EPM Cloud in Real Life: Cloud Migration Case Studies

Business processes and environments are growing increasingly complex. Companies are constantly looking for ways to manage this complexity and gain the upper hand over their rivals.

Oracle’s EPM Cloud is a leading solution for enterprise performance management in the cloud, allowing customers to digitally transform their business and leapfrog competitors that are still wedded to inefficient spreadsheet-based processes.

With benefits including better scalability, higher performance and lower costs, cloud-based computing has become the norm for organizations of all sizes and industries. Indeed, many of the applications in Oracle EPM Cloud are now more robust and feature-rich than their on-premises equivalents.

Below, we’ll discuss just two ways that we’ve seen our clients benefit from moving into the Oracle EPM Cloud.

Case Study #1: Data Analytics Company

One of our clients, a data analytics company that helps consumers better understand their financial situation, was already using a 5-year-old installation of Oracle Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.2. Roughly 25 employees were using the deployment, which included heavy utilization of the Workforce Planning module.

The client knew that it would have to upgrade to 11.1.2.4 sooner rather than later in order to continue receiving Oracle’s Premier Support. With a migration on the horizon, the client also decided that it would switch from Hyperion on-premises to Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service.

Datavail worked with the client on a 3-month migration project, leveraging the client’s existing on-premises artifacts. The client was able to realize all the traditional benefits of a cloud migration: lower IT support costs, mobile access, and automatic patches. In addition, the client realized additional benefits, including an improved user experience, faster calculation times, and access to more granular detail for variance analysis.

Case Study #2: Energy Corporation

Another of Datavail’s clients, an East Coast power and energy company, saw even more dramatic improvements by switching to Oracle EPBCS. Before the migration, the client was using a manual Excel-based process managed by a single person. This individual was responsible for not only preparing Excel templates for two dozen department heads, but also receiving and aggregating the results.

By moving to the Oracle EPM cloud, the client hoped to avoid the standard woes of Excel-based processes: wasted time, lack of standardization, and limited reporting capabilities. The client also wanted to take advantage of the positive aspects of the cloud, including less physical infrastructure and fewer upfront costs.

The client approached Datavail for a 2-month migration project. Once the upgrade was finished, the client saw major gains in their process efficiency, exactly as they had hoped. Users could enter information directly into the system and automatically aggregate it, without the need for manual data processing. These improvements to efficiency also freed up more time to analyze and gain insights from the data.

Best Practices for EPM Cloud Migrations

After performing hundreds of Oracle upgrades and migrations for our customers at Datavail, we’d like to think that we know a few things about the best way to go about a cloud migration. Here’s a few of our top suggestions:

• Get help: You’re never alone in the move to the cloud. If you have questions, consult your migration partner, Oracle support or your industry contacts. The cloud products change quickly and you need a partner who keeps up with the changes.
• Think long-term: Although the move itself is a significant undertaking, you also need to consider what the post-migration landscape will look like in terms of technical administration and support. Ask questions like, “Who will perform routine administration tasks?”
• Stay updated: One of the biggest adjustments when going to the cloud is the monthly update cycle. Take time to read through the monthly release notes and perform testing during the two weeks between the upgrades to your Test and Production instances.

Interested in leveraging the benefits of Oracle EPM Cloud for your own organization? We can assist with everything from roadmap development to post-go-live support, including automated regression testing for monthly updates. Contact Datavail today for a free consultation about your business needs and objectives so we can help you along the way.