Oracle Hyperion Planning Reviews

“Faster planning with complex data”

Pros

Handling our complex data has been really amazing with Hyperion Planning and it has noticeably sped up the entire planning process.

Cons

I still haven't spent enough time with the product to point to any specific drawbacks yet.

“Powerful budgeting and forecasting”

Pros

After more than a year using Hyperion Planning, I can say it's an excellent tool for handling budgeting and forecasting data. It lets you review, share and model information in many different ways, so there's a lot you can do with it. Being an Oracle product also opens up a huge range of possibilities. You get access to one of the best database engines out there oracle Essbase and it connects really well with SmartView for Microsoft. On top of that you can work with your forecast data across the Microsoft suite, whether that's Excel, PowerPoint, Word or Access. It's a really impressive SaaS product and I have genuinely loved using it.

Cons

Honestly there's very little not to appreciate with Oracle products. After a year of using it, I really haven't run into any complaints.

“Reliable financial control daily”

Pros

Using this program day to day has been really worthwhile because it's practical and especially helpful for keeping the company's financial control on track. I rely on it every day and honestly haven't had any issues with it.

Cons

I haven't come across any negative aspects while using it. I'd definitely recommend it to others.

“Monthly reporting on autopilot”

Pros

Once the backend data pulls are in place, Hyperion takes a lot of the manual work out of reporting. I can just refresh the reports each month instead of rebuilding everything which saves a lot of time.

Cons

One thing to watch is that the account names and Excel ranges have to be exact. If they are off even a little, it can cause issues.

“Amazing experience overall”

Pros

This tool is user friendly and easy to use. Compared with other planning software I have worked with before, it has been a much better experience overall.

Cons

I really don't have any complaints about this product.

“Well-organized planning with Excel”

Pros

One thing that really works well with Hyperion Planning is how organized everything feels. A big plus for our team has been connecting it with an Excel add-on which has made day-to-day work much more convenient and efficient.

Cons

There are still a few areas where the functionality could be improved. I'd especially like to see more built-in visualization tools, since creating a visual report directly in the app is not very easy.

“very expensive upkeep”

Pros

It is a well-established platform for bringing multiple businesses together and producing the key reports needed to satisfy financial reporting requirements.

Cons

The downside is that it's costly and maintenance and upgrades can be challenging to manage.

“excellent for mixed ERP reporting”

Pros

Hyperion has made it possible to report consolidated financials across a mixed ERP setup, including both EBS and SAP.

Cons

It does require running an additional database, Essbase which adds complexity to the environment and means administrators need extra training.

“Task lists keep budgeting on track”

Pros

Task Lists in Planning do a really good job of simplifying what would otherwise be a pretty complicated workflow for our users. Since they are not especially experienced with the software, having those step-by-step reminders makes Budgeting and Forecasting much easier for them to follow and complete correctly.

Cons

The administration side can be somewhat challenging and Business Rules often take a long time to run even when they have been optimized. One example is a rule we use to move data from one application to another with the XWRITE command. That command is notoriously slow and users can end up waiting 5 to 10 minutes for the transfer which definitely creates a bottleneck for us.

“Powerful planning and forecasting”

Pros

Being web-based, this planning, budgeting and forecasting tool brings together a single data store, an allocation engine and strong analytical capabilities powered by Essbase and the back-end database. It handles complex calculations very well and the option to build an ASO cube in Essbase is especially useful for reporting because of the fast response time. Integration with other tools is also not a problem. With the PBCS and EPBCS versions, there is no infrastructure dependency while still keeping the same core capabilities as the on-prem Hyperion Planning setup.

Cons

There is nothing specific to call out for the on-prem version but the cloud version does come with some limitations compared with on-prem. Reducing those gaps would make it better going forward.

“Strong for financial consolidation”

Pros

Hyperion has been really valuable for international and domestic companies that need consolidated accounts for financial reporting. It's especially useful when intercompany accounts have to be included in 10K and 10Q reporting and it handles that type of corporate reporting need very well.

Cons

Report output still needs some extra work, though. Formatting has to be adjusted and the parameters for intercompany reporting need to be updated, so there's still some manual manipulation involved.

“Slow crashes and no support”

Pros

I honestly cannot point to any real advantages of using Hyperion. From my perspective, there just aren't any meaningful positives to this tool.

Cons

There are plenty of problems with it. The system runs very slowly, crashes often and getting help from customer support has been frustrating. I am not even sure whether the call center is based in the US. On top of that it doesn't handle computer operating system upgrades well at all.

“Dev testing adds confidence”

Pros

Having a dedicated Dev environment is really valuable because it lets me test the data first before moving it into Prod.

Cons

One drawback is that the existing data has to be cleared before reloading new data over the same dimensions which adds an extra step.

“A user-friendly reporting powerhouse”

Pros

Creating, pulling and refreshing large volumes of data for reporting and analysis is very easy and the platform is generally user-friendly. The member selection options are also clear and simple to work with.

Cons

It would be helpful to have more detailed visibility into specific user changes, such as timestamps and user IDs tied to certain updates. The ability to quickly turn system data into presentation-ready exhibits is also lacking.

“love the explore tools”

Pros

Its explore functions are laid out in a clear organized way and changing sorts and filters makes it simple to track down the records I need.

Cons

Editing records is too open and simple in ways that can be risky and the permission settings are another area that could use improvement.

“Outstanding interface”

Pros

The interface is excellent and it's backed by the impressive calculation power of Hyperion Essbase.

Cons

One thing that's frustrating is not being able to select multiple sibling members in a hierarchy to delete or move them together as you have to handle them one by one.

“really disappointed”

Pros

Honestly there is very little to praise here. The product is extremely heavy, needing five physical servers on dedicated hardware and even with all that, the performance still falls short of expectations.

Cons

Everything about it has been frustrating as installation is painful, configuration is painful, the pricing is painful and even moving between production and development is painful. If there had not already been so much money poured into hardware and custom development, this would have been abandoned years ago. Both the Finance team and IT cannot stand working with it. It even inspired the password !H80rac!e.

“Excel visibility but a slow web tool”

Pros

Using the Excel tool, I can view multiple intersegments at the same time which makes analysis much more practical.

Cons

The web version feels slow and it only lets me work with one intersegment at a time.

“Restrictive reporting and poor support”

Pros

Hyperion Planning has some useful strengths especially once you get familiar with the basics. The core functionality is fairly easy to pick up and building forms is relatively simple. I also liked that the same dimensional structure is carried across the web interface, Excel and Reporting Studio which makes the system easier to work with once you understand how it is set up. Smart View, the Excel add-in is particularly helpful when entering large volumes of data or pulling larger reports.

Cons

As per me the biggest downside is how little flexibility the system offers. I spent a lot of time working in Financial Reporting Studio and it felt extremely limiting, to the point where I often couldn't deliver what clients needed. Something as basic as changing report border colors wasn't even possible. FRS was also unreliable at times as it crashed often, ran very slowly and sometimes changes made in the tool wouldn't appear properly in the system. There were plenty of situations where a tiny adjustment in one part of a report would throw off the whole thing, forcing me to rebuild it from scratch. On top of that a lot of expected functionality was simply missing and Oracle's support was disappointing. I once submitted a service request for a new feature and was told the development team had supposedly been working on it since 2003. The interface itself is not always user friendly either, so during implementation we regularly had to deal with confused users and sometimes we were just as confused. It also only works properly in Internet Explorer and even then different IE versions can cause issues. If the browser zoom is not set to exactly 100%, users can even have trouble clicking links.

“A user-friendly planning tool”

Pros

I have worked with this in both my current role and a previous one and it's been very simple to pick up and use from the start.

Cons

It does lock up from time to time and I often end up having to sign out and then log back in to keep going.