Executives are finding that finance teams cannot keep up with today’s pace of decision-making when analytics and planning live in separate systems.
Spreadsheets still dominate in many organizations, leading to delays, version-control headaches, and reactive strategies. Oracle is addressing this challenge by consolidating analytics and performance management into a single stack, combining NetSuite Analytics Warehouse (NSAW) with NetSuite Enterprise Performance Management (EPM).
Rather than treating analytics and planning as disconnected capabilities, Oracle is positioning them as a unified finance experience inside the NetSuite ecosystem.
Why the split between analytics and planning holds leaders back
Most finance functions still operate with two very different processes:
Analytics explains the past, often handled inside ERP reporting or with ad hoc spreadsheets.
Planning shapes the future, usually built in separate budgeting models circulated by email.
This separation means insights rarely flow seamlessly into forecasts. Analysts spend hours reconciling definitions and data, while executives are left with reports that are already outdated by the time they reach the boardroom.
Anderson Frank provides NetSuite talent who can help companies bridge this gap, ensuring analytics and planning feed directly into one another.
How NSAW and EPM work together
The combination of NSAW and EPM directly addresses this divide:
NSAW consolidates ERP, CRM, HR, and external data into a governed analytics warehouse. Executives gain dashboards that deliver both operational detail and long-term trend analysis.
EPM automates budgeting, forecasting, and scenario modeling. Leaders can run rolling forecasts, test “what-if” strategies, and align financial plans with real business realities.
Together, they create a continuous loop where historical insight flows into forward-looking plans, and forecasts are validated against real-time performance.
When businesses want to move from quarterly cycles to real-time responsiveness, Anderson Frank offers NetSuite specialists who can implement NSAW and EPM effectively.
Executive advantages of consolidation
For business leaders, the move to a unified Oracle stack represents a shift in the role of finance:
Speed: Reports and forecasts update continuously, rather than in set cycles.
Clarity: Governance ensures consistent definitions across analytics and planning.
Agility: Leaders can pivot quickly when forecasts are informed by real-time data.
Alignment: Finance, sales, and operations share dashboards and models, eliminating silos.
A mid-market SaaS firm, for example, could use NSAW to identify churn patterns across several years and then immediately model new pricing strategies in EPM.
Instead of waiting for reconciliation across multiple sources, executives can evaluate both the risk and the potential response in one environment.
Why this matters for finance teams
The shift also transforms day-to-day work for finance staff. Instead of reconciling spreadsheets and fixing data inconsistencies, teams can focus on interpreting insights and partnering with business units. This improves retention by making roles more strategic and less repetitive.
According to Anderson Frank’s 2025 NetSuite Careers and Hiring Guide, 54% of organizations say the NetSuite skills gap is affecting their strategic objectives considerably or extremely, with workload increases a key outcome. Eliminating manual reporting and planning tasks is one way to relieve that burden.
The future of unified finance
Consolidating analytics and performance management into a single Oracle stack represents a major step toward autonomous finance. With NSAW and EPM working together, NetSuite users gain both backward-looking confidence and forward-looking agility.
