How to choose an EPM tool in 2026: complete guide for CIOs and CFOs

The EPM market in 2026: who are the players and where do they stand

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Financial Planning Software from December 2025 identifies several Leaders: Anaplan (ninth consecutive year), Oracle EPM Cloud (ranked highest in ability to execute), Board (fourth year as Leader), Jedox (third year), Wolters Kluwer CCH Tagetik (Leader in both planning and consolidation), and SAP Analytics Cloud.

Pigment, founded in Paris in 2019, is positioned as a Visionary for the second consecutive year, driven by a strategy firmly oriented toward agentic AI and a user experience praised by G2 users.

OneStream, absent from the Financial Planning Software Magic Quadrant, dominates the consolidation and close management segment with a unified platform that combines close, consolidation, reporting, and planning in a single environment.

This landscape implies a first structural choice: is your primary need connected planning (Anaplan, Pigment, Board) or unified financial control (OneStream, CCH Tagetik, Oracle EPM Cloud)?

Functional capabilities: the most weighted criterion

This is the criterion that carries the most weight in any selection. But “functionality” does not mean “number of features”. What matters is depth on your critical use cases.

Budgeting and financial planning

All solutions can build a budget. The difference lies in driver-based modeling, the ability to manage multiple scenarios simultaneously, and the fluidity of collaboration between contributors. Anaplan and Pigment excel in flexible modeling. OneStream and CCH Tagetik dominate in structured processes with complex approval workflows.

Statutory consolidation

If you have consolidation requirements (IFRS, US GAAP, local standards), the choice narrows considerably. OneStream, CCH Tagetik and Oracle EPM Cloud have native consolidation engines. Anaplan acquired Fluence Technologies in 2024 to address this gap. Pigment, Board and Jedox do not cover statutory consolidation natively.

Workforce planning

Workforce planning is a fast-growing use case. Anaplan, Pigment and Workday Adaptive Planning offer dedicated modules. Granularity (by position, FTE, cost center) and the ability to simulate hiring or attrition scenarios vary significantly across solutions.

Reporting and dashboards

Reporting remains a friction point on many platforms. Anaplan is regularly criticized for its limited visualization capabilities. Board and Pigment offer more mature native dashboards. Oracle EPM Cloud and CCH Tagetik rely on structured but less flexible reporting engines.

Technical fit: security, performance, integration

An EPM tool does not operate in a silo. It must integrate with your ERP (SAP, Oracle, Workday, Dynamics), your data sources (Data Lake, BI), and your productivity tools (Excel, Teams, Slack).

ERP integration

If you are on SAP S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud and CCH Tagetik offer native integration. Oracle EPM Cloud is the natural choice for Oracle Fusion environments. OneStream supports direct integration with over 250 systems through its marketplace.

Excel integration

This remains a critical topic. Jedox stands out with its native Excel add-in, allowing users to work in a familiar environment while leveraging the calculation engine. Anaplan offers an Excel connector, but the experience is less seamless than Jedox. Pigment has chosen to minimize Excel dependency in favor of its web interface.

Scalability

Beyond 200 concurrent users, performance becomes a differentiator. Anaplan’s Hyperblock engine and its Polaris extension handle high-dimensionality models. OneStream, with its .NET and SQL Server architecture, handles high transactional volumes. Lighter solutions (Jedox, Board) may hit limits on very large deployments.

Adoption and change management

Usability is not a nice-to-have criterion. It is the number one factor in the success or failure of an EPM project. A powerful tool that nobody uses is worth nothing.

G2 reviews show that Pigment and Board are the highest-rated solutions for ease of use. OneStream has a notoriously steep learning curve, justified by the platform’s depth but requiring significant training investment. Anaplan sits in between: flexible but requiring trained model builders.

Internal political risk is often underestimated. Deploying an EPM impacts budgeting processes, approval chains, and ownership of the numbers. It is a transformation project, not an IT project. Assess the vendor’s and its ecosystem’s ability to support this change.

Vendor robustness

The vendor’s financial viability determines the sustainability of your investment.

Anaplan, owned by Thoma Bravo since 2022, surpassed one billion dollars in annual recurring revenue in 2025. OneStream reports 568 million dollars in ARR with 35% growth and a 98% retention rate. Pigment, venture-funded (Series D of 145 million dollars in 2024), is in rapid growth but does not yet have the installed base of the leaders. Oracle and SAP are hyperscalers whose longevity is not in question, but whose strategic priority given to EPM may vary.

Deployment and time-to-value

Deployment timelines range from 6 weeks (OneStream CPM Express for standard configurations) to 12-18 months (complex multi-entity implementations on OneStream or Anaplan). Pigment and Board promise faster implementations thanks to their no-code/low-code approaches, but reality depends on the complexity of your models and the quality of your source data.

The most decisive factor is not the tool but the availability of skilled resources. The scarcity of certified Anaplan or OneStream consultants extends timelines and drives up costs. Check the depth of the integrator ecosystem before committing.

Pricing and total cost of ownership

Most enterprise EPM vendors do not publish their pricing. Models vary: per named user (Anaplan, Pigment), per platform with modules (OneStream), by functional tiers (Oracle, SAP).

TCO must include licenses, implementation (often 1 to 3 times annual license cost), training, and ongoing maintenance. Implementation costs on Anaplan and OneStream are among the highest in the market. Pigment and Board position lower implementation costs, partly due to faster deployments.

For mid-market companies with constrained budgets, Jedox, Board and Planful offer more accessible entry points. For enterprises with complex needs, Anaplan, OneStream and Oracle EPM Cloud justify their premium through functional depth.

AI and technology roadmap

In 2026, every EPM vendor includes AI in their messaging. But maturity levels diverge significantly.

Pigment is the most advanced on agentic AI, with autonomous agents that automate planning tasks and generate recommendations. Anaplan pushes PlanIQ for predictive forecasting. OneStream is developing SensibleAI for financial process automation. Oracle and SAP integrate AI into their broader cloud stacks.

Evaluate concretely: are the AI features in production or beta? Do they require specific data? Do they deliver measurable value on your use cases?

How to structure your selection process

Six steps to frame your EPM selection project.

Define your priority use cases. Budget, forecast, consolidation, workforce planning, reporting? Not all tools cover everything with the same depth.

Identify your technical constraints. Existing ERP, data sources, security requirements, data sovereignty constraints.

Define your user profile. Number of users, data maturity, Excel dependency, workflow complexity.

Build a shortlist of 3 to 5 solutions. Use our EPM comparator for an initial selection based on your profile.

Run targeted POCs. Request demonstrations on your real use cases, not generic demos.

Assess the integrator ecosystem. The availability and competence of consultants in your region are as important as the tool itself.