User can create independent financial models in the product without technical support

Description

This functionality allows users, such as financial analysts and managers, to use predefined templates or create custom financial models tailored to their specific needs. These models can be used to align with strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analysis. By independent, this means it is separate from the rest of the model and can be a subset of a version.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An enterprise-level automobile company uses CPM software for strategic financial planning. It needs to create various financial models, such as profit margin analysis, growth projections, and risk assessment models, to plan for its future.

Solution: The CPM software's ability to create independent financial models without technical support enables financial analysts within the company to create, modify, and utilize these models themselves. For instance, they can create a profit margin analysis model using existing related fields, dimensions, then run the model and analyze the results, all within the software, without requiring help from consultants.

Considerations

In essence, the user is able to create their own scenario by pulling in dimensions, attributes and its associated data without engaging consultants to architect a fresh data model. Products that lean more on the modeling side will offer this. Those that are more budgeting oriented (meaning rigid) might not. If they do, it involves simply cloning the entire model.

The difference between a modeling tool and a traditional budgeting tool is primarily structure. Budgeting tools have set dimensions, workflows, and attempt to follow a more linear path to accomplish the user's goals. As a result, they are easier to use.

Modeling tools are more of a sandbox that allows various different models to be quickly developed and compared, but are not suited for the average department head to interact with. They're great for running a sensitivity analysis or modeling an acquisition, but they'll struggle with use adoption across a non-finance user base.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Ease of Use: Can users easily select data elements (like dimensions and attributes), create, modify, and run financial models without the need for technical assistance?
• Integration: Can your system integrate data from diverse sources to support the creation of extensive financial models, or are we limited to the ledger and ERP?
• Access Control: How does your system manage user-specific permissions, ensuring that only authorized individuals can create or modify financial models? Can we limit certain model elements to specific user groups?
• Model Linkages: When a new model is created, is it totally independent? In other words, when new data comes into the system either from a source system or user edits to the core model, will it be updated?