Hyperion Cloud Road map 2016

So for those you who weren’t at Oracle Openworld, thought it might be useful to share the roadmap Oracle are currently working to for 2016 for Hyperion cloud products.  Of course, all of this is subject to the usual safe harbour statements so things may change and these dates may not be realised.

All of the Hyperion cloud releases this year will be based on the Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) platform so look and feel will be identical and ways to develop the apps will also be very similar look and feel.  The major implication here is that Essbase will be the underlying database for everything, including the legacy apps that were based on relational database, such as Financial Management (HFM) and Tax Provisioning (HTP).

From a ‘techy’ perspective this is largely irrelevant as Oracle along with most other software vendors are aiming to make the underlying technology expertise less important for the implementation.  For Example, in an Oracle briefing recently a technical consultant asked the question as to where can you change the cache settings in Essbase for PBCS and the response was firmly “you don’t need to, the technology has changed so it’s no longer relevant.  In fact, it wouldn’t work anyway”.

So Oracle are firmly pitching their new cloud Hyperion products with the view that the end users should be the guys developing the solutions, not something delivered end to end by a consultant to the end user.  The wizards that I saw on the early versions of Enterprise Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service will also help make this a possibility.

Another interesting point of note that has snuck in under the radar I that the new simplified user interface that comes with PBCS is the strategic interface going forward for all Hyperion products, including the on premise versions such as Hyperion Planning (HP).  In fact the guidance from Oracle is to start any new 11.1.2.4. implementations of Hyperion Planning using the simplified interface as the current one will be phased out.

Oracle will admit that their roadmap is very aggressive but the order for 2016 is as follows:

Enterprise Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS) – Q1 2016

See my previous update on this but essentially based on PBCS we now have some pre-built applications including workforce, CAPEX, project and full financial statements.  Looks really nice and slick according to the demos.  Pricing expected to be around double PBCS which in my opinion is great value.

Essbase Cloud Service (ECS) – Q1 2016

So although PBCS is already built on Essbase, there are many use cases for Essbase reporting so this is very exciting.  It will be REALLY exciting once Oracle have integrated with their BI Cloud Service (BICS) that currently integrates only with relational data.  To maintain the price point of Essbase Cloud, Oracle will need to enhance this product and not just deliver a stripped down version of PBCS.

Account Reconciliation Manager Cloud Services (ARMCS) – Q1 2016

I’ve only seen a brief demo of this but looks to have most of the features on the on premise version with the addition of social media enhancements (common to the new cloud offerings) to enable on line chat which might be useful which reconciling various accounts.

Financial Consolidation Cloud Service (FCCS) – Q2 2016

Oracle have been key to point out that this is not a replacement for HFM and that HFM will continue to be developed and improved in the on premise guise.  This new solution is aimed at the mid-market and a logical start point are the hundreds of customers out there who are still paying using good old Hyperion Enterprise.  Partner evaluation sessions are promised for the New Year and very much looking forward to seeing this product.  It will be one of the more expensive Hyperion cloud offerings as it is being shipped with functionality from the Close Suite i.e. Financial Close Manager (FCM) and Supplementary Disclosure Manager (SDM)

Profitability & Cost Management Cloud Service (PCMCS) – Q2 2016

Oracle see a lot of potential for this product outside of the finance function e.g transfer pricing.  For those of you who have been implementing the on premise versions will know that there’s two versions of the on premise product, one based on Essbase and one which uses relational database to handle additional volume of ledger transactions.  So I guess this will be close to the Essbase version.

Hyperion Tax Provisioning Cloud Service (HTPCS) – Q3 2016

Planned to be released after the consolidation service as I expect this to be the underlying technology.  No clues on pricing yet but if it follows the on premise principles, should be slightly higher than the cloud consolidation service.

Dimension Management Cloud Service (DMCS) – Q4 2016

So Data Relationship Management (DRM) in the cloud, very exciting.  Will it work with on premise too or just be cloud products?  Not much known about this but has the potential to be absolutely brilliant.

BTW, pretty sure I’ve got some of these acronyms wrong but it’s a start J

So whilst all of these dates may change I think it’s fair to say that 2016 will be a critical year for Hyperion in the cloud.  The strategy is aggressive (Oracle’s words) but the landscape is changing rapidly and with the investment funds available to a company that owns a Hawaiian Island, I’m expecting big things…………….

Hyperion Enterprise Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service

So the Dark Lord has been keeping a secret within that has been burning because this could possibly be a game changer for Oracle Hyperion in the cloud and last week, Enterprise Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service was officially announced at Openworld and so the secret is now out!

The ‘non-enterprise’ version of PBCS has been out for a couple of years now and whilst the platform and technology underneath is strong and proven to work in a cloud environment, it was still a blank canvas and therefore the work involved to develop an application was still of a similar effort as if the solution was based on the ‘old’ on premise Hyperion Planning.

Enterprise Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service is built on the same proven platform but adds pre-built applications around:

i)                 Full Financials i.e. Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and calculated Cash Flow

ii)                Project Planning

iii)              Workforce Planning

iv)              Capital Planning

Some of you may shudder from the mention of Workforce, Projects and Capital planning from experience of the ‘on premise’ applications and in fact Oracle recognise that the majority of developers out there tend to ditch most of the pre-build but this time, it looks a little different.

A month ago, the Dark Lord attended a ‘pre-general release’ partner viewing where we were taken though what had been built to date for the new applications.  From what I saw, the new solutions looks really good.

No longer are they USA centric, especially on workforce.  Oracle have built ‘wizards’ into each solution that allow the developer to input new metadata into the right place into the application.  For maybe the first time, it becomes a lot easier for the end user/admin to build a model……..Is this the end of the consultant????  Well, no but it’s certainly a step forward from PBCS which relied heavily on consultant input into the design.

The financial application is probably where the benefit will be felt by most customers as it’s still the case that most companies are using Excel to generate the three primary statements, often only two and in many cases, just the p&l.

The cash flow in EPBCS is automatically generated and also offers full currency translation functionality so should deal with the ‘often complex’ impact of exchange in the cash flow statement.

Workforce looked great……..and I’ve never said this about the on premise version.  It still offers planning by employee or role but the addition of the wizards really simplifies the development.

The wizard lets you specify categories of people cost (e.g. flat percentages, stepped changes, ceilings) and then you add the detail and link these to the appropriate roles.  The demo here looked great………straight out of the box!

All of his looks excellent but what’s the cost?  Well, this is still moving but the thought is that it will be about twice PBCS so still cheap as chips.

The other cloud planning providers are also offering ‘accelerators’ but I haven’t seen anything this comprehensive so my hat is taken off to Oracle product development for their vision.  Of course, the proof in the planning pudding will be when we start to implement it and try breaking it BUT so far so good………

Well done Oracle!

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