In the context of the strong financial digital transformation, businesses need not only to record past data, but also to forecast and operate future strategies. Two technology platforms play a central role in this journey: ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management).
Nếu ERP được xem như “hệ thần kinh vận hành” của doanh nghiệp, thì EPM lại là “bộ não phân tích” – giúp nhà quản trị nhìn xa hơn dữ liệu hiện tại để lập kế hoạch, dự báo và ra quyết định nhanh chóng.
Bài viết này sẽ giúp bạn – đặc biệt là các CFO, FP&A Manager and Finance Leader – hiểu rõ:
- How are EPM and ERP different?
- Can ERP replace EPM?
- And why? Sactona – giải pháp EPM của Bizzi Vietnam – đang trở thành lựa chọn hàng đầu của các CFO hiện đại.
What are ERP and EPM?
Before going into Compare EPM and ERP, let's take a look at the nature of these two concepts.
1. ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
Trước khi so sánh, hãy cùng nhìn lại nền tảng cốt lõi của hầu hết các doanh nghiệp hiện nay – ERP.
ERP is considered the “operational backbone” where all financial, inventory, human resources and supply chain transactions are recorded and synchronized.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is enterprise resource planning system, helps automate processes, ensuring data consistency across departments.
The main functions of ERP include:
- Recording and storing transactional data – mọi nghiệp vụ mua hàng, bán hàng, kế toán đều được hệ thống hóa.
- Quản lý tài chính – kế toán (GL, AP, AR) and operating cash flow.
- Manage production, supply chain, human resources and fixed assets.
- Provide reports that reflect reality (actuals) in the past and present.
In short, ERP is Operational recording and control tools, ensuring "businesses operate according to correct procedures".
2. EPM – Enterprise Performance Management
While ERP records the past, EPM helps draw the future. This is the platform that allows financial managers to plan, forecast, consolidate reports and evaluate business performance.
EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) focus on analysis, forecasting and strategic planning, helping management understand the impact of current decisions on future results.
Main functions of EPM:
- Budgeting & Forecasting according to many scenarios.
- Financial Consolidation multinational
- Performance Analysis and manage KPI, ROI, EBITDA.
- Integrate data from ERP and other systems to provide comprehensive management reporting.
If ERP answers the question “What happened?”, then EPM replied “What will happen, and what if…?”
Modern EPM platforms such as Sactona, Jedox, Anaplan, Oracle EPM Cloud Helps businesses build flexible financial models, connect data from multiple sources, and update scenarios in real time.
So sánh EPM và ERP – EPM và ERP khác nhau như thế nào?
Before diving into the role of EPM, let's take a look at the table. Compare EPM and ERP To better visualize the difference between these two platforms:
| Criteria | ERP | EPM |
| Target | Management & Operation Optimization | Performance Management & Strategic Planning |
| Target audience | Operational staff (Accounting, Purchasing, Warehouse, Human Resources) | CFO, FP&A, senior leadership |
| Data type | Transactional – dữ liệu thực tế | Analytical – dữ liệu kế hoạch & dự báo |
| Time angle | Past & Present | Present & Future |
| Main applications | Transaction recording, basic reporting | Planning, consolidation, scenario analysis, decision support |
→ Conclude: ERP and EPM are not interchangeable. ERP helps “record accurately”, while EPM helps “make accurate decisions”. These two platforms additional each other, creating a comprehensive financial ecosystem for modern businesses.
Can ERP replace EPM?
The answer is Are not.
Trước khi có EPM, các phòng FP&A thường lập kế hoạch bằng Excel thủ công – dễ sai, khó kiểm soát phiên bản, và mất hàng tuần để tổng hợp dữ liệu. Dù ERP đã giúp chuẩn hóa quy trình kế toán, nhưng vẫn tồn tại khoảng trống lớn trong hoạch định và phân tích.
ERP only stores Actual Values, it does not manage Planned/Forecast Values.
ERP does not support scenario analysis. – điều mà CFO rất cần khi xây dựng kế hoạch tài chính.
ERP lacks the ability to consolidate multi-unit, multi-region financial reporting.
EPM was born to fill this gap. Platforms like Sactona provide:
- Automate FP&A processes.
- Drill-down analysis, What-if scenario simulation, and real-time KPI reporting.
- Reduce planning, forecasting, and reporting consolidation time by 50-70%.
Giải pháp EPM Sactona – Sản phẩm của Outlook Consulting, phân phối độc quyền bởi Bizzi
In the journey of financial digital transformation, many CFOs in Vietnam are looking for a solution Flexible as Excel but powerful as Oracle. That's when Sactona – EPM platform from Japan, by Outlook Consulting development and Exclusive distribution by Bizzi Vietnam – trở thành lựa chọn hàng đầu.
Likened to “CFO's trusted transformation partner”, Sactona is not just financial planning management software, but strategic brain help businesses make decisions faster, more accurately, and less dependent on Excel.
Product positioning
Sactona is developed by Outlook Consulting, Japan's leading EPM consulting and implementation company, with over 25 years of experience in financial performance management for large corporations.
In Vietnam, Bizzi To be exclusive distribution partner and official implementation support for Vietnamese businesses.
Target audience:
- Businesses have revenue >200 billion VND/year.
- The system has been deployed Large ERP such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics...
- Have FP&A team of 5 or more people, are looking to standardize and automate their planning & forecasting processes.
Sactona giúp doanh nghiệp đạt tới một cấp độ mới trong quản trị tài chính – nơi dữ liệu không chỉ được lưu trữ, mà được transformed into operational knowledge.
Core values
Every business can use ERP for management, but only with EPM like Sactona, they can planning and controlling the future. Below are three core values that make Sactona the trusted choice of global CFOs.
Value 1: Improve the quality of planning & forecasting
Before planning, CFOs often spend days collecting data from departments, editing Excel, and dealing with discrepancies between “Plan” and “Actual”. Sactona solves this problem thoroughly by Direct integration with ERP and Data Warehouse, help:
- Automatic data connection from accounting, sales, human resources, production systems...
- Variance Analysis between Planned – Actual – Forecast in real time.
- Data consolidation from multiple business units, markets, or regions in just minutes.
CFOs can create their own What-if scenario để kiểm tra tác động của việc thay đổi doanh thu, chi phí, tỷ giá… đến lợi nhuận doanh nghiệp – mà không cần chờ đội IT.
“Trước đây, lập kế hoạch mất 2 tuần. Với Sactona, chỉ còn 3 ngày – và dữ liệu chính xác đến từng chi nhánh.” – CFO Panasonic chia sẻ trong buổi hội thảo nội bộ.
Value 2: Ease of use & high autonomy
Unlike complex platforms (e.g. Oracle EPM, Anaplan) that require technical support teams, Sactona is designed for FP&A teams to operate autonomously. – mà vẫn giữ được độ chính xác cấp doanh nghiệp.
- Familiar Excel interface: FP&A staff do not need to learn additional programming languages.
- Kéo – thả, tạo báo cáo nhanh chóng: Just a few clicks to add rows, edit formulas, create charts.
- Flexible model customization: CFOs can change financial assumptions and create new models without IT intervention.
This is a great advantage to help Sactona is suitable for the characteristics of Vietnamese enterprises. – nơi phòng FP&A thường nhỏ, đa nhiệm, và cần công cụ dễ áp dụng ngay.
“Sactona giữ lại linh hồn của Excel – sự linh hoạt – nhưng thêm vào đó là sức mạnh của hệ thống EPM.”
Value 3: Cost-effective & fast ROI
EPM implementation is often seen as a “long-term, expensive project”. However, Sactona proves otherwise.
- Implementation time: only from 2-3 months For basic projects, 60-70% faster than Oracle or SAP BPC.
- Lower cost 40-50% compared to international competitors.
- Fast ROI: Significantly reduce forecasting time, consolidate reporting and analysis.
For example:
- Panasonic – sau khi áp dụng Sactona, thời gian forecast giảm còn 5.5 days.
- Monex Group – rút ngắn 60% thời gian hợp nhất dữ liệu, tăng 40% thời gian dành cho phân tích.
Thanks to its streamlined processes, Sactona helps CFOs “see business results sooner, to act sooner.”
Pain points Sactona resolves
Before Sactona appeared, many Vietnamese businesses encountered three typical problems:
- ERP only provides historical reports, not future planning.
→ Historical data is recorded accurately, but cannot answer the question “What if revenue drops by 10%?”. - FP&A relies on manual Excel:
→ Each department sends a different file, wrong formula, wrong version, difficult to merge. - Other international EPM software are too complicated & expensive:
→ Oracle, SAP BPC or OneStream are powerful but require specialized IT, deployment takes 6-12 months.
Sactona was born to Combine the flexibility of Excel with the power of a Japanese standard EPM system, helping Vietnamese businesses become more accessible while still achieving high efficiency.
“Không còn cảnh ‘Excel chồng Excel’, mọi thứ giờ cập nhật realtime, CFO chỉ cần mở dashboard.” – phản hồi từ khách hàng tại Tokyo sau 3 tháng triển khai.
International Case Study
Sactona's success stories clearly demonstrate the value the platform brings to global CFOs.
Panasonic Corporation – Chuẩn hóa dữ liệu & rút ngắn chu kỳ forecast
Previously, each region of Panasonic used a different accounting system. Compiling global financial statements took an average of 15-20 days, và thường xảy ra sai lệch giữa kế hoạch – thực tế.
After deploying Sactona:
- The forecast cycle decreased from 15 days down to 5.5 days.
- Updated global consolidated report in real time.
- Branches can enter data directly into Excel forms that are synced with Sactona Cloud.
- CFO can Drill-down data down to each product line or region with just one click.
Result: Accelerate strategic decision making and standardize data across the entire group across 40 countries.
Monex Group – Chuyển vai trò FP&A từ “ghi chép” sang “phân tích”
Monex – tập đoàn dịch vụ tài chính hàng đầu Nhật Bản – từng đối mặt với vấn đề: FP&A mất 70% input time, leaving only 30% for analysis.
With Sactona:
- Automated planning and forecasting processes 80%.
- Consolidate data from multiple branches in hours instead of days.
- FP&A can focus on analyzing fluctuations and simulating “what-if” scenarios to support the CEO in operations.
Result: Finance team moves from “reporter” to “business advisor” – đúng tinh thần của EPM hiện đại.
Fujifilm – Tăng tốc hợp nhất báo cáo tài chính toàn cầu
With more than 50 business units in the worldFujifilm has had difficulty manually consolidating data, causing delays in monthly consolidated financial reports.
After deploying Sactona:
- All reports are consolidated on the same platform.
- Reduce 65% data error, reducing report processing time 50%.
- CFOs can see consolidated results, forecasts, and variance analysis within hours of branch data entry.
Thanks to that, Fujifilm transformed itself into a data-driven enterprise real
Conclude
In short, Sactona is more than just EPM software, which is comprehensive strategic solutions cho các CFO đang muốn nâng tầm vai trò của phòng tài chính – từ “báo cáo” sang “dẫn dắt tăng trưởng”.
With the companionship of Bizzi in Vietnam, Sactona is becoming the ideal choice for businesses wanting to Accelerating financial digital transformation without sacrificing the familiar flexibility of Excel.
In today's financial digital transformation landscape, How are EPM and ERP different? It is no longer an academic question, but a foundation to help businesses understand where to invest for sustainable development.
If ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) play the role of operations management platform, helping businesses control transaction data, accounting, inventory and production processes; then EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) is strategic performance management platform, helping leaders plan, forecast and make decisions based on future data.
In other words, ERP helps businesses “run well today”, while EPM helps “make the right decisions for tomorrow”.
Một doanh nghiệp hiện đại không thể chỉ dừng lại ở việc ghi nhận quá khứ – mà cần chủ động dự báo, mô phỏng và điều chỉnh kế hoạch trong thời gian thực.
Therefore, Businesses should not view ERP and EPM as alternatives., but need to see this as strategic partner trên hành trình nâng cao năng lực tài chính – điều hành.
Recommendations for CFOs and finance teams:
Integrate your existing ERP system with giải pháp EPM Sactona – Bizzi, to:
- Completely eliminate dependency on Excel manually, reducing errors and saving time.
- Enhancing FP&A capacity, helping finance teams focus on analysis instead of data entry.
- Increase speed and accuracy in strategic decision making, thanks to its ability to forecast, analyze scenarios and simulate financial situations in real time.
In the data age, CFO không chỉ là người quản lý chi phí – mà là người kiến tạo giá trị và định hướng chiến lược cho doanh nghiệp.
And Sactona – giải pháp EPM được phát triển bởi Outlook Consulting, phân phối độc quyền bởi Bizzi tại Việt Nam is reliable assistant Helping CFOs make it happen: manage performance smarter, make decisions faster, and lead businesses more firmly into the future.