What are your project phases?

As a OneStream customer or consultant, you are probably familiar with the implementation of OneStream projects in phases. Phase I usually starts with consolidation with a focus on Actual data loads from ERP systems. In such a Phase I implementation, Budgets and Forecasts would typically be prepared offline and then loaded through Excel templates into OneStream.

So far, the majority of our customers have first implemented Actual reporting as Phase I and then moved onto driver-based planning as “Phase II/III”. Some start using OneStream as an IFRS16 (Lease Accounting) solution, then look into financial reporting & consolidation later.

However there are some advantages to starting with financial Planning as Phase I, most notably that if an application is not yet being used for Actual reporting during its development & testing, then you have less auditor scrutiny for a while, allowing changes to be made regardless of the statutory reporting cycles. That is, until you start using OneStream for Actual reporting. In fact we wrote a separate blog on this topic a couple of years ago (where to start in Onestream, Actual Consolidation or Planning?)

For the purposes of this document I will assume that you’ve started OneStream with Phase I being more consolidation & reporting of Actuals. After the experience of consolidations, GAAP and IFRS adjustments, loading and mapping Trial Balances out of ERP systems, you often come onto the topic driver-based planning, and that involves completely different way of thinking.

Transition of the Mindset from Actual Reporting to FP&A

With any CPM/EPM product, there is a shift in the way of thinking which fundamentally change how you design calculations, data forms (cube views), and how calculations are triggered.

If ‘Phase I Actual’ reporting has already been implemented in a CPM tool, in a way that makes it difficult to later incorporate the items on the right side of the table above. Then you may have to spend-time re-engineering your Phase I. 

These are just some examples on the challenges you may face when moving from using a CPM system primarily as a consolidation system, to a unified platform that incorporates driver-based planning. 

In the next blogs, we discuss the effects on how a unified CPM platform affects the consultants themselves, and how to approach a new design for a planning solution on an existing CPM application.

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About the author

Chris Loran works in the EPM field for over 13 years. From working with Hyperion at Hyperion Solutions, Oracle, Partake and EY to working with OneStream and Oracle HFM at Agium EPM. He is currently working for OneStream Software.

Within his Lead Consultant function at Agium EPM he worked on the OneStream implementation at Guardian Industries. They have one of the most extensively used OneStream platforms in which they consolidate, budget and perform advanced driver-based planning.

 
Disclaimer: These blogs are meant purely for educational use and discussion. The purpose is to raise awareness of the strengths of the Onestream platform and how it could be made even better, as well as approaches to application design and building, and stimulate discussion. Experiences mentioned in these blogs are those specifically of the author and may not be the experience of other CPM consultants. The views expressed are those of the author, and does not necessarily represent the views of any CPM or EPM software vendor, nor their consulting partners.
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