5 reasons to outsource the hosting of your EPM application

Have you ever thought about outsourcing the hosting of your EPM application? Rightly so, it is an interesting consideration. And we see more and more organizations deciding to outsource not only the support, but also the hosting of their EPM application. Why are these organizations choosing to outsource? And what does it yield? 5 reasons why other companies are outsourcing their hosting.

If you want to outsource the hosting of your EPM applications, there are several options. For example, you can choose from:

• Dedicated hosting at Swap Support
• Azure platform from Microsoft
• Swap Support Azure platform
• Amazon

What are the benefits of outsourcing? And why do other organizations choose to do so? We share the 5 main reasons for outsourcing the hosting of your EPM application:

"One of the reasons we're outsourcing is that we want to get support as quickly as possibe in case of issues. Especially during our month-end close, we need quick answers. During the day, but also in the evening." 

Khalid Bel Hadj, BrandLoyalty

1. Certainty about the continuity of your EPM application

“We want to achieve our financial deadlines without any worries.” That’s what we hear from many organizations when we ask why they decided to outsource their hosting. Organizations want to be able to build on the EPM application. At peak times, you want it to do what it needs to do. There is nothing more annoying than a system that falters when the reports have to be delivered. In practice, we see that a lot of specialist knowledge is required to safeguard EPM applications’ continuity.

By outsourcing the hosting, you always have access to the knowledge and experience of specialists. Take BrandLoyalty, for example, a global loyalty platform that is part of Alliance Data Systems. “One of the reasons we’re outsourcing is that we want to get support as quickly as possible in case of issues,” says Khalid Bel Hadj, Reporting Manager at BrandLoyalty. “Because we report to our parent company on working day 4, it is important to us that the system works properly. Especially during our month-end close, we need quick answers. During the day, but also in the evening.”

2. Ease for your finance team

As a financial, you want to be able to focus on your core tasks. You don’t want to be distracted by questions about the financial application or concerns about its continuity. Recognizable? It is a tricky subject for many financial teams, and therefore an important reason to outsource hosting.

Endemol Shine and BrandLoyalty certainly think so. By outsourcing both hosting and support, these organizations have a single point of contact for all matters concerning SAP BPC. Thanks to this Single Point of Contact approach, financials can call with any question about SAP BPC without thinking about where the issue lies. It’s that easy.

3. More cost-efficient than doing it yourself

As an alternative to outsourcing, you could build up sufficient knowledge and experience within your own organization. However, many organizations don’t find developing expertise that easy. Moreover, training people yourself often does not provide cost advantages. After all, it takes quite a lot of effort and time to acquire the specialist knowledge of EPM applications that is necessary to understand the system and to be able to resolve issues. Besides, one expert is not enough; a replacement specialist is required during holidays and illness.

For retailer Action, cost efficiency is an important reason to outsource the hosting of Oracle HFM. “Two of our core values are simplicity and cost awareness. Hosting at Swap Support fits these core values because we have a good working relationship at a reasonable price,” says Jakub Kawecki, Finance Controller at Action. The fact that no on-premise servers are required is also in line with the company’s asset-light strategy.

Outsourcing, therefore, offers you profitability benefits. You do not have to have expensive experts on the payroll but can call in specialists when necessary. Also, they can provide proactive advice, which prevents many issues. This way, you improve the profitability of your EPM application even further.

4. Flexible support of the growth of your organization

Does your organization have the ambition to (continue to) grow? Then flexibility is crucial. This is an important consideration for many organizations. By outsourcing the hosting, there are various options for scaling up or down if the situation changes. This ensures that you have sufficient capacity and knowledge, now and in the future, without incurring unnecessary costs for elements that you are not using yet.

Take fast-growing Action. Here, we work together based on a flexible service agreement so that the support level moves with the company’s growth.

"Due to growing finance requirements, we've increasingly expanded our system into a complete platform in recent years. A system that, together with Swap Support, we’ve adapted to the wishes of the users. It has been quite a journey; we would not have been able to achieve this without Swap."

Paul Schurgers, Boskalis

5. Making the best choices

What does the roadmap for your application look like? By working with the right EPM consultants, you’re able to make informed strategic choices. Moreover, leading companies often only want to work with the best specialists.

With many organizations, we have been working together for years. In such a long-term strategic partnership, you’ll find the best answers to questions such as “how do I choose the right type of hosting?” And “where do I want to be with my landscape in 3-5 years?”

Take Boskalis, for example. Paul Schurgers, Manager Group Accounting & Reporting at Boskalis, sees Swap Support as a strategic partner. “We have a long-term, high-quality relationship. Due to growing finance requirements, we’ve increasingly expanded our system into a complete platform in recent years. A system that, together with Swap Support, we’ve adapted to the wishes of the users. It has been quite a journey; we would not have been able to achieve this without Swap.”

Tekst: Judith Pennings