Whether you work for a privately-owned company, are a part of a nationwide network of health systems, work in education, run a small non-profit organization, or anything else in between, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions can benefit you.
From helping you link your business strategy to business models and plans to improving profitability and bringing significant improvement to your financial information management processes, EPM solutions, and especially SAP EPM, were made for this.
Read on to learn more about enterprise performance management, SAP’s EPM solution specifically, and how our team of consultants can meet your needs.
What is Enterprise Performance Management?
Enterprise performance management (EPM) is a process designed to help companies budget, plan, forecast, and report on business performance, improve financial and operational insight, and outline more efficient processes for “closing the books”.
Modern EPM systems operate in the cloud, giving users greater functionality, greater data storage capabilities, easier integration, and more.
Key Capabilities of EPM Systems
EPM solutions help with everything from financial consolidation to end-of-year closing processes, financial planning, data management, and more.
Here are a few of the main capabilities EPM tools offer for users in any organization and any industry:
Comprehensive Data Access
EPM systems give companies the ability to leverage cloud-based functionality and agility to access important information throughout their entire organization, regardless of department or business unit.
With an outlined EPM process, users can access and analyze data from multiple different sources, including data warehouses, front and back office applications, and other external data sources.
With more comprehensive access to disparate data sources in the same place, EPM solutions allow users to not only use more accurate and reliable data to make better decisions, but also to more proactively respond to issues within the system or the organization as a whole.
Strategic Planning
With integrated analytics solutions, like those offered in modern EPM solutions, companies have more resources at their fingertips to make decisions that are driven by accurate data and create a business strategy that meets both their organizational needs and the needs of their employees.
An EPM system allows users to leverage enhanced data analysis capabilities to create feasible forecasts for financial data in the future and use ad hoc reporting functionality to improve system performance and profitability in the long run.
Budgeting
With EPM, companies can use integrated platform capabilities to not only collect data and store it in the same solution, but also work more collaboratively across all business units, brining significant improvement to workforce efficiency and cohesion across the board.
And, direct integration between employees and areas of an organization allow for companies to make quicker, more effective decisions when it comes to budgeting and financial planning.
By working collaboratively throughout the organization, finance teams can create more flexible budgets to be able to withstand change throughout both an organization and the entire industry.
Data Monitoring and Assessment
EPM systems offer real-time data analytics and reporting tools that allow users to view data, assess performance, prepare reports, and make adjustments whenever and wherever they need to.
This not only helps companies remain compliant with rules and regulations, but it also gives them a better opportunity to review both profitability and performance as they compare to the overall strategic business plan.
How Do SAP EPM Solutions Set Themselves Apart?
The SAP Enterprise Performance Management solution offers the tools needed to help organizations reduce total cost of ownership (TOC) and improve interoperability between data sources and systems.
The solution also provides direct integration with the SAP HANA platform and other functional SAP modules, tools and applications to further improve visibility, functionality, and efficiency across the board.
SAP EPM products leverage the power of the SAP Analytics Cloud to support flexible financial user interfaces, minimize risks throughout the system, eliminate system downtime, and facilitate better decision making throughout the entire enterprise.
SAP EPM solutions include…
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- SAP S/4HANA Group Reporting
- SAP Financial Consolidation
- SAP Disclosure Management
- SAP Financial Information Management
- SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP EPM versions for both NetWeaver and SAP BW)
Main Advantages of SAP EPM
Businesses of differing sizes, scales, and industries have continuously leveraged the SAP EPM system to improve overall data visibility throughout the enterprise, standardize financial management processes, and integrate solutions to improve profitability, reduce costs, and limit risk to your company.
Here are the main benefits of using SAP EPM software in your organization:
- Financial Consolidation
- SAP EPM software helps companies outline a more efficient financial consolidation processes, making it easier for them to keep up with compliance and meet the requirements of regulatory requirements throughout the company, industry, and world.
- Profitability & Cost Management
- SAP business planning solutions, like Enterprise Performance Management, offer activity-based planning, budgeting, and “what if” scenarios to ensure decisions are made quickly and effectively throughout the entire organization.
- Budgeting and Forecasting
- SAP’s Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) platform offers a single system that helps not only facilitate strategy management, financial consolidation, budgeting, forecasting profitability analysis, and disclosure management functions to maintain a secure, reliable end-to-end EPM process.
- SAP Strategy Management
- SAP Strategy Management tools give users the opportunity to identify key business objectives, outline specific initiatives to manage data more effectively, and give all employees and stakeholders access to dashboards, reports, and other key analytics tools.
- Business Intelligence Integration
- With integration between SAP EPM and other business intelligence (BI) tools, users have the ability to leverage improved data visualizations and enhanced reporting and analysis functions to improve overall business integration and interoperability between systems and business units.
What is the EPM Add-In?
SAP’s EPM system offers an “EPM add-in” solution that gives users the opportunity to analyze data from multiple different EPM solutions at the same time, simplifying master data management and optimizing business performance.
The EPM add-ins offer connection to a few key data sources, including…
- Microsoft Office Excel
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint
- Microsoft Office Word
- and more
These “add-ins” are intended give more comprehensive access to data located in SAP BusinessObjects EPM solutions and to facilitate data analysis and reporting on such data.
Partnering with the Experts
Whether your team needs help implementing a new SAP EPM solution from the beginning, optimizing your current integrations for better functionality, leveraging key add-in features to improve process efficiency, or anything else SAP-related, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our team of senior-level SAP consultants has the skills, experience, and technical expertise needed to help your team succeed, regardless of the size, scale, or scope of your project.
Your company. Your needs. Our expertise. That’s the name of the game for us.
Getting Started with Us
Interested in learning more about our SAP consulting services? We’re here to help.
Need more information to understand where our consultants could fit in your organization? We’ve got you covered there too.
Contact us to learn more about SAP Business Planning solutions or get started with one of our expert SAP consultants today.
