Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation

Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation June 29, 2010 Mark Hite, Practice Manager Ranzal & Associates

INTRODUCTIONS KEY PROJECT PHASES RECOMMENDED BUILD TECHNIQUES Application Definition Delineate Plan Types Define Dimensionality Metadata Integration Data Integration Building a Planning Model Development of Forms Development of Calculations Process Flow / Control Define Security Agenda

Founded in 1996, Ranzal has implemented Hyperion solutions for 500+ companies (800+ projects since the acquisition) Oracle / Hyperion Platinum Partner - Highest Status Hyperion “Americas Reseller” & “Partner of the Year” 1999, 2005 & 2007 Certified EPM Consultants & Instructors Vertical Expertise with High-Profile Clients from Coast to Coast East Coast & West Coast Presence Sound Project Methodology Insures Project Success Support Business Applications from start to finish One of the Largest Hyperion Practices in the U.S. “ Best Planning & Essbase Practices with Best HFM Practice” Hyperion Development utilizes Ranzal for Planning, Essbase and HFM product direction About Ranzal Regarded in the industry as one of the "BEST” at leveraging OLAP technology to develop EPM Applications

Our team has been involved in 800+ successful EPM Implementations Financial Consolidation & Management Reporting Budgeting & Planning Profitability Management Solutions Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Infrastructure Planning and Performance Tuning Business Process and Project Management Strong client portfolio across leading Industry Sectors including Certified consultants and instructors Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, HPCM, Hyperion Enterprise, Hyperion Strategic Finance, Hyperion BI+ (Web Analysis, Financial Reports, Interactive Reporting, Production Reporting), Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management, Data Services (including ETL, Warehousing) Financial Services Insurance Retail / Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturing Pharmaceutical & Hospital Hospitality / Travel / Entertainment High Technology / E-business Energy / Utilities Distribution Government Other Application & Industries

Project Phases Analyze/Design Build Test Rollout Infrastructure Build Application Install Back-End Build Front-End Build

Analyze vs. Design Analyze Requirements unknown or undefined Existing business processes need to be updated Existing business processes not known or documented Desire to re-engineer to align with business vision or industry best practices Deliverables As-Is vs. To-Be Processes Functional Requirements Technical Requirements Project Roadmap & Timeline (High Level) Design Key requirements are understood Future business processes are known Basic understanding of technology being used for build Deliverables Design Document Proof of Concept / Prototype * Infrastructure Architecture Finalize Scope, Schedule & Budget Project Strategies (Training, Testing, etc)

Biggest Risks to Planning Projects LACK OF AVAILABLE METADATA & DATA Clients often underestimate the effort required to source and validate data and master data, and this is a frequent reason for project delays The level of effort must be aligned with the quality of data, number of data sources, and degree of change (e.g., new COA) LACK OF CLIENT RESOURCES Technical – It is critical to identify the administrators of the new system early on, and ensure they are properly trained for rollout Functional - Clients sometimes do not dedicate enough resources to the project effort as the project is viewed as simply a technology implementation LACK OF CLARITY IN BUSINESS PROCESSES Planning systems by their nature attempt to predict the future. Clients sometimes have difficulty identifying which disparate elements of their planning process should go into the application, particularly if different areas of the organization have different models.

Critical Success Factors Clearly Defined and Communicated Project Goals Key Stakeholder Participation and Approval Finance and IT Involvement Throughout Entire Project Clearly Defined, Reviewed, and Approved Application Design Ownership and Accountability for Project Tasks Thorough Quality Assurance and Testing Communication of Company-wide Benefits Proper Administrator and End User Training Consistent Project Management

Planning Design Recommended Practices

Basic Build Approach Application Definition Delineate Plan Types Define Dimensionality Metadata Integration Data Integration Building a Planning Model Development of Forms Development of Calculations Process Flow / Control Define Security

Application Definition SINGLE PLANNING APPLICATION Allows for three custom plan types Two “modules” – Workforce & Capex APPLICATION SETUP Classic EPMA COMMON PLAN TYPES Core – GL Account, Entity Revenue – Product, Customer Salary / Workforce – Employee, Position Capital / Capex – Asset Category, Projects, etc. Sales – Customer, Sales Rep Balance Sheet / Cash Flow

Application Definition SINGLE APPLICATION BENEFITS Metadata is shared across an application Common Versioning, Scenarios between plan types Business Rule Efficiency within same app (XREF) Shared Interface for forms and rules between plan types Leverage common set of task lists, right click menus, smart lists, and personal variables MULTIPLE APPLICATION USE CASES Common for separate operating units w/ disparate planning processes Allows for distinct processing windows US vs. Intl Security – Financials vs. Salary Detail Ran out of plan types

Delineate Plan Types WHAT ARE THE CAPEX / WORKFORCE MODULES? A set of pre-built forms, rules, and menus for planning Salary and Capital expenditures. Pre-built functionality – fully customizable Out of the box functionality to calculate: WFP – Salaries, Payroll Taxes, Benefits, etc. Based on attributes associated with the employee. Capex – Depreciation, Capital Spending by Asset Categorization. EXPECTATIONS No one will use the modules out of the box with no customization. Key is to use out of the box functionality with the right blend of customization. Expected customization includes: Updating Smart List attributes for use within an organization Modification to forms / rules to allow for budget & forecast processes that converge. Updating metadata – Employees, Asset Category, etc. Adding a requisition number input field

Delineate Plan Types WHEN DO I NEED A NEW PLAN TYPE A model needs a different set of dimensionality Revenue modeling for the organization is done by product and customer Salary modeling is done by employee and position Project Planning is done by Project Number Capital modeling is done by asset classification Inter-dimensional Irrelevance Does my Core GL plan type need Product, Employee and / or Project #? Impacts performance of forms, business rules, and reports. Want to minimize number of stored dimensions for each plan type. IMPACTS OF A NEW PLAN TYPE Data Movements between Plan Types Additional Essbase Cube to optimize Metadata & Data Integration Considerations

Define Dimensionality DIMENSION Stored hierarchies within an application Core – Accounts, Entities, Time, Years, Scenario, Versions Revenue – Core + Product, Customer, Sales Person Capital – Core + Asset Category, Project Salary – Core + Employee, Position ATTRIBUTE Associated with a base dimension A dimension member can be associated with a single attribute member from an attribute dimension. Examples Start Date (Employee) Address (Customer) Brand (Product) Growth, Productivity, Maintenance (Project)

Define Dimensionality SMART LIST A member in an outline (often an account) that is represented as a drop down within the data grid. Smart Lists can be used to drive business rules Smart Lists cannot be sliced and diced like dimensions * Smart Lists can be reported on within Hyperion Reports Stored as numeric value in Essbase Textual Value show in Planning Forms Can be predefined in Essbase Smart Lists – No adapter, load right to tables 11.1.2 supports model to ASO for increased reporting capabilities

Define Dimensionality DATA ELEMENT (TEXT / DATE) Allow user to input text and date directly into a cell in Planning Can leverage in Hyperion Reports Text stored as numeric lookup relationally – HSP_TEXT_CELL_VALUE Date stored as number 20090101 Can be predefined in Essbase No adapter, load right to tables

Metadata Integration METADATA MANAGEMENT VS. ETL TOOLS They are not the same thing A metadata management tools provides you with a graphical interface to manage your metadata across disconnected applications. An ETL tool moves data from one place to another METADATA MANAGEMENT TOOLS EPMA Relatively new tool (BPMA,) Essentially “DRM” for EPM Applications Ability to synch Planning, HFM & Essbase dimensions across multiple applications V11 – Stable, Much Improved Update via Interface Tables – ETL, or Flat File EPMA File Generator – Creates ADS Files DRM Full blown metadata management tool Supports metadata management across any toolset – Hyperion, ERP, etc. Agnostic – read from any source, write to any source Does not have adapters to source / target systems Flat file extracts created from DRM to load into Planning

Metadata Integration ETL TOOLS ODI “ HAL Replacement” Limited Use ODI Bundled with EPM toolset Planning must be a source or target to use Relational Staging Repository where a lot of the work is done ELT – Extract, Load and Transfer Tool DIM Adapters that connect directly to Planning Additional Licensing Costs For Informatica shops Functionally very similar to ODI HAL Not an option for new clients Still works in 11X for legacy clients but not supported OTHER UPDATE METHODS Essbase Outline Load Batch Utility Manual Update

Data Integration SOURCES General Ledger – Lawson, Oracle, Peoplesoft, SAP, Great Plains Payroll – Ceridian, Lawson HRIS Fixed Assets – Lawson, Oracle Project, Navision Project Tracking – Oracle Project, JDE Billing System Order Management EDW Manual Load File Collect via Planning Form Currency Rates Benefit Rates (FICA Max, FICA %) INTEGRATION OPTIONS Essbase Load Rules SQL Interface Flat Files MAXL Automation Simple ETL ODI / DIM / HAL ETL Tools, use when there is heavy file manipulation

Building a Planning Model KEY CONSIDERATIONS What data is needed to facilitate input? What data needs to be collected from end users? Are there supporting drivers that must be input? Are there calculations that need to be processed before input? Read vs. Write on data form elements Are there calculations that need to be processed after input? Before Input? TIPS Break the process into steps if possible Use menus or task lists to drive navigation Simplify the user experience, provide tools to facilitate navigation Try not to clutter and overcomplicate a form

Development of Forms PERFORMANCE Balance performance with functionality Load Performance – 3 seconds or less Save Performance – 3 seconds of less Hone business rules Focus on fewer blocks – FIX (Entity), FIX (Scenario, Version) Don’t calculate more than you need to Balance form calculations with an hourly ‘sweep’ Poorly performing business rules can stack up and kill Essbase performance PERFORMANCE TIPS Suppress Missing Rows vs. Suppress Blocks Rows vs. Columns vs. Page Isolate Performance Issue – Form vs. Rules Query Issue – Size or Poorly Designed Essbase Cube? Block Size Balancing Act – Query vs. Calculations

Development of Forms DESIGN TIPS Large Sparse Dims on Rows – (Improvements to GUI in Talleyrand) Turn on Attribute Display Suppress Missing Block Show member formulas

Development of Forms DESIGN TIPS Startup Message to Guide Blank Forms Column Definition Drivers & Commentary in BegBalance Member Data Values in IDESC (YearTotal)

Development of Forms Use Flag Members to drive form layout Smart List to drive Flag UDA’s to drive form definition Flag Member – Set flag based on UDA definition and Smart List Selection

Development of Forms Simple Form Enhanced Forms

Development of Forms Control Navigation with a Menu

Development of Calculations TIPS & TRICKS Calculations & Forms Should be Developed in Tandem Calculation Manager Graphical Web Based Rules Builder Pre-built Templates Requires EPMA Integration (Talleyrand support for Classic) Ability to Convert HBR to CM Rules Alternatives to Drive Calculations Member Formulas Business Rules / Calc Manager Rules Essbase Member Calc Formula

Development of Calculations Essbase Member Formula Simple Member Calculation Dependencies - Outline Order Important Calculations that don’t require user input Calculations don’t require moving data between plan types Can be run upon save of form – ‘Calc members on form’

Development of Calculations Business Rules Allow for user input to the rule Allow for passing through variables from the form to the rule Multiple Members Calculated Upon Form Save with Dependencies Can be launched on save, or from a right click menu Typically more procedural than member formula Leverage BR to move data between plan types

Development of Calculations Essbase Member Calc Script Write multiple member formula’s in an Essbase member Place member on form, and hide Allows for procedural member formulas ala Business Rules Run on save of form Cannot allow user input to calc Cannot move data between plan types

Development of Calculations DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Minimize Calculations Run Time Prompts – Align w/ Page IANCESTORS (Run Time Prompt) to aggregate instead of CALC DIM Beware Run on Save / Load Launch Rules from Right Click Menu Sequences Calculation in Current Plan Type XREF Data to Core Plan Type XREF Dangers Slow across applications Create Block Issues Create Blocks in Business Rule Schedule hourly “sweep” to catch any issues - DATAEXPORT Currency Conversion Limitations Rates stored High Manual Input of Rates Pros – Entity has requirement to plan in different local currencies

Process Flow / Control Form / Folder Organization Logically name forms and folders Order based on ‘Steps’ Right Click Menus Jump to other forms Launch Rules Launch Reports Task Lists Guide user through a task list User can check off items as they complete Review completed vs. outstanding tasks Workflow Being rewritten due to current limitations Targeted for Talleyrand (next release)

Define Security PROCESS Setup Groups & Users in Shared Services Assign Access in Planning & Workspace Push Security to Essbase SETUP USERS & GROUPS IN SHARED SERVICES Define Groups ALL_PLANNING_GROUP - Handles basic provisioning tasks – Version, Scenario, Accounts ENTITY_PLANNING_GROUPS - Most detail security occurs along the Entity dimension FUNCTIONAL_PLANNING_GROUPS - In charge of a functional area – for example – margin detail Assign Users to Groups PITFALLS / SUGGESTIONS Groups within Groups AD Groups vs. Planning Level Groups 11X – Apply Security to Folders

Mark Hite [email_address] Questions

Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation June 30, 2010 Mark Hite, Practice Manager Ranzal & Associates

Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation

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Key Considerations for a Successful Hyperion Planning Implementation