Differences between CPM/FPM/EPM

[Former Member]

Hi all!

The more documents I read about, the more confused I get.....

I don't whether SEM became CPM and this will no longer be CPM to become FPM or it is just a complement... I don't if EPM includes both FPM&CPM or just one 'cause one will become the other one...

Can anybody explain (as if I were a 5 year old boy ) how this goes. And what are the components of each one? Any doc about it would be really appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[Bob_McGlynn · Accepted solution]

Rafael,

This is confusing because there is no standard definition of performance management in the marketplace. If you go searching, I would bet you could find at least two or three more terms, like OPM - operational performance management. The best way to approach all of this is if you think of CPM/EPM/FPM as just variations on the same theme, which is improving financial and operational performance.

A quick look at the recent SAP acquistion applications:

Strategy Management (SSM) formerly Pilot

Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) formerly Outlooksoft

Profitability and Cost Management (PCM) formerly ALG

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) formerly Virsa

Business Objects reporting and business intelligence capabilities

And there are other SAP applications, as well as our ERP system working together to provide necessary data. I would recommend visiting the link provided by Pravin in his reply to better understand how SAP is going forward, overall, with our technology.

Each of the above solutions can be implemented separately, and depending on the immediate needs of an organization that very well may be how one of these is introduced. SAP believes that to fully leverage operational and financial performance, a company needs to implement all of these pieces because, working together, they give a total, enterprise view of performance.

Terms like BPM, CPM, EPM, FPM, OPM are used in the marketplace when talking about performance management ( business, corporate, enterprise, financial, or operational). These different variations have sometimes been used by particular software vendors to stake a claim to a "flavor" of performance management that they hope is uniquely theirs.

And performance management as defined by an individual organization may emphasize or focus more on financial areas or operational areas, though both are ultimately necessary to manage and drive performance. SAP has assembled an impressive set of functionality that can align the operational and financial areas of a company. The key is to have these work together, since strategy has to take into account risk and profitability; has to be tied to budget and planning; and can only monitor, or leverage strategy, using all of the appropriate business data that resides in various systems.

No matter what you want to call it, SAP has the complimentary applications that drive the operational and financial performance of a company.

I'm not sure a 5 year old might be able to follow all of that, but hope it comes closer to answering your question!

Regards,

Bob