04-27-2018 043222 Andre Aberdeen2

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The right partner makes all

the difference.
Larimer County, CO
Budget Software
Technical and Cost Proposal

RFP No: P16-02
Due Date: May 27, 2016
Larimer County, CO
Budget Software
Technical and Cost Proposal
RFP No. P16-02
Due Date: May 27, 2016
Applications Software Technology Corporation

1755 Park Street, Suite 100 | Naperville, Illinois 60563 | 1.888.278.0002 | www.astcorporation.com
CONTENTS
1 FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (EXHIBIT 1) ................................. 1
2 GENERAL QUESTIONS ............................................................................................. 3
3 TESTING .................................................................................................................. 35
4 TRAINING AND SUPPORT ...................................................................................... 37
5 DETAILED RESPONSES TO EXHIBIT 1 ...................................................................... 45
6 REFERENCES........................................................................................................... 46
7 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN & SCHEDULE .................................................................. 47
7.1 Scope of Work ............................................................................................................................. 47
7.2 Proposed Project Plan ................................................................................................................ 48
8 COST PROPOSAL ................................................................................................... 51

8.1 Software Pricing Details ............................................................................................................. 51
8.2 Implementation Services ........................................................................................................... 51
8.3 Pricing Assumptions .................................................................................................................... 52
9 TERMS AND CONDITIONS ..................................................................................... 54

10 APPENDIX A: AST CORPORATE HISTORY & QUALIFICATIONS ......................... 55
11 APPENDIX B: PROPOSED BUDGET SYSTEM OVERVIEW ..................................... 65
11.1 Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) ...................................................... 65
12 APPENDIX C: WHITEPAPER – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ORACLE PLANNING

AND BUDGETING CLOUD SERVICE (PBCS)................................................................. 70
Budget Software
Table of Contents
1 FUNCTIONAL AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (EXHIBIT 1)
Included on the following pages is our completed Requirements matrix (Exhibit 1), as requested by the
RFP.
Budget Software
Page 1
Exhibit 1
Exhibit 1 - Functional and Technical Requirements
Place a Y in the appropriate column next to the functionality / feature. Place only one Y per row.
Column F - "Out Of The Box": If a Y is placed in column F this functinoality / feature exists in your current available version of the software. While it may require
additional configuration this functionality / feature will not result in any additional expense to Larimer county to implement.
Column G - "Custom Development": If a Y is placed in column G this functinoality / feature does not exist in your current available version of the software and will either
require additional configuration or custom software development that will result in additional expense to Larimer Count. That expense is included in section 8 of your bid
and is labeled "Custom Software Development / Configuration to meet Larimer County Requirements".
Column H - "Future Release": If a Y is placed in column H this functionality will be included in a future release of you software at no cost to Larimer County. If you select
this option you must include the future date when this functionality / feature will be available to Larimer County.
Column I - "Not Available": If a Y is placed in column I this functinoality / feature does not exist in your current available version of the software and cannot or will not be
developed or configured by vendor.
Column J - "Explanation": This column is provided for any additional explanation that may be needed.
Custom Development
Out Of The Box
Future Release
Not Available
Explanation
1 All-in-One Budgeting System
a. County Budget Process & Colorado Budget Law
i. Ability to use different budget methodologies – incremental, performance, zero-based and Y . Planning (PBCS) Functionality
outcome based.
ii. Must include "phases" used in the County's budgeting process - request, proposed, and Y Outlines can have multiple Versions where data
adopted. Ability to roll data from one phase to the next. can be moved and stored
iii. Ability to roll data from current-year adopted into next year request phase. Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
iv. Budget By Funds (Special Revenue (including grants), General, Enterprise, Internal Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
Service, Capital Funds).
v. Must include ability to calculate and report on fund balances, including funds set aside for Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
future purposes based on the County’s current structure.
vi. Budget by organizational structure and ability to add and use multiple dimensions to each Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
budget item (i.e. programs, strategic plans) by agency and County-wide.
Page 1 of 6
Exhibit 1
Custom Development
Out Of The Box
Future Release
Not Available
Explanation
vii. Ability to change organizational/account structure simply (preferably with "drag and drop" Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
methodology).
viii. Expenditures and Revenue budgeting - Create line-item budgets for any level in the Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
hierarchy of the County’s chart of accounts (Fund, Division, Department, Organization,
Location, Project).
ix. Ability to differentiate between "base budget" request and supplemental "service proposal" Y PBCS Outline can be structured for this division
requests that are displayed separately until approved by County Manager.
x. Ability for departments and County Manager to rank service proposals. Y Budget requests with rankings can be
configured
xi. Ability for County Manager, CBO or departments to edit based budgets or service Y Security can be tailored to user input levels
proposals.
xii. Ability for base budget totals to be updated instantaneously and seamlessly as changes are Y Updates to data are immediate and overwrite
made or service proposals are approved. the current data in the database
xiii. Must allow for creation of a “revised current year budget” that includes changes to the Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
current-year adopted budget.
xiv. Interface with Oracle Financial System to instantaneously update current-year budget Y Data extracts can be scheduled or run on
revisions. demand to send budget data to Oracle EBS
xv. Ability to create either annual or biennial budgets. Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
b. Operating Budget
i. Must allow for allocation of costs in internal service funds (IT, facilities, risk management, Y Allocation calcs can be written for this
fringe benefits, fleet, etc.) across all cost centers based on variables defined by the Central
Budget Office; preferably allow for allocation base on Excel or Access database link/import.
ii. Must seamlessly import employee/position data from the ADP personnel system, with Y PBCS includes FDM components to map to
associated information (anniversary date, salary range, position title number, etc.) and cost data from ADP to AST's Opex components for
data (salary tables, social security, wage-based fringe benefits (such as life insurance), positions..
health insurance plan choice, dental insurance plan choice, etc.)
iii. Must maintain budgeted FTE counts for at least 5 years and for all phases (request, Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
proposed, adopted).
Page 2 of 6
Exhibit 1
Custom Development
Out Of The Box
Future Release
Not Available
Explanation
iv. Allow for non-benefit eligible and limited-term positions and easily allocate fringe costs or Y Planning (PBCS) functionality will be leveraged
exempt from fringe cost allocations as appropriate. in conjunction with AST's Opex components for
position-budgeting.
v. Must allow for changes to positions such as FTE amount, allocation between cost centers, Y Planning (PBCS) functionality will be leveraged
salary range, etc. in conjunction with AST's Opex components for
position-budgeting.
vi. Must allow for forecasting of range adjustments and anniversary date-based merit Y Planning (PBCS) functionality will be leveraged
increases on any hierarchical level on a what-if basis. in conjunction with AST's Opex components for
position-budgeting.
c. Capital Budget
i. Must allow for creation of capital project budgets including phases and multi-year budgets. Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
ii. Must allow for easy updating of future year operating budget impacts within the operating Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
budget module.
iii. Must allow for inputting of future Five Year Capital Improvement Program projects for Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
forecasting and future-year budgeting.
d. Forecasting
i. “What-if” scenario analysis on at least a fund-level basis that projects budget or prior-year Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
actual data based on either broad assumptions or specific policy/program changes.
ii. Forecasting – short and long term Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
2 Data Interface
a. Manual entry of budget details by Central Budget Office and County agency staff Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
b. ADP Personnel System, Oracle ERP System, and SAP
i. ADP Personnel System, Oracle ERP System, and SAP

1 Ability to schedule and manually run process to interface data between systems Y FDM mappings and imports can be automated
(with EPM Automate facility) or executed
manually
Page 3 of 6
Exhibit 1
Custom Development
Out Of The Box
Future Release
Not Available
Explanation
2 Eliminate spreadsheet and database download/upload needed to create interface data Y PBCS import/export facilities, FDM, and EPM
Automate can all be leveraged.
ii. Cloud Service enterprise system – future Personnel and ERP systems Y PBCS import/export facilities, FDM, and EPM
Automate can all be leveraged.
c. Import/Export select data to/from Microsoft Office products Y Smart View integrates with Office
3 Reporting and Analytics

a. Ability to easily categorize revenue and expenditure accounts into editable categories Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
(personnel, taxes, intergovernmental revenues, etc.) in multiple hierachrical levels based on the
County's chart of accounts.
b. Ability to query any data within the system. Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
c. Compatible with Microsoft Office products for exporting to various formats. Y Smart View integrates with Office
d. Central Budget Office and Agency users can create and maintain reports – no vendor support or Y Financial Reporting (FR) can accommodate
Technology Services involvement needed.
e. Internal dashboard and analytics. Y Graphics can be displayed in data forms and
within FR, as well as Smart View
f. Audit logs of data entry and changes in the system including who and when changes occurred. Y Auditing functionality is inherent to Planning, but
has yet to be enabled for PBCS. The request
for access to audit data has been made by AST
to Oracle product development.
g. Must provide for creation of ad-hoc reports based on the user’s needs. Reports should be able Y Smart View can accommodate this
to display any piece of data (position, FTE count, expenditure or revenue line item, etc.) sorted
by any hierarchical level (countywide, fund, division, department, etc.), for at least a five-year
period.
h. Reports must be able to be generated by Central Budget Office or departmental staff in a user- Y Financial Reporting (FR) can accommodate
friendly, easy-to-understand manner that does not require extensive coding, database
management, etc.
i. Reports must be able to be exported or copied into budget narrative documents. Y Reporting can be imported to MS Office
products
j. Ability to easily see net property tax status by hierarchical level (i.e. sum of expenditures minus Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
revenues in a division, department, organization, program).
Page 4 of 6
Exhibit 1
Custom Development
Out Of The Box
Future Release
Not Available
Explanation
k. In accordance with Colorado local government budget law, the system must create reports that Y Reports can be tailored in Reporting or Smart
include prior year actuals, current-year adopted, current-year revised, and next year’s View
requested/proposed/adopted budgets.
4 Usability (ease of use)

a. Job Aids delivered by vendor Y Training materials and system documentation,
including Administer's guide
b. Online self-help available Y PBCS includes much online documentation,

tutorials, and help content.
c. Intuitive user interface– Typical agency use is limited to once per year for data entry Y PBCS is proven as a simple, user-friendly
interface
5 Configurability
a. Ability to make changes to rules without needing Larimer County Technology Services or Vendor Y Administrators have access
involvement
6 Generation of budget book

a. Produces (in total or in part) a final, publishable and editable budget book that will be used for Y Budget book functionality is available for
BOCC and public information in a format compatible with Microsoft Office Suite of products and publishing, compiling static, FR and Smart View
Adobe Acrobat. content.
b. Ability to incorporate narrative within the system to be used to create the budget book (i.e. Y Reports can be created using text desctiptors
agency description, program information, budget explanation)
c. Produces or exports tables containing budget and FTE data compatible with Colorado Budget Y PBCS import/export facilities, FDM, and EPM
law and Government Finance Officers' Association best practices. Automate can all be leveraged.
7 Performance Management
a. While this functionality is not required for this project, we would like the budgeting software to Y PBCS import/export facilities, FDM, and EPM
include or integrate with a partner solution to deliver Performance Management. Automate can all be leveraged.
b. If a performance management functionality is included, the ability to at least create performance Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality
measures and apply them to program areas within the budget hierarchy.
Page 5 of 6
Page 6 of 6
Exhibit 1
Out Of The Box

42
Custom Development
8
Future Release
1
Not Available
0
Explanation
2 GENERAL QUESTIONS
a. Describe the level and type of experience your company has had with State and Local Government Budget
System implementations.
Although software selection is a critical component of the project, AST Corporation believes that the
selection of a highly qualified team to guide the County in the deployment of its unique requirements is
equally important. A successful transition to a sophisticated, modern Planning and Budgeting System like
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) requires:
 A trusted and familiar partner to Larimer County;
 A proven team that understands the unique requirements and challenges of Municipal
Governments, particularly those in the State of Colorado;
 Access to critical support from Oracle’s technical and product development teams - our EPM Pillar
Partner status gives us the ability to escalate problems with the software and facilitate issue
resolution to the benefit of our clients;
 A customer-centric approach that starts with assessing your organization’s planning and reporting
needs and focuses on delivering business results;
 Proven methodologies designed to set your organization up for successful business
transformation;
 Committed Executive support to ensure excellence in delivery - this level of engagement has
played a large role in our 100% success record.
There are myriad reasons as to why some customers do not manage to get the full benefit from their
effort and investment in budgeting software. We firmly believe that it is the implementation partner that
makes the single, most important, difference in making the project and customers successful in this
complex endeavor. Our respected history as a partner to Larimer County in other critical enterprise
engagements, as well as having deployed several Oracle Planning and Budgeting solutions (both on
premise and Cloud) for other Public Sector and Municipal Government organizations, provides our team
unique insight into the challenges faced and a complete understanding of the County’s desired future
state. We will employ a straightforward approach to this Budgeting System initiative by targeting
organizational-focused success factors. Our methodologies provide standard approaches and guidelines
to ensure that your implementation project is conducted in a disciplined, proven, well-managed, and
consistent manner. Most importantly, our team of professionals has a proven record of accomplishment,
of successfully delivering solutions within targeted timelines and budget.
AST consultants have worked directly with the Oracle Hyperion development team to improve the product
and ensure it meets the unique needs of Public Sector clients. Our specific experience with Oracle
Hyperion within the Public Sector is unmatched. AST offers the most impeccable credentials of any
systems integrator for the following:
 Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS)
 Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud Service (EPRCS)
 Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus
 Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
 Oracle Hyperion Financial Management
 Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management
 Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management (FDQM) and Adapter Suite
 Oracle Essbase Plus
 Oracle Data Integrator
Budget Software
Page 3
RFP # P16-02
General Questions
As an Oracle EPM Pillar Partner (Oracle’s elite group of Hyperion System Integrators), AST has been an
early adopter of the Public Sector-focused Oracle Hyperion solutions, as well as the Oracle EPM Cloud
solutions. AST is a subscriber to Oracle’s EPM Cloud products, as we both test out the functionality and
develop pre-built content for our customers, like our Opex Planning components described later in this
proposal. AST’s team has participated in early partner workshops for the Cloud solutions like PBCS, EPRCS
and the recently released Enterprise PBCS offerings and contributed product feedback.
Because of our leadership, no other partner has a closer relationship with the Oracle Hyperion product
team, and we will leverage this relationship for the County in order to streamline the escalation of
concerns and give The County a voice in the ongoing development of the product. Our entire team of
Oracle Hyperion experts has experience integrating Hyperion solutions to both Oracle (E-Business Suite,
PeopleSoft, JD Edwards) and non-Oracle ERP applications.
Notable Projects
Over the last 20 years, our team has successfully delivered on a number of key Oracle “firsts” and
transformational projects:
 First in the United States to successfully implement Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud service
for a Public Sector Organization, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, FL (Orlando Airport) in 2015
 First to implement Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting application (On-
premise) for a Public Sector Organization, Pinellas County, FL in 2010
 First implementation of Oracle Cloud ERP (Fusion Apps) in the Public Sector (City of Detroit) In
November of 2014, AST was awarded the first ever, municipal government implementation of
Oracle Cloud ERP (Fusion Applications) by the City of Detroit. In addition to being the first Oracle
Cloud ERP implementation, this project comes on the heels of Detroit’s emergence from the largest
ever, municipal bankruptcy in the history of the country. It goes without saying that this project is
highly visible from all quarters including Oracle, the software and Systems Integrator (SI) industry,
local media, and the State of Michigan.
 Successful Oracle EBS Release 12 & Hyperion Budgeting implementation for largest container
port in the USA (City of Los Angeles, Harbor Department) The Port of Los Angeles has a five-mile-
wide harbor that takes in 33% of the nation’s containerized imports. AST’s on time and within
budget delivery has won kudos for our team with the City of Los Angeles, and has opened up many
opportunities within other departments of the City.
Public Sector Focus
When it comes to Oracle solution implementations in the Public Sector, AST has the largest number of
successful implementations under its belt of any SI in North America. The Public Sector is our largest
customer segment and therefore, we understand the nuances of the Oracle software and how best to
configure it to support specific Municipal Government business needs.
A list of our key Public Sector customers is provided in the following table.
Municipal Governments State & Federal Government
City of Atlanta, GA California ISO, CA

City of Burbank, CA New Jersey Housing Authority, NJ
City of Chandler, AZ State of California (AOC)
City of Chattanooga, TN State of California (Insurance)
Budget Software
Page 4
RFP # P16-02
General Questions
City of Chicago, IL State of Florida – Law Enforcement

City of Hurst, TX State of Georgia
City of Knoxville, TN State of Oklahoma
City of Miami, FL Defense Contract Audit Agency, TN
City of Modesto, CA General Services Administration
City of Oakland, CA Overseas Private Investment Corp.
City of Omaha, NE State of Texas, Parks and Wildlife Dept.
City of San Marcos, TX Higher Education
City of Tampa College of American Pathologists, IL
City of West Palm Beach, FL Ohio University, OH
City of Yonkers, NY Oregon Health & Science University, OR
Berks County, PA University of Texas, Pan American, TX
Dallas County, TX West Virginia University, WV
Hillsborough County, FL Mass Transit, Airports & Port Authorities
King County, WA Austin Capital Metro, TX
Lake County, IL Chicago Transit Authority, IL
Larimer County, CO DFW International Airport, TX
Marion County, OR Greater Cleveland RTA, OH
Oklahoma County, OK Indianapolis Airport, IN
Pinellas County, FL Jacksonville Airport, FL
Polk County, FL LA County Metro, CA
K-12 Metra Rail, IL
Arlington Public Schools, VA Orlando International Airport, FL
Chicago Public Schools, IL Pace Suburban Bus System, IL
Wake County Public Schools, NC Port of Los Angeles, CA
Yonkers Public Schools, NY Rhode Island Airport, RI
Adams 12 Five Star Schools, CO Tampa International Airport, FL
TriMet, Portland, OR
We understand the nuances of the Oracle software and how it should be configured for a complex, Public
Sector organization. Over the years, AST has delivered some of the most complex and challenging Oracle
projects.
Proven Partner to Larimer County

Larimer County has been familiar with the quality of our consultants and executive commitment due to
our past project with the County for Oracle E-Business Suite R12 upgrade assessment that included Chart
of Accounts reorganization. We have consistently striven to provide our customers exceptional consulting
advice and services and will continue to do so for Larimer County for a successful implementation of
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service solution.
The below table lists our comprehensive experience with Oracle Planning and Budgeting solutions,
including the Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services in scope for the County’s project.
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
Client Platform and Modules Implemented Size Year

(emp)
Current Projects
TriMet, OR  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 2,800 2016
11.1.2.4
 Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management
Berks County, PA  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 1,500 2015-2016
11.1.2.4
State of Delaware  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 17,000 2015-2016
11.1.2.4
Prince William County, VA  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 4,300 2015-2016
11.1.2.4
 Oracle Applications (Financials and HRMS)
Blue Cross Blue Shield  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 (Upgrade) 800 2015-2016
Association, IL  Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
11.1.2.4 (Upgrade)
(Upgrade)
Syracuse City School  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.4 4,000 2016
District, NY  Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
11.1.2.4
Completed Projects
City of Detroit, MI  Oracle Cloud ERP (In Progress) 12,900 2014-2015
 Hyperion Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service
(Completed) with AST OPEX
Orlando International  Hyperion Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service 650 2015
Airport, FL
Hampton Roads Sanitation  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.3 1,000 2014-2015
District, VA  Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
11.1.2.3
City of Burbank, CA  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.3 1,800 2014-2015
11.1.2.3
Budget Software
Page 6
RFP # P16-02
General Questions

Lake County, IL  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 11.1.2.3 2,900 2013-2014
11.1.2.3
 Oracle BI and BI Applications (HR Analytics)
City of Tampa, FL  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 5,500 2014
 Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
 BI Applications – Financial, Procure & Spend, Projects
Pinellas County, FL  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 4,200 2012
 BI Applications – Financials, Procure & Spend, Human
Resources
 Security and Access Management
Port of Los Angeles, CA  Oracle Hyperion Planning Plus 1,000 2013
 BI Applications – Financials, Human Resources
Polk County, FL  Oracle Public Sector Budgeting 2,400 2009
 Oracle Discoverer and Reports
In addition to our proven leadership in Hyperion Planning and Budgeting and PBCS, AST has over 20 years
of experience with budgeting across our customers and extensive experience with Hyperion’s predecessor
application, Oracle Public Sector Budgeting.
b. Is the system you are proposing remotely-hosted or locally-hosted? If proposing both options, detailed cost
information for the two options is requested.
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service is hosted and maintained by Oracle, eliminating
infrastructure and related IT support needs. Oracle would be responsible for system maintenance,
installation, patches, ongoing maintenance, upgrades, monitoring, backup and recovery, DBA and other
associated work. There is no software license or hardware to buy and manage. Supporting underlying
technologies are taken care of.
Oracle PBCS removes the barriers to adoption of on premise applications and makes it much easier for
businesses of any size to deploy a world-class planning and budgeting solution. Oracle PBCS is a Software-
as-a-Service (SaaS) solution which provides quick benefits and reduced cost of ownership. Oracle’s
Budget Software
Page 7
RFP # P16-02
General Questions
enterprise-class cloud architecture is critical to this hosted model, offering an expansive and flexible set
of Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting solutions that include upgrades-on-demand and real-time data
monitoring. Oracle takes the headaches and much of the cost out of delivering web-based solutions-all
while keeping you in control. The Oracle PBCS solution will allow the County to:
 Eliminate hardware investment and configuration
 Eliminate data backup and recovery
 Consume virtually no IT resource
 Reduce training time and expense
 Reduce cost of slow user adoption
 Eliminate software upgrades and lifecycle management headaches
 Scale the solution to meet future growth
 Deploy up to five times faster than on-premise solutions
c. Provide your project approach for this implementation including resources and a proposed schedule.
Oracle’s Cloud Service is the next generation of Hyperion Planning and Budgeting software delivery.
Successful implementation for Larimer County requires a highly qualified partner that has a deep
understanding of the day-to-day issues that affect the County, as well as its current business and
information technology platforms. For over 20 years, AST has been successfully delivering Oracle
solutions to Government and other Public Sector entities, including Larimer County. Our consultants’
expertise and understanding of the County’s environment, including AST’s understanding of Larimer’s
Oracle EBS environment, is vital to helping the County realize its specific objectives desired from its
Planning and Budgeting System. They will help County staff learn to adapt the Oracle Hyperion Planning
and Budgeting Cloud Services to the County’s changing business needs. Our extensive Public Sector
experience, combined with the experience of our consultants, has helped AST build a repository of
industry-leading practices, which are well suited for customers using Oracle EPM applications. We will
leverage these experiences and continued excellent relationships with other Government agencies where
we have implemented Hyperion Applications to carefully, yet effectively, transform the County’s Planning
and Budgeting processes, uncovering efficiencies, and streamlining day-to-day activities.
Oracle’s Hyperion Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services, when implemented properly, can truly
transform an organization. It only makes sense to employ an implementation methodology specifically
designed for Oracle Cloud, and not a generic methodology that can be applied to any IT project. In
addition, the approach must encompass all aspects related to a project, not just the technical and
functional configurations of the applications.
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
Understanding that the County desires to use their own methodology as much as possible, AST can offer
its EDM Methodology to supplement this where needed. AST’s EDM is a thorough approach to achieving
a project’s goals by embracing, controlling, Objectives and Scope
coordinating, and driving each successful Governance Structure
component of an engagement. Anchored in
PMI standards, and tailored for Oracle
DEFINE Project Plan
Requirements Validation
Cloud, EDM puts appropriate emphasis on
key areas that are particularly challenging Process Flow Sprints
for enterprise IT projects in the Public Conversion
Sector: resource availability, prototyping M DEL Integration
the future state, change management, and Extensions and Reports
knowledge transfer.
Verify Conversion
EDM is an Agile implementation approach System Integration Test
that incorporates the iterative configure VERIFY User Acceptance Test
and test approach of agile, yet spreads the Parallel Test
solution components across multiple sprints
so that the risk is easier to manage; thereby Deployment Plan
increasing the project team’s chance of Support Structure
success. We believe that this approach is DEPLOY Training
valid and appropriate. It allows the team to Production & Stabilization

focus on smaller successes and does not tax
the project resources as much as would be the case with a “big bang”. At most of our clients, these
resources typically have day-to–day, non-project responsibilities they need to address, in addition to the
project tasks.
Additional features/benefits of our EDM methodology include:
 Standard methods, controls, and oversight guidelines to efficiently and effectively manage project
and program activities and risks from both a granular and an enterprise perspective
 Extensive repository of re-useable tools, templates, sizing spreadsheets and test scripts
 Well-defined stages and a logical approach to software configuration evolving from clearly
defined requirements and efficient business processes rooted in industry best practices to a fully
functioning prototype that confirms the viability of the solution
 Measurable Performance Milestones to enhance system and process reliability eliminating
surprises during the critical phases of the project
 Substantial emphasis on change management, knowledge transfer, and training from Day One
to foster acceptance at all levels of the organization and build a sustainable program of
continuous improvement
 A centralized Quality Assurance Team to consistently assesses the program’s progress and
monitor the multiple work streams’ critical paths to determine the best way to meet the overall
project objectives and effectively administer day-to-day tasks
The following describes the various stages and deliverables that make up our EDM methodology.
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
The goal of the Define stage is to plan the execution of the project and
to lay the business and technical objectives for the project.
Our EDM methodology’s project lifecycle includes pre-project activities
that help in transition from the project acquisition to the project
delivery. AST has a formal project handbook outlining this process.
Pre-project activities include:
 Review of the proposed scope, timeline and contractual obligations
 Orientation with the client’s organization and key personnel
 Review of legacy systems being replaced and integration requirements
 Formal review of roles and responsibilities
 Review of key business objectives for initialing the project
 Deliverable templates to be used as well as QA and approval requirements
 Overall scope of the project, including the intended applications and goals of the project
It is the responsibility of the AST Project Manager to conduct internal pre-project meetings with the team
members to discuss and review the above topics prior to project commencement.
To start off, the project team will be mobilized and instructed on the scope and objectives and a project
kick-off meeting will be held.
Project Definition
County and AST Project Managers will work together to define and establish the project governance,
change management strategy, project charter and build an achievable work plan (schedule). The work
plan will take into account constraints such as time, resources, and budget. The project charter will
document the governance structure, organization, roles and responsibilities, and implementation
approach.
Process Definition
AST staff will lead the Process analysis tasks with participation of the County’s project management,
subject matter experts (SMEs), and departmental representatives. To maximize user involvement without
dominating user time, Process Groups or Domains will be determined by application processes and
modules and one or more key users will be assigned to each domain. This approach utilizes users’ time
optimally by involving only key users in decision-making. EDM also facilitates a constant flow of critical
information among the domain experts through consistent coordination and communication. AST’s
extensive experience with Oracle EPM implementations has shown us that some business processes are
more global while others are specific to a department or business unit. All of these are important to
capture in order to have a complete and accurate set of business requirements that the software must be
able to meet.
AST’s predefined standard process flows for each functional area based on the Cloud functionality
available. These process flows have been carefully drawn out keeping in mind the nuances of the Industry
for which the implementation is being done. Our consultants’ expertise will be vital to fully understanding
the specific improvements the County expects from its Oracle Hyperion PBCS system. We will leverage
our extensive Public Sector Industry experience and continued excellent relationships with other
Government agencies to recommend the optimum configuration of the County’s Oracle Hyperion Cloud.
These process flows will be reviewed with the Core Functional for fit to standards. Once all requirements
are captured through the various means, they are consolidated into the functional requirements
traceability matrix and reviewed by the business for final input and approval.
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Concurrently, the technical team will review the technical and architectural requirements and identify
application development standards, which will guide the detailed design and development efforts for
integrating, interfacing, and configuring the applications and underlying technology. It ensures that the
various strands of related functional and technical issues that arise during an implementation are planned
for and managed properly to yield a cohesive, stable production configuration. Additionally, data
conversion and integration requirements with existing legacy/third party systems will be reviewed and
documented. All of these will contribute towards defining the work efforts in each Sprint in the Model
Phase of the project. The Process flows and the development work will together determine the
prioritization of the work during the Sprints in the Model Stage, which will be documented in the Sprint
Prioritization Matrix.
The goal of the Model stage is to create a County-specific Hyperion solution
within the Oracle Cloud to meet the County’s business requirements as
identified in the previous stage. Oracle Hyperion Planning and Budgeting
Cloud has an extensive range of configuration options and flexible
personalization potential. AST does not believe that operational process
redesign is separate and distinct from the implementation, but rather an
integral part of it. AST’s extensive Public Sector experience combined with
the industry experience of our consultants has helped us build a repository of industry Best Practices that
are well suited for customers implementing Oracle solutions. Our unique “Package Enabled Business
Process Re-engineering” approach enables us to fully utilize the Best Practices already incorporated in
Oracle Cloud Applications.
AST will configure the Cloud using an Agile approach. The Model Stage of each Phase will be executed in
Sprints. The scope of each sprint will be determined by the Sprint Prioritization Matrix drawn up during
the Define Stage. Specific components for integrations, conversions, and configuration at each sprint will
determine the work involved. Focusing on specific components and driving teams to manage and execute
in smaller parts completion will enable AST and the County to complete the design and development work
quickly.
The goal of the Verify stage is to validate that the Oracle Hyperion PBCS
will meet the County’s business flow requirements. Extensive testing of
the Oracle Cloud modules before production will be critical to the overall
success of the County’s project. Our project approach will include
several rounds of testing before the solution is ready for production. It
is important to note that the focus of the testing in this stage will change
from feature/functions to the system process flows. AST will lead the effort in creating the testing strategy
and test plan to validate the business process flows. AST will assist the County’s SMEs and users in writing
test scripts to verify all business tasks they perform on a day-to-day basis. The functional traceability
matrix will be used to ensure that all process flows are fully tested.
The table below outlines the planned testing iterations in our EDM methodology.
Test Description
Unit Testing Any custom program (interfaces, UIs, reports, extensions, data conversions, and other
customizations) will be unit tested by the project’s combined AST-County technical
team and then by the functional team before they are made available for system
integration testing. This technical QA process ensures that the code meets the
business requirements identified for the customization.
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System Testing System integration testing is one of the most critical parts of an implementation
project. Integration testing will test the complete set of the County’s processes,
including both standard functionality and customized programs (a piece of custom
code must first pass technical unit testing prior to it being available for system
integration testing). The steps in system integration testing include:
 A group of functional users will run all test scripts related to a given
process. This makes sure that the hand-offs between modules are tested
as well as each script within the process.
 As each script is tested, the results are recorded in a testing results log.
 If the scripts pass the test, all related customizations can be moved to the
User Acceptance Testing environment.
 If any scripts fail the test, the results are documented. The item must be
analyzed, the fix must be identified, and the complete process with the
failure must be re-tested after the fixes have been incorporated. Once
the process passes, the related customizations and any new fixes can be
moved to the User Acceptance instance.
 Failed items are tracked on the Test Failure Resolution Log.
 A formal signoff document is approved and signed to signify the County’s
approval of the System Integration Testing.
Test scripts will be logically sequenced, then grouped into different system test
periods. Test plans will then be scheduled for execution according to the system test
periods. Actual results will be documented and compared to the expected results to
ensure the business processes are working according to the design.
User Acceptance All user departments must be involved in User Acceptance Testing. The user test plan
Testing will utilize the test scripts created for system integration testing and include all
business processes; month-end and year-end processing and integration flows with
other systems. The issues and results will be documented and verified against
expected results. This helps mitigate risks by identifying all the major issues with the
application before going live.
Once a custom program is approved during acceptance testing, it can be staged for
migration to Production at the Go Live.
Our consultants will be deployed with the County Core Project Team to help users
execute the test scripts and deal with system and process issues. Once per day, a short
meeting is conducted to review the results of the day and to plan/re-plan the next day’s
activities as required.
The result of the process should be a preliminary acceptance of the systems. All issues
will be documented and will be reviewed with the County Team. When the testing has
been completed, a meeting with all the appropriate individuals is conducted to make
the final ‘Go/No Go’ decision for the implementation project.
In the Deploy stage, we develop and execute a production cutover plan.
Deploy is a critical stage in the project when very specific activities are
performed to set up, initialize and verify the proper operation of the
production environment prior to going live. As part of the pre-
production activities, we assure all required information is accurately
loaded in the new system, all users are appropriately trained, new
systems go-live, and all old systems are shut down.
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Deploy Training
The goal of the Training stage is to develop County-specific, role-based training material and conduct
training using a Train-The-Trainer strategy. AST will establish the training environment from a configured
test environment, within the limits of available environments on PBCS. AST shall train County
SMEs/designated trainers and the County will coordinate and manage end user training.
Deploy Production
The goal of the Production stage is to plan and execute the production migration of the Oracle Hyperion
PBCS. AST shall lead the tasks of creating and managing a production cutover plan, migration of the final
application code into the production environment, finalized configurations, and final data conversion. The
County staff will assist with these tasks and take the lead in performing final system validation before
production go-live. The County project management will make a final decision on the Go-live based on
user validation.
Post-Production Support
Once the project transitions to Production and the functional modules have gone live, AST analysts will
help the County measure and audit the business improvements against project objectives, the
implementation metrics against planned metrics, and system performance against predictions. AST will
also help the support staff deal with post-production issues and streamline the support process. AST’s
Project Manager may also propose next steps for the County, in terms of future business, technical
direction, and upgrade requirements, etc. The AST resources providing this support will be the same
resources who participated in the development and implementation of the Hyperion Planning and
Budgeting Cloud Services system. This will ensure a smooth transition for the County’s end-users in a
manner that provides a “safety net” by keeping the key consultants on-site and available as and when
needed. Once the system is live in production, AST shall provide the required level of post-production
support.
Closing processes are integrated into each phase of the project versus waiting to the end of the project.
This approach ensures that client acceptance is received throughout the project for each deliverable, that
there is constant process improvement of controlling measures, and validation that project archives are
updated regularly.
At the end of each phase, all project deliverables associated with that phase, including all set‐up
documents, training materials, technical specifications, and standards and procedures will be updated to
include all last minute changes. Once these documents are finalized, the originals are left with the County.
Original copies of all sign‐off documents are also provided to the County for its records.
At the end of the project, our engagement management team will conduct a post project review with the
County team to ensure that all contractual obligations have been met and closure is brought to the
project. This final team review should also include a formal session with feedback on performance. There
should be no surprises during this session. All performances should be monitored throughout the project
life cycle and feedback given in informal sessions so that the final formal review is just a reiteration of
feedback that has been provided throughout the project.
Project Management Approach

Strong Project management is pivotal to delivering well-communicated, timely, and successful projects.
As the prime contractor for this engagement, AST will leverage our proven project methodologies, rooted
in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), and unblemished record of successful project
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delivery to provide comprehensive and consistent program and project oversight and administration in
addition to our Oracle EPM functional and technical consulting services.
Understanding that the County desires to use their own project management methodology as much as
possible, AST can offer its EDM Methodology to supplement this where needed. The County will receive
the highest possible attention from our executive management team for this mission critical project with
AST’s Project Manager reporting directly to our Project Executive with project coordination handled via
our centralized Program Management Office (PMO).
AST’s Project Governance processes are based on the foundation that every project must begin with the
end in mind, producing clear and concise plans that articulate when and how deliverables will be
produced. These processes are combined with mechanisms to monitor and communicate key
performance indicators in order to ensure the team’s ability to react to problems in a timely manner and
to recognize and reproduce positive results. Our governance approach covers the following areas,
including project scope definition and management, risk and issue management, and quality
management.
Project Charter
To establish a strong foundation at the outset of the project, AST will work with the County to define and
document project governance expectations in a Project Charter document. AST reaffirms the scope of
the project, once the project team, and especially the PMO, has been established. The PMO discusses
and co-creates a project charter to clearly articulate scope, project controls, success factors, governance
processes, deliverable review and approval processes, and other key aspects of the project. AST develops
a draft based upon its understanding, discusses it with the client, and modifies the document to match
the resulting, combined understanding from these discussions. The project charter becomes the primary
source of truth that the PMO utilizes to direct the project throughout the engagement. Content from the
charter should be referenced at an initial kickoff meeting to make sure all project team members have a
common understanding of the goals, objectives, and expectations of the project. It should also be
required reading for all project team members who enter the engagement after the initial kickoff meeting.
Project Plan
AST develops a comprehensive project plan containing all required deliverables, tasks, milestones,
resource assignments, and stages / waves of the project/program. The plan is reviewed with the PMO
and key project team members to incorporate all necessary input. Once finalized, it becomes the source
for team task status content. By tracking status to the tasks and critical path of the project, it removes
the subjective nature of status reporting and meetings and allows the PMO to have a clear, objective view
of the health of the project.
Project Reporting
Status Reporting is vital to the success of a project. A status report helps to provide all members of the
project with details of how the project is progressing with the scope of the project timeline. More than
just indicate which activities are currently ahead or behind schedule, status reports provide an
opportunity to analyze the status and its impact on the project as a whole.
Team leads will be required to create weekly status reports to communicate the status of their team’s
progress to the AST Project Managers and other team members. At the start of the project, AST’s Project
Manager will outline status-reporting requirements for the team. Typically, we highlight the following in
our status reports and meetings, although AST can modify the reports based on the County’s input:
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 Scheduled tasks that were not completed in time

 Identification of new issues or risk to the project
 Status of open issues and risk to the project
 Overview of pending project change requests (PCRs)
 Status of project budget
 Personnel resource constraints
Frequent project status meetings will be held to provide an update to the client team members and
project team members as to project’s progression. The AST and County Project Managers will establish
the frequency schedule of meetings during pre-project planning, and these meetings should be viewed as
opportunities to bring all team members together for an update on the project's progress and upcoming
events.
The Project Management Team will prepare a report summarizing the project accomplishments, issues,
key decisions, and next steps of the team. Utilizing the key areas of the project plan, this status report
may provide a graph/bar chart showing the progress of the project in regards to the project timeline. The
County status report will be detailed enough to provide project stakeholders with a clear understanding
of the status of the project as a whole.
From time to time, a more formal executive status report may need to be presented to the Executive
Committee of the project. Key performance indicators that may be included in this executive level report
could include:
 Evaluation of project progression against plan
 Evaluation of effectiveness of the controlling processes for handling issues
 County’s clarity of scope
 Budgetary impact of scope changes
 Timeline impact of scope changes
 Effectiveness of processes identified to manage risk
 Effectiveness of risk mitigation plans
 Evaluation of the project’s Actual Cost v. Projected Budget Cost
 Earned Value Analysis of deliverables
 Effectiveness of team
 Analyzing quality issues uncovered during each phase
 County’s Report Card
 Assessment of County’s ability to support itself after go-live
Budget Management and Invoicing
AST’s project management team will create a project budget based on delivery schedules, resource
loading, and project milestones. All work done on the project is tracked against this project budget;
variations are evaluated and corrective action taken to ensure that there is no over-run. The management
team also uses tools like Earned Value Report to compare incurred costs to work completed and the
remaining work.
Once a deliverable has been approved by AST for submission, the County will have a pre-negotiated
number of days to review the deliverable and provide feedback to AST. AST will make any necessary
changes to the deliverable and will submit an Acceptance Certificate to the County. A signed Acceptance
Certificate marks the completion of the deliverable and triggers invoicing to the client based upon
negotiated terms of payment.
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Scope Management
To minimize the risk of compromising project budget and milestones, and to help facilitate change control,
we will work with the County to establish rigorous change control procedures for the implementation
project. Our change control process involves identifying changes to the project scope, analyzing the
impact, presenting the level of effort and adjusting the work plan to include approved changes.
Once the scope of the project is reviewed and finalized by the County and our Project Manager, any
change that would affect the scope, timeline, resources, or cost is captured on a Project Change Request
(PCR) document. The PCR contains a description of the desired change, the business reason for the
change, alternatives to the desired change, and estimates of time or cost to incorporate the change and
any other pertinent information.
The framework for the change control process is illustrated in the following diagram.
AST Scope Control Process
It is critical to keep changes to a minimum to not impact, negatively, the strategy stage that will have been
defined by the County and AST in the initial days and weeks of the project. Our Account Manager and
Project Manager will assist the County’s project management in preparing operational and contingency
plans for any unplanned events. The contingency plan will provide a decision framework to deal with
unexpected delays in the project. The plan will be used only if an issue arises that cannot be resolved in
a timely manner and would delay the project schedule.
We recognize that all Project Team members have a responsibility for managing scope from project
inception to final project sign-off. We will communicate this in the Project Team Kick-Off and, in our
Change Management practices, will incorporate information about the change request process into
project awareness communications to the County user community.
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Risk Management
AST employs a detailed and comprehensive risk management approach, integrated into our EDM
Methodology. Our methods for managing risk are continuous, from a project’s commencement through
completion, with a proactive rather than reactive focus where issues are mitigated before they arise, not
just tracked and managed after they occur. Although project risk cannot be eliminated entirely, it can be
reduced through early identification and management. Starting with the initial project strategy phases,
our team looks for opportunities where we can prevent risks that are foreseeable and mitigate negative
impact and negative cost on a project. Included in each methodology phase are standard checklists that
will contribute to a risk assessment for each phase and a continual, overall assessment for the project.
As illustrated in the diagram below, our continuous risk management approach is oriented by three
guidelines:
Within these guidelines are five main processes:

AST Risk Assessment Approach
Process Description
Risk Assessment This is our overall process of risk analysis and risk evaluation. This process will include:
Risk Identification – Listing of project issues or “known risks” that are likely to
compromise the project success.
Risk Analysis – Assessing the probability and impact of a risk on the project’s success.
Risk Prioritization – This involves ordering and ranking the risk items identified and
analyzed.
Ongoing review is essential to ensure that changing circumstances do not change the
risk priorities and that the mitigation and management plans are relevant.
Risk Control Risk control is a process where risk mitigation tactics are defined, and risks are
appropriately escalated and reviewed. A Risk Control Log where risks are tracked and
reported will be maintained for the project’s duration. Operations to reduce risk
represent all activities by the organization to actually reduce the risk. These might
include training, establishment of standards, establishment of goals, audits of actual
performance, and education.
Risk Escalation and On an on-going basis, we will continually review all open issues and identify those that
Resolution will affect the overall project. The Project Manager will evaluate whether each item
constitutes a risk and will assign it to a project team member for further defining the
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cause and effect and identifying the mitigation strategies. Risks will be categorized
based on the nature of the issue and their severity.
If an issue/risk falls in the critical path, it will be immediately escalated to the steering
committee for review. The steering committee can decide to seek the opinion of the
risk management and review board. The board will then be responsible for driving the
risk mitigation strategies. The strategy can include elimination, mitigation, acceptance,
or transferring the risk to a third party (Oracle) for resolution of product or technical
issues.
Risk Review As project conditions change, the chance of risk can rise and fall, and the potential for
new risks are introduced which will require identification, analysis and prioritization
(see the Risk Assessment process). In addition to the escalation process and as part of
our continual risk management and monitoring effort, a “risk review” is conducted,
composed of formal monitoring and reassessment activities. The goal of this review is
to put the project team in a better, more proactive rather than reactive position. The
review also seeks to provide the correct amount of focus on each risk and allocate the
appropriate staff at the right time. After a risk review, the project team should have a
list of current risks, their status, level of impact, and actions required for mitigation and
resolution.
Stakeholder The engagement of the County’s stakeholders includes risk communication, such as
Engagement the exchange of information between the decision-makers and the stakeholders about
the overall project and its potential risks. Risk Management with respect to the
County’s stakeholders is a significant part of our approach to Change Management that
will happen throughout the project.
Quality Assurance Reviews

Periodic project reviews are an important quality assurance tool that AST employs to support successful
management of a project. A trained Quality Assurance consultant who is not connected to the day-to-
day activities of the project will be assigned to provide a fresh perspective on the project plan and the
status of the project. Using a series of pre-built questionnaires, the QA consultant will perform quality
audits during critical stages within the project lifecycle:
 To assure that all key deliverables and actions of the gate have been completed in compliance
with recommended practices and to the customer’s satisfaction
 To enable project management to continuously communicate the process and build quality
directly into the project
 To provide a tool to effectively manage project expectations and monitor customer satisfaction
The QA consultant will collect knowledge assets and lessons learned at the end of each phase of the
County’s project. Doing so provides quick access and insights into key deliverables, which can inform the
later stages of the project.
In addition, during the project, every deliverable, whether Document or Code will go through a peer
review process to ensure that the deliverable meets the standards and guidelines laid down by the County
and AST for the project. Every documentation will undergo strict revision control as per guidelines laid
down by the project. The Project Manager will continuously monitor and ensure that proper controls are
enforced and adhered to by the entire team.
All of AST’s consultants have multiple years of implementation experience and aware of the expectations
of quality from AST projects. Every Consultant as a part of the AST initiation process is made aware of
AST’s Methodology, templates, and deliverable expectations. In addition the broad project guidelines and
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individual guidelines if available for particular deliverables – for example the Design and Build Standards
will provide further information on the coding standards for the project- will be discussed and made
available to both the AST and County teams to ensure consistency.
Proposed Staffing and Project Team Qualifications

On every engagement, AST teams up with our client’s personnel to assemble a cohesive team of
consultants, users, and client IT personnel. The County’s project will be lead jointly by the AST and County
Project Management Teams to create a total synergistic approach to project management and promote
the most effective communication throughout the project. Our experience has shown that the active
participation of key County business users from the outset of the project is the single most important
factor in a successful implementation. At the same time, we know that users’ time is very valuable and
often limited, particularly within the Public Sector, and should be utilized with great care and planning.
We will be conscientious and prudent in utilizing County personnel’s time.
With our collaborative approach, our team is very comfortable in working within constraints placed upon
the County’s resource availability. We understand that in many cases County project resources will be
required to perform their day-to-day activities in addition to participating on the project team. We will
make sure that we plan and communicate fully the required demands on each individual. In this manner,
we can adjust the schedule, resource requirements, or task details to accommodate non-project
demands, while staying on track with the project timeline.
The following represents a project organization chart that highlights the key roles from both the County
and AST Project Teams. The resource needs and team will be refined to align with a final scope and
schedule.
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AST Project Team

AST understands the importance of a consistent team and continuity of staff in making a project successful
and cost effective. AST uses only its own resources to provide implementation services. Unlike other
firms that may rely upon a contracted pool of consultants, AST is better able to project the availability of
our resources; we have one of the lowest employee turnover rates in our field.
A summary of our team and their qualifications/experience is provided in the following table. Detailed
resumes can be found in our response to question ‘e’ of this section.
Years’
Proposed Consultant Project Role Experience
Praveen Kumar Project Manager 20
Umarani Nalliah Project/Budgeting Lead 17
Tejas Patel Technical Lead 7
Kiran Kumar Technical Analyst (Offshore) 13
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AST and County Project Teams

Following are the proposed resource allocations for the AST and County resources for this effort,
specifying full-time equivalents for each phase of the project lifecycle.
AST Team Resource Allocations by Stage

(% Allocation)
Definition Configure/Build Test Deploy Transition

Project Manager 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Budgeting Functional Lead 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8
Technical Lead 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.8
Hyperion Analyst 0.0 0.9 0.9 0.0 0.0
TOTAL FTEs 2.2 3 3 2.1 1.7
County Team Resource Allocations by Stage

(% Allocation)
Definition Configure/Build Test Deploy Transition
Project Manager 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.5
Project Lead 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Functional Lead 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 1.0
Business SMEs 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.0 2.0
Technical Lead 0.25 0.5 0.5 0.75 0.75
Help Desk 0.0 0.0 0.25 0.25 0.25
TOTAL FTEs 3.75 3.5 5.25 4.5 5.5
With our collaborative approach, our team is very comfortable in working within constraints placed upon
the County’s resource availability. We understand that in many cases County project resources will be
required to perform their day-to-day activities in addition to participating on the project team. We will
make sure that we plan and communicate fully the required demands on each individual. In this manner,
we can adjust the schedule, resource requirements, or task details to accommodate non-project
demands, while staying on track with the project timeline.
Project Roles and Responsibilities

Following is a listing of the expected roles and responsibilities of the proposed AST consultants, as well as
County Project Team personnel. This will help the County plan and manage its resources more efficiently.
Should any issues or concerns arise regarding resource availability; these can be discussed ahead of time
during the contract negotiation process.
AST Resource Roles

Role Responsibility Role Type
Project Manager Project Oversight & Management Co-Lead
Management Escalation Lead
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AST Resource Allocation Assist
Budgeting Lead Project Planning Co-Lead
Issues Resolution Co-Lead
Resource Allocation Assist
Scope Control Co-Lead
AST Resource Allocation Lead
Training Plan & Coordination Assist
Requirements Analysis and Definition Lead
Gap Analysis Lead
Solution Design Assist
Conference Room Pilot Assist
Quality Assurance Lead
Product Configuration Assist
Testing Strategy Assist
Production Migration Lead
Training Material Lead
Training Coordination and Feedback Assist
Technical Lead Requirements Analysis and Definition Assist
Gap Analysis Assist
Technical Design Lead
Configuration and Development Lead
Quality Assurance Assist
Unit Testing Lead
System Testing Lead
Acceptance Testing Lead
Knowledge Transfer Lead
Training Material Lead
Analyst Requirements Analysis and Definition Assist
Gap Analysis Assist
Solution Design Assist
Configuration and Development Assist
Unit Testing Assist
Quality Assurance Lead
Testing Strategy Assist
System Testing Assist
Acceptance Testing Assist
Production Migration Lead
Knowledge Transfer Assist
Training Coordination and Feedback Assist
County Project Team Roles

Project Manager Project Planning Co-Lead
Project Management Co-Lead
Issues Resolution Co-Lead
Resource Allocation Lead
Scope Control Co-Lead
Project Communication Lead
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Training Plan & Co-ordination Lead
Deliverable Acceptance Lead
Functional Lead Requirements Definition Assist
Training Material Assist
Training Delivery Assist
Deliverable Acceptance Assist
Business Subject Matter Experts (SME) Requirements Definition Assist
Training Material Assist
Deliverable Acceptance Assist
Technical Lead and Other Resources Requirements Definition Assist
Report Design Lead
Report Development Lead
Training Material Development Assist
Proposed Schedule
Our proposed timeline allows AST to configure and build the sophisticated needs of the County into the
solution, and offers adequate timeframes for testing, deployment, and post-implementation support.
Based on our experience implementing Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting for similar
municipal governments, we propose a six (6) month project. The following timeline demonstrates the
proposed timeframe for the primary stages of the County’s project:
Below are the key project dates with the assumption that The County will take three months in finalizing
the product and the implementation partner after this RFP process. AST will work with the County in
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deriving a final schedule and project plan, but the following key project dates have been utilized as the
basis for our proposal:
 Project Start: August 1, 2016

 Budgeting Released: February 3, 2017
 Support and Project Handover Complete: February 10, 2017
d. Describe your process for escalating issues that cannot be resolved within the project team.
On every project we undertake, AST assigns a member of our Executive Management Team as a Project
Sponsor to ensure there is frequent and effective communication at the executive level of both
organizations. Executive Project Sponsors not only serve as the County’s direct link to AST management,
but also provide guidance and advice to the project teams. In the unlikely event that an issue arises that
cannot be directly resolved within the project team, AST’s Project Executive, Pravin Kumar, will work with
the County’s Executive Sponsors to reach a solution that is beneficial to both parties, ensuring seamless
and effective continuation of the project.
e. Provide resumes including qualifications for the resources that will be working on the implementation.
Detailed resumes for our proposed project team can be found on the following pages.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
P r o j ec t M a n a ge r
Mr. Kumar is an Oracle Certified Implementer with over twenty years of professional experience specializing in
Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting, Hyperion Financial Management, Oracle
Financials, Oracle Manufacturing, BI applications and Hyperion Performance Scorecard. Additionally, he has
experience in business process reengineering, regulatory reporting, and managing manufacturing processes. He is a
Project Management Professional certified by PMI, USA. Mr. Kumar has architected and implemented several full
life cycle EPM, EBS and BI applications and has conducted business requirement analysis, As-Is process mapping, To-
Be process mapping, Gap analysis, systems and integration testing, postproduction support and training facilitation.
Furthermore, he has experience identifying reporting requirements and managing report development using
Hyperion Financial Reporting, Smart View, Oracle Reports, BI Publisher, and Oracle BI. Mr. Kumar is extremely skilled
in a variety of Financial, Financial Reporting and Consolidations, Planning and Manufacturing applications, as well as
creating final Budget Book and Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) packages. Mr. Kumar’s industry
experience gives him a deep understanding of business processes, which allows him to transfer knowledge
successfully to the end user community. Mr. Kumar possesses excellent communication skills with good analytical
and logical thinking capabilities. He is a team player and has the ability to work independently.
P r o j e c t S u m m ar y
Syracuse City School District, NY 04/2016 – Present
Oracle & Hyperion Applications
Hyperion Team Lead – Hyperion 11.1.2.4 Implementation and Financial
Oracle Planning and Budgeting
Statements
Cloud Service, Hyperion Planning,
Hyperion Public Sector Planning Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, IL 10/2015 – 03/2016
and Budgeting, Hyperion
Financial Management, Financial Hyperion Team Lead – Hyperion 11.1.2.4 Upgrade
Close, Hyperion Performance City of Burbank, CA 09/2014 – Present
Scorecard
Project Manager & Team Lead – Hyperion 11.1.2 Implementation &
Oracle BI, BI Applications and Managed Services Support
Oracle BI Cloud Service
Loudoun County and County Schools, VA 04/2012 – 12/2013
Oracle Applications Releases R12,
R11i Financials (GL, AP, FA, AR, Hyperion and BI Team Lead – Hyperion 11.1.2 and BI Applications 7.9.6
Cash Management, Public Sector Implementation
Budgeting, Enterprise Planning
Pinellas County, FL 11/2010 – 03/2012
and Budgeting, Advance
Collections) Inventory, Cost Functional Lead – Oracle Hyperion 11.1.1, BI Applications 7.9.6 and
Management, Bill of Material, Financial Statements including CAFR.
Work in Process, Workflow, Daily
California Department of Insurance, CA 06/2010 – 10/2010
Business Intelligence, ADI
Project Manager and Functional Lead – R11.5.9 to R12.1 Upgrade
Methodologies
Pinellas County, FL 02/2010 – 05/2010
EDM: Enterprise Domain Model
Functional Lead General Ledger – Oracle EBS R12 Implementation
EAM: Enterprise Application
Migration Marion County, OR 12/2010 – 02/2010
MDS: Meta Data System Functional Lead – Oracle EBS Assessment
AIM: Application Implementation AST Corporation, IL 06/2009 – 09/2009

Methodology
Functional Lead – BI Application Development for Transit
Oracle E-Business Accelerators
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, IL 02/2009 – 05/2009

Other Software
Functional Lead- Finance – EBS Implementation & Financial Statements
Hyperion Financial Reporting,
Oracle Reports, Discoverer 4i, City of Oakland, CA 06/2008 – 02/2009
Microsoft Office Suite, Win Functional Lead – PSB Implementation and Enhancements
Runner, Test Director, Visio
TravelCLICK, IL 08/2007 – 06/2008
Training & Certifications Functional Lead – Upgrade for Oracle R11.5.10 to R12.0.4
Hyperion Planning
Polk County, FL 02/2008
Hyperion Financial Management
Functional Consultant – Postproduction Support
Project Management Professional
PMP, Project Management Pace Suburban Bus Services, IL 08/2007
Institute (PMI) Functional Consultant – R12 Implementation
Oracle Certified E-Business Suite Rhode Island Airport, RI 07/2007 – 07/2008
Implementation Champion
Functional Consultant – R11i Support Services and Annual Support
Oracle Business Accelerator
Polk County, FL 11/2006 – 07/2007
Education Functional Lead – Oracle Public Sector Budgeting and Business
Post Graduate Diploma, Business Intelligence Implementation
Administration
Polk County, FL 12/2006 – 10/2006
Bachelor of Engineering,
Functional Lead – Oracle E-Business Suite Implementation
Production and Industrial
Engineering Motorola, IL 06/2004 – 07/2005
Functional Lead – Oracle Applications Implementation
Experian, Inc., CA 02/2003 – 05/2004
Functional Lead – Oracle Applications 11.5.8 (Financials and
Procurement) Implementation.
Eaton Corporation, OH 08/2002 – 01/2003
Functional Consultant – Oracle Applications 11.0.3 Implementation
Honda Siel Power Products Ltd., India 10/2000 – 07/2002
Tata Consultancy Services, India 10/2000 – 06/2001
Functional Consultant – Legacy Systems to ERP System
GE Reuter Stokes, OH 05/2000 – 09/2000
Bajaj Auto Ltd., India 07/1995 – 05/1997
Section Manager – Manufacturing System
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
UMARANI NALLIAH
B u d ge t i ng F u nc t i on a l L e a d
Ms. Nalliah is an IT and Financial Analyst with 17 years of experience with Oracle products. She has extensive
experience leading projects, including a Gross Margin Planning Implementation; upgrade projects for
Essbase/Planning from system 9 to system 11; and a Workforce implementation. Her skills include Planning
configurations, Financial Reporting, and data integration and she has proven knowledge of critical accounting
processes and procedures and an ability to effectively manage EPM implementations. Ms. Nalliah has managed
several projects simultaneously from inception to completion, successfully on time and under budget. She
possesses excellent skills in multitasking through effective workload prioritization and the ability to thrive in a
dynamic and rapidly changing environment within the financial services.
Project Summary
Berks County, PA 11/2015 - Present

Hyperion and Oracle
Applications Budgeting Lead - Hyperion Planning Public Sector 11.1.2.4
Implementation
PeopleSoft, Oracle EBS
Oracle EPM 11 (Hyperion AST Corporation 06/2015 – Present
Planning, Essbase, Public Sector OPEX Functional Lead – AST product development on Oracle PBCS
Planning and Budgeting, Hyperion
Financial Reporting, Shared City of Detroit, MI 01/2015 – 12/2015
Services, EPM Workspace) Budgeting Specialist – Oracle ERP Cloud and Planning and Budgeting
Oracle Cloud (Planning and Cloud Service Implementation
Budgeting, Enterprise Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, FL 10/2014 – 01/2015
Performance Reporting)
Budgeting Lead – Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Implementation
Smart View, BI Publisher 11g
Hillsborough County / City of Tampa, FL 11/2013 – 10/2014
Methodologies Reporting Specialist – Shared Hyperion Planning Public Sector 11.1.2.3
EDM: Enterprise Domain Model Implementation
AIM: Application Implementation State of California 07/2013 – 11/2013

Methodology Development Lead – Hyperion Planning Public Sector 11.1.2.3
Implementation
Other Software
Clean Harbors, MA 01/2013 – 06/2013
Access, Excel, Word, Visio,
PowerPoint, Outlook and Project Financial Process Management Consultant – Interface from SAP to
PeopleSoft on GL module
Training & Certifications
Marriott Hotels 10/2012 – 12/2012
Hyperion Planning 11.1.1
Implementation Specialist Report Developer – Hyperion Financial Reports and Smart View
Implementation
Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud
Service Specialist Ascension Health 06/2012 – 09/2012
Enterprise Performance Reporting Hyperion Training and Testing Specialist – Created training and user
Cloud Service Specialist guide for Hyperion Planning, created test scripts and data validation.
Oracle Essbase 11 Alliance Data, TX 04/2005 – 04/2012

Implementation Specialist Business Systems, Senior – Project Lead for Finance-Hyperion IT
projects
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Senior Financial Analyst – Managed the team’s critical month-end
Cloud Service Specialist reporting or quarterly valuation task
Oracle University: Essbase 11.1.1 Bombardier Aerospace, TX 07/2000 – 01/2005
Bootcamp, Essbase 11.1.1 for
System Administrators, Oracle Senior Special Project Analyst – Prepared monthly and quarterly
Hyperion Financial Reporting financial analysis and variance explanations regarding balance sheet
11.1.1 for Essbase and Planning, and P&L accounts.
Oracle Hyperion Planning 11.1.1 CompUSA, TX 08/1996 – 09/1997
Create and Manage Applications
Corporate Accountant – Maintained the accuracy of the General
Project Management Ledger for approximately 15 stores
Institute: Project Management
Professional (PMP)
Microsoft Systems Engineer:
MCSE 2008
Education
Bachelor in Business
Administration, Computer
Information Systems and
Accounting
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
TEJAS PATEL
T e c h ni c al L e a d
Mr. Patel is an Oracle Hyperion Certified professional with over seven years of experience in IT and design,
analysis, development and implementation of various applications in different environments. He has experience in
numerous aspects of EPM, Data Warehouse, OLAP software systems design and implementation, various
applications in Client/Server environments using Oracle/Hyperion Essbase, ESSCMD, MaxL, and Essbase Excel Add
in, Essbase Query Designer, Hyperion Reports and Hyperion Planning under Windows and Linux/Unix
environments, as well as Cloud (PBCS) deployments. Mr. Patel has strong organizational and interpersonal
competencies along with detail-oriented and problem solving skills in the technology arena.
Project Summary
City of Detroit, MI 04/2015 –Present

Enterprise Performance
Management & BI Tools Hyperion Solution Architect – Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud
Service Implementation (Operating)
Hyperion Planning, PBCS, PSPB,
Hyperion Financial Management Forsythe Technologies, IL 02/2015 –05/2015
Suite (HFM), Hyperion System
11/9 BI+, Hyperion Essbase Hyperion Architect – Oracle Essbase assessment and optimization.
7.x/6.x, EIS 9.x, 7.x, 6.x, EAS, Excel Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, FL 10/2014 –06/2015
Add-Inn, ESSCMS, MaxL, Smart
View, Hyperion Financial Data Hyperion Solution Architect – Multiple phase Oracle Planning and
Quality Management, Oracle Budgeting Cloud Service Implementation (Operating, Capital)
Data Integrator Hillsborough County/City of Tampa, FL 08/2013 – 12/2014
Database Hyperion Solution Architect/Technical Lead – Shared Hyperion

Planning and Public Sector Planning and Budgeting implementation.
Essbase, Oracle, DB2, MS, SQL Integration with Oracle EBS GL and HR/Payroll utilizing FDM, ODI.
Server 2000, MS Access
Loudoun County, VA 06/2013 – 08/2013
Hardware & Operating System
Hyperion Technical Lead – Hyperion Planning (Operating, Capital) and
Solaris, Windows , Unix, Linux PSPB (position/employee) implementation with FDM and ODI against
Oracle EBS.
Other Software
Desert Diamond Casinos, AZ 03/2013 – 09/2013
PL/SQL, Visual Basic 6.0, SQL,
HTML, XML, VBScript, JavaScript, Hyperion Technician-Hyperion Planning implementation (Operating).
COBOL, Shell Scripting, MS Visio, Chicago Park District, IL 10/2012 – 02/2013
ERWin 4.0, MS Project
Senior Hyperion Technician – Hyperion Planning, Essbase and PSPB
Training & Certifications Cube Development and Enhancements.
Hyperion Essbase 9.3 Developer Comerica Bank, MI 06/2010 – 10/2012

Certified Expert Sr. Hyperion Application Engineer – DSS Hyperion 11.1.1.3 Upgrade.
Education Saxon Global 01/2009 – 05/2010
Master of Business Hyperion/Essbase Developer – MIS Reporting Oracle Essbase
Administration Implementation.
Bachelor of Engineering, Jim Lake Management Company, TX 2008
Computers
Developer – Capstone Project for Jim Lake Management Company.
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
N. KIRAN KUMAR
T e c h ni c al An a l y s t (O f f s h or e )
Mr. Kumar is a Senior Hyperion Consultant with 13 years of experience in the design and implementation of Data
Warehousing, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), and Financial Reporting solutions using Oracle
Hyperion EPM & BI tools. He has a strong history of working with independently managed and highly focused
teams providing quality software and services to both international and domestic clients in the Finance domain.
Mr. Kumar has experience in solution consulting, transition management, project management, and customer
management. He has participated in the full life-cycle development of EPM projects and has technical experience
in the design, analysis, development, and implementation of various applications in the client/server environment
using Oracle Hyperion system 9/11, EPMA, Hyperion Planning, Essbase, HFM, Shared Services, Smart View, FDQM,
ODI, Financial Reports, Informatica, and Essbase Add-in. Mr. Kumar has worked with esteemed customers across
the globe, including Fortune 500 Companies like Cummins, Riverbed, Good Technologies, Sita Aero, Chrysler, Kraft
Foods, and General Electric.
Project Summary
City of Detroit, MI 03/2016 – Present

Hyperion and Oracle
Applications Oracle PBCS Development and Support
Enterprise Performance State of Delaware 04/2016 – Present
Management System 11
(Planning, Data Relationship Hyperion Implementation, Security Setup, Testing Support, Reporting
Management, Financial RCS Advisors, India 06/2015 – 02/2016
Management, Financial
Reporting, Smart View, Life Cycle Senior Hyperion Consultant – COA Reporting Implementation
Management, Shared Services, Future Focus Infotech Pvt Ltd, India 05/2014 – 01/2015
HAL, EIS, EAL)
Senior Technical Architect (EPM) – ABO Reporting Implementation,
Oracle Planning and Budgeting CESSTATS & DBUSTATS Reporting and Consolidation Support
Cloud Service
Jade Global Software Pvt Ltd, India 12/2013 – 04/2014
Hyperion Planning 9.x,
Hyperion Essbase 9.x/7.x Hyperion Team Lead – Hyperion Support and Enhancements
Financial Data Quality Mgmt Future Focus Infotech Pvt Ltd, India 10/2009 – 12/2013
(FDMEE), ERP Integrator (ERPi),
Senior Technical Consultant (EPM)
Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)
ER India 12/2007 – 08/2009
Databases
Senior Technical Consultant (Hyperion) – EPM Implementation
Oracle, SQL, Essbase
Birlasoft Limited 10/2006 – 11/2007
Hardware & Operating Systems Senior Consultant – GEC&I Sales Analysis, HR3 Downstreams
Linux/Unix, Windows
Wend Technologies 09/2004 – 10/2006
Methodologies Technical Consultant – System Design
EDM: Enterprise Domain Model Sceptor InfoTech 03/2002 – 08/2004
EAM: Enterprise Application Developer, Data Integration
Migration
AIM: Application Implementation
Methodology
Budget Software
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
Languages
MDX, SQL, VB
Training & Certifications

Oracle Hyperion System 9
Planning 9.3 Administrator
Oracle Hyperion Essbase 9.3
Developer
Education
Master of Sciences, PGDCA
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
f. Provide the following information on the last five (5) budget implementations your firm completed:
i. Did you meet your original schedule commitments?
ii. Did you meet your original budget commitments?
iii. For any implementations that did not go as planned, please describe the situation and actions.
For each of these last five (5) PBCS/Hyperion Planning deployments we have been ‘on time’ and ‘on
budget’:
 City of Detroit, MI (2015 deployment)
 City of Burbank, CA (2015 deployment)
 Orlando International Airport (GOAA), FL (2015 deployment)
 Hampton Roads Sanitation District, VA (2015 deployment)
 County of Berks, PA (deployed this week)
These PBCS/Hyperion Planning deployments are a good mix of implementations and posed their own
challenges that AST addresses. For the City of Detroit, the PBCS implementation was a parallel work
stream to an Oracle Cloud ERP (Financials) phase. The first PBCS rollout was ahead of the Financials
deployment to allow for budget entry and avoid re-entry of data after Financials; this posed challenges of
needing to re-source data conversions and re-point data integrations – we did so successfully.
The City of Burbank project was a shared implementation with the public utility Burbank Water & Power;
as such, organizations goals were not in line, so scope management (differing opinions) and change
management was key. In the end, we delivered a robust solution that met the needs of both entities.
Hampton Roads Sanitation District was another very successful implementation and we were able to keep
to the schedule by tabling new requirements that came up during the implementation – this strategy
(maintain the same goal) is an effective one, allowing new scope to be better planned out while ensuring
timely delivery on the original scope.
AST embraces the implementation process and expected surfacing of risks and issues to address. Our
Project Governance model, with Executive involvement from both parties is a driving force. All projects
have issues and the majority can be addressed by the team with feet on the ground; however, escalation
to the Executive sponsorship for advice and direction is always helpful. The most common issue faced is
availability of key resources from our customers. We understand that they often have to keep up with
their normal responsibilities and we are considerate of their time, but this issue often does arise. We
often collaborate on solutions, either back-filling or adjusting the schedule, and have overcome this
challenge consistently.
g. Provide real world examples of the successful use of your Performance Management feature.
We have implemented Performance Management elements for many of our customers.

This first example is for another County – they have identified many key measures to capture and track as
found on the left-hand column. During the Planning process, these measures are identified by ‘type’ and
‘unit of measure’ and then tracked against actuals over time. These same measures can be leveraged as
drivers to expense and revenue budgets and forecasts.
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General Questions
Additionally, as Municipal governments have traditionally managed their resources through line-item
budgets and program-based budgets that focuses on resource allocation to different programs approved
by local government leaders. More frequently now, governments are trying focus on outcomes of the
programs to determine which programs are providing better values to their citizens. In
performance/outcome-based budgeting, resource allocations are tied to performance of programs, a
process that leads to cutting back on inefficient programs or programs whose outcome is not satisfactory.
Performance-based budgeting helps government leaders prioritize activities based on input of resources
as well as their outcomes. The PBCS (and underlying Hyperion Planning) solution allows for capturing
performance metrics and integrate performance management data with resource allocation process to
facilitate performance-based budgeting.
This example is from Pinellas County, whereby the budgetary information was linked to their strategic
organizational objectives:
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RFP # P16-02
General Questions
h. Provide audited income statements and balance sheets from two of the most recent reporting periods.
AST is a privately held, fiscally stable company that has always had a very healthy balance sheet with high
cash reserves. We have been profitable in every single year since our incorporation in 1995, and have had
consistent, year over year growth in those 20 years. AST has never had any bankruptcy or insolvency
proceedings filed against it. Additionally, throughout our 20 years of history, AST:
 Has always maintained positive cash flows and net income;
 Continues to maintain healthy gross and net margins on its business operations;
 Has never had to lay off employees, despite economic and market slowdowns.
In 2015, AST Corporation acquired Serene Corporation, a recognized name in the Hi-Tech, Health Sciences,
Engineering & Construction, and Financial Services industries for Oracle services. This acquisition further
strengthens AST’s ability to deliver complex multi-million dollar enterprise applications projects across a
wider array of industries.
Furthermore, AST has sufficient operating capital and revenue streams to withstand adverse economic
events including recessions, inflation, etc., if they should occur.
As requested by the RFP, we have included AST’s audited, confidential financial statement for two of the
most recent reporting periods in a separately marked envelope.
Budget Software
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3 TESTING
a. Describe your recommended testing methodology, approach and tools for a migration to your Budget System.
Extensive testing of the Oracle Cloud modules before production will be critical to the overall success of
the County’s project. Our project approach will include several rounds of testing before the solution is
ready for production. It is important to note that the focus of the testing in this stage will change from
feature/functions to the system process flows. AST will lead the effort in creating the testing strategy and
test plan to validate the business process flows. AST will assist the County’s SMEs and users in writing test
scripts to verify all business tasks they perform on a day-to-day basis. The functional traceability matrix
will be used to ensure that all process flows are fully tested.
The table below outlines the planned testing iterations in our EDM methodology.
Test Description
Unit Testing Any custom program (interfaces, UIs, reports, extensions, data conversions, and other
customizations) will be unit tested by the project’s combined AST-County technical
team and then by the functional team before they are made available for system
integration testing. This technical QA process ensures that the code meets the
business requirements identified for the customization.
System Testing System integration testing is one of the most critical parts of an implementation
project. Integration testing will test the complete set of the County’s processes,
including both standard functionality and customized programs (a piece of custom
code must first pass technical unit testing prior to it being available for system
integration testing). The steps in system integration testing include:
 A group of functional users will run all test scripts related to a given
process. This makes sure that the hand-offs between modules are tested
as well as each script within the process.
 As each script is tested, the results are recorded in a testing results log.
 If the scripts pass the test, all related customizations can be moved to the
User Acceptance Testing environment.
 If any scripts fail the test, the results are documented. The item must be
analyzed, the fix must be identified, and the complete process with the
failure must be re-tested after the fixes have been incorporated. Once
the process passes, the related customizations and any new fixes can be
moved to the User Acceptance instance.
 Failed items are tracked on the Test Failure Resolution Log.
 A formal signoff document is approved and signed to signify the County’s
approval of the System Integration Testing.
Test scripts will be logically sequenced, then grouped into different system test
periods. Test plans will then be scheduled for execution according to the system test
periods. Actual results will be documented and compared to the expected results to
ensure the business processes are working according to the design.
User Acceptance All user departments must be involved in User Acceptance Testing. The user test plan
Testing will utilize the test scripts created for system integration testing and include all
business processes; month-end and year-end processing and integration flows with
other systems. The issues and results will be documented and verified against
expected results. This helps mitigate risks by identifying all the major issues with the
application before going live.
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Testing
Once a custom program is approved during acceptance testing, it can be staged for
migration to Production at the Go Live.
Our consultants will be deployed with the County Core Project Team to help users
execute the test scripts and deal with system and process issues. Once per day, a short
meeting is conducted to review the results of the day and to plan/re-plan the next day’s
activities as required.
The result of the process should be a preliminary acceptance of the systems. All issues
will be documented and will be reviewed with the County Team. When the testing has
been completed, a meeting with all the appropriate individuals is conducted to make
the final ‘Go/No Go’ decision for the implementation project.
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4 TRAINING AND SUPPORT
a. Describe your approach to end-user training and your process for developing training materials?
Training and Knowledge Transfer

In defining a training approach for Budget System implementations such as this one, AST will typically
divide the County’s users into three distinct groups with their own individual training approach: the
County project team members (Power Users), the County end users (View Only Users), and the County
technical staff.
County Project Team Members

AST proposes a collaborative team approach for the Hyperion implementation. AST consultants will be
paired with the County’s SMEs and implementation team, and the combined AST/County Team will work
side-by-side to ensure that there is continuous knowledge transfer.
At the start of the project, AST will conduct orientation activities for the Project Team to facilitate an
understanding of the Hyperion application process flows and activities for the participation in the
implementation process. After the orientation, the implementation training will continue on a one-on-
one basis through mentoring and general collaboration during project activities.
County End-User Training Approach

The true measure of success for the Hyperion implementation will be the ability of the County’s end users
to use the applications to increase efficiencies, streamline business processes, and do their jobs more
effectively. In order to accomplish these goals, we recommend utilizing role-based training courses, which
will be fundamental in enabling the rapid transfer of knowledge and enable the County’s business,
operational and IT staff to most effectively perform their tasks within the EPM environment. Our role-
based training will focus on the set of tasks that an employee is expected to perform. This will enable the
County’s staff to gain the confidence required to apply the concepts and techniques they will learn during
training.
Our extensive experience in training Public Sector staff during an implementation project has
demonstrated that role-based training better prepares course participants for the work they will perform,
as compared to more traditional software module-based training. We propose to hold training sessions
divided into groups of people who perform similar functions specifically to target end users with the
training that is required for their specific job function.
AST has typically utilized a Train-the Trainer Approach for similar implementations with other clients, and
it is our preferred approach to handling end-user training as it helps to facilitate knowledge transfer and
total organizational ownership of the new system. AST consultants will provide leadership and gather
assistance from the County’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in creating end user training materials, job
aids, and procedure manuals – this will generally occur during the testing phase ahead of deployment.
For end-users, AST plans to prepare materials for and facilitate end-user training for the following:
1. All Users – this session will be one day or less and cover introductory topics, targeting “view
only” activities
2. Power Users – this session will be up to two days and cover advanced topics required for full
participation in budget cycle preparedness, maintenance, and facilitation. It is expected that
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RFP # P16-02
Training and Support
“power users” will also sit in on the “all user” training as a prerequisite.
Technology Personnel Training Approach
AST is fully committed to providing the required knowledge transfer to the County’s technical staff and
DBAs, in order to facilitate easy transition to production support. Our technical consultants are devoted
to the goal of helping build an internal support infrastructure that will be self-sufficient well after the
project conclusion.
This knowledge transfer comes from our project management approach of engaging the technical
resources early on in the project and having them as part of the configuration and development phases
of the project. AST’s Technical Team will hold a technical orientation workshop at the beginning of the
project to provide an overview of Oracle technology to the County’s Technical Team. Over the course of
the project, the County’s technical staff will be able to pick up additional tricks by working side-by-side
with our experienced consultants. Formal documentation, specifications review, and hand-off procedures
all help the knowledge transfer process. Finally, formal technical and administrative training will be
provided during the transition period, covering pertinent topics required to maintain and support the
application going forward.
Verification of Training & Knowledge Transfer

It is one thing to say that we provide complete and effective Training and Knowledge Transfer, but if key
users and technical staff still do not feel comfortable with the new Hyperion software when the
implementation ends, we have not done our job. Therefore, AST’s Project Team is held responsible for
ensuring that the goals and objectives of our training and knowledge transfer plans are clearly defined
and met during the course of the project.
We value our long-term relationships with our clients, but we also pride ourselves on helping our clients
maximize their investment and take full ownership of their new software and systems. We will be
committed to ensuring a timely and complete transfer of knowledge to the County’s staff so that the
Oracle Hyperion system will run smoothly long after the implementation project is complete. We will
involve the County’s staff from the earliest stages of the project on a continuous basis so that the
knowledge transfer is practical, effective, and in-depth. In addition to classroom-based training and
formal review sessions, our consultants will also work informally with the County to ensure that the
knowledge transfer is sufficient and timely.
b. What kind of online help features do you have?
i. Please describe any customization that the County would be able to do with this online help for its budget system
users.
One of Oracle’s Cloud solutions greatest aspects is the availability of online content. From within PBCS,
users can access Oracle tutorials on all of the common actions. Here, on the PBCS dashboard are quick
links to tutorials, demos and documentation, all online and easily accessible.
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RFP # P16-02
Here is an example of the tutorials available for administrators to create forms and folders:
Moreover, self-service support is available 24/7/365 through Oracle’s online support portal. Technical
Support Contacts may log service requests at any time. Oracle Premier Support provides 24/7 coverage
on Severity 1 issues until the issue is resolved or as long as useful progress can be made, provided certain
conditions are met.
With regards to County-specific help materials, within PCBS forms and task lists, one has the ability to
include detailed instructions for users to review during the budget period. These high-level notes have
proven helpful to users. Additionally, AST’s scope includes the creation of training materials for “train-
the-trainer” sessions. These same materials can be accessed by users post-training, as needed.
c. What training software is available?
i. If the vendor provides multiple training software options, provide the description of the different options and
associated costs. (The County reserves the right to choose the option that best meets the County’s needs.)
ii. Does the system accommodate the ability to include County-specific help documents, glossaries, process
documentation, etc. for users? If so, how does this work? If the vendor provides multiple customizable help
options, provide the description of the different options and associated costs on separate letterhead. (The County
reserves the right to choose the option that best meets the County’s needs.)
As mentioned above, within PCBS forms and task lists, one has the ability to include detailed instructions
for users to review during the budget period. These high-level notes have proven helpful to users.
Additionally, AST’s scope includes the creation of training materials for “train-the-trainer” sessions. These
same materials can be accessed by users post-training, as needed.
For the training materials, AST has assumed the used of Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK), if the County
is already licensed or interested in it, or the Microsoft Office suite. AST will create County-specific content
for training, focusing on Larimer’s budget process.
AST welcomes further discussion on UPK if the County is interested – product highlights can be found
online here:
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RFP # P16-02
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/user-productivity-kit/overview/index.html
d. Describe the support services available after system go-live, including various levels of support and their price
differences, if any.
As part of the Oracle Cloud ERP subscription, the County will have access to industry leading Oracle
Premier Support in order to achieve maximum service levels within a minimal amount of time following
service implementation. Support Services for Oracle Cloud consists of:
 Diagnosis of problems or issues with the Oracle Cloud services
 Reasonable commercial efforts to resolve reported and verifiable errors in the Oracle Cloud
services so that they perform in all material respects as described in the associated Program
Documentation
 Support during Change Management activities described in the Oracle Cloud Change
Management Policy
 Assistance with technical Service Requests
 24 hours per day, 7 days a week 24 x 7 access to a Cloud Customer Support Portal designated by
Oracle (e.g., My Oracle Support) and Live Telephone Support to log Service Requests
 Access to community forums
 Non-technical Customer service assistance during normal Oracle business hours (8:00 to 17:00)
local time.
The proposed solution being hosted and maintained by Oracle, the infrastructure and the related IT
support needs are eliminated. Oracle would be responsible for system maintenance, installation, patches,
ongoing maintenance, upgrades, monitoring, and backup and recovery, DBA and other associated work.
There is no software license or hardware to buy and manage. Supporting underlying technologies are
taken care of.
Oracle Premier Support is on duty 24/7 and support rolls around the globe with normal working hours on
critical issues. During normal working hours for US time zones, the major support centers are located in
Orlando and Colorado. Telephone support in English is provided 24-hours per day, 7-days a week. Self-
Service support is available 24/7/365 through Oracle’s online support portal. Technical Support Contacts
may log service requests at any time. Premier Support provides 24/7 coverage on Severity 1 issues until
the issue is resolved or as long as useful progress can be made, provided certain conditions are met.
AST Managed Services for Ongoing PBCS Support

While the Hyperion application has solved most of the complexities in the planning and budgeting
process, it has also posed a challenge of finding the skilled resources to support one of the most
advanced software applications.
At AST, we have a team of experienced Hyperion functional and technical consultants. As an
Oracle Hyperion Pillar Partner we have the know-how to provide the best support services for
Hyperion solutions and could provide that support to Larimer County for PBCS.
Our Hyperion capabilities include:
 Provide business expertise in assessing planning, budgeting and forecasting needs
 Provide technical services in designing and developing interfaces, data forms and
calculations
 Provide multi-dimensional database experience to support Oracle Essbase
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RFP # P16-02
 Troubleshooting issues with data forms and business rules

 Reporting and Smart View support, including for Ad hoc analysis
 Hyperion Financial Reporting support
 Assist with debugging/resolving integration issues with source systems
 Coordinate reporting and resolving product issues with Oracle Support
Cloud Support
Many organizations are making the move to the Cloud to get the well-known benefit of reducing
IT spend. While Cloud vendors provide much of the technical support traditionally managed by
IT, there is still a key role that organizations must play to ensure the move is a successful one.
Having the right combination of resources in place will be a major success factor. Our highly
experienced Managed Services team performs these support functions, as well as a full breadth
of Cloud enhancement and integration services, to guarantee success. The AST Hyperion
Managed Services team has extensive experience in guiding organizations through the process
of adopting and supporting Oracle solutions. Our Oracle-Certified professionals can provide
expert guidance in migrating to, managing and mastering the Cloud relationship.
Scope of Managed Services for the County
The following are the proposed service roles and corresponding tasks to be performed by the
Managed Services Support staff:
Service Associated Tasks

 Status Reporting to the County
Service Delivery
 Coordination of tasks between the County and AST resources
Management
 Point of contact for escalations
 Assist the County users with business functionality and process flow
Hyperion Functional
questions
Support
 Identify and ascertain the type of problem for issues identified by
business users
 Support web forms, business rules and reports
 Coordinate with Oracle Support on Product support issues
 Assist with system debugging and issue resolution
Hyperion Technical
 Support data integration process interruptions
Support
 Review and resolve technical issues with the system
 Coordinate with Oracle Support on Product support issues
Support Work
All support services defined as ‘Support Work’ will be provided as remote, managed services
under the Price List provided as Fixed Price services.
Support Work is defined as ‘day to day’ operational support of existing functionality and/or
business processes within the supported systems. Types of Support Work include:
• Incidents - business users report technical problems while attempting to perform
standard processing
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RFP # P16-02
• Tasks – request for a routine setup and/or maintenance task to be completed by

support team
All requests for support work will be tracked as helpdesk tickets. Support Services will be
managed by a designated Service Delivery Manager (SDM) that will serve as a primary point
of contact for all support related services, facilitate support status meetings and provide
status reporting.
System Enhancements
System Enhancements are enhancements to the system to change/add functionality and/or
updates to accommodate new or changing business processes. Types of System Enhancements
include:
• Perfective - to enhance functionality
• Adaptive - to adjust to business or regulatory change
• Preventive - to keep from breaking in the future
• Development - to add new programs or functionality never before included within the
design of the system
Any items identified and selected as ‘System Enhancements’ will be formally estimated (upon
County request) via a Change Request (CR) and submitted for County approval. No work will be
performed without a County-approved CR. Any approved services provided under the category
of ‘System Enhancements’ will be invoiced on a Time and Material (T&M) basis using the Rate
Card provided in Section 9 of this proposal document.
e. Describe your ability to provide enhanced support services outside of normal business hours during the County’s
peak budget season (roughly July through December).
For the County to consider, AST’s Managed Services group can deliver unmatched ongoing
support for PBCS beyond the initial post-production support period. AST established a robust
managed services operation primarily focused on Public Sector Customers in the support and
management of Oracle and Hyperion applications. Larimer County could leverage AST’s
Managed Services capabilities to provide enhanced support services during the County’s peak
budget season. AST’s Managed Services practice was launched in 2002 with clear service level
agreements, an ITIL V3 compliant methodology, proactive monitoring tools and process for
managing Oracle support engagements, especially in the public sector industry. Our practice
addresses smooth knowledge transition, application stabilization, establishment of well-defined
SLA (service level agreements), ticket reduction, and an increased focus on continuous
improvement.
Service Level Agreement
AST understands that each client’s needs are unique; hence, we maintain a flexible approach
with regards to structuring a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with our clients for Managed
Services. Prior to embarking on a support engagement, AST will formulate/confirm a
customer-specific SLA that will provide details about services to be performed, support
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RFP # P16-02
logistics, responsibilities of all parties, definition of priorities, response times and escalation
procedures.
Incident Response Time
The SLA for Incident Response Time for the proposed support services is as follows:
• An incident or issue will be ‘Acknowledged’ within 1 hour of being reported
• An incident or issue will be ‘In Process’ within 4 hours of being reported
Prioritization of Support Work
Support work is prioritized based on the business criticality of requests for assistance (support
requests). Requests for assistance will be prioritized as follows:
1. Critical – It involves any task necessitating an immediate response for support. These
are incidents that render critical business functions unavailable i.e. business is halted or
impaired and no work around is available.
2. High – It is defined as an incident where the system/application is operating with severe
restriction (for example, performance is unacceptably slow).
3. Medium – It is defined as a production system/application problem where acceptable
workarounds exist. The majority of the functions are still usable. Some circumvention
may be required to reestablish normal service.
4. Low – It is defined as a production system/application problem isolated to a few users
and/or non-critical tasks.
Support Logistics
The following are logistics for the proposed Ongoing Support services:
 Hours of Operation: Standard hours of operation for support services will be: Monday –
Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MDT (Except Public Holidays).
 Standard support requests (for ‘Non–Critical’ Incidents) received after business
hours or on weekends will be reviewed the following business day during business
hours and the appropriate response will be taken based on the prioritization of the
request.
 Off hours support will be provided outside of standard hours of operation for the
following:
 Approved/planned work: pre-approved and pre-planned support related
tasks designated and/or required to be performed outside of the standard
hours of operation.
 Critical Incidents: support of incidents identified as ‘Critical’ and requiring
support outside of the standard hours of operation.
• Support Coverage: The County shall provide all Level 1/Helpdesk, Database
Administration, Infrastructure Support and System Administration (User Management)
support services. AST shall provide all Functional and Technical Hyperion support
services.
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• Location: Support services will be performed remotely. Travel can be arranged, if

approved by the County, and will be billed as actuals.
• Ticketing System: The County’s existing ticket system will be used to capture support
requests. If the County does not have a ticket system, AST’s ticket system will be used to
capture support requests.
• AST Support team Contact: AST managed services staff can be contacted via phone or
via email. A County customer-specific email account will be established to contact the
AST Support Team.
• Status Reporting: AST will provide status reports to include tickets logs to indicate ticket
priority, assignment and status.
• Status Meetings: AST will facilitate/conduct status meetings with the designated client
support team and AST Managed Services support team on a weekly basis.
• Management Updates: AST will provide management updates regarding overall support
status on a quarterly basis.
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5 DETAILED RESPONSES TO EXHIBIT 1
This section allows you to expand on your responses to the Functional and Technical Requirements listed in Exhibit
1. If you feel your proposed Budget System excels in any of these areas or provides additional, enhanced
capabilities, please use this opportunity to expand on your response. Specific examples of how these items work
for other local governments, especially in Colorado, would be helpful. Please create a list including the item
number and name of the functionality or feature you want to expand on from Exhibit 1 and include your
information.
Example:
Item 1.a.i - Ability to use different budget methodologies – incremental, performance, zero-based and outcome
based. Ability to implement a biennial budget if desired by the County.
AST has thoroughly reviewed the requirements matrices and is confident that Oracle PBCS will meet the
County’s needs and introduce best practice features with its proven Hyperion Planning foundation. With
successes implementing PBCS at other Public Sector entities (City of Detroit and Orlando International
Airport), combined with our experience modeling operating and capital budgeting processes for dozens
of customers, we know that we can be successful and PBCS will meet those needs.
Combined with AST’s Opex pre-built components for Planning, the PBCS solution is a complete one. Here
are some of the features and capabilities to highlight:
 Allows multiple versions of budget data. For example: Requested, Proposed, and Adopted.
 Ability to copy data between budget versions and years.
 Allows data input at multiple intersections of dimensions within the application.
 Gives users to input to separate members. If “base budget” and “service proposal” reside in the
same dimension, they can be addressed separately.
 Let’s users copy the Current-year adopted budget to revised current year adopted budget where
changes can be made and reported.
 Calculations or Business Rules can be written to perform Allocations based on the County’s
methodology. This will give a consistent allocation method throughout the budget period.
 Dimensionality can be set to match the import of employee data from ADP. There are several
ways to import the date to PBCS
 Stores multiple years of history that is relevant to the current budget process.
 Allows an FTE to reside in multiple cost centers with multiple salaries.
 Business rules and calculations can be written to accommodate the multiple merit dates.
 Reports can be built using multiple years.
 Smart View can integrate with Microsoft Office products and accommodate ad hoc Excel queries.
 Smart View gives drill down functions from top level members.
 Budget books can be set up, combining static content, reports and Smart View content, using
multiple departments/agencies.
 AST’s Opex offers position budgeting models and input forms, as well as Revenue & Expense
Budget Planning models and input forms, including the ability to capture performance
management KPIs and strategic goals
 AST’s Opex offers new Budget Request (Decision Package) functionality
 AST’s Opex offers various pre-defined projection methods
 “What If” scenarios can be leveraged by the County
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6 REFERENCES
For 20 years, AST has developed a reputation as THE Public Sector “go-to” partner for Oracle solution
implementations. This reputation has been built on a proven track record of success in completing all
projects on time, on budget, and to the complete satisfaction of our clients, including Larimer County.
AST has a long and valued relationship with the County and seeks to continue this trusted partnership well
into the future.
Our clients have always found AST to be especially responsive and adaptable. We understand that not
everything can be anticipated at the onset of any project and that our client's internal priorities and
constraints will most likely shift during a long engagement, especially within Public Sector organizations.
AST takes great care in highlighting these potential problem areas to our clients so that together we can
be better prepared to deal effectively with whatever arises.
AST is pleased to provide the required references for our team’s experience with similar projects in scope
to the County’s Budget System implementation project below.
Client Name and Contact Client Address Contact Phone and E-Mail
City of Detroit, MI Coleman A. Young Municipal Center 313-770-7209
Floyd Stanley, Deputy 2 Woodward Avenue, Suite 1100 floyd@detroitmi.gov
Director – Office of Budget
Detroit, MI 48226
County of Berks, PA 633 Court Street, 12th Floor 610-478-6175, Ext. 6194
Justin Loose, Chief Reading, PA 19601 jloose@countyofberks.com
Information Officer
Greater Orlando Aviation 8652 Casa Verde Road 407-825-2187
Authority, FL
Administrative Bldg. jknusalla@goaa.org
James Knusalla, Sr.
Orlando, FL 32827
Business Applications
Hampton Roads Sanitation 1434 Air Rail Avenue 757-460-7026
District, VA
Virginia Beach, VA 23455-3330 egirardi@hrsd.com
Erin Girardi, Capital
Program Manager
City of Burbank, CA 275 E. Olive Avenue, Information 818-238-5153
Technology Dept.
Medik Ghazikhanian, MGhazikhanian@burbankca.gov
Deputy Director Burbank, CA, 91510
Budget Software
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7 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN & SCHEDULE
Based upon our current understanding of the scope and our extensive experience implementing Oracle
Planning and Budgeting solutions for other Public Sector agencies, we estimate the Oracle Planning and
Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) effort to align with a six (6) month implementation project, including one
(1) month of post-production support. This timeline allows AST to configure and build the sophisticated
needs into the solution and offers adequate timeframes for testing, deployment and post-implementation
support needs.
7.1 SCOPE OF WORK

The preliminary scope of work shall include:
1. Provide project management support to the County, including a project charter, with project
governance tenets, and the initial version and ongoing maintenance of the project plan.
2. Functional and technical resources as required for successful implementation, including working
with the County’s project team on:
 Implementation Strategies (change management, testing, training, cut-over)
 Application configuration and development
 System and User Acceptance testing
 Training
 Production deployment
 Post-implementation support
3. A complete, configured and populated AST’s Opex Planning solution within Oracle Planning &
Budgeting Cloud Service as required in order for the County to setup, prepare, and manage
budgeting process. This includes:
 Configure tasks list for Budget office and Department users.
 Configure up to thirty (30) “Data Forms” (entry and/or inquiry screens) to capture budget
inputs in the manner desired by the County.
 Configure up to ten (10) “scenarios” (e.g. actual, budget, estimate, forecast, etc.) with
facilities to capture multiple “versions” (i.e. phases, stages or snapshots) and what if
scenarios.
 Configure up to twenty (20) “Business Rules” (allocations, calculations, validations and
aggregation) to further extend the capabilities of PBCS Planning to meet the County’s unique
needs.
 Configure dimensional structure aligned with County’s chart of accounts defined in Oracle
General Ledger leveraging revenue and expense accounts only for supporting data input,
inquiry and reporting requirements.
 Configure flexible budget setup and rollover process.
 Configure budget revision process.
 Configure budget approval process.
 Configure application security by users and group of users.
4. Integration of supporting and historical data through importing and exporting of delimited flat
files, with automation enabled by the Oracle EPM Automate Utility
 Integration with Oracle EBS Financials (General Ledger), consuming actuals and budget
balances and pushing the adopted budget from PBCS to Oracle EBS
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RFP # P16-02
Implementation Plan & Schedule
 Integration with ADP Payroll consuming position details to support the Position Budgeting
into PBCS and Opex.
 Incorporate up to five (5) years of historical adopted budget and actual balances loaded from
Oracle EBS Financials (General Ledger) leveraging the same facilities as above
5. Initial set of fifteen (15) reports to be delivered via Hyperion Financial Reporting (HFR) or
SmartView (Excel plug-in which allows access to Hyperion Planning via MS Excel)
 AST also recommends that the County's team members assigned to the project will be able
to create additional reports through knowledge transfer and the proposed training.
6. Enablement of SmartView (MS Office integration) features for data entry and ad-hoc reporting
facilities
7. Demonstrate budget book development process by creating the book template based on included
reports above and incorporating text and other static content provided by the County.
8. Documentation of all developed items and processes implemented following AST templates
9. Technical and Functional training for up to 25 users and training materials for the County staff
 “Train the Trainer” approach to be utilized for the County resources in user support of PBCS
 End-User course will include topics for: Data entry, Financial Reports execution, and
SmartView usage.
 Administrative course will include topics for: Dimensions, Security setup, Data Load/Migration
execution, and overviews of Financial Reporting, Data Forms, and Calculation development.
10. Knowledge transfer activities for technical and administrative users, including post-production
support for a period of one (1) week
Again, we are open to working with the County to make any desired adjustments to this proposed scope
of work in order to better align with the County’s needs.
7.2 PROPOSED PROJECT PLAN

Within the definition Phase of our EDM Methodology, AST’s Project Lead, in conjunction with the County’s
Project Manager and Steering Committee, will finalize a detailed Project Plan including all tasks and
activities. Our preliminary, detailed activity-level Work Plan is provided below. AST will work with the
County to derive the final project plan for this implementation.
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Larimer County PBCS Implementation 134 days 8/1/16 2/10/17
Definition and Analysis 25 days 8/1/16 9/2/16
Initiation 3 days 8/1/16 8/3/16
Project Mobilization 1 day 8/1/16 8/1/16
Kick-Off 1 day 8/1/16 8/1/16
Finalize Project Scope 3 days 8/1/16 8/3/16
Finalize Project Charter 3 days 8/1/16 8/3/16
Planning 3 days 8/4/16 8/8/16
Finalize Project Plan/Schedule 3 days 8/4/16 8/8/16
Budget Technical Analysis 15 days 8/4/16 8/24/16
Analysis of data 3 wks 8/4/16 8/24/16
Analysis of Source Systems 3 wks 8/4/16 8/24/16
Define Business Requirements 19 days 8/9/16 9/2/16
Requirement Gathering 3 wks 8/9/16 8/29/16
Preliminary Gap-Fit Analysis 4 days 8/30/16 9/2/16
Draft deliverables 4 days 8/30/16 9/2/16
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RFP # P16-02
D-01 Project Mobilization 0 days 8/1/16 8/1/16

D-02 Project Kick off 0 days 8/1/16 8/1/16
D-03 Project Plan/Schedule 0 days 8/3/16 8/3/16
D-04 Project Charter 0 days 8/8/16 8/8/16
D-05 Business Requirement Complete 0 days 9/2/16 9/2/16
Phase Closeout 0 days 9/2/16 9/2/16
Budgeting Design and Build 68.5 days 9/2/16 12/13/16
Design and Development 68.5 days 9/2/16 12/13/16
Data Modeling 25 days 9/6/16 10/10/16
Determine dimension set 2 wks 9/6/16 9/19/16
Model dimensions 3 wks 9/20/16 10/10/16
Tech Specifications 15 days 9/6/16 9/26/16
Report Specifications 13 days 9/6/16 9/22/16
Assess reports reqs vs. available reports 3 days 9/6/16 9/8/16
Finalize list of initial reports 1 wk 9/9/16 9/15/16
Update specifications 2 wks 9/9/16 9/22/16
Data Form (Screen) Specifications 13 days 9/6/16 9/22/16
Assess screen reqs vs. available screens 3 days 9/6/16 9/8/16
Security and Workflow Specifications 15 days 9/6/16 9/26/16
Assess security and workflow reqs 1 wk 9/6/16 9/12/16
Conference Room Pilot 9.5 days 9/27/16 10/10/16
Prep 1.5 wks 9/27/16 10/6/16
Execution 1 day 10/6/16 10/7/16
Finalize Gap Fit Analysis 1 day 10/7/16 10/10/16
Development & Unit Testing 40 days 10/7/16 12/6/16
Application Design 5 days 10/7/16 10/14/16
Create/Update dimensions 1 wk 10/7/16 10/14/16
Data Interfaces and Conversion 30 days 10/7/16 11/18/16
Configure EPM Automate Utility 2 wks 10/7/16 10/21/16
Process Data Conversion 4 wks 10/21/16 11/18/16
Screens and Rules 40 days 10/7/16 12/6/16
Build/Update screens per specs 4 wks 10/7/16 11/4/16
Build/Update rules per specs 4 wks 11/4/16 12/6/16
Reports 25 days 10/7/16 11/11/16
Build/Update reports per specs 5 wks 10/7/16 11/11/16
Workflows and Security 5 days 10/7/16 10/14/16
Build/Update workflows per specs 1 wk 10/7/16 10/14/16
Update Technical Documentation 5 days 12/6/16 12/13/16
Update technical specifications for Interfaces, Conversions, Business
1 wk 12/6/16 12/13/16
Rules & Reports
D-07 Conference Room Pilot 0 days 10/7/16 10/7/16
D-08 Gap/Fit Analysis Complete 0 days 9/2/16 9/2/16
D-09 Develop/Configure Integration 0 days 10/21/16 10/21/16
D-10 Process Data Conversion 0 days 11/18/16 11/18/16
D-11 Develop System Configuration Documents 0 days 12/13/16 12/13/16
Testing 34 days 11/29/16 1/19/17
Develop Test Strategy & Plan 0.5 wks 11/29/16 12/1/16
System Testing 15 days 12/6/16 12/29/16
Finalize test cases and scripts 4 days 12/6/16 12/12/16
Migrate latest code into the TEST environment 1 day 12/12/16 12/13/16
Data Testing 5 days 12/13/16 12/20/16
Test the data load 2 days 12/13/16 12/15/16
Test the data integration 3 days 12/15/16 12/20/16
Triage and Correct issues 3 days 12/15/16 12/20/16
Front-End Testing 10 days 12/13/16 12/29/16
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Test screens and General Functionalities 2 wks 12/13/16 12/29/16

Triage and Correct issues 1 wk 12/20/16 12/29/16
Report Testing 10 days 12/13/16 12/29/16
Test reports 2 wks 12/13/16 12/29/16
Triage and Correct issues 1 wk 12/20/16 12/29/16
Obtain approval to move to Acceptance 0 days 12/29/16 12/29/16
User Acceptance Testing 31.5 days 12/1/16 1/19/17
Configure UAT environment 1 wk 12/29/16 1/6/17
Finalize test cases and scripts 1 wk 12/29/16 1/6/17
Conduct Testing 9 days 1/6/17 1/19/17
Validate security and access 2 days 1/6/17 1/10/17
Load and Validate Data 2 days 1/10/17 1/12/17
Validate screens and general functionality 1 wk 1/12/17 1/19/17
Validate reports 1 wk 1/12/17 1/19/17
Triage and Correct Issues 2 days 1/17/17 1/19/17
Obtain Acceptance Certificate 0 days 1/19/17 1/19/17
D-12 Testing Strategy & Plan 0 days 12/1/16 12/1/16
D-14 System Integration Testing Completed 0 days 12/29/16 12/29/16
D-15 User Acceptance Testing Completed 0 days 1/6/17 1/6/17
Training 24 days 12/22/16 1/30/17
Planning and Coordination 2 days 12/22/16 12/28/16
Build Training Materials 10 days 1/5/17 1/19/17
Create User-Training Materials 10 days 1/5/17 1/19/17
Train Users 7 days 1/19/17 1/30/17
Intro Class 1 day 1/19/17 1/20/17
Admin 4 days 1/20/17 1/26/17
Tech Class 2 days 1/26/17 1/30/17
D-16 Training Material Prepared 0 days 1/19/17 1/19/17
D-17 Train-The-Trainer Training Completed 0 days 1/30/17 1/30/17
Production Deployment 21.5 days 1/5/17 2/3/17
Validate PROD Environment 1 day 1/5/17 1/6/17
Validate Installation 1 day 1/5/17 1/6/17
Deployment Planning 2 days 1/19/17 1/23/17
Finalize users for the initial rollout 1 day 1/19/17 1/20/17
Develop Production Transition Plan 1 day 1/20/17 1/23/17
Finalize PROD environment 5 days 1/6/17 1/13/17
Move latest code (Data Forms, Business Rules, Reports) into PROD 2 days 1/6/17 1/10/17
Validate code movement 2 days 1/10/17 1/12/17
Setup PROD schedule 1 day 1/12/17 1/13/17
** Go-Live Decision ** 0.5 days 1/23/17 1/23/17
Migrate Data 6 days 1/24/17 1/31/17
Migrate Data 3 days 1/24/17 1/26/17
Verify data migration 3 days 1/27/17 1/31/17
Enable System 3 days 2/1/17 2/3/17
Smoke test application 1 day 2/1/17 2/1/17
Enable users 1 day 2/2/17 2/2/17
Verify selected users 1 day 2/3/17 2/3/17
Update Technical Documentation 5 days 1/26/17 2/1/17
App Configs and Designs 1 wk 1/26/17 2/1/17
Start production (support) procedures 0 days 2/3/17 2/3/17
D-18 Go Live with PBCS Application 0 days 2/3/17 2/3/17
Post Production Support 5 days 2/6/17 2/10/17
Post Production Support- 1 wk 2/6/17 2/10/17
D-19 Post-Production Support 0 days 2/10/17 2/10/17
Project Closeout 0 days 2/10/17 2/10/17
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8 COST PROPOSAL
In an era filled with shrinking budgets, greater demands are placed on fewer employees. Your enterprise
applications projects require a solid return on how your resources are utilized. Delayed IT projects impose
negative impacts that extend beyond cost and time overruns. An enterprise project is more than striking
a balance between money and people, because after all, a project that affects your enterprise applications
is not just an IT implementation but also a transformation of your business that is enabled by IT.
AST specializes in Firm Fixed-Fee projects for the Public Sector. We are dedicated to helping our clients
plan not only the appropriate budget and staff levels, but also know a project's inherent risks of delay up
front, that may eventually cost time, money, and affect the project's intended scope and overall quality.
8.1 SOFTWARE PRICING DETAILS

The pricing for the software includes the components listed below. Discounted software subscription
prices quoted have been approved by Oracle America, Inc. and are valid until August 31, 2016. The first
year software subscription is non-cancelable and nonrefundable. If the County’s software subscription is
terminated after year 1, there will not be any refund of previously earned fees and the County is liable for
all fees accrued up to the point of termination.
Module Metric Units Discounted Annual

Subscription Cost
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services User 125 $94,500
(Monthly)
• Includes 115 monthly user subscriptions for
Production and Test environments
• Includes 10 monthly user subscriptions for
Development environments
As a Platinum Partner of Oracle Corporation, AST has obtained a significant discount of 47.5% from Oracle
for the PBCS subscriptions, as shown above. Please note that the subscription term is three (3) years from
the effective date of the executed order and that annual subscription costs may increase in years 4+.
8.2 IMPLEMENTATION SERVICES

We have proposed a firm-fixed price for the implementation of Oracle Hyperion Planning and Budgeting
Cloud Services for the County, as detailed below and in the following Cost Proposal Form.
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service

The implementation pricing for the Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service includes Project
Management and all functional/technical professional services to address the Scope of Work provided in
this proposal. The following is the Fixed Fee for the implementation:
Cost Areas Costs (USD) Notes

Estimated Implementation Services $391,550
Travel Expenses $83,200 Based on estimated 80% onsite
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RFP # P16-02
Cost Proposal
Totals $474,750
As requested, the following breakdown has been estimated:
Implementation Areas Costs (USD) Notes

Project Definition $61,750 Kickoff, charter and requirements
System Integrations $38,000

FDM mappings for EBS and ADP and
data exports
Data Migration / Conversion $23,750 Historical data loads
Report Development $52,250 Initial set of reports
Software Configuration / Development $142,500 PBCS modeling and configuration
Testing $57,000 SIT and UAT activities
Training $33,250 “Train-the-Trainer” approach
Deployment $28,500 “Go Live” planning and deployment
On-Site Support $14,000 1 week of post-production support
Project Management $23,750

Across Practice Manager and Project
Lead
Totals $474,750
8.3 PRICING ASSUMPTIONS

AST has made the following assumptions in developing our proposed project plan and pricing:
1. Software subscription prices quoted are subject to final configuration and approval from Oracle
America, Inc.
2. Information provided by the County pertaining to scope and complexity of effort is accurate,
including the number of anticipated software components to be designed, developed, tested and
deployed.
3. AST’s standard methodology deliverable templates will be leveraged and adjusted by the AST
Team, as needed.
4. All parties (AST and the County) are committed to executing the project based upon the mutually
agreed upon timeline, which AST Team and County project leads will jointly maintain.
5. At times, Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services functionality may have software issues
that prevent a function from working as advertised. As Oracle possesses the ultimate control over
its software functions, AST will implement Oracle functions that are working, and may not be able
to deliver functions that have issues.
6. Core Oracle PBCS features provide the desired functionality for the County – no additional, third-
party solutions are required.
7. AST’s Opex pre-built components for line-item, position and capital budgeting align with the
County’s requirements, allowing for a streamlined implementation schedule. Upfront definition
activities are focused on alignment of County requirements to Opex functionality and
configuration of Opex. Customizations beyond those listed ‘in scope’ may incur additional costs
or impact the schedule.
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Cost Proposal
8. If AST misses any major project milestones due to a delay in the deliverables or tasks that are the
County’s responsibility, the overall timeline may be impacted. This may result in additional costs.
9. The County will procure and have been provisioned for the PBCS subscriptions targeted for this
implementation prior to the project start. AST advises that the County consider separate
subscriptions (for a lesser user count) for additional non-production environments as a PBCS
subscription only allows for two (2) environments.
10. The County is responsible for networking- and source system-related activities and issue
resolution.
11. Oracle EBS Financials and ADP Payroll are the only source systems; source systems will not be
upgraded and chart of accounts will not be modified during this project.
12. Performance Data, if needed, will be provided by the County in predetermined flat file format
that can loaded using EPM Automate tool.
13. The County will make available either Oracle User Productivity Kit (UPK) or Microsoft Office, or
any other similar software for documentation and training material content creation.
14. The County will make documentation, computer programs and data related to this initiative
available to the AST Team upon project commencement; this includes all requirements
documentation already derived by the County in preparation for this effort.
15. The County will assist in coordinating and making required resources available for information
gathering sessions in a timely manner which may include some representative users of the system
outside of the County.
16. The County will provide resources to deliver the tasks and meet the project timeline for the
County’s roles.
17. The County will provide sufficient and appropriately skilled resources to deliver tasks and perform
roles as required for the project.
18. County management, including the County’s Project Manager and key project participants, will
be able to make timely decisions concerning issues raised by the project team.
19. The County, specifically the Project Manager, will approve all deliverables within one (1) week of
AST Team submission. If the County suggests or requires changes in a deliverable, County
feedback is due back to the AST Team within three (3) days of submission.
20. The consulting resources will generally follow the staffing profile submitted with this response. If
needed, AST Team management will assign additional personnel to complete AST Team
deliverables by project timeline deadlines.
21. AST Team resources will work both remotely and onsite at County facilities; when required, onsite
travel will be coordinated with the County.
22. The County will provide adequate workspace and infrastructure for the consultants while onsite
for the project (including but not limited to telephone, computers with the appropriate software,
connection to network and existing documentation).
23. AST’s proposed implementation services costs are fixed for the fees specified.
24. AST has aligned to the County’s Payment Milestone breakdown for the purpose of this response.
Payment milestones will be finalized during contract negotiations to align with work plan activities
and deliverables.
25. Included within the “Milestone Deliverables” of the included cost proposal form, travel expenses
have been estimated based on approximately 80% onsite travel across all team resources.
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9 TERMS AND CONDITIONS
AST Corporation has carefully reviewed the Terms and Conditions of this RFP, including the County’s
Sample Agreement provided as Attachment B, and have included our proposed exceptions to the
Agreement, as detailed below.
We need to review the final Contract and scope of work, along with its attachments, before we can agree
to the specific terms.
Any omission or generality in AST’s responses does not give rise to a binding obligation between the
parties or constitute acceptance of any terms or conditions contained in the RFP. In the event that AST is
awarded a contract by the Larimer County, no terms of any agreement to which AST is a party shall be
deemed agreed to unless and until all such terms (together with any referenced attachments or exhibits)
are mutually agreed to in writing between AST and the County. All such terms are subject to negotiations
until all such terms are agreed to and incorporated into such agreement.
Throughout our 20-year history, we have always been able to negotiate mutually acceptable terms with
our Customers, including Larimer County, and execute contracts in a timely manner. Should we be
awarded the County’s project, we do not anticipate any difficulties in reaching agreement on a contract.
RFP Subsection Comments/Revised Language

Section
15.5 No Assignment AST requests the addition of language to the section
“…without the prior written consent of the COUNTY and will not be
unreasonably withheld.”
Add Limitation of AST requests the addition of the section “Limitation of Liability” -
Liability
Neither party will be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or
consequential damages, or for any loss or damages related to the
operation, delay or failure of software or equipment or for any
inaccuracy of data incurred by either party or any third party, however
arising, whether in Contract or Tort, even if it has been advised of the
possibility of such damages. Either party's liability for damages to the
other shall be limited to the Services Fees paid to under this Agreement.
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10 APPENDIX A: AST CORPORATE HISTORY & QUALIFICATIONS
Applications Software Technology Corporation (AST) is an award-
winning Oracle Systems Integrator with global clients and worldwide
operations. Led by former senior members of Oracle Corporation, AST
was established on the assumption that successful implementations of enterprise wide systems depend
on an equal measure of software expertise and a complete understanding of the client's organization and
industry best practices. This vision still guides our organization today and has resulted in unprecedented
stability and steady growth. Since 1995, our team of accomplished and talented Oracle experts has
demonstrated unwavering commitment to helping customers realize the full potential of their investment
in Oracle Applications and Technology.
We specialize in managing transformative Enterprise Performance Management projects for
Public Sector and Municipal Government agencies throughout North America. Our goal
is to ensure that our clients receive the highest level of expertise and personalized service
for their system implementation and support requirements. We endeavor to help them
realize the best long-term return on investment by integrating Oracle systems seamlessly
to their business processes, completing projects as promised, effectively building internal
competencies, and confidence in delivered solutions, and accommodating any long-term support
requirements.
In 2015, AST Corporation acquired Serene Corporation, a recognized name in the Hi-Tech, Health Sciences,
Engineering & Construction, and Financial Services industries for Oracle services. This acquisition further
strengthens AST’s ability to deliver complex, multi-million dollar enterprise applications projects across a
wider array of industries.
Our respected and dominant market position among Oracle systems integrators is the result of our
consistent, high quality delivery of Enterprise Performance Management projects. Consistently providing
successful implementations for 20 years has earned AST valued industry recognitions, such as:
 Oracle Specialized Platinum Partner
 Oracle Cloud Premier Partner
 Oracle Cross Stack Pillar Partner (BI, Hyperion, and SOA)
 Oracle Specialized Partner and “Go-To” Partner for Public Sector
 Oracle Excellence Award Winner (2009, 2011, 2013, & 2015)
 Certified Oracle University Partner and Oracle Education Reseller
 Ranked among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies
 Chicago Tribune 2014 & 2015 Top 100 Workplace
Yet our most significant and gratifying achievement is that we have never, in our 20-year corporate history,
experienced a failed project! Our entire delivery organization, from the junior most consultant to our
President and CEO, prides themselves on excellence in customer service. Furthermore, AST has never
been the subject of any professional disciplinary action by federal or state government, nor by a
professional association.
AST Corporate Philosophy

For over 20 years, we have concentrated on select, key industry verticals, so that we are able to speak the
language of our customers, understand their daily business issues and pain-points, and leverage our
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Appendix A: AST Corporate History & Qualifications
Oracle product expertise to solve their complex business process problems. We focus on improving
customers’ business processes and helping them realize the efficiencies and long-term return on
investment, achieved through the implementation of standards-based, non-customized applications.
Commitment to Customer Service

We have always conducted our business with the realization that our long-term success will be built on
the quality and dedication of our employees. We firmly believe that highly qualified, talented, and loyal
professionals are fundamental to providing better customer service and a world-class experience for our
clients. On average, our specialists have over 10 years Oracle-specific experience, and a minimum of 14
years of professional experience. All are Oracle-certified in their specific functional/technical area of
expertise, and have demonstrated creativity, flexibility, and an entrepreneurial spirit in developing proven
solutions for our clients. We are unique among Systems Integrators in that we do not utilize 1099
contractors. Rather, we rely solely on full-time employees to staff our projects. This allows us to better
project staff availability and propose key consulting resources that match our clients’ needs.
Our employees work hard to ensure our customers are fully satisfied, and, in turn, we embrace an
environment that respects work-life balance, rewards unique perspectives and accomplishments, and
encourages participation in our corporate growth and future strategic direction. We provide employees
with attractive benefits packages and wellness programs, as well as career development and professional
growth opportunities. This employee-centric approach has earned us multiple workplace awards and
helps us not only attract some of the best Oracle talent in the industry, but maintain staff loyalty and
retention well above industry norms.
One Team-One Goal

Our experience has shown that the active participation of key customer business users from the outset is
the single most important factor in a successful project. At the same time, we know that users’ time is
very valuable and often limited. Our team works side by side with your internal personnel as one united
team to set realistic expectations and ensure project success. We establish a relationship of trust and
transparency with our clients, ensuring a clearly defined scope of work that is managed prudently
throughout the project.
Our methodologies are specifically designed to ensure that only relevant Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
are actively involved during project work that specifically pertains to their area of expertise and
responsibility. We prefer to perform critical project work on-site at our client’s location, as we feel this
fosters effective communication within the project team, resulting in work being done faster, on time,
and without need for any solution rework. We also view each phase, activity, and task as a continuous,
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interactive process where knowledge is shared, enhanced, and documented. Risk identification and
mitigation, contingency planning, status reporting, change management, training, and knowledge transfer
tasks all flow alongside every project activity so that the entire organization is kept aware and becomes
oriented toward the new system on an incremental basis and at their own pace.
AST Service Offerings

As our clients’ requirements have matured, and in concert with Oracle’s acquisitions and technology
evolution, AST has organized its service offerings into eight Practice areas as shown below.
Each of our Practices is led by a Vice President who is respected in the industry for his/her expertise,
experience, and leadership in their respective areas. Detailed descriptions of each of the practices, their
capabilities, competency, and types of projects they undertake can be found on our Website –
http://www.astcorporation.com/Services/Services.html
AST Enterprise Performance Management Practice Overview

Our dedicated Oracle EPM practice has experienced professionals possessing a unique combination of
business acumen and technical skills to help our clients achieve their vision of a more informed, agile, and
efficient organization. AST consultants are all Oracle certified, and all of the members of our proposed
team meet the County’s skill level and experience requirements with the following:
 Previous experience performing assessments and implementations of Oracle Hyperion solutions
for Public Sector organizations utilizing AST’s proven methodologies
 Business expertise and experience assessing planning, budgeting, forecasting and financial
reporting needs for many other public sector organizations
 Technical experience designing and developing interfaces, reports, report packages (budget
books and annual financial reports), business rules, and data entry facilities for Oracle Hyperion
 Recent and relevant experience implementing the proposed Oracle Hyperion Planning and
Budgeting solutions, both on-premise and Cloud deployments, for other Public Sector customers
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Furthermore, all AST consultants are supported by our internal EPM Center-of-Excellence (COE) group
that works closely with the multiple Oracle Hyperion product development teams that make
implementing this integrated solution possible.
Award-Winning Practice
In October of 2015, AST was awarded the 2015 Oracle Excellence Award for Specialized Partner of the
Year – North America in Public Sector Innovation. The award recognizes AST’s commitment to delivering
innovative solutions and business achievements and reflects excellence in a number of areas, including
solution development and customer satisfaction. AST was presented the 2015 Oracle Excellence Award
for Specialized Partner of the Year – North America in Public Sector Innovation for positioning, supporting,
and implementing Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) with the Greater Orlando Aviation
Authority (GOAA). GOAA has a rich tradition of fostering innovation within the Public Sector and was
among the first Public Sector organizations to adopt this cloud product.
Stability of Staff
AST has always conducted its business with the realization that our long-term success will be built on the
quality and dedication of our employees. At AST, this belief is not just a corporate slogan but also a core
principle on which the company is run. We are committed to being an organization that houses passionate
people who value their work, our clients, and others. Over the years, the many workplace awards that
we have collected are testimonials of our sound approach and commitment!
The uniqueness of our culture, quality of our recruitment process, and thoughtful planning has been
evident in more ways than one.
 While the market and IT industry has gone though many upheavals in the last 20 years, we have
not had to lay off any employees – not once in 20 years!
 AST is unique among Systems Integrators by not using any 1099 contractors and relying solely on
full-time employees to staff our projects.
Recruitment
Our employee-centric approach has allowed AST to hire the best talent in the industry and have staff
retention levels well above the industry norm. A candidate must have a minimum of five years of specific
Oracle solutions experience to be considered for employment at AST, with at least three of those years
implementing the latest releases and associated technology products. Typical AST consultants have an
average of 10 years of Oracle-specific experience, with a minimum of 4 years of experience in business
and a minimum of 4 years of experience with Oracle ERP, Hyperion, CRM, and Middleware Applications.
As part of our due diligence during the interview process, we spend a significant amount of time getting
to know candidates, understand their professional goals, and provide opportunities to learn more about
our corporate culture and professional development environment. We want to ensure that all
prospective employees are not only a good fit for us, but also that AST is a good fit for them. The length
of time from first contact-to-hire can vary on a case-by-case basis; but, on average, the process takes two
to three weeks.
AST employs a dedicated Recruitment Team to coordinate the interview and offer process. Employee
candidates typically undergo several levels of screening in this process. Typically, the first interview is a
'get to know you' session conducted over the phone. Subsequent interviews are conducted by various
AST employees and managers. By utilizing AST consultants in the interview process, we are better able to
get a feel for a candidate’s Oracle knowledge base and ability to work with our team. Once the
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Recruitment Team determines that a particular candidate is a strong fit, they are invited for a final
interview to meet again with AST employees and managers.
In addition to a rigorous interview process, some of the checks that occur during the hiring process include
Motor Vehicle Record checks, Credit Report checks, SSN Verification checks, LexisNexis National
Criminal File Plus checks, and employment and personal reference checks.
Availability and Placement

AST Corporation is headquartered in Naperville, IL, but we are a global consultancy with a staff of
approximately 450 full-time project managers, training specialists, functional and technical consultants,
technical architects, and DBAs located across the globe. We staff all of our projects with full-time
employees that are well versed in our methodology and stay current on the Oracle and industry
certifications applicable to his/her respective specialty. Our reliance on full-time consulting resources
allows us to better project resource availability and maintain our strict commitment to outstanding
customer service. Additionally, many of our Hyperion team members have previously worked together
on projects, ensuring that their results are consistent and predictable.
AST is committed to the success of the County’s project at all levels. We establish a relationship of trust
and transparency with our customers and ensure that the scope of work is clearly defined upfront and
managed throughout the project. We prefer to maintain an on-site presence throughout the majority of
the project. Our experience has shown that the project runs more efficiently, and knowledge transfer is
more comprehensive, when our team works side-by-side with our clients on critical IT projects such as
this. We will clearly and fully communicate any planned, remote work or necessary adjustments in staffing
to the County well in advance so that the County’s Project Manager can review and approve the requests.
As an added value to our clients, we engage our AST executive management directly in the project as an
Executive Sponsor, performing program and quality management, as well as mentoring of the on-site
team.
As a result of our commitment to working in close partnership with our clients, we rarely have any issues
with non-performing or under-performing consultants on a project. Should an issue with a resource occur,
AST will work with County management to rectify the situation, including, but not limited to, replacement
of the resource with an equally qualified replacement from our deep Hyperion-Certified bench.
Alliance with Oracle

Commensurate with AST founders’ history with Oracle Corporation and AST’s singular focus on
implementing only Oracle software, AST has earned a valued and trusted relationship with Oracle sales
and software development teams. AST Corporation is a Platinum level member of the Oracle Partner
Network (OPN), Specialized Oracle Applications and Technologies systems integrator, an Oracle University
training and delivery partner, and a certified Oracle Cloud Services implementation provider.
Our customers inevitably benefit from the dedicated support and access AST receives from various Oracle
channels. As early adopters of new Oracle technologies, our team is in close contact with Oracle’s Product
Development teams for quick resolution of issues and release of software patches. As a member of
Oracle’s Small Medium Business (SMB) Strategy Council, AST gives our customers a voice in helping Oracle
understand their unique business challenges, which, in turn, guide future Oracle product development.
Proof of our status with Oracle can be found at:
https://solutions.oracle.com/scwar/scr/Partner/SC2PP-ASTCORPORATION.html.
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Specialization and Thought Leadership

With over 30,000 partners worldwide, Oracle introduced the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) Specialized
program to help customers easily identify the right partner to meet their specific business needs. AST's
status in the OPN Specialized program guarantees that you will be working with a highly experienced and
knowledgeable Oracle systems integrator with a proven history of helping organizations succeed and
achieve true value and return on its Oracle investment.
In order to maintain our elite Platinum level status, AST consultants must regularly meet a stringent set
of demanding business and competency criteria as well as develop and deliver innovative customer
solutions in variety of Oracle technology, services, and industries.
AST encourages its employees to be thought-leaders and to contribute to the Oracle ecosystem through
blogs, white papers, and conference presentations. As a result, our employees are well recognized within
his/her respective specialty and he/she frequently develops solutions to solve business problems and fill
gaps within the standard Oracle software; several of our employees have been certified as “Oracle Ace”.
We offer a “Thought Leadership” reward to employees when he/she presents his/her ideas at national
Oracle or industry forums. As a result, AST is often selected to present multiple topics at national
conferences and international forums such as Oracle OpenWorld, OAUG Collaborate, OHUG, Kscope, and
the SOA CLOUD International Symposium.
AST works closely with organizations dedicated to the advancement of Oracle solutions and technologies,
such as the Oracle Applications User group (OAUG). We bring our product and industry expertise to the
Oracle ecosystem to showcase our project experience and promote the best practices with specific
industries and businesses. AST’s culture of thought-leadership and knowledge sharing not only enriches
the Oracle user community, but also helps our consultants attain valuable soft skills and leadership
qualities, which they in turn demonstrate on client projects.
Innovation
AST continuously invests in innovative solutions that serve specific needs in our client community. Using
our deep domain knowledge, we provide proven, repeatable solutions to address critical business
problems and decrease implementation timelines.
Some of our innovative products and implementation accelerators are explained in the figure below.
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Stability and Commitment

In order to receive the full benefit from its Oracle investment and to achieve the organizational goals that
are dependent upon this project, the County needs an implementation partner that has time and again
proven successful in helping Public Sector clients manage the technical, business, and people aspects of
business transformation. Our unmatched 100% project success rate and record of repeat business is a
clear indication of the quality services provided by AST. In 20 years of our history of implementing Oracle
systems, AST has never failed once!
Conservative, Risk-Free Approach
One of our main goals is helping you to avoid adding time, adding cost, and cutting quality by letting
competing priorities and/or differing expectations lead to unnecessary changes to the project’s scope.
We will work with the County from the outset to establish strict project governance procedures that will
minimize the risk of compromising project budget and milestones. We establish a comprehensive Project
Charter at the start of every project, which provides the roadmap to success for the overall project. By
ensuring each team member shares a common understanding of the project, scope, and business
objectives from the beginning, there is a better chance of avoiding issues that could arise based upon a
lack of or differing understanding of project outcomes.
Preparing for Transformation

There are varying levels of resistance when people are asked to change the tools and business practices
they use to accomplish their work. In a typical organization, upwards of 20% of employees could resist
the changes brought about by an enterprise software implementation. Our effective change management
and training specialists help mitigate resistance from the organization at large. With tools to assess
change readiness, mitigate resistance, and keep stakeholders engaged with a project for its duration, our
efficient change management approach correlates directly with staying on schedule and budget.
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We also know the success of this project will ultimately rest on a well-trained staff that uses the new
technology to efficiently perform their tasks. Therefore, training and knowledge transfer are integral parts
of our methodologies that start on Day 1 and penetrate every project communication, activity, and
deliverable. When the project is over, all users will be capable and comfortable in using and supporting
the software and have a strong understanding of any new associated business processes.
Value Proposition
AST is the right choice to help the County reap the benefits of its investment in Oracle Planning and
Budgeting Cloud Services. Our value to the County can be summed up in three words: Specialized,
Recognized, Preferred.
 Specialized - There is no "one-size-fits-all" model for complex business software implementations.
Why roll the dice on generic consulting teams who try to be everything to everybody? AST’s
Specializations identify us as a true Oracle partner. In order to earn such recognition, we must
regularly demonstrate to Oracle our team is top-notch and certified, and that our clients are
thoroughly satisfied with our services. This deep collaboration with Oracle ensures clients old and
new that we are dedicated to ensuring their satisfaction with the software and technology.
 Recognized - Over the course of our history, AST has gained stature as one of the most highly
regarded Systems Integrators by customers, prestigious publications, and Oracle America, Inc.
We’ve built this reputation one customer at a time by consistently exceeding their expectations
about our expertise, ability to manage complex enterprise projects, and successfully deliver
solutions that meet critical business challenges. While the awards are nice, the accomplishment
we are most proud of is our 100% record of successful project delivery.
 Preferred - We believe that what our customers say about AST is “proof positive” of our track
record and commitment to deliver on the promise that we make to them and our standing in the
market.
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What our customers say
“Each of the resources you have provided has performed their tasks with obvious skills, that many promise but
few deliver.”
“I am very pleased to have had such a partner to work with, and a group of consultants that are professional and
knowledgeable about all aspects of Oracle. It is clear that AST’s top reputation for bringing Oracle solutions to
the transit industry is well deserved.”
“The project could not have been done without the efforts of AST, dedicating many long nights and weekends to
accomplish this task.”
“You have been one of the most upstanding vendors I have had the opportunity to associate with. You have
always provided us with top-notch service, resources, and honest feedback. If history is any indication of the
future, I am sure AST will continue to be an excellent firm to do business with.”
“Waukesha County is extremely pleased to have such a partner to work with, a group of individuals that are
professional, diligent, and competent about all aspects of the application and database. I know I can count on AST
to deliver a quality product in a professional manner.”
“The knowledge of your staff in understanding the challenges and concerns of local government was evident from
the very beginning and helped us improve the business processes during the course of the implementation
project. It is rare that we get to work with a firm ready to deliver on its promises and turn expectations into
results.”
AST’s Key Differentiators

AST has cultivated a Public Sector reputation that few Oracle systems integrators can boast.
Specialized Go-To Partner for the Public Sector

 Oracle Platinum Partner
 Oracle Specialized Partner for Public Sector
 Oracle Hyperion and BI Pillar Partner
 Oracle Partner of the Year for 2009, 2011, 2013, & 2015
Recognized & Stable Vendor
 Ranked among Top 10 ERP vendors in Government ERP Market by Onvia (2014)
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 Chicago Tribune 2014 Top 100 Workplace

 Ranked Inc. Magazine’s Top 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies for 3 consecutive years
Qualified and Experience Team
 Team members have an average of 15+ years of experience with Oracle software
 Team members have invaluable Oracle EPM Cloud experience
 Team members have completed multiple similar projects for Municipal Government clients
Many Oracle Public Sector Firsts to Our Credit
 1st Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting Implementation (Pinellas County, FL)
 1st Hyperion Budgeting Cloud Implementation in the Public Sector (Orlando Airport, FL)
 1st EBS R12 implementation in the Public Sector (Pace Suburban Bus)
 1st Oracle Cloud ERP implementation in the Public Sector (City of Detroit, MI)
Successful Track Record of 20 Years
 100% success rate - no terminated or failed projects ever!
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11 APPENDIX B: PROPOSED BUDGET SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The maturity of Cloud Computing is forcing many organizations to consider Software as a Service (SaaS)
options for their enterprise software applications. In this deployment model, the applications are sold on
a subscription basis, rather than a traditional licensing model. Benefits, such as lower cost of entry, higher
adoption rates, scalability, mobility, and reduced burden on IT support staff make SaaS an attractive
option for organizations looking for rapid return on investment.
We understand that the County is seeking a modern budgeting system and implementation services in
order to replace its legacy system, resulting in increased functionality including enhanced report
generation, long-term forecasting, and performance management, as well as reduced manual processes,
reliance on ancillary systems, and other work inefficiencies.
AST’s approach to Larimer County’s Budget System project will be as a strategic partner throughout the
engagement. We have carefully reviewed the RFP; we have closely analyzed the County’s business
requirements and services requested. Having completed several successful Hyperion implementations,
including the first Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services implementation for a Public Sector client, our
team has unique insight into the challenges faced and a complete understanding of the County’s desired
future state. Our team understands the challenges of such an implementation and will be managing,
proactively, critical path deliverables and tasks to keep the project on track.
11.1 ORACLE PLANNING AND BUDGETING CLOUD SERVICE (PBCS)

Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) is a flexible planning application based on Oracle
Hyperion Planning that supports enterprise-wide planning, budgeting, and forecasting in a cloud-based
deployment model. Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service provides a rich web and Microsoft Office
enabled planning and modeling framework that supports driver-based planning to help connect
operational assumptions to financial outcomes. It supports a hierarchical planning process that
encompasses both corporate finance and the lines of business within an enterprise. With Oracle Planning
and Budgeting Cloud Service, you can meet your immediate financial planning, budgeting and forecasting
needs while enabling a platform for future cross-functional expansion and automated process integration.
Streamline the Enterprise-Wide Planning and Budgeting Process

Planning and budgeting is a resource and time intensive process in most organizations. It tends to be
dominated by manual tasks involving a multitude of spreadsheets being exchanged between cost center
managers, line of business finance managers and corporate finance personnel.
PBCS streamlines the planning process in an enterprise by aligning plans created across the organization.
Cost center plans can be linked to line of business plans, which in turn can be linked to the corporate-level
plan. The impact of changes to key plan assumptions can be evaluated instantaneously, and the revised
plan can be made immediately available to all stakeholders without a time lag or risk of manual error.
PBCS leverages the powerful Oracle Essbase calculation and business rules engine that can be used to
express a range of business logic from simple arithmetic formulae to complex procedural
multidimensional allocation rules. PBCS has guided task flow and supports both bottom-up and top-down
planning processes. It has tools for budget administrators to monitor participants’ progress submitting
their plans and also has workflow and plan management capabilities that support the plan review and
approval process.
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Appendix B: Proposed Budget System Overview
Improve Forecast Accuracy with Predictive Planning and Rolling Forecasts

Public Sector organizations today are faced with a rapidly changing business environment. Demand is very
volatile, costs fluctuate and the supplier landscape is constantly changing. These external factors require
that organizations have the right capacity and skill sets within their workforce and the appropriate
investments in capital and technology to stay competitive. A key requirement to stay ahead of the
competition is to understand this volatility and forecast financial and operational performance accurately.
PBCS provides a sophisticated predictive forecasting capability that projects future performance based on
historic information. This feature enables the validation of management forecasts and the creation of
alternative scenarios. PBCS provides unlimited scenario analysis for planners to assess the impact of
various combinations of business assumptions on key financial outcomes. PBCS also has a rolling forecast
wizard, which makes it simple to implement a rolling forecast process in which the forecasting time
horizon rolls forwards across years with the passage of time.
AST’s Pre-Built OPEX Planning Components

Oracle currently does not offer pre-built position budgeting capabilities
via its Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service as it does for its on premise,
licensed software. To cater to these needs of our clients and offer
additional value to the County of Chester, AST leverages our own pre-built
budgeting models and supporting components – called “OPEX” – that
include base position budgeting capabilities along with many other
reusable components that align to help meet the County’s needs. Based
on many years of implementation experience amongst our EPM team and having worked with many
Public Sector customers, AST has been able to create these pre-built solutions for its Cloud offering in the
area of position budgeting, as well as operational budget & planning. AST’s OPEX solutions include pre-
built features that accommodate different drivers for models, various projection methodologies, and
template input forms available for a fast-track implementation of the Hyperion core planning application.
Some of the pre-built models and features available with AST OPEX Planning are:
 Position budgeting models to capture position level salary grades, benefits, FTE, allocations and
much more along with pre-defined reports.
 Revenue & Expense Budget Planning models and input forms, including the ability to capture
performance management KPIs and strategic goals
 Revenue and Expense forecasting & projection capabilities (5 years).
o Various forecasting models based on percentage, department or account.
o Various pre-defined projection models
 Capital budgeting capabilities as:
o Ability to capture attributes related to capital like description, justifications, priority,
rank, cost benefit analysis and much more.
o Capture actuals cost and forecast at project level
o Capture consolidated project cost at operating level
o Structural Approval process
 New Budget Request (Decision Package) functionality
Budget Software
Page 66
RFP # P16-02
Connect a Wide User Community with an Intuitive Web Interface

PBCS enables business users to easily view plans and reports on the web and does not require them to
have specialized computer skills. It provides a useful menu of tools to manipulate and adjust the plan
through changing related data such as drivers or driver types, or through performing allocations and
spreads across multiple cells within a data grid. It also guides less-frequent users step by step through the
planning process using a wizard-based task list. This reduces cycle times while ensuring that plans are
complete and reliable. For more sophisticated users PBCS provides powerful ad hoc analysis capabilities
to facilitate quick root cause analysis.
1 Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service User Interface
Leverage Existing User Competencies with Microsoft Office Integration

PBCS offers comprehensive integration with Microsoft Office tools such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel,
Word, and PowerPoint. Users can access planning tasks and due dates within Microsoft Outlook Task List
and Calendar as well as within Microsoft Excel. Users can also view planning data forms from within
Microsoft Excel with the same functionality as the web-based interface. For example, they have access to
the same set of menu items and toolbars on the web and in Microsoft Excel. They can also perform drill-
ups and drill-downs on rows and columns in an identical manner in both interfaces. Both interfaces also
support ad hoc analysis of data where rows, column, and page dimensions can be pivoted differently to
create different views of the same data. Common planning actions, such as spreading and allocation, are
available as context-sensitive right click menus on planning data forms rendered within Microsoft Excel.
PBCS lets users take plans offline, and at their own convenience, change assumptions, perform
calculations, analyze results, and then connect back to the central database to synchronize updates.
In addition, users can directly integrate PBCS data into Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. This
allows the creation of highly customized documents and presentations with accurate information, and
users can automatically refresh the report when the underlying data changes. The end result: reduced
manual intervention, improved data integrity, and increased reporting accuracy.
Budget Software
Page 67
RFP # P16-02
2 Built-in Microsoft Integration
Integrate Planning and Management Reporting Seamlessly

Reports and dashboards that display plan and actual data can be created in minutes and any change made
to the plans in PBCS are instantaneously reflected in the content of the reports and dashboards. Using the
web interface users can access user-friendly dashboards, interactive analytics, and richly formatted
financial reports while interacting with the planning system.
Ease Collaboration and Maintain Control with Powerful Plan Management and
Workflow
PBCS’s powerful plan management and workflow functionality, including e-mail notifications, alerts, and
task lists, empowers users to track and communicate the progress of plans and budgets. Ownership of
plans can be designated based on a specified intersection of key plan dimensions. Approval paths can be
specified for each slice of the plan. When a planner “promotes” a plan for approval the system can
automatically identify the next approver. Plan promotion paths can be made conditional on meeting
certain criteria. All of the above processes can also be performed in conjunction with what-if analysis and
scenario testing that allows users to compare and contrast multiple scenarios prior to promoting the
selected scenario for approval up the management chain.
Budget Software
Page 68
RFP # P16-02
3 Flexible and Powerful Planning Process Management and Workflow Capability
Integration Capabilities
PBCS includes integration capabilities that enable data load from your Oracle PeopleSoft Financials and
Human Resources or other non-Oracle applications to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service on
Oracle Cloud, allowing you to import high-volumes of data.
Complete Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Solution in the Cloud

Oracle PBCS removes the barriers to adoption of on premise applications and makes it much easier for
businesses of any size to deploy a world-class planning and budgeting solution. Oracle PBCS is a Software-
as-a-Service (SaaS) solution which provides quick benefits and reduced cost of ownership. Oracle’s
enterprise-class cloud architecture is critical to this hosted model, offering an expansive and flexible set
of Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting solutions that include upgrades-on-demand and real-time data
monitoring. Oracle takes the headaches and much of the cost out of delivering web-based solutions-all
while keeping you in control. The Oracle PBCS solution will allow the County to:
 Eliminate hardware investment and configuration
 Eliminate data backup and recovery
 Consume virtually no IT resource
 Reduce training time and expense
 Reduce cost of slow user adoption
 Eliminate software upgrades and lifecycle management headaches
 Scale the solution to meet future growth
 Deploy up to five times faster than on-premise solutions
 Reduce cost of ownership
Budget Software
Page 69
12 APPENDIX C: WHITEPAPER – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ORACLE
PLANNING AND BUDGETING CLOUD SERVICE (PBCS)
Included on the following pages is an AST Whitepaper that we feel will be helpful in guiding the County in
this critical decision-making process.
Budget Software
Page 70
A Beginner’s Guide to
Oracle Planning and
Budgeting Cloud Service
(PBCS)
Specialized. Recognized. Preferred.

The right partner makes all the difference.
By: Patrick Callahan

VP, Enterprise Performance Management
AST Corporation
April 2016
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 2
2 OVERVIEW OF PBCS ................................................................................................ 3
3 WHY CONSIDER THE CLOUD? ................................................................................. 5
4 THE TRADE-OFFS OF THE CLOUD AND PBCS .......................................................... 6
5 ORACLE PBCS – FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL HYPERION PLANNING .................... 7
6 GETTING STARTED WITH PBCS ................................................................................. 9
7 DE-CONSTRUCTING PBCS ..................................................................................... 11
8 INTEGRATING DATA .............................................................................................. 16
9 REVIEWING THE PBCS SOLUTION .......................................................................... 18
10 MOVING TO ORACLE PBCS ............................................................................... 20
11 RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................ 21
12 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 22
Page i
A Beginner’s Guide to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS)
Page i
1 INTRODUCTION
Oracle’s Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) rolled out
early last year and has truly changed the deployment options for
Hyperion Planning for many customers. Directed to the new Oracle
Hyperion Planning customer, PBCS is an obvious option with simpler
data integration options, yet nearly the same robust functionality of
core Hyperion Planning. While there are minor differences and
some limitations, it’s worth a look. This paper will explain the Oracle
PBCS solution, highlight the features, and provide
recommendations for implementing.
Page 2
Page 2
2 OVERVIEW OF PBCS
Oracle PBCS is a subscription-based planning and budgeting
solution built for and deployed on Oracle Cloud, using a proven,
flexible, best-in-class architecture for planning and reporting. It
offers immediate value and greater productivity for business
planners, analysts, modelers, and decision-makers across all lines of
business within an enterprise. PBCS is built to scale and perform,
using industry-standard Oracle Cloud infrastructure.
Key highlights include:
• Most Complete
o Broad – spans Oracle’s application and platform
portfolio
o Best-in-class – based on Oracle’s industry- leading
cloud products
o Integrated – built on a common, unified platform
• Most Flexible and Modern
o Standards-based – built on industry standards: Java,
SQL, HTML5, Web
o Extensible – build and deploy new apps or extend
existing apps
o Portable – migrate apps to and from on-premise
• Enterprise-Grade
o Secure – strict controls and policies ensure data
protection
o Elastic – self-service, capacity on-demand with
monthly subscription
o Managed – fully automated operations and
management
Overall, the solution is robust with the industry-leading Hyperion
Planning base, solid workflow and integration options, and a user
experience that extends nicely for mobile (tablet) use.
Page 3
Page 3
Overview of PBCS

Page 4
3 WHY CONSIDER THE CLOUD?
Oracle’s EPM Cloud usage has sky-rocketed since it was released,
and this aligns with the findings outlined in Oracle’s “EPM Top
Trends for 2015” report.
First, you’ll notice that the EPM Cloud user base, including PBCS, is
doubling in size each year. This increase has been driven by the
user community’s comfort level with proven, successful
deployments of EPM in a SaaS model. Additionally, some existing
customers have moved to PBCS instead of upgrading.
Other reasons for the growth and expansion of the PBCS user base
align with those more common to SaaS solutions. The same Oracle
report finds that 65% of respondents are persuaded by the ability to
get up and running quickly – an obvious benefit without the need
of new infrastructure and IT support to set it up. Moreover, 53% of
respondents are motivated to avoid large, upfront investments.
Driven by shrinking budgets or daunted by the prospect of
procuring Hyperion Planning licenses, users are attracted to the
PBCS subscription model, which significantly reduces the year-one
costs. As such, considering PBCS is a must.
Page 5
Page 5
4 THE TRADE-OFFS OF THE CLOUD AND PBCS
The cloud and PBCS are not for everyone. Sometimes security
requirements, integration models, or the sheer size of an
architected solution make PBCS an inadequate option. Until
Oracle releases an ‘Enterprise’ version of PBCS, on-premises or
hosted deployments may be more appropriate than cloud-based
solutions. Here is how we assess the cloud and PBCS:
First, the ‘Good’:
• Lower operational expense
• Limited infrastructure overhead
• Lower short-term TCO
• Faster implementation
• Potential for increased innovation
• Upgrades managed by SaaS provider
Then, the ‘Bad’:
• Loss of control
• Security and compliance concerns
• Longer-term TCO uncertain
• Integration with other systems
• Frequent automatic upgrades
You can see that some topics, such as upgrades, are on both lists
and truly are in the eye of the beholder – some folks like control,
while others prefer ease of mind.
Page 6
Page 6
5 ORACLE PBCS – FROM THE FOUNDATIONAL
HYPERION PLANNING
First, Oracle PBCS is Hyperion Planning at its core, so you benefit
from having nearly the same robust features and functionality as
the on-premise software. These include:
• Best practice planning, budgeting, and forecasting
capabilities
• Spreadsheet-like interactivity with larger data sets
o Rapid loading of large forms
o Quick cell-to-cell navigation & scrolling
o Support for shortcuts
o Auto-calculations
o Sandboxing
o Excel-like formulas
• End users able to extend the model
• Add a member on the fly
• Embedded Advanced Predictive Planning
• Time-series forecasting with even more history
• Microsoft Office support and integration
The Oracle Hyperion solutions have been industry-leading for some
time and regular Gartner “Magic Quadrant” members for
Corporate Performance Management (Oracle calls it Enterprise
Performance Management, or EPM). Below is the Gartner report
from April 2015. Part of Oracle’s strength in this position is the
viability and success of Oracle PBCS.
Page 7
Page 7
Oracle PBCS – From the Foundational Hyperion Planning

Page 8
6 GETTING STARTED WITH PBCS
Oracle makes is incredibly easy to get started. You can easily go
through your Oracle sales representation (recommended) to
purchase subscriptions, or buy online at the Oracle Store. Here is a
good place to start:
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/pbcs_common/index.html
The ‘Getting Started’ content is shown here, with links for learning
about PBCS, obtaining trial subscriptions, and the initial steps of
getting your PBCS environments up and running. Overall, you will
find the amount of online documentation and other content for
Oracle PBCS is tremendous and far superior to any of the on-
premises options.
Your access to environments, after your subscriptions have been
processed, is typically granted in just a few days. It is great to ‘jump
in’ to Hyperion Planning, especially if you’re used to the ‘old’ way
of cumbersome installs and base configurations. What you get
with PBCS is the following:
• The Planning application itself
o This includes two (2) environments (i.e. PROD and
TEST)
Page 9
Page 9
Getting Started with PBCS
• All hardware infrastructure to run the application

o You don’t see it or have direct access, but it’s
obviously there, supporting your application
• Regular patches and upgrades
o Administrators decide timing within prescribed
windows
• Nightly backups
• Guaranteed performance
• Support is included
Important to note, there are pre-requisites for PBCS; however, there
are not many. As a web-based application, it primarily relies on a
browser. Still, the Calculation Manager and Smart View
components do rely on and require compatibility for Shockwave
Flash (Firefox) or Adobe Flash Player, and Microsoft Office.
The supported browsers are:
• Firefox ESR 38+
• Internet Explorer 11
• Google Chrome 29 and later
• Apple Safari 6 and later
Also note that only Google Chrome (on Android mobile devices)
and Apple Safari (on iPads and iPhones) are supported for mobile
devices.
For Smart View (Release 11.1.2.5.500 or newer), you need Microsoft
Office 2007/2010/2013 and .NET Framework 4.0. For Calculation
Manager, Shockwave Flash (Firefox) or Adobe Flash Player (Internet
Explorer) is needed. Otherwise, you really just need Internet
bandwidth.

Page 10
7 DE-CONSTRUCTING PBCS
In an effort to explain what comprises the PBCS solution, it is first
necessary to touch on a handful of core components.
First, there are “Application Wizards” that make creating a Planning
application easy. The wizard takes you through the core
configuration steps, asking questions on how the application will be
used, and offering you additional options on how the application
should be setup. With the first screen shown below, you can
choose to install the sample application, or one of your own with
these options:
• Simple: Basic applications with one (1) Hyperion Planning
plan type (e.g. dimensional model)
• Advanced: More complex applications with multiple plan
types
Next, a critical change is the fact that there are user-interface

options. Aside from the “Classic Workspace” look and feel that we
have used within Hyperion Planning, Oracle released a new
“Simplified Interface”, specifically optimized for mobile or tablet
use.
Below is a screenshot of the Task Lists within the new “Simplified
Interface” – a much cleaner and simpler view into the Planning
application and solution features. This simplified interface will soon
become the standard for Oracle in the cloud.
Page 11
Page 11
De-Constructing PBCS
As highlighted above, and aside from the new simplified interface,

much of the core (and robust) Hyperion Planning functionality
remains.
You still have the ability to create complex web (data) forms for
centralized data capture that helps eliminate spreadsheets.
Features include inherent data entry features for ‘spreading’
changes, locking data, adding commentary, capturing supporting
detail, attaching files to cells, and applying validation rules, all
while enforcing data security.

Page 12
As has been the case in more recent versions of Hyperion Planning,

you have the ability to create impressive dashboard-type web
forms with charts, tables, and other graphics to be available on
both mobile and desktop.
Moreover, there is a powerful feature for administrators to author

web forms via the new interface and save them as a functioning
Financial Reporting report. This feature is not perfect, but definitely
a nice, new way to transition from a well-received web form to a
well-received report.

Page 13
Data security is still driven by “planning units” against the Entity

dimension, but the setting of ‘user variables’ has changed. A
simple settings menu for ‘user variables’ allows you to
specify/change what data you are looking at, again, applying
data security appropriately.
For each user variable, the selection of desired ‘members’ is not

too dissimilar to the interface in the ‘classic’ view. This is definitely
an area for future improvement for PBCS.
The workflow and approval process also has not changed
significantly, other than the simplified interface look and feel. It
remains based in best-practices and offers a visualized approvals
process with workflow status dashboards that help manage
progress against your budgeting (and budget cycle) deadlines.
Below, you will see the steps of the approval workflow and their
ownership, along with a graphical representation of the status.

Page 14
For reporting, continue to leverage Financial Reporting Studio or FR.

Interestingly, our customers and end users are leveraging web
(data) forms for analysis and reporting (their words), others primarily
use Smart View, and some embrace FR. Financial Reporting Studio
is soon to be transformed into a lighter cloud solution, but until then
we essentially have the same options.
With regards to Smart View, you can further utilize this great tool to
manage dimension members.
To do so, you must connect to the Planning server, open the
dimension, and begin adding or updating members and properties
as seen below. This is a really nice option.

Page 15
8 INTEGRATING DATA
The data integration model changes a bit with PBCS, as the data
needs to be moved into the cloud. This is primarily done with files,
which are produced and transported via FTP. REST APIs do exist
and are being leveraged more and more, but the core approach
is to use files.
FDMEE exists for PBCS, but in a ‘lite’ version. Pre-built adapters and
ERP Integrators are not available, but the data mapping facilities of
FDMEE are still quite helpful, and ‘drill-through’ into your ERP can be
configured.
Here are the steps for setting up FDMEE in PBCS:
Page 16
Page 16
Integrating Data
1. Set up the source and target systems.

2. Create an import format.
3. Define the location, period, and category.
4. Set up the data load mappings.
5. Create and execute a data load rule to import and validate
the source data.
6. Export the data to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud.
Then, in the PBCS target application, you must verify that the data
was loaded and that you can drill through to the source system (if
configured).
Additionally, it is likely that you will want to automate the data
loads. For this, Oracle has provided a File Transfer Utility
(EPMCopy.exe). Upon installation (see below), you can easily
create a batch file that contains an EPMCopy command to load
data into your Oracle PBCS target application.

Page 17
9 REVIEWING THE PBCS SOLUTION
Several of our customers have implemented PBCS and we truly see
the value, but we also see where it may not be the right fit.
The advantages are numerous; here are a few we see:
• Many online training videos and tutorials
• Helpful, guided application demos
• Many wizards for setting up applications and underlying
functionality
• Best practices for Planning are built-in
• Built-in performance and validation tools
• Choice of Oracle data center
• Ability to ‘lift and shift’ current Planning applications to the
cloud
– Uses common LCM migration facilities
• New functionality first
– Oracle’s “Cloud First” strategy
• Reduced reliance on IT and internal infrastructure
However, there are limitations to be aware of – here are a few to
consider:
• Only one application is supported per subscription.
– The application can contain up to three (3) BSO
(block storage) plan types (cube models) and up to
four (4) ASO (aggregate) cubes
– Each additional application requires an additional
subscription
• The file system is currently limited to 150GB
– Includes space for your Essbase database, reports,
and any exported Life Cycle Management content
• EPM Architect (EPMA) is not supported (Classic Mode only)
• Data is loaded via flat file using FTP
Page 18
Page 18
Reviewing the PBCS Solution
• Pre-built Hyperion modules are not currently supported

(‘Enterprise PBCS’ options are coming soon)

Page 19
10 MOVING TO ORACLE PBCS
Ultimately, if you are considering Oracle PBCS, you are either
targeting a new implementation or a migration from on-premises
(or hosted) to the cloud – Oracle calls this a ‘lift and shift’.
New Implementation Highlights and Considerations:
• Eliminate the normal start-up activities:
o Hardware procurement and setup
o Software procurement, install, and base
configurations
• Access is provided in days with new subscription
• Leverage new application wizard and configure
applications
• Focus on data and FDMEE up front, then functionality
• Can be accomplished in a few months
o Dependent on availability of requirements, number of
applications and their design complexity, extent of
data integration needed, and end user (super user)
involvement
Lift and Shift Highlights and Considerations:
• Investigate Oracle’s ‘Customer to the Cloud’ program
• Pre-built modules (e.g. CapEx, etc.) do not yet port
• May need to change data integration approach
o Shift to simplified, file-based approach
• Regression testing is still needed
• Can be accomplished in weeks
o Again, this is dependent on the number of
applications and their complexity, components
needing testing (reports, forms, etc.), extent of data
integration changes needed, and availability of
regression test scripts.
Page 20
Page 20
11 RECOMMENDATIONS
As you consider and/or begin your endeavor with PBCS, here are a
few recommendations:
 Understand the limitations
 Get multiple subscriptions
o For more than two (2) environments (lower numbers
for secondary subscriptions)
 Embrace the simplified integration model with FDMEE
o Know that Oracle wants you to succeed - ask for
help/support as much as needed
 Leverage Oracle’s valuable online content:
o Tutorials:
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/pbcs_common/
pbcs_tutorials.htm
o Videos:
pbcs_videos.htm
o Initial Documentation:
CSPGS.pdf
Page 21
Page 21
12 CONCLUSION
In summary, PBCS is a fantastic solution from Oracle and a great
option for folks considering a move to the cloud. With robust
features and functionality, a large subscription base, and the ease
of implementing, PBCS gives both existing and potential customers
a viable deployment option in the cloud.
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to several folks on the EPM team at AST Corporation
for their contributions to this paper, as well as Oracle EPM solution
consultants, including Kapil Garga.
Page 22
Page 22
About the Author:
Patrick Callahan
On Premise Vs Cloud: Selection Approach &

Patrick Callahan is the Vice President of EPM at AST Corporation
(www.astcorporation.com). With pragmatic advice, ultimate client service, and superior delivery,
AST offers industry experts in Oracle Cloud, EPM, Oracle Applications, BI, Middleware/SOA, CX, and
related technologies, as well as Managed Services.
Mr. Callahan maintains Oracle Specializations for Oracle EPM, BI, and BI Applications, and is
active on the Oracle EPM and BI Partner Advisory Councils. His experience is centered in EPM, BI,
data warehousing, program management, Oracle Applications, and core technologies, and he has
presented at Oracle OpenWorld (OOW), Collaborate (OAUG), KScope (ODTUG), Oracle Tech Days,
North Central Oracle Apps User Group (NCOAUG), and various other regional and industry-specific
conferences.

April 2016
Copyright © 2016 AST Corporation
AST Corporation is a privately-held company founded in 1995 to serve

commercial and public sector organizations in utilizing the full potential of their
investments in Oracle Applications. We have built our business by providing top
quality full life cycle and turn-key consulting services for Oracle implementation
and upgrade projects, among other specific services.
Our mission is to ensure that you, as a valued client, receive the highest level of
expertise and personalized service for your Enterprise Applications. We endeavor
to help you realize the full benefit from your investment in software applications
and integrate them seamlessly to your business processes.
AST Corporation Phone: 888-278-0002

1755 Park Street, Suite 100 Fax: 630-778-1179
Naperville, Illinois 60563 www.astcorporation.com
ASTCORPORATION
1755 Park Street, Suite 100

Naperville, Illinois 60563
1.888.278.0002
info@astcorporation.com
www.astcorporation.com

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The right partner makes all

Technical and Cost Proposal

Applications Software Technology Corporation

8 COST PROPOSAL ................................................................................................... 51

9 TERMS AND CONDITIONS ..................................................................................... 54

12 APPENDIX C: WHITEPAPER – A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ORACLE PLANNING

ii. Forecasting – short and long term Y Planning (PBCS) Functionality

b. ADP Personnel System, Oracle ERP System, and SAP

i. ADP Personnel System, Oracle ERP System, and SAP

3 Reporting and Analytics

4 Usability (ease of use)

b. Online self-help available Y PBCS includes much online documentation,

6 Generation of budget book

Out Of The Box

Municipal Governments State & Federal Government

City of Atlanta, GA California ISO, CA

City of Chicago, IL State of Florida – Law Enforcement

Proven Partner to Larimer County

Client Platform and Modules Implemented Size Year

 Oracle Data Integrator

increasing the project team’s chance of Support Structure

success. We believe that this approach is DEPLOY Training

valid and appropriate. It allows the team to Production & Stabilization

Project Management Approach

 Scheduled tasks that were not completed in time

Within these guidelines are five main processes:

Quality Assurance Reviews

Proposed Staffing and Project Team Qualifications

AST Project Team

AST and County Project Teams

AST Team Resource Allocations by Stage

Definition Configure/Build Test Deploy Transition

County Team Resource Allocations by Stage

Project Roles and Responsibilities

AST Resource Roles

Role Responsibility Role Type

County Project Team Roles

Role Responsibility Role Type

 Project Start: August 1, 2016

MDS: Meta Data System Functional Lead – Oracle EBS Assessment

AIM: Application Implementation AST Corporation, IL 06/2009 – 09/2009

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, IL 02/2009 – 05/2009

Berks County, PA 11/2015 - Present

AIM: Application Implementation State of California 07/2013 – 11/2013

Oracle Essbase 11 Alliance Data, TX 04/2005 – 04/2012

City of Detroit, MI 04/2015 –Present

Database Hyperion Solution Architect/Technical Lead – Shared Hyperion

Hyperion Essbase 9.3 Developer Comerica Bank, MI 06/2010 – 10/2012

City of Detroit, MI 03/2016 – Present

Training & Certifications

i. Did you meet your original schedule commitments?

ii. Did you meet your original budget commitments?

We have implemented Performance Management elements for many of our customers.

Training and Knowledge Transfer

County Project Team Members

County End-User Training Approach

Verification of Training & Knowledge Transfer

c. What training software is available?

AST Managed Services for Ongoing PBCS Support

 Troubleshooting issues with data forms and business rules

Service Associated Tasks

• Tasks – request for a routine setup and/or maintenance task to be completed by