Corporate Performance Management (CPM) OneStream

Customer References in CPM Software Evaluations: How Important Are They?

The amount of work, effort and study that goes into a company’s decision to buy business software can be significant. And, given the inherent risk in these judgments, that’s a lot of pressure to place on any individual or group, especially because the usual assessment cycle for corporate performance management (CPM) software is between 6 and 12 months. There’s a LOT of information to consume between online research, webinars, product demos, sales presentations, consulting trusted advisers, and reading analyst reports.

What Does Scalability Mean?

I’ll start with functional scalability and break it down as it applies to OneStream. Because it provides a single platform, one application with many features, OneStream does not charge by the application when it comes to deployment. Budgeting, planning, forecasting, consolidation, financial reporting, account reconciliation, transaction matching, tax provision, document management, and more are all available in one application.

That’s correct, the platform provides a wide range of basic capabilities, after which extra solutions from our XF MarketPlace are loaded straight into the same application, increasing the capabilities and using all of the existing functionality and data. The XF MarketPlace is a huge advantage to our clients since it allows them to customize the functionality to meet their needs.

Now that all of that functionality has resulted in a large number of data points, the next step is to consider data scalability. Some of the world’s top businesses are migrating from old CPM solutions to OneStream’s unified platform. OneStream was chosen by the world’s largest retailer because it can handle its data volumes. But don’t forget that we’ve been utilizing a single instance of OneStream for 4 years in one of Europe’s most sophisticated Hyperion installations, which included 11 instances of HFM.

Customer References at Scale

OneStream has been criticized for our lack of market presence in comparison to the mega-vendors; nevertheless, this is a real testament to our goal statement, which is to provide 100% client satisfaction. This means scaling at a rate that OneStream and our partner community can support. With over 500 clients, we have a large pool of resources available to prospective consumers – other customers who are currently using the product!

Each company is unique, but when it comes to corporate finance and accounting, you can always find someone doing something similar to yours. Someone out there will be able to give a productive dialogue with you and your team about how they built their CPM software, whether that commonality is data quantities, data granularity, allocations, currency analysis, or industry needs. They can also discuss the vendor’s assistance during and after deployment, as well as the value they are obtaining from their investment. If you use the same seller, their experiences will become your reality.

Because these companies have been in your shoes, customer references are a crucial part of any vendor review. One reference might provide you a lot of information about the seller and the product. What’s more, it’s reassuring. Five companies are doing exactly what you need. Even better, ten firms using the program to achieve exactly what you want certifies the software’s capacity.

Don’t Forget About Customer Reviews.

Finally, independent customer reviews, such as Gartner Peer Insights, are a valuable resource in your study. These evaluations are written by users of the solutions who chose to do so; it is not a pay-to-play scenario. It’s a simple method to examine a variety of client testimonials without having to rely on the vendor’s input. Because the devil is in the details, read what individuals have to say in the review regarding their implementation, support, and go-live support. If anything, it will bring you some humor, I always get a little chuckle from these.

Photo by Blake Wisz on Unsplash