The Performance Management Revolution

Chapter 4. Barriers to EPM Adoption

Despite the demonstrated benefits and appealing promises of EPM, as with any new technology, adoption barriers abound. I'd like to focus on two of the most common: ineffective approaches to implementing EPM initiatives, and the current state of EPM tools and technologies.

A Multitude of EPM Approaches

The way an organization approaches implementing EPM speaks volumes about its readiness to succeed at performance management. The organizations most ready are those that have achieved a balance in terms of the maturity of their business users and IT. Organizations with a high level of IT maturity and a low level of business user maturity tend to use an approach I call “One Size Fits All.” Organizations with high business user maturity and low IT maturity use an approach I call “A Thousand Flowers Bloom.”

In my view, organizations with both low business user and IT maturity are stuck in a kind of EPM “Middle Ages.” And finally—and of course these are the shining stars—organizations with a high level of both IT and business user maturity enjoy a kind of EPM “Utopia.”

One Size Fits All

In this approach, IT calls the shots when it comes to EPM. And typically, in its desire to achieve stability, picks one tool that is easy to manage and one centralized data warehouse with little concern for the variety of user needs and for the comprehensiveness and integration of EPM initiatives across the business. It is my strong belief that an EPM initiative driven by IT—no ...