The tools of the master forecaster

GCN Lab Review: Hyperion System 9 Essbase Analytics with Visual Explorer

Pros: Robust analytical features and power graphic engine
Cons: Expensive

Performance: A
Functionality: A
Price: B
Ease of use: A
Overall importance: A

Contact:
Hyperion Solutions Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.
(800) 286-8000
http://www.hyperion.com

Hyperion System 9 Essbase Analytics is modeling software that lets you link all your existing databases to provide a consolidated view of your agency. With Essbase you can analyze your agency’s finances, keep track of spending, conduct merchandise planning, view product profitability, or conduct capacity planning. In the past I have used Essbase to conduct customer profitability reports, product profitability studies and workforce analysis.

Essbase, or Extended Server Spreadsheet Database, is an enterprise resource planning tool, which integrates and compiles all your agency’s data and processes into a centralized system. The ninth and latest version of this tool gives you the capacity to unify all the basic functions of your organization in order to maximize planning.

In techie talk, Essbase is a robust data cube. Data cubes are computer programs that often interface with databases and let you churn and manipulate data to create numerical scenarios describing the condition of a project or agency. An important distinction between reporting software such as the dashboard tools and data cubes like Essbase are that data cubes are used to drill through raw data to create the reports that dashboards typically display.

Currently, statistical analysis software such as Crystal Ball is not a feature in Essbase 9, but rather complements its capabilities. That’s probably one of the reasons Hyperion recently purchased Decisioneering, the company that makes Crystal Ball.

According to Hyperion, Essbase can use more than 250 sophisticated algorithms out of the box, with extensible analytics and procedural calculations built on centralized logic and business rules. The software is user-friendly and logically constructed. In seconds I was able to conduct Net Present Value and Rate of Return on a mock set of data. Essbase 9 has time series algorithms that track moving minimum, maximum and average inventory levels. It also has statistics and data-mining features to help predict metrics like department purchasing behavior based on a variety of pricing and promotional strategies.

Essbase’s pricing is complex because it depends upon your enterprise size and needs. The typical base price is $50,000, but it can exceed $1 million as well. However, out of all the programs in this review we found Essbase the most important for your agency. It performs well, and the newly elevated reporting graphics make it even more versatile. Most important, it’s easy to use.