Some things that you hear, in life and business, are too good to be true – body-toning sneakers, weight-reducing skin cream, pain-reducing bracelets, and many other products.
But on occasion, some things that sound too good to be true – actually are true. Here are a few examples.
The Grateful Dead and John Mayer
When the Grateful Dead celebrated their 50th anniversary with the five “Fare Thee Well” concerts in Chicago and California in the summer of 2015, most of the fans thought the long, strange trip was over. Then the band announced that a subset of the group would be touring in 2015 as the Dead and Company with John Mayer on lead guitar.
There were a lot of “Deadheads” out there who didn’t believe this was possible, and many doubted if John Mayer could even gel with the group, given his history as a pop star. But the Dead and Company actually pulled it off. I attended the October 31st show at Madison Square Garden in NYC and was blown away at the quality of the music. The critics also raved, proclaiming that “John Mayer brought new life to the Dead.” Very cool. Check here for upcoming tour dates.
Electric Car that Does Zero to 60 in 3 Seconds
Remember this one? When Tesla first announced its plans to develop and deliver an all-electric sports car that could do zero to 60 in 3 seconds, most of us scoffed at it. But Tesla delivered on the promise with the Model S and is cranking out several new models this year. I had a ride in one recently and was amazed at the acceleration power these cars have, let alone all of the other amazing features.
Single Device that does Phone Calls, Text Messaging, Email, Plays Music, Takes Pictures, Records Video, Internet Access, Directions, etc.
Here’s another one that initially sounded too good to be true. But most of us now have an iPhone or similar mobile device in our pockets, maybe even two. And now that we’re spoiled, we get crabby when the device runs too slowly, and we start looking for an upgrade.
Full-Functionality EPM in the Cloud
Companies that have been using on-premises budgeting, planning, reporting, and other enterprise performance management (EPM) applications may not believe it’s possible to get the same functionality, for a fraction of the cost, as a cloud-based service. But its’s true!
Since cloud-based applications have been in the market for over 10 years now, most organizations have gotten over the security concerns about putting their sensitive customer, employee, or financial data in the cloud. If you’re not over this, here’s a link to another article that should help.
So now the question is, can you really get the EPM functionality you’re accustomed to in a cloud-based solution? And can it really be acquired at the fraction of the cost of your on-premises solution?
Absolutely. For core EPM processes – budgeting, planning, forecasting, financial consolidation, close, and reporting – cloud-based applications such as those we provide at Host Analytics offer the same functionality as the mega-vendor on-premises applications. In addition, we now also offer cloud-based modeling capabilities for Finance and operations that provides multidimensional analysis and what-if modeling capabilities through the web, Excel, or a mobile interface. So it’s even better than what’s offered in the on-premises world.
And the best part is – it costs a lot less to deploy and maintain.
- There’s no hardware and infrastructure to acquire and set up.
- The implementation costs are much lower.
- Subscription-based pricing reduces the up-front license cost and ongoing maintenance.
- Upgrades are painless and zero-cost.
Too good to be true? Not in the case of cloud-based EPM. To learn more about the benefits and advantages of cloud-based EPM solutions, check out this free white paper: “Introduction to EPM in the Cloud.”
By John O’Rourke, from: http://blog.hostanalytics.com/full-function-epm-in-the-cloud-too-good-to-be-true-or-not?utm_campaign=Blog%20Campaign&utm_content=24735188&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin
John O’Rourke is Vice President of Product Marketing at Host Analytics. With a background in accounting and finance, John has over 30 years of experience in the software industry, and over 16 years of experience in EPM Product Marketing at Hyperion Solutions and Oracle. He has worked with many customers and partners on financial reporting and planning initiatives and has spoken and written on many topics in enterprise performance management. John has also held positions in strategic marketing and product marketing at Dun & Bradstreet Software, Kenan Systems and Decisyon. John has a BS degree in accounting from Bentley University and an MBA from Boston College. See John’s articles on EPM Channel here.