EPM Market Consolidation Time Again? Should you be Considering Your Options?

Malcolm Brock
Managing Director Brovanture

 

Out of the blue this week, Workday announced its acquisition of the Cloud planning vendor Adaptive Insights, just before a planned IPO. Being an ‘old hand’ in the EPM market I felt a wave of déjà vu come over me.

Remember back in the mid 2000s when the large on-premises ERP vendors snapped up all those smaller on-premises EPM vendors in a major buying spree? These included; IBM buying Cognos who had already bought Adaytum and Applix (TM/1); SAP buying Outlooksoft, having already bought Cartesis; and finally, Oracle bought Hyperion who had already purchase BI vendor Brio. There were a bunch of smaller deals before and after, but you get the idea I am sure.

With hindsight can we make some observations on what has, and might happen, as we go forward today?

Well, I think a good start is the current 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrants (there are two today) for EPM that now only include Cloud products and vendors. In these the only one of those acquiring ERP vendors remaining in the leaders’ quadrants is Oracle. In fact, SAP does not appear anywhere now!

Given this, the choices organisations make today, especially those currently using Adaptive Insights, could have serious implications in just a few years time. Yes, Cloud makes it easier to change solutions, but why make a choice today with the prospect of a change and the cost and disruption that entails.

For organisations using Adaptive Insights AND NetSuite the situation is more critical than others. Originally, NetSuite partnered with Adaptive Insights until it was purchased by Oracle who have subsequently developed tight integration with its own EPM solutions like Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS). Adaptive Insights inevitably refocused to market and invest elsewhere and now they are tied to a competitive Cloud ERP solution, Workday, what expectations can organisations that use NetSuite and Adaptive Insights have? I suspect they will be crawled all over by Workday sales people trying to get them to swap out NetSuite for Workday!

Therefore, my question – should you be considering your options?

As a NetSuite and Oracle EPM partner Brovanture is in a unique position when it comes to helping organisations understand the options they have. This is especially true as we were, for a short time, an Adaptive Insights partner before ‘hanging our hat’ with Oracle alone, due to the vast superiority of their Cloud EPM solutions, particularly PBCS. We have over 10 years experience with Oracle EPM products, on-premises and Cloud and a team of fully certified consultants and support staff, so why not make contact if you have Adaptive Insights, even if you are not a NetSuite customer too!

We are happy to just chat, to give you the benefit of our experience, we may be able to help.

PS: Brian Sommer’s article: 5 things Adaptive Insights customers should consider before the Workday deal closes HERE is also worth a read.