Board & ISG Series | Episode 3 – Why CPM Modernization Should Be a Priority

Hi, this is Stanton Jones with technology research and advisory services firm ISG.

It's a highly uncertain and volatile time for companies in the CPG, retail, and

manufacturing sectors, which is putting immense pressure on the office of the CFO,

both in terms of current and forecasted business performance.

This is one of the big reasons why we increasingly see companies looking to improve

their integrated business planning processes and data, and they're often doing this

using an enterprise performance management or EPM solution.

That said, many companies are asking themselves today, should they think about this

as a sequential change, meaning getting data modernized and then rationalizing ERP,

and then implementing EPM, or should they be thinking about this more as a

continuous ongoing transformation?

So with me to talk about this topic today is Björn Maaz.

Björn is the practice lead for the Office of Finance at Board. Welcome, Björn.

Hello, Stanton.

So Björn, from your point of view, why is an EPM solution so critical right now?

And do you think of this as more of a sequential change or more of a continuous

transformation?

Yeah. I would argue steering your business with the right analytics and with the

right data is always a priority, therefore, this is a continuous

process.

But also, of course, you need your data in order for that.

The source data that you base your decisions on.

But waiting for your ERP or data warehouse to be ready is the wrong approach in our

mind because it kind of flips it upside down.

You start from the top, you define your steering, your business strategy,

which KPIs you want to track, which markets you want to penetrate, and out of that,

you derive what needs to be collected from your ERP and source system.

And by the way, this, in our mind, also includes any external data points that need

to be collected or even forecasted in order to base your decisions on them.

Thanks, Björn. So our research shows that enterprises are increasingly planning on

integrating AI into workflows in order to make better decisions and not just

using it as a standalone productivity tool. So how is Board addressing this trend?

Yeah, I think that is really important. Board offers COI.

With our Board, removes the either/or.

So you don't have to decide if you want to focus on AI or if you want to

get your finance transformation or the whole business steering transformation,

right? Because

our agents are an integral part of the platform, and with that, you have the

option on top of a proven planning and steering platform to apply

new AI models, and also, which is the third pillar in my mind, the forecasting with

external factors. And only Board brings together these three things, like the

experience of 30 years plus, the technology stack with that, the AI agents that are

part of the platform, and the forecasting engine with external data points.

Thanks, Björn. So just to summarize, companies need a strong data foundation, but

it's also important to start from the top using the KPIs that steer the business.

AI transformation is a major priority for CFOs as well, and with an AI-enabled

EPM solution, finance leaders now have the ability to really be in the driver's

seat of this conversation. And finally, role and persona-based agents that

understand your business context combined with external data signals are a way for

the office of the CFO to use AI to help improve business planning and forecasting.

Exactly, that's it. And I would say if you're in a position that you're in the

middle of a finance transformation or in need of a new steering concept,

and have also the AI topic on your desk, then I would invite you to

approach us. We offer workshops where we help you to define the right use

cases to grow from where you are, to assess from where you are, and then grow to a

more integrated business planning with agentic AI.

And it's regardless of the maturity of your project, at the beginning of the

journey or at the end. But with Board, together, you can shape this new

future rather than follow the trends that are already there.