Critical Success Factors for a Hyperion EPM implementation program
It is a very common but
nonetheless very vital question from clients embarking on a Hyperion EPM Implementation
program as to what factors will have the maximum impact on the outcome. In
other words, what areas should be addressed diligently throughout the program
to ensure a successful outcome? While no two programs are same and the
influencing factors could vary widely depending on the client needs and its
current state however there are some common areas which tend to play
significant role in the success of a Hyperion EPM program. So let us take a
closer look at these areas.
Executive Commitment: Executive commitment is very crucial
for successful execution and delivery of a Hyperion EPM program. There should be strong commitment from Finance
as well as IT leadership. They should ensure availability of right resources
from business and IT teams for the project. Business SMEs committed to the
project must have a very good understanding of the current processes and future
business requirements. Executives should have high degree of involvement with
progress of the project and should extend full support in case of internal or
external roadblocks. A PMO office and steering committee with representation
from various teams is highly recommended to ensure regular tracking of progress
and timely intervention in case of persisting issues.
Organization Change Management, User Training: Hyperion
Implementation projects can vary from a major business transformation project
to a pure technical change project (e.g. version upgrade) or anything in
between. Depending on the type and the magnitude of the change, a well thought
user engagement and training strategy is required to bring users on board with
the change. User's readiness to adopt
the change plays a major role in how the system is received when it is rolled
out.
The training plan should span
across functional and technical areas and should have provision for on-demand
continuous training e.g. online material, recorded sessions etc. In case of
major changes, it is recommended that the execution approach allows for
continuous user involvement throughout the project cycle via planned conference
room pilots, demonstrations etc.
An OCM team should be setup to
drive overall user communication and training activities as the implementation
progresses.
Hyperion Infrastructure Stability: Hyperion EPM infrastructure tends to be one
of the most complex pieces in the overall solution because of involvement of
variety of technical components across products suite. It requires availability
of skilled resources to install, configure and support EPM infrastructure in an
optimized manner. It is very common to
encounter issues related to product features or environment configuration
during the implementation. It is recommended to maintain proper staffing levels
for Infrastructure consultants throughout the project and also have well
defined service structure with Oracle for timely resolution of issues.
There are also other options
available now for Oracle EPM i.e. "Oracle EPM in Cloud" and "Hyperion on
demand" which alleviate many of these issues with On Premise EPM
infrastructure. They should be given a serious thought and evaluation in the light of business requirements. They
can turn out to be a cost effective alternative for the given business needs.
Out of box vs. Customization: Hyperion EPM product suite offers rich out of
box features to configure specific financial functionalities e.g. eliminations,
currency translations, process management, top down planning, drill through
etc. There are enough out of box
features within each product to configure a plain vanilla solution that can
address the core business requirements without heavy customization.
However it also provides various
options to extend or build new functionalities through custom programs using
APIs, scripts etc. In order to build a
light maintenance, scalable and simple solution, focus should be on maximum
usage of out of box features and minimal customizations. Every customization
should be carefully evaluated for its potential business benefit vs. long term
impact on maintenance and upgrade. This
is also important as each new EPM version introduces changes deprecating and
de-supporting some old features. Any customization based on these features may
lead to significant rework in future. In
general an overly customized solution tends to grow in complexity over time with
regular changes and becomes very difficult and expensive to maintain.
Master Data Management Strategy: This used to be an afterthought
till few years ago however with the kind of business value it has delivered
over the last few years, master data management is now generally at the center
of an implementation program and rightly so, as the master data is the lifeline
of an EPM solution. EPM solutions drive their business functionality based on
the application master data i.e. hierarchies, properties etc. and master data
management plays a crucial role in ensuring how various EPM applications will function
together and how the business changes will be uniformly applied across
applications. The scope of master data management driven solutions is
increasing even beyond EPM as organization are realizing the greater business
benefits. It will require another
article to cover what and how of master data management for an EPM system
however it is suffice to say that each and every program, whatever is the
scale, should have a strategy on how application master data will be designed, integrated,
maintained and managed in order to build a scalable and agile solution.
Data Integration Strategy: Data integration is very important component
of overall Hyperion EPM solution. It drives the overall data quality and data
timeliness of the solution. A complex
and heavily custom integration layer may result into a maintenance intensive
solution. It is important to use the
right set of products and right architecture for integration layer of an EPM
solution. Considering there are multiple options available to achieve Hyperion
Integration e.g. FDMEE, ODI, Native Methods etc., a careful evaluation should
be done based on the requirements and current client context.
As stated earlier, each EPM program is different and these
factors will have varying influence on its outcome. However if these aspects
are carefully evaluated and managed right from the beginning, the chances of a
successful outcome increase multifold.