Ranked a Corporate Performance Management technology leader in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for nearly two decades, Oracle Hyperion Planning is one of the go-to platforms, touted for its ability to reduce planning cycles, eliminate errors associated with Excel, centralize data, and utilize best practices with drivers, modeling, and scenarios.
Oracle Hyperion Planning has further expanded its offering with a cloud-based, hosted solution: Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS). In the past, implementations have been strictly focused on on-premises solutions, requiring a significant up-front investment. By eliminating the capital investment and offering a low cost of ownership, Oracle PBCS presents an alternative for organizations of all sizes.
Is Oracle PBCS the right fit for your organization? Here are key factors to consider when comparing PBCS versus on-premises Hyperion Planning solutions.
1. Deployment time
Because PBCS is a pre-built application, it can be deployed in your organization at an accelerated pace. Your team can be up and running in weeks to a few short months, versus Oracle Hyperion Planning implementations that take longer. Faster implementations mean faster time-to-benefit.
2. Customization
A subscription-based enterprise planning service, PBCS offers a pre-packaged, powerful business rules engine that feels like Excel, without all the hassle. PBCS includes the following software:- Hyperion Planning
- Smart View
- Financial Reports
- Predictive Planning
- Financial Data Management – data integration and mapping
- Essbase (ASO) Reporting Cubes
- Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) License
Oracle PBCS can be enhanced if your organization requires unique customizations, such as currency conversion with multiple local and reporting currencies, cash flow budgeting and reporting, or additional complex business rules. Note these customizations do extend implementation times, but demonstrate the agility of this dynamic application.
Additionally, certain planning modules are not included in PBCS: Capital Asset Planning, Workforce Planning, Project Financial Planning, and Public Sector Planning & Budgeting.
3. Function within the business
PBCS comes out of the box with two environments, pre-production and production, giving your organization the opportunity to test new business rules, reports, etc. while safely maintaining your live platform. Plus, you can purchase additional environments if needed.
Do you have an existing on-premises planning environment? Oracle PBCS can also be used to back up data for disaster recovery. Oracle Cloud Services maintain their infrastructure to support high levels of availability and to recover service in the event of disaster or disruption.
4. Cost
With PBCS, your technology investment becomes an operational expense — providing the latest-and-greatest technology, minus the major initial investment and subsequent maintenance costs in hardware. This means no servers or additional internal hires required. Also, upgrades are included.
Whether you operate an existing planning environment or are looking to invest in a new solution, Oracle PBCS provides a rich framework that enables flexibility and superior functionality within your organization.
