EPMs can track many paths to success in tech

“When tech companies are in a hyper-growth phase, their technology investment goes to customer-facing solutions. The back office usually gets neglected.”

Andrea Schulz

National Managing Principal, Technology Industry,
Grant Thornton Advisors LLC
Partner, Audit Services, Grant Thornton LLP

“Then, for tech companies, EPM can track what the development teams and agile scrum boards look like on a daily basis,” Whatton said, adding that these metrics can answer important planning questions. “Consider how many user stories are getting processed through, and what that projects for your release dates and your marketing campaigns.”

Operational data can inform the new products and also the internal operations themselves. “When tech companies are in a hyper-growth phase, their technology investment goes to customer-facing solutions,” said Grant Thornton Technology Industry National Managing Partner Andrea Schulz. “The back office usually gets neglected. The mindset is typically, ‘Let's just deal with it using manual processes.”

Effective operational data can help tech companies find inefficiencies that are slowing internal operations and the development for both new and existing products.

Existing product development

“For an existing service or product, an EPM typically helps you bill services and analyze where you have cross-selling opportunities,” Whatton said.

EPMs can also play an essential role in helping you re-evaluate your customer strategies. “Look at your customer profiles to say, for instance, ‘Here's where we should be selling, and here's margin opportunity,’ versus trying to add a new feature or trying to capture a new segment of the market,” Whatton said.

“Customers are being critical about where they invest in advanced technologies — they want to see ROI for them,” Schulz said. “Ask yourself if you’re looking at the right customers and really being true to your product market fit.”

“That could require some third-party data, and some other information that is going to be a different lens. The best EPM tools, and the best EPM organizations, can do all of those things under the one platform that they're using for delivery, whether it’s custom-built or purchased.”

“There's enough historical data out there that you can start modeling disruptive events — from weather, political developments, outages, hackers, or other issues — and start building response plans for them.”

Will Whatton

Principal, Technology Modernization Services
Grant Thornton Advisors LLC

For example, Whatton said, “manufacturing — tech or otherwise — really dug into supply chain planning and forecasting during the pandemic. For instance, they got very focused on modeling specific events, like weather disruptions or commodity pricing volatility, and EPM tools were at the center. Those lessons still apply to tech today, and will continue to be critical moving forward for modeling specific events that tech leaders must anticipate.” Tech companies need to model and understand scenarios like their own hardware and software supply chain disruptions, along with mass outages and cybersecurity incidents.

Technology upgrades, cybersecurity and supply chains were the top three challenges cited by respondents to our Tech CFO survey. “Companies with multi-national supply chains face greater risks from events that could have extensive impacts, and they can analyze those more quickly with scenario modeling,” Schulz said.

“There's enough historical data out there that you can start modeling disruptive events — from weather, political developments, outages, hackers, or other issues — and start building response plans for them,” Whatton said.

“You need quality data when you use the AI capabilities on EPM platforms to model specific events,” Whatton said. “Your EPM tool is going to be very dependent on your data. What is the data actually telling you, and are you staying ahead of those trends?”