We’ve created a list of the top 10 steps organizations should take for a successful financial performance management project. These steps were honed over more than two decades of experience designing and implementing financial performance management solutions based on IBM Analytics technologies. Essentially, these can also be considered best practices for financial performance management projects.

Before we go into the 10 steps, let’s take a look at today’s business environment. Years ago businesses, and senior management, were content to wait while technology project took months, or even years to be designed, implemented, rolled out, and eventually evaluated for success. That’s no longer an acceptable timeline. Sadly, some businesses will go out of business waiting years for an application that could make a meaningful difference for them. So it is now critical that many organizations think about speed to results and success at the beginning of a project. It’s with this mindset—and decades of experience, as well as focus on solving business problems, not just deploying cool technology for the sake of it—that we’ve developed this list.

1. Get an executive sponsor
2. Define the requirements
3. Phase the project
4. Take ownership
5. Communicate throughout the project
6. Involve IT
7. Identify and train the various users
8. Staff the implementation team with care
9. Close the loop on the project
10. Choose the right partner

We’ve expanded on these 10 steps in a whitepaper of the same title. If you’re interested in reading this whitepaper, feel free to download “Top 10 Steps for a Successful Financial Performance Management Implementation.”