If you’re a finance leader at a large enterprise, there are a few basic goals you’re trying to achieve...
- Knowing your financials
- Knowing your balance sheet
- Improving decision making
As a finance leader, you already know this. Your organization has already implemented an enterprise EPM solution (specifically, Oracle Hyperion or EPM Cloud) to execute your monthly processes faster and improve the quality of work. Though the intentions of this system are great, you’re still not where you need to be. There are slow downs, timely tasks, and IT just doesn’t have the bandwidth to get to your issues fast enough.
If this sounds like you, you can probably solve your problem by choosing Support Services. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh boy, another service…” but it’s really a more cost-effective way to extend your team. So, stick with me here and I’ll explain it.
The Tasks You Can Offload with Support Services
When it comes to outsourcing support for software, people usually think of someone responding to an open ticket. It’s typically someone you’ve never met and who might not really be familiar with your system.
That’s not the way it should be with an excellent Hyperion Support Team. They should have an intimate knowledge of your system and you should know your support person by name.
Your Support team will also do more than just respond to tickets. They complete tasks that give you peace of mind and more time to really improve your organization. This includes…
- Ensuring application stability during critical times
- Troubleshooting difficult issues
- This is made easier with a dedicate team who had an intimate knowledge of your system
- Freeing up resources by executing lower value tasks, including…
- Data loads
- Preparing forms for new budgeting and forecasting cycles
- Creating high-value budgets and forecasts by…
- Evaluating and applying hierarchy changes for Accounts, Cost Centers, Products, as well as updating all impacted applications
- Acting as an internal technical resource during monthly and quarterly “crunch times”
- Best practice knowledge to make calculation recommendations
- Supporting accurate actuals loading and management reporting by…
- Providing parallel activities to improve financial actuals load/close
- Ensuring load, calculation, and data transfer process is followed each time
Outsourcing vs. Hiring an Onsite Admin
At this point, you’re probably thinking you could hire an on-site resource to complete these tasks. It’s true that you could, but you might not have the best luck.
Unfortunately, these skills can be hard to come by, making the position extremely competitive and sought after. Plus, there’s a high turnover rate for Hyperion admins.
If you have an admin already, you can still benefit from having a support team on your side. It’s always great to have a knowledgeable team on standby — plus, your admin might want to focus on more strategic work so they can move up someday.
The belief that you can’t have a support team as well as an administrator is one of several misconceptions about Hyperion Support Services that we covered in this blog.
How a Support Services Team Can Help Improve Your Decision-Making
Of course, when I say, “your decision-making,” I mean your organization’s decision-making. The view you provide your business is integral to how every department in your organization makes decisions.
When you choose the right Support Services team, they have decades of experience in a variety of industries. And, if they’re like US-Analytics’ support team, they have a whole organization of experts who share their knowledge. This means they know just how to improve your system so that you’re getting more knowledge in a shorter amount of time.
They can make recommendations for calculations as well as budgeting and forecasting to give you an even better view of your business.
