performance, it's essential that users provide the correct information about what they are doing. The following checklist can help you ensure you are comparing apples to apples—in other words, that users that are performing the same processes (reports, input schedules, etc.) when determining user performance of that specific process.
Topics:
Business Intelligence (BI),
Innovation,
Performance,
Data

In Choosing the Ideal EPM Implementation Partner, Part 1 , I discussed the three components for an effective enterprise performance management capability: the process state of your company, technological capabilities, and your implementation partner. Today, let's dig into the 8 essential qualities to look for in an implementation partner to best assist your internal team in achieving your objectives.
Topics:
Process Improvement,
Training,
Innovation,
Implementation