SAP Enterprise Performance Management OnDemand features apps for detailing and resolving department expenses, real-time profit and loss analysis, and capital investment tracking and planning. The apps, first launched on iOS with more device versions to come, are complementary to version 10.0 of SAP’s EPM portfolio and feature an add-in for Microsoft Office. EPM OnDemand was constructed in the cloud with SAP’s highly touted HANA in-memory engine, and includes built-in mobile device management support for enterprise BYOD policies.
Dave Williams, EPM solution marketing lead at SAP, says these first releases provide the data model for “delivering the foundation of subsequent applications” involving performance management in the next few months. In May 2011, SAP retooled the look and functions of its EPM solutions in version 10.0 in an effort to spread use beyond the finance department, and these apps continue that development in the performance management space, Williams says.
Joshua Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, says the mobile capabilities with the apps answer the growing requirements by enterprise end users.
“The new apps extend the usability and accessibility of performance management apps to a broader audience, one that needs rapid, real-time access to a small but important part of the overall performance management function,” he says. “The combination allows SAP to extend the value of key back office applications like [business planning and consolidation] app to users who don’t necessarily need the full functionality of what BPC can offer.”
Justin Kern is senior editor at Information Management and can be reached at justin.kern@sourcemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @IMJustinKern.
