Breaking News: HUGs to OAUG Hyperion SIG

We all knew that the regional Hyperion User Groups (HUGs) were not long for this world. Oracle hates having too many user groups to deal with, so it's been politely insisting that the HUGs join with IOUG, Quest, or OAUG. In a decision that everyone has basically known for months now, the HUGs are no more: they've been folded into the OAUG (Oracle Application User Group) Hyperion SIG (Special Interest Group).

The only real question was when it would become official. With John Kopcke's letter from last Thursday, it's official now. Before I go any further, I should point out that I'm the Essbase co-domain lead (along with Tim Tow) of the OAUG Hyperion SIG. That said, if you doubt anything I'm telling you, read Kopcke's letter for yourself.

In the first paragraph of Kopcke's letter, John states:

What an exciting year for Hyperion! The company and product integration has gone very well. Oracle kept a strategic focus on EPM (and Hyperion), by launching the EPM Global Business Unit and embracing the Hyperion products and concepts for its EPM vision. The next critical step in the integration is the transition of the Hyperion Users Groups (HUG) into Oracle's independent users group model. The following describes which of the Oracle users groups would be best for you to join, based on your interests and installed products.

The bolding was added by me. I like the last sentence of this paragraph ("the following describes which of the Oracle users groups would be best for you to join") because it promises great things for the rest of the e-mail. What's curious is that John then goes on to not really explain which user groups each person should join.

What is crystal clear, however, is that the HUGs are folding into OAUG's Hyperion SIG. Read down to the final paragraph under the "Stay Involved" heading and you'll find:

If you are already an active HUG member we encourage you to stay involved as the HUGs in North America align with the OAUG.

In other words, dearly departed HUG members, head out to http://hyperionsig.oaug.org/ and sign up for the SIG now. Going forward, this SIG will be your number one source (beyond this blog) for Hyperion information. Oracle often pushes information out through the user groups, so joining the Hyperion SIG is the only way to guarantee you get some of this information.

Part of me is extremely annoyed at the downfall of the HUGs, because several of them put on great quarterly and/or annual events that really focused on sharing information. Some of the HUGs were awful because either they didn't meet regularly, they were too controlled by Oracle employees, or they were dominated by partners, but the vast majority of the HUGs were great, grass roots organizations. The Hyperion SIG is also in its infancy: it has a lot of maturing to do and it needs a lot of new members.

Part of me, though, is excited about the possibility of an umbrella organization for the local meetings. A little consistency is a good thing, because it allows the best practices of one organization to be shared with those of another. An umbrella organization also can coordinate regional events to make sure they happen regularly. I'm curious when the first "OAUG Hyperion SIG GEO" (GEO = geographical user group) meeting will occur, because I'm anxious to see what, if any, changes will need to occur as part of being under OAUG. I'm taking a wait and see stance on that one.

I did find out that it costs absolutely nothing to join the Hyperion SIG. Even if you're not a member of OAUG, you can still join the SIG for free. It does cost money (a lot of it, actually) for a company to join OAUG, but again, you do not have to be an OAUG member to join the Hyperion SIG. I hope to see you at the Hyperion SIG meeting at OpenWorld.