SAP Analytics
Thought Leadership

Recall your last few project status meetings. The project manager reviews the open tasks and asks for progress. The technical team reviews and responds with answers such as 50% complete, 90% complete, 34.7% complete, etc, etc, etc……. but what does it all mean?

Topics: Thought Leadership, Project Management, Implementation, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

Budget and Forecast – Are They The Same?

Posted by Martin Lloyd on Mon, Feb 03, 2014 @ 09:02 AM

When we report on actual data we are clear what we are looking at: the data will have been taken from our transaction systems and will have been produced in agreement with generally accepted accounting standards.  It will represent the actual performance of the organisation. But when we look at budget or forecast data are we as clear what the data represents?

Topics: Center of Excellence, Thought Leadership, Financial Close, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation), Forecasting

Rolling Forecasts – Effecting EPM Techniques

Posted by Martin Lloyd on Wed, Jul 17, 2013 @ 11:07 AM

In a previous blog I examined the trend away from the traditional annual budget and periodic reforecasting regime and towards the rolling forecast. I’d now like to examine the particular factors which are driving companies towards rolling forecasts and the implications that this has on the required tools and methodologies.

Topics: Best Practices, Process Improvement, Excel, Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Financial Information Management, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation), Forecasting

What is a Center or Excellence?

That is a very good question and one that we get a lot from our customers. The generally accepted definition of a Center of Excellence (CoE from here on out) is a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, evangelization, best practices, research, support and/or training for a focus area. In the case of Column5 that focus area is the successful implementation of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions.So how does this team help our customers?

Topics: Center of Excellence, Best Practices, Thought Leadership, EPM Maturity, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)

Spilled Beer and the Key to EPM Value

Posted by David Den Boer on Wed, May 22, 2013 @ 12:05 PM

"They spill more beer than we make in a year!" That line was from a great beer commercial for a small brewery that claimed small, handmade batches (or microbrews) were superior to the huge commercial operations of the beer manufacturing kings. Consequently, sales of "microbrews" took off, with consumers deciding that selecting a personal favorite from a market rich with a variety of choices was superior to buying beer from the monolith that had "regular" and "light" to choose from.

Topics: Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Roadmap, Value, Data, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

EPM Training: From Strategy to Execution

Posted by Jennifer Harlan on Thu, Dec 06, 2012 @ 09:12 AM

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?

Topics: Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Training, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

The Cloud: EPM Bust or Solution?

Posted by David Den Boer on Tue, Nov 13, 2012 @ 12:11 PM

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.

Topics: Thought Leadership, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Cloud, Performance, Value, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)