OneStream is a corporate/enterprise performance management (CPM/EPM) software vendor. It has the following applications:
- ESG reporting
- financial integration
- planning and budgeting
- lease accounting
- statutory report
- management report
- cash forecast
- Profitability
- long term plan
- Account reconciliation
- tax regulations
- Operation plan
- more
The company currently has about 1,150 customers (added about 250 last year). A sizeable concentration of these wins consisted of large enterprise customers. Nearly 2,200 in-person attendees and many virtual attendees attended this year’s Splash conference. One executive speculated that the number of virtual participants was likely in the millions. That comment mostly made the accountant/financial crowd laugh!
Unusually in the world of application software, OneStream publishes a list of all its customers for prospective customers to contact.all customersmust be browsable.
(Unfortunately,: While BBQ brisket, breakfast tacos and Dr. Pepper were plentiful at last year’s Texas-based show, this Washington DC event offers a very different (yet acceptable) offering it was done. )
sensible ML
OneStream executives have been talking about new AI/ML tools and features for several years now. At the 2021 (virtual) OneStream User Conference, CEO Tom Shea pointed out how he spent time discussing:
Advanced technologies such as AI/ML impact enterprises at large, and how these capabilities impact software like the one OneStream sells. (Click here for the full Diginomika article)
At that event, Shea showed that companies are going through an inflection point where the value expected from tools like ML/AI is approaching what can actually be realized. He also discusses skill issues customers may experience with advanced technology (I agree) and what shortcomings early tools had (e.g. how models/algorithms work). and the bias of the main datasets used) were also highlighted.
On that show, I also pointed out:
OneStream has previewed a set of solution features that address the latest business needs. Some features include the ability to create thousands of ML models in parallel, the ability to reduce users’ reliance on data scientists, and the ability to explain AI/ML tools to managers, auditors, regulators, etc. It includes the ability to
The following year, in 2022, in San Antonio, customers were able to hear from real customers using these new tools. So the ML concepts discussed last year were already built into OneStream’s product line, and customers were already using them. An article on that show said:
OneStream has put together one joint OneStream-customer presentation on its new machine learning capabilities. A customer is outdoor vehicle manufacturer Polaris, who is using his new OneStream product to better predict demand for a range of outdoor products.
This year’s event featured significantly more presentations, Q&As, and more for customers to hear from other customers using these advanced tools to identify better and more likely sales projections. . Where I looked, I personally caught 3 of these:
- How the customer can select internal and external data files to improve the accuracy of the forecasting tool. Test different external files (weather data, holidays, consumer price index, etc.) to see how well the model helps correlate with previous historical data.
- How real customers have spent the last year improving their previous models with better, more detailed and external data.
- How should finance and operations staff team up to use these advanced technologies more effectively? In fact, OneStream executives say that old CPMs were often transaction processing or integration tools that presented financial results for previous periods, while operational systems were designed to record many business events/product movements, etc. I noticed that Neither system was designed to be great at analyzing detailed external and internal data. When possible, companies can make more accurate forecasts and better manage their business.
OneStream’s Shea also spent some of her opening keynote time discussing how and what applications large-scale language models, ChatGPT and other recent innovations will enable in the coming months and years. described how it left him with a lot of ideas about what it would be like. For example, he showed that AI tools trained on OneStream’s documentation can answer much more specific questions and provide multifaceted answers than previous generalized chatbots. On stage, he asked a power company to demonstrate how a customer could create a new working capital function in his one of his CPM applications. The software didn’t just return canned responses. Instead, he formulated his 5-step method to follow and suggested very precise code to insert into the recommended solution.
This example was neither a simple query response chatbot (which had many canned answers to questions the chatbot might encounter) nor search engine results. After scanning, indexing, and correlating all of OneStream’s product manuals, user guides, etc., I deduced what the right approach was.
A small group of analysts then had the opportunity to speak further with Shea. Approximately 40 minutes of the hour-long discussion focused on Shea’s rapidly evolving assessment of the emerging market for AI-powered applications. More specifically, it states:
- OneStream may incorporate and use some of the new AI services currently on the market, such as large language models. Because they are already developed. Creating your own version of these requires time and a lot of capital to acquire the computing power to develop them. These tools provide services that OneStream can use as an adjunct to your application software. For example, Tom said he could have one of these services translate all his documents from English to Mandarin.
- Older OneStream customers still running on-premises versions of OneStream may not be able to migrate successfully to these new AI-powered applications unless they are willing to put part of their OneStream solution set in the cloud. why? For example, the computing power required to make AI-enabled predictions can require huge datasets and large amounts of computing power. This type of application is ideal for scalable, on-demand technology. The customer’s internal IT resources may be underutilized, and making large technology investments in tools with heavy consumption requirements may not be prudent from a capital deployment standpoint.
- He believes AI is a big bet and one that vendors have to rush to win. While new AI-powered applications, insights and analytics are where great new value comes from, transaction processing plays a key role.My short explanation for this is that transaction processing represents Motherhood, apple pie, and the American way On the other hand, AI-based tools sex, drugs and rock’n’rollThe fees and fun may be in the latter camp, folks!
ESG
OneStream’s ESG tools are part of the OneStream application suite and are built on and take advantage of the OneStream platform. The software can be integrated with financial and other systems through numerous pre-configured integrations.
When listening to customers interacting with OneStream representatives, it looks like this:
- Most customers still try to collect Scope 1 and 2 emissions annually. They don’t currently have detailed operational data, so they lack the tools to determine which products, batches, factories, etc. are more environmentally friendly than others.
- Customers are looking to capture a large number of social data elements for display in company annual reports, regulatory reports, and other reports. Much of that data is not typically stored in financial systems. However, it may be found in HRMS, EH&S, time tracking, and other applications.
The current methods that many companies use to track ESG data today, most notably spreadsheets, clearly show shortcomings. For example, all he needed to hear was that the company was in his second year producing a sustainability report and the team was swamped with requests for information. Triggering these demands is the desire of executives, shareholders, and others to investigate and account for differences from one year to the next. That analysis, in an overly abstract and non-detailed environment, can take days, weeks, or months to uncover the drivers of these differences. His ESG application and architecture at OneStream could help with drill-down, drill-around capabilities, but it’s the customer who needs to add more intelligent meters, sensors, etc. to collect better data. . Assigned, generalized, and highly summarized information is the enemy of good analysis and variance assessment.
(Again, see this article from 2022 for more on OneStream ESG)
Solution Exchange/Marketplace
OneStream also promoted a 3-component marketplace. Customers can obtain solutions from software partners, implementation partners, and independent consultants/developers. OneStream’s has put guardrails in place to ensure that products and providers are properly vetted before being offered to customers. Products and vendors are also regularly re-evaluated to ensure solutions are up-to-date and secure.
It seemed to me that this ecosystem was growing in size and importance. The show’s Expo Hall was proof of this.
my view
OneStream leaders clearly recognize the potential of machine language/AI and other advanced technologies. Executives at other companies have expressed interest in these tools as well, but OneStream may be the most dynamic of all the vendors I’ve spoken to recently. In contrast, one vendor I met with this week took a very conservative, slow and cautious approach to using these tools for some applications.
I don’t know if it will play ‘NoteCards are always cautious when the market is undergoing a radical change. (Nor am I advocating playing fast and reckless.) Why are warning cards difficult? rarely buy new application software. The value proposition of customers making software changes when it offers little competitive advantage is pathetic. However, when a new (or old) vendor offers a highly innovative and value-creating solution, customers start buying in bulk. This creates a market for new/innovative vendors that can take market share from older vendors. This is when major changes in market share occur. Smart vendors will be ahead of AI/ML/LLM etc. Train and get as much market share as possible (i.e., get the easy results today!).
And yes, I ran into many traditional OneStream customers (i.e. accountants, treasurers, etc.) at the show. Some turned up to get tips and tricks on how to get more out of her OneStream purchases earlier, others turned up to party in Washington, D.C., and a surprising number of people turned up to see him. I joined to learn about ESG. I think ESG will be a big topic at other trade shows for a while. However, the current market interest in AI/ML/ChatGPT may shut out or drown out some of his ESG content for some time.
Finally, OneStream offers a near-best with a product roadmap and vision. I think next year’s show will give us more clarity on our Sensible ML/GPT plans. It should be really interesting to hear.
