Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
Enabling Finance to answer the question that matter, when they matter
If your Board asked what your margin would look like if your biggest contract renewed at a lower rate, how quickly could you give them an answer? It’s a great question, and your finance team probably has a good sense of where the answer lies. Getting to a confident figure, though, often means pulling numbers from different systems and working them through a model built some years ago, all while the decision is waiting. With the right tools in place, that answer can be ready in moments, so your Board can make decisions with the full picture in front of them. Codestone helps you get there, bringing your data together so questions like this become quick and easy to answer.
What EPM is,
and how does it differ from ERP?
EPM is the layer that sits above your transactional systems. It handles the work finance does to make the numbers useful: planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidating, closing and the reporting that goes to the Board, the auditors and the regulator.
ERP and EPM are easy to confuse, so it helps to be plain. ERP records what happened. It captures the invoice, the purchase order, the stock movement. EPM is where you plan what should happen and explain what did. If your ERP is the ledger, EPM is the argument you build on top of it. Most finance teams already do all of this in spreadsheets, and the spreadsheets stop scaling long before anyone admits it.
What it covers
Planning, budgeting and forecasting
Planning is usually where the pain is felt most. An annual budget that takes 11 weeks and is out of date by February has become an administrative burden. EPM turns it into something you can rerun, with driver-based models, rolling forecasts and scenarios you can build in an afternoon, so you reforecast when the market moves and the calendar stops setting the pace.
Consolidation and close
Here is where the risk sits. Group consolidation done in a spreadsheet is fragile in a specific way: it probably works, but only one person fully understands why. EPM moves that logic into a system, applying inter-company matching, currency translation and ownership rules the same way every period, with an audit trail already in place when somebody asks for it.
Regulatory and disclosure reporting
Nobody chooses this part, but everybody needs it. Statutory accounts, regulator-specific returns and disclosure management all draw on the same numbers, and preparing them from a separate set of workings is how inconsistencies reach published documents. Working from one source takes that whole category of error away.
Profitability and analysis
The rest is what makes this possible. Once the data is trustworthy and the close is quick enough to leave time for thinking, you can ask which customers, products or contracts actually make money once cost is allocated properly. That question is often why finance wanted the platform in the first place, and it is usually the last thing to arrive.
Planning, budgeting and forecasting
Planning is usually where the pain is felt most. An annual budget that takes 11 weeks and is out of date by February has become an administrative burden. EPM turns it into something you can rerun, with driver-based models, rolling forecasts and scenarios you can build in an afternoon, so you reforecast when the market moves and the calendar stops setting the pace.
Consolidation and close
Here is where the risk sits. Group consolidation done in a spreadsheet is fragile in a specific way: it probably works, but only one person fully understands why. EPM moves that logic into a system, applying inter-company matching, currency translation and ownership rules the same way every period, with an audit trail already in place when somebody asks for it.
Regulatory and disclosure reporting
Nobody chooses this part, but everybody needs it. Statutory accounts, regulator-specific returns and disclosure management all draw on the same numbers, and preparing them from a separate set of workings is how inconsistencies reach published documents. Working from one source takes that whole category of error away.
Profitability and analysis
The rest is what makes this possible. Once the data is trustworthy and the close is quick enough to leave time for thinking, you can ask which customers, products or contracts actually make money once cost is allocated properly. That question is often why finance wanted the platform in the first place, and it is usually the last thing to arrive.
Key elements of EPM
Accessing information
across the business
EPM accesses financial and operational data from business units across your organisation, from finance to HR to sales. The data can be sourced from a range of systems, from ecommerce systems, data warehouses, front and back-office applications, and external data sources. Wherever your data is held, EPM brings it together and makes sense of it.
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Creating a strategic plan
As a fast-growing company, your needs are beginning to outpace your current system capabilities. As your business grows, you need to put best-practice processes in place.
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Budget
EPM gives you a financial overview of all lines of business and allows you to plan and build flexible budgets. The workflow process is typically automated, improving efficiency.
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Track and Report
Real-time data lets you assess performance across the company and determine whether changes are needed. You can then prepare management reports that are compliant and align with regulatory guidance.
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Assess and Analyse
EPM lets you review performance and profitability against your plan. It also helps you find and fix underperforming areas, spot new opportunities and take a data-driven approach to strategic planning.
Deep Dive in EPM Processes
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Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting
Navigate the uncertain, ever-changing commercial environment with confidence
Learn more
The platforms, and how the choice gets made
Codestone implements CCH Tagetik, through our partnership with Wolters Kluwer, alongside SAP Analytics Cloud and reporting built on Microsoft Power BI and Fabric. Each is a strong platform that can plan, consolidate and report, so the real question is which one suits your business best.
CCH Tagetik · SAP Analytics Cloud · Power BI and Fabric reporting
We’ll help you find the right fit by looking together at what matters most to you: the statutory and regulatory requirements you work with, how many currencies and ownership structures your consolidation needs to handle, whether your finance team would like to own the model or have it looked after for them, and how your existing data and ERP are set up. From there, Codestone will recommend the option that gives you the most value, and if a lighter solution would serve you better, we’ll always tell you honestly.
Working with Codestone on EPM
Our first step together is getting to know how your close and planning cycle really work day to day, including any workarounds your team has built up over time. Understanding those gives us a true picture of what your finance team needs and where the biggest improvements can be made.
From there, Codestone designs the model hand in hand with your team, so it reflects the way you work and everyone understands how it fits together. That shared understanding means your people can use it with confidence and adapt it as the business changes. Delivery happens in carefully planned phases, so your current processes keep running smoothly while the new model takes shape. As handover is part of the plan from the very beginning, your team will feel fully ready to take ownership when the time comes, with Codestone still close at hand whenever you’d like more support.
What does EPM cost?
The cost of your EPM solution depends mainly on what you’d like it to do, whichever platform you choose. Subscriptions are usually based on the number of users and the modules you need, while implementation reflects how your current systems are set up and how much you’d like to bring in at once. A focused consolidation and close project is a smaller, more manageable first step than a full planning and reporting programme, which is why many organisations choose to start with the close and build from there as they see the value.
Whatever your plans, Codestone will work through the options with you and shape a scope that fits your needs and your budget, so you only invest in what will make a real difference to your business.
Customer Success Stories
Savills
Savills, a global real estate services provider, partnered with Codestone for a new secure wireless network at their flagship London HQ. The wireless infrastructure provides a reliable, secure service over six floors, supporting the highly mobile environment of the office. The result is a fast and dependable connection that enhances the service experience for Savills’ clients.
EBB Group
EBB Group, a leader in distribution and manufacturing, experienced a transformation with Codestone that revolutionised their operations. With our help, they were able to streamline their processes, improve efficiency, and deliver better service to their customers.
Mundipharma
Mundipharma, a global player in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, partnered with Codestone to drive their transformation. The partnership resulted in improved operational efficiency, enhanced customer satisfaction, and significant cost savings.
Customer stories
Mundipharma, a global pharmaceutical company, runs finance across more than 80 associated companies, each with its own ERP, feeding month-end figures into a central portal that limited what anyone could see. CCH Tagetik gave them one place for the numbers, with automated workflow and drill-down, and they consistently hit their working day three and seven reporting deadlines.
Roger Miller, who leads project services and PMO at Mundipharma IT Services, put the relationship this way:
“Codestone is much more than simply a technical resource, it is our trusted business partner helping to ensure we fully optimise and future proof how we deploy CCH Tagetik.”
Mundipharma, a global pharmaceutical company, runs finance across more than 80 associated companies, each with its own ERP, feeding month-end figures into a central portal that limited what anyone could see. CCH Tagetik gave them one place for the numbers, with automated workflow and drill-down, and they consistently hit their working day three and seven reporting deadlines.
Roger Miller, who leads project services and PMO at Mundipharma IT Services, put the relationship this way:
“Codestone is much more than simply a technical resource, it is our trusted business partner helping to ensure we fully optimise and future proof how we deploy CCH Tagetik.”
Why Codestone for EPM
For 30 years, Codestone has been implementing finance systems, and EPM is where that experience really comes into its own. Over time we’ve seen a huge range of group structures and consolidation challenges, so we know what works well and how to get it right first time. That knowledge shapes every design we create with you.
Our CCH Tagetik practice holds Platinum partner status with Wolters Kluwer, and we’re ISO 27001 registered for information security, giving you complete confidence that your group financials are in safe hands. We can also look after everything that sits underneath. The same team can implement the ERP your EPM draws from, manage your data platform and support both once they’re live, so if you ever want to trace a number from a report back to its original transaction, you’ll have one partner who understands the whole journey.
Common questions
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What is EPM in simple terms?
The systems and processes finance uses to plan, consolidate, close and report, as opposed to the systems that record day-to-day transactions. If your team plans in one place, consolidates in another and reports in a third, EPM joins those up.
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Is EPM the same as CPM?
Yes. Corporate Performance Management is the older term and Enterprise Performance Management is the current one. Some vendors say Financial Performance Management for the same thing.
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Do we need EPM if we already have an ERP?
Often, yes. A single-company business with a good ERP may get what it needs from the ERP’s own reporting. Once you consolidate several companies, run scenarios, or build a budget with many contributors, the spreadsheets around the ERP become the real system, and that is when EPM can help.
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How long does an EPM implementation take?
Typically between a few months and a year, depending on how much you bring in, from consolidation and close to planning and reporting. Most organisations phase the work to keep it manageable.
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Will our finance team be able to maintain it?
Ownership of the platform can sit with your team, with us or be split. We will work in partnership with you to decide the best way to maintain your system.
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