I'm in Chicago for CFO Magazine's Corporate Performance
Management conference. This is the first of a series of posts summarizing
key observations and findings from the conference.

CPM Defined

Whether you call it CPM, BPM (business performance
management) or EPM (enterprise performance management) the concept is
the same:  performance management is a blend of processes and technologies
that enable organizations to define, measure, and track performance against
both operational and financial goals. Key CPM components are planning, data consolidation
and reporting, modeling, analysis, and monitoring key performance indicators
(KPIs).

Key Players

There are a number of CPM vendors, and the industry has been
consolidating. Business Finance Magazine published a CPM
buyers guide in its January 2006 issue. Here are the big players:

Business Objects
Cognos
Geac
Hyperion
OutlookSoft
SAS

What drives CPM?

External factors include investors, regulations, and market
demands for performance. Yet many businesses are motivated by internal factors
such as the complexity of their internal technology systems, multiple data
sources, fewer and fewer analytic and technology resources, and ever greater
demands for analytics. There are powerful stakeholders – boards, senior
management, regulators – with high expectations.

CPM Underperforms Thus Far

Many presenters at the conference openly admit that CPM has
not lived up to its potential. The technology is still maturing and
implementation can be very challenging. The over all message at the conference
was that leadership and attention to business strategy is critical for success
— the technology is only one part of the equation.

Other posts in this series:

• Wal-Mart & Sustainability
• Competing on Analytics Redux
• CPM Case Study: Corning
• Aligning Compensation to Drive Performance

(more to come)