Item: SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)
Rating: 7
Author: Anthony DePasquale

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it within our department of Financial Planning and Analysis only. It was initially used solely for its consolidation capabilities in order to better report and analyze data, both actuals and budget, with the budget being done in a separate application and loaded in. We have now implemented the planning cubes and use it to develop or annual budget and an annual reforecast with actuals still being loaded in at the end of each month.

Pros and Cons

Allows for full integration of data to be analyzed in real time. Although we still load actuals on a delayed basis (2 business days after month end), when developing the budget, we not longer have to do a full loading process from a different application into BPC prior to being able to report and analyze the current budget status to prior budget versions or actuals.
It is easy to learn basic report building. The hardest part is learning the available dimensions and the different possible combinations and their results, but that will also vary from company to company depending on the complexity of the industry.

Being from a law firm, the system needed a lot of custom tailoring in order to fit our full needs (although many companies could say the same thing). Although the ability to highly customize the system to the company's needs is a positive, it frequently results in the system responding in unexplainable and unrepeatable ways which negatively impacts and slows the budget process. Because of the sporadic nature and variety of the issues, we are unable to repeat them on cue and therefore cannot nail down a solution.

Return on Investment

Although I am a regular user, I began after the consolidation cube was in place and during the development and implementation of the planning cubes, so I lack the knowledge of a pre-BPC experience at the firm.

Ease of Integration

In my experiences for loading non-BPC data into BPC, it is a simple task. There is a predetermined format that the data file needs to be in, but once that has been accomplished and you are confident in the data in the file, loading is simple. The only time an issue arises is when the data being loaded includes dimension members that are not set up in the BPC, which will then kick those lines of data out and the necessary dimensions need set up before trying to reload the file.

Alternatives Considered

As I am newer to this area of finance and have only been at one firm using such systems, I do not have any comparison to offer.

Likelihood to Recommend

SAP BPC would be an ideal system for a company that handles budgeting and actuals for any of the expense, revenue, human capital, or capital expenditures areas, and is great for a company needing all of these areas in one place with full integration between them. One downfall that I see is that it can be difficult to start with the consolidation only (like many do) and then years later implement the planning cubes. Due to changes in the system over time, turnover in consultants and personnel between implementations, and evolving needs of a company it can sometimes be difficult to get the planning side to line up perfectly with the originally implemented consolidation cube which, although may not limit capabilities, can cause confusion when talking between different models.

SAP BPC reviewed by a heavy user, but that is new to financial systems

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)