I recently read an article on entrepreneurship that featured Richard Branson. In the article, Branson was quoted as saying that the “real opportunity in business is the ability to identify the frustrations in a particular area and have real solutions to remedy those frustrations.”
That started me thinking about the common frustrations that I have seen while working in the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) industry for the last 15 years. Here are seven common frustrations that I see frequently along with some recommended solutions.
(This is the fourth of 7 articles discussing frustrations with the EPM industry. To be sure you don’t miss out on any articles of interest, please sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://www.epmchannel.com/register-for-our-weekly-digests/.)
#4: Slow adoption of implementing the EPM vision as it was intended. EPM implementers incorporate too much customization.
The truth is that a lot of implementers have been around for a long time now. A lot of senior implementers and architects have skills and experience that have been built based on client opportunities. I believe that there is a general tendency for implementers to go with what has worked at past clients. This is generally a good practice, but it does cause many implementers to hold onto outdated practices too long.
A real problem emerges when custom solutions relying on programming, scripting, SQL databases, data exports, etc. are used instead of vetted packaged solutions that Oracle offers. It is a good idea to get an independent review of the system design document by a qualified third party to ensure that your new system isn’t being developed based on standard practices from the prior decade.
Customization has a tendency to complicate support and slow down the ability for organizations to quickly migrate to future patches, product releases, and new modular solutions down the road.
In the early days, customization equated to innovation and competitive advantage. Today, in the era of packaged enterprise modular solutions, customization may be a real barrier to future adoption of innovations that are emerging from [various] EPM software vendors.
By Paul Mack, from: http://www.clearlinegroup.com/moving-beyond-seven-common-epm-frustrations/