Over A Decade of Focus, Community, and Innovation in Enterprise Performance Management

Origins: From OutlookSoft to a Fragmented SAP Landscape

The story of the EPM Summit begins in the early 2000s with OutlookSoft, a pioneering software company that developed a groundbreaking Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tool focused on financial planning, budgeting, and consolidation. Founded in 1999, OutlookSoft's product emphasized user-friendly Excel integration, enabling finance teams to manage complex processes with ease. David Den Boer, a key leader in OutlookSoft's consulting division, was instrumental in crafting the content for the company's annual user conferences. These events were intimate, product-centric gatherings where customers received in-depth training, best practices, and direct access to experts. The focus was singular: one product, deep expertise, and unwavering commitment to customer success.

In 2007, SAP acquired OutlookSoft, rebranding the tool as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC). This marked a pivotal shift. While the acquisition promised greater resources and integration with SAP's ecosystem, it fragmented the specialized attention BPC users had enjoyed. SAP's flagship conference, Sapphire, was a massive affair, drawing tens of thousands of attendees across countless SAP products. For BPC users, whose daily workflows depended on this niche tool, Sapphire offered only a handful of sessions amid a sea of unrelated content. Den Boer, now founder of Column5 Consulting—a boutique firm specializing in SAP EPM solutions—felt a personal responsibility to his former customers. Determined not to let them feel lost in the vastness of Sapphire and SAP’s ecosystem, he envisioned a dedicated event that recaptured the ethos of OutlookSoft's conferences: customer-first, focused, and community-driven.

Launch and Early Years: Building a Dedicated Community (2009–2012)

In 2009, the inaugural EPM Summit was launched under the auspices of Column5 Consulting. Held at the Mirage Resort in Las Vegas—a venue that would later undergo rebranding in 2024, symbolizing how even icons must evolve—the three-day event drew SAP BPC users from around the world for specialized sessions, hands-on workshops, and networking. The agenda mirrored what any single product software company’s formula should contain: deep dives into the product’s features, implementation best practices, and real-world case studies from customers and experts. SAP’s representatives participated, but the Summit was independent, emphasizing practical value over sales pitches. It was a "labor of love" for Den Boer and the highly esteemed Column5 team, who sponsored the event focusing on uncompromising value to the customer. Instead, the payoff came in relationships—fostering a tight-knit community where users could share challenges and solutions.

The Summit's success was immediate. By 2010, the second annual event saw attendance grow to over 100 participants from industries like manufacturing, retail, and finance. The team's roots in OutlookSoft lent credibility; many speakers were former OutlookSoft pioneers, ensuring authentic, hype-free content. The Summit addressed a market gap: while SAP Sapphire overwhelmed with breadth, the EPM Summit provided depth. Users learned about BPC upgrades, process optimizations, and integrations—tools essential for their roles in financial planning and analysis.

By 2011 and 2012, the Summit had become a staple. The Column5 team hosted it annually in Las Vegas, adding tracks for advanced topics like complex allocations, cash flow analytics best practices and disaggregation. The event's customer-centric approach shone through: agendas were shaped by attendee feedback, and sessions featured peer-led stories. Over these early years, the Summit built a loyal following, with more than 400 companies attending cumulatively. It wasn't just education; it was camaraderie—a space where EPM professionals could connect beyond corporate silos.

Peak Expansion and Global Reach (2012–2019)

The 2010s marked the Summit's golden era. As SAP BPC matured, the thought leaders at Column5 added even more must have content and expanded the event geographically to meet global demand. The first EMEA EPM Summit launched in Milan, Italy, drawing European users for localized content on BPC implementations in diverse regulatory environments. An APJ edition debuted in Singapore, bringing its EPM-focused content to the Asia-Pacific region, a testament to its scale and commitment.

The Las Vegas flagship grew to four days, featuring over 60 sessions, keynotes from analysts like Gartner and SAP executives, and even celebrity speakers such as NFL legend Nick Lowery, who took the stage to inspire attendees on leadership and performance. Agendas evolved to include emerging trends: BPC was often a focus, with its frequently updated versions, new database platform, the latest cloud based EPM products (SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)), AI in planning use cases, Darwin EPM's prebuilt modules, and emerging processes like extended planning & analysis (xP&A). The Summit was complemented with regional Roadshows— one-day workshops in cities like New York, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, and Boston—offering previews of BPC and SAC innovations.

The Summit's impact was profound. Over its 12-year run (2009–2020), it attracted representatives from more than 1,000 companies worldwide, including many Fortune 500 and Global 1000 giants. Relationships forged here led to lasting partnerships, with attendees crediting the event for career advancements and process improvements. Column5's sponsorship reinforced its status as the "world's elite EPM consultants," but the true ethos remained customer empowerment.

Hiatus, Transition, and Legacy (2020–Present)

The 2020 Las Vegas Summit, held just before COVID-19 halted global gatherings, was the last in-person event. As the pandemic unfolded, the Column5 team pivoted to virtual formats: online forums, training and webinars focused on EPM strategies. Meanwhile, the EPM landscape shifted. BPC, once SAP's flagship, began losing the spotlight to SAC and competitors like OneStream and Anaplan. New and innovative options emerged and grew prominent. Some BPC versions approached end-of-mainstream maintenance, prompting users to reevaluate their EPM technology roadmap.

The in-person hiatus lasted longer than imagined. Virtual events captured knowledge-sharing but missed the "camaraderie and focus on EPM tasks" that defined the Summit. Column5 hosted online content through 2021–2023, covering SAC migrations and hybrid planning. Yet, the community yearned for reconnection.

By 2025, with Darwin Analytics launching an orchestration platform providing centralized services across EPM products, plans emerged for a 2026 relaunch. Column5 has passed the EPM Summit baton to Darwin Analytics, and the new Summit will reflect Darwin’s broad compatibility - expanding beyond SAP, embracing all EPM platforms in a vendor-neutral format—honoring the original customer-first spirit while adapting to AI-driven futures. When asked why the Summit was opening beyond SAP, David Den Boer said, "The Summit was always customer first, and we are simply following the customers’ preferences, and providing them with the same market leading insights they expect."

The EPM market has grown more complex, with legacy products in transition and expansion into xP&A, encompassing operational planning, BI, and a comprehensive view of enterprise planning and analysis. Large enterprises increasingly deploy multiple tools: specialty solutions for business processes, tools for consolidation with tight transaction integration, user-friendly platforms, and AI-driven innovations. Options abound—converting to one tool or orchestrating multiple as a unified system—amid a surge of EPM innovation offering widespread improvement opportunities. As the Summit expands beyond its SAP legacy, so do the skilled resources, now encompassing expertise across vendors. The 2026 event supports a broader spectrum of EPM market leaders - inviting 5 EPM vendors and 10 consultancies aligned via Darwin's marketplace membership. These participants form an elite team of trusted advisors for any EPM product or process. Building on the legacy launched by Column5, this team stands ready to conduct an intensive week on EPM-focused topics across products. With this long trusted event reimagined and relaunched in time to drive the AI moment in EPM, the teams at Column5 and Darwin Analytics join their influential exhibitors to continue the tradition of learning, challenging, and inspiring as the most important companies decide their next steps.

The EPM Summit's legacy endures: a beacon for over a decade, it empowered thousands, built unbreakable bonds, and proved that focused communities thrive amid industry giants. From OutlookSoft's intimate roots to global stages, it remains a testament to putting customers first, always. Customers seeking authentic, practical information about EPM tools, processes, and trends from market leaders need to make attending this event a high priority. If your role relies on mission-critical EPM, this event is highly recommended.