The Cloud remains the preferred deployment for EPM and FP&A – Dresner reports
The Dresner 2024 Wisdom of Crowds EPM Market Study is an invaluable resource not just to compare vendors but to understand the EPM and FP&A market from the perspective of real users and organizations.
The report’s findings make clear that Cloud is now the preferred mode of deployment for EPM and FP&A tools, highlighting the value of Cloud migration and Cloud-powered capabilities for financial planning.
In this blog, we’ll dig deeper into Dresner’s report to understand why the Cloud is preferred over on-premises deployments, the benefits, and why organizations are increasingly looking for next-gen Cloud solutions to turn the page on legacy tools, as well as how Dresner’s survey ranks Unit4’s FP&A solution as a Cloud solution.
The value of Cloud-powered EPM systems
You may ask: What are EPM systems? How does the Cloud help?
Dresner writes, that an Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) system “allows an organization to plan for the impact of various internal and external factors on its future performance and business outcomes. This includes the financial planning and analysis capabilities of Unit4’s FP&A tool
These tools allow organizations to understand and manage performance on many levels. Naturally, to understand performance eon different levels, organizations need integrated data with a single source of truth.
Legacy, on-premises, deployments of EPM systems lead data to be gatekept by its function meaning analysts must go to great lengths to understand performance at an organization-wide level.
Data siloes lead to multiple versions of the truth, poor collaboration among teams, and that's not to mention a whole host of practical issues such as version history, elongated data consolidation, and manual tasks.
The Cloud presents a natural cure for FP&A, allowing organizations to store functional data in the Cloud, meaning that performance analysis can be organization-wide and couched in context.
Cloud capabilities present the opportunity to automate manual work, reduce errors, gain advanced reporting capabilities to communicate performance and necessary actions, and much, much more.
The market for Cloud deployment is growing
Upon its survey of real EPM/FP&A users, Dresner reports on its findings about preferred deployment. Notably, they reported that 59% of organizations already deploy their EPM tolls in the Cloud, up from 44% in 2023, showing a growing market.
Similarly, IDC reported this year that the market share of public Cloud services is growing, while currently 42%, it is expected to increase by 15% over the next 5 years, with on-premises only growing by 4%.
The growing interest and use of Cloud-deployed tools between younger organizations and older organizations demonstrates this changing market:
- Organizations younger than 5 years were the most likely to adopt Cloud deployments of EPM, while organizations of 5 – 10 years were the least likely.
- Yet, organizations of 11-16 years have the most current usage of EPM tools, showing that companies satisfied with legacy processes, those between 5 – 10 years, will eventually switch to Cloud EPM as their needs mature.
- Equally, the fact that those younger organizations with less mature processes and IT capabilities are the most likely to use and investigate Cloud EPM, shows that the capabilities of Cloud EPM can bridge technical gaps thanks to innovation.
Why Unit4 FP&A is the ideal Cloud FP&A solution
A modern FP&A solution is your catalyst for transforming performance in an ordered, achievable, and efficient way. Organizations must turn the page on legacy systems, accepting that traditional approaches to data management cannot compete in today’s markets.
Unit4 Cloud FP&A has been designed to seamlessly integrate with ERP systems for better access to data. We allow you to connect critical applications and functions that make your enterprise tick, using a single source of truth to support decision-making, while leveraging automation to swap time-consuming manual tasks for strategic analysis.
We’re pleased that Unit4 FP&A was ranked by Dresner among 16 other vendors as an ‘Overall Credibility Leader’ in the ‘Customer Experience Model’, and a ‘Trust Leader’ in the ‘Vendor Credibility Model’, while maintaining a perfect 10.00 score for recommendation.
To read more, download the full EPM Market Study for 2024, visit our dedicated product page, read more Unit4 FP&A customer stories, or talk to sales today.
Ready to switch to the Unit4 FP&A Cloud? Start your journey to the Cloud by evaluating your current solution and needs with our Cloud Migration Assessment. It will provide all the details needed to map out your migration path.
