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Tags: hyperion, oracle, IBM, SAP, Cognos, TM1, Planning, Applix, OutlookSoft, Analyst, Contributor, Controller
We recently attended a Cognos demonstration at a client. At their request, the future of the Cognos technology stack in the financial area was addressed. Because we have previously posted in this area, I thought an update was in order.
According to the IBM employee making the presentation, they are excited to have TM1 in their arsenal and plan to make it a central database of their suite. This covers not only the budgeting/forecasting area (Cognos Planning), but also the consoldiation area (Cognos Controller).
An interesting, but not totally unexpected, development considering the pros/cons of the options available.
We feel this is the right approach, although it does validate the long-held belief of firms such as Hyperion and OutlookSoft that a central data model is critical to success in this area.
While folks can look forward to seeing this vision achieved, announcements of major product changes at the architecture level can be tricky. We continue to watch this development and will update folks when we have more of interest not already in the public arena...
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With all the consolidation in the financial systems area, many folks are wondering whether the tool they leverage has a future. This can be an interesting question, depending most upon your satisfaction and your (new) vendor's plans. Of course, competitive software companies will be quick to point out potential roadblocks to continued use of your (now old feeling) software package.
One thing Strafford provides to our clients is a "HealthCheck" of an existing application, with a review of vendor plans (focusing on what is most likely to happen vs what the gossip is). Often this might include an active discussion of potential options. What we find with clients is most often the application is doing what it was bought for, but their might be opportunities to grow a new application into additional areas. That's often where the best ROI is for replacing a legacy system.
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Whether to buy tools for financial reporting and budgeting/forecasting from the incumbent vendor is a question increasingly raised by folks we work with. The real question should be -- "At what point do we buy the brand name that we have existing investments with?"
For us, the issue centers on the short/long term benefits and the costs of any selection. Certainly, a red flag should be raised when there is lack of functionality in key areas. However, functionality is sometimes centered in the pros/cons and always subject to personal opinion. At the same time, many companies ask their finance teams to "do more with less" in order to lessen perceived "total solution costs" and benefit from "future integration".
With any investment in business process, the vendor is a key question. We insist our clients ensure integration will occur. Buying software integrated only at the "brand name" can be a dangerous activity.
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We have received many requests lately from clients to please help them evaluate their Citrix environment. Many clients have struggled with poor performance and/or connectivity issues and are not sure how to fix the problem(s). There are several areas that we would evaluate for you to provide you with information on running an optimum environment for your Hyperion Enterprise application. Below is a list of some of the areas we review when doing a Citrix evaluation:
- What are the specifications of the server(s)? Are they robust enough for the current environment you are trying to operate?
- How many users are typically logged into the system? This number is a major factor in determining how your Citrix environment should be set up.
- How is your network installed? What is the location of your servers vs. the location of the users on the network? How many are connecting internationally vs. domestically?
- Is your farm load-balanced? Has it been testing? Does it work correctly?
- How are your Hyperion applications published? There are optimum ways to publish the application in order to provide the best connectivity.
- What are the configurations of the servers - both application and Citrix? There are certain configurations that should be set that will prevent your application from data corruption and optimize performance.
- How are your backups being done? Is that process interfering or effecting your environment in any way? Enterprise is not a 24x7 application, therefore, typical IT backup procedures cannot be used.
- Are you using Hyperion Retrieve, VBA Retrieve or Analyst? Which one should you be using? How should it be used properly? I can share with you the best practices when using these products.
- Lastly, have you possibly outgrown Hyperion Enterprise? There is a more robust product called Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) that is also available for financial consolidation. Both Enterprise and HFM are excellent products, however, they do have different benefits.
If you are currently struggling with any of these issues or you have asked yourself any of these questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. We would be very happy to assist you in making sure your environment is not only highly functional but also highly efficient. Having an efficient consolidation system is a competitive advantage.
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It seems hard to believe that less than 10 years ago we had to start every presentation to a potential client with "What is Business Intelligence?".
In those days, we were first educating our clients on why they needed to make investments in this area. Only if they "got it", would we step into understanding their business and the underlying requirements and eventually determine and justify the project based on an ROI.
This took a lot of work to do. Some clients quickly "got it", while others took a few more years before they eventually did.
Now, looking at the consolidated landscape of the BI/BPM industry, and the full acceptance of "BI" and "BPM/CPM/EPM", it isn't a question of whether to invest in BI, but rather with whom.
Yes, it is refreshing not to have to explain the benefits of a BI Platform anymore. It truly has allowed us to focus on getting the job done for our clients.
But what does this mean for firms looking to implement a Business Intelligence solution who have been approached by a traditional ERP VAR of either Oracle or SAP?
It means they shouldn't be fooled by a generalist attempting to sell into this new space. We have seen many failed attempts from firms looking to enter this space without a solid background in the functional and technical expertise required to make it work.
Yes, there is good and bad when it comes to market acceptance. BI is now a generally accepted "makes sense to invest in" technology. But the same issues that have driven the need for specialists in this space continue to exist. The need for consultants to understand not just the bits and bytes, but the the real practical business drivers behind the effort and the project management skills required to gain full acceptance.
BI Projects are very different than your typical top down IT project. For example, they need to be tuned to end user needs in an iterative approach. It takes many design modification cycles with the actual report to determine what will truly be best for the organization to use.
At first glance, any new report or analytic application looks great. But the reality is, the sizzle wears off and without the proper iterative design up front, these systems do not produce the measures and underlying support (detail) data to support change and quickly lose their luster.
This is a just one area of the design and rollout that requires persons very familiar with BI project development to be involved.
OK, I'll get off my soap box now.
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With recent consolidation in the BI and BPM space, one sees how Finance drove the final stages of the BI revolution.
On the customer side, BI evolved into BPM as as the need for consolidated financial data in reporting/analytics grew. At the same time, "Tomorrow's news ... Today" (also know as the forecasting or planning process) became critical to most organizations. Why report on tomorrow, when you can get a glimpse of the future?
On the vendor side, the bigger software players (Oracle, SAP, etc.) were able to flex their market capitalization muscles and acquire significant product lines to complement their software suites.
In the end, while customer choices have narrowed for most folks (and prices will increase), the benefits of an integrated solution will provide significant long-term benefit to many.
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With the acquisition of Applix by Cognos and the subsequent acqusition of Cognos by IBM, does anyone really believe that IBM will maintain the Applix/TM1 product line family?
Clearly, IBM purchased Cognos for their strong BI reporting and analytic applications. ReportNet has been a strong competitor in the marketplace ever since it was first introduced a few years ago.
But with Cognos' patchwork family of budgeting and planning and consolidation applications (which were all purchased separately) the future of the low end Applix TM1 product is even further in question. The existing BPM (or CPM as Cognos refers to it) financials applications were already barely able to communicate with each other in any kind of a unified offering, what will IBM do with Applix (another completely non-integrated low end application)?
Time will tell whether the IT departments that have played a significant role in influencing the purchase of Cognos BPM products (based on their technology bias towards Cognos BI) will continue to override the finance department who tend to favor more robust, mature products or, alternatively, products based on an entirely new product platforms.
We'll see how the Cognos sales force will be able to overcome this obvious uncertainty in not only the Applix product line, but even within the existing BPM product line. As I mentioned, I have a lot of respect for their sales team, so it would not surprise me that they will be able to minimize this and somehow turn it into a positive!
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After all these acqusitions are complete and the dust settles, there is one thing we might be able to look forward to and that is actually re-focusing on solving reporting and analytic needs.
We have seen it all... From "Decision Support" to "Business Intelligence" to "Business/Corporate/Enteprise Peformance Management", one thing that is constant is that the software, players and industry acronyms change on a regular basis.
However, one thing that doesn't change when it comes to successfully addressing a reporting requirement within an organization is the importance of proper requirements definition, building inter-department concensus, project management, systems/database integration, and the design, data validation and rollout of the actual reporting platform.
It is all too easy to get caught up in the billion dollar acquisition excitement and to see who will end up on top of the corporate pile, -but the bottom line is that for firms looking to meet their own specific reporting requirements, whether in finance, sales, HR or operations they can not lose track of what truly contributes to a successful project rollout.
The experience, approach and yes, the technology.
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IBM acquires Cognos
Potentially signalling the end of consolidation in the BI or BPM space, IBM announced plans to acquire Cognos.
This ends speculation that had run rampant, including the possibility of companies such as EMC or HP entering the space. With only marginal independent players remaining, those interested in investing with a leading BI or BPM player will have to spend a bit more time judging "fit" with their existing ERP or general ledger systems.
Suffice to say that each vendor (Oracle & Hyperion, SAP & OutlookSoft or SAP & Business Objects, as well as IBM & Cognos & Applix) will walk the fine line of promising additional functionality for their installed base "without" sacrificing their ability to drive net new clients that might not share their technology stack. Time will tell...
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Rapidly intensifying (and finishing?) the consolidation in the BI space, SAP has announced plans to acquire Business Objects. If SAP clients had concerns over Oracle's Hyperion acquisition, Oracle clients with Business Objects technology might now have similar thoughts. However, we can all look forward to seeing how SAP adjusts its technology stack to incorporate this acquisition with some rich new functionality.
All of this change is exciting to watch and experience. While some choices for clients might now be off the table (and with less competition, prices will rise), most of us can look forward to improved integration and a "tighter fit" of reporting/analytics across the mix of data sources and business needs.
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