BizTech Blog

Tell me if this sounds familiar, just around the start of holiday preparation (say mid-November) while the rest of the world is thinking about filling their pantries with holiday goodies, gifting, and family, you feel the buildup of annual stress and pressure due to the financial year-end close looming overhead. In mid-December the fire drill begins and you are in the thick of your company’s annual financial close.

When it’s all said and done in February, you get an email from your CEO to discuss your manual reconciliation process. The conversation quickly turns into a debate about the financial close results and data that (of course) can’t be aggregated very easily. The CEO also expresses concerns about issues potentially lingering within the reconciliations. Ugh, what a nightmare!

If you’ve ever read any of my blogs before, you are aware that I am a music fanatic. While late 60’s and 70’s classic rock holds a particular appeal to me, I’m not ashamed to say that 70’s lite music also has its place in my heart. Hearing old softies like “Torn Between Two Lovers” by Mary MacGregor (yes, really), can often brighten an otherwise long day, one sadly spent not using an Oracle Hyperion EPM Tool.

In “Torn Between Two Lovers,” our singer is in quite a pickle, being in love with two different people at the same time, all the while knowing that sooner or later she must make a choice. Loving them both is breaking all the rules, she tells us. And so it is.

Released in the Spring of 2013, the latest release of Hyperion Planning has numerous new features to allow for an enhanced user experience with a more simplistic feel. We can now say after Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.3 has been out on the market for a few months that these enhancements are real and they’re spectacular!

Recently, Business Technology Services (BizTech) acquired EDS Group. Officially announced on June 13^th, the acquisition continues to create a cohesive meld of corporate ethos, enthusiasm, and expertise.

EDS Group provided Hyperion, Oracle Essbase, and data management services to Fortune 500 companies. The recent acquisition has enabled BizTech to strengthen its broad portfolio of Oracle services.

My last blog (Here, There and Everywhere: Business Intelligence on the Go) discussed how Companies can use Oracle 'Business Intelligence on the Go' tools to improve visibility into real data from almost any location in the world using little more than a cell phone. The response was very positive, perhaps owing to the fact that it had a Beatles theme to it. Fun, full of sunshine and hope, and providing answers to questions that many had pondered for seemingly forever, they and the article, was well received. After all, who doesn’t like the Beatles?

In all my years in accounting, by far the most difficult part of the month end close was the consolidation of entity general ledgers into one group of financial statements. Consolidation in Financial Accounting may best be described as a“ financial reporting technique that helps a firm summarize all operating data under a single set of financial statements in accordance with industry standards, accounting principles and regulations.”

Oracle Hyperion Planning: Simply the Best. By combining prepackaged software with business intelligence capabilities and proven best planning practices, next-generation enterprise planning solutions optimize business planning across the enterprise. With the right enterprise planning technology in place, you will be able to drive collaborative, integrated event-based planning at all levels of your organization and with all appropriate participants.

Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) is a comprehensive, Web-based application that delivers global financial consolidation, reporting and analysis in a single, highly scalable software solution.

HFM utilizes today's most advanced technology, yet is built to be owned and maintained by the enterprise's finance team.

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is defined as a management field of Business Performance Management which considers the visibility of operations in a closed-loop model across all facets of the enterprise. There are several emerging domains in the EPM field which are being driven by corporate initiatives, academic research, and commercial approaches including: Strategy Formulation, Business Planning and Forecasting, Financial Management, and Supply Chain Effectiveness.

Does this Typical Planning (Budget) Process sound familiar?