What CFOs need to know about EPM scalability in 2025
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tools have come a long way. But if you’re a CFO in 2025, the question isn’t whether you have one—it’s whether it’s still scaling with your business.
Because what worked at $50 million might not cut it at $150 million. And what worked when finance owned everything in a spreadsheet? That doesn’t fly when operational leaders expect real-time answers.
So here’s what’s worth paying attention to this year.
It’s not just about capacity—it’s about agility
Most people hear “scalability” and think about system limits: how many users, how much data, how complex a model can be.
That matters. But the bigger blocker we see inside growing businesses is agility—can your planning process actually keep up with the decisions your business needs to make?
Can marketing or sales self-serve scenarios?
Can operational leaders tweak assumptions and see impact immediately?
Can you roll forward your forecast without rebuilding the model every quarter?
If you’re the bottleneck, you’re not scaling. You’re stuck.
Your model is only as scalable as your definitions
It sounds basic, but it’s the thing that bites fast-growing companies the most. If every business unit defines “revenue” differently, or uses different drivers to forecast headcount or margins, your model won’t scale. It’ll sprawl.
Scalability starts with structure—aligned definitions, reusable components, standardised assumptions. Otherwise, every new business unit or scenario means more patchwork, more rework and more time lost.
Don’t over-customise early
One of the biggest mistakes we see: teams build hyper-detailed models too soon. Every possible driver, every nuance baked into the base layer.
It looks powerful—until you need to change it.
Scalable EPM means building for what’s next, not just where you are now. That often means starting with a strong core framework and evolving it over time.
The CFOs who get this right know the value of flexibility over perfection. They focus on what needs to be true to make better decisions faster—not capturing every edge case on day one.
Where this gets real
This isn’t theoretical. We’re working with CFOs across ANZ who are in exactly this position—trying to move from siloed planning to a scalable, enterprise-wide approach that keeps finance at the centre without doing all the work.
It’s not about more dashboards. It’s about building a planning environment that grows with you—and gets smarter as you go.
Thinking about the next stage of your planning journey?
Talk to the team at Pivot2 Solutions.
We help finance teams build scalable EPM environments that are structured, adaptable and future-ready—without the bloat.
McKinsey & Company (2023). Rewiring planning for a more agile finance function
Oracle (2024). The future of planning: Trends in cloud EPM adoption
FSN Modern Finance Forum (2022). The Future of Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting
Deloitte (2023). Finance 2025: Digital transformation in the finance function
Gartner (2024). Market Guide for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions