The strategic necessity of choosing the right EPM tool
EPM technology refers to a suite of solutions that enable companies to plan, budget, forecast, consolidate financial results, and report on performance — all within an integrated platform. While enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems serve as the transactional backbone of an organisation — recording day-to-day financial and operational data — EPM sits on top of and alongside these systems, transforming that data into forward-looking insights and strategic decision support.
In practice, EPM allows finance teams and business leaders to steer their business more effectively. According to PwC research, adopting an ‘EPM-first' approach can accelerate the benefits of broader enterprise transformations — including ERP programmes — by delivering faster wins in planning, reporting, and analytics. Rather than waiting for a multi-year ERP overhaul to unlock better financial insights, corporations that prioritise EPM can immediately improve forecast accuracy, shorten close cycles, and create a unified view of performance across the organisation. Beyond these immediate gains, a well implemented EPM platform serves as a catalyst for digital finance transformation — enabling greater process standardisation, reducing reliance on manual workarounds, and providing a scalable foundation for emerging capabilities such as advanced analytics and AI-driven forecasting. In this way, EPM becomes not just a reporting tool, but a strategic enabler that helps finance evolve into a forward-looking business partner.
Figure 1: The hierarchy of BI, EPM, and ERP.
Today, EPM has evolved well beyond its traditional home in finance. When underpinned by the right technology, an EPM platform enables cross-departmental collaboration, efficient integration and analysis of complex data, and more agile planning and reporting across the entire corporation. Selecting the right EPM tool is therefore a strategic — not an IT — assignment, one that sets the foundation for long-term effectiveness. Leaders must approach this decision with diligence, as it is a unique opportunity to get it right from the start.
The increasing demand for EPM solutions is driven by multiple factors:
Once finance leaders are committed to selecting an EPM tool, the focus must shift to choosing the solution that best aligns with their company strategy, processes, technology landscape, and long-term ambitions.
Navigating the complexity of choice to choose the right software for success
With a multitude of EPM vendors on the market, each offering unique capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages, it is essential to embark on an EPM tool selection journey to ensure the greatest long-term value.
Figure 2: Key activities in the EPM software selection process
Navigating the EPM software selection process involves several key activities (see figure 2), starting by determining and prioritising your requirements, ensuring these are pre-aligned with your company's strategy, way of working, and process and system landscape. Therefore, we advise investing sufficient time in defining software selection criteria that go beyond tool costs and basic functionalities.
Sidestepping common tool selection pitfalls
Companies often make common errors when choosing EPM software. Recognising these pitfalls and focusing on a long-term vision rather than a short-term approach is essential.
Treating your EPM project as just implementing a tool instead of a business transformation
It is crucial to engage both business and IT end-users throughout the project. Finance stakeholders, who will use the solution daily, need to feel confident in managing activities and processes. IT input is invaluable for assessing whether the chosen tool aligns with the existing IT framework — including integrations and data transfers — and fits the defined IT strategy.
Replicating existing ways of working in a new tool
A common mistake is to treat an EPM implementation as a like-for-like migration — simply transferring existing processes into a new tool without questioning whether they are still fit for purpose. A new EPM platform presents a valuable opportunity to rethink and streamline how work is done: identifying where automation, standardisation, AI-driven capabilities, and built-in tool functionalities can replace manual effort. Organisations should actively explore how features such as predictive forecasting, intelligent anomaly detection, and automated variance analysis can enhance existing processes rather than simply digitising them. Without this critical review, companies risk investing in a modern solution while continuing to work in outdated ways — significantly limiting the return on their investment.
Underestimating integration complexity and ignoring future scalability and flexibility
Integrating new EPM software with existing source systems (e.g., ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and HR systems) can present significant challenges. If not managed adequately, this can result in manual data uploads that are prone to errors. Additionally, selecting a solution that meets current needs but fails to support future data growth or increased user and entity numbers can cause serious performance and scalability issues. This short-sighted approach impedes long-term efficiency and growth, highlighting the necessity of assessing integration, scalability, and flexibility from the outset.
Limited focus on the total cost of ownership (TCO)
Allowing the initial licence price to dictate your tool decision can lead to overlooking critical aspects such as implementation, training, and ongoing maintenance costs. Prioritising a comprehensive understanding of TCO ensures a more informed and sustainable decision-making process.
Leveraging PwC's tool-agnostic expertise and approach
Throughout your EPM journey, PwC Belgium serves as a comprehensive and knowledgeable partner — from strategy and vision development to tool selection and implementation. Our strong partnerships with leading EPM vendors give us deep, hands-on knowledge of each platform's strengths, limitations, and roadmap. We leverage this insight not to promote any single solution, but to ensure the tool you select is the best fit for your specific requirements, organisation, and ambitions.
This combination of broad market knowledge and practical implementation experience enables us to provide informed, objective guidance at every stage of the selection process — helping you make decisions grounded in facts rather than assumptions.
Our approach incorporates best practices, utilises accelerators, and shares key insights across every stage of your EPM project. We have supported many clients across multiple industries during their EPM tool selection and implementation journeys and look forward to discussing your EPM project with you.
