Best CPM Software: The Definitive Buyer's Guide

Intro to the Best Corporate Performance Management Software Guide

“Final” budget version 26.5. Countless hours wasted consolidating and re-consolidating data in Excel. Reports based on outdated actuals. No visibility into real-time business performance.

Your organization can’t quickly adapt to change or effectively plan for any situation when your finance team is too busy overcoming these obstacles to support strategic decision making.

Corporate performance management (CPM) software can help you solve those challenges and more.

But how do you find a solution that’s right for your business? With so many options to consider, the process can be overwhelming. Not to worry. This article will help you navigate the market with confidence so you can find a platform that suits your unique needs.

You’ll learn the basics of CPM software—from what it is and how it can help your organization to tips for choosing the best solution.

Key Takeaways from Best Corporate Performance Management Software: The Definitive Guide

Here are four key takeaways to help you select the best corporate performance management software.

How to Choose the Best CPM Software

If you follow this advice during your initial discovery and demo cycles, you won’t waste your time engaging with vendors who just aren’t the right fit. Here are five tips to help you choose the best CPM software.

List of Best CPM Software in 2023

1. Vena

Vena is the Only Intelligent Platform for Complete Planning Natively Integrated With Microsoft 365. It is primarily used for budgeting, forecasting, reporting, planning and financial consolidation—and is used by business leaders and finance and operations professionals. Vena is considered a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution by the leading industry analysts including Gartner, IDC, BPM Partners, Nucleus Research, Ventana Research, Dresner Advisory Services and Quadrant Knowledge Solutions.

Key Functionality and What Makes Vena the Most Complete CPM Software

• Vena provides a drag-and-drop template/reporting building experience. Map any Excel modeling logic to the Vena app and database.
• Threaded commenting allows you to tag collaborators and respond to comments. Vena's email notifications will ensure your comments are never missed.
• Vena is built upon a RESTful API architecture, with user experience delivered through Microsoft Excel.
• Build unlimited automated financial and non-financial planning workflows. Assign task owners and set deadlines, monitor the review process for your financial planning.
• A 2-step data model wizard helps build processes and allows users to leverage industry best practice data models.

Vena Weaknesses:

• International presence is still ramping up.
• Currently does not support Google Sheets.
• No free trial. However Vena does provide a free 7 product preview.

2. Anaplan

Anaplan is a transformative way to see, plan, and run your business. Using its proprietary Hyperblock™ technology, Anaplan lets you contextualize real-time performance, and forecast future outcomes for faster, confident decisions. Anaplan enables connected strategy and planning across your enterprise to move your business forward. Anaplan is based in San Francisco, CA.

Key Functionality and What Anaplan Does Well:

• Data aggregation and can calculate billions of cells of data.
• Can write, maintain and audit complex models.
• Efficient calculation engine

Anaplan Weaknesses:

• Complex for users without experience in multi-dimensional modeling.
• Adjusting and making changes to calculations and business models after the fact can be difficult and time consuming.
• Steep learning curve and on-boarding to get started.

3. Cube

Cube is a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that focuses on meeting strategic finance teams where they already live and enhancing the workflows they use every day. Cube aims to help companies of all sizes plan and analyze for the unexpected and stay ahead of changes. Cube is headquartered in New York City.

Key Functionality and What Cube Does Well:

• User friendly and easy to move dimensions around.
• Pushes financial data to a friendly user spreadsheet environment.
• Custom mapping allows for multiple views of the same data.

Cube Weaknesses:

• There is no FX normalization.
• There is no drill down to see the lowest level accounts. When a new account is created on the GL Cube users have to manually map it to a parent account.
• No pre-configured templates, each model has to be built from scratch.

4. Datarails

DataRails is an FP&A solution that automatically consolidates data from all existing organizational systems (ERP, GL, CRM, and HR data). It is designed so users can keep working on Excel while benefiting from automated data transformations. Office locations in New York City and
Tel Aviv (HQ).

Key Functionality and What Datarails Does Well:

• Has a friendly user interface.
• Integrates data across multiple systems.
• Supports an Excel user interface.

Datarails Weaknesses:

• Need native functionality around roll-forward for forecasting, budgeting and reporting.
• Steep learning curve to fully utilize the platform to its max capacity.
• Are constantly upgrading the system and few options are available in the spreadsheet
  template library.

5. Jedox

Jedox is a Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management solution. Their solution’s unified planning, analysis and reporting empowers decision makers from finance, sales, purchasing and marketing. Jedox helps business users work smarter, streamline business collaboration, and make insight-based decisions with confidence. Office locations in Germany (Global HQ), France, the US, Australia, Singapore, and the UAE.

Key Functionality and What Jedox Does Well:

• Provides an integration to Excel, is an Excel add-in.
• Strong security down to the cell level.
• Supports mobile devices.

Jedox Weaknesses:

• Data visualizations and dashboards are limited in terms of chart and dashboard choices.
• Complex projects require expertise of specialized consultants.
• Proprietary syntax, cannot use all Excel formulas, hard to self-train in Jedox
  specific programming.

6. OneStream

OneStream provides a finance platform that aims to reduce the complexity of financial operations. OneStream unleashes the power of finance by unifying corporate performance management (CPM) processes such as planning, financial close & consolidation, reporting, and analytics through a single, extensible solution. Headquartered in Birmingham, MI.

Key Functionality and What OneStream Does Well:

• Have solutions available on a MarketPlace.
• Allows for detailed transactional level data (with millions of transactions).
• Provides consolidation tasks at the detailed and summary level.

OneStream Weaknesses:

• Requires consultant to implement, need better training.
• Users cite dimension limits.
• Dashboards are complex and time consuming to build.
• Users cite that the product lacks Excel like functionality and prefer to work in more of an Excel like interface where formulas, calcs, short keys and inputs operate similar to that of Excel.

7. Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud

Oracle’s complete EPM suite is designed to give users the agility needed to respond to change faster. Combined with the simplicity of the cloud, it enables companies of any size to drive accurate and agile plans across finance and operational lines of business, accelerate financial consolidation and close processes, streamline internal and external reporting, and ensure compliance with financial and tax reporting regulations, according to the vendor. Oracle has multiple products that are also part of this suite including Oracle Hyperion and NetSuite PBCS.

Key Functionality and What Oracle EPM Cloud Does Well:

• Provides one step login and management to view database activity and logs.
• Supports multiple integrations into source data repositories with both Oracle and
  non-Oracle databases.
• Consolidates large company financials while keeping compliance of IFRS.

Oracle EPM Cloud Weaknesses:

• Users cite that the user interface does not provide an Excel like experience and there is workbook type functionality.
• Does not allow the addition of custom dimensions and there is no feature to add custom rules to enable customized calculations.
• Multiple products in the EPM suite causes confusion for buyers.
• Support needs to be improved and initial onboarding can be rocky.

8. Planful

Planful provides a Continuous Planning platform that enables finance to automate and accelerate FP&A activities, drive faster and more agile planning and decision-cycles, and elevate the financial IQ of the organization so that everyone is making smarter decisions more frequently. Planful is an end-to-end platform for financial planning, consolidation, and reporting & analysis. Offices located in Scottsdale, Vancouver, Toronto, Hyderabad, San Francisco (HQ) and in London.

Key Functionality and What Planful Does Well:

• Supports rolling forecasts. Enables annual data to be quickly pulled up.
• Users cite that scenario analysis is responsive.
• User management and accessibility is available on a per user basis.

Planful Weaknesses:

• No view-only dashboard capabilities that can be shared with executives or management.
• Spotlight Excel add-in periodically becomes unresponsive and requires re-installation.
• Multiple hierarchy setup is difficult and not easy to set-up.

9. Prophix

Prophix’s Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software promises to help users achieve goals more successfully. Prophix promises to support the user's future with a platform that flexes to suit strategic realities, today and tomorrow. Prophix is available in the cloud or on premise. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Key Functionality and What Prophix Does Well:

• Reports are easy to distribute.
• Supports multiple scenarios for budgeting and planning.
• Supports Month End Financial Statement Binders.

Prophix Weaknesses:

• Users cite multiple issues and challenges with migration to the cloud from the
  on-premise solution.
• Creating, updating and formatting of templates can be manual, time-consuming and tedious.
• Excel based interface can be challenging to use when using Excel specific formulas.

10. Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday Adaptive Planning aims to power a new generation of business planning, and drive business agility in a fast-moving world. The Workday Adaptive Planning Business Planning Cloud offers modeling capabilities for organizations of any size, and helps users to collaborate, gain insights, and make smarter decisions faster. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

Key Functionality and What Workday Adaptive Planning Does Well:

• Easy to use layout and user interface where spreadsheets are not needed.
• Setting up formulas to auto populate certain areas makes it much easier for budget 
  owners to fill it out.
• Users cite the ability to easily create dynamic models.

Workday Adaptive Planning Weaknesses:

• Formatting of built-in reports cumbersome.
• Excel users report that familiar spreadsheet shortcuts are not available.
• Performance lacking for larger datasets.