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A Buyer's Guide to Business performance management Solutions
Business Performance Management Software Buyer’s Guide
Concrete knowledge about Balanced Scorecard, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Financial Management is an important driver of your business’s stability and growth. They are the fundamental tools that play important roles in managing the business overall performance. With focus on giving insightful recommendations on how to acquire and implement Business Performance Management software solutions, we at ITQlick.com would like to help you and your management team to become adept with the trends in this technology.
Business Performance Management (BPM) is different from Business Intelligence (BI). It would be appropriate to keep in mind that the first is under the umbrella of the second. Today, BPM software solution is an integral component of business for it is a system that aids in the execution of the financial functions of the organization. Current software solutions include forecasting, budgeting and planning functions, as well as graphical scorecards and dashboards that display and deliver business information. Also known as Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), this is truly a worth investing financial management solution.
Types
Business Performance Management is an enterprise-wide solution. So basically, this will require a significant investment from any business owner. But once implemented strategically, it will also guarantee positive transformations in your business.
The types of BPM software solutions can be overwhelming to review if your sources of information are not as organize as they should be. With our best efforts from ITQlick.com, here are the three broad categories of BPM that can help you arrive on a better understanding of this software platform.
By Vendor Offer
Specialized– These are the solutions that offer one or more of the basic components of performance management such as budgeting, planning, modelling, financial consolidation, disclosure management, reporting, and dashboards.
Comprehensive– These solutions link the operations aspects of your business into finance. It provides basic financial components together with operational elements such as operational analytics for sales, HR, services, IT, operational planning, profitability analysis and optimization.
Extended– These solutions are offered as a component of more sophisticated systems like ERP and Business Intelligence. What makes it entirely different from the comprehensive type is that extended solutions not only offer more comprehensive applications but also enables further development or enhancement of these applications to better match the requirements of business.
By Depth of Functionality
Budgeting/Forecasting- These are the solutions that offer top-down and bottom-up budgeting, planning and forecasting.
Modeling/Strategic Planning– This solution offers more flexibility in terms of functionality. Aside from the built-in functions for business modelling, it is also capable of creating strategic plans in accordance with the business’ overall mission and goals.
Financial Consolidation– This solution consolidates or integrates all finance-related functional areas of business into a single system.
By Technology or Deployment Model
Cloud-based– Also referred to as “multi-tenant” solution, this platform is accessible via the public cloud.
Hosted– This is the on-premise solution that can be hosted on a private cloud.
Mobile– Most software solution today can be fully accessed via your mobile phones and devices.
Features
Many BPM solutions today contain a wide range of built-in tools and features. There are solution packages that are designed to suit special business requirements. There are also packages offered based on the depth-of-functionality and these solutions can be purchased either individually or as a completely assembled package. On top of that, be advised that the features which you need to examine in-depth in a BPM solution are grouped into three important software attributes, and they are as follows.
Configuration
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Configurable Applications
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Configurable Workflow
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Customizable Fields and Forms
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Availability of Formulas and Calculations
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Application Program Interface and Integration
Reporting
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Dashboards, Toolbars and Scorecards
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Multiple Reporting Formats
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Alerts and Notifications
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Custom Calendars
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Data Import and Export Functions
Administration
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Data Security
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Multiple Location Management
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Mobile Functionality
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Browser Compatibility
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Culture/Region Adaptability and Language Translation
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Task Management
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Collaboration
Solutions per Business Size, per Vendor
Out of the many BPM solutions available in the market today, when it comes to selection, one thing is for sure; there is one solution that can truly bring your business into the peak of its performance.
Among of the established vendors that offer comprehensive to extended types of solutions are SAP, IBM and Oracle. These big three are well-known for on-premise solutions but they are also beginning to expand their breadth into the cloud. Adaptive Insights and Host Analytics are both global leaders in cloud Business Intelligence, Financial Management and CPM solutions. For SME market, Centage is among of the well-trusted providers of comprehensive solutions.
Other notable vendors are Longview, Tagetik, Axiom EPM, and Prophix. Their expertise revolves around Saas-based, hosted, and mobile-based solutions.
While industry leaders keep on introducing new features on their offered software products every 12 to 18 months, several solution providers are beginning to build their names by offering their unique solutions. Tidemark and Anaplan are both cloud-based providers of analytics and risk management solutions. Vena Solutions come up with a unique strategy by leveraging the power of Excel as a frontline solution.
Solutions providers that focus on their crafts are Compensation Resources, Inc., Halogen Software, and OpenSymmetry. They all offer specialized solutions for HR application but are also tied up to a more comprehensive financial system.
Whether you’re looking for single-application or solution with in-depth-functionality, one of the best companies to consult is ITQlick.com. Our services extend from recommending the right software solution up to identifying more business performance management solutions that buyers like you can personally review and compare together via our website.
Pricing Consideration
Business Performance Management software solution has truly gone beyond the traditional Balanced Scorecards method in terms of functionality and features that it offers. However, undergoing with the vendor selection process for this solution is undeniably an investment of time and energy. This is true especially when the budget of the company is aimed to be maximized. The good news is that this Buyer’s Guide can help you up to that extent – searching for the right solution base on your budget.
BPM solution has a real cost. What is meant by that is it’s not only about the price of the license that matters. There are three more factors that add up to the total cost of owning BPM solution and they are listed below.
Cost of Software License
Software licensing is basically the greatest contributor in the total cost. It is based on the product, number of instances/functions, options, number of users and level of access, and duration of contract (for subscription-based solutions). Roughly, a significant investment of $5,000 to $10,000 per license is required for enterprise/extended solutions.
Cost of hardware and software required to operate BPM
This cost is applicable to On-premise solutions wherein management servers and IT infrastructure are required for the deployment. On estimate, the cost of a large server (16 core, 32GB, 4TB disk) is around $15,000. This is cut into half for medium-size servers. Your IT team and the solution provider must closely discuss these technical requirements prior to deployment.
Cost of Deployment and Instrumentation
Deployment and instrumentation often requires the services of a team of consultants. SaaS-based solutions usually don’t include deployment cost, but only on-premise solutions. Paying a technical consultant at $1,000 to $2,000 per day is really something to consider.
Cost of On-going Maintenance
A good way to calculate on-going maintenance cost is by checking your overall infrastructure. Having one management server and several databases will cost you lower than having multiple servers around.
Market Trends
The slow adoption of BPM by many companies in the past years has been an on-going challenge still for many solution providers today. However, the good development is that many CFOs today are beginning to show their confidence over the new innovations in BPM that are being introduced by new players. SaaS is one of those innovations that keep on convincing companies from the SME sector to launch their investment on BPM software solutions. Moreover, cloud-based solution is becoming more and more popular and this is projected to continue within the next 3 to 5 years.
Another feature that attracts many CFOs and even financial managers from various business units is the continuously upgrading mobile capability of BPM software solution. This allows finance managers to create budgets and forecasts even while on the go.
Overall, Business Performance Management is bringing big transformations to many forward-thinkers organizations. This is an encouragement that your search for the right BPM solution should be taken more positively. Start assessing your business requirements and try to bring the more innovative features of BPM solution into your organization today.
ITQlick chart - 2024 best Business performance management Software
Finding the right Business performance management software for your business
Proper Business performance management software selections are the precursor to successful deployment and business growth. Finding the right Business performance management solutions doesnít have to be complicated, and it doesnít have to take days or weeks of your time.
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