Cloud technology has reached an inflection point within the office of finance. In our fifth annual Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Trends Report, more than half the respondents have moved or will move their EPM processes to the cloud within the next year.

But more striking were the findings around why respondents moved to the cloud vs. the benefits they received. In our survey of more than 400 finance and IT leaders, respondents said they made the move to EPM in the cloud primarily for economic reasons, including avoiding on-premises upgrades, infrastructure investment, and lower TCO.

And while the majority (77%) achieved economic benefits, when asked about the top benefits of EPM in the cloud, 89% of respondents named "staying current on technology"significantly outweighing the other advantages cited.