Yesterday, J. Rourke wrote an article on Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management Blog titled “EPM Resolutions for 2012” and resolution #3 caught my attention.
“Many organizations suffer from planning processes that aren’t aligned across functions and are supported by disconnected spreadsheets. Look for ways to better integrate long-term, strategic planning with financial budgeting as well as operational planning. Reel in processes that still rely on spreadsheets and use web-based software applications to eliminate time and resources spent on data collection and aggregation. Connecting strategic, financial and operational planning like Societe General will also help improve resource alignment across the organization.”
— Rourke, J. (2011, December 19) Retrieved from EPM Resolutions for 2012.
Over the past year we have begun engaging with customers on exactly this problem from the portfolio management perspective. I cannot help to find it interesting that the message here is about “connecting strategic, financial and operational planning.” Let me share a graphic from the opening slide of the Planview company overview — our vision for portfolio management.
I would contend that to truly connect financials with strategy and operations, you need a software platform that can natively speak each of these languages — not just the language of financial budgeting. Portfolio management systems were originally designed to align strategy with projects. Over recent years we have invested to make our portfolio management solution, Planview Enterprise, capable of describing all types of investments in deep financial detail, and fully capable to integrate with traditional budgeting systems to translate strategic and operational plans into financial plans.
The majority of organizations “still rely on spreadsheets;” we have seen it. These spreadsheets augment the gaps in traditional budgeting and strategic planning tools. The gaps can be filled with portfolio management solutions like Planview Enterprise with great success.
Portfolio Management is expanding its reach as a discipline. Analysts in the CPM/EPM space are seeing this happen. Traditional EPM suites are incredibly powerful, but if you want to tackle resolution #3 considers adding portfolio management to your EPM solution.
We want to hear from you. How does your company connect strategic, financial, and operational planning? What software platform are you using to achieve your corporate goals? Please share your opinions, experiences, or best practices by posting a comment.
