The Finit Minute: Q1 2009

Welcome

Welcome to the Q1 2009 Finit Minute! Our goal is to provide you with relevant, timely, and actionable Oracle Hyperion information to help maximize your Oracle Hyperion software investment.

Hyperion clients frequently mention to us that they feel like they are in the dark when it comes to having quality information on Oracle Hyperion products. Oracle is sensitive to bombarding their clients with communications, but they do make information available if you search it out. “The Information Company” can easily crush you with information overload, because they have such an amazingly broad product offering.

In the Finit Minute, we have filtered through all that information to provide you with what we feel are the most pressing items. We will provide you with information about user conferences, our understanding of new products / roadmaps, descriptions of new product functionality and client success stories. Of course, this is the “Finit Perspective” and is not an official Oracle Hyperion communication.

The Finit Update: What's New at Finit Solutions?

Happy New Year! Last year was a very exciting one for us, and we’re pleased to share some of the accomplishments we enjoyed as a result. We had the pleasure of working with over 50 clients in 2008 who received best-in-class solutions for the Oracle Hyperion suite of products. Finit helped clients succeed on a wide range of projects, some of which included:

• Conversions from Hyperion Enterprise to HFM System 9
• Upgrades from HFM 4.x to HFM System 9
• FDM implementations for loading data into HFM, Essbase, Hyperion Enterprise, TaxStream and various other non-Hyperion target systems
• Upgrades from Hyperion Enterprise 5.x and 6.x to Hyperion Enterprise 6.5

We were pleased to have grown our revenue by 69% and our number of employees by more than 50%. 2008 represented annual growth of over 60% for 5 out of the last 6 years. Finit made the following lists of fastest growing privately held companies in 2008:

• #55 in the 2008 Philadelphia 100 List
• #571 in the 2008 Inc. 5000 List

We're very excited about the solutions we developed for our clients in 2008, and we appreciate the great reviews we received from our clients on those projects. We continued our goals of providing exceptional customer service and extending our 100% project satisfaction to our new clients. We feel that the implementation successes represent Finit’s unique ability to deliver Finance / Accounting experience, Oracle Hyperion expertise and superior customer service to drive value-added solutions for our clients. We’re looking forward to continuing to deliver creative, best-in-class solutions in 2009 to help our clients collect, analyze, manage and report their information and maximize their Oracle Hyperion software investments.

Hyperion HFM and FDM 11.1.1 - New Features and Functionality

HFM and FDM have continued to evolve since Oracle's purchase of Hyperion, and the products are continuing to integrate more tightly. The following information describes the new features and functionality in the latest releases and the roadmap of where Hyperion HFM and FDM are headed. This information is subject to change and is not in any way an official communication from Oracle.

HFM

Most recent release: Oracle Hyperion Financial Management, Fusion Edition 11.1.1.
Release Date: July 2008
Premier Support Ends: July 2013

HFM 9.3: Premier Support Ends January 2012
HFM 9.2: Premier Support Ends June 2010
HFM releases prior to 9.2: No longer covered under Oracle’s Premier Support

Oracle's lifetime support policy for Hyperion applications can be found here:
http://www.oracle.com/support/library/brochure/lifetime-support-applications.pdf

Some of the new features and functionality in HFM Fusion 11.1.1 include:

HFM / Shared Services / EPMA (Enterprise Performance Management Architect)

• Calculation Manager: Calculation Manager is a new utility in EPMA that allows users to create business rules for HFM and Planning in a graphical environment. This allows administrators to drag functional components into a graphical layout to define the business rules needed. This includes application formulas (e.g. HS.Exp) as well as Visual Basic elements (e.g. Loops, Arrays, Conditions).
• Equity Pickup Module: A new module inside HFM exists for managing Equity Pick-up. This was previously managed in HFM rules.
• Application Lifecycle Management: LifeCycle Management is a new utility in Shared Services for managing application migrations across environments. This tool will help ease the previous process of migrating applications from one environment to another (e.g. Production to QA). HFM, Planning and BI+ can be managed through this utility in 11.1.1. FDM is currently not integrated.
• EPMA Improvements: Many improvements were made to EPMA. The biggest one is improved Import functionality for managing metadata components outside HFM and importing metadata into HFM.
• Extended Analytics: An extended analytics routine can be saved to a text file to allow HFM data to be analyzed outside of the application. Previously, only outputs to a relational database or Essbase were supported.
• Phased Submission Enhancements: In metadata, you can now define the start year for each scenario for which Phased Submission support applies.

Financial Reporting / Smart View

• Financial Reporting Annotations: Annotations allow users to make textual commentary directly on a financial report. They can be viewed and printed.
• External Files within Books: A Financial Reporting book can now contain Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. This allows them to be printed along with book content.
• Improved 'pushing' of Financial Reporting User Preferences: A properties file can contain the initial Financial Reporting user preferences for all users. Previously, users had to be instructed to change specific settings themselves (e.g. prompting for the point-of-view).
• New Smart View Functions: Additional Smart View functions were created, including one that will allow for the pull of the server connection and application information.

Technical

• 64 bit support: HFM application and web servers are supported with 64-bit computing.

Features and functionality anticipated in future HFM releases include:

• Separate HFM databases per application: HFM will create 1 database per application, instead of creating all HFM application tables in a single HFM database. This will facilitate much simpler disaster recovery and restore procedures.
• Workflow Improvements: Oracle will be working to integrate HFM and the Workspace more with the overall financial closing calendar. This functionality will cross products and provide more insight into the entire close process, current status and dependencies.
• Disclosures / Smart Rounding: Functionality will be delivered to allow users to manage the rounding, scaling and footing of financial information. This currently has to be handled using HFM rules or in spreadsheets. Additionally, Oracle is expected to improve its abilities to handle external disclosure reporting (10K, XBRL).
• HFM System Reports integrated within Financial Reports / Workspace: HFM System reports (Intercompany Matching, Journal, etc) will be moved outside of HFM and into Financial Reports. This will allow for increased flexibility in the creation of those reports as well as the ability to launch and publish those reports to users.
• Simulations Module: A simulations module will be used for improved foreign currency analysis (e.g. Actual at Budget rates, Actual at Last Year rates). The module will offer Versioning, Simulation and Variance capabilities. The Variance capability will allow for an Attribute to be created on the Scenario dimension, where variances can be viewed.
• Windows Server 2008: Microsoft Server 2008 support will be available in future releases for the HFM Application and Web servers’ operating systems.

FDM

Most recent release: Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management, Fusion Edition Release 11.1.1.
Release Date: July 2008
Premier Support Ends: July 2013

FDM 9.3 – Premier Support Ends January 2012
FDM 9.2 - Premier Support Ends June 2010
FDM releases prior to 9.2 - No longer covered under Oracle's Premier Support

Oracle's lifetime support policy for Hyperion applications can be found here:
http://www.oracle.com/support/library/brochure/lifetime-support-applications.pdf

Some of the new features and functionality in FDM Fusion 11.1.1 include:
• Drill-Back to Essbase, Planning: Drill-Back can be enabled from Essbase and Planning to the FDM detail.
• Shared Services Integration: FDM can be enabled to work with Shared Services. If integrated with Shared Services, users or groups are provisioned by the FDM Application and the FDM User Level. FDM Security contains the location access by individual user.
• SOX Memo Attachments: Memo item attachments are now stored by the period in the POV versus for all periods in prior releases.

Features and functionality anticipated in future FDM releases include:

Workflow

• FDM in the Workspace: FDM will be formally added to the Workspace and will be launched and behave like HFM behaves in the Workspace. FDM reports will be also added to the Workspace repository.
• Integration with EPMA, Oracle Data Integrator (ODI): FDM will become more integrated with EPMA and ODI. This will mean that FDM will have the ability to update EPMA's relational tables in addition to calling ODI routines.

Adapters

• Hyperion Strategic Finance (HSF): A FDM adapter will be released to load data to Hyperion Strategic Finance (HSF).
• Hyperion Planning Adapter Expansion: FDM already loads to Planning in prior releases. In the future, users will also have the ability to update Planning’s relational tables to load Planning Smart Lists.
• Additional Source Adapters: Additional source adapters that will allow for direct connect / pull sourcing as well as source detail drill-back from FDM will be created for the following products: Oracle E-Business Suite 12, SAP R/3, SAP BW, PeopleSoft 8 / 9, JDE OneWorld.

Drill-backs

• Hyperion Strategic Finance (HSF): Users will be able to drill back from Hyperion Strategic Finance to FDM.
• Hyperion Enterprise: Users will be able to drill back from Hyperion Enterprise to FDM.
• Smart View: Drill-back to FDM detail with Essbase through Smart View is available, but drill-back ability to FDM from HFM and Planning via Smart View is expected in later releases.

Technical

• FDM 64 bit support: FDM will have the ability to support 64 bit computing on its Application and Web servers.
• FDM support for Mozilla FireFox browser: Mozilla FireFox support will be available in later releases.
• Support for IBM DB2 relational databases: Customers will have the ability to store FDM data in an IBM DB2 relational database.
• Microsoft Server 2008 support: Microsoft Server 2008 support will be available in future releases for the FDM application and web servers’ operating systems.

Hyperion Enterprise 6.5 – New Features and Functionality

Hyperion Enterprise version 6.5 was recently released by Oracle. This release includes some significant changes over 6.4 and represents one of the more major releases with the product. The following information describes the new features and functionality in the latest releases and the roadmap of where Hyperion Enterprise is headed. This information is subject to change and is not in any way an official communication from Oracle.

The most recent release: Hyperion Enterprise 6.5
Release Date: April 2008
Premier Support ends April 2013

Hyperion Enterprise 6.4 : Premier Support Ends August 2010
Hyperion Enterprise prior to 6.4: No longer covered under Oracle's Premier Support.

Some of the new features and functionality in Hyperion Enterprise 6.5 include:

Smart View for Office

Hyperion Smart View for Office provides a common Microsoft Office interface for Hyperion Enterprise data and is now officially supported with Enterprise. This product allows Hyperion Enterprise customers to combine the benefits of performing ad-hoc drill down capabilities (similar to Hyperion Analyst) and cell-specific formula based retrieval (similar to Hyperion Retrieve) in one tool. Some additional features of Smart View for Enterprise:

• Smart View can link to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Using Smart View, you can view, import, manipulate, distribute and share data in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint interfaces.
• Smart View enables you to open Hyperion Enterprise Schedules directly in Microsoft Excel
• Smart View's POV Manager enables you to select the dimensions for the default point of view and the current POV can be pasted into the header of the Excel sheet
• Smart View includes a migration utility that enables you to convert Hyperion Enterprise HP Retrieve functions to the new syntax when you upgrade.

Application backup

Hyperion Enterprise applications need to be periodically backed up in case of hardware or storage media failure. Backups are also sometimes done before and after you perform significant work on your applications like creating new applications, running rollovers and entering extensive data or metadata. In order to back up a Hyperion Enterprise application prior to release 6.5, an administrator would have performed manual, error prone activities like using a blackout time or checking to see if users are logged in and calling them or logging them off before locking the application.

Hyperion Enterprise 6.5 includes a new Application Backup and Restore Utility. By locking the users logged onto the system and suspending all the processes, the utility provides Enterprise administrators the flexibility to:

• Back up applications while users are in the system performing tasks such as consolidation, data loading, data entry and journal entry.
• Manually execute single backups at a specific time.
• Set up backup profiles that can back up a single application or multiple applications at pre-defined times. These schedules can be set to execute once, daily, weekly or monthly at specific start times and dates.Smart View enables you to open Hyperion Enterprise Schedules directly in Microsoft Excel.
• Use the new message service to broadcast messages to users with regards to backup status.
• Restore a previously backed up version of Enterprise to the server. These applications can be archived on your hard disk, network drives, or external storage media.

Message Server

In conjunction with the new Application Backup and Restore Utility, the new Hyperion Enterprise Message Server enables the application backup program to send automated broadcast messages to users logged on to the application before and during the application backup process. This occurs at the user-specified interval. For example, if enabled, a message can be sent to users currently logged into the system to alert them of an upcoming backup:

"A scheduled Application Backup will start in X minutes. You should complete any work and exit immediately. If you remain logged in, any processes you are running will be suspended while the backup occurs."

Users attempting to log into Enterprise during a backup will receive the flowing message

"An Application Backup is in progress. Please try logging in at a later time."

Also, administrators and users with modify rights are able to send instant messages to users logged on to an application. For example, messages can be sent when performing administrative tasks such as consolidations and data extracts. All users can receive messages regardless of the rights assigned to them.

Enterprise server administration

Hyperion Enterprise server administration allows management of all Hyperion Enterprise servers from a single location, making it a two-step process to maintain the Hyperion Enterprise servers. In the first step, you enable the Hyperion Enterprise servers and in the second process step you manage the servers. Using Enterprise Server Administration allows you to perform the following tasks:

• View server status and database settings
• Start, stop and restart server services for an application
• Edit database path, server details, server identification and server file location
• Maintain workload and view server log for an application
• Switch between applications and change server settings
• Change administrator's user ID and password for the server components

Enhanced error messaging

In the View Error Log dialog box, the error messages pertaining to the Data Entry, Database, Consolidation and Journals modules now displays user ID, category and entity information. These error messages are written to the error.log file in the following scenarios:

• When two or more users try to perform tasks in the Data Entry, Database or Journals module for the same schedule point of view
• When two or more users exist in the entities that are being consolidated

Display label & description together

This enhancement enables you to display both account label and account description within the Data Entry and Database grids. A user no longer has to choose label or description exclusively. This additional display option is found in the following locations:

• Schedule Options dialog box in the Data Entry module
• Schedule Options dialog box in the View Data page in the Hyperion Enterprise Web
• Database Options dialog box in the Database module

Enhanced Security Access Reporting

The Security Access Report is an addition to the previously available Security Reports—Access Rights Reports, Task Reports and Application Element Reports. Information provided in the report includes user's names, groups, rights and password status. This dynamic report provides the option to sort, filter, print, export and save results.

Ability to modify installations

You can modify installations by adding components that you did not choose to install earlier. The entire application does not need to be uninstalled and reinstalled as in previous versions.

Hyperion Autopilot installed as a Component

Hyperion AutoPilot installation is now integrated with the Hyperion Enterprise installer. When the Hyperion AutoPilot is selected for installation, the Hyperion Enterprise installer installs Hyperion AutoPilot along with the other selected components. It does not require a separate installation as in previous versions.

New Features in Hyperion Enterprise Reporting Release 6.5

Hyperion Enterprise Reporting Release 6.5 introduces the following new features:

• Hierarchy-based folder structure - you manage report and book sets, reports and books through a folder structure similar to Microsoft Windows Explorer. You can create, delete and edit report or book sets, reports or books within the folder structure.
• 20 characters - Hyperion Enterprise Reporting now supports up to 20 characters for report or book sets, report and book names.
• The @ASK function – this function for Hyperion Enterprise Reporting Web enables the report-builder to prompt the user and provides the user with the ability to select one or more dimensions, while generating the report. At runtime, the @ASK dimension dialog box displays all the selected dimension values for the given dimension.
• GhostScript - Oracle's Hyperion Enterprise Reporting now supports report generation in PDF format using GhostScript.

Oracle Resources – User Groups, Conferences, Training, and Support

What's going on with the Hyperion Solutions Conference and the local User Groups?

This question has come up over and over since Oracle acquired Hyperion. The annual user conference, "Solutions", and the quarterly local user meetings were always well attended and provided the opportunity for users to network, learn about solutions from each other, share their success stories and raise concerns to Hyperion.

Well, "Solutions" as we once knew it is no more. There is no "Hyperion only" option, as Hyperion is now a part of Oracle, so the conferences are combined. Sad as that may sound on the surface, the new options are no step backward, as they actually provide venues for clients to network even more broadly and do everything else that they always have, but on a larger scale.

The Conferences

Yes, there are 2 major conferences, not just 1. "Solutions" was an event that was hosted by Hyperion as a marketing event. Hyperion management and staff chose the sessions, managed the logistics and put the entire show on.

The equivalent event is "Open World" which is held in San Francisco each fall. For 2009 it will be from October 11- 15. The attendance is normally about 40,000 or more versus the 5,000 or so attendees that was typical at "Solutions". You should expect to see about 80% or more of the sessions presented by Oracle, with the remainder presented by clients.

The user-run event is known as COLLABORATE, and it is more of a true user conference than "Solutions" was. This year it will be held in Orlando from May 3rd – 7th: www.collaborate09.com. The name of this conference comes from the collaboration of 3 independent Oracle User Groups – Quest, Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG) and Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG). The sessions at this event are 80% user and partner driven and 20% Oracle driven. The attendance for this event is historically around 6,000+ attendees.

In addition to the large conferences, Oracle recently recommended that the local Hyperion User Groups affiliate with the OAUG Hyperion Special Interest Group (SIG). There is no charge to affiliate with this group. You can join as an affiliate for free here - http://hyperionsig.oaug.org However, to receive access to the "Knowledge Factory" where the product domain leads will provide relevant content, and to receive training discounts, you must be a full member. Full membership requires a fee.

This new structure promotes an expansion from domestic to international networking. Domain experts will provide expertise and up-to-date information on the latest Oracle developments. Robert Cybulski, founder and president of Finit Solutions, is the Hyperion Enterprise, HFM and Hyperion FDM domain lead. Additionally, in the world of Oracle, the OAUG, as well as other user groups, are relied upon heavily for user feedback, so having a collective voice and the ear of Oracle is another powerful benefit of being affiliated.

Ed DeLise, Finit’s VP of Sales for Finit, is heading up the OAUG Hyperion SIG. This group has gone from just a handful of volunteers to several hundred members, and we’re expecting to add several thousand in the next few months as Oracle has now made this group the official Hyperion user group.

One additional group to be aware of is the Oracle Developer Tools User Group – ODTUG. Their site can be found here – www.odtug.com For Hyperion developers who prefer deep dives, code and less business content, this group will have a strong Hyperion presence for you.

With plenty of options for networking and Hyperion content, rest assured that although things have changed in the Oracle world, there is no shortage of interest by Oracle, the users, or the partner community in building an even stronger community of Hyperion users.

Where do we go to find Hyperion training classes?

Oracle Hyperion classes are available through Oracle University. Oracle University can be accessed at the following URL: http://education.oracle.com

Hyperion training classes and self-study cds can be found under the Hyperion Category in the Category drop down box located at the top right corner of the page. Hyperion is split into a few main subcategories. Each one of these subcategories contains multiple products:

Financial Consolidation – contains all HFM and Hyperion Enterprise classes.
Data Management – Hyperion FDM, DIM
Budget Planning – Hyperion Planning
Reporting – Financial Reporting, Interactive Reporting, Smart View
Analytics – Essbase, Web Analysis

Course details and schedules can be found by either clicking on the course link or by using the course details tabs.

Additionally, Oracle Knowledge Center is dedicated to e-learning resources. This section of the site delivers hours of product and non-product related content in a self-paced format. The center includes Hyperion product information courses such as introductory product presentations and demos (e.g. Essbase, HFM, FDM), new features (e.g. Smart View 9.3 New Features) and client case studies.

Oracle Knowledge Center can be accessed from the same Oracle University link. Simply click on the Knowledge Center option in the left menu.

What is MetaLink / What happened to Hyperion Support?

MetaLink is a customer support portal that offers customers the ability to log and track on-line service requests, search for documentation on known issues, post in user forums, download patches and perform other support oriented tasks. This is the portal for researching items as well as submitting new Service Requests (SR).

MetaLink can be accessed via the following URL: https://metalink3.oracle.com

If you have not accessed the site previously, you will need to register for the site. If other individuals within your organization are currently registered for MetaLink, ask them for the Support Identifier code. You will need to enter this when you register. Your request will then be submitted to your organization’s MetaLink administrator, who will grant you permission to the site.

Once inside the site, there are a few main sections that can be accessed, including:

• Knowledge – this tab contains a knowledge exchange between Oracle and its customer community.
• Service Request – this section allows a Service Request to be submitted. It also tracks previous SRs.
• Patches and Downloads – this tab provides up-to-date information concerning available patches for known product issues. You can search by product or by patch number (if known.) Note that full software downloads are not available here; these are just patches.
• Product Certifications – this section provides information on supported platforms and minimum technical requirements for all products

Note: MetaLink features a dynamic help menu that will provide relevant information depending on the tab you are viewing when you click on the ‘HELP’ button located at the top right-hand side of the webpage.

What other Links should I know about?

Oracle Product Download site – Access point for downloading the Oracle products you are licensed for. http://edelivery.oracle.com

NOTE: Oracle tracks who downloads software and performs audits on a regular basis to ensure that companies have paid the appropriate license fees for their software.