Effective Goal Setting
Executive Summary: Many companies are poised to make a commitment in the near term to business performance management (BPM) which could include a focused investment in people, business process improvements, data re-architecture and technology. Some will leave behind a spreadsheet approach that gave them rudimentary BPM capabilities. Among the improvements they demand from the move are easier application administration, improved collaboration among users with data security and audit capabilities, and some of the broader benefits that come with BPM.
These benefits include greater accuracy of analysis and reports, a “single version of the truth” in company numbers, more actionable and real-time information, and ways to tie performance more closely to overall corporate strategy. The benefits are real and tangible, and there are many examples of success with BPM initiatives. Packaged analytic and planning applications offer key advantages over spreadsheetbased approaches. They include greater insight and accuracy, security, speed, collaboration, support for planning processes, and reliability. BPM applications are available with different delivery options: traditional on-premise implementations, hosted applications, and pre-configured appliance servers, and with interface choices that include web delivery, spreadsheet, and others. Furthermore, vertical market functionality is often incorporated, or available as an option, for specialties such as distribution, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, energy, and numerous others.
The legacy spreadsheet-based systems to be replaced with enterprise BPM are usually people-dependent, built by individual users who devised models for budgeting, analysis, and reporting. Companies now look to implement a process-dependent BPM application or platform that saves time, increases accuracy, allows more insight into results, and enables faster adjustments to improve corporate performance. However, some are deterred by the belief that a BPM implementation can be as long, demanding, and costly as a customer relationship management (CRM) or even an enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment. This skeptical view is not warranted.
By following a series of steps that are proven to reduce the risks of acquiring a new analytic and planning application, companies can ensure their successful transition and adoption of BPM. This white paper focuses on how to approach and carry out the transition from spreadsheets to a commercially developed BPM solution. The foundation for success is a structured approach with requirements definition, technology selection, vendor selection and product acquisition, implementation, rollout, and continual adaptation.
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