Info-Tech Research Group just named Vena and Acterys as leaders in its 2026 Enterprise Performance Management Data Quadrant Report, and Australian finance teams stuck with spreadsheet-based budgeting should treat this as a signal, not just industry trivia. The gap between manual planning and connected EPM platforms is now wide enough to show up directly in how fast a business can close its books.
What is the Concept
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) software connects budgeting, forecasting, reporting and analysis into one platform instead of scattered spreadsheets across finance, sales and operations. The Info-Tech Data Quadrant ranks vendors like Vena and Acterys on real customer satisfaction data, not vendor marketing claims, which is why the 2026 result carries weight for buyers doing due diligence.
For an Australian CFO, this means the two platforms consistently outperform peers on usability, deployment speed and ongoing support, three factors that matter more than feature checklists once a system is actually running a finance team's monthly close.
Why It Matters in Australia (2025–2026 Context)
Australian mid-market businesses, from Melbourne manufacturers to Sydney professional services firms, are under pressure to close books faster and forecast more accurately as interest rate volatility and input cost swings make static annual budgets increasingly unreliable. A modern EPM platform that supports AUD multi-entity consolidation and rolling forecasts directly addresses that pressure.
With Vena and Acterys both offering Microsoft Excel-native interfaces, the switching cost for Australian finance teams already comfortable in Excel is lower than moving to a fully custom-built planning tool, which is a major reason these platforms are gaining local traction ahead of the 2026 budgeting cycle.
How AI Is Changing This
AI-driven forecasting inside EPM platforms now flags anomalies in real time, such as a cost centre trending 15% over budget mid-quarter, instead of waiting for a finance analyst to notice during month-end review. That shift from retrospective reporting to live variance detection is the real productivity gain, not the dashboards themselves.
The contrarian insight is that most Australian businesses evaluating EPM software focus on report-building features, when the platforms actually separating themselves in 2026 compete on how well their AI models handle messy, multi-source data without manual reconciliation. Vena and Acterys ranking highly on the Data Quadrant reflects strength in that unglamorous but critical layer.
Real-World Examples (Prefer Australia)
A Brisbane-based logistics company consolidating five state-level entities can now close monthly reporting in days rather than weeks once EPM automation removes manual spreadsheet reconciliation between branches. A Sydney SaaS scale-up preparing for a Series B raise can produce investor-ready rolling forecasts in hours instead of tasking a finance manager with a week of manual model updates.
These are not hypothetical gains; they are the exact use cases Info-Tech's Data Quadrant methodology scores vendors against, which is why the ranking is a useful shortlist starting point rather than a marketing headline to skim past.
Practical Insights / Actions
Australian finance leaders shortlisting EPM software should request a live demo using their own messy data, not the vendor's polished sample dataset, since real deployment friction shows up in data cleanup, not in the sales pitch. Ask specifically how the platform handles multi-entity AUD consolidation and existing ERP integrations before signing anything.
A useful framework here is the Planning Maturity Ladder: spreadsheets at the bottom, single-source budgeting tools in the middle, and AI-assisted rolling forecasting at the top. Most Australian SMEs sit on the bottom rung far longer than their revenue justifies, which is the most common founder and CFO mistake in this category. The hidden opportunity is that climbing just one rung, from spreadsheets to a connected budgeting tool, often pays for the software cost within a single close cycle.
Future Outlook
Expect Info-Tech and similar analyst firms to weight AI-native forecasting even more heavily in next year's Data Quadrant, which will keep pressure on legacy vendors that have bolted AI features onto older architecture rather than building around it. Australian buyers evaluating platforms in 2026 should ask vendors directly how their AI roadmap looks past this year, not just what ships today.
Businesses that adopt connected EPM platforms now, while competitors are still deciding, will enter FY2027 budgeting season with a forecasting speed advantage that is difficult for spreadsheet-bound competitors to close quickly.
Conclusion
The 2026 Data Quadrant result is a useful shortcut for Australian finance teams evaluating EPM software, but the real decision comes down to how well a platform handles your specific entity structure, currency needs and existing systems. RP SoftTech helps Australian businesses assess finance and automation software choices against their actual operational data, so the investment pays off from the first budgeting cycle rather than after a year of workarounds.