10 Key Reasons for Mid-Sized Companies to Modernize Consolidation

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by Talentia

  • Modern consolidation systems are not limited to legal consolidation, but can also support extensive management reporting as well as budgeting and forecasting.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: April 2022
  • Pages: 9
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

Full-featured consolidation and management reporting systems were often seen in the past as reserved for large enterprises, due to their cost and complexity. Increasingly, however, they have become more accessible to mid-sized (midmarket) businesses as newer solutions have become available that address their cost, ease of deployment, and usability criteria. As we are reminded by corporate Finance groups each year with their responses to the annual BPM Pulse survey by BPM Partners, consolidation remains ripe for improvement and time savings. Nearly half (46%) of the Finance groups who answered the Pulse survey take two weeks or longer to complete their monthly close. Only 16% finish in three days or less.

A Strong ROI Case for Finance Transformation

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by FYIsoft

  • Finance transformation projects can and should have a high ROI, as we’ll demonstrate through several cost savings/benefit scenarios in this whitepaper.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: February 2022
  • Pages: 15
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

Finance leaders struggle to balance increasing demands for finance function support with decreasing finance function budgets. As a result, 65% of finance teams are currently undergoing or planning a finance transformation effort. Even in the midmarket, more than 60% of companies have engaged in related projects. These initiatives are a combination of software modernization and process reengineering that aims to make planning and analysis more dynamic, frequent, forward-looking, collaborative, participatory, and inclusive of operations. In addition, manual processes are automated and streamlined which reduces errors, speeds up financial cycles, and leaves more time and resources available for analysis.

BPM Pulse 2021 Survey Results: What’s Next

/in /by BPM Partners
  • Benchmark your project and get new ideas from over 450 peer organizations that took part in this year’s BPM Pulse survey on budgeting, planning, reporting, consolidation, cloud, and mobile performance management. This document contains result highlights supported by charts and expert commentary.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: October 2021
  • Pages: 20
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form

Executive Summary:

The 2021 BPM Pulse survey was conducted during April/May 2021 and received over 450 valid responses. Only input from verifiable end user organizations was accepted.

The demographic breakdown:

  • Largest group of respondents came from North America (83%), followed by Europe (14%)
  • While many industries were represented the largest groups  came from manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, not for profit, government, construction, higher education
  • Company size – 7% small, 63% midmarket, 30% large/enterprise
  • Respondents came from IT and operations, but the largest group (58%) came from Finance, followed by senior executives (15%)
  • Both technology (cloud, mobile, AI, software vendor preference, role of Excel) as well as business topics (forecasting methodology, profitability optimization requirements, operational analytics focus, budgeting and reporting priorities, etc.) are covered. This year’s survey also included questions on the use of these systems to deal with the economic fallout from the pandemic, as well as what capabilities are needed for the next phase of challenges and potential recovery.

The Data Foundation Your CPM Initiative Needs to Succeed

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by DataRails

  • Crucial to the success of every BPM/CPM/EPM solution is a solid and well-conceived data foundation, which helps establish and maintain one authoritative set of numbers to give credibility to forecasts, budgets, reports and analysis.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: August 2021
  • Pages: 11
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

Companies preparing for a CPM project to upgrade their FP&A, often confront the obstacle of an incomplete or poorly built data foundation. Data quality issues and information siloes are common, data transformations may be difficult, and manual processes for accumulating information typically need to be replaced. Without a proper data foundation, different business units may disagree on which version of the truth is the correct one, and the organization will struggle to agree on performance outcomes and metrics. Lack of trust in the numbers will hinder decision-making.

Accelerating Finance Transformation

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by Acterys

  • By staging the project and selecting rapid-deployment software, the benefits of finance transformation can be realized more rapidly.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: May 2021
  • Pages: 15
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

There are ways to accelerate the benefits of finance transformation: take it in stages, with rapid reforecasting and analysis as a first priority. Choose software that has proven it can be deployed and implemented rapidly, and specifically a unified platform where integration with source systems is streamlined. Look for features that will entice Operations to adopt and use the new software readily and without a learning curve.

Leveraging Financial Consolidation to Manage Through Uncertainty

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by Fluence Technologies

  • Learn how streamlined financial consolidation can be a major asset in helping mid-sized companies navigate through times of major change and disruption.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: December 2020
  • Pages: 12
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

Having a single platform process financial data, regardless of source, helps ensure that companies can achieve that all important ‘one version of the truth’. This reliable and consistent data set can then be used to feed instant production of high quality reports and ultimately better informed decision-making.

10 Key Requirements for Next Level Financial Consolidation

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by Board

  • Discover how large companies can achieve sweeping benefits with a full-scale, comprehensive makeover of financial consolidation, enacted incrementally.
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: July 2020
  • Pages: 11
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

Consolidation is a foundational element of any corporate performance management solution today. Improved management reporting, for example, which is cited as a primary driver in two-thirds of all CPM/BPM projects, relies heavily on consolidation functionality. This whitepaper recommends a set of ten key criteria for selecting a consolidation solution and gives real-life examples of several major companies that “took consolidation to the next level”.

Managing Performance in a Tough Economy

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by Prophix

  • Learn how performance management systems can help you manage through challenging economic conditions
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: April 2020
  • Pages: 8
  • Request your copy today by completing the White Papers Request form.

Executive Summary:

In difficult economic times, it becomes more important than ever for companies of any size to manage performance efficiently, as well as to be flexible and adaptable in a volatile environment. This is even more crucial for midmarket organizations. In order to be able to move quickly and adapt, it is imperative to have software that can keep pace with changing circumstances, by allowing management to quickly envision and analyze alternate scenarios in order to plan the best course of action. This is easier said than done, as it requires a system in place that supports it. If modeling and analysis is a cumbersome process, it likely will not happen, or will be inadequate.

The Importance of AI in Corporate Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by prevero/Unit4

  • Learn about the benefits AI can bring to budgeting, forecasting, and planning
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: December 2018
  • Pages: 10
  • Now available for Instant Download.

Executive Summary:

Vendors of corporate performance management (CPM) software have begun to recognize the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in their products. Nearly all vendors have some AI-based features today, or under development for an upcoming release, but only a select handful have emphasized AI as a strategic, fundamental component. Customers have started to request AI in CPM systems, particularly for its value in predictive analytics and forecasting – which many in Finance already have experience using that predates the use of AI in this area. This white paper focuses on the role of AI in budgeting but some of the discussion is applicable to other areas of CPM and Finance as well. Due to its “high volume, accurate historical records, and quantitative nature”, Finance is well-suited for artificial intelligence.

Extending Performance Management for Company-Wide Benefits

/in /by BPM Partners

Sponsored by OneStream Software

  • Discover how to easily go beyond Finance with extended solutions for operations
  • Author: BPM Partners
  • Date: October 2017
  • Pages: 13
  • Now available for Instant Download.

Executive Summary:

Business performance management (BPM, also known as CPM or EPM) has established its place and importance in most corporate Finance departments. BPM applications are very effective at automating routine budgeting, planning, and forecasting tasks, as well as consolidation and reporting. This is the core of BPM, but it is just the beginning of the use cases for performance management in the enterprise. Businesses need measurement, analysis and insight, in a wide range of management tasks, and many users outside Finance are ready to put BPM to work in their jobs. Often, this requires extending or modifying the functionality, models, or analytics to fit a department or business unit.