Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM vs. SAP
Businesses around the world look to their finance teams to provide guidance about where to invest and grow—especially in times of uncertainty. Only Oracle provides a full suite of cloud-based enterprise performance management applications to help you analyze, understand, and report on your financial position.
Compare SAP to Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM and see why Oracle is the better choice for you.
Business advantages |
SAP |
Oracle Cloud EPM |
Why this matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| One complete, unified, and complete cloud EPM application suite. | Limited footprint that’s planning centric. May require custom development and third-party tools for other EPM business processes.1 | Includes solutions for planning, profitability, and cost management, financial consolidation and close, account reconciliation, tax reporting, narrative reporting, freeform, and enterprise data management. | A complete solution integrates management processes across the organization, aligning strategy with execution. Provides improved visibility and insight into all aspects of the business.2 |
| Planning, budgeting, and forecasting | Standard FP&A capabilities but requires additional application development or integration with legacy SAP Business Planning and Consolidation.3 | Purpose-built with comprehensive and innovative capabilities integrated across finance, operations, and lines of business. | Enables you to make better decisions with goal-oriented, driver-based plans. Gain immediate insights into performance and best path forward recommendations with predictive planning.4 |
| Integrated business planning and execution (IBXP) | SAP xP&A for SCM and production planning is still listed as vision only. 5 | Provides end-to-end planning capabilities for manufacturing companies, enabling them to achieve their long-, medium-, and short-term performance goals.6 | Transform plans into execution and monitor activity to detect unexpected events using the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and prescriptive analytics. Simulate and evaluate alternative responses to maintain or improve business targets.6 |
| Profitability and cost management | Different offering, not part of a unified EPM suite.8 | Purpose-built profitability and cost management applications are included in Oracle Cloud EPM. | You can allocate resources more effectively with a deeper understanding of costs and profitability.9 |
| Connected enterprise planning | Fewer out-of-the-box capabilities mean that additional application development may be required, along with legacy and partner tools.10 | Purpose-built finance and line of business applications, including sales, workforce, supply chain, and integrated business planning and execution.11 | Gain planning alignment and accuracy by leveraging built-in best practice capabilities across finance, operations, and line of business.12 |
| Connected financial consolidation and close | Separate offering, not part of a unified EPM suite.13 | Purpose-built consolidation and close applications are included in Oracle Cloud EPM. | Enables you to efficiently manage the consolidation and close, end to end. Helps ensure processes are dependable, correct, timely, transparent, streamlined, efficient, compliant, and auditable.14 |
| Account reconciliation | No known offerings, relies on partner-built tools.15 | A purpose-built account reconciliation application is included in Oracle Cloud EPM. | Helps your close faster by automating account reconciliations and transaction matching. Improve the efficiency and accuracy of your financial statements while addressing security and risk typically associated with the process.16 |
| Comprehensive tax reporting | No known offerings; relies on partner-built tools.17 | A purpose-built tax application is included in Oracle Cloud EPM. | Align tax with corporate financial reporting for better visibility and compliance. Helps you deliver transparent corporate tax processes—including tax provision and country-by-country reporting (CbCR).18 |
| Narrative reporting | No known offerings; relies on partner-built tools.19 | Purpose-built and part of the Oracle Cloud EPM platform. | Helps you meet internal and external reporting needs. Collaborate across the report creation process to define, author, review, and publish management and regulatory reports.20 |
| Enterprise data management | No purpose-built EPM enterprise data management capabilities without custom development effort.21 | Purpose-built and part of the Oracle Cloud EPM platform. However, enterprise data management is not limited to the EPM environment. | Respond and adapt to change faster by accelerating digital transformations, modeling potential M&A, chart of accounts redesign, and more. Pull or push enterprise data (e.g., master data, reference data, and hierarchies) to and from various systems, such as ERP, EPM, HCM, and data warehouses—whether they are cloud, on-premises, Oracle, or non-Oracle.22 |
| Next-generation technologies | |||
| Comprehensive Microsoft Office integration (Oracle Smart View for Office) | Partial capabilities with some basic add-in utilities.23 | Extensive Microsoft Office integration and comprehensive functionality.24 | Integrate ERP, EPM, and business intelligence data into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. View, import, manipulate, distribute, and share data in Office-based interfaces.25 |
| Data integration | Provides SAP-specific capabilities and programmatic options.26 | World-class integration platform and services. | Connect any application and data source to automate end-to-end processes and centralize management.27 |
| Advanced analytics and BI | Available capabilities are specific to SAP HANA platform and may require custom data integration and development for use with third-party data sources.28 | Available in the industry-leading Oracle Analytics Cloud platform that uses virtually any Oracle or external data sources. | Oracle Analytics empowers business users, data engineers, and data scientists to access and process relevant data, evaluate predictions, and make quick, accurate decisions. |
| Embedded AI and machine learning | Supported in SAP SAC for planning. Availability may vary across different SAP or partner tools for other EPM processes.29 | Native, comprehensive AI and ML infrastructure embedded in Oracle Cloud EPM Intelligent Performance Management Insights. | Empowers finance to become data-driven, speed up data analysis to take faster action with Insights, and improve decisions with predictive planning. |
| Digital assistants (Chatbots) | No known native capabilities. May require custom development.30 | Oracle Cloud EPM features an embedded, AI-guided digital assistant. | Helps teams work better and faster with instant responses, recommendations, and updates on critical tasks.31 |
| Intelligent process automation | Requires SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation development to integrate with SAP planning and other applications. 32 | Native process automation features with the Oracle Cloud EPM platform. | Helps speed consolidations and the overall close process and frees up staff to focus on more value-added activities. |
| Cloud platform technology provider | SAC Cloud Planning supported by SAP. Legacy SAP BPC and partner tools may require on-premises or third-party cloud platforms.33 | Natively managed by Oracle on Oracle cloud Infrastructure. | Oracle Cloud EPM is fully developed and managed by Oracle, delivering best-in-class, security, scheduled updates, and uptime reliability.34 |
Sources
1 https://assets.dm.ux.sap.com/ch-btp-roadshow-2022-2/pdfs/04_sac_strategy_roadmap.pdf
2 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/epm/oracle-epm-suite-solution-brief.pdf
3 https://blogs.sap.com/2023/02/23/sap-bpc-move-to-sac-use-sap-analytics-cloud-as-data-entry-ui-for-sap-bpc/
4 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/planning/
5 https://community.sap.com/topics/cloud-analytics/planning/content#vision:-supply-chain-management---production-planning
6 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/cfo-epm-planning-infographic-five-reasons.pdf
7 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/planning/#rc30p7
8 https://www.sap.com/canada/products/profitability-and-performance-management.html
9 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/profitability-cost-management/
10 https://community.sap.com/topics/cloud-analytics/planning/content
11 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/cfo-epm-planning-infographic-five-reasons.pdf
12 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/epm/oracle-epm-suite-solution-brief.pdf
13 Based on group reporting for S4/HANA customers. No indication it is sold to non-SAP customers as a standalone consolidations solution like Oracle Cloud EPM Financial Consolidation and Close. Also requires legacy business planning and consolidation software for non-S4/HANA customers.
https://www.sap.com/canada/products/s4hana-financial-consolidation.html
14 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/epm/oracle-financial-consolidation-and-close-ds.pdf
15 No native solution. Promotes and sells BlackLine.
https://www.sap.com/canada/products/account-reconciliation-automation-blackline.html
16 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/account-reconciliation/
18 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/tax-reporting/
19 Workiva is promoted on the SAP Store.
https://store.sap.com/dcp/en/product/display-0000032970_live_v1/Workiva%20Integration%20Platform%20for%20SAP%20Business%20Technology%20Platform
20 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/narrative-reporting/
21 https://blogs.sap.com/2021/12/07/challenges-and-best-practices-for-data-integration-and-data-management-in-sap-analytics-cloud-my-experience/
https://www.sap.com/mena/products/data-management.html#mdm
Data management platform not part of SAP’s core EPM offerings. No purpose-built SAP Analytics Cloud planning EDM capabilities without custom work with customers, IT, and consulting.
22 https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/applications/epm/oracle-enterprise-data-mgmt-cloud-ds.pdf
23 Just an Excel add-in, no other Microsoft Office product integration like Oracle Smart View.
https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_ANALYTICS_CLOUD_OFFICE/2b73edbc8f8f4189a36bc7a2e038185c/c9217302603a4fd6baa0fe6a6e780f8d.html
24 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/platform/
25 https://www.oracle.com/performance-management/smart-view-for-office/
26 https://blogs.sap.com/2021/07/08/integration-of-sap-s-4hana-and-sap-analytics-cloud-enterprise-edition/ (native S/4HANA integration)
27 https://www.oracle.com/integration/
28 https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_ANALYTICS_CLOUD/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/11b4e5ff76eb4747bc255d7037be1f01.html#loio11b4e5ff76eb4747bc255d7037be1f01__p_connectlive
29 https://blogs.sap.com/2023/03/21/machine-learning-made-easy-learn-how-with-sap-analytics-cloud/
30 https://blogs.sap.com/2020/06/24/how-to-build-a-chatbot-for-sap-analytics-cloud-with-sap-conversational-ai/
https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_CONVERSATIONAL_AI/a4522a393d2b4643812b7caadfe90c18/ffbfe65e3e01485397ba32d7c6c738d3.html
No reference to a native chatbot, digital assistant, or other AI-assisted solution in SAP’s help files. Requires the use and set up of SAP Conversational AI.
https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_ANALYTICS_CLOUD/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/1fb1f4ce92f44fc983debc25ac1f2cc9.html?q=Assistant
31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk4L_UVXD54
32 https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_ANALYTICS_CLOUD/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/b1a98c566bc64ce78871ee3c0b559d6f.html?q=automation
Requires SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation
https://www.sap.com/products/process-automation.html
33 https://www.element61.be/en/resource/sap-analytics-cloud-and-bpc-hybrid-approach
34 https://www.oracle.com/explore/xapps/idc-next-generation?topic=4%20Big%20Moves%20For%20Finance&lb-mode=overlay&source=:em:nw:mt::::ERPMorningReport&intcmp=:em:nw:mt::::ERPMorningReport#page=1