While these tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, most organizations still perform project management activities using a myriad of spreadsheets, word documents, diagrams, legacy systems etc.

Then, there is another problem of connecting the dots. Organizations want teams to collaborate throughout the entire project from inception to completion using a common platform for reporting and analysis. This will provide a clear view of the project’s cost and will enable the team to take fast and decisive actions.

Corporate Strategic Planning: Where does Project Management fit?

It is becoming even more important to track projects on a routine basis at corporate level to ensure projects are heading in the right direction. It is imperative that organizations have a clear and holistic view of on-going projects and how they impact business profitability and cash flow.

Project management’s focus on estimating profits, identifying financial risks, and planning for unexpected loss, cannot be achieved in isolation and require inputs primarily from the office of finance. The office of finance can provide details of the financial plan, the forecast, and the budget which individual project teams can use to improve performance. The Finance team is also responsible for providing the right information for management to decide whether to approve new projects.

The above requirements can be met in two steps:

1. Run project management using an advanced cloud application
2. Connect project management with a robust financial planning solution

The first step of managing projects efficiently can be achieved using Oracle’s Project Management solution that comes as a part of Oracle Cloud ERP

Using this solution, project managers can deliver projects successfully while ensuring profitability and efficient operation. Oracle Project Management empowers project managers to plan the team’s work, assign resources, manage financials, and communicate to stakeholders. This simple solution helps organization streamline project financial processes and keep administrative costs to a minimum.

Project financial planning is just one component of strategic planning, and the c-suite needs to have information on such initiatives along with other financial data before taking key business decisions. Oracle EPM Planning Cloud is a proven solution that enables an organization’s finance team to manage revenue, expenses, the balance sheet, and cash flow in a single platform. It can also be used to keep track of the workforce, capital assets, and project financial planning. Over the years, Oracle EPM Cloud has evolved to provide a unified view of financial, operational and line of business planning to deliver a fully connected, enterprise planning solution

When it comes to project planning, Oracle details some of the best practices that customers need to follow in this excellent starter kit

Connecting Oracle Cloud EPM and Oracle ERP Project Planning

Adding another feature to the connected planning philosophy, Oracle has now enabled an out-of-the-box integration of Oracle EPM Planning with Oracle ERP Cloud Project Management. Approved projects are ‘registered’ in the EPM Planning application’s project module. This information is sent to Oracle Project Management application so that individual project teams can have better control over their finances, achieve more accurate forecasting and track actual costs from multiple sources.

Individual project teams can then share their data with the finance so in turn they can:

• Complete cash flow planning and long-range forecasting, at a corporate level as well as at the project level to understand overall company performance
• Perform profitability and margin analysis to optimize budget allocation or re-plan certain project budgets
• Use AI based prediction for scenario planning based on market dynamics, geopolitical issues, or other factors
• Perform what-if analysis to produce a ‘Plan B’ or ‘Plan C’

Tell me more about it …

Oracle recently published a whitepaper titled: “Unified planning, budgeting, execution and analysis of Projects” which provides details of how to set up the integration of Oracle EPM Planning Cloud and Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management. A walkthrough video provides even more details of this integration.

Key points to note on Oracle EPM Planning are:

• Only the out-of-the-box Oracle EPM Projects module is supported for integration. Custom planning cubes are not supported
• Indirect, capital, and non-sponsored project types are supported. Contract projects are not in scope
• The Period 13 and 4-4-4 Accounting Calendar are not supported
• Expense planning and actual costs are shared at resource class level only and include labor, equipment, and material