EPMIcast

Join Rich Wilkie, Vice President of EPM Product Management at Oracle, and Minie Parikh, Senior Vice President at EPMI, a Centroid Company, as they delve into the highlights from Oracle CloudWorld, competitive software landscape, and the meaning of a truly connected close process. Discover why customers are now prioritizing a holistic approach and explore how Oracle Cloud EPM, driven by AI, is revolutionizing the automation of tasks within Consolidations, Account Reconciliations, and Reporting processes. Gain valuable insights into boosting operational efficiency and enhancing visibility for the office of Finance. 

Oracle's Hari Sankar, VP of Product Management, shares transformative initiatives Oracle customers have access to including powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, the rising prominence of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) analytics in today's business landscape, and Oracle's customer success programs. Additionally, discover why Oracle released Sales and Workforce planning within the Cloud Enterprise suite and how it plays a crucial role in an organization's operations. Oracle is providing several programs to ensure constant support for customers in their cloud journey. Hari, mentions the Implementation Success Program, Hyperion Application Analysis Program, and Centers of Excellence guidance. The Cloud Customer Connect forum also gives companies an opportunity to share experiences, receive new update adoption, and thought leadership!   https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/

We welcome Oracle's SVP of Strategic Solutions, Paul Pessutti and GVP of Finacial and Supply Chain Systems, Chris Muli! The episode begins with looking back at our previous Oracle CloudWorld conversation and identifying changes in market trends, Oracle's investment in industry, and the transformation into a services company. Paul and Chris examine Oracle's focus on customer success and the differentiating advantages of being a best-in-class solution suite. The conversation revolves around practical applications of Generative Artificial Intelligence, the concept of a Supply Chain Command Center, and the importance of community to stay up-to-date on innovation adoption. Stream this customer-focused episode to gain insights into the evolving EPM and Supply Chain landscape and how businesses leverage Oracle Cloud solutions to manage the total cost of ownership while driving profitability.

In this episode, Matt Bradley, Oracle's SVP of Development, joins hosts Minie and Nihar Parikh at Oracle CloudWorld. The episode explores how Oracle is bringing Artificial Intelligence to the Oracle Cloud EPM platform. The episode centers on Generative and Traditional AI and their pivotal role within Oracle's environment. Matt draws a clear distinction between Traditional and Generative AI, showcasing how Generative AI can craft entirely new content. The conversation highlights the strategic AI use cases, from data aggregation to report generation and digital assistants. The episode offers compelling clips on Oracle's AI security and its collaborative partnership with Cohere, with a focus on solving real-world business challenges through AI. Matt also sheds light on how users will interact with Artificial Intelligence across Oracle's connected products. The episode concludes by discussing readiness measures for customers, emphasizing data quality, and testing AI's impact on company-specific datasets using Oracle Insights. Listen to join the journey into the cutting-edge world of Oracle's AI strategy and its transformative impact on the future of finance!

In this episode titled "Life of a CFO” we welcome William Chen, CFO of Centroid! Will and Minie Parikh, SVP of Operations at EPMI, a Centroid Company explore the driving forces behind growth in the technology services industry, emphasizing the significance of AI and data in this evolving landscape. William shares valuable advice for CFOs embarking on their Cloud Journey, stressing the importance of measured decision-making and team involvement. The episode also examines the readiness measures for CFOs investing in the cloud, the life post-implementation of Oracle NetSuite ERP, and the significant benefits achieved, including standardized data and enhanced efficiency. Lastly, Will touches upon investment decisions and the value of Finance across each department of an organization. Tune in for a deep dive into the world of finance and technology with an experienced CFO.

EPMIcast welcomes Oracle Cloud EPM Integrations' Director of Product Management, Mike Casey. In this episode, Minie Parikh, Chian Lin, and Mike discuss the use cases for integrations across the Oracle Cloud Platform. The cast examines Cloud tools and features like Pipeline, Integration Agent, and EPM Automate. The episode expands into topics like pre-built capabilities, third-party adapters, Rest APIs, integrations in the Cloud versus Hyperion, Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), Oracle Cloud Infrasture (OCI), and Enterprise Data Management (EDM).

In our first Meet the Customer episode, EPMIcast welcomes Jacinta Moore, CFO at The Outform Group! Jacinta shares her finance background and discusses her journey at Outform, highlighting the tremendous impact of Oracle Cloud EPM. EPMI successfully implemented Oracle Cloud EPM Financial & Workforce Planning, which has been instrumental in centralizing Outform's global financial data across various ERP systems. Stream more EPMIcast: https://linktr.ee/epmi More customer success stories: https://epmi.com/customer-stories/

Oracle's planning tool was one of the first cloud-ready EPM products, originally released as Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) in 2014. During this episode, you will hear from EPMI's Director of Planning and VP of Technology dive into each module of Oracle Cloud EPM Planning. The modules covered include Financials, Scenario Modeling, Workforce, Capital, and Projects. The cast discusses customer use cases in High Tech, Life Sciences, and Retail industries, the functionality of each module, and artificial intelligence.  Exploring the Modules of Oracle Cloud EPM Planning: https://epmi.com/blog/exploring-the-modules-of-oracle-cloud-epm-planning/

In this episode, we discuss Task Manager, a key project management EPM tool included in Oracle Cloud EPM's license. Task Manager helps organize, execute, monitor, and report tasks, providing visibility and automation for daily and repeatable business processes. Administrators can manage different configuration settings, create task templates, schedules, and execute tasks based on priority. Overall, Task Manager helps increase efficiency, reduces workload, and provides critical insights on task completion and compliance.   The Ultimate Guide to Oracle Cloud EPM Task Manager: https://epmi.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-oracle-cloud-epm-task-manager/

Paul Han has 20+ years of experience with Oracle products and functioning as a liaison between Accounting, Finance, and IT. His breadth of experience with corporate financial systems ranges from successfully managing new implementations and major upgrades to efficient day-to-day administration and support post-go-live. He leverages that experience to help EPMI deliver successful projects to our clients.

EPMIcast welcomes Oracle's GVP of Product Management, Hari Sankar! The episode focuses on Oracle's EPM and ERP strategy. Additionally, Hari shares insights on implementation methodologies, key EPM functionality, and the future of finance. The conversation covers Hari Sankar's career, debates lift and shift implementations, and evaluates the competition. This episode provides real-world use cases of how customers are leveraging Oracle Machine Learning across Oracle Cloud Planning, Financial Close, and Account Reconciliation.

In this episode, Oracle's Matt Bradley sits down with EPMI's Minie and Nihar Parikh at CloudWorld. Their interesting discussion weaves in and out of Oracle's history and provides EPM strategies and roadmaps for the Oracle Cloud EPM platform. The episode starts with the genesis of EPM and Hyperion with Oracle's strategy through decades of innovation. Minie and Nihar lead the discussion to use cases and user adoption. Lastly, Matt shares what is coming to the platform. Subscribe to EPMIcast for more episodes from our upcoming live from Oracle CloudWorld series.

This episode is the first of three in-person episodes recorded during Oracle CloudWorld in Las Vegas! Our discussion with Oracle's GVP of Financial & SCM Systems, Chris Muli focuses on the breadth and depth of Oracle's platform across EPM, ERP, and Supply Chain. Nihar and Chris explore topics around the EPM market, economy, and upcoming features in Cash Flow Planning, IPM, and Supply Chain integrations. Subscribe to EPMIcast for more episodes from our upcoming live from Oracle CloudWorld series. 

We welcome Oracle's Nick Boronski back to the show to discuss the competition in the Financial Close and Account Reconciliation marketplace. The discussion uncovers key functionality differentiators, pricing models, compliance, data extraction, and customer cases. Make sure to follow the link below for our new “Oracle Cloud EPM or Blackline” ebook. Please follow and rate EPMIcast on your streaming platforms. eBook: https://epmi.com/blog/oracle-cloud-epm-or-blackline-financial-close-account-reconciliation-ebook/

Michelle is a Certified Public Accountant with 20+ years of experience with Oracle software, originating with Hyperion version 4. Her strong accounting and finance in addition to her ability to understand technology enable her in tackling challenging business requirements, analyzing alternatives, and providing innovative solutions. Michelle has worked as both a Hyperion on-premise consultant and Oracle Cloud EPM Consultant in additional to various finance and accounting leadership positions throughout her career. In her free time, she enjoys balancing family activities, gardening, and kayak fishing.

EPMIcast invites James Rodgers, Master Principal Solutions Engineer at Oracle to discuss Oracle Cloud EPM user adoption strategies after an implementation go-live. Minie Parikh and James discuss Oracle's built-in learning tools, EPMI's knowledge transfer strategies, successful education methods, and more! For those streaming on YouTube, James closes the episode with an exclusive demo on Oracle's Guided Learning, Help Center, and Academy!

Bryan Kelly, CPA joined EPMI in '22 after enjoying stints in both public and corporate accounting. At EPMI, Bryan works on Account Reconciliation and Financial Consolidation and Close implementations. He leverages his accounting skillset and client-side experience to share insights and develop tailored cloud solutions for his clients.

Joining EPMIcast from Chicago, Jessica Downes Master Principal Solution Engineer at Oracle shares the impressive capabilities of Oracle Cloud Tax Reporting. The ‘Cast discusses the benefits of the Tax Reporting functionality, the solution's competition, customer success stories, and provides a product roadmap to what is coming to the platform!

Sustainability and ESG reporting is a trending topic for businesses across all industries and around the globe. To break down this topic, we invited Oracle Senior Solution Engineer, Katherine Price, to join us for the episode. During this discussion, we analyze the current state of ESG reporting, understand how EPM is being leveraged for ESG reporting, and share why Oracle is a good fit for your ESG solution. https://www.oracle.com/sustainability/

The EPMIcast is joined by Kscope22 speaker, Oracle Ace Alum, and Oracle EPM Solutions Consultant, Nick Boronski! We also have Minie Parikh our Senior Vice President of Operations at EPMI. In this session, we learn about Nick's experience, Account Reconciliations use cases, new features, and customer stories!

Gigi's implementation expertise spans Oracle Financial Consolidation & Close (FCCS), Account Reconciliations, Management Reporting, and Smart View. She has completed full lifecycle Oracle EPM implementation experience across a variety of industries. Gigi joined EPMI from the hospitality industry and her client experience shines through her work! Gigi ensures her clients' goals and cross-functional requirements are translated into their EPM applications.

The EPMI team has been busy preparing for Kscope22 (6/19 - 6/23). We are excited to meet and reconnect with our colleagues in Grapevine, TX! There are a lot of networking and learning opportunities, including Katie McCorkle's (Demystifying Calculated Attributes) session on 6/22. In this episode, the Cast will share what they are excited about, stories from previous Kscopes, and Katie previews her session. If you haven't already registered today! Use promo code EPMI22 to get $100 off. If you are going, please visit us at booth 409.

Ian joined EPMI in '21 as a Data Integrations Consultant. Ian comes from a chemical engineering, teaching, and account receivable background. Ian's unique background helps our clients streamline manual processes with integrations and Oracle Data Management.

Implementing Oracle's Planning Application requires customers to come prepared before the project starts. In part two of Scoping & Determining Level of Effort, the cast takes our audience through determining the level of effort for each planning module including Financial, Workforce, and Reporting. Tulsi and Chian will also share tips for preventing scope creep.  Check out “Scoping & Determining Level of Effort: ARCS & FCC to learn more about scoping Oracle's Cloud EPM suite.

Joe joined EPMI from Industry with a supply chain, logistics, and procurement background. He has been on the client-side of various software implementations and has a great understanding of our clients' needs. At EPMI, Joe has enjoyed building Planning applications across the High Tech and Retail industries.

Once an organization determines its software vendor and implementation partner one of the successive stages is scoping! While scoping, the project teams determine the level of effort for implementing each business process, timelines, and client involvement. The EPMIcast will break down the different scoping levers for Account Reconciliation and Close projects.

The EPMIcast welcomes our second Oracle guest, Muthu Ranganathan, a leader in Oracle's Product Management group based in Bangalore, India. The cast will discuss Oracle's Connected Planning Suite including Oracle Sales Planning. We will evaluate the solution field, what Connected Planning can accomplish, and exciting trends for Sales teams!

Chian Lin is EPMI's VP of Technology and chief problem-solver! He is an EPM specialist in Enterprise Planning, Enterprise Data Management, and Smart View. He has extensive experience across multiple verticals implementing industry best practices to modernize planning and budgeting. Chian has experience with a variety of industries including Higher Education, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, and more!

Discover the Possibilities of Oracle Cloud EPM! Stream, follow, and rate EPMIcast! 

EPMI is celebrating Oracle Cloud EPM's 8th birthday with a special EPMIcast featuring Oracle Vice President, Marc Seewald! Oracle had a great end to 2021 including acquiring Cerner, over 10 billion revenue in Q2, and recent cloud growth across pillars. However, 2022 is starting off as an interesting year with the continued pandemic, continued work from home, and rapid business transformation.  In this episode, Nihar and Marc identify emerging tech trends such as intelligent process automation, scenario planning, and predictive analytics. These cutting-edge tools are indispensable for the world's leading organizations navigating unpredictable yet exciting times.

Across all industries, EPM and ERP systems offer organizations efficient and accurate business processes. Additionally, EPM and ERP systems can work together to offer organizations advanced budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. During this episode, the cast will discuss the differences between EPM and ERP, how they can work together, and best practices.

Minie Parikh has a deep understanding of Hyperion Planning, Account Reconciliations, Financial Reporting, and Smart View. She has over 10 years of industry experience working with full lifecycle Oracle EPM implementations at Big 4s and boutique firms. She specializes in working with large enterprises to gather cross-functional requirements, lead design sessions, and improve FP&A processes. Minie is a leader who drives successful results for EPMI's clients. 

EPMI was established in 2012 by Nihar Parikh and Jay Chaney. In this episode, the cast recalls EPMI's origin story, company culture, and lessons learned!

Brian is an Account Reconciliations expert who spent over 20 years in industry as a Finance Controller and IT Director. He understands our clients' accounting processes and can translate his deep functional experience into tailored Oracle EPM solutions.

Karissa is a senior consultant and cloud planning expert. Prior to EPMI, Karissa was a part of an FP&A team and the lead administrator and analyst of her company's Oracle Hyperion application. The array of Karissa's experiences helps finance and accounting teams humanize their business processes with Oracle Cloud EPM.

Based in Houston, Katie started her career as an accountant and was engaged in multiple Oracle implementations from Hyperion Enterprise to Oracle Cloud EPM and Oracle ERP. Katie's expertise helps our clients realize the art of the possible with Oracle Cloud EPM.

Brett focuses on Financial Close & Consolidations and Account Reconciliations. Before EPMI, Brett worked in the oil & gas industry as an accountant.

The EPMIcast welcomes our first guests to the show, SSI Group! SSI Group is an industry leader in Revenue Cycle Management and has been partnering with healthcare providers for the past 30 years. The EPMIcast sits down with Jason Jones (CFO) and Chris Taylor (VP of Finance) to discuss the impact of Oracle Cloud EPM at SSI Group. EPMI implemented Capital & Projects Planning in the Spring of 2021.

The Cloud Maturity Model is one of the ways EPMI differentiates itself as a preferred EPM partner. The Maturity Model guides an organization through the phases of its cloud journey. This episode breaks down the Model, explains where organizations start, and the successive phases.

Once an organization decides that they are ready for the cloud, what is the path forward? Can an organization go-live within a preferred timeline? Does the size of the organization and amount of users affect the implementation scope? During this episode, the EPMIcast will discuss all of this plus our implementation approaches and techniques.

The Oracle universe has been providing ample content to help Hyperion customers decide whether to upgrade their 11.1.2.x instances, or to shift their Hyperion environment to the EPM Cloud. During this episode, our team from the EPMIcast studio cuts through the noise and lays out EPMI's idea of what your organization should consider as you evaluate the next steps. Time is of the essence with the support deadline of December 21st, 2021.

EPMI's project leadership teams discuss unique EPM challenges and best practices specific to the manufacturing industry.