Olympus specializes in both cloud and on-premise EPM solutions provided by Oracle. For clients ready to migrate to the cloud or implement from scratch, the Oracle EPM Cloud stack provides a world-class close and consolidation solution. Oracle EPM Cloud provides a specific business process for close and consolidation with a variety of options to meet virtually any functional need.
Other clients may not yet be ready to embrace the shift to the cloud, especially coming from HFM to FCCS. For those clients, we have extensive experience implementing the on-premise suite of Oracle EPM products. Traditionally, Hyperion Financial Management and Essbase are the tools of choice for on-premise clients for close and consolidation.
Cloud Solutions
The Oracle EPM Cloud product is offered in two different licensing options: Standard and Enterprise. Customers who choose Standard have the ability to implement a moderately trimmed down version of Close and Consolidation with one production instance and one test instance. Those who license Enterprise, which is always our recommendation, get access to the full suite of EPM products including additional Close and Consolidation functionality like Ownership Management. In addition, customers can set up multiple production and test instances for multiple applications.
Unlike the Budgeting and Forecasting business process in Oracle EPM Cloud, the Close and Consolidation business process is a brand new product based on the original PBCS release and a revamped Hybrid Essbase back-end. While the product is still maturing, the majority of HFM clients will now find that the functionality necessary for a move to the cloud is available.
While the Close and Consolidation business process may work for most clients, some clients will find that portions of the framework don't fit their specific needs. Clients with unique cash flow needs and complex calculation logic sometimes find that a Custom Planning solution will provide a leaner application with better performance.
In addition to consolidation needs, Oracle EPM cloud provides world-class account reconciliation functionality. The Account Reconciliation product is available with both Standard and Enterprise licenses. The main difference between Standard and Enterprise is the addition of Transaction Matching functionality included with Enterprise only.
On-Premise Solutions
With thousands of customers still using Hyperion Financial Management, Oracle has chosen to extend support through at least 2031. Many clients find that HFM is still the more mature of the consolidation options offered by Oracle and as a result are not quick to migrate to the cloud. Upgrading to 11.2.x should be a short-term goal because support for 11.1.2.4 ended for most companies in 2021.
While not intended to be a full-featured consolidation tool, many clients have chosen Essbase to consolidate data from multiple ledgers. While much of the consolidation logic ends up in Excel, Essbase remains a popular choice for consolidations.