To transform your organization into a performance-driven one, you need Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions that link your processes and data together to provide a common view of your business. You also need to ensure these software solutions are properly installed and tuned on the back end, as well as making sure they are optimally configured to meet your business needs on the front end. Those needs being met, and -- depending on the size of your implementation -- hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars later, the success of your implementation still hangs in the balance. Are your finance and IT departments equipped to maintain the solution moving forward? Are your users knowledgeable and enthusiastic about using the new tools in which you've invested so much time and money?

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It seems like another age now, looking back at the various roles I had to play as an OutlookSoft implementation consultant. Often working by myself, or if I was lucky, with the assistance of a another more junior consultant, I was expected to liaise with the client to analyse requirements, produce a design, build, test, and deploy the solution while at the same time providing customer training and technical infrastructure expertise. My evenings were typically spent trawling websites and forums, keeping up with the latest service packs and patches along with findings from other consultants out in the field. The saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none' pretty well sums up what a BPC consultant needed to be in those simpler times.

A cloud buster is a device invented by Austrian Wilhelm Reich, who claimed to be able to produce rain by draining energy from the cloud--effectively "busting a cloud." This far-fetched claim reminds me of some of the outlandish claims being made about how revolutionary cloud technology is these days. The fact is, the cloud has its place for some customers, but it is not quite the ultimate enterprise performance management (EPM)solution as it may be billed. The goal of this post is to discuss the realities, pros, and cons of the cloud deployment model that is becoming more popular in the market.

Like it or not, we are a business society of metrics and when it comes to enterprise performance management (EPM), few are more important than return on investment (ROI). You have two ways to increase your EPM ROI: increase the gain from investment or reduce the cost of investment. We are steadfast believers that partnering with Column5 is the best way to optimize your gains, but today I want to discuss how you can control your costs, no matter the size of your company. The easiest way to reduce costs is to focus on reducing your cost per model (application BPC 7.5 and earlier).

In two of my previous blog posts, I've discussed the problems with Excel Hell and the compromises that can result from using spreadsheets as an enterprise performance management (EPM) tool. Now, let's get positive: How can you unwind the layers of compromise in your current solution to unlock the promise of EPM?