A Quick SAP BPC Overview By Kepion

If you’ve been hit hard by the news that your SAP BPC Microsoft solution will no longer be supported in the near future, you’re not alone. When considering alternative solutions, it is important to seek a solution that can easily transition your existing SAP BPC Microsoft models, data, forms, and rules. Additionally, this is an opportunity to find a planning platform that has evolved past = traditional CPM solutions. This will enable you to innovate your planning, modeling and analytical processes. Find out more in this SAP BMC overview.

The following will help you better understand why SAP BPC Microsoft customers look to Kepion’s Financial consolidation software to evolve their planning, reporting and consolidation solutions as they expand into other areas of the business – sales, marketing, HR, supply chain and IT for integrated planning.

Leveraging Your Investment in Microsoft Technologies & Skillsets

Kepion and SAP BPC Microsoft share several key similarities. Both solutions:

• Use Microsoft SQL Server and Analysis Services as the underlying database technology
• Have powerful Modeling capabilities that allow for building and administering business models
• Use similar Dimensional structures and concepts
• Share the ability to apply Financial Intelligence to your data out of the box.

These core similarities make for a seamless transition from SAP BPC Microsoft to Kepion.

An Updated SAP BPC Overview Continued Innovation

While the SAP BPC Microsoft functionality has remained relatively static, Kepion has continued innovating over the last 10 years. These innovations not only offer significant improvements to the planning process, but they also deliver unmatched performance as Kepion has incorporated some of the latest functionality updates from Microsoft. The list below shows the top enhancements valued by IT organizations that Kepion can deliver over SAP BPC.

Web-Based

Both the Modeler and Planning experiences are 100% web-based. Users interact and author models with the solution via a browser. No client software or add-in is required to be kept in sync and rolled out to user desktops. Kepion has control over the user experience and does not rely on 3rd party software that can cause conflicts.  SAP BPC Microsoft relies on an Excel add-in for its main user interface that needs installation on every desktop. This approach introduces another layer for potential incompatibility and performance issues. It is often the case that items like conflicting Excel add-ins, workbook corruption or usage of advanced Excel functionality can be the source of significant performance issues.    

Source System Integration

Kepion has more flexible Dimension structure configuration options including attribute-based hierarchies. This allows for easier integration of metadata from source systems and better performance.  SAP BPC Microsoft requires a relatively rigid parent-child format that can be difficult to construct from source systems. This parent-child-only format performs poorly compared to the alternatives, especially when creating multiple hierarchies. Multiple hierarchy views can be especially difficult to manage and a drain on performance

Business Modeler

Integrate your existing BI strategy with the planning capabilities of Kepion to gain better insights into your plans and help make better business decisions. Kepion Modeler helps business analysts effectively manage their dimensions, models, data mapping views, business rules and data security for real-time reporting needs. 

Rules Builder

Kepion has a strong rule builder that leverages the full power of the SQL language to create robust business rules. Anyone with SQL skills can build robust rules in Kepion. SAP BPC Microsoft uses a proprietary syntax authored in a notepad-like editor that limits exposure to SQL functionality. Specific knowledge of this language and troubleshooting skills are required to author business rules in SAP BPC Microsoft.  

With Kepion’s Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Solution, you can collaborate on a single approach for integrated business planning. Designed for the business, by the business, Kepion’s Enterprise Performance Management Software allows sales, finance, operations, marketing and HR to configure personalized planning apps specifically to how they work. Kepion’s Dashboards and Scorecards Software helps you visualize performance, plan for efficiencies and track your results. Give Kepion a try today and see how Kepion can support your growing success.