Why the standard RFP process produces the wrong shortlist
Most organisations evaluating Oracle EPM implementation partners run a standard RFP process: a requirements document, a response submission, a presentation, reference calls with provided clients, and a commercial negotiation. The process is structured and reasonable. It consistently produces shortlists that contain firms with impressive presentations and limited delivery depth.
The reason is specific to how EPM capability is demonstrated in a sales context. A firm with one or two experienced EPM practitioners and a larger team of generalist consultants can produce a compelling response to an EPM RFP. The response will reference correct technical terminology, include a methodology that sounds structured, list Oracle partnership credentials, and present client names that include recognisable organisations.
None of that information tells you who will actually deliver your implementation — or what level of experience they will bring to the first design workshop when your finance team describes how your business actually plans and consolidates.
The five questions that surface delivery reality
Who will lead the delivery engagement — not the sales engagement? Ask for the CV of the delivery lead by name. Ask how many Oracle EPM implementations that person has led from requirements through go-live in the past three years. Ask which specific Oracle EPM products — Planning, FCCS, PCMCS, TRCS — they have implemented, and whether those implementations involved comparable complexity to yours.
What is the ratio of senior to junior consultants on the proposed team? The standard consulting model delivers sales through senior practitioners and implementation through junior ones. Ask specifically what percentage of the billable implementation hours on your project will be delivered by consultants with five or more years of Oracle EPM experience. Anything below 60% should prompt a direct conversation about who is doing the work.
What is your firm’s specific experience in this regulatory and language environment? For Saudi Arabia, ask about ZATCA Tax Reporting Cloud configuration experience. Ask about Arabic-language EPM implementations and whether Hijri calendar reporting has been configured. For Egypt, ask about experience with Egyptian tax authority requirements and Arabic-language close processes. Generic Oracle capability does not imply regional regulatory or language capability.
How many clients have you implemented Oracle EPM for in the GCC and Egypt in the past two years? Verified, specific numbers. Not “many” or “extensive.” If the answer is fewer than five, ask why and what the firm’s plan is for managing the regional learning curve on your budget.
What happens after go-live? Ask specifically about post-go-live support structure. Who is available, at what response time, and through what mechanism. Ask whether the implementation team stays engaged through the first two live planning cycles or closes the project at go-live. The answer tells you whether the firm understands that real adoption happens after the go-live date, not at it.
What the evaluation process should include
Beyond the RFP response and the presentation, three evaluation steps consistently improve selection quality. First, a working session — not a demo — where the proposed delivery team works through one specific requirement from your environment. This reveals how they think about problems, not how they present solutions. Second, reference calls to clients you source independently, not through the vendor. Third, a clear contractual definition of who will deliver the engagement — by name, by role, by percentage of billable hours — with a defined process for your sign-off on any team changes.
The cost of a poor selection decision in Oracle EPM is not the wasted implementation budget. It is the extended close cycle, the finance team’s eroded confidence in the system, and the three-year remediation programme that follows.
Loop Wise Solutions provides independent Oracle EPM implementation advisory for enterprise organisations in Egypt and the GCC — including implementation partner evaluation, RFP design, and selection support.
Contact: Contact@loop-wise.com | www.loop-wise.com
