J. Douglas Maxwell
Chief Financial OfficerMercer Advisors
Santhosh Nair
GM, Enterprise Performance Management
3
Agenda
• Introductions
• About Perficient
• Oracle Essbase on the Cloud Overview
• Mercer Advisors Success Story
– Current State / On-premises Challenges
– Project Scope and Timeline
– Outcomes / Success Metrics
• Q&A
4
About Perficient
Perficient is the leading digital transformation
consulting firm serving Global 2000 and enterprise
customers throughout North America.
With unparalleled information technology, management consulting,
and creative capabilities, Perficient and its Perficient Digital agency
deliver vision, execution, and value with outstanding digital
experience, business optimization, and industry solutions.
5
Perficient ProfileFounded in 1997
Public, NASDAQ: PRFT
2016 revenue $487 million
Major market locations:Allentown, Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago,
Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fairfax,
Houston, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Milwaukee, Minneapolis,
New York City, Northern California, Oxford (UK), Southern
California, St. Louis, Toronto
Global delivery centers in China and India
3,000+ colleagues
Dedicated solution practices
~95% repeat business rate
Alliance partnerships with major technology vendors
Multiple vendor/industry technology and growth awards
6
Oracle Practice Overview
3000+Deployments
Industry Expertise
Multi-Solution Expertise
EPM | ERP | BI | CX
Platinum
200+Oracle Experts
Partner Cloud Select
Healthcare | Supply Chain/Mfg. | Energy/Oil & Gas
Financial Services | Consumer Markets
15Specializations
7
Perficient’s EPM PracticeFast Facts
• Practice Started: 2002
• Projects Completed: 1000+
• Management Team: 14+ years
• Oracle Authorized Education Center
• Hyperion Education
• SupportNet Managed Services
• Support Services
Solutions Expertise
• Cloud readiness assessments
• EPM strategy and health check
• Financial close & consolidations
• Cloud & on-premises solutions
• Reporting & analytics
• Data relationship management
• Account reconciliations
• Profitability & cost management
• Infrastructure & high availability
Oracle Specializations
8
Oracle Training and Education
Live Virtual Class Training on DemandClassroom Training
Learning Streams Self-study Courses
Train in person at an Oracle or Perficient
facility. These include in-class
demonstrations and hands-on labs.
Keep learning beyond the classroom
with the latest and continuously
updated video training though
subscriptions.
OU and Perficient instructors teach
students in a "virtual" classroom. Attend
these courses online, in real-time.
Train when and where you want, at
your own pace. Download the
courses online and take them from
your computer.
Train online via an internet connection.
Access streaming lectures, white
boarding, and lab activities 24/7.
Train in person at an Oracle or
Perficient facility or your office with
content tailored to your specific needs.
Private Events
9
Survey 1: Which of the following Oracle cloud offerings is your organization currently considering
(choose all that apply)
A: Oracle Analytics Cloud (Essbase & Business Intelligence)
B: Oracle EPM for Financial Close (Close & Consolidations, Account Reconciliations)
C: Oracle EPM Planning & Budgeting
D: Not Considering Oracle Cloud
E: No Cloud Strategy at this time
POLL QUESTION 1
1111
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Platform-as-a-Service
Software-as-a-Service
Data as a Service
Compute, Storage, Networking, Elastic Hadoop, NoSQL, Spark, Kafka, Database
Data Management, Data Integration, Identity Management, Business Analytics
Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Capital, Recruitment, Finance, ERP, EPM, Supply Chain, Projects.
5 Billion customer profiles, 1500 data providers, 45K dimensions, 40K pre-built audiences
11
Oracle Cloud: From Data to Infrastructure
12
Integration with Oracle BI Cloud,
Data Visualization Cloud
• Native integration with Essbase Cloud
• Connect to EPM Cloud
• Relational sources
• Cloud and on-premise connectivity
• Prescriptive dashboards for consumers
• Self-service analysis for LOB users
• Explore, visualize, share insights
13
Essbase – History of Innovation
“Excel on Steroids”
• 1st Multidimensional DB
• Empower business users
• Multi user read/write
• 1st to offer an Excel add in to a dimensional data model
• 1st to offer drill and pivot capabilities in Excel
Enterprise Grade
• Shared services
• Strong security
• ASO engine
• Clustering & HA
• Smartview
In-Memory
• Pure in-memory user experience
• Adaptive Analytics engine
Cloud
• Java-based architecture
• Excel to Cube in seconds
• “Excel on Steroids”
14
The Cloud Lets You Focus on Your Business
Faster Innovation
• Faster pace to product innovation
• Modern, global platform
• Shorter upgrade cycle
Lower Cost
• Reduced infrastructure cost
• Reduced IT maintenance cost
• Reduced customization and
upgrade cost
Faster Deployments
• Pre-installed and pre-configured
• User experience-focused design
• Elastic & expandable
Lower Risk
• Reduced administrative burden
• Guaranteed system availability
• Scalable platform for future
expansion
15
• Essbase users looking for a cloud solution
– Reduce costs and simplify maintenance
– Hybrid Deployments between on-premises applications and cloud cubes
– Faster access to latest Essbase innovation
• Integration with other cloud services
– Essbase as a data source for Analytics Cloud (BICS/DVCS)
– Consolidated data from multiple EPM cloud and on-premises instances
– Analyze data from other SaaS applications
• Analytics platform for every Excel user
– Analytics happens everywhere
– Most still use Excel, using data downloaded from other applications
– Essbase empowers Excel by adding unified analysis model, interactivity and collaboration
Who Will Use Essbase Cloud?
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The Essbase you know and love!
• Access to Essbase capabilities
– BSO/ASO/hybrid databases
– Flexible dimensionality
– Dynamic formulas
– Calc scripts
– Data uploads
• Smartview connectivity
• Powerful admin functions
Cloud Features and Innovation!
• Browser-based UI
– Multiple entry points
• Cloud-only features
– Sandboxing, scenario management
– Design-by-example templates
– Excel import/export
• Integration with Oracle Analytics
Essbase Cloud Features
17
Survey 2: What are your top concerns about moving to Essbase to the Cloud (choose all that apply)?
A: Data security
B: Performance / scalability
C: Lack of parity
D: Can’t capitalize SaaS expense
E: Time and effort
F: Other
G: Not applicable
POLL QUESTION 2
19
+30 yearsServing HNW investors as a fee-only financial advisor
Family Office for
Real Families
Financial Planning
Investment Mgmt.
Estate Planning
Corporate Trustee
Tax Planning & Prep
Client Service Units (CSUs), led by advisor with
CFP own the delivery of client experience
CSUs backed by centralized, expert teams
Investment management
Estate planning (in-house law firm)
Tax practice (in-house CPA firm)
+$11BClient Assets
~8,000Clients
24Offices
+200Employees
83 CFPs
7 CFAs
10 CPAs
5 JDs
11 MBAs
1 Operating Model
Mercer Advisors Overview – Who We Are
20
• Mercer Advisors acquires Kanlay Trust in March 2016
• Kanaly began using Mercer’s COA in
August 2016
• Kanaly transitioned to Mercer’s General Ledger
System in May 2017
• Two GL: Mercer Advisors: Great Plains and
Kanaly: Solomon
• Duplicate reporting out of both systems
• Two sets of Financial Statements
• Mapping down at Parent Level
• Mercer continues to experience rapid growth – both
organically and through M&A
• 3 acquisitions in 2016 ~$2.2B AUM
• 6 acquisitions in 2017 ~$0.9B AUM
Compelling Events
21
Multiple General Ledger Systems
• Historical data sits in multiple systems
• Source systems need to be mapped to single COA
Manual & Duplicate Reporting
• Reporting out of multiple systems
• Duplicate sets of financial reports
Ad-hoc Analysis
• No ability to drill into data for further analysis
• Additional or detailed data must be pulled from source
system
Reliance on Microsoft Excel
• Reports & Budget were previously in Excel
• Prone to errors
Need a Scalable Solution
• Rapid growth requires a reporting system that could adapt to
the growth and changing reporting requirements
• Cost center managers need to manage their respective P&Ls
Challenges
22
May 2017
Initial scoping
End of June:
Proposal presentation
August /September:
Commenced project with Perficient. Analysis of COAs and design of Dimensions and Integrations.
October:
Reconciliation of Kanaly and Mercer COAs and mapping of historical data.
November :
Complete validations, UAT and go live.
Essbase Cloud Timeline
23
Cube Design Reporting Administration
• Single COA for both
Mercer and Kanaly
• Capture Actuals, Budget
and Forecast
• Data integrations for
multiple sources
systems
• Excel-based reporting
using Smart View
• VPN connectivity with
corporate network
• Excel Cube Designer used
to create and update
• Essbase Command Line
Interface to manage
processes
• Easy migration of objects
from dev to prod instance
Essbase Scope Areas
24
Single Source
Oracle Analytics
Cloud
Project Success
• Integrated GLs
• Single COA
• Actuals, Budget and Forecast
• Excel based reporting and
analysis
• Cloud Essbase environment
• Excel-based Cube creation via
Excel and administration via web
• PaaS provides scalability
• Self-service reporting and analysis
• No hardware or dependence on IT
• Ability to quickly deploy application
updates through Excel
• Client involvement
Project Outcomes
26
Next up:
[Event] Modern Supply Chain Experience
January 29-31, 2018
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