Your consolidation and FP&A finally combined in 12 weeks.
This is not a promise. This is our experience.
Every week, finance directors tell us the same thing: "We know we need to modernize our tool, but we don't have 18 months ahead of us.""
We understand this objection. And we decided to respond to it concretely — with figures and real-world experience.
Why the EPM deployment delay is the real question
When a mid-market finance department seeks to modernize its consolidation or FP&A processes, it doesn't fundamentally have a problem with the solution itself. It has a problem with time, available resources, and confidence in the ability to deliver. Older-generation EPM projects have earned a reputation that's hard to shake: 12, 18, or even 24 months of deployment, dedicated IT teams, go-lives that come too late, and laborious adoption.
It is precisely to break this paradigm that we have structured with our partner OneStream a pre-configured approach deployable in 8 to 12 weeks, which makes it possible to unify statutory consolidation and FP&A in a single EPM platform, with a predictable cost from the outset.
The 4 pain points of Finance teams in consolidation and FP&A
Before discussing technology, let's start with the concrete pain points we observe among our clients:
Financial consolidation and the reporting management doesn't talk to each other. Two tools, two reference frameworks, hours wasted each month reconciling figures that should be the same.
The consolidated closing takes too long. The time required to produce the accounts encroaches on the time available for analysis and management.
Finance relies on IT for even the smallest change. Modifying a status, adding an account, adapting a workflow: it's a ticket, a meeting, a deadline.
The budget and THE forecast largely remain in Excel — fragile, unauditable, difficult to change during the fiscal year.
These four pains are not trivial: These are the four main reasons why our clients decided to take the plunge.
5 common misconceptions about EPM projects — and what reality says
- «"It's reserved for large companies."»
→ CPM Express specifically targets mid-market groupst.
The offer is tailored to their size and budget — not to that of a CAC 40 company.
- «"An EPM project is long and complex."»
→ Deployment in 8 to 12 weeks thanks to pre-configuration of IFRS / French standards.
- «"It's complicated and expensive to maintain."»
→ Configuration without technical development. The Finance team adds accounts, statements, and controls without relying on IT. Cost is predictable from the outset.
- «"They're going to take Excel away from me."»
→ All OneStream reports can be dynamically consumed in Excel., Word and PowerPoint. Excel remains available, enhanced.
- «"It's an IT project."»
→ This is a Finance project. The finance teams manage the configuration and administration from end to end.
What the project of the large management consulting firm taught us
This large management consulting firm is one of the first clients for whom we deployed this approach.
The result : statutory consolidation and management reporting in less than 12 weeks, across a multi-entity scope.
Three factors were decisive:
- The first one is the preparation beforehand The pre-commitment phase — mock-ups, calculation rules, accounting schemes — is the least visible but most structuring step. The more carefully it is done, the faster the rest of the process will go.
- The second factor is the availability of the Finance teams on the client side The Finance teams drive the key decisions, including the definition of workflows. or the validation of historical datarisks taken — this is not a project that we delegate entirely to the integrator.
- The third one is methodological discipline : to stay within the standard for as long as possible, and personalize gradually.
An important point regarding deadlines OneStream officially announces 6 to 8 weeks for CPM Express.
At KPC, we communicate on an 8- to 12-week timeframe—a period that includes the pre-commitment phase and the migration of historical data. It's a more conservative promise, but it's the one we're able to keep.
80%
Faster deployment
58%
Improvement of planning cycles
70%
Reduction of data management cycles
50%
Reduction in closing times
How does the deployment of a unified EPM platform work?
What changes in practical terms is that all the data—actual, budget, forecast, statutory consolidation, management reporting—coexist within the same application. There's no synchronization between modules, no risk of discrepancies between tools, and no interface to maintain.
The analogy we often use: OneStream is the smartphone. The pre-configured offering is the installed app that gets you up and running from day one. And the marketplace (Solution Exchange) is the App Store — you add what you need as your organization evolves: payroll, CAPEX, cash flow, ESG, project planning, Pillar 2.
Finance teams regain real autonomy: creating their own reports, budget simulations with pre-configured methods, auditing every figure down to the source data in one click — without involving IT.
The phases of the project
- Pre-commitment: Models, calculation rules, accounting schemes, workflow definitions. Essential customer availability — it's the number one key to success.
Duration: variable
- Kick-off & Design: Design detailed, organization of contributors, validation of target processes and design validation.
Duration: 2-3 weeks.
- Configuration: Configuration and unit testing. Activation of features — no heavy technical development.
Duration: 6 weeks.
- Configuration: Integration testing, user and administrator training (Finance).
Duration: 2 weeks.
- Go-live & Guarantee: Production launch and KPC post-go-live support.
Duration: 1-2 months
How does an EPM platform evolve after deployment?
The CPM Express approach is not an end in itself. It's an entry point into an EPM platform designed to evolve with your organization over 10 to 15 years. Our clients start with financial consolidation and management reporting, then gradually expand their scope to include payroll planning, cash flow management, CAPEX, and ESG/CSRD reporting.
What remains unchanged: the same application, the same data repository, the same user logic. We never start from scratch.
To learn more about our EPM expertise, Discover our Performance Management offer
Are you still managing your consolidation and FP&A in separate tools? Is your closing process still taking too long?
Contact us to assess whether this approach is suitable for your organization.
About KPC
KPC is a consulting and integration firm specializing in Data and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management).
With €70 million in revenue, 500+ consultants and experts spread over 12 agencies, 8 entities in France (Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Sophia Antipolis, Toulouse) and 3 international locations including 2 Offshore BUs (Philippines and Madagascar), KPC supports finance departments in modernizing their performance management processes, financial consolidation and reporting.
Integration Partner certified OneStream, KPC has over 100 EPM customers in production, including CMA CGM, Accor and the Large management consulting firm.
Our approach combines Finance business expertise, technical mastery of EPM solutions and feedback from field experience for pragmatic and results-oriented projects.
About OneStream
OneStream is the unified cloud platform of Corporate Performance Management, recognized by more than 1,700 customers in the world.
Designed to unify financial and operational data within a single application, OneStream covers closing and consolidation, FP&A, integrated planning and the reporting ESG. The platform natively integrates artificial intelligence to accelerate forecasting and automate low value-added tasks.
OneStream is recognized Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice 2024, BARC Financial Performance Management Market Leader and The Hackett Group Digital World Class Integrated EPM 2024.