5 EPM Best Practices to Implement Right Now

1. Choose the Right EPM System

Selecting an EPM system that doesn’t meet  your current and future needs is short-sighted and can lead to the need to replace the system within a few years.

When evaluating and selecting an EPM system, organizations need to consider their current as well as future requirements.  Ask yourself the following questions;  Will we need to heavily customize the system to meet our immediate needs?  That can add time and costs to the implementation and make it difficult to upgrade in the future.  Will the system meet our future requirements as the organization grows and increases in complexity?  If you quickly outgrow the system in terms of capabilities, or scalability, that will likely require you to implement other systems that need to be integrated, or to pursue a full replacement – which will be costly and time-consuming. The first step in deriving a strong ROI on EPM system is to select the right system for both your current and future business needs.

2. Make Sure Everyone is Using the EPM System

If some workers are still hoarding spreadsheets or other manual processes, that means that not all of the data is stored in the system. Inadequate or incomplete data will not yield the right results, meaning the EPM analytics is skewed or is totally incorrect. Additionally, if some workers are failing to use the streamlined processes afforded by an EPM solution, they are taking more time than necessary and producing less work than they could — straining resources and harming productivity. For EPM software to be successful, all of the workers have to buy in and use the system properly.

3. Make Information Available Company Wide

The data collected and processed by an EPM system is useful across the organization, not just in the finance department. Businesses that learn to make this information available to other departments can empower their companies to reach greater heights. In fact, the difference between a business overtaking its competitors is often their willingness and ability to share information liberally so that the entire organization can make improvements and demonstrate agility.

4. Keep Finance in Charge of EPM

Though sharing the information offers huge potential, the ownership of the EPM system still belongs to the finance department. The CFO is in the best position to assure that data is entered into the system as it should be and that the proper analytics and reporting are conducted to make the best possible use of that data. Centralizing this process within the finance department also assures that compliance guidelines are met, that proper forecasting can be done with the data, and that the users are properly trained on the EPM software.

5. Be Sure Training and Improvements are Ongoing

 

In order for an EPM solution to be successful, training can’t be a one-and-done process. The workers who hire on a year or two years after the system is implemented should be afforded the same training as those who were there when the software was first made available to the workers. If training is allowed to slip over time, the usefulness and power of the EPM solution will slide along with it.