Bring your users into the planning. Find out what they want to be able to do on a new, Web-based system, and build their comments and suggestions into the vendor selection process. And include users of your company's business intelligence systems — they might find advantages to using your CPM databases as well.
Take great care in selecting a consultant. Avoid those with extensive technical background but little experience in the finance area. Ideally, your consultant will understand finance and database modeling.
Take plenty of time in designing the system ("blueprinting") and planning the "go-live." In particular, make sure your data is cleaned up and the hierarchies that organize it are firmly in place before you replicate them into the new system. And keep top management informed each step of the way, in case a change in direction becomes necessary. Often a consultant will be able to present a few alternative design approaches. Build a prototype to make sure that the design will handle your reporting requirements, allocation methodology, and user-input views, and verify that user responsibility can be assigned the way you need it to be.
Keep your database bite-size. A large OLAP cube can quickly become too big to operate quickly and efficiently. Implement partitions that break the cube up into individual units for different functions before going live — not after.
Plan to add more users sooner rather than later. The point of Web-based CPM is to empower users. If it does, the demand for access will only grow.
Keep the application simple. In particular, make the interface as much as possible like those of systems the users are already familiar with, such as an Excel spreadsheet.
Test vendor candidates with real business cases. This will give you a clear idea of how they address the specific needs of your company's users. Make sure you see enough of your own business case demonstrated to be comfortable with the vendor's approach.
Look for single integrated suites that meet your business requirement. A single integrated suite means one installation, one interface to learn, one application to maintain and upgrade, and no requirement to perform complex mapping between independent applications sitting on different database technologies. It also assures that all information users are accessing all information from one common source. A single integrated suite also means a shorter delay before adopting additional performance management components, since you already own and are trained on the technology.
Look for the vendor to use the best database for the process you are looking to solve. OLAP databases are great for performing complex calculations, making changes to your organizational structure, and achieving rapid response times. Relational databases are optimal for the transactional components within the performance management process.
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