Oracle Hyperion is alive and well. For years, it’s been the epitome and golden standard of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions, yielding powerful and effective results for mission-critical tasks.
After a strategic move by Oracle, Hyperion is now part of the Continuous Innovation model, a pledge to provide ongoing Premier Support through at least 2032 for instances in release 11.2 or higher. This means that Oracle Hyperion customers below release 11.2 at are a crossroads of sorts; they need to either upgrade to release 11.2 or migrate to a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution like Oracle EPM Cloud.
Whatever the decision, the end goal is to modernize the system so that clients benefit from the latest innovations, agility and strengthened security.
Still, there are many clients hesitant about making the upgrade or feel as if time is running out since they’ll lose Premier Support by the end of December 2021 unless they take immediate action.
This hesitancy is also fueled by some myths flying around that can cause confusion. Let’s clear some of the most prominent ones.
4 Oracle Hyperion EPM Myths
1. There’s no rush in upgrading or migrating Oracle Hyperion
Unfortunately, this one couldn’t be further from the truth. Oracle announced back in 2018 that it would be terminating Premier Support for Oracle Hyperion instances below release 11.2 and the deadline they provided was the end of December 2021 which is less than a few weeks away. Initially, many clients took their time in assessing the situation and the ones who did upgraded or migrated are now in the clear, but those who didn’t are now faced with the far-from-ideal reality of having to cope with the costs and risks of being desupported, with no access to new features, updates, and security patches. As clients enter into Sustaining Support, they’ll need to look for alternative, albeit highly incomprehensive forms of support to protect their instance to a certain extent.
2. If it’s working properly, organizations can stay on versions below Hyperion 11.2
Oracle flagged Oracle Hyperion release 11.2 as the Continuous Innovation release, meaning that this is the last major upgrade that Hyperion clients will ever have to make. With that said, the upgrade itself is a major undertaking and one that needs to be carefully planned out to ensure a smooth transition. Even if your system is currently working as expected, it’s extremely inadvisable that you stay on any release prior to 11.2 as they’ll be exposed to increased costs and unwanted vulnerabilities as a result of losing Premier Support at the end of December 2021.
3. Oracle Hyperion won’t receive more investments from Oracle and clients will need to move to Oracle EPM Cloud or Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
As said at the beginning of this blog, Oracle Hyperion is alive and well, and might we add, thriving. Thanks to Oracle’s commitment to continue to invest in this product and maximize the investments of thousands of clients, it’s no wonder that Oracle is making an important push for every client to modernize their application so they benefit from the latest Hyperion 11.2 innovations. While every organization needs to have a cloud strategy for the short and long term, Oracle Hyperion on-premises is a solution that makes sense to a lot of clients, so it’s really important to assess each client’s unique circumstances and decide what modernization journey works best for them.
4. Oracle Hyperion will be obsolete soon and replaced with new cloud functionality
As of yet, not all Oracle Hyperion capabilities have a direct counterpart in the cloud. For example, Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, or FCCS for short, is built from scratch and not as a mirror replacement for Hyperion functionality relevant to those capabilities. FCCS uses a similar technology stack to Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud with pre-built rules and metadata designed to address financial consolidation. This is a testament to the fact that Oracle Hyperion will continue to not only be extremely relevant and valuable for organizations, but has a future that is financially and technologically backed up by Oracle.
Nowadays, conversations about the cloud are a must for organizations looking to secure a modern look-and-feel to their operations, but it’s also true that the cloud is not the immediate right solution for everyone at this point in time. Whether you decide to upgrade or migrate your Oracle Hyperion software, the important thing is to take action as soon as possible to modernize your system and benefit from the latest Hyperion innovations.
Download the latest ebook “Top Reasons to Move Your Financial EPM Processes to the Cloud” and see why financial processes you currently hold on-premises can benefit by moving to the cloud.
