EPM Demo Video – Budget Planning: Automation, AI, and Predictive Analytics

In this video, discover how EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) tools support your budget planning process, in particular through automation, AI, and predictive analytics. Vincent Suon, Finance Project Manager at Micropole, tells you more about this key component of performance management. You will also find a demonstration by Maela Cochet — EPM Consultant at Micropole — who will guide you through simplifying and optimising the sales forecasting process.

This demonstration video is just a glimpse of all the features that EPM tools offer for managing your performance. Feel free to contact us if you would like an in-depth demonstration tailored to your specific challenges.

How do EPM tools automate your budget planning?

Automation, machine learning, and AI are revolutionising financial performance management and budget planning. They allow finance departments to free up valuable time and resources by delegating repetitive and time-consuming tasks to automated systems: EPM tools. Data collection, validation, and consolidation — which are often sources of human error and delays — become faster and more reliable as a result. The risk of errors is considerably reduced, improving operational efficiency and ensuring more accurate and consistent outcomes.

Transparency and traceability in budget processes 

By automating workflows, EPM tools enable companies to track every stage of the budgeting process in real time, facilitating both internal and external audits. This increased transparency also enables better compliance with financial regulations and reporting standards, ensuring that all budget data is accurate and verifiable.

Integration, centralisation, and collaboration

Automation, through an EPM tool, enables better integration and centralisation of financial data. Information from different departments can be consolidated into a single platform, providing a complete and up-to-date overview of the company's financial situation. This centralisation of data facilitates collaboration between teams, eliminates information silos, and ensures that all stakeholders are working with the same updated data. Indeed, one of the key challenges in budget planning is improving collaboration between different departments. EPM tools foster better communication and increased transparency by centralising financial data and making it accessible to all departments. This enhanced collaboration facilitates the alignment of strategic and operational objectives, thereby ensuring consistency in budget development.

Increased flexibility and agility 

Automating budget planning also improves the flexibility and responsiveness of the company. Automated systems can quickly adjust forecasts and budgets in response to new information or changing market conditions. This ability to rapidly adapt budget plans provides valuable agility and the capacity to pivot quickly should a change in strategy become necessary. Integrating advanced technologies such as machine learning or AI makes it possible to identify trends by providing real-time analysis, dynamic reports, and interactive visualisations — delivering valuable insights for informed decision-making. This intelligence enables companies to forecast their revenues and expenses more accurately, thereby optimising their financial performance.

Predictions and budget planning 

Integrating predictive capabilities into budget planning enables accurate anticipation of future revenues and spending needs. By using predictive models, companies can simulate various economic scenarios and assess the potential impact of different strategies. This proactive approach helps minimise risks and maximise opportunities, providing a solid foundation for informed decision-making. Thanks to all these features, finance teams can focus on higher-value tasks such as strategic analysis and decision-making, while ensuring agile and responsive budget management.

What questions should you ask when deploying an EPM tool?

Deploying an EPM tool is a strategic undertaking: in order to develop the right features and the right use cases, there are a number of questions you should ask yourself. You can also seek support from qualified experts with in-depth knowledge of the functional domain, which will allow you to develop an ideal model tailored to the specific characteristics of your company.

Here is a review of the key questions to consider:

What are the priority challenges you are looking to address? Focusing on challenges rather than objectives allows for broader thinking and avoids jumping straight to solutions. List your priorities based on their impact on company performance.

What processes do you need to define, specific to your challenges? These will serve as a basis for evaluating EPM tools and making an informed choice of the vendor best suited to address them. It is necessary to compare them through POCs (Proofs of Concept).

What is your current level of maturity in these processes? Assess your current maturity in performance management and financial processes in order to identify the improvements needed.

What proportion of the process do you wish to implement in your EPM tool? Your processes can be integrated in their entirety, or only partially.

Have you carried out a complete project scoping exercise? Conducting a scoping study makes it possible to identify points of vigilance and risks, as well as to provide visibility.

How do you plan to support stakeholders in terms of change management? In large-scale projects, a change management strategy is essential: when a new tool is deployed, resistance can arise. The objective is to overcome these barriers by putting in place a strategy to reassure the employees concerned.

What are my data sources? Identify all existing data sources — such as ERP systems, CRMs, spreadsheets, and internal databases — to ensure complete and accurate information integration. Your IT department may also have a role to play and can support you in setting up automated data flows.

What analyses must my EPM tool surface? Clearly define the types of analyses and reports that the EPM tool must generate, such as various reporting outputs, financial forecasts, dashboards, and so on.

What roles need to be defined? Defining roles will help the project move forward. A RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) can be used to define the roles and responsibilities of each team member involved.

Do you need to be supported by experts? I'm having difficulty describing my need. If you would like support, we recommend choosing a partner that works with multiple EPM software vendors. The objective is to have a degree of neutrality and an objective perspective that the vendor itself — or a single-vendor specialist — would not be able to provide.

These are just some of the questions to ask yourself before embarking on performance management via an EPM tool. Note that they are not exhaustive and may vary depending on the nature of your EPM project. To be supported by experts and make your project a success, do not hesitate to contact us!

We now invite you to watch the demonstration by Maela Cochet, EPM Consultant at Micropole, and to consider how these principles can be applied within your own organisation. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

Enjoy the video.