A Solution Architect Shares Why He Chose Perficient

What is your role?

I’m a Solutions Architect within our OneStream national practice. In short, I partner with our customers to identify their financial systems requirements and then lead the design, development, and delivery of a solution to address the need. What’s keeping them up at night? Why are we having a discussion? You could say I’m a part counselor/part doctor. I listen to the business challenges my clients are facing, prioritize the requests, and then draw upon my personal experience and that of the broad Perficient team to architect a recommended solution that’s the best for my client.

By the time I begin working with a customer, OneStream has been chosen as the corporate performance management solution. The OneStream platform has a lot to offer and the solution I recommend is based upon what I’ve heard. For example, a customer may want to shorten the close cycle, but also might want to move away from the manual task of reconciling accounts. I map out a strategy that best addresses the need while taking into consideration other variables, like time of year, staffing levels, and priorities while making sure the solution is flexible enough to handle future challenges. Oftentimes projects are best delivered in distinct phases versus concurrent phases and it’s my job to figure it all out. It comes with challenges, but it is really rewarding.

I leverage the full OneStream platform in my toolkit as well as OneStream MarketPlace solutions (People Planning, Capital Planning, Account Reconciliation Manager, etc.) to provide the ROI that the OneStream platform can deliver to its customers. OneStream MarketPlace solutions allow customers to extend the platform at no additional cost! You heard correctly, no additional cost. If I have a customer wanting to improve the account reconciliation process, Account Reconciliation Manager can be downloaded for free. Some MarketPlace solutions customers can implement in-house, but others do require the services of a OneStream partner, like Perficient.

Describe a typical day in the life.

The great thing about my role is that it varies from one day to the next depending upon the stage of the project I might be working on, so it doesn’t become routine. If a project is just kicking off, there’s a lot of requirements gathering taking place. I’m having calls with key stakeholders and my team to disseminate what I’ve heard. If requirements have been well documented, I can really dig in and start to architect how to tackle them. There may be multiple paths to success, but ultimately, it’s my job to define the best path how to execute on the vision.

Personally, my favorite part of the job is being able to help the customer discover features of a solution that allow them to perform a task more efficiently. Our main objective is to make the client’s world better by giving them more time to review and analyze data instead of extracting and cleaning the data.

Why did you choose to get into consulting and how were you introduced to OneStream?

I enjoy problem-solving and the consulting path presents an opportunity to explore and resolve business challenges our customers are facing. Problem-solving for me is like putting together a puzzle, collecting all the pieces, and seeing how they best fit together to build the big picture. There are multiple ways to solve the problem, but there are only one or two ways that give you that “best fit.” OneStream is great about that because it’s versatile/powerful enough to allow you to do things several different ways, but you can get that little bit more performance/better result when you dial in the solution just a bit more.

My connection with OneStream started in my previous life as the Finance Systems Manager with Meritor where I worked with OneStream co-founder, Tom Shea. We kept in touch over the years, and I was invited to discuss the OneStream platform as a potential fit for Meritor’s content performance management (CPM) reporting needs. I later joined the OneStream team as a MarketPlace Product Development Manager.

Why did you choose Perficient?

The team presented a strong drive to be a leading firm in the OneStream CPM implementation space and I knew the firm from my time with OneStream Software. Perficient is one of only three authorized OneStream trainers and we have our own dedicated training center in Houston. To me, this made Perficient a stand-out firm. Their dedication to the OneStream practice made me excited to jump on board and start helping clients on their OneStream journey. I also appreciate the work-life balance at Perficient and the opportunities to continue to develop my skills in the CPM space.

What are your thoughts on the overall OneStream solution?

OneStream is the market leader in the CPM reporting space from a technology and extensibility standpoint. With over 50 different solutions, including financial close, planning, and productivity solutions, The MarketPlace solutions can extend the functionality of the platform to meet several additional business challenges from one environment with integrated solutions that continue to drive a return on investment in the platform.

Perficient believes in a strong work/life balance, what is one way you accomplish this?

The team-driven culture at Perficient is unmatched. Through pitches, project kick-offs, implementations, and go-lives, there is always a strong team behind you supporting you. There is also great support by the team to handle work-related activities for each other when we take PTO.  I enjoy spending time with my family and working on projects that include my drag racing and automotive hobbies

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