Business Performance Management

METAspectrumSM Evaluation
100
LEADER
Hyperion Longview Cognos Oracle SAP PeopleSoft

80

Performance

60

Geac SRC Software Cartesis OutlookSoft SAS

40

CHALLENGER
Armstrong Laing Applix

20
FOLLOWER

0 0 20 40 60

31 March 2004

80

100

Presence
META Group is a trademark, and METAspectrum is a service mark, of META Group, Inc. Copyright 2004 META Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Business Performance Management Vendor Analysis

Vendor Evaluated: Hyperion Product Evaluated: Hyperion Business Performance Management Solution
1 - Overall Vendor Ratings
Presence
Hyperion Weighted Score
Presence Criteria Area Vision/Strategy Channels/Partners Awareness/Reputation Geographic Coverage Business Drivers Industry Focus Investments Share TOTAL Relative Weight 20 8 15 9 19 5 9 15 100 Category Rating VG/Exc VG/Exc Very Good Excellent VG/Exc Fair Very Good Very Good Points 87 92 80 100 88 20 80 80 Score 17 7 12 9 17 1 7 12 83

Note: The sum of the individual scores may not match the total score due to rounding.

Performance
Hyperion Weighted Score
Performance Criteria Area Technology Services Pricing Agility Financials Execution Personnel TOTAL Relative Weight 30 15 10 15 8 17 5 100 Category Rating Very Good VG/Exc Fair/Good Very Good Excellent VG/Exc Excellent Points 87 90 35 80 100 88 100 Score 26 14 4 12 8 15 5 83

Note: The sum of the individual scores may not match the total score due to rounding.

208 Harbor Drive Stamford, CT 06912-0061 (203) 973-6700 Fax (203) 359-8066 metagroup.com Copyright 2004 META Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

METAspectrum 51.1

Business Performance Management Vendor Analysis: Hyperion

2 - Vendor/Product Evaluation
Vendor Contact Information
Vendor: Headquarters Address: Phone: URL: Hyperion Solutions 1344 Crossman Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (408) 744-9500 www.hyperion.com

Evaluation Summary
Hyperion emerges as the leader (closely followed by PeopleSoft) in the BPM space, according to our METAspectrum analysis. The company has maintained a consistently strong vision and has been executing well on it. Hyperions Business Performance Management Solution (a conglomeration of all its Web-based analytical products) offers a comprehensive, modular suite of applications that provides sophisticated functionality, enabling closed-loop business performance management. Coupled with Hyperions Business Intelligence Platform, the product suite offers the broadest and deepest functionality currently on the market, with additional integration to be built in during 2004.

Strengths


Advanced balanced scorecard functionality (Hyperion Performance Scorecard) enables organizations to link corporate strategy with key performance indicators (KPIs) and communicate them across the enterprise via strategy maps and scorecards. The solution includes prebuilt support for numerous scorecarding frameworks, including Balanced Scorecard, Six Sigma, Baldridge, and Stern-Stewart EVA. Sophisticated modeling capabilities (Hyperion Business Modeling) provide extensive functionality to test strategic objectives and operational/financial planning assumptions model processes/activities, optimize resources, and measure profitability. Scenario playing and what-if analysis creates and tests multiple scenarios in a single unified view. Process modeling graphically illustrates capacities, resources, and constraints for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing resources. The system immediately notifies of broken constraints. In addition, Hyperion Strategic Finance provides robust functionality for strategic financial planning, M&A analysis, balance sheet, and cashflow forecasting. Hyperion provides process management capabilities for managing the submission and approval of actual results, budgets, plans, and forecasts. The Hyperion Essbase database that powers the planning application comes with Hyperion Business Rules, a graphical calculation/scripting tool. This feature enables users to create custom calculations that can be saved and attached to the form and launched upon opening or on demand. Hyperion Analyzer delivers exhaustive analysis features, including intuitive Web-based interactive analysis with graphical displays and robust analytics. Hyperion Central provides a personalizable portal interface to all application modules as well as reporting and analysis tools. Reports can be produced either in HTML or PDF formats. Snapshot book feature provides a snapshot view for a group of reports/books on an exact date.

208 Harbor Drive Stamford, CT 06912-0061 (203) 973-6700 Fax (203) 359-8066 metagroup.com Copyright 2004 META Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

METAspectrum 51.1

Business Performance Management Vendor Analysis: Hyperion



Overall, the applications navigation environment is easy to use and flexible. In terms of dimensionality, the Hyperion Financial Management module includes eight standard dimensions (including accounts, time periods, organizations, scenarios, currencies, intercompany partner, etc.) and four smart dimensions per account that can be reused. The Hyperion Planning module has seven predefined and 13 custom dimensions for capturing more LOB detail. International capabilities Hyperion Financial Management supports US GAAP, Canadian GAAP, UK GAAP, Australian GAAP, IAS, FASB, HGB, and local requirements for Japan, France, Switzerland, Italy, etc. Multicurrency capabilities accept data in original currencies and combine these with consolidation adjustments in multiple simultaneous target currencies. In addition, all modules are double-byte enabled, and localized into French, German, and Japanese. Some modules are also available in Italian, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Russian. Integration capabilities Hyperion Applications Link enables a direct data path from existing ERP or other legacy systems (i.e., relational databases, application interfaces, and flat files) to target Hyperion applications on demand or on predetermined schedules. Hyperion Applications Link includes a design environment with graphical drag-and-drop icons that enables the designer to paint a picture of the process to be automated, and achieve the desired data flow (based on Vignette's Business Integration Studio technology). Prebuilt, vendor-specific connections with SAP R/3, JD Edwards, Siebel, PeopleSoft, and Oracle Financials are also available. The product offers the most extensive relationships with systems integrators in this market.

Limitations


Organizations must be prepared for the technical, financial, and training requirements that are integral to the success of this type of complex deployment. Disconnected usage supported only via Microsoft Excel add-ins. Administration/maintenance is not unified for all modules. Integration is limited between products (e.g., Planning and Financial Management). However, this will be improved with the latest release, HFM and Planning 3.5, which introduces common security features, metadata synchronization, etc.

  

208 Harbor Drive Stamford, CT 06912-0061 (203) 973-6700 Fax (203) 359-8066 metagroup.com Copyright 2004 META Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

METAspectrum 51.1