The OneStream Splash EMEA 2024 in Copenhagen marked an important milestone for customers, prospects and partners alike. OneStream showed how the improved openness of their platform aims to drive flexibility, reach and value for its customers. The historical backdrop of Copenhagen, the “merchant’s harbor,” resonated with the event’s core message – openness to new opportunities and collaboration. Below are key insights from the event collected throughout the keynote sessions, dedicated product tracks and insightful interactions with customers and partners.
1. Unifying financial and operational data: A new era for OneStream
The unification of financial and operational data is at the heart of OneStream’s message – take finance further. The Power BI Connector is a prime example of this. By allowing financial teams to combine external operational data with core financials, OneStream wants to open the door to more comprehensive and strategic decision-making. Siloed information slows down organizations. By making valuable information easier to access in OneStream through the popular Power BI frontend, the vendor enables customers to get better insights from new combinations of data.
2. Openness for innovation: Extensibility in CPM
OneStream showcased its commitment to openness through the platform’s extensibility features, enabling users and partners to build customized solutions without requiring them to embark on risky software development journeys. Whether through the Solution Exchange with more than 100 solutions or platform enhancements like Sensible ML, the goal is clear: financial systems must evolve to accommodate unique business needs. Through this extensibility, OneStream encourages businesses to leverage their platforms to deliver innovations to customers, allowing them to tackle more tasks and solve problems faster.
3. AI and machine learning in finance: Beyond the hype
While AI was a key focus at the event, what stood out was the practical emphasis on making AI useful for the Office of the CFO, true to the motto ‘Get rid of non-value added work’. With Sensible ML and the AI Library, OneStream aims to break down the complexity of AI for finance professionals, with the goal of ensuring transparency, auditability and repeatability. OneStream lets financial teams experiment with and implement ML-driven forecasting in a controlled, predictable manner without requiring them to become data scientists.
4. ESG and disclosure: Aligning with global needs
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting has become a non-negotiable part of social corporate responsibility for many organizations. OneStream’s core capabilities support data collection, consolidation and reporting, opening avenues for companies to seamlessly integrate ESG into their financial narratives. OneStream aims to facilitate the exchange of critical ESG information across the organization, giving finance departments the tools they require to challenge the daunting tasks coming from the regulations around ESG. OneStream’s new narrative reporting feature promises users more efficient collaboration on regulatory reports for ESG and financial disclosure.
5. Openness to collaboration: Partnering for success
OneStream’s platform evolution isn’t just about technology; it’s also about fostering sustainable partnerships. By opening its platform to partners for solutions like Sales Performance Management, People Planning and many more, OneStream wants to ensure its ecosystem can thrive and expand. A platform open for this approach leverages the power of partners for growth, because today’s businesses must collaborate to have a brighter future.
6. Open for more users: Modernized browser interface
A major step for opening a platform to a wider audience is to make it accessible on more devices, and OneStream can now be accessed on Macs and mobile devices through a modern browser interface, The goal is to deliver a clean interface that lends itself well to finance requirements. This also offers new capabilities for customization and navigation of custom solutions, aiming to improve efficiency, usability and user satisfaction.
In conclusion, the OneStream Splash event showcased the vendor’s vision of how openness—whether in data, technology or partnerships—can drive the next phase of corporate performance management: Just as Copenhagen’s harbor once invited the world to engage in trade, today’s CPM platforms must open themselves up to new possibilities and external influences to remain competitive and relevant in an uncertain world.
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Robert is Managing Director and Senior Analyst at BARC Austria. His areas of expertise are analytics, BI and CPM.
He supports companies in all industries in software selection as well as in the design and optimization of strategy, architecture and organization.
Robert has many years of experience managing analytics and BI projects, hands-on expertise with many BI tools on the front end as well as the back end, designing, coaching and implementing reporting, analytics and planning solutions with a focus on self-service BI, information design and advanced planning.
Dr. Christian Fuchs is a Senior Analyst and Head of Data & Analytics Research at BARC. He is the author of numerous BARC studies as well as a sought-after speaker at conferences. His areas of expertise are decision support information systems in corporate performance management (CPM), planning, consolidation and analytics front ends.
As a consultant, he supports companies in the software selection process and in the implementation phase as well as with strategic questions regarding tool portfolios, architecture and usage scenarios.
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