Dear EPM professional looking to take your career to the next level. This report is designed to give you an overview on why you as an EPM professional should consider relocation to the UK to help progress you career in an international environment.

I’m Mike! If we have not already spoken, I have been working in the recruitment industry for a number of years with a specialist focus within the Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management field. I am currently focussing solely within the EPM domain as it is an exciting, expanding market which I feel has great future potential.

As you will know, EPM is a niche area and therefore it can be difficult to find enough experienced professionals to service client demand. As a result, I have spent the last few years interacting with international candidates (predominantly from Europe) and have been successful in finding a number of them new opportunities in the UK and helping them relocate.

When I initially spoke to the majority of these professionals, they had certain objections such as:

The UK is too expensive
I have a family so cannot relocate
I don’t know anyone in the UK, so it might be lonely

As part of my service, I was not only able to show them the fantastic career opportunities here in the UK but was also able to educate them about the about the cost of living, the education system and many other things to help quash any doubts about making the move that would accelerate their career growth.

After speaking to so many candidates who had the same concerns about moving to the UK, I thought it would be a good idea to create this report to help others who may have thought about moving to the UK but have something that is holding them back. My aim was to create a simple document that helped explain why the UK is a great place to live and progress your career. The main areas I have covered include:

The Rapidly Growing EPM Market
Cost of Living (particularly in London)
The Education System (for those of you with families)
International Community

Once you have read the document, please feel free to contact me on +44 (0) 7962066221 or mike@codexrg.com, I would be more than happy to go into some more detail on this and discuss potential opportunities for you.

The Rapidly Growing EPM Market

Whether your core skill set is SAP BPC, Hyperion Planning, HFM, TM1 or even Anaplan, there is demand for your experience in the UK. Since the collapse of the market in 2008 there has been an increasing demand for businesses to understand exactly where their finances are, so that they do not run into trouble. As a result, companies are investing heavily within their financial reporting and performance management tools. However, companies do not have extensive EPM skills internally so are either trying to hire people directly or are using 3rd parties (consultancies) to implement these systems and do the subsequent support work.

You have two options when deciding which type of company you would like to work for – that is – either directly for the end client or working with consulting organisations and there are pros and cons of both.

There are a number of consultancy companies who have a specialist focus within the EPM domain. They can be categorised into 3 main areas; Top 4 Consultancies (EY, Deloitte etc.), Large Systems Integrators (Accenture, IBM) and Small to Medium Consultancies who are solely focussed on EPM or focus on EPM alongside a wider skills base, such as SAP or Oracle.

Each provide different challenges and opportunities but there is usually a personal preference depending on career aspirations, work/life balance and prior experience. From my experience, you can progress your career equally quickly in a reputable small organisation as you can in a Top 4, what might differ is your eventual career path and the type of work you will be doing.

As mentioned, there are also opportunities to join end clients, however you need to be aware that; these opportunities come around less frequently, the salaries will generally not be as high as at a consulting company and unless you join a company who is constantly upgrading their software or doing a large implementation, you may end up focussing on administration/support activities. That said, you could end up with a fantastic work life balance (without travel) and gain the satisfaction of seeing projects through to completion and seeing the positive impact they have on an organisation, which you might not see as a consultant who moves off the project once it is complete.

Cost of Living (particularly in London)

This is a big one and one of the most popular concerns I hear from people considering relocating to the UK, especially those of you looking to live in London. It is true that London can be an expensive city to live in, but it is also true that the higher levels of salary that are paid here are proportional to the cost of living and there are ways that you can live here cheaper. For example, when it comes to accommodation, many professionals choose not to live in the very centre of London because of the high accommodation costs and choose areas that are away from the centre but have fantastic transport links. Further to that, many people relocating with families choose to live outside of London in areas such as Surrey, Kent and Essex as you get a lot more for your money and will be able to afford a much larger house (and a garden), which is obviously great for children. Even in these areas, you can very easily get a train into London from anywhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour.

At the end of the day, as long as you do your research, there are certainly ways that you can progress your career in an international environment without compromising your standard of living. By taking advice from some local experts such as your recruitment agent and estate agents you can usually get a good idea of locations to consider.

From experience, accommodation is the biggest difference between the UK and most countries. Transport is another factor, but if you are working with a consulting company, most of your travel costs are covered; with end clients there are sometimes benefit packages which include travel cards or contribution towards travel.

Education for children (for those with families)

I recently worked with a candidate, who, after considering an offer from a company decided that the salary wasn’t enough to support his lifestyle. I asked to have a look at the costs he had budgeted and quickly realised that he had set aside £1,700 / month to put his 3 children through Private School! I asked why he had set this money aside and he believed that Private School was the only way he could get a good education for his children who couldn’t, at that point, speak English. I explained to him that only top earners in the UK will send their children to private school as it can be very expensive. The education system in the UK is very good and is very accommodating for international students. It is compulsory, if your children do not speak English, for the school to provide English lessons so that they can be brought up to speed with the language and the rest of the class quickly. This is also a good benefit of relocating to the UK, that your children will be able to learn another language which will help their future careers.

Again, if you are working with a good agent who has experience relocating people from international countries they will be able to help give you the right information and contacts to find a good school for your children.

International Community

For those of you with family and friends in the UK, this is rarely a concern that comes up and is often in fact a motivation for people to move …