Gimme an EPM roadmap.............PLEASE!!!!

So I was in at a client the other week, a client that had pretty much every Hyperion product in the book.

My role was to review their proposal for creating an allocation model using HPCM (Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management).

I had read the internal documentation they had produced and I was really impressed, these guys knew what they were doing. They had obviously understood HPCM and I couldn't find fault with their plans.......great, I love a smart client.

So we chatted around the subject and then I asked the question "where do you do your reporting from?" And was told the following......

• If its group stat reporting it's from HFM
• If its group management reporting still from HFM
• If its management reporting from IT then the only solution we have with projects is an old Hyperion Enterprise system
• If its budget, it's Essbase
• If its budget in IT then they have a Hyperion Planning application

WTF?!?  These guys knew what they were doing, how could it have gone so wrong.

Each application in its own right has been implemented perfectly in its own right but where was the common reporting tool, where was the 'single version of the truth'? Where had it gone wrong?

Now I know this company had been assisted by various different consultancies over the years. Practically every one of our competitions had been in there at some time and some still were. I guess this was part of the problem.

As I was in London, I went for a beer with some friends, one of which was from one of our competitions that had previously worked with the client.  We started talking..............."The problem with that client...." He said "is that they have nobody looking at the big picture..................they've spent a fortune on their applications individually but there's nobody looking at the whole system landscape"

From the few hours I'd spent with the client, I couldn't agree more.

This company had probably spent about £2m over the previous 2 years and in doing so they’d probably created about £500k worth of problems.

So what should they have done…………….

………..Another one of my clients came to us recently and told me of their plans to radically change the landscape of their financial systems starting with £500k on a new planning solution.

I said “No”.

What we actually did was spend 20 days to develop a roadmap for their EPM development.  The output of this was to:

• Establish the Vision and Goals for the developments
• Analyse the GAP to the current state and best practice
• Align available technologies to best satisfy vision and goals
• Establish and confirm the Business Case
• Develop a tactical implementation plan covering:
• Implementation phases
• Financials
• Human Resource
• Training Strategy
• Testing Strategy
• Change Management & Communication Strategy
• Key Success Factors and Quality Criteria

This was done by conducting a series of interview with:

• Key Business Sponsors
• Key Business Users
• Other Relevant Influential areas of influence e.g. IT Infrastructure, training HR etc….

Obviously part of the roadmap was the reporting strategy.  It took 20 days to complete and the client now has a concrete plan for the development over the next 3 years.

Of course it can’t guarantee a completely smooth ride but I guarantee in three years’ time they won’t be reporting the same number out of 6 different systems!