Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Top Trends in Oracle Business Intelligence & Enterprise Performance Management

Hyperion’s 2007 survey (2007 Business Finance Hyperion Mid-Enterprise Survey) of requirements for business intelligence (BI) and enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions revealed the differences in requirements, evaluation criteria, and purchase influencers between midsize companies and large enterprises. With a heavy reliance on spreadsheets to support EPM processes, top investment areas for midsize companies include budgeting and planning as well as management reporting solutions. Executive influence plays a significant role in selecting software, and ease-of-use and pricing are key evaluation criteria.

The notion that midsize companies have the same BI and EPM requirements as large enterprises is partly true. However, the survey makes clear that these requirements evolve as companies grow from  single locations to multiple locations, expand internationally, or change from private to public ownership.

The first few questions in the survey focused on BI and EPM usage and investment plans. In terms of current BI and EPM deployments, the areas most often cited as being currently deployed by midsize companies were budgeting and planning and management reporting. These were followed by financial modeling, query and reporting, dashboards, and performance scorecards. More-advanced functions such as statutory reporting and advanced analysis were less-frequently mentioned. The BI and EPM usage trends for midsize companies were very similar to those for large enterprises surveyed. The results differed more when respondents were asked about future deployment plans.

When asked about the tools currently being used to support BI and EPM processes, spreadsheets were the most of ten used tool, followed by a combination of spreadsheets and general ledger (GL) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The number of companies relying mainly on  packaged applications and tools to support their BI and EPM processes is much lower in the emerging business segment (8%) than in large organizations (24%). A large percentage of respondents (25%) rely on a combination of packaged applications, GL or ERP solutions, and spreadsheet.

For the full survey report, please visit MindStream Analytics.

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