Summary
Finance organizations have been heavy users of financial applications from Hyperion, which is now owned by Oracle. While these applications are workhorses for important finance tasks including financial consolidation, budgeting and supporting applications on Oracle Essbase, it can be difficult to access the data outside the individual applications. Since finance organizations have a great deal of key information in these applications, they can wind up spending considerable time and effort working around the lack of integrated data for financial performance management. Ventana Research recommends software from Star Analytics, which can help companies make this data much easier to integrate into other applications and processes.
Assessment
A great deal of information created and used in finance organizations resides in multidimensional databases (or “cubes”) like Oracle Essbase. These databases are key sources of data used for analysis and reporting and are a considerable improvement over desktop spreadsheets as data repositories for collaborative and repetitive tasks. Yet they are little used other than by the specific application because it is difficult to extract and integrate the data into financial data marts and data warehouses where it can be accessed by finance or the rest of the organization using business intelligence (BI) and performance management software. This can be an ongoing hindrance to productivity. Addressing this issue has become increasingly important since performing the advanced analysis and reporting that generates deep insights and effective business models requires being able to bring this information together with operational data. The operational data comes not only from a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system but also from supply chain and logistics systems, customer relationship management (CRM) and other software that manages processes and tracks business performance. Even within the finance department, data accessibility can be an issue because multiple cubes often are used, and so the process of extracting data from them and synthesizing it into an integrated report or analysis can consume a lot of time.
To address these issues, Star Analytics developed the Star Integration Server, which enables companies that use Hyperion applications (Planning, Financial Management or custom software built on Essbase) to integrate data more easily for wider use – by, for example, exporting it to a company-wide data warehouse or financial data mart. All organizations within the corporation can then use the data as needed. Moreover, the Star Integration Server allows companies to bring together data from multiple cubes for analysis and reporting. Using this tool, finance departments can consolidate and manage complex hierarchies in their cubes to make business analysis, periodic reporting, forecasting and planning available sooner. The Integration Server also enables companies to extract proprietary data structures, embedded calculations (such as allocations or ratio analyses), business rules (such as consolidation parameters) and supporting detail from Hyperion applications. Moving the data from the cubes to a data store can be done manually as needed or, if the data extraction is a recurring process, automatically.
The company offers two versions, Express and Standard, of the Star Integration Server. The Express Edition is a limited-use version that companies can download for free. It gives prospective customers a “try before you buy” capability that can be useful for establishing a business case with solid metrics. Simplifying the software evaluation process can make it easier to demonstrate how a company can improve its existing applications, analytics and processes by opening up the data locked in its Oracle Hyperion software and in applications that use Oracle Essbase.
Market Impact
The market defined by the intersection of data integration technology with financial management applications, an area that involves critical components of financial information management, presently is wide open. Support of this kind for Oracle Hyperion applications, focused on financial data integration, is not available currently from major providers such as IBM, Informatica, Microsoft and SAP. Oracle has provided some capabilities via the Hyperion acquisition, but to extract information from their Oracle Hyperion systems, most companies today must take steps to integrate metadata and data from the specific applications or engage consultants to build a custom solution to do it. Given the large installed base of Hyperion financial applications and the efficiency and effectiveness gains that users can obtain, we expect demand for the Star Integration Server to grow rapidly over the next several years.
Recommendation
Ventana Research advises companies that use Oracle’s Hyperion Financial Management or Hyperion Planning, and as well older Hyperion Enterprise, or custom applications running on Oracle Essbase to explore the possibility that they could get more out of these investments by evaluating the Star Integration Server. From an efficiency standpoint, the software may save your company a considerable amount of time of key staff members who regularly endure a laborious data integration process and can improve the quality of financial data by automating these activities. From an effectiveness standpoint, some key management and financial reports may become available sooner, allowing management to make informed decisions faster. Moreover, unlocking financial and other information will enable corporations to do more integrated business analysis, planning and reporting. Information that was nearly inaccessible can be readily available when it’s needed. And knowing more can enable your company to do more.
About the Author
Rob heads up the Financial Performance Management (FPM) practice, focusing on the intersection of information technology and the finance organization. The FPM research agenda includes the application of IT to financial process optimization and collaborative systems; adaptive control and analytics; and advanced budgeting and planning. Rob has been a technology analyst for over 20 years. Prior to joining Ventana Research he was an equity research analyst specializing in enterprise software at Primary Research Partners , Senior Vice President at First Albany Corporation (an investment banking and institutional brokerage firm with a strategic partnership with META Group), a securities analyst with Drexel Burnham and Morgan Stanley, and a consultant with McKinsey and Company. Rob was an Institutional Investor All-American Team member and on the Wall Street Journal All-Star list. Rob earned his BA in Economics/Finance at Hampshire College, an MBA in Finance/Accounting at Columbia University, and is a CFA charter holder. Rob can be contacted at robert.kugel@ventanaresearch.com.
