Interview of TAdviser with the head of the EPM direction of preproject consulting of Oracle in Russia Oksana Maksimenko
Oksana Maksimenko, the head of the EPM direction of preproject consulting of Oracle in Russia, in an interview of TAdviser told for what the companies implement the systems of the class EPM in what industries the need for them is highest and what main advantages of solutions of Oracle consist in.
Maksimenko's
Experts differently estimate a current status of the Russian market of EPM. Someone speaks about falling, someone about slow development. According to your data in what provision there is a domestic market of EPM systems and what should be expected in the next years?
Oksana Maksimenko: If to speak about EPM systems in classical representation, then such processes as planning and consolidation are more or less automated in the companies of large and medium business. Now there are new processes, there are high-quality changes. It both expansion of functionality, and expansion of the implemented systems on new types of business, and increase in number of users. But after all in the Russian market the saturation point is not passed – for the last year business grew in comparison with previous.
In a segment of small and medium business active development of the cloud systems is observed. Even large business does not consider such services any more as something impossible as use of clouds will give it clear competitive advantage. So, the research of IDC company by request of Oracle devoted to experience of use of solutions SaaS (Software as a Service) in ECEMEA region showed that along with cost reduction, process performance and performance of personnel are key advantages which the companies get at implementation of cloud computing.
Transformation of the ERM systems goes towards unification of the main business processes. Customers are interested in industry packaged solutions, ready best practices. In the next years, we think, this trend will remain.
Whether there are some fundamental differences between the Russian and world market of EPM? What distinguishes domestic customers from foreign?
Oksana Maksimenko: The domestic market is quite in a trend of the world market of IT. There are no fundamental differences. The only thing, one may say, that the Russian companies in general master cloud services a little more slowly.
Call main goals of implementation of EPM. What wait for the company from such solution?
Oksana Maksimenko: Main objectives are an automation of basic processes of company management, such as: strategic modeling, budgeting, consolidation of financial statements, management of profitability. Today the organizations are especially interested in cost reduction and increase in efficiency of the activity.
It confirms the new research The Digital Finance Imperative conducted by request of Oracle corporation in EMEA region. It showed that chief financial officers should rethink the existing practice of assessment of an economic status of the companies during an era of digital technologies [1] (in more detail).
In what industries, according to your data, saturation is already observed by EPM solutions? In what the need for the similar systems is highest?
Oksana Maksimenko: The large companies, for example, from the oil and gas industry, the financial sector, telecom industry, in the majority already have the modern ERM-systems and are engaged in their expansion and development. Among new projects it is possible to note implementations in retail, construction companies, an education system, a public sector. Also time of medium and small business where there is active mastering of the cloud systems which does not mean long implementations and big costs any more came. And the direction of cloud EPM solutions brings us new clients who did not use technology of Oracle earlier.
We have excellent examples. In particular, the ALVISA group, the Russian producer and the distributor of alcoholic beverages, selected a cloud service of Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service. This solution will allow the company to automate budgeting process, to perform financial forecasting, to receive the authentic reporting, to exclude the errors arising because of manual execution of operations [2] (in more detail).
What, in your opinion, EPM Oracle before solutions of other vendors have main advantages?
Oksana Maksimenko: An opportunity to satisfy requirements of the companies of different scales and the industries. We have examples of successful implementations of systems with huge amounts of data and big (up to 30 thousand users) the number of users. And these systems save excellent performance. Also there are turnkey ready offers for the medium-sized and small companies with rapid and inexpensive implementation. New versions of Oracle EPM have the friendly interface, beautiful, convenient and clear for users of different level of training.
Well and it is important that we offer a complete stack of cloud services – both SaaS, and PaaS, and IaaS. Clouds is a strategic direction of business of Oracle. Only according to the results of the 4th quarter of the 2016 financial year which came to the end on May 31, 2016 income from SaaS and PaaS increased by 66% to $690 million; in permanent currency growth of this indicator was 68%. Revenue growth from delivery of SaaS and PaaS in the first quarter is expected 2017 financial year from 75% to 80%. Every year the number of subscribers to cloud services of Oracle EPM doubles.
What important innovations appeared in EPM Oracle lately?
Oksana Maksimenko: Our business applications constantly and actively develop, new products much. It should be noted that in a line of cloud EPM services several interesting products appeared: Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service is the solution based on the Hyperion Planning platform with the preconfigured modules for problems of planning of project activity, staff expenses, fixed assets, financial performance; Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud Service is the tool for the organization of process of preparation of the reporting; Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud Service is management of closing of the period; Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud Service – the manager of management of reconciliation of accounts.
As for the general trend of development of Oracle EPM are, first of all, an improvement and simplification of the interface, performance improvement, development of new out-of-box of modules.
What functions (technologies) of EPM systems are at the moment insufficiently demanded by the Russian customers, but at the same time have high potential of application in the future?
Oksana Maksimenko: We consider that in the near future systems intended for the processes connected with closing of the period will be especially demanded. It and preparation of packets of the external and internal corporate reporting including text information with direct loading of all numerical indicators from systems sources; and preparation of the reporting in the XBRL format; and support of business process of preparation of the reporting in the field of sustainable development (Sustainability Reporting). It is connected, mainly, with changes of requirements to the reporting imposed by the Russian and international legislation. Oracle offers a complete packet of such solutions.
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