How enterprise performance management is powering finance’s role in driving growth

Today’s finance leaders often face a landscape defined by uncertainty, speed and rising expectations. Traditional financial planning and analysis (FP&A) approaches — rooted in siloed processes and static data — are no longer enough to inform bold business decisions. With pressure mounting from shifting market dynamics and emerging technologies, finance teams are increasingly expected to serve as strategic advisors, delivering insights in real time and helping the businesses adapt quickly.

Enterprise performance management (EPM) platforms are becoming essential to this shift. By bringing together operational data, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), EPM platforms connect upstream and downstream processes to enable faster, more confident decision-making. The goal isn’t just managing the numbers. It’s to help shape where the business is headed next.

As a finance leader you face growing pressures to provide real-time, data-driven insights that drive faster, better decisions. This marks a clear departure from a finance-for-finance mindset toward finance for business, where finance serves as a trusted advisor enabled by predictive, data-driven intelligence.

Getting there, however, often means tackling multiple challenges at once. That includes making sense of expanding data volumes and sources; aligning finance, sales, HR and supply chain data sets; and enabling rapid scenario modeling and what-if analysis when decisions can’t wait.

The path forward is becoming clear. Cloud-enabled EPM platforms — built with cross-functional collaboration and powered by AI and machine learning — are helping shape the future of finance. But reaching this point takes more than new tools. What does this journey truly entail?

Selecting the appropriate technology platform is critical. Mature EPM platforms support foundational finance capabilities by connecting internal financial, operational and external market data. For xP&A, platforms should also enable seamless collaboration across business units.

Some leading EPM platforms include native support for AI and machine learning. Others extend functionality by connecting with cloud platforms and hyperscalers, which handle large-scale data and power more complex workloads. When finance teams run predictive models using unit-level operational data, hyperscalers often deliver the scale and speed needed, with results fed back into EPM systems for decision-making without overloading core platforms. At the same time, GenAI and AI agents are becoming embedded in EPM tools, simplifying user interactions and improving decision-making.

But technology alone isn’t enough. Increasing impact requires a thoughtful strategy — aligning investment with process modernization, strong data governance, change management and the upskilling needed to build future-ready teams. The opportunity ahead: an integrated tech stack that brings together cloud ERP, EPM, AI and advanced analytics, enabling finance so you can lead with insight, agility and measurable impact.

The future of finance belongs to those ready to break from tradition. Many leading organizations are moving past legacy models and embracing integrated, tech-enabled performance management to help drive real business outcomes.

The journey is complex but achievable. Build a strong EPM foundation, expand planning across the enterprise, elevate decision-making with analytics and AI, and connect it all through cloud-based ERP systems designed for agility and scale. By leaning into this transformation, finance becomes more than a function. It can become a strategic advisor at the center of enterprise performance.