Oracle Essbase in the Cloud:

A Mercer Advisors Success Story

J. Douglas Maxwell

Chief Financial OfficerMercer Advisors

Santhosh Nair

GM, Enterprise Performance Management

santhosh.nair@perficient.com

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Oracle Analytics Cloud

Overview

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

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Oracle Cloud: From Data to Infrastructure

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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

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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”

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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

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• 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

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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

Mercer Advisors’

Success Story

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+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

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• 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

QuestionsType your question into the chat box

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Next up:

[Event] Modern Supply Chain Experience

January 29-31, 2018

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