Oracle has announced that premier support for Oracle’s suite of on-premises Hyperion tools will end in 2030.
Most everyone in the EPM space is aware of Oracle’s push to the cloud, with several EPM cloud-based tools being released over several months/years. With many customers still reluctant to migrate to the cloud, Oracle’s solution is to release a new version in 2019, make changes the customers want, and extend support for that version for a little over a decade.
In this blog post, we’ll cover everything you need to know if you've missed Oracle's recent announcements explaining the future of their on-prem Hyperion suite.
Updates to the roadmap have been made since this blog post was published. To get the most up-to-date information, check out this blog post.
The Timeline
If you’re currently on 11.1.2.3 or 11.1.2.4, you’re probably wondering what this means for your support. For 11.1.2.3, defect fixing ended in March 2018. For those using 11.1.2.4, you have a little bit more time. Defect fixing, third party certification updates, and enhancements will be made until December 2020.
Though it might feel like a grim reaper is looming over your shoulder, threatening to take away support for your applications — that's not exactly what's happening. The great news here is that Oracle intends to listen to their current customers to understand what enhancements you want to see on your on-prem applications, according to Matt Bradley, Oracle’s VP of Product Development for EPM Applications. These enhancements will include near-term parity with cloud versions — so if you do decide to make your way up into the cloud, it will be a lot easier.
Though premier support is ending, Oracle's lowest level of support — sustaining support — will stick around indefinitely. To learn more about the types of support — premier, extended, and sustaining — check out Oracle's lifetime support page. And, to get a better understanding of the support timeline for various Oracle applications, check out this document.
You’ve probably guessed that the premier support ending in 2030 will be for Oracle’s next and last on-prem version — 11.2.
The Newest Version
A common response to Oracle has been, “Why not go to version 12?”
A version 12 would imply a big release with a lot of changes and new features — this isn’t Oracle’s intention. Version 11.2 will look and feel a lot like 11.1.2.4. The intent of the new version is mostly to extend its lifetime and make enhancement that current customers want, Bradley said.
You’re probably wondering what new features and functionality 11.2 will have, but that hasn’t quite been decided. As mentioned above, Oracle wants your input and you will get a say in what is released. The best way to tell Oracle what you want changed or enhanced is to fill out a service request which will be reviewed and assessed by the product management team.
The On-Prem Roadmap
Rather than go through features and enhancements made in each release, Oracle outlined key highlights in the following categories: Current, Next, and Future. Some of “next” and “future” include features in 11.1.2.4 and 11.2. Currently, the line is a little fuzzy.
Current
Oracle Hyperion Planning
- Simplified Interface
- Faster/Larger forms support
- Dashboards
- Adhoc Grids for Analysis
- Grid definitions for Financial Reports
Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM)
- Journals Workbench
- HFM Insights
- Rules Profiling
- Charts/Graphs – Forms/Grids
- Import application
- DB hardening – RAC and network connectivity
Data Relationship Management (DRM)
- FDMEE Integration
- Integration to Web Services
- External Lookup Properties
Financial Reports
- Web Studio
- New Charting Engine
Smart View
- HFM Journal
- OBIEE enhancements
- New range and Cell VBA enhancements
Next
Oracle Hyperion Planning
- Essbase Hybrid Support
- Smart Push
- Valid Intersections
Oracle HFM
- Automatic Consolidations
- Enhanced insights, archiving
- Expanded dashboards
- Web-based metadata
Profitability and Cost Management
- Expanded custom calcs for complex logic
- POV copy support for large outlines
Tax Provisioning
- Tax automation trace where source is ICP
- Enhanced deferred tax classification logic
Financial Reports
- Multi-report editing via Web Studio
- Replace R&A repository
- Book/batch to output to MS Office
Smart View
- Chrome support for web launch (SUI)
- Limited functional release for Office 365 Web/All clients
Future
Hyperion Planning
- Use Excel’s Formula Editor to write calculations
- Sandbox support
HFM
- Simplified User Interface Uptake
- Web-based metadata editor
- Simulated posting/consolidation
- Entity hierarchy for ICP dimension
- Critical customer requested enhancements
- Matrixed security
Tax Provisioning
- Enhanced tax loss-credit automation
- Enhanced US State and provincial tax provisions
DRM
- S-FTP external connection
- Scheduled imports and exports
- Node access group filtering
- Property masking
Smart View
- New client to support all MS Office variants (Mac, iOS, Win Desktop, Cloud)
- Server side refresh of Smart View queries
- Smart query UX enhancements
What's Next?
This news leaves you with many questions and decisions to make, but you have a lot of great new features and functions to look forward to. There are three routes you can take that will help your organization keep moving ahead with your EPM solution:
- Upgrade
If you're still on a version before 11.1.2.4, you need to start thinking about upgrading to 11.1.2.4 — mainstream support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ended in 2015 and extended support (a costly solution) ends in 2020. If 11.2 comes out in 2019, you have some time, but it could take longer than expected — so you should seriously consider upgrading to 11.1.2.4.
Check out our resources on 11.1.2.4 products, including:
- Upgrading to Hyperion 11.1.2.4
- Top 5 New Features in 11.1.2.4
- What's New in Planning 11.1.2.4
- What's New in HFM 11.1.2.4
- What's New in Essbase 11.1.2.4
- EPM Mobile in 11.1.2.4
We will continue sharing information about version 11.2 as it becomes available. - Migrate to the Cloud
Rather than upgrading to a new version that will inevitably lose support, you can migrate to the cloud and never lose support. The features in the cloud are constantly being updated, and there's no need for lengthy patch installations. - Evaluate Other Technologies
If this news is devastating to your organization, it might be time for an even bigger change. Fortunately, there are many other EPM technologies on the rise. As identified in the Gartner's 2017 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Corporate Performance Management Solutions Report, there are vendors gaining popularity by coming out with visionary solutions to help organizations solve their biggest EPM dilemmas.
If this is something you're interested in, we help frequently help organizations choose EPM solutions through our EPM Vendor Selection offering. To learn more, download the guide.
