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                   Comparative Study of Oracle GCS vs. Hyperion HFM


Overview:
          This document is intended to illustrate some of the competitive differences between Oracle’s Global
          Consolidation system (GCS) and Hyperion Solutions Financial Management (HFM). This document cites
          multiple references from outside sources, customers, consultants, and research firms. Research data
          contained in this document are attributed to their proper sources. In order to obtain credible opinions from
          customers of Oracle and Hyperion, many users and administrators have chosen to go ‘off the record’ with
          their comments – please treat these opinions as such. Any conclusions of this document are to be
          considered the opinion of Pinnacle Technology Partners Inc. only.

          Oracle GCS version 11i and Hyperion Financial Management 3.4 are the basis of comparison for this
          evaluation. Pinnacle Technology Partners makes no guarantee that future versions of the software will
          contain any of the features or functionality of neither the current product, nor those promised in future
          versions by the vendors themselves. Some features and functionality may not be applicable or necessary
          for all prospects but should not be disregarded as they are often a sign of the maturity of a product, or
          signal the vendor willingness to develop customer focused solutions. It is recommended that you discuss
          your consolidation and reporting needs with a Pinnacle representative before selecting any vendor or
          product.

          Required Features and Functions Available in GCS and HFM

          Financial and Strategic Data
          More than summarized financial information, the system must also store detailed strategic
          information, such as product profitability analyses, regional analyses, and so on.

          Flexible Chart of Accounts
          To allow for versatile line of business reporting, the system must be able to keep a flexible, multi-
          dimensional detail while still supporting a global account framework. Line item intelligence for
          processing different account types is required.

          Multiple Hierarchies
          To allow for versatile management reporting, the system must be able to keep a flexible, multi-tiered
          relational detail which supports the many hierarchies needed for internal and external requirements.

          Data from Any Source
          A critical function is collecting financial data from diverse systems and geographic locations, and
          doing so accurately with an easy interface, yet a robust engine for ETL processing.

          Accounting Calendars
          Support is required for any accounting calendar such as calendar, fiscal, 4-4-5 or 13 month.
          Aggregated reporting levels such as quarterly, year-to-date, and annually must be available.

          Currency Translation
          Functionality is required for Multi-currency translation that supports FASB 8 and FASB 52 reporting
          and cumulative translation adjustment (CTA) analysis.

          Flexible and Ad-hoc Reporting
          Must allow creation of flexible production reporting as well as dynamic user prompt-driven reporting.




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The Market space:

        Hyperion Financial Management
        was rated superior to Oracle GCS in
        the SPEX head-to-head Comparison
        in 2002 evaluation. Oracle did not
        even enter the 2003 evaluation.


                                                            HFM                   Oracle
           Functionality                                       5.0                     4.3
           User friendliness                                   4.9                     4.1
           Technology                                          4.0                     3.4
           Market Strength                                     4.3                     3.8
                                Overall                             4.4                        3.8
                                                          Source: META Group, March 2002


                                                                               Oracle’s market share
                                                                               within the business
                                                                               intelligence space has
                                                                               slowly diminished to a
                                                                               distant seventh place.

                                                                               Microsoft’s Analysis
                                                                               Services became the
                                                                               leading OLAP platform,
                                                                               making Hyperion and
                                                                               Cognos concentrate on
                                                                               Business Performance
                                                                               Management (BPM)
                                                                               applications such as
                                                                               HFM and Adaytum.



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    1.   Oracle Global Consolidation System - Oracle GCS (Version 11i)                   by Oracle Corporation

Overview:
Oracle Global Consolidation System is a distributed application for financial reporting, analysis, budgeting, and
planning. By integrating a central source of management data with powerful analytical tools, the system enables
organizations to meet their critical financial objectives - controlling costs, developing and analyzing performance
metrics, evaluating risks and opportunities, and formulating future direction.

Key Features:
Centralizes corporate data - Reporting capabilities at corporate, divisional, and operational levels
Enables dynamic access to data from a Web browser, allowing users to rotate and drill down on reports and
graphs, collect and write data back to the shared database
Built-in statistical and financial calculations create forecasts and calculate performance ratios
Delivers financial data and robust data analysis and collection tools throughout the organization: product
profitability, exception analysis, product mix analysis, variance analysis, funds allocation, activity based costing
Interfaces with existing ledgers, RDBMS, and spreadsheets
Users receive and write-back data that they are privileged to see
Intuitive data filtering simplifies exception reporting
Inherent drill and rotate capabilities display data intuitively
Integrates data from Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Manufacturing
General ledger and other data into can be incorporated to derive new financial information
Results of what-if analyses display immediately



             Product Summary
Mode of Delivery:                    Packaged Application

Solution Classification:             Budgeting, Financial Planning and Analysis

Target business size:                Greater than 100 users

Pricing details:                                  $1 to Indefinite

             Operating Environment

Operating Systems                                 SCO UNIX/PC UNIX
Supported:                                        Windows XP/2000/NT

             Implementation, Training, and Support
Implementation Description:                       IT Provider assistance in configuration

Training Description:                Some training recommended - some training from the IT Provider/reseller
                                     may be helpful.

Support Description:                 Web site support - product support questions, knowledgebase, are available
                                     at the company Web site.
                                     Email support - questions can be sent directly to a support staff for review.
                                     Telephone support - calls can be placed directly to a support staff.
                                     On-site support - a representative from the IT Provider/reseller can come to
                                     the customer site.

             General Information
             Source code for this                 Closed
             product is:




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    2.   Hyperion Financial Management (HFM)             by Hyperion Solutions Corporation

Overview:
Designed for large-scale Web deployment, Hyperion Financial Management acts as a shared financial
resource for thousands of users across the enterprise so that they can collaborate in the day-to-day
management of the business. In the same application, users can produce auditable reports and forecasts for
external consumers, such as regulatory bodies, financial analysts, stakeholders and business partners.

Part of Hyperion Financial Analysis Solutions
Hyperion's world-class financial analysis solutions allow organizations to maximize the potential of their
corporate resources. W ith Hyperion Financial Analysis Solutions, finance staff will spend less time gathering
and processing information and more time analyzing financial results and supporting strategic decision
making. This yields competitive advantage and the agility to capitalize on business opportunities, acquire
additional capital and outperform their stakeholders' expectations.



            Product Summary
Mode of Delivery:                 Packaged Application

Solution Classification:          Budgeting, Financial Planning and Analysis

Distinguishing Features:          With Hyperion Financial Management, organizations can:
                                  -Develop value-focused strategies
                                  -Link their financial plans to these strategies
                                  -Monitor the execution of those plans to deliver the expected value
                                  Key Features:
                                  -Unified Financial Management radically reduces system maintenance and
                                  eliminates the need to conduct lengthy reconciliations. Financial analysts
                                  can determine the consequences of pursuing new opportunities, such as
                                  exploiting global markets, opening e-commerce channels, or entering new
                                  partner relationships. They can gather and consolidate historic results to
                                  monitor the execution of their plans, analyze variances and model new
                                  scenarios - all based on a universal set of measures and business rules.
                                  -A Web-architected approach with centralized applications significantly
                                  reduces the costs of deployment and maximizes the use of available IT
                                  resources. Hyperion Financial Management employs a highly scalable
                                  architecture that makes financial data and processes available to a wide
                                  community of users via Windows? or a Web browser.
                                  -Prepackaged functionality in an extensible framework provides the ability
                                  to build on top of the extensive portfolio of functionality delivered within
                                  Hyperion Financial Management using industry-standard tools. Customers
                                  can make their applications fit their business processes without incurring
                                  high costs and delays before seeing any benefit. It also allows them to
                                  address a wide range of business functions within one application
                                  framework, enhancing the ROI.
                                  Investments in ERP, CRM and data warehouse systems are maximized
                                  because Hyperion Financial --Management's robust application integration
                                  technology acts as a source or target for data from these systems. Data is
                                  quickly translated, consolidated, adjusted, finalized and reported, enabling
                                  users to spend more time analyzing and less time processing data.

Target business size:             Greater than 100 users




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Pricing details:                 $1 to Indefinite
                                 Solutions are customized for the specific needs of clients.

             Operating Environment

Operating Systems                             Windows XP/2000/NT
Supported:                                    Windows 95/98/ME

Programming Languages                         HTML, VBScript
Supported:

             Implementation, Training, and Support

Implementation Description:                   Consultant installation and configuration
                                              IT Provider installation and configuration
                                              IT Provider assistance in configuration
                                              Customer installation and configuration

Implementation notes:            Hyperion Consulting Services is designed to help maximize your return on
                                 Hyperion products. Experienced Hyperion consultants help tailor solutions
                                 to your particular reporting, analysis, modeling, and planning
                                 requirements. Thorough reviews of the company's management cycle and
                                 end-user goals shape implementation and project strategies. The right
                                 resources are the keys to a successful implementation. Hyperion's staff of
                                 MBAs and professional product-certified consultants is highly skilled, with
                                 years of product, technical, and product management experience in a
                                 multitude of business environments and industries. Hyperion consultants
                                 complete a rigorous training, mentoring, and certification program that
                                 ensures your organization receives the level and type of expertise needed
                                 on every implementation.

                                 Unparalleled Expertise:
                                 Hyperion has the know-how and resources necessary for successful
                                 implementation, enterprise integration, customization, project
                                 management, consulting, and training. Hyperion's exclusive phase-by-
                                 phase implementation approach, Structured Techniques for Assured
                                 Results (STAR?), provides the framework to deliver solutions that meet
                                 even your most complex business information requirements. Your
                                 Hyperion projects are done right the first time, on time, and with minimal
                                 risk. W e have:

                                 -Over 17 years of experience focused exclusively on Hyperion product
                                 implementations, and training
                                 -Successfully implemented Hyperion solutions at thousands of client sites
                                 worldwide
                                 -Trained tens of thousands of users how to most efficiently use Hyperion
                                 Analytic Application Software

                                 The Ultimate in Choice and Flexibility
                                 More than 350 Hyperion Alliance Partners supplement Hyperion's
                                 technology, applications, consulting, and training expertise. Hyperion
                                 works with these partners after carefully selecting them for the unique,
                                 complementary skill sets they bring to the overall business engagements
                                 of clients like you.

Training Description:            Some training recommended - some training from the IT Provider/reseller
                                 may be helpful.




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Training Notes:                     Discover how our award-winning training offerings and instructors
                                   address the full spectrum of your training needs. W e offer classroom
                                   training, as well as our easy and cost-effective e-Training, which includes:

                                   Computer-based Training (CBT)
                                   Web-based Training (W BT)
                                   Virtual Classroom Training (VCT)

                                   We also offer customized training solutions designed to ensure your
                                   organization experiences a successful product rollout and smooth day-to-
                                   day operations. For large-scale rollouts, Hyperion provides training-needs
                                   analysis and creates an appropriate training and support strategy. W e
                                   work closely with project managers to integrate this strategy with your
                                   rollout schedules.

Support Description:               Web site support - product support questions, knowledgebase, are
                                   available at the company Web site.
                                   Email support - questions can be sent directly to a support staff for
                                   review.
                                   Telephone support - calls can be placed directly to a support staff.
                                   On-site support - a representative from the IT Provider/reseller can come
                                   to the customer site.

Support Notes:                     Our award-winning support organization focuses on delivering timely and
                                   accurate resolutions to our clients and partners. Expert support engineers
                                   specialize in application and tools support to meet your critical business
                                   needs. All of our support engineers are well versed in multiple Hyperion
                                   products, making them skillful troubleshooters, able to offer you guidance
                                   and useful tips on your full suite of products. Our web-based support
                                   grants you access to our self-support tools and the ability to obtain
                                   assistance.

                                   We also offer additional services through our Enhanced Support
                                   Offerings. Enhanced Support Offerings provide a range of additional
                                   features for those customers with special support needs based on unique
                                   geographical or time demands. These offerings allow you to obtain 7x24
                                   production support, a dedicated support team, and/or customized service.

                                   The Support Page enables clients to access important support and
                                   product related information right from their desktops, any time of the day
                                   or night. It contains the latest product news and release announcements,
                                   documentation information, online product help, upgrades, and more. The
                                   page also offers an alternate method for submitting requests for support
                                   assistance. Access to the page is available to all clients who have current
                                   maintenance contracts with Hyperion.

            General Information

Source code for this product is:   Closed

This product has been installed    Healthcare
in these Industries:               Computers and Technology
                                   Education and Training
                                   Banking and Finance
                                   Retail and W holesale
                                   Telecommunications
                                   Insurance
                                   Food and Beverage




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HFM Architecture is considered technically superior:

  •   N-tier architecture does not have much overhead to operate and gives incredible benefits like hardware
      scalability, user load balancing, and failover – technically sound!

  •   Application server is Windows-based, but database can be on Oracle and Unix!

  •   Reports and Analyzer are Unix/Java-based

  •   Security – HFM stores no passwords and can operate with firewalls between any and all layers with ability to
      authenticate against iPlanet and Active Directory as well as NTLM, you decide

  •   Win32-based user interface (‘fat client’) required for administrative functions and report creation

  •   Only production Reports, not Analyzer (Java applet) require fat client

  •   Administrative functions need fat client, 98% of users would just be using the web.

  •   HFM is only on NT and per platform will cost more to operate than having all financial application components
      on a Unix processing platform

  •   Only the HFM application server needs to be NT-2000 based and that gives you flexibility and scalability as
      well with hardware n-tier architecture and takes away the dependency on a single point of failure as the
      application server carries to persistence of data or metadata (not a point of failure)




Conclusion: Hyperion HFM uses more current and robust technology that allow for
widespread deployment through increased scalability.




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HFM Maintenance is easier to use:

   •   Functions in HFM are performed in VB Script

           –     VBScript is an open and easy to learn logical way for finance folks to write business logic and
                 allocations, it is only the “wrapper” for pre-built functions

                     •     EXAMPLE

                 If HS.Period.Number = 1 Then

                           HS.Alloc SourcePOV, DestPOV, EntityList, Factor-Expression, PlugAccount

                 End If

   •   Oracle uses PL/SQL, can the financial staff write logic like this easily when requirements change??

                     •     EXAMPLE

                 OPEN c_companycode;

                 LOOP

                 FETCH c_ companycode into v_tempRecord;

                 IF (c_student%NOTFOUND) then

                           CLOSE c_ companycode;

                           EXIT;

                 END IF;

               END LOOP;




Conclusion: Oracle GCS requires far more IT support for creating business rules and
application integration, but also for routine tasks such as report writing.




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Market Research:
In a recent meeting with Lee Geishecker from Gartner today, and she confirmed that there's nothing new under the
sun from Oracle, so I believe these points are still accurate. Product Management or Development would need to
check out some of the technical assertions in the like "NTLM non-standard net-bios ports", "unsigned Java Applets".

GCS (Global Consolidation System)
•       Difficult set up and maintain vs. Hyperion Financial Management. GCS needs IT or specialists. Hyperion
Financial Management is built for the finance/accounting department, not IT. Do they want IT involved for each minor
change to the consolidation and reporting system?
•       Difficult modeling vs. Hyperion Financial Management. GCS is Journals-based. Hyperion Financial
Management provides easy modeling of pro-forma scenarios. Do they want IT involved in creating a pro-forma income
statement or modeling acquisitions or divestitures?
•       Weaknesses in Process Control vs. Hyperion Financial Management. Not easy to tell who has submitted and
who hasn’t, or if approved/rejected. How will the CFO ensure that the consolidation is properly reviewed and
approved? This is especially important because of Sarbanes Oxley.
•       GCS Reporting also usually requires assistance from third parties or IT. Hyperion Financial Management
includes an easy to use report writer and several Excel interfaces. Do they want IT to be involved in creating each new
report?

GCS really only works well on an Oracle transaction system. Do they have other transaction systems? What if get
some others through acquisition? Are they ready to load up a dummy G/L company for this?

Global Intercompany System
•       This is an intercompany invoicing system. Transaction–level Payables and receivables are matched. OK if all
business units share the same centralized ledger – but less useful if there are non-Oracle general ledgers. Hyperion
Financial Management provides equivalent matching capabilities across any number of general ledgers.

Financial Intelligence Portal
•       Hyperion Analyzer is a superior tool – easier to set up and maintain. And it works across all Hyperion
products (Essbase, etc.)
•       Finance users and executives create their own analysis and drill-down reports on-line with no assistance from
Finance or IT – “Self Service Finance”!

OFA (Oracle Financial Analyzer)
•        OFA is a separate Budgeting/Planning Tool – Hyperion Financial Management is unified – so consolidation
features are available (intercompany, journals, currency, etc.)
•        OFA is a “dead product” acquired from a third party with known weaknesses. Oracle is rewriting OFA from
scratch and making part of the 9i database. This will require all customers to re-write eventually.

        “Aside from Discoverer (Oracle Relational Q&R Tool), Oracle’s 9i business intelligence (BI) tools
        have had limited success. Their success outside Oracle’s installed base is even more limited.
        We rate Oracle’s BI tools and strategy a caution.”

                         –    Gartner – September 2002




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HFM vs. GCS Case Studies:
Company          Hyperion                                                  Current Status
                 Contact *
Motorola         Julie Madden      Motorola is still rolling out HFM. They use the Oracle GL as their book of record but they
                                   have had Hyperion since Micro-Control. A very similar story to many Hyperion clients,
                                   success with Enterprise expanded the scope and use of the product until they overloaded it -
                                   too much data and needed dimensionality. It was a logical progression to HFM. They felt
                                   that Hyperion has the domain expertise when it comes to Financial applications and they
                                   want as much out of the box functionality as they can get. They do not want to custom build
                                   anything and they were faced with a lot of customization when they got under the hood with
                                   Oracle. A large consideration was that Finance owns this application with minimal help from
                                   IT to maintain the application, write reports, etc. - Using Hyperion is more 'empowering' for
                                   the end user.

Alcoa            Andy Stahl        Alcoa is still rolling out HFM. They worked with to Oracle's development staff to outline their
                                   requirements. Oracle said they Oracle would not have the same functionality as HFM 2.0
                                   (HFM is now on release 3.4, until Oracle 12 comes out in several years. Alcoa has complex
                                   intercompany - it's a manual process in Oracle and deferred tax eliminations were a chore.
                                   They looked at OFA and laughed at it.

American         Christine Strong American Express is rolling out HFM, after a comparison to GCS was conducted. The three
Express                           big factors for them were Scalability, Ease of Use, and Technology. HFM’s n-tier
                                  architecture and web deployment was key to scalability. When it came to writing business
                                  rules, allocations, and reports – most of HFM functionality was out of the box, whereas it
                                  required programming effort in Oracle. Lastly, Hyperion’s technology fit their model for
                                  security, scalability, and failover.

Campbell's       Bob Stroble       Rumor has it that approximately 9 months ago Oracle called together all of their big clients
Soup                               and told them they did not have a migration path from OFA to their new GCS platform –
                                   everything would have to be rewritten. OFA was basically becoming extinct in Campbell
                                   Soup's eyes and that obviously did not make them happy. IBM is currently doing an analysis
                                   for them on how to change their business process, with the leading contender being an SAP
                                   with HFM enterprise-wide solution, although no recommendation has been made yet.

Merrill Lynch    Christine Strong Even though it’s an “Oracle Only” shop. Merrill is using Hyperion Performance Scorecard,
                                  (Different than HFM), for some of their reporting and dashboarding needs. It is an Emperor’s
                                  New Clothes situation where nobody will go on the record to discuss how bad Oracle is. The
                                  folks in Corporate Finance HATE Oracle’s consolidation solution and feel it was forced down
                                  their throats under the ‘one vendor = Oracle’ policy implemented by Alan Payne.

JPMorgan         Mark Berry        Alan Payne joined JPMorganChase as CIO in 2001 and quickly switched Chase to an Oracle
Chase                              only shop. Corporate Finance, who have a relationship with Hyperion since 1992, remarked
                                   that GCS is still 3-4 years of development away from being the type of product that they need.
                                   Still, the company is moving forward with GCS as a long term solution.

Monster.com                        Oracle ERP or general ledger clients who have implemented or are planning to implement
Mastercard                         HFM within the next year. GCS is not considered an option.
MBIA




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Conclusion:
          As a Hyperion Gold Partner, our research may appear to portray a bias toward Hyperion and the HFM
          Solution. This bias however, has also translated to market acceptance. While nearly 80% of the Fortune
          500 use ERP systems such as Oracle for their transactional infrastructure, only 17% use the ERP vendor
          supplied tools for analysis and reporting. This suggests a huge gap in capability and effort between the
          product classes, and is something that we wish to highlight in importance.

          In today’s world of Sarbane’s Oxley and IAS 2005 compliance requirements, we not only suggest – but
          recommend the tool that empowers the business user most. The requirements of Oracle to perform
          routine maintenance far surpass the technical abilities of the average business user. Current reporting
          cycles require a flexibility and ease of use not found in the Oracle product at this time. Product offerings
          from Hyperion, Cognos, and OutlookSoft clearly meet the needs of today’s business intelligence user, and
          are generations ahead of their ERP or OLAP toolset equivalents.




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Notes:




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Hf mvs gcs

  • 1. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Comparative Study of Oracle GCS vs. Hyperion HFM Overview: This document is intended to illustrate some of the competitive differences between Oracle’s Global Consolidation system (GCS) and Hyperion Solutions Financial Management (HFM). This document cites multiple references from outside sources, customers, consultants, and research firms. Research data contained in this document are attributed to their proper sources. In order to obtain credible opinions from customers of Oracle and Hyperion, many users and administrators have chosen to go ‘off the record’ with their comments – please treat these opinions as such. Any conclusions of this document are to be considered the opinion of Pinnacle Technology Partners Inc. only. Oracle GCS version 11i and Hyperion Financial Management 3.4 are the basis of comparison for this evaluation. Pinnacle Technology Partners makes no guarantee that future versions of the software will contain any of the features or functionality of neither the current product, nor those promised in future versions by the vendors themselves. Some features and functionality may not be applicable or necessary for all prospects but should not be disregarded as they are often a sign of the maturity of a product, or signal the vendor willingness to develop customer focused solutions. It is recommended that you discuss your consolidation and reporting needs with a Pinnacle representative before selecting any vendor or product. Required Features and Functions Available in GCS and HFM Financial and Strategic Data More than summarized financial information, the system must also store detailed strategic information, such as product profitability analyses, regional analyses, and so on. Flexible Chart of Accounts To allow for versatile line of business reporting, the system must be able to keep a flexible, multi- dimensional detail while still supporting a global account framework. Line item intelligence for processing different account types is required. Multiple Hierarchies To allow for versatile management reporting, the system must be able to keep a flexible, multi-tiered relational detail which supports the many hierarchies needed for internal and external requirements. Data from Any Source A critical function is collecting financial data from diverse systems and geographic locations, and doing so accurately with an easy interface, yet a robust engine for ETL processing. Accounting Calendars Support is required for any accounting calendar such as calendar, fiscal, 4-4-5 or 13 month. Aggregated reporting levels such as quarterly, year-to-date, and annually must be available. Currency Translation Functionality is required for Multi-currency translation that supports FASB 8 and FASB 52 reporting and cumulative translation adjustment (CTA) analysis. Flexible and Ad-hoc Reporting Must allow creation of flexible production reporting as well as dynamic user prompt-driven reporting. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 2. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM The Market space: Hyperion Financial Management was rated superior to Oracle GCS in the SPEX head-to-head Comparison in 2002 evaluation. Oracle did not even enter the 2003 evaluation. HFM Oracle Functionality 5.0 4.3 User friendliness 4.9 4.1 Technology 4.0 3.4 Market Strength 4.3 3.8 Overall 4.4 3.8 Source: META Group, March 2002 Oracle’s market share within the business intelligence space has slowly diminished to a distant seventh place. Microsoft’s Analysis Services became the leading OLAP platform, making Hyperion and Cognos concentrate on Business Performance Management (BPM) applications such as HFM and Adaytum. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 3. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM 1. Oracle Global Consolidation System - Oracle GCS (Version 11i) by Oracle Corporation Overview: Oracle Global Consolidation System is a distributed application for financial reporting, analysis, budgeting, and planning. By integrating a central source of management data with powerful analytical tools, the system enables organizations to meet their critical financial objectives - controlling costs, developing and analyzing performance metrics, evaluating risks and opportunities, and formulating future direction. Key Features: Centralizes corporate data - Reporting capabilities at corporate, divisional, and operational levels Enables dynamic access to data from a Web browser, allowing users to rotate and drill down on reports and graphs, collect and write data back to the shared database Built-in statistical and financial calculations create forecasts and calculate performance ratios Delivers financial data and robust data analysis and collection tools throughout the organization: product profitability, exception analysis, product mix analysis, variance analysis, funds allocation, activity based costing Interfaces with existing ledgers, RDBMS, and spreadsheets Users receive and write-back data that they are privileged to see Intuitive data filtering simplifies exception reporting Inherent drill and rotate capabilities display data intuitively Integrates data from Finance, Sales, Marketing, and Manufacturing General ledger and other data into can be incorporated to derive new financial information Results of what-if analyses display immediately Product Summary Mode of Delivery: Packaged Application Solution Classification: Budgeting, Financial Planning and Analysis Target business size: Greater than 100 users Pricing details: $1 to Indefinite Operating Environment Operating Systems SCO UNIX/PC UNIX Supported: Windows XP/2000/NT Implementation, Training, and Support Implementation Description: IT Provider assistance in configuration Training Description: Some training recommended - some training from the IT Provider/reseller may be helpful. Support Description: Web site support - product support questions, knowledgebase, are available at the company Web site. Email support - questions can be sent directly to a support staff for review. Telephone support - calls can be placed directly to a support staff. On-site support - a representative from the IT Provider/reseller can come to the customer site. General Information Source code for this Closed product is: THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 4. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM 2. Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) by Hyperion Solutions Corporation Overview: Designed for large-scale Web deployment, Hyperion Financial Management acts as a shared financial resource for thousands of users across the enterprise so that they can collaborate in the day-to-day management of the business. In the same application, users can produce auditable reports and forecasts for external consumers, such as regulatory bodies, financial analysts, stakeholders and business partners. Part of Hyperion Financial Analysis Solutions Hyperion's world-class financial analysis solutions allow organizations to maximize the potential of their corporate resources. W ith Hyperion Financial Analysis Solutions, finance staff will spend less time gathering and processing information and more time analyzing financial results and supporting strategic decision making. This yields competitive advantage and the agility to capitalize on business opportunities, acquire additional capital and outperform their stakeholders' expectations. Product Summary Mode of Delivery: Packaged Application Solution Classification: Budgeting, Financial Planning and Analysis Distinguishing Features: With Hyperion Financial Management, organizations can: -Develop value-focused strategies -Link their financial plans to these strategies -Monitor the execution of those plans to deliver the expected value Key Features: -Unified Financial Management radically reduces system maintenance and eliminates the need to conduct lengthy reconciliations. Financial analysts can determine the consequences of pursuing new opportunities, such as exploiting global markets, opening e-commerce channels, or entering new partner relationships. They can gather and consolidate historic results to monitor the execution of their plans, analyze variances and model new scenarios - all based on a universal set of measures and business rules. -A Web-architected approach with centralized applications significantly reduces the costs of deployment and maximizes the use of available IT resources. Hyperion Financial Management employs a highly scalable architecture that makes financial data and processes available to a wide community of users via Windows? or a Web browser. -Prepackaged functionality in an extensible framework provides the ability to build on top of the extensive portfolio of functionality delivered within Hyperion Financial Management using industry-standard tools. Customers can make their applications fit their business processes without incurring high costs and delays before seeing any benefit. It also allows them to address a wide range of business functions within one application framework, enhancing the ROI. Investments in ERP, CRM and data warehouse systems are maximized because Hyperion Financial --Management's robust application integration technology acts as a source or target for data from these systems. Data is quickly translated, consolidated, adjusted, finalized and reported, enabling users to spend more time analyzing and less time processing data. Target business size: Greater than 100 users THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 5. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Pricing details: $1 to Indefinite Solutions are customized for the specific needs of clients. Operating Environment Operating Systems Windows XP/2000/NT Supported: Windows 95/98/ME Programming Languages HTML, VBScript Supported: Implementation, Training, and Support Implementation Description: Consultant installation and configuration IT Provider installation and configuration IT Provider assistance in configuration Customer installation and configuration Implementation notes: Hyperion Consulting Services is designed to help maximize your return on Hyperion products. Experienced Hyperion consultants help tailor solutions to your particular reporting, analysis, modeling, and planning requirements. Thorough reviews of the company's management cycle and end-user goals shape implementation and project strategies. The right resources are the keys to a successful implementation. Hyperion's staff of MBAs and professional product-certified consultants is highly skilled, with years of product, technical, and product management experience in a multitude of business environments and industries. Hyperion consultants complete a rigorous training, mentoring, and certification program that ensures your organization receives the level and type of expertise needed on every implementation. Unparalleled Expertise: Hyperion has the know-how and resources necessary for successful implementation, enterprise integration, customization, project management, consulting, and training. Hyperion's exclusive phase-by- phase implementation approach, Structured Techniques for Assured Results (STAR?), provides the framework to deliver solutions that meet even your most complex business information requirements. Your Hyperion projects are done right the first time, on time, and with minimal risk. W e have: -Over 17 years of experience focused exclusively on Hyperion product implementations, and training -Successfully implemented Hyperion solutions at thousands of client sites worldwide -Trained tens of thousands of users how to most efficiently use Hyperion Analytic Application Software The Ultimate in Choice and Flexibility More than 350 Hyperion Alliance Partners supplement Hyperion's technology, applications, consulting, and training expertise. Hyperion works with these partners after carefully selecting them for the unique, complementary skill sets they bring to the overall business engagements of clients like you. Training Description: Some training recommended - some training from the IT Provider/reseller may be helpful. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 6. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Training Notes: Discover how our award-winning training offerings and instructors address the full spectrum of your training needs. W e offer classroom training, as well as our easy and cost-effective e-Training, which includes: Computer-based Training (CBT) Web-based Training (W BT) Virtual Classroom Training (VCT) We also offer customized training solutions designed to ensure your organization experiences a successful product rollout and smooth day-to- day operations. For large-scale rollouts, Hyperion provides training-needs analysis and creates an appropriate training and support strategy. W e work closely with project managers to integrate this strategy with your rollout schedules. Support Description: Web site support - product support questions, knowledgebase, are available at the company Web site. Email support - questions can be sent directly to a support staff for review. Telephone support - calls can be placed directly to a support staff. On-site support - a representative from the IT Provider/reseller can come to the customer site. Support Notes: Our award-winning support organization focuses on delivering timely and accurate resolutions to our clients and partners. Expert support engineers specialize in application and tools support to meet your critical business needs. All of our support engineers are well versed in multiple Hyperion products, making them skillful troubleshooters, able to offer you guidance and useful tips on your full suite of products. Our web-based support grants you access to our self-support tools and the ability to obtain assistance. We also offer additional services through our Enhanced Support Offerings. Enhanced Support Offerings provide a range of additional features for those customers with special support needs based on unique geographical or time demands. These offerings allow you to obtain 7x24 production support, a dedicated support team, and/or customized service. The Support Page enables clients to access important support and product related information right from their desktops, any time of the day or night. It contains the latest product news and release announcements, documentation information, online product help, upgrades, and more. The page also offers an alternate method for submitting requests for support assistance. Access to the page is available to all clients who have current maintenance contracts with Hyperion. General Information Source code for this product is: Closed This product has been installed Healthcare in these Industries: Computers and Technology Education and Training Banking and Finance Retail and W holesale Telecommunications Insurance Food and Beverage THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 7. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM HFM Architecture is considered technically superior: • N-tier architecture does not have much overhead to operate and gives incredible benefits like hardware scalability, user load balancing, and failover – technically sound! • Application server is Windows-based, but database can be on Oracle and Unix! • Reports and Analyzer are Unix/Java-based • Security – HFM stores no passwords and can operate with firewalls between any and all layers with ability to authenticate against iPlanet and Active Directory as well as NTLM, you decide • Win32-based user interface (‘fat client’) required for administrative functions and report creation • Only production Reports, not Analyzer (Java applet) require fat client • Administrative functions need fat client, 98% of users would just be using the web. • HFM is only on NT and per platform will cost more to operate than having all financial application components on a Unix processing platform • Only the HFM application server needs to be NT-2000 based and that gives you flexibility and scalability as well with hardware n-tier architecture and takes away the dependency on a single point of failure as the application server carries to persistence of data or metadata (not a point of failure) Conclusion: Hyperion HFM uses more current and robust technology that allow for widespread deployment through increased scalability. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 8. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM HFM Maintenance is easier to use: • Functions in HFM are performed in VB Script – VBScript is an open and easy to learn logical way for finance folks to write business logic and allocations, it is only the “wrapper” for pre-built functions • EXAMPLE If HS.Period.Number = 1 Then HS.Alloc SourcePOV, DestPOV, EntityList, Factor-Expression, PlugAccount End If • Oracle uses PL/SQL, can the financial staff write logic like this easily when requirements change?? • EXAMPLE OPEN c_companycode; LOOP FETCH c_ companycode into v_tempRecord; IF (c_student%NOTFOUND) then CLOSE c_ companycode; EXIT; END IF; END LOOP; Conclusion: Oracle GCS requires far more IT support for creating business rules and application integration, but also for routine tasks such as report writing. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 9. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Market Research: In a recent meeting with Lee Geishecker from Gartner today, and she confirmed that there's nothing new under the sun from Oracle, so I believe these points are still accurate. Product Management or Development would need to check out some of the technical assertions in the like "NTLM non-standard net-bios ports", "unsigned Java Applets". GCS (Global Consolidation System) • Difficult set up and maintain vs. Hyperion Financial Management. GCS needs IT or specialists. Hyperion Financial Management is built for the finance/accounting department, not IT. Do they want IT involved for each minor change to the consolidation and reporting system? • Difficult modeling vs. Hyperion Financial Management. GCS is Journals-based. Hyperion Financial Management provides easy modeling of pro-forma scenarios. Do they want IT involved in creating a pro-forma income statement or modeling acquisitions or divestitures? • Weaknesses in Process Control vs. Hyperion Financial Management. Not easy to tell who has submitted and who hasn’t, or if approved/rejected. How will the CFO ensure that the consolidation is properly reviewed and approved? This is especially important because of Sarbanes Oxley. • GCS Reporting also usually requires assistance from third parties or IT. Hyperion Financial Management includes an easy to use report writer and several Excel interfaces. Do they want IT to be involved in creating each new report? GCS really only works well on an Oracle transaction system. Do they have other transaction systems? What if get some others through acquisition? Are they ready to load up a dummy G/L company for this? Global Intercompany System • This is an intercompany invoicing system. Transaction–level Payables and receivables are matched. OK if all business units share the same centralized ledger – but less useful if there are non-Oracle general ledgers. Hyperion Financial Management provides equivalent matching capabilities across any number of general ledgers. Financial Intelligence Portal • Hyperion Analyzer is a superior tool – easier to set up and maintain. And it works across all Hyperion products (Essbase, etc.) • Finance users and executives create their own analysis and drill-down reports on-line with no assistance from Finance or IT – “Self Service Finance”! OFA (Oracle Financial Analyzer) • OFA is a separate Budgeting/Planning Tool – Hyperion Financial Management is unified – so consolidation features are available (intercompany, journals, currency, etc.) • OFA is a “dead product” acquired from a third party with known weaknesses. Oracle is rewriting OFA from scratch and making part of the 9i database. This will require all customers to re-write eventually. “Aside from Discoverer (Oracle Relational Q&R Tool), Oracle’s 9i business intelligence (BI) tools have had limited success. Their success outside Oracle’s installed base is even more limited. We rate Oracle’s BI tools and strategy a caution.” – Gartner – September 2002 THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 10. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM HFM vs. GCS Case Studies: Company Hyperion Current Status Contact * Motorola Julie Madden Motorola is still rolling out HFM. They use the Oracle GL as their book of record but they have had Hyperion since Micro-Control. A very similar story to many Hyperion clients, success with Enterprise expanded the scope and use of the product until they overloaded it - too much data and needed dimensionality. It was a logical progression to HFM. They felt that Hyperion has the domain expertise when it comes to Financial applications and they want as much out of the box functionality as they can get. They do not want to custom build anything and they were faced with a lot of customization when they got under the hood with Oracle. A large consideration was that Finance owns this application with minimal help from IT to maintain the application, write reports, etc. - Using Hyperion is more 'empowering' for the end user. Alcoa Andy Stahl Alcoa is still rolling out HFM. They worked with to Oracle's development staff to outline their requirements. Oracle said they Oracle would not have the same functionality as HFM 2.0 (HFM is now on release 3.4, until Oracle 12 comes out in several years. Alcoa has complex intercompany - it's a manual process in Oracle and deferred tax eliminations were a chore. They looked at OFA and laughed at it. American Christine Strong American Express is rolling out HFM, after a comparison to GCS was conducted. The three Express big factors for them were Scalability, Ease of Use, and Technology. HFM’s n-tier architecture and web deployment was key to scalability. When it came to writing business rules, allocations, and reports – most of HFM functionality was out of the box, whereas it required programming effort in Oracle. Lastly, Hyperion’s technology fit their model for security, scalability, and failover. Campbell's Bob Stroble Rumor has it that approximately 9 months ago Oracle called together all of their big clients Soup and told them they did not have a migration path from OFA to their new GCS platform – everything would have to be rewritten. OFA was basically becoming extinct in Campbell Soup's eyes and that obviously did not make them happy. IBM is currently doing an analysis for them on how to change their business process, with the leading contender being an SAP with HFM enterprise-wide solution, although no recommendation has been made yet. Merrill Lynch Christine Strong Even though it’s an “Oracle Only” shop. Merrill is using Hyperion Performance Scorecard, (Different than HFM), for some of their reporting and dashboarding needs. It is an Emperor’s New Clothes situation where nobody will go on the record to discuss how bad Oracle is. The folks in Corporate Finance HATE Oracle’s consolidation solution and feel it was forced down their throats under the ‘one vendor = Oracle’ policy implemented by Alan Payne. JPMorgan Mark Berry Alan Payne joined JPMorganChase as CIO in 2001 and quickly switched Chase to an Oracle Chase only shop. Corporate Finance, who have a relationship with Hyperion since 1992, remarked that GCS is still 3-4 years of development away from being the type of product that they need. Still, the company is moving forward with GCS as a long term solution. Monster.com Oracle ERP or general ledger clients who have implemented or are planning to implement Mastercard HFM within the next year. GCS is not considered an option. MBIA THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 11. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Conclusion: As a Hyperion Gold Partner, our research may appear to portray a bias toward Hyperion and the HFM Solution. This bias however, has also translated to market acceptance. While nearly 80% of the Fortune 500 use ERP systems such as Oracle for their transactional infrastructure, only 17% use the ERP vendor supplied tools for analysis and reporting. This suggests a huge gap in capability and effort between the product classes, and is something that we wish to highlight in importance. In today’s world of Sarbane’s Oxley and IAS 2005 compliance requirements, we not only suggest – but recommend the tool that empowers the business user most. The requirements of Oracle to perform routine maintenance far surpass the technical abilities of the average business user. Current reporting cycles require a flexibility and ease of use not found in the Oracle product at this time. Product offerings from Hyperion, Cognos, and OutlookSoft clearly meet the needs of today’s business intelligence user, and are generations ahead of their ERP or OLAP toolset equivalents. THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY
  • 12. 99 PARK AVENUE #317A NEW YORK, NY 10016 1-800-403-0795 WWW.PTPI.COM Notes: THIS DOCUMENT IS PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL INTENDED FOR PINNACLE TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS CUSTOMERS ONLY