The promise of EPM software is to enable organizations to drive breakthrough performance. And the key to breakthrough performance is tying performance metrics, initiatives, resources, and risks to strategic objectives. Doing so enables organizations to move beyond measuring performance to managing performance. Accomplishing this, however, is a non-trivial task.

Organizations must adopt a discipline of monitoring and managing all business processes that impact strategy execution. From a technology standpoint, it cannot be managed manually or with desktop tools like Excel or PowerPoint. At the same time, it's outside the design intent and scope of ERP systems, planning tools, and business intelligence tools. As a result, a critical requirement for EPM software is comprehensive capability for managing strategy-related business processes.

It's imperative that EPM software be distinct and separate from an ERP system's data and architecture approach. While it must leverage and integrate with the ERP system, it must be separate because of the business intent of what the two technologies support. For the same reasons that On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) was needed to complement On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP), operational and EPM software must be separate and distinct, but integrated. Operational systems such as ERP are built from the ground up to manage core back office operational processes that an organization relies on. Conversely, EPM software leverages the same data, but the purpose of the system is to meet a completely different business need—tying performance metrics to strategy.

Breakthrough EPM software comes from coupling strategic management capabilities with robust performance metrics, including KPIs, custom reporting, graphical analysis, dashboards, scorecards, and automated data access. Combining these key technologies allows organizations to tie performance metrics, initiatives, resources, and risks to strategic objectives in a closed loop. 

Contact us to find out how EPM software from CorVu can provide enterprise visibility and drive breakthrough performance in your company.