Boss – “Can I expense claim my Ironman 3 cinema tickets?”

It did make my chuckle when halfway through the film, Robert Downey Jnr's computer tells him that the “Oracle Cloud has finished computing the results” and then later on, some news TV anchor man’s van in the back end of nowhere has managed to squeeze an Exalytics box into his transit.

That’s good enough for me, I’m claiming it!

Oracle EPM 11.1.1.X Premium Support Scare Mongering On LinkedIn

Rant alert!!!

So once again I’ve been getting incredibly frustrated by the number of discussions on LinkedIn where people that should know better are raising panic amongst the Hyperion user base because version 11.1.1.X. comes off Premium Support in July 2013.

Now in my business, I should be supporting this kind of scare mongering because the upgrade to the new versions will give us some consulting revenue in our infrastructure team BUT my mummy taught me not to lie so I can’t support it.

Let’s think about what this actually means…………

Coming out of premium support effectively means there will be no further patches released for this version.

Why?  Well the reason is because this release is STABLE!!!!  Now put 2&2 together, a stable release does not generally need patches.

So in summary, if you are on 11.1.1.x and you are happy with your applications functionality, resilience and performance then I have an idea.  Why don't you save yourself some money and stay on this version?

There are thousands of customers still using Hyperion Enterprise around the world.  Forget premium support, Oracle don’t even sell this product any more.

Coming off premium support is not a reason to upgrade in isolation.

An upgrade should be really carefully considered.  Before you even think about upgrading to the latest version, which has already been found to have performance issues with the ADF, perform a FULL RISK ANALYSIS and look at all the pros and cons.

The numpties that are spreading this scare mongering either didn’t listen to their mummy and want to drum up some business or don’t know what they’re doing.

No more scare mongering please!!!

YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why Enterprise Performance Management is like Rolling Cheese

A little known fact about the Dark Lord is that in May 1996, myself and three team mates endured searing heat and the effects of too much beer to rise to the top and become World Champions at the majestic art of cheese rolling.  Such a noble feat was made even more spectacular in that we were all dressed as tea ladies and our team was called the ‘PG Chimpendales’.  We were interviewed by the regional news TV, had our pictures in the newspapers and treasured a moment that has never left us.

Soon afterwards, our team captain emigrated to Australia and our cheese rolling feats were consigned to happy memories.  That was until this year, when our captain came back to visit his family and we entered again, 17 years after our triumphant moment.  This time we were dressed as Austin Powers characters and naturally the Dark Lord was ‘Dr Evil’.

This year, something happened that got me thinking about EPM project implementations.

To understand, you need to be aware of what cheese rolling is…………..

In the pretty village of Stilton, where Stilton Cheese was first sold, every year teams of four people roll a cut off telegraph pole (sized to resemble a round Stilton Cheese) 100 yards down the High Street which is slightly downhill.  Every team member must touch the ‘cheese’ at least once and the ‘cheese’ must roll.

I know this sound really easy but it’s hard!  Rolling something that is only just wider than its depth is like balancing on a ball bearing.  If you push the ‘cheese’ too hard is spins and can end up going in the complete wrong direction.

One tactic is to start the cheese rolling and then add to it with gentle pushes until you hit the end.  Danger here is that if you push too hard, it’ll spin out of control.

This year one particular team turned up with a strategy.  They were dressed as racing car mechanics and one guy had a crash helmet on.  What they did was hold this guy like a wheel barrow and wedge the cheese in the visor hole.  This way they stopped the cheese spinning out of control and basically pushed it all of the way to the end.

They won by a country mile each time taking the title to a host of jeers and boos from the crowd who could see that this strategy was not really in the spirit of the noble cheese rolling tradition………………..but it was very effective.

So why is rolling cheese like an EPM implementation?

Well……..firstly, EPM implementations are difficult.  There are many, many reasons that can result in a failed implementation.  Just get one wrong and you can spin out of control easily.

Once you’ve kicked off an EPM implementation, you have committed to an investment.  Once it’s kicked off you need to be in control for the whole race.  When it starts to veer out of control, you need to be able to stop and take control of the cheese again.  The journey to the end may not be the same as you originally intended but you will get there.  Don’t worry, EPM implementations rarely run straight down the hill but if well controlled you can get back on track.

Think about scope.  The strategy to set the project rolling and give gentle pushes here and there does work.  Push too hard i.e. take too much scope and your cheese will spin.  Be sensible in your scope.  Bite off too much and you may take longer to reach the finish line.

Finally, the team that won this year has a strategy.  The race lasts less than a minute but they had spent hours dreaming up the winning strategy.  Invest in time before you start the ball rolling, it may delay your actual start but you will definitely finish earlier.

For all of my clients I recommend working with me to build a roadmap that looks at the end goal, not just the start or the next phase.  The chees may still spin but at least we’ll know when it starts to spin and how to get it back on track.

See more in my blog "Gimme an epm roadmap"

Oh and if you’re interested, this year we went out in the first round to the team that eventually became the beaten finalists.  We had a strategy but also one of us was in a sling, one was dressed in an inflatable f@t b@stard outfit so that is another blog about having the right resources matched to the project requirements………………….

……………..Oh and we won second place in the fancy dress so not entirely a failure J

 

 

Cognos TM1 Planning versus Oracle Hyperion Planning

There are currently loads of discussions in the various EPM groups on LinkedIn asking the question “Which is the best software product, Cognos TM1 planning or Hyperion Planning?”

Now this might be controversial but I think it might be a good idea to round up all the guys that are asking and commenting on these subjects and put them to the firing squad.

Guys!  You lot are really missing the point!!  Rant coming……..

Thing is, it's a bit like saying BMW or Mercedes. Both are great car brands, their genetic makeup is very different but they both drive really well and you will not be disappointed with either.

Is the BMW faster than the Mercedes................I would have thought it depends on who is driving the car!

Back to Planning products, the risk of a poor implementation is not really in the software, but in how the business requirements are understood, translated to a design, built to the design, tested end to end, how the users are trained and communicated with i.e. the implementation.

You’ll spend more money on the actual implementation (including internal resource) than you will on the software so why to people get hung on what’s the best software?

If I was these guys I would be more concerned with the quality of the implementation partner:

·        Do they understand my business and process

·        Are they suitably skilled to translate this into a software solution

·        Do they know my industry

·        Do I trust them

·        Do they have a track record

·        Are they respected in the industry

There are many more consultancy companies out there who implement Cognos and Hyperion and they all face the same problem – how to attract and retain quality staff.

There are plenty of guys out there but there is a massive variability in quality………..a much wider variation in quality than there is with the two software vendors above.

Back to the LinkedIn discussion groups, everybody who worked with Cognos recommends ……….guess what……..Cognos and everybody who works with Hyperion recommends…………………guess what…………..Hyperion.  So ignore these discussions as they are totally meaningless.

One thing that REALLY bugs me is the comments from the Cognos lovers saying that Cognos is faster to implement.  Give me a gun!!!!!   Surely anybody out there that knows what they’re talking about will tell you that it’s the BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS that make an implementation simple (quick) or complex (slow) to implement!!!!!!

Trust me, it’s not the software.  I have implemented a simple Hyperion Planning implementation in a week from understanding requirements, designing, building, testing and rolling out to the end user.  Why did it only take a week – the requirement was…………………………..SIMPLE!!!!

On the software choice I always recommend the Gartner Magic Quadrants as they are well respected and as close to independent as you will get.

For the CPM quadrant (maybe I need to have a CPM Nirvana blog) Gartner have favoured Hyperion Planning consistently over many years mainly because Hyperion were years ahead integrating Essbase into Hyperion planning (way before Oracle bought Hyperion) than Cognos were integrating TM1.  In fact even now, there’s two versions of Cognos Planning out in the user base being supported.

Me personally, I love Hyperion and have never implemented Cognos so you mustn’t trust my opinion and I would give it.  Just remember, If either is built badly you'll end up with a rust bucket sitting unused in the garage.

PPS - Oracle all the way J

PPS – I love LinkedIn J