Finance transformation

5 reasons companies move from SAP to Oracle EPM

5 common challenges

A lot of companies we speak to are already using SAP, often SAP S/4HANA – so the first question is usually:

“Why would we need Oracle Enterprise Performance Management as well?”

The short answer:

SAP works well for core finance, but planning and reporting often become slow, manual, and hard to manage as the business grows.

That’s where Oracle EPM comes in.

Here’s what we typically see:

1. Planning ends up living in spreadsheets

Even with SAP in place, most finance teams are still:

building budgets in Excel
emailing versions back and forth
manually consolidating everything

This works until it doesn’t.

You start getting:

multiple versions of the truth
no clear visibility
a lot of time spent just pulling numbers together

What changes with Oracle EPM?

Planning moves into one place. Everyone works off the same data, and updates happen in real time, no more chasing spreadsheets.

2. Reporting takes longer than it should

This is one of the biggest pain points.

Month-end comes around and the team is:

pulling data from different places
checking and rechecking numbers
building reports manually

It slows everything down, especially when leadership wants quick answers.

With Oracle EPM:

Reporting is far more structured and automated.
You’re not starting from scratch every month.

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3. It’s hard to answer “what if?” questions

We hear this a lot from finance teams.

Questions like:

“What happens if costs increase?”
“What if revenue drops next quarter?”
“How does this impact our forecast?”

In SAP (and spreadsheets), answering these properly can take time.

Oracle EPM makes this much easier:

You can run scenarios quickly and actually use the data to support decisions, not just report on what’s already happened.

4. Everything feels a bit disconnected

Planning, reporting, forecasting, they’re often spread across:

different tools
different files
different processes

Which usually means:

more manual work
more risk of errors
less confidence in the numbers

Oracle EPM brings this together:

It connects these processes so finance teams aren’t constantly stitching things together.

5. Finance needs to move faster

There’s more pressure than ever on finance teams to:

provide insights quickly
support decision-making
be more forward-looking

But that’s difficult when time is spent:

fixing spreadsheets
chasing data
rebuilding reports

What we see with Oracle EPM is a shift towards:

faster cycles
better visibility
more time spent on actual analysis

What this looks like in practice

In most cases, companies aren’t replacing SAP.

They’re keeping it for core finance, and bringing in Oracle EPM to improve everything around planning and reporting.

We’ve seen this first-hand in projects like NEO Next, where improving reporting and visibility made a real difference to how the finance team operates day to day.

When does it make sense to move to Oracle EPM?

Typically, organisations consider Oracle EPM when they experience:

Growing reliance on spreadsheets
Slow or inefficient reporting cycles
Increasing complexity in planning
Lack of confidence in financial data
Pressure to deliver faster insights to the business

In conclusion:

Moving from SAP to Oracle EPM isn’t about replacing your ERP but about unlocking the full potential of your finance function.

As finance teams face increasing pressure to be more agile, accurate, and strategic, Oracle EPM provides the tools needed to move beyond manual processes and towards intelligent, data-driven performance management.

FAQ

Q: Can you use Oracle EPM with SAP?
A: Yes. Many companies integrate Oracle EPM with SAP to streamline planning, forecasting, and reporting without replacing their ERP.
Q: What are the benefits of Oracle EPM over SAP alone?
A: Faster reporting, better visibility, and improved decision-making across the finance function.
Q: Does implementing Oracle EPM require abandoning SAP?
A: No. Oracle EPM complements SAP, enhancing finance processes without replacing core ERP functions.

Looking to explore what this could look like for your organisation?

If you’re currently facing challenges with planning, reporting, or forecasting in SAP, we’d be happy to share what we’ve seen work in similar organisations.