Reducing EPM Implementation Risks with Expert EPM Consultants

About Lime SMA

Implementing an Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) system is a high-stakes endeavour. A poorly executed implementation can lead to budget overruns, disrupted workflows, or solutions that fail to deliver the strategic value they were intended to deliver. With the complexity of platforms like Anaplan, Pigment, IBM, Workday, or Planful, to name just a few of the available options on the market, the risks are real—but avoidable. All technologies seemingly operate in the same space, offering similar functionality, but it’s not till you dive deep into the technologies and nuances of each that the differences become apparent. Bolt Consulting, with our team of expert EPM consultants, offers a strategic, technology-agnostic approach to ensure your EPM implementation succeeds.

EPM Implementation Risks

Finance professionals can face significant hurdles when adopting EPM systems. Common pitfalls include misaligned vendor selection, inadequate planning, or insufficient user training, all of which can derail projects. For instance, a system that doesn’t integrate with existing ERP or CRM platforms can create data silos, while a poorly designed rollout may lead to low user adoption. For the business, these risks can threaten not just budgets but also the ability to deliver accurate budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. The stakes are high: a failed implementation can erode trust and delay strategic goals.
 

How Bolt Consulting Mitigates Risk

At Bolt Consulting, our EPM consultants specialise in de-risking implementations by focusing on your business’s unique needs. Whether you’re considering Anaplan consulting services for dynamic planning, Pigment consulting services for intuitive reporting, IBM consulting services for robust analytics, Workday consulting services for integrated financials, or Planful consulting services for streamlined budgeting, or indeed another platform entirely, we take a vendor-neutral approach. Our goal is to recommend a solution that aligns with your infrastructure, empowers your team, and delivers measurable ROI.
 
Our strategic process begins with a comprehensive assessment. We map your current systems, workflows, and pain points – whether you’re a retail firm grappling with multi-region data or a insurance business needing risk reporting capabilities or premium planning modelling. Our knowledgeable and experienced EPM consultants evaluate platforms based on critical factors: integration capabilities, scalability, user-friendliness, and total cost of ownership. This ensures your chosen EPM solution fits seamlessly into your ecosystem without forcing unnecessary trade-offs.

A Proven Approach: Real World Success

Consider a recent client of Bolt Consulting’s – Lime SMA, an insurance syndicate management firm, who needed upskilling and enablement on their Pigment environment.

By acting in their interests throughout the whole engagement, we were able to help the business upskill their internal capabilities, so their entire relationship with the Pigment platform was generating them the value they purchased it for in the first instance.

Their key user was trained, supported through co-build sessions and taught how to build excellent models in line with best practice. This approach mitigates the risk to adoption, and enhances value-add and buy-in within the business. This is a critical and often mis-understood step of EPM success. 

How Bolt Consulting Stands Out

 

In contrast to vendors promoting generic solutions, Bolt Consulting’s EPM consultants, adopt a technology-agnostic approach. We prioritise your organisation’s specific needs, delivering tailored recommendations that drive measurable results.
 
Our expertise across leading EPM platforms enables objective comparisons, focusing on practical benefits: minimised implementation risks, accelerated value delivery, and enhanced finance team efficiency. Partnering with Bolt ensures a scalable EPM solution without the constraints of vendor lock-in.

EPM – Choose the Right Way

Are you ready to find the right EPM solution for your business? Whether you’re currently on spreadsheets, or have legacy systems, partnering with Bolt Consulting could mean the difference between success and failure of your project. Our expert EPM consultants partner with you from discovery through to post go-live support, ensuring you get the value from your investment in EPM you need.

Contact us today to see how we can help you.

Lime Syndicate Managing Agency was born out of a desire to provide a cost-effective, efficient and technology-led managing agency by providing support and guidance to new syndicate propositions and a genuine alternative to those currently operating at Lloyd’s. Lime is a cost-effective, technology-driven Lloyd’s managing agency, offering a unique, client-focused service to both new syndicate proposals and established Lloyd’s syndicates.

Problem

After establishing themselves on the Lloyd’s managing agency market and starting operations, Lime had encountered significant hurdles in its planning processes due to its heavy reliance on Excel workbooks.

While these workbooks offered flexibility, they lacked advanced features needed for complex premium planning, risk and loss ratio projection, and strategic planning, leading to inefficiencies. Coupled with the limitations in automation and data analysis in spreadsheets often resulted in manual data handling, increasing error risks and slowing down plan adjustments.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Lime SMA was well aware of the pitfalls of excel processes from previous roles and was determined to start afresh with Lime implementing a modelling platform from day one.

The demand for comprehensive, timely reporting for strategic, regulatory, and investor purposes necessitated a shift to more sophisticated, unified tools beyond Excel workbooks.

Solution

Lime SMA wanted to move away from Excel to an EPM software platform that was fit for purpose now and for the foreseeable future. They decided Pigment was the best EPM solution on the market to cover a range of use cases – initially an Insurance Planning Model, a Financial Reporting Model and a Centralised Hub – and they chose to partner with Bolt Consulting because of their extensive experience in implementing Pigment models and insurance expertise.

Lime SMA and Bolt adopted a co-build approach to the project implementation. By taking some responsibility for building models, Lime SMA was able to learn how to build in Pigment while drawing on Bolt’s extensive knowledge and expertise as and when they had questions.

This collaborative approach was instrumental to the enablement of the Lime SMA Team to ensure greater adoption and self-sufficiency post Professional Services engagement with Bolt Consulting.

Pigment works from a single workspace with interconnected models that can directly reference each other. This enables instant update of information across all models – a solution that is simple to set up and easy to secure and administer.

Data automation and integration from source systems to Pigment allows Lime SMA to maintain data accuracy, while the scenario planning capabilities in Pigment gives Lime SMA maximum flexibility for modelling the impact of changes to the business. This is crucial in any successful EPM solution and something that Pigment manages with ease.

The Results

Lime SMA wanted to move away from Excel to an EPM software platform that was fit for purpose now and for the foreseeable future. They decided Pigment was the best EPM solution on the market to cover a range of use cases – initially an Insurance Planning Model, a Financial Reporting Model and a Centralised Hub – and they chose to partner with Bolt Consulting because of their extensive experience in implementing Pigment models and insurance expertise.

Lime SMA and Bolt adopted a co-build approach to the project implementation. By taking some responsibility for building models, Lime SMA was able to learn how to build in Pigment while drawing on Bolt’s extensive knowledge and expertise as and when they had questions.

This collaborative approach was instrumental to the enablement of the Lime SMA Team to ensure greater adoption and self-sufficiency post Professional Services engagement with Bolt Consulting.

Pigment works from a single workspace with interconnected models that can directly reference each other. This enables instant update of information across all models – a solution that is simple to set up and easy to secure and administer.

Data automation and integration from source systems to Pigment allows Lime SMA to maintain data accuracy, while the scenario planning capabilities in Pigment gives Lime SMA maximum flexibility for modelling the impact of changes to the business. This is crucial in any successful EPM solution and something that Pigment manages with ease.

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We’re happy to answer any questions you may have and help you determine which of our services best fit your needs.

Call us at: +44 (0) 208 058 7005
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2

We conduct an initial discovery and consulting meeting.

3

We work together toward ensuring your success.

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