Unified Performance Management
Unified Performance Management as a way to unleash value and drive better outcomes.
Key concepts
Importance of Performance Management and its impact to value creation
Misuse of technology leads to unsatisfactory Performance Management solutions
The majority of the so called Performance Management solutions are actually just Profit & Loss Reporting systems and fail to integrate strategic, financial and operational planning into one coherent loop. Missing out on Cash flow metrics and value creation
Functional databases are much better suited to perform the task of Integrated planning than relational database systems and common Performance Management solutions offered by most vendors
The key enabler for a successful roll out is the know-how to properly build a fully integrated business model into a functional database
The author's journey as a CFO
Hand on heart, do you believe that your current Performance Management process, system or solution is actually supporting the execution of your organization’s strategy throughout the value chain?
If you can answer this question positively than you are one of the few that has achieved what is commonly known as “Unified Performance Management”.
If not, like almost everyone, you are still stuck in what I call the “age of performance darkness”.
I would even argue that few people really understand the concept of Performance Management over and above Financial Performance, which is why many companies have a very narrow view of their organization’s performance.
Why is it so hard to actually achieve what the software industry and many consulting companies have been advertising for years?
The new buzz word being “Big Data Solutions” – these shall now apparently solve our problems – but most of the companies are still at square one in the Performance Management process, trying to get data out of their ERP systems and building soon-to-break reports in Excel.
In this White Paper I want to shed some light on how to actually achieve Unified Performance Management (UPM) based on best-practices and my experiences over the last 15 years as a CFO of multi-national companies and a Corporate Finance specialist (Senior Equity Analyst in Investment Banking).
Having started my career in finance as Investment Banker I have a strong Corporate Finance background with extensive experience in business modeling, corporate strategy and valuation as well as capital markets
As CFO, I successfully rolled out SAP ERP in multiple companies and entities and have been exposed to almost every aspect of operational planning and management (demand and supply planning and execution) throughout the value chain.
I have also been heavily exposed to a vast number of mergers and acquisitions, not to mention disposal transactions which gave me great insight into Performance Management, due diligence processes, business modeling and analytics.
Together with the respective board of directors I have led the strategy development process of several companies and implemented their Unified Performance Management processes as well as the supporting Business Analytics and Intelligence Solutions.
This experience throughout my career has turned me into a strong advocate for “Unified Performance Management” backed by strong Functional Database technology that allows for complex modeling capabilities.
I hope that my passion for integrated business and financial modeling will help convince you to take a fresh look at Performance Management and help you take a step towards achieving the full integration of entire value chain in your organization.
The theory of Unified Performance Management, also known as UPM
Performance Management is something organizations must do to become more successful and stay ahead of their competitors. In fact, managing performance is THE most critical task of any executive or manager, whether it is in small, medium or large organizations.
If organizations get it right, their Performance Management processes allow them to define and communicate their strategies, as well as measure, report and monitor progress in order to manage and improve business performance.
Performance Management can basically be defined as a set of management processes, often supported by information technology, that help to improve the strategic decisions people make every day. In the end, it is the quality of those decisions that will separate successful companies from the rest.
Performance Management is therefore a term for a set of management approaches that enable organizations to define and execute their strategy, as well as measure and monitor performance in order to inform strategic decision making and learning.