Author: Tom Blakeley, Performance Architects
Cloud, Cloud, Cloud, Cloud! …
It is all we have heard about for the past year in the business analytics space, particularly as Oracle releases offerings moving functionality traditionally found in on-premise applications as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.
Cloud.
Okay – you get the picture. I thought I might take a few minutes to write about all of the different offerings to help folks wrestling with all the acronyms understand what is out there. If you are interested in more information, feel free to shoot me an email or comment below. We also have a host of content available with more details on the Performance Architects blog.
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS):
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service, or PBCS, is Oracle’s SaaS offering for an organization’s forecasting and budgeting processes. It provides a single platform to build out an operational budget; quarterly/yearly/rolling forecast model; and reports and analysis. PBCS is the same code base as Oracle’s on-premise EPM planning solution, Hyperion Planning, which has long been the strongest offering in the space. PBCS provides both a web-based and Microsoft Office-based (called “Smart View”) platform that is rather intuitive. Customers are provided with two environments, a Development/Test instance and a Production instance.
Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud (EPRC):
Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud, or EPRC, is Oracle’s newest SaaS offering for an organization’s narrative reporting process. This tool provides a collaborative workspace geared towards organizations that go through an internal process to build out financial and management reporting packs. Users are able to portion out, collaborate, and work together on the development, review and final publication of a reporting pack, using data sourced from a variety of different systems ranging from on-premises applications to Excel spreadsheets. EPRC compliments the forecasting, budgeting, reporting and analysis content in PBCS.
Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS):
Business Intelligence Cloud Service, or BICS, is Oracle’s new BI solution built for the cloud. This is more than just a rehash of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (the on-premise Oracle BI offering). Instead, BICS is a BI tool that includes traditional reporting; data traditionally found within spreadsheets; and unstructured and semi-structured data analysis. BICS bridges the gap between the traditional on-premise solutions built over the past ten years, and the newer departmental offerings that typically do not scale well, though they do offer a strong data visualization layer. BICS sources data from both on-premise data sources, as well as data that users upload themselves into the cloud.
Cloud.
Look for some new blog posts coming out on additional Oracle solutions launching in the business analytics cloud arena in the next few months, as well as my recent ‘When Oracle Cloud EPM and BI Solutions are the Answer’ webinar where I covered these cloud offerings in detail and provided some insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each offering. Email us for a copy of the slides and the replay!