Oracle ReportingStrategy

With the final completion of Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion,the postioning of the reporting elements of their recent aquisitions is starting to emerge.

Oracle's go forward strategy is termed Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). This has has three elements, Performance Management Applications, Business Intelligence Applications and Transactional Systems.

Performance Management Applications will be based upon Hyperion System 9, and includes Financial Consolidation, and Planning and Budgeting. Performance Management Applications extend beyond Oracle EBS, and can sit over non-Oracle systems ( and includes certification for SAP). This continues Hyperions position as the market leader in reporting from disparate systems. Oracle Press Release

The Oracle BI financial analytical application is based upon Siebel reporting tools. This will supply analytical subject areas such as revenue analysis, working capital and profitability. The ad hoc reporting capability will be provided through a tool called Oracle Answers.

One of the key questions is what now happens to existing products such as Discoverer, Daily Business Intelligence, Enterprise Planning and Budgeting, Consolidation Hub, and other existing reporting products? Many of the products will now become part of Applications Unlimited (AU), though the investment in development may be low, which would steer users to the EPM framework. It has been indicated that Discoverer will essentially become part of AU, though investment would continue and workbooks can be included in various dashboards, though Oracle Answers looks to become the go forward ad hoc reporting tool of the future.

Oracle's reporting strategy has been confusing for users. Various reporting tools and intelligence products have been released over the last 10 years with no real continuity. Let us hope we will get stability and see tools develop and not have to contend with a new offering evey two or three years.

Oracle aquires Hyperion

Oracle have continued with their acquisition policy by buying Hyperion.


Hyperion has been widely used as the consolidation tool to bring together data from different sources to provide the composite organization financial results.

The target customers identified by Oracle are the CFO office for Hyperion, and Oracle BI applications for line business managers. This would indicate the current Oracle BI products (Sales, Finance, Projects, Procurement, Supply Chain) will continue. The inclusion of Discoverer in the BI family, and the use in some product families of embedded workbooks provides further integration in the overall reporting concept.

So where does this leave the Oracle EBS user?

Hyperion has been the preferred choice of many Corporations, bringing together a myriad of ledger systems around the globe to consolidate corporate results. The integration with the Oracle EBS is often minimal, with a surprising number of major Companies relying on the key punching of of information from existing ledger systems, including Oracle, into the Corporate consolidation model. Before the acquisition of Hyperion, Oracle produced their own Consolidation Hub, which aimed to expand the consolidation functionality within the Oracle EBS to non-Oracle systems.

For users of Hyperion the key question will be around greater integration into the EBS, with Companies currently consolidating globally using existing functionality asking if Hyperion is part of the core EBS, or does it sit outside, continuing as the Oracle / non Oracle consolidation tool?

Information: Hyperion web site with links through to the Oracle Hyperion page