O R AC LE .

CO M / PRO FIT

THE EXECUTIVES GUIDE TO ORACLE APPLICATIONS

oracle hyperion
special edition 2011
Pervasive EPM is where were heading, by
supporting mobility in our solutions, by making
products increasingly easy to use, and through
integration of Oracle BI with Oracle EPM
solutions.
 Gaurav Rewari, vice president, product strategy and
management for BI and EPM, Oracle

beautiful
results
Avons enterprise performance management
system delivers global insight

KPI VS. the bottom line

interrel ceo edward roske on why

extreme focus on divisional goals
benefits the entire business

Louis Debrosa, IT Director, Avon

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O r a c le

Global Insight

16 A Thing of Beauty

Avons enterprise performance management

system delivers accurate information and
critical insight to managers at every level of
the organization By Alison Weiss

H y p e r i o n

S p e c i a l

Edit ion

editorial
editor in chief
managing editor
contributing editor
contributing Writers
Senior Creative Director
design director
production Designer
contributing Designer

Aaron Lazenby
aaron.lazenby@oracle.com
Jan Rogers
Blair Campbell
Carol Hildebrand, Alison Weiss
Francisco G Delgadillo
Richard Merchn
Sheila Brennan
Jaime Ferrand

p ub l i s hi ng
publisher
p ro d u ct i o n d i rector a n d
a s s oci ate p u b li s her
Sen i or M a n a g er , A u d i e n ce
Dev e lo p m e n t a n d O p er at i o n s

Jeff Spicer
jeff.spicer@oracle.com
Jennifer Hamilton
jennifer.hamilton@oracle.com
+1.650.506.3794
Karin Kinnear
karin.kinnear@oracle.com
+1.650.506.1985

a d ve rt i s i ng s a l e s
associate publisher

Northwest and Central u.s.

southwest U.S. and LAD

Cover: Catherine Gibbons

Northeast u.S. and Emea/apac

Editors note

Mailing-list rentals

The Insight Game

Enterprise performance management can deliver

insights crucial to navigating the volatility of the global
economyand thats no game of checkers.

By Aaron Lazenby

viewpoint

KPI vS. the bottom line

For managers, is tracking the key metrics for their

departments enough to ensure success for the entire
business? The CEO for Oracle partner interRel shares
his opinion. By Edward Roske

strategic Roadmap

9 Deep Integration

The synthesis of Oracle Hyperion

applications and core Oracle
technologies can deliver deep benefits
to analytics-driven businesses.

By Aaron Lazenby

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Kyle Walkenhorst
kyle@sprocketmedia.com
+1.323.340.8585
Tom Cometa
thomas.cometa@sbcglobal.net
+1.510.339.2403
Shaun Mehr
shaun@sprocketmedia.com
+1.949.923.1660
Mark Makinney
mark.makinney@oracle.com
+1.805.709.4745
Contact your sales representative.

P rof i t m a ga zi n e c u st om e r se rv i c e
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Copyright 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reprinted or otherwise reproduced without permission from the editors. Oracle does not provide any warranty
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a p p l i c at i o n s

9/22/11 1:14 PM

Harness
Analytics
the Power of

Organizations that are equipped with business analytics are actively

leveraging their newfound knowledge to gain a competitive edge.
Peloton is a leading professional services firm that specializes in
business analytics, enterprise performance management and
enterprise information management. Learn how Peloton can help
your organization transform into a market leader of the future.
Go to www.pelotongroup.com or contact us at info@pelotongroup.com

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ORACLE HYPERION PARTNER CASE STUDY

Deloitte: Driving
Better Decisions in
the Finance Function

oday, the finance function at

most companies is under constant pressure to help improve
performance through analytical
insight, and the Oracle Hyperion enterprise performance management (EPM)
suite has emerged as a widely used tool
in that effort. Companies often implement
the Oracle Hyperion platform to help the
CFO obtain relevant, timely information
about financial performance, says Brian

can take advantage of the Oracle Hyperion EPM suite to improve budgeting,
planning and forecasting processes, and
link the softwares capabilities to specific
business needs and actions that drive
shareholder value.
That, in essence, is how Deloittes
Performance Management practice
approaches Oracle Hyperion softwarenot simply as a technical effort,
but rather as a business-led initiative.

redesign, tax implications, security,

change management, risk assessment,
and training.
To take this comprehensive
approach, Deloittes Performance
Management practice brings together
a number of assetsstarting with
a broad set of deep skills. As the
Oracle EPM product suite has
grown, weve seen our practice grow
dramatically right along with it, says
Schwenderman. Today, the practice is
one of the largest in the marketplace,
with more than 200 US based practitionersrepresenting both technology
and business expertisefocusing on
Oracle EPM. Through its network of
member firms, the practice is able to
maintain global delivery capabilities
leveraging professionals that work
around the world, including a number

At its core, performance management isnt a

technology issue. Its a business issue. And thats
exactly the approach we take, bringing practitioners
who possess industry-specific insight and deep
experience delivering large-scale, global technology
deployments. No matter where you are in the life cycle
of integrated performance management, we can help.
Ginsberg, EPM Oracle Alliance Lead,
Performance Management Technology,
Deloitte.
As with any software, however, the
benefits obtained through the use of
Oracle Hyperion solutions depend on
how an organization approaches the
technology. Getting the most from Oracle Hyperion requires more than merely
configuring the software and implementing a tool, says Matthew Schwenderman, Practice Leader, Performance
Management Technology, Deloitte.
Instead, he says, enterprise performance
management should be approached with
the big picture in mind. To get a solid
return on their investments, companies

Deloitte works with clients to understand their business challenges and

objectives, and uses technology such
as Oracle Hyperion software to make
decisions about how to run the business and drive greater returns.
Deep Skills, Global Reach
Deloittes Performance Management
practice can address the entire suite
of Oracle Hyperion products, using an
implementation approach that can be
customized to each specific project. It
also looks beyond the technology, and
typically helps clients tackle a spectrum
of related financial-management
needs, such as business process

of Oracle EPM consultants located in

Deloitte-owned facilities in India.
Deloitte also brings to bear its
extensive experience with Oracle
Hyperion software, having completed
more than 100 end-to-end Oracle EPM
implementations in the US alone, for
clients across industries, including
consumer products, financial services,
life sciences and health care, manufacturing, energy, and the public sector.
Based on this experience, Deloitte has
developed the Enterprise Information
Management (EIM) for Oracle Hyperion implementation methodology. EIM
covers the entire project lifecycle and
incorporates leading practices and ap-

proaches that have been honed over time,

in real-world business situationsall of
which help to reduce time and risk during
implementation, while maintaining a focus
on business goals.
Leveraging Key Relationships
A recognized strength of Deloittes Oracle
Performance Management practice is a
set of critical relationships that allow it to
operate with a truly business-oriented,
big picture perspective. For example, Deloittes Oracle Performance Management
practice works with the overall Deloitte
Oracle Technology practice to take an
integrated approach to performance management and business intelligence, using
Oracle EPM, Oracle Business Intelligence,
Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle
Fusion Applications. Recently, Gartner
positioned Deloitte in the Leaders" quadrant in its 2011 Magic Quadrant for Global
Business Intelligence and Performance
Management.1
Whats more, Deloitte has a longstanding strategic alliance with Oracle and
Hyperion that spans more than 12 years.
Oracles EPM organization has named
Deloitte as its Global System Integrator of
the year in six out of the last seven years.
And Deloitte is an active participant on
Oracle EPM product advisory boards and
beta release programs, which provide
valuable insight into the ongoing evolution
of Oracle Hyperion EPM solutions, applications and other Oracle products.
The relationship of the two companies
extends beyond performance management to encompass all Oracle software
and technologies. Deloitte is an Oracle
Diamond Partner, and with some 10,000
Oracle professionals worldwide and more
than 1,000 Oracle implementations in the
last three years alone. The firm has been
consistently recognized by analysts as a
leader in Oracle implementation related
services.
1

Building an Integrated Approach to Finance

large industrial company was undergoing change on many fronts, including

significant merger-and-acquisition activity and business-unit divestures.
However, the companys finance processes were having difficulty keeping
up. Based largely on spreadsheet tools, these processes led to long cycle times
and the need for finance professionals to spend more time preparing reports than
analyzing results.
The company worked with Deloitte to transform its finance processes using Oracle
Hyperion software. Oracle Hyperion Financial Management was used as the Close,
Consolidation, and Reporting tool to replace disparate consolidation systems and to
provide enhanced capabilities to meet future internal and external reporting needs.
Oracle Essbase was selected to provide enhanced management reporting capabilities beyond those covered by Oracle Hyperion Financial Management. Overall, the
result will be the integration of financial consolidation and reporting on one platform.
This effort is part of a multi-year roadmap designed to transform key financial
processes and improve decision support. The company is about halfway through its
journey, but it is already seeing results in key areas
Consolidation and reportingthe reduction of manual consolidations and
duplicate effort.
Budgeting and forecastingthe reduction of disparate processes and systems;
cycle time reduction; and increased accuracy.
Strategic planningclearer linkage between strategic plans and operational plans,
and increased visibility into the impact of internal/external events.
Data managementbetter control and transparency into the data-loading process;
more-effective data-governance process.
As the effort moves forward, the company plans to further enhance forecasting
and planning and build more advanced analytics capabilities that will draw on a single
platform for management reporting. Once fully implemented, this initiative will give the
company tools and process that can facilitate decision making and help it achieve its
goal of having a leading finance operation.

Overall, Deloitte is in a position to bring

perspective and breadth of experience to
the implementation of Oracle Hyperion. In
addition to in-depth technology know-how,
we have other broad based services around
financial management provided by our
member firms, including tax and audit work
says Brian Ginsberg. This combination helps
companies take a business-led approach to
Oracle EPM softwareand with the challenges facing the finance function today, that
is critical. Says Ginsberg: This approach
can help the CFO make the best use of
information, and can help the organization to
get the right information to the right person

at the right time to make better decisions

which is the heart of effective performance
management. n

Company Info
For more information, visit us online at
www.deloitte.com/us/oracle or contact us:
Brian Ginsberg
Deloitte EPM Oracle Alliance Lead,
Performance Management Technology
bginsberg@deloitte.com
Matthew Schwenderman
Deloitte Practice Leader,
Performance Management Technology
mschwenderman@deloitte.com

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Global Business Intelligence and Performance Management Service Providers, Alex Soejarto, Neil Chandler, January 27, 2011

As used in this document, Deloitte means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its
subsidiaries. This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of Deloitte practitioners. Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, financial,
investment, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your
business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte, its affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for
any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.

EDITORS NOTE

The Insight Game

Traveling to Cleveland, Ohio on magazine business recently, I stumbled upon the
World Checkers and Draughts Federations World Three-Move Championship
Match of checkers. I dont normally follow competitive checkers, but it was late in
the afternoon and I had some time to kill. So I dropped in on the action.
I found myself in the special collections room of the main branch of the
Cleveland Public Library, watching Alex Moiseyev (Dublin, Ohio) and Michele
Borghetti (Italy) at the end of a particularly heated match. I could tell it was heated,
because each player spent as much as five minutes studying the board before
making a move. The competition was fierce, and two of the three spectators were totally engrossed. The other,
however, was asleep in a chair.
In the silent moments between moves (and before my cell phone rang and I was chased from the room), I
wondered what these checkers masters were thinking about. All I could imagine was that they were modeling
each of the remaining moves and trying to predict their opponents counter. With only 10 checkers on the board,
that shouldnt take too long. But if you change the scope of the prediction (from just anticipating the next move
to anticipating the next five moves), even a late-in-the-game modeling of a checkers match gets pretty complex.
Back on the street (with a now-silenced phone in my pocket), it occurred to me that the checkers players
were doing a board game version of forecasting and predictive modelingsome of the key capabilities of Oracle
Hyperion enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. The best checkers players in the world were
taking eons (in computing time) to run very basic predictive models of a very simple universe of data.
This unusual and spontaneous moment in Cleveland gave me a new appreciation for the massive scale and
power of EPM solutionsmillions of data points, thousands of external variables, time frames that range from
next quarter to next decade. And with a lot more at stake than (with all due respect) the world checkers crown.
So this Hyperion special issue is Profits attempt to do justice to the customers, partners, and Oracle developers who work with EPM systems to wring insight from complicated data sets every day. Were talking about
serious business informationthe profitability of a product line or customer demographic, budget planning

All of this at a time when, as mentioned by many of the sources we spoke to for this issue, the volatility of the
global economy makes these kinds of insights more crucial than ever. Thats no game of checkers.

bob adler

under extreme margin pressure, forecasting the sales results for a new market.

Aaron Lazenby
Editor in Chief, Profit
aaron.lazenby@oracle.com

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Select
Specialized
Partners
70+ Oracle Product
Specializations
Skills Certified by
Independent Testing
Successful Implementations
Confirmed by Customers

2,500 Partners with 70,000 Specialists

oracle.com/specialized

Copyright 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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ORACLE HYPERION PARTNER CASE STUDY

Peloton Delivers a Strategic Vision

with Oracle Hyperion Enterprise
Performance Management

eloton is a leading professional

services firm that specializes in
business analytics, enterprise
performance management,
and enterprise information management.
Peloton provides services to organizations

Guy Daniello, CEO

across a variety of industries. Its business

centers on the key finding that organizations that consistently leverage analytics
and solid enterprise performance management practices will outperform their peers.
Pelotons professionals have a
unique combination of functional, technical and industry experience, and deep
knowledge of Hyperion solutions. What
distinguishes the Oracle Platinum Partner
is its unique delivery methodology, which
allows users to work with the enabling
technology throughout the implementation. Through modeling and staging, the
client experiences key components of the
solution.
We drive value quickly, says Guy
Daniello, Founder and CEO of Peloton.
We leverage an innovative and itera-

tive delivery methodology that ensures

solution adoption starts day one of the
project.
Recently, the firm was hired by a
leading biopharmaceutical company to
revamp its enterprise planning solution.
Using its results-driven implementation
methodology, Peloton is helping the
company to achieve tangible results
from its new Hyperion solution.
Limitations of the Existing System
This leading biopharmaceutical company wanted to enhance its internal
performance management capabilities
by building an integrated planning,
analysis, and reporting solution that
replaced the existing budgeting,
forecasting, and planning tools, and
complemented the existing reporting
processes and environment.
Since the company implemented
Cognos Enterprise Planning six years
ago, the business needs had expanded
and were not being met within the existing technology. The solution lacked
the robust infrastructure, features,
and functions necessary to optimize
the integrated planning and reporting
function. It had limited reporting and
analysis capabilities. Users found it
difficult to quickly address standard
variance reporting, ad-hoc questions,
and what-if modeling capabilities.
Data was fragmented and
processes were redundant, requiring time-consuming data exchanges,
manual data manipulation, and human
interaction. The current architecture
encouraged point solutions versus
enterprise-wide, integrated solutions.

The strategic, long-range planning

process was not integrated with the
quarterly and mid-range planning data
and information. Also, the current forecast process was primarily a consolidation effort and limited due to the lack of
integrated processes and supporting
technology. Finally, there was limited
centralized and formalized enterprise
process, governance, or tools for the
creation, maintenance, and integration
of master data.
The limitations of the current
system strained the organization. Too
much time and effort was being devoted to supporting the business process,
leaving limited time to analyze and gain
insight. There was a strong desire to
more effectively buttress downstream
processes focused on allocating
resources to support strategic clinical
and drug development processes.
A Road Map for Success
As part of a formal review process, the
client considered solutions from IBM
and Oracle. They chose Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management, including Hyperion Enterprise
Planning, for, among other reasons, its
high scalability, out-of-box functionality, and its success among other life
sciences companies. They also chose
Hyperion Data Relationship Management to better manage their business
hierarchies.
The client liked that the Hyperion
solution had built-in logic to tackle their
business challenges, says Peloton
Senior Consultant Dina Apovian. Its
a platform solution that supports the

business process and needs less customization to meet their specific needs.
The client also formally considered a
number of different professional services
firms to conduct the implementation, and
chose Pelotons professionals because
of their strategic approach to the solution
implementation.
Instead of telling them, We can
implement the tools you want to improve
this process and that process, we looked
at their business challenges in a more
strategic way, and provided them with an
overall solution set that will help them as
they grow, says Daniello.
Together, Peloton and this leading
biopharmaceutical company developed
a strategic solution road map that was
in alignment with the CFOs and teams
vision for world-class performance
management and data integration. Stage
one would focus on improving reporting
processes, providing immediate relief to
some of the companys pain points around
manual data collection and distribution.
Stage two would consist of implementing
the master data management solution
and integrating and standardizing the
various financial processes. Stage three
centered on fully integrating the Hyperion
Performance Management platform, by
embedding the research-and-development
and clinical-planning models, which would
enable comprehensive modeling, forecasting, and business analytic capabilities.
The long-term vision for our client is to
significantly improve their planning, forecasting, reporting, analysis, and decisionmaking capabilities, says Daniello.
Reducing Inefficiencies,
Increasing Effectiveness
Once the comprehensive solution is
deployed in 2012, the client expects sig-

nificant efficiencies in financial processes,

reporting, and analytics, resulting in ongoing cost savings. Through improved tools,
data access, and structured analysis, the
finance function will achieve the broader
vision of improving the planning and
analytics function while deriving better
outcomes and expanding decision-making
capabilities beyond finance.
Hyperions Enterprise Performance
Management solution will reduce cycle
time by eliminating manual steps, data
preparation, data reformatting, and data
reconciliation and validation. Finance
resources will have time to focus on valueadded financial analysis and business
reviews rather than data- and systemrelated tasks. Risk related to processing
errors will be reduced driven by eliminating disparate hierarchies and redundant
maintenance activities.
Point solutions will be eliminated
through establishing solid, modularbased architecture. The new, integrated
solution will use common data, common
hierarchies, and common rules. Business
partners will have access to actionable
information and data through realtime, online, structured data and report
delivery.
Ultimately, this leading biopharmaceutical company will have improved data
availability and access through the Hyperion systems automation and integration.
Centralized data maintenance will lead to
better data accuracy. The finance function
will benefit from greater efficiency and effectiveness, with more time spent analyzing information and providing information
versus collecting, consolidating, reconciling, and validating data. Resources will
be better utilized and automated and
standard reporting will lead to faster, more
consistent results.

Pelotons Revolutionary Approach

Pelotons strategic approach to delivering
solutions, to this life sciences company
as well as to all of its clients, resides in its
unique project methodology in designing,
developing, and implementing enterprise
performance management solutions,
which it calls the Breakaway process.
Breakaway designates a far greater concentration of its project lifecycle to the processes of client requirements and solution
design, which increases rates of project
success and business solution adoption.
Early and frequent application modeling
sessions expose clients to the evolving
solution, providing them with hands-on,
experiential learning and education before
the solution goes live. The process also
ensures that business processes are
aligned with the enabling technology, and
that both the business and information
technology stakeholders have a clear
understanding of the solution.
Usually, theres a whole period of
adoption or learning that takes place
months after a solution goes live, says
Daniello. Peloton starts the learning and
adoption process earlier, so users experience the new technology right away. This
approach keeps their energy level up, and
at the same time delivers higher value to
the client.
An Expert Point of View
Daniello says Peloton prides itself on
being a business partner as well as an IT
consultant to its clients, and credits his
team of skilled, experienced professionals.
We have a very senior team of people
who have been implementing technology
solutions for years, says Daniello. If
you want a partner whos going to have
a strategic point of view around business
processes and challenge your thinking,
were the ones to go with. n

Company Info
For more information, contact:
Guy Daniello, CEO
gdaniello@pelotongroup.com

David Allard, Vice President

dallard@pelotongroup.com
603.502.7834

Viewpoint By Edward Roske

KPIs vs. the Bottom Line

are key performance indicators more important than the big picture?
In a for-profit company, many managers will
tell you that every employee should be focusing on the bottom line. Sadly, in my opinion,
every one of those managers would be completely wrong.
Making money (or as upper management
in the organization call it, increasing shareholder value) is the goal of senior management and the corporation as a whole. But I believe that individual departments, cost
centers, profit centers, or organizational units should be neither
measured against overall profitability nor focused on it at all.
Heres why: the profitability of a business is an outcome of
the inner workings of hundreds of discrete processes. Think
of it in terms of anatomy: all the parts of my body work
together to make sure I stay alive. But my
stomach focuses not on my continued
life but on the very narrow activity of
digestion. My heart focuses on pumping
blood, my bones focus on providing
overall structure, and my spleen focuses
on . . . well, actually I have no idea what
my spleen does.
And thats exactly the point. While as the CEO of my own
body I care about my overall performance (and continued existence), I dont have to constantly monitor what all the parts are
doing. Similarly, those parts of my body (in the service of my
metaphor about business) need to focus on exactly what they
can control and nothing else.
This should look familiar to anyone who works in a corporation. Every corporate department has certain responsibilities
within managements control. HR makes sure our employees
are happy. IT ensures that our computer systems are stable.
Accounting focuses on closing our books accurately and on
time. Manufacturing has the ability to control waste and utilization levels and reduce steps in the manufacturing process. Sales
(this is a tricky one) should concentrate on selling.
Every employee in every department should be managing
the items that are within their control. Execution of those items
determine their key performance indicators (KPIs) and business
drivers that, once all the parts are put together, will eventually
result in the company being more profitable.

While the manager of shipping might like to know that his

company is profitable (so that if its not, he can start updating
his resume) and what the stock price is (so that he can sell
his company shares and put the money in a safe investment,
like gold or collectible NASCAR plates), profit is an indirect
output of the work he does on the job and nothing he can
directly change.
What we need to determine are what his drivershis
KPIsare. In a perfect world, his job can be summarized in 10
KPIs that can allow him to quickly see how hes performing and
improving on his job.
For the shipping manager it might mean tracking the
number of loads received, the percentage of trucks shipped
full, the utilization of dock space, the cost per shipment, or
department headcount. Whatever those
10 items are, they should always be front
and centerfrom the time he logs in to
his computer in the morning until he
leaves at the end of the day.
Ultimately, how those KPIs are presented is less important than identifying and reporting on them in as timely
a fashion as possible. I think its better to have a printout of
your departments KPIs that was current five minutes ago than
to spend time maintaining a pretty dashboard that hasnt been
updated for weeks. Focus on timely updating, and use technology to get the information to the people in your organization in near-real time.
While I happen to feel that Oracles Hyperion and enterprise performance management (EPM) applications are
the best products out there for delivering this information
throughout your company, I think that a cultural change
needs to precede the technology. Its more important is that
you stop focusing on profit and begin identifying and reporting on these KPIs.
Just like when my stomach stops being upset, my body
feels better: Improve the departments, and profit (even in this
economy) will naturally follow. <>

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Edward Roske (eroske@interrel.com) has 15 years of experience with Oracle

Hyperion products and is an Oracle ACE director and the CEO of interRel Consulting.

Melissa Vorhies Roske

Profitability . . . is an
outcome of the inner
workings of hundreds
of discrete processes.

a p p l i c at i o n s

9/21/11 9:14 AM

By Aaron Lazenby

Deep Integration

Margot Hartford

Pervasive EPM in Oracle products can help planners in volatile times.

hen Gaurav Rewari joined Oracle in
2008, the company was just beginning to integrate the enterprise performance
management (EPM) products and expertise
acquired through the purchase of Hyperion
Solutions. As vice president of EPM product
strategy, Rewari witnessed the transition
firsthand. It was very interesting, deciding
how to continue to invest in and maintain the
truly unique Hyperion products, while at the
same time picking up the core infrastructure
and middleware benefits gained from being
part of Oracle, says Rewari. Ultimately, the
goal was to balance the functional innovation
of the EPM applications with making them
more scalable and enterprise-ready by leveraging Oracles technology stack and through
integration with Oracle Applications. Profit
spoke to Rewari, now vice president, product
strategy and management for business intelligence (BI) and EPM, about the future of
Oracles EPM product lines and their importance in todays economy.
Profit: How have Hyperion products
benefited from Oracles acquisition?
Rewari: I think it has translated into real
benefits for customers. They will now find
a product line that has seen significant
investments in enterprise readiness. The
critical factors a customer must rely on
from an EPM platformin terms of scalability, system management, installation,
setup, security, lifecycle managementall
of these functions rely on core middleware
and technology assets that Oracle has.
In the past, Hyperion developers had
to build and maintain all of this technology on their own. But since they are now
part of Oracle, we can divert our energy
and investments into functional innovations. Thats been proven, since weve been
able to maintain a rapid pace of Oracle
Hyperion product releases. Weve introduced a whole new range of solutions to
the marketplace, running the gamut from
industry-specific solutions like public
sector planning and budgeting to horizon-

Gaurav Rewari, Vice President, Product

Strategy and Management, Oracle

tal solutions such as disclosure management and financial close management.

Thats a whole new set of functional
innovations, largely made possible because
weve been able to free up a bunch of our
engineering and R&D resources. Oracle
is so very strong at infrastructure, and we
have been able to leverage that.
Profit: How does the process of integrating Hyperion with other complementary Oracle products work?
Rewari: The process here at Oracle
for integrating a given suite of products
with other relevant Oracle products is
tried and tested. It really comes down
to picking the winners among the many
products we have in our stack and then
investing in them heavily to make sure
customers get a consistent experience. We
have very regular planning cycles, and we
continue to drive that integration deeper.
This could mean integration between,
for instance, EPM and Oracles ERP
[enterprise resource planning] applications, or EPM and BI. So for example, we
worked on the integration with Oracle
Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition,
and now users can access all Oracle
Hyperion EPM assets through the same

BI interface they use for data warehouse

or line-of-business data mart, or even the
packaged BI applications we have on top
of our ERP and CRM [customer relationship management] systems.
This really allows users to gain additional functionality at a much lower cost,
because the total cost of ownership of a
combination of these products is much
less than if you were to buy them piecemeal or from a range of different vendors.
Profit: What role do the EPM and
BI products play in Oracle Fusion
Applications?
Rewari: For each key Oracle Fusion
Applications module, we have a corresponding BI application that weve developed as well as a set of transactional BI
capabilities that users can report directly
against Oracle Fusion Applications
transactional data. This kind of reporting
is made available as separate dashboards,
but also integrated as part and parcel of
the Oracle Fusion Applications ERP or
CRM experience.
Similarly, Oracle Fusion Applications
embed and leverage key EPM technologies. Oracle Essbase is core to the Oracle
Fusion Financials solution and many
other applications. Oracle Hyperion
Financial Reporting is part of Oracle
Fusion Applications, along with functionality from Oracle Hyperion Smart
View for Office and the Calculation
Manager feature of Oracles Hyperion
Foundation Services. These are all foundational EPM technologies that have been
built into Oracle Fusion Applications.
Furthermore, our EPM applications
complement Oracle Fusion Financials to
deliver a really comprehensive suite of
solutions for the office of finance.
Also, the ability for Oracle EPM to
coexist with existing Oracle applications
PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite,
Siebel, JD Edwardsallows customers to
deploy EPM applications and continue to

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leverage their EPM skills as they move into

the world of Oracle Fusion Applications.
Profit: What role do you think the
EPM products, and in particular Oracle
Hyperion products, play in helping managers deal with a volatile economy?
Rewari: Oracle Hyperion products in
particular have a very key role to play in
the face of such uncertainty and volatility,
because of their ability to allow finance
professionals, planners, and line-of-business executives to reduce risk and limit
their exposure. On the flip side, they also
enable them to seize opportunities these
uncertain times might present. And so in
both ways, I think the Oracle Hyperion
EPM product line allows for this.
If you look for instance on the planning side, there is much to be gained
by having the ability to plan, replan,
and forecast very quickly. Plans from a
month ago might be rendered completely
obsolete based on current events. Tools
like Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance
allow users to model the impacts of
major events and scenarios. We have as
part of our EPM product line a product
called Oracle Crystal Ball, which allows
you to run Monte Carlo simulations. So
you subject your plans to several scenario
runs, and then you come up with something in which you have a much higher
level of confidence. And furthermore,
we have tools like Oracle Essbasethe
underpinnings of the Oracle Hyperion
Planning solutionwhich allow you to
very rapidly do what if? analysis and
scenario modeling.
At the same time, whatever plans you
do develop, you want to have a higher
level of confidence in them. You want
to do that using a range of sophisticated
planning techniques that allow for things
like driver-based planning, risk-adjusted
planning, and event-driven replanning
ways to model macroeconomic volatility.
So we enable all these through our core
planning product line.
Profit: What about capturing opportunities, even in the face of economic
uncertainty?

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Rewari: I briefly alluded to the fact

that managers may see opportunities to
pursue paths that might be very beneficial for a companyso for instance, we
have a product called Oracle Hyperion
Profitability and Cost Management. It
allows managers to systematically identify profitable products among a large
set of products, to focus on profitable
customer segments, and to even dive into
individual customer details. And so if
you need to run a loyalty promotion for
a certain class of customers or pursue a
new market demographic, you can identify those segments with Oracle EPM.

Oracle Hyperion
products . . . have a
very key role to play
in the face of such
uncertainty.
Gaurav Rewari, Vice President, Product
Strategy and Management, Oracle

Profit: How has the EPM market

changed, given the competitive landscape
and what the demands are from customers and businesses for this kind of analytical ability?
Rewari: I already mentioned one: the
increasing unification of BI and EPM. In
many cases, the technologies used for
finance-oriented analytics can and should
be the same as those used for line-ofbusiness analytics.
Weve also seen planning and budgeting regarded as part of a larger enterprise proposition. Increasingly, its not
just about developing your annual plan
and budget, but developing operational
plans for different departments in your
company. These operational plans have to
integrate, where it makes sense, into your
core financial plan. This is something
weve seen our customers embarking
on, using the Oracle Hyperion Planning
product at the core and some of our
other planning assets alongside.

o r a c l e

Theres been a broadening of the

consolidation area beyond just financial
consolidation to include, for instance,
reporting for external statutory purposesfor which we developed a
product for disclosure management.
Theres been increasing demand for
the orchestration of the end-to-end financial close process, which needs a high
level of process control, auditing, and
governance support built in. Weve seen
an expansion of the role finance plays in
providing periodic reports to lines of business that combine numbers with analysis
and commentarysomething we in the
trade call management reporting.
So we think the EPM area has really
blossomed to include all these new
components.
Profit: Given these trends, where do
the Oracle Hyperion EPM products go
from here?
Rewari: Pervasive EPM is where were
heading, by supporting mobility in our
solutions, by making products increasingly easy to use, and through integration
of Oracle BI with Oracle EPM solutions.
Were working to develop combined
solutions where the value of the data and
the insights in the EPM applications are
made available to a much larger community through integration with our BI
product line.
So for instance, you might have 10
analysts or cost accountants constructing very advanced cost and profitability
models. But in principle, hundreds and
thousands of business users can benefit
from that data, if it is made available in
their reports and dashboards. That
kind of deep integration really changes
the game.
Were always looking for ways to
lower total cost of ownership for our
customers through integration, through
accelerated implementation, and through
cloud-based deployment where it makes
sense. These are some key focus areas for
our future R&D investments. <>
Aaron Lazenby is the editor in chief of Profit.

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Oracle Financial Services

20 of the 20

Top Banks

Get Better Results With Oracle

oracle.com/goto/banking
or call 1.800.633.0723

Copyright 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Untitled-1 1

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ORACLE HYPERION PARTNER CASE STUDY

Group 1 Automotive Drives

Profitability with Oracle Hyperion
Applications and TopDown Consulting

ounded in 1995, Group 1

Automotive is a Fortune
500 company and a leading
operator in the automotive retail
industry. Group 1 owns 134 franchises,
representing 29 brands including Toyota,
BMW, and Ford, at 100 dealerships in
the United States and five in the United
Kingdom.

Lance Parker, Vice President and Corporate Controller

Group 1 Automotive, Inc.

Since Earl Hesterberg became Group 1

Automotives President and Chief Executive
Officer in 2005, one of the major focuses of
the company has been on cost control and
efficiencies of scale. This focus has been
one of the primary drivers in its consistent
profitability and positive operating cash flow
through a historically weak selling environment, which corresponded with the economic
downturn that began in September 2008.
As a result, Group 1 has strengthened its
balance sheet over the last three years and
positioned itself to take advantage of the
anticipated auto-retailing rebound.
One of the primary elements of Group
1s success in cost control and operat-

Untitled-1 1

ing efficiency is the ability to compare

operating results across the companys
dealerships, allowing the management
team to expedite decisions and leverage
best practices. In 2006, the company
converted to a common dealership management system, and then to a common
general ledger account structure, account
definitions, and policies and procedures.
However, as it grew,
Group 1 still struggled to find
a dynamic reporting system
that would distribute data to
management in a consistent,
timely fashion, with better ability to provide comparative data,
allowing for more informed
decision-making. Management
sought a uniform, consolidated
way to look at dealership performance, and a more efficient,
automated way to conduct
reporting processes without relying on
manual labor to generate reports.
It also sought a less people-dependent
budgeting and forecasting tool, and
system controls and maintenance efficiencies within the budgeting process. A chief
component of Group 1s cost control and
operating efficiency is its focus on personnel efficiency. Group 1 places consistent
emphasis on ensuring that all employees
within the lean organization are effectively
utilized in the role that they were trained
to perform, and not overburdened with
ancillary responsibilities or tasks that divert
their attention. Management believes a
key enabler to accomplishing this is leveraging technology that decreases unnecessary, time-intensive tasks for employees.

Finally, as a publicly listed company,

Group 1 needed a cost-efficient, in-house
solution to the Securities and Exchange
Commissions XBRL requirement, which
mandates that all filings include an XBRL
file that can then be used to compare
numbers across companies.
We wanted to leverage the capabilities of the software, and enable our team
to spend less time compiling the numbers
and more time in constructive areas of
managing the business, such as analyzing and acting on the numbers, says
Lance Parker, Vice President and Corporate Controller for Group 1 Automotive.
Gearing Toward Growth
To achieve these goals, Group 1 chose
the Oracle Hyperion suite of products,
because it offered an integrated solution
for all our business needs, says Parker.
Group 1 began looking for an Oracle
partner that could aid them with building
and installing an Oracle Hyperion solution. They received formal proposals from
several firms with expertise in Oracle
Hyperion implementations. In the end,
Group 1 chose to partner with TopDown
Consulting, a solution provider to many
of the largest and most successful Global
2000 companies.
The key to capitalizing on the benefits
of an Oracle Hyperion/EPM/BI solution is
a consulting partner who understands your
business, takes time to listen to your current
needs, and knows how to translate these
requirements into a solution that accommodates current and future needs, says Mark
Wilson, TopDowns Vice President of Services. With TopDown Consulting, you get

9/20/11 7:06 PM

Instead of just telling us they could install

whatever solution we had decided to buy, TopDown
served as more of a business consultant, providing
advice on which type of solutions we needed given
our requirements.
-Lance Parker, Vice President and Corporate Controller for Group 1 Automotive

a holistic approach to enterprise performance

management. We have a team of consultants
who boast an average of 20 years combined
Oracle Hyperion and industry experience. This
enables us to understand the best way to assess and balance technology, process, people
and unique company culture within a flexible and
scalable solution on time and within budget.
Parker says Group 1 chose TopDown for
its high ratings in Oracle Hyperion software
expertise as well as its strategic project
focus. TopDown Consultings comprehensive approach to solution design, delivery,
and training includes a repeatable, scalable
engagement methodology that is tailored to
each clients unique business requirements.
These requirements are accommodated
through technology, process, and best practices gathered from years of working with
leading companies across many industries.
The big distinguishing factor of TopDown
was that they didnt necessarily sell us on a
product or a service, says Parker. Rather, they
took time to understand our needs and provided
a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to
what we needed. Instead of just telling us they
could install whatever solution we had decided
to buy, they served as more of a business
consultant, providing advice on which type of
solutions we needed given our requirements.
Revving Up for Efficiency
With the consultation of TopDown, Group 1
decided to implement Oracle Hyperion
Financial Management, Oracle Hyperion
Planning, and Oracle Hyperion Disclosure
Management. The project began in January
2011. Oracle Hyperion Planning went live in
August 2011 for the 2012 budgeting cycle;
Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and
Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management be-

Untitled-1 1

gan parallels in August 2011. Oracle Hyperion

Financial Management is scheduled to go live
for the January 2012 close; Oracle Hyperion
Disclosure Management is scheduled to go
live for the first quarter 2012 reporting cycle.
Working with Group 1s internal resources,
TopDown is providing the full gamut of
services, says Parker, from development and
design to build and implementation of the
entire solution.
With the new system, Group 1 is achieving efficiencies in its consolidation, budgeting
and forecasting, and reporting processes. Its
processes are more automated with systembased controls, and less dependent on
time-intensive, manual intervention. Reporting
is also significantly more robust and efficient.
And with Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management, the company can now generate the
XBRL file for the SEC in-house, eliminating
the expense of using an outside firm.
Previously, we were very Excel-based
in our budgeting. To distribute all of the files
that dealerships general managers needed
to budget, we would have to make 100-plus
copies of each file for each store, and then
save them on a network drive or distribute
them in some other way, says Parker. With
the installation of Oracle Hyperion Planning,
the entire distribution process is automated.
Now, instead of focusing on compiling
and distributing reports, Parkers analysts
and accountants can focus on analyzing and
digesting them. From an operating standpoint, management can gain clear, consistent information on the business faster,
allowing them to make better decisions.
The feedback that weve gotten so far
from the budgeting side has been positive
everybody feels good about our budgeting
tool, says Parker.

The use of custom dimensions in the

new system has also increased reporting
capabilities. Management has better visibility
into reporting by manufacturer brand and
model, and several years of same-store
reporting within the same scenario can now
be achieved.
Group 1 also required that the interface of
the new budget planning system needed to
have the same interface as it had previously
for budget users. This required an overhaul of
their massive Microsoft Excel budget template.
Upon rollout of the new template, the user
experience remained largely the same as in prior
years, says Wilson. This design enabled them
to maintain their existing look and feel, and yet
gain more security and a much more dynamic
and robust process that they can utilize as the
business grows.
Speeding to Success
Wilson says the level of collaboration between
the teams was a key factor to their ability to finish the project on time and within budget.
This project timeframe was quite aggressive, says Wilson. However, because
of the harmonious working relationship we
established with the Budget Department at
Group 1, we were able to come together as
a cohesive team and get the job done on
schedule.
Parker says Group 1 is very pleased
with TopDowns services, and its focus on
client satisfaction and delivering on client
expectations.
The services that TopDown provided
were right on point with what we expected and
needed, says Parker. During the project, the
engagement team was focused on meeting deadlines, and provided weekly status
updates. Even after the solution was delivered,
the team has been extremely accessible and
very responsive to questions weve had about
the system. Via phone calls or emails, the
TopDown team has been willing to provide
knowledge sharing and real-time training. n

Company Info
For more information visit
www.topdownconsulting.com

9/20/11 7:08 PM

By Alison Weiss

A Thing of
Beauty
Avon calls on Oracle Enterprise Performance
Management to deliver Strategic Global Insight.

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Photography by Catherine Gibbons

eauty may be in the eye of the beholder, as the old saying

goes, but no matter where a woman lives in the world,
Avon Products makes it easy for her to add some beauty
to her life. With more than US$10 billion in annual revenue,
Avonwith headquarters in New York, New Yorkis the
leading global beauty company and the worlds largest direct
seller marketing beauty, fashion, and home products. From
one of the first companies to empower women to work for
themselves, the Avon Lady has been an important cultural
icon for decades.
Strategically, we see our Avon Representatives as one
of our most important competitive advantages that we
have, says Louis Dubrosa, IT director of supply chain,
finance, and business supporting functions at Avon. And
making sure she gets everything she needs for her customers is a critical priority for our company.

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Louis Dubrosa, IT Director, Avon

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Avon sells in more than 100 markets around the world,

reaching 300 million consumers through approximately 6.5
million independent Avon sales representatives. It has a vast
portfolio of global products with international appeal, such as
a newly launched fragrance by singing celebrity Fergie of the
Black Eyed Peas. At the same time, individual markets do sell
products that are localized to the needs of their populations.
For example, customers in Asia buy face-whitening cosmetics, while U.S.-based consumers clamor for skin tanning and
bronzing products.
While Avons winning formula has led to global dominance
in the beauty arena, international expansion has also led to
challenges. With approximately 40,000 employees and 100 different business units transacting business in 60 currencies, the
IT division found it nearly impossible to deliver a clear overall
budget and reporting picture to senior management. With no
standardized systems in place, neither could they easily present
any type of comparative analysis across the entire organization.
Managers in each market managed their own budgets and forecasts, and gathering timely and consistent data for corporate
reporting and forecasting was very cumbersome.
But over the two-year period between 2007 and 2009,
Avons IT leadership designed, implemented, and introduced
an Oracle Hyperionbased enterprise performance management (EPM) system to provide standardized and comprehensive
financial planning, reporting, and analysis across the entire
enterprise. The new system gives managers at every level of the
organization the accurate information and the critical insight
needed to continue to grow and thrive.

to some growing pains. For one, products were sometimes

unnecessarily specialized for different regions, causing supply
chain issues. For example, the same mascara might have had a
different bottle shape and brush in Mexico than the version sold
in the U.S. Or, managers in Brazil would choose to use only
domestic sources for products in their market. If there were
product shortages in one region, it was very difficult to shift
supplies from one country to another.
This regional focus also presented obstacles regarding
financial budgeting and reporting, as well as analysis and
forecasting. Each region operated individually in its own silo,
using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to manage budgets and
forecasts. Not only was it difficult to share information, but
when data was submitted for corporate reports, the data was
often weeksif not monthsold. Even at the corporate level,
financial functions were not connected. Tax reporting was done
using one tool, while treasury staff used their own processes
and tools for balance sheet forecasts and planning.
Dubrosa describes a scenario that was far too common at
Avon. At times, marketing would report that sales of beauty
products had increased, but finance would counter that sales in
beauty were in fact flat. This caused a debate across the organization about which number was correct, but each group was
using a different definition of sale.
It was clear that something had to change to get the entire
organization on the same page.
Singing from the Same sheet

Change movements require strong leadershipand Avon

was no exception. When Charles Cramb, now vice chairman,
Developed Market Group and interim CFO at Avon, came
Global Growth
aboard in 2006 as CFO, he had successfully spearheaded a
Avon first began bringing beauty into the lives of its customsimilar change effort at his former company.
ers 125 years ago via door-to-door sales, and later moved into
He knew it was critical to establish a common process and
workplace sales. Now, Avon sales representatives increasingly
system that every country could use to accurately forecast, plan,
operate in the online world. The company has also morphed
from selling beauty products in North America to selling around and report actual results. Fundamentally, Avon is the same business regardless of market or market
the globe, with China and India curnuances. Chuck saw EPM as the
rently offering long-term growth
tool that would begin to merge siloed
opportunities. The company is also
financial functions under a single
well known for a focus on innovation
Avon Products
umbrella, says Dubrosa, so that
and social responsibility, being one of
avon.com
everybody would be singing from the
the first to market with alpha hydroxy
Headquarters: New York, New York
Industry: Beauty and related
same spreadsheet.
anti-aging products and last year
products/direct selling
In 2007, Avon management
introducing a collection of body care
Employees: 40,000
launched the deep-dive analysis of
products that abide by international
Revenue: More than US$10 billion in 2010
what they wanted to accomplish
fair trade standards. Avons jewelry and
Oracle products: Oracle Hyperion
with EPM. The project would require
home products are also popular.
applications, including planning, financial
building out new business processes,
Obviously our core beauty busidata quality management, data relationship
creating a new set of reporting requireness, based on color, skincare, and
management/master data management,
strategic finance, Web analysis, and
ments, and fundamentally changing
fragrance, is still where we want to
financial management; Oracle Data
how often and at what level of detail
grow. Thats our sweet spot, but were
Integrator; Oracle WebLogic Server; Oracle
Avon managers performed business
also a major seller of costume jewelry,
Essbase; JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
forecasts. In addition, leadership
Dubrosa says.
applications; Oracle E-Business Suite;
needed to take the time to educate
Avons expansion into international
PeopleSoft Enterprise applications
managers about the upcoming changes
markets over the last decade has led

>>SNAPSHOT

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The constant in all of this

has been managements
commitment to the
vision of EPM. . . . The
end goal didnt change:
to move the business.
Louis Dubrosa, IT Director, Avon

and engage personnel in the process.

According to Dubrosa, the biggest change
to the management of financial results
internally was implementing responsibility
reporting. Historically, a general manager in
a country would be responsible for an entire
set of financials. So if Avon management
suggested making a strategic IT investment
in Brazil, it was up to the general manager in
Brazil to agree to the investment.
With responsibility reporting, Avon
general managers in the different countries
would now have ownership of product line
profit and loss, which are aspects of performance over which they have control. And,
moving forward, decisions about IT project
funding, new-product marketing, financial
planning, and supply chain management
would be managed with a global perspective
rather than a regional view.
Taking away the planning process from
the local markets can feel intensely personal, says Dubrosa. But what it does is
allow general managers to focus on the field
sales foundation, making sure were flowing
the right products and that were energizing
the sales force.
Louis Dubrosa, IT director of supply chain, finance, and business supporting functions at
While Avon leadership remained commit- Avon, believes that while merging siloed local business functions under a single IT umbrella
ted to regional products and supporting the
may be difficult work, it ensures all managers work from a common set of data.
most-popular regional offerings, they also
because many companies are struggling to gather the right
wanted to be more strategic with the resources used to support
financial data to make effective business decisions.
products that could be managed globallysuch as fragrances,
According to John ORourke, vice president of EPM product
talcum powder, and deodorant. Before EPM, this was a huge
marketing at Oracle, the volatile economy in 2011 makes
black hole, says Dubrosa. The idea of managing product catplanning and forecasting difficult. In a recent survey of 1,500
egories globally was a near impossibility.
IT managers and business executives across the U.S. and
Another important step was establishing new forecasting
EMEA conducted by Dynamic Markets and published by
frequenciesone in the spring and one in the fallas well as
including interim flash forecasting to be done on an as-needed Oracle, 82 percent of big organizations surveyed indicate
that they do not have complete visibility into profits and are
basis. With Oracle EPM solutions, summarized reporting and
working with outdated information.
planning around a few key financial indicators and business
The EPM market is growing, and much of the expansion
performance indicators could be done very quickly and sepais coming from business leaders requiring better information
rately from the formal budgeting and forecasting process.
transparency. Companies face increasing pressure to improve
In fact, Avon was not unique in the need to create a solid
planning and forecasting processes in volatile economic condifoundation before actually implementing the EPM system,

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tions, says ORourke. Then you have internal management

teams asking for better, faster information about the business so they can keep track of whats happening and respond
quickly to changes.
This need for transparency certainly influenced Avons decision to seek out an EPM system, but once management finished
the difficult tasks of establishing requirements for processes,
reporting, and forecasting, actually selecting the system was easy.
Translating Strategy into Reality

Were a long-time Hyperion shop. So, the natural progression

for us from [Oracle] Hyperion Enterprise to Oracle Hyperion
EPM applications was part of the attraction, says Dubrosa.
The differentiating factor was that the Hyperion EPM solution
was an entire suite of integrated products with the strategic
direction to unify our discrete, previously siloed financial functions across the board.
Avons IT team was eager to take advantage of the depth and
flexibility of the Oracle Hyperion applications in the way users
would be able to access and view data. The Oracle Hyperion
EPM applications would make it possible for marketing and
supply chain managers to look at sales by product category,
while the sales organization could look at the data at the representative level. In addition, sales and marketing could see
sales on a campaign basis, while finance could look at sales
on a fiscal basis. To Avons IT leadership, few other EPM packages offered this flexibility. In addition, the company wanted to
benefit from Oracle Hyperions scalability and performance.

Avon was definitely on the right IT track, but the team

would need assistance to actually implement the EPM system
and provide the necessary training to all its business units
around the world. Enter Edgewater Ranzal, an Oracle partner
and systems integrator that specializes in Oracle Hyperion
implementations. The company, which has its headquarters in
White Plains, New York, had worked with Avon in the past.
More importantly, the partner brought the right experience
and resources to manage a globally scaled project. They saw us
as a huge strategic partner, and culturally they were the right fit.
They challenged us, and it resulted in a better product for us,
Dubrosa says.
One of Edgewater Ranzals first directives when the
project began in October 2007 was to help Avon translate
an EPM system design into reality. Avon relied on Edgewater
Ranzals deep experience with Oracle Hyperion when realworld functionality veered away from conceptual ideals. For
example, Avon management originally envisioned starting just
with Oracle Hyperion Planning, Oracle Hyperion Financial
Management, and Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance. However,
with Edgewater Ranzals guidance, it quickly became clear to
Avons management that it would also be necessary to deploy
Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management and
Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management.
Rather than phase in modules one at a time, Avon and
Edgewater Ranzal agreed that a wholistic approach would be
necessary to meet all of the Avon objectives. There was a lot of
business process re-engineering happening prior and throughout

Oracle Crystal Ball Helps Managers Guard Against Volatility

ccording to John ORourke, vice

president of enterprise performance management (EPM) product
marketing at Oracle, the rocky global
economy has created a really tough
environment for planning and forecasting, so companies increasingly
are looking for help by implementing
comprehensive EPM systems. Traditionally, EPM suites deliver tools for
global financial consolidation, planning, reporting, and analysis. However, there is a growing need
for new functionality such as predictive modeling.
Once enterprises get their basic
reporting, planning, and forecasting
processes automated and running well,
the next areas a lot of companies are
focusing on include profitability analysis
and statistics-based predictive modeling, ORourke says. Its where you
can really start to make some valuable

20 p r o f i t

the

PN11_Hyperion_Avon.indd 20

e x e c u t i v e

g u i d e

t o

decisions about the business.

Oracle Crystal Ball is an application
for predictive modeling, forecasting,
simulation, and optimization that is
integrated with Oracle Hyperion EPM.
It helps enterprises improve their planning and forecasting by providing a
way to create powerful forward-looking business forecasts. Oracle Crystal
Ball also provides variable sensitivity and risk analysis information to
improve understanding of plans
and forecasts.
Users can take historic information
from a planning application or financial
modeling application and then take
a forward forecast and run it through
Monte Carlo simulations. Instead of
just doing a couple of manual models
of base-case, high-case, and low-case
simulations, Oracle Crystal Ball makes
it possible to run thousands of simulations in a few minutes.

o r a c l e

With the Oracle Crystal Ball EPM

solution, enterprises can add predictive
modeling features to their Oracle EPM
and business intelligence applications.
Weve already integrated Oracle
Crystal Ball with Oracle Hyperion
Strategic Finance and Oracle Essbase
and are planning to deliver greater integration with Oracle Hyperion Planning in
the future, says ORourke.
This integration will provide enterprises with the ability to further leverage their EPM system investments.
Looking forward, ORourke predicts
continued demand for EPM solutions
and predictive modeling tools, especially if the economy stays volatile. He
says, They appeal to companies trying to plan and forecast and figure out
where the growths happening, when
its happening, and how to allocate
resources to match the growth expectations of their businesses.

a p p l i c at i o n s

9/9/11 10:51 AM

the project that impacted design, so Avon decided on a global

Management is also pleased that the company has largely
rollout with all modules at once rather than a phased approach, overcome what it sees as the biggest challenge to the project
says Veda Gagliardi, senior vice president at Edgewater Ranzal.
getting all its business units to adopt the processes enabled by
This meant that Edgewater Ranzal did parallel implementathe software. Something as simple as getting local markets to
tions for Avons budgeting and planning process, as well as the
trust that the security in the EPM system doesnt allow a global
actual reporting process. At the same time, Edgewater Ranzal
or regional office to see forecasts until a local market finalconsultants also assisted with the steps needed for Avon to reizes and submits them was very difficult. However, now users
engineer how the company performed manunderstand the flexibility the system affords
agement reporting.
them during the forecasting process, not
Along with global implementation of the
only to store the data in-process but also to
solution, Edgewater Ranzal assisted with the
do multiple scenarios.
Herculean task of training approximately
Avon management always expected
700 users in 26 countries. Training teams
to achieve a complete and global view of
consisting of an Avon Finance representafinancial planning and forecasting with
tive and a Ranzal consultant executed the
its Oracle Hyperion EPM system, but the
training. We conducted a training road
system has provided the mechanism for
show, visiting countries and providing
finance to become much more tightly
hands-on training and Web-based training,
aligned with other data warehousing and
Gagliardi says.
reporting projects across the entire orgaThe complex project required Edgewater
nization at the local, regional, and global
John ORourke, Vice President, EPM
Ranzal and Avon to collaborate closely.
Product Marketing, Oracle levels. At the end of the day, this was rolled
Gagliardi credits the experience and open
out to finance only because they saw themcommunication between the two companies as a reason for the
selves in a silo, says Dubrosa. But in fact, its used much more
projects success. We worked side by side with Avon for the
broadly than that, both as sources of information around indiwhole two years, says Gagliardi.
vidual markets and in areas of performance.
Originally, management predicted that the EPM system would
be used by 300 users, and they had serious concerns about
Go Live or Go Home
system performance. Now, the system is actually supporting
The first part of the EPM system, the actuals consolidation
700 users with no impact on performance whatsoever. Further,
process, was rolled out in January 2009. The second part of
the initial vision was to store only two years worth of data in
the project, planning and forecasting, was rolled out in July
the system because of concerns that with too much informa2009. Avon management decided to start with actuals reporttion, performance would slow down. The system now includes
ing because it is a much more structured and discrete process.
Management also hoped it would give users a chance to become data from 2007 on, and the IT staff is considering an import of
2006 as well. From a performance perspective, the system has
familiar with the system and navigating screens before using
exceeded even our highest expectations, says Dubrosa.
planning and forecasting functions.
Moving forward, Avon IT staff is already in the process of
Not many organizations have rolled out all of the Oracle
upgrading to Release 11 of Oracle Hyperion enterprise perEPM products at one time, says Gagliardi. But the best part is
formance management applications and is looking at lessons
that we actually went live with it as scheduled and Avon is suclearned to ensure the continued success of the latest iteration of
cessfully using the system.
its EPM system. Dubrosa points to the importance of support
Indeed, now that Avon has been using the EPM system
from senior executives: The constant in all of this has been
for more than a year, it is achieving results beyond even what
managements commitment to the vision of EPM, he says. Im
management imagined when they first decided to implement
an EPM system. And although the planning process took longer not saying we didnt shift courses a couple of times during the
course of the two years, but the end goal didnt change: to move
than management originally expected, it has paid off now that
the business to a different place. <>
the system is in operation.
From Day One, everyone was instructed to view the EPM
system as the one source of information, and this has provided
Alison Weiss is a frequent contributor to Profit.
critical data consistency. If people come with a spreadsheet
or PowerPoint deck, and the information is not sourced from
EPM, its not going to be looked at, says Dubrosa. That was a
>> For more information
tough decision for the executive council to make.
Oracle Hyperion Applications
But because all the modules in the EPM system are
oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi
linked, users have a fundamental understanding of the traceOracle Crystal Ball
ability of numbers and that the results generated from the
oracle.com/us/products/applications/crystalball
system are accurate.

Companies face
increasing pressure
to improve planning
and forecasting
processes in
volatile economic
conditions.

p r o f i t

PN11_Hyperion_Avon.indd 21

o r a c l e

h y p e r i o n

s p e c ial

edition

21

9/9/11 10:51 AM

Take a fresh look

at your data
From the inside out
You know your organizations data is full of potential. Stored and solid throughout your business,
it represents a wealth of possibilities.
Deloittes deep industry experience and advanced analytics capability maximizes the value of data.
We look at an organization from the inside out turning everyday information into useful and
actionable insights that inform your decision-making.

www.deloitteanalytics.com

As used in this document, Deloitte means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see
www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte
LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the
rules and regulations of public accounting.
Copyright 2011 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.
Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

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