Lifeline

Extend Your BPC Investment with Confidence and Control

In the world of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), software vendors often declare the "end" of a product's lifecycle long before it ends its valuable service for you—terminating mainstream maintenance, cutting investments in enhancements, and shifting focus to newer offerings. Take SAP BPC's End of Mainstream Maintenance (EOMM) for certain versions, or Oracle's similar decisions for Hyperion products: Years before official support ends, updates dwindle, yet customers are left paying for diminished benefits while their systems remain mission-critical. This vendor-driven timeline can force hasty decisions, disrupting operations and eroding the value of your hard-earned investments. We empathize with the frustration of feeling pressured to switch—retraining users, rebuilding content, and risking instability—when your proven solution like BPC is still delivering reliably.

At Column5 Consulting, we see this differently: The choice to evolve should be on your timeline, not dictated by vendor agendas. As the most trusted voice in BPC, we've guided countless organizations through these transitions; as a proud Value Added Reseller (VAR) for the Darwin Marketplace and a prestigious System Integrator (SI) for SAP, Vena, and more products, we offer the Lifeline program to extend support past official end dates.

This isn't just maintenance—it's a bridge to empowerment, providing 24/7 access to skilled resources, ongoing enhancements (e.g., supporting BPC on advanced SQL Server versions beyond SAP's scope), access to product selection services from the team you have relied on, and early access to multi-product integration via Darwin Analytics' Agentic Orchestration Platform (AOP). Lifeline lets you intelligently extend the life of solutions like BPC or SAP BFC, exploring alternatives without chaos when you're ready.

Why Entrust Column5's Team With Your Mature EPM Solution? 

Column5 has a long history of meeting the most complex customer's needs. Our team of global experts are available to you 24/7 when your critical cycles are running. Keep your mission critical EPM solution battle ready when you need it most. 

Why Lifeline?

Empowering Your Timeline in a Vendor-Driven World

Vendors may sunset support, but your needs don't vanish overnight. Lifeline addresses this gap by:

• Extending Beyond Vendor Limits: Continue relying on BPC indefinitely, with enhancements to underlying tech that keep it modern and functional—far past EOMM.
• Mitigating Switch Risks: Retraining and rebuilding take time and resources; Lifeline buys you that time, avoiding forced migrations that disrupt value.
• Holistic Empowerment:  24/7 diagnostics/resolutions for assurance in short to medium term. Plan to have BPC for longer? Consider adding Darwin Analytics' AOP integration for multi-tool harmony to ease a transition model by model with minimal disruption. Add AI features with CoPilot or Darwin AOP, and when do you do decide to migrate - consider Column5's selection services to evaluate options calmly.
• Customer-Centric Focus: We believe 10+ year software lifecycles deserve protection; Lifeline ensures steady, transparent operations while you plan ahead.

Clients often extend system life by 3-5 years, mitigating risky swaps that cost more than expected in resources and rocky processes to polish over time. Compare an orderly and comfortable transition versus jarring and premature switches, to cultivate user confidence while maintaining process agility.

How Lifeline Works

We provide structured, flexible support to sustain and enhance your investment:

1. Assessment & Onboarding: Review your setup for version compatibility, identify any active challenges, confirm configuration options present in your landscape, train your support contacts on our ticketing system...then activate 24/7 coverage with SLAs.
2. Ongoing Maintenance: Handle diagnostics, resolutions, to keep systems running smoothly.
3. Proactive Value Extension: Evaluate benefits of AI integration, Observability, Darwin Analytics' AOP for integrations with or transitions to other products, and more, plus quarterly reviews to align with your evolving needs.
4. Transition Guidance: When ready, leverage product selection services for seamless exploration of alternatives.
5. Scalable Enhancements: Add hosting or managed services for full peace of mind.

This program complements our support offerings for comprehensive care.