Driving Better Business through Actionable Intelligence: Column5

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) has become a must-have for competitive organizations that seek to outperform their peers in the global marketplace. The evidence is clear in every industry sector; the agility, transparency, and efficiency derived from an EPM strategy simply can't be realized by cobbling together legacy systems and protocols, or without an experienced partner who specializes in implementing EPM technology aimed at delivering an exclusive competitive advantage.

Every company with initiatives designed to advance the maturity of their performance management capabilities will want to ensure all potential value is realized from those investments. Enter Column5, the world's elite consulting firm dedicated to providing leading-edge solutions leveraging the SAP Enterprise Performance Management Suite. The company was founded in 2005, by key players from the team that made OutlookSoft an international success, with the sole goal of creating a team uniquely equipped with broad capabilities to properly deliver high-value solutions to an elite list of prominent clients.

In subsequent years, the Column5 team has partnered with SAP to create tailored solutions that address performance management needs across a wide range of industries and client types. In addition to its prepackaged solutions, Column5 has developed a team, knowledge base, and level of thought leadership that are unparalleled to deliver creative and high-value solutions for any size client in any industry.

The Column5 Difference

The ultimate goal in any competitive pursuit is to achieve peak performance—and in the enterprise performance management world, that means reaching "column five" in the EPM Maturity Model. Column5 is that elite stage in which the EPM process marries strategic, operational and financial plans to enable company leadership to execute strategic goals, immediately address changes in the market, and strengthen the organization. It's when business insights are updated in near real-time for rapid and frequent analysis and on-the-go decision making. Most important, it's the point when EPM effectiveness transforms into an elite competitive advantage that maximizes the value returned to clients’ business and its shareholders. Of course, Column5 recognizes that organizational change is challenging – it is the company’s job to provide the vision, talent, and tools that make the journey as painless as possible. In transitioning the organization from where it is today to achieving "column five", it starts with a comprehensive understanding of an organization's culture, management style and appetite for change. Throughout the process, it ensures that organizations get the most from its EPM investment by transforming process, technology and team's capabilities into an integrated solution that delivers outstanding enterprise performance, while positioning companies to achieve:

• Prompt return on investment
• The lowest possible total cost of ownership
• Long-term independence

Services

Consulting & Implementation: By making better, more timely decisions based on trusted data, organizations can improve every element of their operations whether reducing costs, identifying opportunities, taking the right products more quickly to market, weathering economic turmoil, procuring better, or improving customer service.

Column5 Training: A successful implementation of SAP Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions, including BPC, depends on relevant, timely training for a client’s project team, administrators and users. Column5's EPM Academy sets the industry standard in the quality curriculum, with award-winning course content developed by top field experts.

Technical Services: Column5’s Technical Services ensure that companies achieve a premium level of performance that returns the highest value of clients’ investment in the SAP EPM product suite. Its unmatched experience, expertise, and dedication secure success in technical integration, enhances performance, limits risk and improves user adoption and satisfaction – during their implementation and beyond.

Program Management: The Program Management team at Column5 is dedicating to making sure clients’ projects are delivered as efficiently as possible within the budget. To help make the right decision for their project, it is important to look at what project management is, what benefits it provides, and how it fits in the overall project.

The Column5 implementation methodology for SAP BPC EPM projects has evolved based on the hundreds of successful EPM projects it has managed. The methodology includes an integrated plan incorporating the people-side of the change, leadership and sponsorship, and traditional project management. 

Meet the Leader

David Den Boer, Chairman, and Founder: David Den Boer founded Column5 Consulting in 2005. A dedicated professional services practitioner and entrepreneur, he has applied his significant technical delivery experience and broad experience providing solutions across a wide variety of industries and raising the standards for what success means within EPM. As a founding principal with the launch of Column5, David sought to extend the focus of EPM beyond just implementing technology, assembling a team of business process visionaries and senior product talent with unmatched ability to deliver world-class EPM solutions.

Under David´s leadership, Column5 has evolved beyond its reputation for technically superior solutions to be an influential global provider of high—value EPM solutions. His prior experience includes consulting experience as Director of Services at OutlookSoft from 2000 to 2005.

“We pride ourselves on an approachable, friendly style, and unwavering commitment to sharing our deep expertise in business process design and execution.”