One of the questions I get asked the most often is, "Now that the Hyperion Solutions conference is sadly no longer [pause for moment of quiet reflection] which conference should I be attending?" The answer is remarkably confusing since there is no longer one catch all conference. While I've been answering this question in person and on this blog for close to two years now, this is still a major point of confusion in the user, partner, and Oracle communities.
So on March 3 at 11AM Central and March 5 at 1PM Central, I'm going to be hosting brief (30-45 minute) presentations on all the major conferences and who should attend which ones. Normally, the weekly interRel webcasts are not open to our competitors, but for this one topic, we are opening it up to everyone. While I normally don't like training my competition, in this case, I figure the more people who know where to go, the better.
I'll be featuring the OpenWorld, Collaborate, and Kaleidoscope conferences, but I'll also be speaking briefly about the local HUGs (Hyperion User Groups) and their replacements at OAUG, IOUG, and ODTUG. I'll cover which type of users should go to which conferences (and user groups) and I'll give you an idea of the agendas for Hyperion/EPM attendees you're likely to see at each conference.
If you don't want to end up at the wrong conference in 2009 and beyond, try to carve out a few minutes to attend one of these talks I'll be doing. Feel free to send a link over to your friends (those people you're connected to on Facebook and LinkedIn) so they can attend too. Each webcast can handle up to 1,000 people, so the more, the merrier! Here's the link and I'll see you on March 3 or 5th:
7 months (almost to the day) after Hyperion 11x was released, Hyperion Strategic Finance Fusion Edition (11.1.1.1.0) was finally announced on February 11, 2009. The delayed release of HSF 11 made many speculate that the product was being discontinued though most believed that the delay was simply due to the difficulty in fully integrating Crystal Ball for predictive forecasting.
In addition to Crystal Ball integration, the new HSF 11 has better integration with Hyperion FDM (Financial Data Quality Management), Oracle Essbase, and Hyperion Planning. There are also a number of user interface improvements. Personally, I've seen the new UI, and it's much better than the System 9 version of HSF. Check out http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/090211/aqw004.html for a list of the new features.
