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Avon’s enterprise performance managementsystem delivers global insight

THE EXECUTIVE’S GUIDE TO ORACLE APP LICATIONS

ORACLE.COM/PROFIT

BEAUTIFULRESULTS

ORACLE HYPERION

SPECIAL EDITION 2011ERVASIVE EPM IS WHERE WE’RE HEADING, BY

UPPORTING MOBILITY IN OUR SOLUTIONS, BY MAKING

RODUCTS INCREASINGLY EASY TO USE, AND THROUGH

NTEGRATION OF ORACLE BI WITH ORACLE EPM

OLUTIONS.”

— GAURAV REWARI, VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT STRATEGY AND

ANAGEMENT FOR BI AND EPM, ORACLE

Louis Debrosa, IT Director, Avon

KPI VS. THE BOTTOM LINENTERREL CEO EDWARD ROSKE ON WHY

EXTREME FOCUS ON DIVISIONAL GOALS

BENEFITS THE ENTIRE BUSINESS


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3/24


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2 P R O F I T : T H E E X E C U T I V E ’ S G U I D E T O O R A C L E A P P L I C A T I O N S

EDITOR’S NOTE

6 THE INSIGHT GAME Enterprise performance management can deliver

insights crucial to navigating the volatility of the global

economy—and that’s no game of checkers.

—By Aaron Lazenby

VIEWPOINT

8 KPI VS. THE BOTTOM LINE

For managers, is tracking the key metrics for theirdepartments enough to ensure success for the entirebusiness? The CEO for Oracle partner interRel shareshis opinion. —By Edward Roske

STRATEGIC ROADMAP

9 DEEP INTEGRATION The synthesis of Oracle Hyperion

applications and core Oracletechnologies can deliver deep benefits

to analytics-driven businesses.—By Aaron Lazenby

O R A C L E H Y P E R I O N S P E C I A L E D I T I O N

Cover: Catherine Gibbons

EDITORIAL

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Copyright © 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

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trademarks of their respective owners.

GLOBAL INSIGHT

A Thing of Beauty Avon’s enterprise performance management

system delivers accurate information and

critical insight to managers at every level of

the organization —By Alison Weiss

16


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Harness the Power of

Analytics

Organizations that are equipped with business analytics are actively

leveraging their newfound knowledge to gain a competitive edge.

Peloton is a leading professional services firm that specializes in

business analytics, enterprise performance management andenterprise information management. Learn how Peloton can help

your organization transform into a market leader of the future.

Go to www.pelotongroup.com or contact us at [email protected]


6/24

ORACLE HYPERION PARTNER CASE STUDY

T

oday, the finance function at

most companies is under con-

stant pressure to help improve

performance through analyticalinsight, and the Oracle® Hyperion enter-

prise performance management (EPM)

suite has emerged as a widely used tool

in that effort. “Companies often implement

the Oracle Hyperion platform to help the

CFO obtain relevant, timely information

about financial performance,” says Brian

Ginsberg, EPM Oracle Alliance Lead,

Performance Management Technology,

Deloitte.As with any software, however, the

benefits obtained through the use of

Oracle Hyperion solutions depend on

how an organization approaches the

technology. “Getting the most from Ora-

cle Hyperion requires more than merely

configuring the software and implement-

ing a tool,” says Matthew Schwender-

man, Practice Leader, Performance

Management Technology, Deloitte.

Instead, he says, enterprise performance

management should be approached withthe big picture in mind. “To get a solid

return on their investments, companies

can take advantage of the Oracle Hy-

perion EPM suite to improve budgeting,

planning and forecasting processes, and

link the software’s capabilities to specificbusiness needs and actions that drive

shareholder value.”

That, in essence, is how Deloitte’s

Performance Management practice

approaches Oracle Hyperion soft-

ware—not simply as a technical effort,

but rather as a business-led initiative.

Deloitte works with clients to under-

stand their business challenges and

objectives, and uses technology suchas Oracle Hyperion software to make

decisions about how to run the busi-

ness and drive greater returns.

Deep Skills, Global Reach

Deloitte’s Performance Management

practice can address the entire suite

of Oracle Hyperion products, using an

implementation approach that can be

customized to each specific project. It

also looks beyond the technology, and

typically helps clients tackle a spectrumof related financial-management

needs, such as business process

Deloitte: DrivingBetter Decisions inthe Finance Function

redesign, tax implications, security,

change management, risk assessment,and training.

To take this comprehensive

approach, Deloitte’s Performance

Management practice brings together

a number of assets—starting with

a broad set of deep skills. “As the

Oracle EPM product suite has

grown, we’ve seen our practice grow

dramatically right along with it,” says

Schwenderman. Today, the practice is

one of the largest in the marketplace,

with more than 200 US based practi-tioners—representing both technology

and business expertise—focusing on

Oracle EPM. Through its network of

member firms, the practice is able to

maintain global delivery capabilities

leveraging professionals that work

around the world, including a number

of Oracle EPM consultants located in

Deloitte-owned facilities in India.

Deloitte also brings to bear itsextensive experience with Oracle

Hyperion software, having completed

more than 100 end-to-end Oracle EPM

implementations in the US alone, for

clients across industries, including

consumer products, financial services,

life sciences and health care, manufac-

turing, energy, and the public sector.

Based on this experience, Deloitte has

developed the Enterprise Information

Management (EIM) for Oracle Hyper-

ion implementation methodology. EIMcovers the entire project lifecycle and

incorporates leading practices and ap-

At its core, performance management isn’t a

technology issue. It’s a business issue. And that’s

exactly the approach we take, bringing practitionerswho possess industry-specific insight and deep

experience delivering large-scale, global technology

deployments. No matter where you are in the life cycle

of integrated performance management, we can help.


7/24

proaches that have been honed over time,

in real-world business situations—all ofwhich help to reduce time and risk during

implementation, while maintaining a focus

on business goals.

Leveraging Key Relationships

A recognized strength of Deloitte’s Oracle

Performance Management practice is a

set of critical relationships that allow it to

operate with a truly business-oriented,

“big picture” perspective. For example, De-

loitte’s Oracle Performance Management

practice works with the overall DeloitteOracle Technology practice to take an

integrated approach to performance man-

agement and business intelligence, using

Oracle EPM, Oracle Business Intelligence,

Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle

Fusion Applications. Recently, Gartner

positioned Deloitte in the “Leaders" quad-

rant in its 2011 Magic Quadrant for Global

Business Intelligence and Performance

Management.1

What’s more, Deloitte has a long-

standing strategic alliance with Oracle andHyperion that spans more than 12 years.

Oracle’s EPM organization has named

Deloitte as its Global System Integrator of

the year in six out of the last seven years.

And Deloitte is an active participant on

Oracle EPM product advisory boards and

beta release programs, which provide

valuable insight into the ongoing evolution

of Oracle Hyperion EPM solutions, ap-

plications and other Oracle products.

The relationship of the two companies

extends beyond performance manage-ment to encompass all Oracle software

and technologies. Deloitte is an Oracle

Diamond Partner, and with some 10,000

Oracle professionals worldwide and more

than 1,000 Oracle implementations in the

last three years alone. The firm has been

consistently recognized by analysts as a

leader in Oracle implementation related

services.

Company InfoFor more information, visit us online atwww.deloitte.com/us/oracle or contact us:

Brian GinsbergDeloitte EPM Oracle Alliance Lead,Performance Management [email protected]

Matthew SchwendermanDeloitte Practice Leader,Performance Management [email protected]

Building an Integrated Approach to Finance

A large industrial company was undergoing change on many fronts, including

significant merger-and-acquisition activity and business-unit divestures.

However, the company’s finance processes were having difficulty keeping

up. Based largely on spreadsheet tools, these processes led to long cycle times

and the need for finance professionals to spend more time preparing reports than

analyzing results.

The company worked with Deloitte to transform its finance processes using Oracle

Hyperion software. Oracle Hyperion Financial Management was used as the Close,

Consolidation, and Reporting tool to replace disparate consolidation systems and to

provide enhanced capabilities to meet future internal and external reporting needs.

Oracle Essbase was selected to provide enhanced management reporting capabili-

ties beyond those covered by Oracle Hyperion Financial Management. Overall, the

result will be the integration of financial consolidation and reporting on one platform.

This effort is part of a multi-year roadmap designed to transform key financial

processes and improve decision support. The company is about halfway through its

journey, but it is already seeing results in key areas

Consolidation and reporting —the reduction of manual consolidations and

duplicate effort.

Budgeting and forecasting —the reduction of disparate processes and systems;

cycle time reduction; and increased accuracy.

Strategic planning —clearer linkage between strategic plans and operational plans,

and increased visibility into the impact of internal/external events.

Data management —better control and transparency into the data-loading process;

more-effective data-governance process.

As the effort moves forward, the company plans to further enhance forecasting

and planning and build more advanced analytics capabilities that will draw on a single

platform for management reporting. Once fully implemented, this initiative will give the

company tools and process that can facilitate decision making and help it achieve its

goal of having a leading finance operation.

Overall, Deloitte is in a position to bring

perspective and breadth of experience to

the implementation of Oracle Hyperion. “In

addition to in-depth technology know-how,

we have other broad based services around

financial management provided by ourmember firms, including tax and audit work”

says Brian Ginsberg. This combination helps

companies take a business-led approach to

Oracle EPM software—and with the chal-

lenges facing the finance function today, that

is critical. Says Ginsberg: “This approach

can help the CFO make the best use of

information, and can help the organization to

get the right information to the right person

at the right time to make better decisions—

which is the heart of effective performance

management.”n

1Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Global Business Intelligence and Performance Management Service Providers, Alex Soejarto, Neil Chandler, January 27, 2011

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its

subsidiaries. This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of Deloitte practitioners. Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, financial,investment, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your

business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte, its affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for

any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.


8/24

EDITOR’SNOTE


Traveling to Cleveland, Ohio on magazine business recently, I stumbled upon the

World Checkers and Draughts Federation’s World Three-Move Championship

Match of checkers. I don’t normally follow competitive checkers, but it was late in

the afternoon and I had some time to kill. So I dropped in on the action.

I found myself in the special collections room of the main branch of the

Cleveland Public Library, watching Alex Moiseyev (Dublin, Ohio) and Michele

Borghetti (Italy) at the end of a particularly heated match. I could tell it was heated,

because each player spent as much as five minutes studying the board before

making a move. The competition was fierce, and two of the three spectators were totally engrossed. The other,

however, was asleep in a chair.

In the silent moments between moves (and before my cell phone rang and I was chased from the room), I

wondered what these checkers masters were thinking about. All I could imagine was that they were modeling

each of the remaining moves and trying to predict their opponent’s counter. With only 10 checkers on the board,

that shouldn’t take too long. But if you change the scope of the prediction (from just anticipating the next move

to anticipating the next five moves), even a late-in-the-game modeling of a checkers match gets pretty complex.

Back on the street (with a now-silenced phone in my pocket), it occurred to me that the checkers players

were doing a board game version of forecasting and predictive modeling—some of the key capabilities of Oracle

Hyperion enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions. The best checkers players in the world were

taking eons (in computing time) to run very basic predictive models of a very simple universe of data.

This unusual and spontaneous moment in Cleveland gave me a new appreciation for the massive scale and

power of EPM solutions—millions of data points, thousands of external variables, time frames that range from

next quarter to next decade. And with a lot more at stake than (with all due respect) the world checkers crown.

So this Hyperion special issue is Profit’s attempt to do justice to the customers, partners, and Oracle devel-

opers who work with EPM systems to wring insight from complicated data sets every day. We’re talking about

serious business information—the profitability of a product line or customer demographic, budget planning

under extreme margin pressure, forecasting the sales results for a new market.

All of this at a time when, as mentioned by many of the sources we spoke to for this issue, the volatility of the

global economy makes these kinds of insights more crucial than ever. That’s no game of checkers.

Aaron Lazenby

Editor in Chief, Profit [email protected]

The Insight Game

B O B

A D L E R


9/24

2,500 Partners with 70,000 Specialists

oracle.com/specialized

Copyright © 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SelectSpecialized

Partners 70+ Oracle Product

Specializations

Skills Certified byIndependent Testing

Successful Implementations

Confirmed by Customers


10/24


P

eloton is a leading professional

services firm that specializes in

business analytics, enterpriseperformance management,

and enterprise information management.

Peloton provides services to organizations

across a variety of industries. Its business

centers on the key finding that organiza-

tions that consistently leverage analytics

and solid enterprise performance manage-

ment practices will outperform their peers.Peloton’s professionals have a

unique combination of functional, techni-

cal and industry experience, and deep

knowledge of Hyperion solutions. What

distinguishes the Oracle Platinum Partner

is its unique delivery methodology, which

allows users to work with the enabling

technology throughout the implementa-

tion. Through modeling and staging, the

client experiences key components of the

solution.

“We drive value quickly,” says GuyDaniello, Founder and CEO of Peloton.

“We leverage an innovative and itera-

tive delivery methodology that ensures

solution adoption starts day one of the

project.”Recently, the firm was hired by a

leading biopharmaceutical company to

revamp its enterprise planning solution.

Using its results-driven implementation

methodology, Peloton is helping the

company to achieve tangible results

from its new Hyperion solution.

Limitations of the Existing System

This leading biopharmaceutical com-

pany wanted to enhance its internal

performance management capabilitiesby building an integrated planning,

analysis, and reporting solution that

replaced the existing budgeting,

forecasting, and planning tools, and

complemented the existing reporting

processes and environment.

Since the company implemented

Cognos Enterprise Planning six years

ago, the business needs had expanded

and were not being met within the ex-

isting technology. The solution lacked

the robust infrastructure, features,and functions necessary to optimize

the integrated planning and reporting

function. It had limited reporting and

analysis capabilities. Users found it

difficult to quickly address standard

variance reporting, ad-hoc questions,

and “what-if” modeling capabilities.

Data was fragmented and

processes were redundant, requir-

ing time-consuming data exchanges,

manual data manipulation, and human

interaction. The current architectureencouraged point solutions versus

enterprise-wide, integrated solutions.

Peloton Delivers a Strategic Visionwith Oracle Hyperion EnterprisePerformance Management

The strategic, long-range planning

process was not integrated with the

quarterly and mid-range planning dataand information. Also, the current fore-

cast process was primarily a consolida-

tion effort and limited due to the lack of

integrated processes and supporting

technology. Finally, there was limited

centralized and formalized enterprise

process, governance, or tools for the

creation, maintenance, and integration

of master data.

The limitations of the current

system strained the organization. Too

much time and effort was being devot-ed to supporting the business process,

leaving limited time to analyze and gain

insight. There was a strong desire to

more effectively buttress downstream

processes focused on allocating

resources to support strategic clinical

and drug development processes.

A Road Map for Success

As part of a formal review process, the

client considered solutions from IBM

and Oracle. They chose Oracle Hype-rion Enterprise Performance Manage-

ment, including Hyperion Enterprise

Planning, for, among other reasons, its

high scalability, out-of-box functional-

ity, and its success among other life

sciences companies. They also chose

Hyperion Data Relationship Manage-

ment to better manage their business

hierarchies.

“The client liked that the Hyperion

solution had built-in logic to tackle their

business challenges,” says PelotonSenior Consultant Dina Apovian. “It’s

a platform solution that supports the

Guy Daniello, CEO


11/24

business process and needs less customi-

zation to meet their specific needs.”

The client also formally considered a

number of different professional services

firms to conduct the implementation, and

chose Peloton’s professionals becauseof their strategic approach to the solution

implementation.

“Instead of telling them, ‘We can

implement the tools you want to improve

this process and that process,’ we looked

at their business challenges in a more

strategic way, and provided them with an

overall solution set that will help them as

they grow,” says Daniello.

Together, Peloton and this leading

biopharmaceutical company developed

a strategic solution road map that wasin alignment with the CFO’s and team’s

vision for world-class performance

management and data integration. Stage

one would focus on improving reporting

processes, providing immediate relief to

some of the company’s pain points around

manual data collection and distribution.

Stage two would consist of implementing

the master data management solution

and integrating and standardizing the

various financial processes. Stage three

centered on fully integrating the HyperionPerformance Management platform, by

embedding the research-and-development

and clinical-planning models, which would

enable comprehensive modeling, forecast-

ing, and business analytic capabilities.

“The long-term vision for our client is to

significantly improve their planning, fore-

casting, reporting, analysis, and decision-

making capabilities,” says Daniello.

Reducing Inefficiencies,

Increasing EffectivenessOnce the comprehensive solution is

deployed in 2012, the client expects sig-

Company Info

For more information, contact:

Guy Daniello, [email protected]

David Allard, Vice [email protected]

Peloton’s Revolutionary Approach

Peloton’s strategic approach to delivering

solutions, to this life sciences company

as well as to all of its clients, resides in its

unique project methodology in designing,developing, and implementing enterprise

performance management solutions,

which it calls the “Breakaway” process.

Breakaway designates a far greater con-

centration of its project lifecycle to the pro-

cesses of client requirements and solution

design, which increases rates of project

success and business solution adoption.

Early and frequent application modeling

sessions expose clients to the evolving

solution, providing them with hands-on,

experiential learning and education beforethe solution goes live. The process also

ensures that business processes are

aligned with the enabling technology, and

that both the business and information

technology stakeholders have a clear

understanding of the solution.

“Usually, there’s a whole period of

adoption or learning that takes place

months after a solution goes live,” says

Daniello. “Peloton starts the learning and

adoption process earlier, so users experi-

ence the new technology right away. Thisapproach keeps their energy level up, and

at the same time delivers higher value to

the client.”

An Expert Point of View

Daniello says Peloton prides itself on

being a business partner as well as an IT

consultant to its clients, and credits his

team of skilled, experienced professionals.

“We have a very senior team of people

who have been implementing technology

solutions for years,” says Daniello. “Ifyou want a partner who’s going to have

a strategic point of view around business

processes and challenge your thinking,

we’re the ones to go with.” n

nificant efficiencies in financial processes,

reporting, and analytics, resulting in ongo-

ing cost savings. Through improved tools,

data access, and structured analysis, the

finance function will achieve the broader

vision of improving the planning andanalytics function while deriving better

outcomes and expanding decision-making

capabilities beyond finance.

Hyperion’s Enterprise Performance

Management solution will reduce cycle

time by eliminating manual steps, data

preparation, data reformatting, and data

reconciliation and validation. Finance

resources will have time to focus on value-

added financial analysis and business

reviews rather than data- and system-

related tasks. Risk related to processingerrors will be reduced driven by eliminat-

ing disparate hierarchies and redundant

maintenance activities.

Point solutions will be eliminated

through establishing solid, modular-

based architecture. The new, integrated

solution will use common data, common

hierarchies, and common rules. Business

partners will have access to actionable

information and data through real-

time, online, structured data and report

delivery.Ultimately, this leading biopharma-

ceutical company will have improved data

availability and access through the Hype-

rion system’s automation and integration.

Centralized data maintenance will lead to

better data accuracy. The finance function

will benefit from greater efficiency and ef-

fectiveness, with more time spent analyz-

ing information and providing information

versus collecting, consolidating, reconcil-

ing, and validating data. Resources will

be better utilized and automated andstandard reporting will lead to faster, more

consistent results.


12/24

VIEWPOINT BY EDWARD ROSKE


KPIs vs. the Bottom Line

In a for-profit company, many managers will

tell you that every employee should be focus-

ing on the bottom line. Sadly, in my opinion,

every one of those managers would be com-

pletely wrong.Making money (or as upper management

in the organization call it, “increasing share-

holder value”) is the goal of senior management and the corpo-

ration as a whole. But I believe that individual departments, cost

centers, profit centers, or organizational units should be neither

measured against overall profitability nor focused on it at all.

Here’s why: the profitability of a business is an outcome of

the inner workings of hundreds of discrete processes. Think

of it in terms of anatomy: all the parts of my body work

together to make sure I stay alive. But my

stomach focuses not on my continued

life but on the very narrow activity ofdigestion. My heart focuses on pumping

blood, my bones focus on providing

overall structure, and my spleen focuses

on . . . well, actually I have no idea what

my spleen does.

And that’s exactly the point. While as the CEO of my own

body I care about my overall performance (and continued exis-

tence), I don’t have to constantly monitor what all the parts are

doing. Similarly, those parts of my body (in the service of my

metaphor about business) need to focus on exactly what they

can control and nothing else.

This should look familiar to anyone who works in a corpora-tion. Every corporate department has certain responsibilities

within management’s control. HR makes sure our employees

are happy. IT ensures that our computer systems are stable.

Accounting focuses on closing our books accurately and on

time. Manufacturing has the ability to control waste and utiliza-

tion levels and reduce steps in the manufacturing process. Sales

(this is a tricky one) should concentrate on selling.

Every employee in every department should be managing

the items that are within their control. Execution of those items

determine their key performance indicators (KPIs) and business

drivers that, once all the parts are put together, will eventually

result in the company being more profitable.

While the manager of shipping might like to know that his

company is profitable (so that if it’s not, he can start updating

his resume) and what the stock price is (so that he can sell

his company shares and put the money in a safe investment,

like gold or collectible NASCAR plates), profit is an indirectoutput of the work he does on the job and nothing he can

directly change.

What we need to determine are what his drivers—his

KPIs—are. In a perfect world, his job can be summarized in 10

KPIs that can allow him to quickly see how he’s performing and

improving on his job.

For the shipping manager it might mean tracking the

number of loads received, the percentage of trucks shipped

full, the utilization of dock space, the cost per shipment, or

department headcount. Whatever those

10 items are, they should always be front

and center—from the time he logs in tohis computer in the morning until he

leaves at the end of the day.

Ultimately, how those KPIs are pre-

sented is less important than identify-

ing and reporting on them in as timely

a fashion as possible. I think it’s better to have a printout of

your department’s KPIs that was current five minutes ago than

to spend time maintaining a pretty dashboard that hasn’t been

updated for weeks. Focus on timely updating, and use tech-

nology to get the information to the people in your organiza-

tion in near-real time.

While I happen to feel that Oracle’s Hyperion and enter-prise performance management (EPM) applications are

the best products out there for delivering this information

throughout your company, I think that a cultural change

needs to precede the technology. It’s more important is that

you stop focusing on profit and begin identifying and report-

ing on these KPIs.

Just like when my stomach stops being upset, my body

feels better: Improve the departments, and profit (even in this

economy) will naturally follow.

EDWARD ROSKE ([email protected]) has 15 years of experience with Oracle

Hyperion products and is an Oracle ACE director and the CEO of interRel Consulting.

ARE KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BIG PICTURE?

M E

L I S S A V O R H I E S R O S K E

Profitability . . . is anoutcome of the inner

workings of hundreds

of discrete processes.


13/24

P R O F I T O R A C L E H Y P E R I O N S P E C I A L E D I T I O N 11

hen Gaurav Rewari joined Oracle in

2008, the company was just begin-

ning to integrate the enterprise performance

management (EPM) products and expertise

acquired through the purchase of Hyperion

Solutions. As vice president of EPM product

strategy, Rewari witnessed the transition

firsthand. “It was very interesting, deciding

how to continue to invest in and maintain the

truly unique Hyperion products, while at the

same time picking up the core infrastructureand middleware benefits gained from being

part of Oracle,” says Rewari. Ultimately, the

goal was to balance the functional innovation

of the EPM applications with making them

more scalable and enterprise-ready by lever-

aging Oracle’s technology stack and through

integration with Oracle Applications. Profit

spoke to Rewari, now vice president, product

strategy and management for business intel-

ligence (BI) and EPM, about the future of

Oracle’s EPM product lines and their impor-

tance in today’s economy. PROFIT: How have Hyperion products

benefited from Oracle’s acquisition?

REWARI: I think it has translated into real

benefits for customers. They will now find

a product line that has seen significant

investments in enterprise readiness. The

critical factors a customer must rely on

from an EPM platform—in terms of scal-

ability, system management, installation,

setup, security, lifecycle management—all

of these functions rely on core middleware

and technology assets that Oracle has.In the past, Hyperion developers had

to build and maintain all of this technol-

ogy on their own. But since they are now

part of Oracle, we can divert our energy

and investments into functional innova-

tions. That’s been proven, since we’ve been

able to maintain a rapid pace of Oracle

Hyperion product releases. We’ve intro-

duced a whole new range of solutions to

the marketplace, running the gamut from

industry-specific solutions like public

sector planning and budgeting to horizon-

tal solutions such as disclosure manage-

ment and financial close management.

That’s a whole new set of functional

innovations, largely made possible because

we’ve been able to free up a bunch of ourengineering and R&D resources. Oracle

is so very strong at infrastructure, and we

have been able to leverage that.

PROFIT: How does the process of inte-

grating Hyperion with other complemen-

tary Oracle products work?

REWARI: The process here at Oracle

for integrating a given suite of products

with other relevant Oracle products is

tried and tested. It really comes down

to picking the winners among the many

products we have in our stack and theninvesting in them heavily to make sure

customers get a consistent experience. We

have very regular planning cycles, and we

continue to drive that integration deeper.

This could mean integration between,

for instance, EPM and Oracle’s ERP

[enterprise resource planning] applica-

tions, or EPM and BI. So for example, we

worked on the integration with Oracle

Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition,

and now users can access all Oracle

Hyperion EPM assets through the same

BI interface they use for data warehouse

or line-of-business data mart, or even the

packaged BI applications we have on top

of our ERP and CRM [customer relation-

ship management] systems.

This really allows users to gain addi-

tional functionality at a much lower cost,

because the total cost of ownership of a

combination of these products is much

less than if you were to buy them piece-

meal or from a range of different vendors. PROFIT: What role do the EPM and

BI products play in Oracle Fusion

Applications?

REWARI: For each key Oracle Fusion

Applications module, we have a corre-

sponding BI application that we’ve devel-

oped as well as a set of transactional BI

capabilities that users can report directly

against Oracle Fusion Applications’

transactional data. This kind of reporting

is made available as separate dashboards,

but also integrated as part and parcel ofthe Oracle Fusion Applications ERP or

CRM experience.

Similarly, Oracle Fusion Applications

embed and leverage key EPM technolo-

gies. Oracle Essbase is core to the Oracle

Fusion Financials solution and many

other applications. Oracle Hyperion

Financial Reporting is part of Oracle

Fusion Applications, along with func-

tionality from Oracle Hyperion Smart

View for Office and the Calculation

Manager feature of Oracle’s HyperionFoundation Services. These are all foun-

dational EPM technologies that have been

built into Oracle Fusion Applications.

Furthermore, our EPM applications

complement Oracle Fusion Financials to

deliver a really comprehensive suite of

solutions for the office of finance.

Also, the ability for Oracle EPM to

coexist with existing Oracle applications—

PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite,

Siebel, JD Edwards—allows customers to

deploy EPM applications and continue to

Deep IntegrationPERVASIVE EPM IN ORACLE PRODUCTS CAN HELP PLANNERS IN VOLATILE TIMES.

Gaurav Rewari, Vice President, Product

Strategy and Management, Oracle

BY AARON LAZENBY

M A

R G O T H A R T F O R D


14/24


leverage their EPM skills as they move into

the world of Oracle Fusion Applications.

PROFIT: What role do you think theEPM products, and in particular Oracle

Hyperion products, play in helping man-

agers deal with a volatile economy?

REWARI: Oracle Hyperion products in

particular have a very key role to play in

the face of such uncertainty and volatility,

because of their ability to allow finance

professionals, planners, and line-of-busi-

ness executives to reduce risk and limit

their exposure. On the flip side, they also

enable them to seize opportunities these

uncertain times might present. And so inboth ways, I think the Oracle Hyperion

EPM product line allows for this.

If you look for instance on the plan-

ning side, there is much to be gained

by having the ability to plan, replan,

and forecast very quickly. Plans from a

month ago might be rendered completely

obsolete based on current events. Tools

like Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance

allow users to model the impacts of

major events and scenarios. We have as

part of our EPM product line a productcalled Oracle Crystal Ball, which allows

you to run Monte Carlo simulations. So

you subject your plans to several scenario

runs, and then you come up with some-

thing in which you have a much higher

level of confidence. And furthermore,

we have tools like Oracle Essbase—the

underpinnings of the Oracle Hyperion

Planning solution—which allow you to

very rapidly do “what if?” analysis and

scenario modeling.

At the same time, whatever plans youdo develop, you want to have a higher

level of confidence in them. You want

to do that using a range of sophisticated

planning techniques that allow for things

like driver-based planning, risk-adjusted

planning, and event-driven replanning—

ways to model macroeconomic volatility.

So we enable all these through our core

planning product line.

PROFIT: What about capturing oppor-

tunities, even in the face of economic

uncertainty?

REWARI: I briefly alluded to the fact

that managers may see opportunities to

pursue paths that might be very benefi-cial for a company—so for instance, we

have a product called Oracle Hyperion

Profitability and Cost Management. It

allows managers to systematically iden-

tify profitable products among a large

set of products, to focus on profitable

customer segments, and to even dive into

individual customer details. And so if

you need to run a loyalty promotion for

a certain class of customers or pursue a

new market demographic, you can iden-

tify those segments with Oracle EPM.

PROFIT: How has the EPM market

changed, given the competitive landscape

and what the demands are from custom-

ers and businesses for this kind of ana-

lytical ability?

REWARI: I already mentioned one: the

increasing unification of BI and EPM. In

many cases, the technologies used for

finance-oriented analytics can and should

be the same as those used for line-of-

business analytics.

We’ve also seen planning and budget-ing regarded as part of a larger enter-

prise proposition. Increasingly, it’s not

just about developing your annual plan

and budget, but developing operational

plans for different departments in your

company. These operational plans have to

integrate, where it makes sense, into your

core financial plan. This is something

we’ve seen our customers embarking

on, using the Oracle Hyperion Planning

product at the core and some of our

other planning assets alongside.

There’s been a broadening of the

consolidation area beyond just financial

consolidation to include, for instance,reporting for external statutory pur-

poses—for which we developed a

product for disclosure management.

There’s been increasing demand for

the orchestration of the end-to-end finan-

cial close process, which needs a high

level of process control, auditing, and

governance support built in. We’ve seen

an expansion of the role finance plays in

providing periodic reports to lines of busi-

ness that combine numbers with analysis

and commentary—something we in thetrade call management reporting.

So we think the EPM area has really

blossomed to include all these new

components.

PROFIT: Given these trends, where do

the Oracle Hyperion EPM products go

from here?

REWARI: Pervasive EPM is where we’re

heading, by supporting mobility in our

solutions, by making products increas-

ingly easy to use, and through integration

of Oracle BI with Oracle EPM solutions. We’re working to develop combined

solutions where the value of the data and

the insights in the EPM applications are

made available to a much larger com-

munity through integration with our BI

product line.

So for instance, you might have 10

analysts or cost accountants construct-

ing very advanced cost and profitability

models. But in principle, hundreds and

thousands of business users can benefit

from that data, if it is made available intheir reports and dashboards. That

kind of deep integration really changes

the game.

We’re always looking for ways to

lower total cost of ownership for our

customers through integration, through

accelerated implementation, and through

cloud-based deployment where it makes

sense. These are some key focus areas for

our future R&D investments.

AARON LAZENBY is the editor in chief of Profit .

“Oracle Hyperion

products . . . have a

very key role to play

in the face of such

uncertainty.”

—Gaurav Rewari, Vice President, Product

Strategy and Management, Oracle


15/24

oracle.com/goto/banking

or call 1.800.633.0723

20 of the 20

Top Banks

Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Get Better Results With Oracle

Oracle Financial Services


16/24


Founded in 1995, Group 1

Automotive is a Fortune500 company and a leading

operator in the automotive retail

industry. Group 1 owns 134 franchises,

representing 29 brands including Toyota,

BMW, and Ford, at 100 dealerships in

the United States and five in the United

Kingdom.

Since Earl Hesterberg became Group 1

Automotive’s President and Chief ExecutiveOfficer in 2005, one of the major focuses of

the company has been on cost control and

efficiencies of scale. This focus has been

one of the primary drivers in its consistent

profitability and positive operating cash flow

through a historically weak selling environ-

ment, which corresponded with the economic

downturn that began in September 2008.

As a result, Group 1 has strengthened its

balance sheet over the last three years and

positioned itself to take advantage of the

anticipated auto-retailing rebound.

One of the primary elements of Group

1’s success in cost control and operat-

ing efficiency is the ability to compare

operating results across the company’sdealerships, allowing the management

team to expedite decisions and leverage

best practices. In 2006, the company

converted to a common dealership man-

agement system, and then to a common

general ledger account structure, account

definitions, and policies and procedures.

However, as it grew,

Group 1 still struggled to find

a dynamic reporting system

that would distribute data to

management in a consistent,timely fashion, with better abil-

ity to provide comparative data,

allowing for more informed

decision-making. Management

sought a uniform, consolidated

way to look at dealership per-

formance, and a more efficient,

automated way to conduct

reporting processes without relying on

manual labor to generate reports.

It also sought a less people-dependent

budgeting and forecasting tool, andsystem controls and maintenance efficien-

cies within the budgeting process. A chief

component of Group 1’s cost control and

operating efficiency is its focus on person-

nel efficiency. Group 1 places consistent

emphasis on ensuring that all employees

within the lean organization are effectively

utilized in the role that they were trained

to perform, and not overburdened with

ancillary responsibilities or tasks that divert

their attention. Management believes a

key enabler to accomplishing this is lever-

aging technology that decreases unneces-

sary, time-intensive tasks for employees.

Group 1 Automotive DrivesProftability with Oracle HyperionApplications and TopDown Consulting

Finally, as a publicly listed company,

Group 1 needed a cost-efficient, in-housesolution to the Securities and Exchange

Commission’s XBRL requirement, which

mandates that all filings include an XBRL

file that can then be used to compare

numbers across companies.

“We wanted to leverage the capabili-

ties of the software, and enable our team

to spend less time compiling the numbers

and more time in constructive areas of

managing the business, such as analyz-

ing and acting on the numbers,” says

Lance Parker, Vice President and Corpo-rate Controller for Group 1 Automotive.

Gearing Toward Growth

To achieve these goals, Group 1 chose

the Oracle Hyperion suite of products,

because it “offered an integrated solution

for all our business needs,” says Parker.

Group 1 began looking for an Oracle

partner that could aid them with building

and installing an Oracle Hyperion solu-

tion. They received formal proposals from

several firms with expertise in OracleHyperion implementations. In the end,

Group 1 chose to partner with TopDown

Consulting, a solution provider to many

of the largest and most successful Global

2000 companies.

“The key to capitalizing on the benefits

of an Oracle Hyperion/EPM/BI solution is

a consulting partner who understands your

business, takes time to listen to your current

needs, and knows how to translate these

requirements into a solution that accommo-

dates current and future needs,” says Mark

Wilson, TopDown’s Vice President of Ser-

vices. “With TopDown Consulting, you get

Lance Parker, Vice President and Corporate ControllerGroup 1 Automotive, Inc.


17/24

a holistic approach to enterprise performance

management. We have a team of consultants

who boast an average of 20 years combinedOracle Hyperion and industry experience. This

enables us to understand the best way to as-

sess and balance technology, process, people

and unique company culture within a flexible and

scalable solution on time and within budget.”

Parker says Group 1 chose TopDown for

its high ratings in Oracle Hyperion software

expertise as well as its strategic project

focus. TopDown Consulting’s comprehen-

sive approach to solution design, delivery,

and training includes a repeatable, scalable

engagement methodology that is tailored toeach client’s unique business requirements.

These requirements are accommodated

through technology, process, and best prac-

tices gathered from years of working with

leading companies across many industries.

“The big distinguishing factor of TopDown

was that they didn’t necessarily sell us on a

product or a service,” says Parker. “Rather, they

took time to understand our needs and provided

a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to

what we needed. Instead of just telling us they

could install whatever solution we had decidedto buy, they served as more of a business

consultant, providing advice on which type of

solutions we needed given our requirements.”

Revving Up for Efficiency

With the consultation of TopDown, Group 1

decided to implement Oracle Hyperion

Financial Management, Oracle Hyperion

Planning, and Oracle Hyperion Disclosure

Management. The project began in January

2011. Oracle Hyperion Planning went live in

August 2011 for the 2012 budgeting cycle;

Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and

Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management be-

Company Info

For more information visitwww.topdownconsulting.com

gan parallels in August 2011. Oracle Hyperion

Financial Management is scheduled to go live

for the January 2012 close; Oracle HyperionDisclosure Management is scheduled to go

live for the first quarter 2012 reporting cycle.

Working with Group 1’s internal resources,

TopDown is providing “the full gamut” of

services, says Parker, from development and

design to build and implementation of the

entire solution.

With the new system, Group 1 is achiev-

ing efficiencies in its consolidation, budgeting

and forecasting, and reporting processes. Its

processes are more automated with system-

based controls, and less dependent ontime-intensive, manual intervention. Reporting

is also significantly more robust and efficient.

And with Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Man-

agement, the company can now generate the

XBRL file for the SEC in-house, eliminating

the expense of using an outside firm.

“Previously, we were very Excel-based

in our budgeting. To distribute all of the files

that dealerships’ general managers needed

to budget, we would have to make 100-plus

copies of each file for each store, and then

save them on a network drive or distributethem in some other way,” says Parker. “With

the installation of Oracle Hyperion Planning,

the entire distribution process is automated.”

Now, instead of focusing on compiling

and distributing reports, Parker’s analysts

and accountants can focus on analyzing and

digesting them. From an operating stand-

point, management can gain clear, con-

sistent information on the business faster,

allowing them to make better decisions.

“The feedback that we’ve gotten so far

from the budgeting side has been positive –

everybody feels good about our budgeting

tool,” says Parker.

The use of custom dimensions in the

new system has also increased reporting

capabilities. Management has better visibilityinto reporting by manufacturer brand and

model, and several years of same-store

reporting within the same scenario can now

be achieved.

Group 1 also required that the interface of

the new budget planning system needed to

have the same interface as it had previously

for budget users. This required an overhaul of

their massive Microsoft Excel budget template.

“Upon rollout of the new template, the user

experience remained largely the same as in prior

years,” says Wilson. “This design enabled themto maintain their existing look and feel, and yet

gain more security and a much more dynamic

and robust process that they can utilize as the

business grows.”

Speeding to Success

Wilson says the level of collaboration between

the teams was a key factor to their ability to fin-

ish the project on time and within budget.

“This project timeframe was quite ag-

gressive,” says Wilson. “However, because

of the harmonious working relationship weestablished with the Budget Department at

Group 1, we were able to come together as

a cohesive team and get the job done on

schedule.”

Parker says Group 1 is very pleased

with TopDown’s services, and its focus on

client satisfaction and delivering on client

expectations.

“The services that TopDown provided

were right on point with what we expected and

needed,” says Parker. “During the project, the

engagement team was focused on meet-ing deadlines, and provided weekly status

updates. Even after the solution was delivered,

the team has been extremely accessible and

very responsive to questions we’ve had about

the system. Via phone calls or emails, the

TopDown team has been willing to provide

knowledge sharing and real-time training.” n

Instead of just telling us they could install

whatever solution we had decided to buy, TopDownserved as more of a business consultant, providing

advice on which type of solutions we needed given

our requirements.-Lance Parker, Vice President and Corporate Controller for Group 1 Automotive


18/24


Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, as the old sayinggoes, but no matter where a woman lives in the world,

Avon Products makes it easy for her to add some beauty

to her life. With more than US$10 billion in annual revenue,

Avon—with headquarters in New York, New York—is the

leading global beauty company and the world’s largest direct

seller marketing beauty, fashion, and home products. From

one of the first companies to empower women to work for

themselves, the “Avon Lady” has been an important cultural

icon for decades.

“Strategically, we see our Avon Representatives as one

of our most important competitive advantages that we

have,” says Louis Dubrosa, IT director of supply chain,

finance, and business supporting functions at Avon. “And

making sure she gets everything she needs for her cus-

tomers is a critical priority for our company.”

BY ALISON WEISS

AVON CALLS ON ORACLE ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE

MANAGEMENT TO DELIVER STRATEGIC GLOBAL INSIGHT.

P H O T O G R A P H Y

B Y

C A T H E R I N E

G I B B O N S

A Thing ofBeauty


19/24

P R O F I T P R I M A V E R A S P E C I A L E D I T I O N 17

Louis Dubrosa, IT Director, Avon


20/24


Avon sells in more than 100 markets around the world,

reaching 300 million consumers through approximately 6.5

million independent Avon sales representatives. It has a vast

portfolio of global products with international appeal, such as

a newly launched fragrance by singing celebrity Fergie of the

Black Eyed Peas. At the same time, individual markets do sell

products that are localized to the needs of their populations.For example, customers in Asia buy face-whitening cosmet-

ics, while U.S.-based consumers clamor for skin tanning and

bronzing products.

While Avon’s winning formula has led to global dominance

in the beauty arena, international expansion has also led to

challenges. With approximately 40,000 employees and 100 dif-

ferent business units transacting business in 60 currencies, the

IT division found it nearly impossible to deliver a clear overall

budget and reporting picture to senior management. With no

standardized systems in place, neither could they easily present

any type of comparative analysis across the entire organization.

Managers in each market managed their own budgets and fore-casts, and gathering timely and consistent data for corporate

reporting and forecasting was very cumbersome.

But over the two-year period between 2007 and 2009,

Avon’s IT leadership designed, implemented, and introduced

an Oracle Hyperion–based enterprise performance manage-

ment (EPM) system to provide standardized and comprehensive

financial planning, reporting, and analysis across the entire

enterprise. The new system gives managers at every level of the

organization the accurate information and the critical insight

needed to continue to grow and thrive.

GLOBAL GROWTH

Avon first began bringing beauty into the lives of its custom-

ers 125 years ago via door-to-door sales, and later moved into

workplace sales. Now, Avon sales representatives increasingly

operate in the online world. The company has also morphed

from selling beauty products in North America to selling around

the globe, with China and India cur-

rently offering long-term growth

opportunities. The company is also

well known for a focus on innovation

and social responsibility, being one of

the first to market with alpha hydroxy

anti-aging products and last yearintroducing a collection of body care

products that abide by international

fair trade standards. Avon’s jewelry and

home products are also popular.

“Obviously our core beauty busi-

ness, based on color, skincare, and

fragrance, is still where we want to

grow. That’s our sweet spot, but we’re

also a major seller of costume jewelry,”

Dubrosa says.

Avon’s expansion into international

markets over the last decade has led

to some growing pains. For one, products were sometimes

unnecessarily specialized for different regions, causing supply

chain issues. For example, the same mascara might have had a

different bottle shape and brush in Mexico than the version sold

in the U.S. Or, managers in Brazil would choose to use only

domestic sources for products in their market. If there were

product shortages in one region, it was very difficult to shiftsupplies from one country to another.

This regional focus also presented obstacles regarding

financial budgeting and reporting, as well as analysis and

forecasting. Each region operated individually in its own silo,

using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to manage budgets and

forecasts. Not only was it difficult to share information, but

when data was submitted for corporate reports, the data was

often weeks—if not months—old. Even at the corporate level,

financial functions were not connected. Tax reporting was done

using one tool, while treasury staff used their own processes

and tools for balance sheet forecasts and planning.

Dubrosa describes a scenario that was far too common at Avon. At times, marketing would report that sales of beauty

products had increased, but finance would counter that sales in

beauty were in fact flat. This caused a debate across the orga-

nization about which number was correct, but each group was

using a different definition of sale.

It was clear that something had to change to get the entire

organization on the same page.

SINGING FROM THE SAME SHEET

Change movements require strong leadership—and Avon

was no exception. When Charles Cramb, now vice chairman,

Developed Market Group and interim CFO at Avon, cameaboard in 2006 as CFO, he had successfully spearheaded a

similar change effort at his former company.

He knew it was critical to establish a common process and

system that every country could use to accurately forecast, plan,

and report actual results. Fundamentally, Avon is the same busi-

ness regardless of market or market

nuances. “Chuck saw EPM as the

tool that would begin to merge siloed

financial functions under a single

umbrella,” says Dubrosa, “so that

everybody would be singing from the

same spreadsheet.”In 2007, Avon management

launched the deep-dive analysis of

what they wanted to accomplish

with EPM. The project would require

building out new business processes,

creating a new set of reporting require-

ments, and fundamentally changing

how often and at what level of detail

Avon managers performed business

forecasts. In addition, leadership

needed to take the time to educate

managers about the upcoming changes

>>SNAPSHOT Avon Products

avon.com

Headquarters: New York, New York

Industry: Beauty and relatedproducts/direct selling

Employees: 40,000

Revenue: More than US$10 billion in 2010

Oracle products: Oracle Hyperion

applications, including planning, financial

data quality management, data relationship

management/master data management,

strategic finance, Web analysis, and

financial management; Oracle Data

Integrator; Oracle WebLogic Server; Oracle

Essbase; JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

applications; Oracle E-Business Suite;

PeopleSoft Enterprise applications


21/24


and engage personnel in the process.

According to Dubrosa, the biggest change

to the management of financial results

internally was implementing responsibility

reporting. Historically, a general manager in

a country would be responsible for an entire

set of financials. So if Avon management

suggested making a strategic IT investmentin Brazil, it was up to the general manager in

Brazil to agree to the investment.

With responsibility reporting, Avon

general managers in the different countries

would now have ownership of product line

profit and loss, which are aspects of perfor-

mance over which they have control. And,

moving forward, decisions about IT project

funding, new-product marketing, financial

planning, and supply chain management

would be managed with a global perspective

rather than a regional view.“Taking away the planning process from

the local markets can feel intensely per-

sonal,” says Dubrosa. “But what it does is

allow general managers to focus on the field

sales foundation, making sure we’re flowing

the right products and that we’re energizing

the sales force.”

While Avon leadership remained commit-

ted to regional products and supporting the

most-popular regional offerings, they also

wanted to be more strategic with the resources used to support

products that could be managed globally—such as fragrances,talcum powder, and deodorant. “Before EPM, this was a huge

black hole,” says Dubrosa. “The idea of managing product cat-

egories globally was a near impossibility.”

Another important step was establishing new forecasting

frequencies—one in the spring and one in the fall—as well as

including interim “flash forecasting” to be done on an as-needed

basis. With Oracle EPM solutions, summarized reporting and

planning around a few key financial indicators and business

performance indicators could be done very quickly and sepa-

rately from the formal budgeting and forecasting process.

In fact, Avon was not unique in the need to create a solid

foundation before actually implementing the EPM system,

because many companies are struggling to gather the right

financial data to make effective business decisions. According to John O’Rourke, vice president of EPM product

marketing at Oracle, the volatile economy in 2011 makes

planning and forecasting difficult. In a recent survey of 1,500

IT managers and business executives across the U.S. and

EMEA conducted by Dynamic Markets and published by

Oracle, 82 percent of big organizations surveyed indicate

that they do not have complete visibility into profits and are

working with outdated information.

The EPM market is growing, and much of the expansion

is coming from business leaders requiring better information

transparency. “Companies face increasing pressure to improve

planning and forecasting processes in volatile economic condi-

Louis Dubrosa, IT director of supply chain, finance, and business supporting functions at

Avon, believes that while merging siloed local business functions under a single IT umbrella

may be difficult work, it ensures all managers work from a common set of data.

“The constant in all of this

has been management’s

commitment to the

vision of EPM. . . . The

end goal didn’t change: to move the business.”

—Louis Dubrosa, IT Director, Avon


22/24

2 0 P R O F I T : T H E E X E C U T I V E ’ S G U I D E T O O R A C L E A P P L I C A T I O N S

tions,” says O’Rourke. “Then you have internal management

teams asking for better, faster information about the busi-

ness so they can keep track of what’s happening and respond

quickly to changes.”

This need for transparency certainly influenced Avon’s deci-

sion to seek out an EPM system, but once management finished

the difficult tasks of establishing requirements for processes,reporting, and forecasting, actually selecting the system was easy.

TRA NSLATING STRATEGY I NTO REA LIT Y

“We’re a long-time Hyperion shop. So, the natural progression

for us from [Oracle] Hyperion Enterprise to Oracle Hyperion

EPM applications was part of the attraction,” says Dubrosa.

“The differentiating factor was that the Hyperion EPM solution

was an entire suite of integrated products with the strategic

direction to unify our discrete, previously siloed financial func-

tions across the board.”

Avon’s IT team was eager to take advantage of the depth and

flexibility of the Oracle Hyperion applications in the way userswould be able to access and view data. The Oracle Hyperion

EPM applications would make it possible for marketing and

supply chain managers to look at sales by product category,

while the sales organization could look at the data at the rep-

resentative level. In addition, sales and marketing could see

sales on a campaign basis, while finance could look at sales

on a fiscal basis. To Avon’s IT leadership, few other EPM pack-

ages offered this flexibility. In addition, the company wanted to

benefit from Oracle Hyperion’s scalability and performance.

Avon was definitely on the right IT track, but the team

would need assistance to actually implement the EPM system

and provide the necessary training to all its business units

around the world. Enter Edgewater Ranzal, an Oracle partner

and systems integrator that specializes in Oracle Hyperion

implementations. The company, which has its headquarters in

White Plains, New York, had worked with Avon in the past.More importantly, the partner brought the right experience

and resources to manage a globally scaled project. “They saw us

as a huge strategic partner, and culturally they were the right fit.

They challenged us, and it resulted in a better product for us,”

Dubrosa says.

One of Edgewater Ranzal’s first directives when the

project began in October 2007 was to help Avon translate

an EPM system design into reality. Avon relied on Edgewater

Ranzal’s deep experience with Oracle Hyperion when real-

world functionality veered away from conceptual ideals. For

example, Avon management originally envisioned starting just

with Oracle Hyperion Planning, Oracle Hyperion FinancialManagement, and Oracle Hyperion Strategic Finance. However,

with Edgewater Ranzal’s guidance, it quickly became clear to

Avon’s management that it would also be necessary to deploy

Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management and

Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management.

Rather than phase in modules one at a time, Avon and

Edgewater Ranzal agreed that a “wholistic” approach would be

necessary to meet all of the Avon objectives. “There was a lot of

business process re-engineering happening prior and throughout

A ccording to John O’Rourke, vice

president of enterprise perfor-

mance management (EPM) product

marketing at Oracle, the rocky global

economy has created a really tough

environment for planning and fore-

casting, so companies increasingly

are looking for help by implementing

comprehensive EPM systems. Tradi-

tionally, EPM suites deliver tools for

global financial consolidation, plan-

ning, reporting, and analysis. How-

ever, there is a growing need

for new functionality such as predic-

tive modeling.

“Once enterprises get their basic

reporting, planning, and forecasting

processes automated and running well,

the next areas a lot of companies are

focusing on include profitability analysis

and statistics-based predictive model-

ing,” O’Rourke says. “It’s where you

can really start to make some valuable

decisions about the business.”

Oracle Crystal Ball is an application

for predictive modeling, forecasting,

simulation, and optimization that is

integrated with Oracle Hyperion EPM.

It helps enterprises improve their plan-

ning and forecasting by providing a

way to create powerful forward-look-

ing business forecasts. Oracle Crystal

Ball also provides variable sensitiv-

ity and risk analysis information to

improve understanding of plans

and forecasts.

Users can take historic information

from a planning application or financial

modeling application and then take

a forward forecast and run it through

Monte Carlo simulations. Instead of

just doing a couple of manual models

of base-case, high-case, and low-case

simulations, Oracle Crystal Ball makes

it possible to run thousands of simula-

tions in a few minutes.

With the Oracle Crystal Ball EPM

solution, enterprises can add predictive

modeling features to their Oracle EPM

and business intelligence applications.

“We’ve already integrated Oracle

Crystal Ball with Oracle Hyperion

Strategic Finance and Oracle Essbase

and are planning to deliver greater inte-

gration with Oracle Hyperion Planning in

the future,” says O’Rourke.

This integration will provide enter-

prises with the ability to further lever-

age their EPM system investments.

Looking forward, O’Rourke predicts

continued demand for EPM solutions

and predictive modeling tools, espe-

cially if the economy stays volatile. He

says, “They appeal to companies try-

ing to plan and forecast and figure out

where the growth’s happening, when

it’s happening, and how to allocate

resources to match the growth expec-

tations of their businesses.”

Oracle Crystal Ball Helps Managers Guard Against Volatility


23/24


the project that impacted design, so Avon decided on a global

rollout with all modules at once rather than a phased approach,”

says Veda Gagliardi, senior vice president at Edgewater Ranzal.

This meant that Edgewater Ranzal did parallel implementa-

tions for Avon’s budgeting and planning process, as well as the

actual reporting process. At the same time, Edgewater Ranzal

consultants also assisted with the steps needed for Avon to re-engineer how the company performed man-

agement reporting.

Along with global implementation of the

solution, Edgewater Ranzal assisted with the

Herculean task of training approximately

700 users in 26 countries. “Training teams

consisting of an Avon Finance representa-

tive and a Ranzal consultant executed the

training. We conducted a training road

show, visiting countries and providing

hands-on training and Web-based training,”

Gagliardi says.The complex project required Edgewater

Ranzal and Avon to collaborate closely.

Gagliardi credits the experience and open

communication between the two companies as a reason for the

project’s success. “We worked side by side with Avon for the

whole two years,” says Gagliardi.

GO LIVE OR GO HOME

The first part of the EPM system, the actuals consolidation

process, was rolled out in January 2009. The second part of

the project, planning and forecasting, was rolled out in July

2009. Avon management decided to start with actuals report-ing because it is a much more structured and discrete process.

Management also hoped it would give users a chance to become

familiar with the system and navigating screens before using

planning and forecasting functions.

“Not many organizations have rolled out all of the Oracle

EPM products at one time,” says Gagliardi. “But the best part is

that we actually went live with it as scheduled and Avon is suc-

cessfully using the system.”

Indeed, now that Avon has been using the EPM system

for more than a year, it is achieving results beyond even what

management imagined when they first decided to implement

an EPM system. And although the planning process took longerthan management originally expected, it has paid off now that

the system is in operation.

From Day One, everyone was instructed to view the EPM

system as the one source of information, and this has provided

critical data consistency. “If people come with a spreadsheet

or PowerPoint deck, and the information is not sourced from

EPM, it’s not going to be looked at,” says Dubrosa. “That was a

tough decision for the executive council to make.”

But because all the modules in the EPM system are

linked, users have a fundamental understanding of the trace-

ability of numbers and that the results generated from the

system are accurate.

Management is also pleased that the company has largely

overcome what it sees as the biggest challenge to the project—

getting all its business units to adopt the processes enabled by

the software. Something as simple as getting local markets to

trust that the security in the EPM system doesn’t allow a global

or regional office to see forecasts until a local market final-

izes and submits them was very difficult. However, now usersunderstand the flexibility the system affords

them during the forecasting process, not

only to store the data in-process but also to

do multiple scenarios.

Avon management always expected

to achieve a complete and global view of

financial planning and forecasting with

its Oracle Hyperion EPM system, but the

system has provided the mechanism for

finance to become much more tightly

aligned with other data warehousing and

reporting projects across the entire orga-nization at the local, regional, and global

levels. “At the end of the day, this was rolled

out to finance only because they saw them-

selves in a silo,” says Dubrosa. “ But in fact, it’s used much more

broadly than that, both as sources of information around indi-

vidual markets and in areas of performance.”

Originally, management predicted that the EPM system would

be used by 300 users, and they had serious concerns about

system performance. Now, the system is actually supporting

700 users with no impact on performance whatsoever. Further,

the initial vision was to store only two years’ worth of data in

the system because of concerns that with too much informa-tion, performance would slow down. The system now includes

data from 2007 on, and the IT staff is considering an import of

2006 as well. “From a performance perspective, the system has

exceeded even our highest expectations,” says Dubrosa.

Moving forward, Avon IT staff is already in the process of

upgrading to Release 11 of Oracle Hyperion enterprise per-

formance management applications and is looking at lessons

learned to ensure the continued success of the latest iteration of

its EPM system. Dubrosa points to the importance of support

from senior executives: “The constant in all of this has been

management’s commitment to the vision of EPM,” he says. “I’m

not saying we didn’t shift courses a couple of times during thecourse of the two years, but the end goal didn’t change: to move

the business to a different place.”

ALISON WEISS is a frequent contributor to Profit .

>> FOR MORE INFORMATION

Oracle Hyperion Applications

oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi

Oracle Crystal Ball

oracle.com/us/products/applications/crystalball

“Companies face

increasing pressure

to improve planning

and forecasting

processes in

volatile economic

conditions.”—John O’Rourke, Vice President, EPM

Product Marketing, Oracle


24/24

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