Oracle DRM Blog

Since another icon of BI has been acquired (like the great Arbor Software who developed Essbase), I thought we should preserve some of the history here… and for those who wanted to know what’s rapidly becoming part of Oracle…(isn’t every valley company?)

Hyperion Solutions

The OLAP products leading company Hyperion Solutions(www.hyperion.com) was acquired by Oracle Corporation on 19th April 2007. Now Hyperion is poised for new challenges.

Hyperion Solutions (NASDAQ: HYSL) is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Hyperion’s Business Intelligence Platform includes tools for OLAP, reporting and analysis. Hyperion completed its acquisition of Brio Technology in October 2003.

Essbase the flagship product of Hyperion, is a multi-dimensional analytic engine, and is considered one of the best for Finanical applications across industries.

The company was founded by the name IMRS in 1981,^[1] and its business was to develop and ship analytical financial applications for PC platforms. ^[2] Its products beat so many costy mainframe products due to their quality that it changed its name to Hyperion Software Corporation in 1995.^[2] “Hyperion” is the name of the first portable IBM PC compatible computer in 1980s. In 1998, Hyperion Software merged with Arbor Software Corporation, which developed and marketed Essbase OLAP server. The merge was called the “combination of the leading OLAP technology company with the leading OLAP applications company.”^[2] The combined company adopted the name Hyperion Solutions Corporation.

Company History

• 1981 – IMRS founded by Bob Thomson and Marco Arese
• 1985 – IMRS hires Jim Perakis as CEO; he remains in this position during growth from $1M to almost $300M
• 1991 – IMRS becomes a public company
• 1992 – Arbor Software ships first version of Essbase Online Analytical processing OLAP software
• 1995 – IMRS changes name to Hyperion Software Corporation
• 1995 – Arbor becomes a publicly held company
• 1997 – Arbor acquires Appsource
• 1998 – Hyperion Software merges with Arbor and the combined company is renamed Hyperion Solutions Corporation
• 1999 – Jeffrey Rodek named as Hyperion Chairman and CEO of Hyperion
• 1999 – Hyperion acquires Sapling Corporation (Enterprise Performance Management applications)
• 2001 – Godfrey Sullivan is named Hyperion President and COO
• 2002 – Hyperion launches the Business Performance Management category.
• 2003 – Hyperion acquires Brio Technology and The Alcar Group
• 2004 – Hyperion names Jeffrey Rodek Executive Chairman; Godfrey Sullivan President and CEO.
• 2005 – Hyperion acquires Razza Solutions (Master Data Management)
• 2006 – Hyperion acquires UpStream (Financial Data Quality Management)
• 2007 – Hyperion acquires Decisioneering (Crystal Ball)
• 2007 – Oracle Corporation announces agreement to acquire Hyperion for USD3.3 Billion.

Key Software

1. Hyperion Enterprise
2. Hyperion Foundation Services – System 9 (based on Brio Portal, improved by adding the support for other Hyperion products)
3. Hyperion Essbase – System 9
4. Hyperion Financial Management – System 9
5. Hyperion Planning – System 9
6. Hyperion Performance Scorecard – System 9
7. Hyperion Interactive Reporting – System 9
8. Hyperion Production Reporting – System 9 (Oracle: Hyperion SQR Production Reporting Release 9.3.1)
9. Hyperion Financial Reporting – System 9
10. Hyperion Web Analysis – System 9
11. Hyperion Strategic Finance
12. Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management
13. Hyperion Master Data Management (Oracle: Hyperion Data Relationship Management)
14. Hyperion Data Integration Management
15. Hyperion Crystal Ball

Principal Applications

1. Hyperion Capital Expense Planning
2. Hyperion Workforce Planning
3. Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management