Keys to Oracle EPM implementation success

Whether delivering forecasts, reconciling accounts or reporting on performance, finance teams today need fast access to accurate, up-to-date data. Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) gives you a set of integrated solutions to help steer performance and drive your strategic decision-making.

At Inoapps, we help our customers implement and get the most out of their EPM solutions every day. Here are our top five things to keep in mind when you’re planning your project.

1. Adopt, don’t adapt

Remember that this is about improving your processes, not just automating what you already do. Be ready to adopt new ways of working rather than trying to customize your app to work the way you do. Oracle EPM comes pre-built with best practices to help you achieve this. Keep in mind that EPM software updates happen monthly and every customization you have would need to be tested with each one of those updates.

2. Get hands on with your data

Clear insights need clean data. EPM pulls together data from different back-end systems, and if you want accurate insights, you need to make sure that data is consistent and that hierarchies are aligned. Establish solid data governance with clearly defined ownership and responsibilities for both the implementation and ongoing data management.

3. Get your teams on board

The project needs a team with diverse skills. To kick things off, you’ll need a project sponsor who owns the business case, and Subject Matter Experts to help establish solution requirements. Next comes the functional experts. This includes someone internal with knowledge of your existing processes, plus external experts familiar with EPM. Supporting them will be technical experts for integration and reporting, testing, training, and potentially change management.

Once the initial implementation is finished, the work isn’t over! To ensure full benefits and value are achieved from your Oracle EPM suite, it’s important to keep a team on the ground to help with support and future enhancements.

4. Test early and keep testing samples small

Testing is critical and should include internal team members who understand the project. Develop your test plan and user stories early and test throughout the implementation, not just at the end. Use datasets that are small enough to complete rapid test cycles, otherwise tests can take hours to run—but ensure test data is as close to your final environment as possible for best results.

5. Document the new processes

Document the steps that form part of a process. Processes can be easily forgotten—especially ones that are only performed once or twice a month. Documentation is also valuable when you’re onboarding new team members and helps with testing, training and all future services.

Would you like to know more? You can explore this topic in more depth in our full whitepaper: Things to consider when implementing Enterprise Performance Management

Or get in touch for a chat with me or one of the other EPM experts here at Inoapps.