Oracle today announced the latest release of its Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) System, Release 11.1.2. A component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle's EPM System combines EPM applications and business intelligence (BI) products to support a broad range of business processes.
As part of the 11.1.2 release, there are three new applications: two in the financial close and financial reporting area, Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management, Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management, and a third application that is a purpose-built planning module for public sector organizations called Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting, Hari Sankar, vice president of EPM Product Management, Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing. There are also significant enhancements to the existing portfolio of Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management applications such as Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management, as well as Oracle Essbase.
Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management helps companies bring in-house the process of putting together external financial reports and the process of filing them with regulatory organizations. "In the last few years, there have been some new standards that have been mandated by organizations like the SEC in the U.S. and others in Europe and elsewhere in the world," explains Sankar. In the U.S. for example the SEC has a mandate for large public companies to comply with a new standard called XBRL - eXtensible Business Reporting Language, notes Sankar. It is basically an XML-based standard, which the financial statements that public companies file with the SEC, must comply with so that the process of reading these documents by human beings and also by software can be streamlined and automated. "Disclosure Management basically allows companies to own that process of making their financial reports compliant with these new standards and publishing them externally, to bring that process in-house, manage it with better visibility and control."
Additionally, the new Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management application centralizes task management and delivers a web-based management dashboard for the end-to-end financial close process that typically spans ERP, BI and EPM systems as well as manual tasks, delivering improved visibility and predictability. In the past, software vendors have offered point solutions for solving specific problems in the financial consolidation space, observes Sankar. "Oracle is one of the first in the industry to see it as a broader set of needs that customers have.
Rather than asking customers to buy different point solutions, and stick them together to meet their various needs in financial close, consolidation and reporting, what we are doing is to provide a full breadth of products that can address this need. These two new products fit into that vision."
And, for public sector organizations seeking better control over their budgeting processes, there is the new Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting module, which is applicable to U.S. federal agencies, and central, state and local governments around the world, as well as higher education and healthcare organizations.
For more details about Oracle Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence, go here.