Case Study
Overview
Since opening its doors in 1751, the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution founded by Benjamin Franklin, has established a long record of academic and institutional excellence. With nearly 25,000 students across four undergraduate and twelve graduate schools, including the Wharton School and the Annenberg School for Communication, UPenn supports a large and complex operating environment.
To meet growing business analytics needs, the university relies on the Oracle Hyperion platform, including Hyperion Planning, Essbase, Financial Reporting, and SmartView. For years, UPenn depended on in-house IT staff to manage this environment, but that model did not deliver the end-user experience the university needed. UPenn began looking for a partner that could manage, monitor, maintain, and host its Hyperion applications more effectively.
MindStream AppCare became that partner through a structured managed services and hosting engagement designed to improve performance, responsiveness, and long-term support quality.
The Challenge:
UPenn’s in-house IT team struggled to support the full breadth of its Oracle Hyperion infrastructure. The result was a less effective user experience and a support model that did not fully meet the needs of either technical teams or business users.
The university needed a managed services provider that could combine infrastructure and application expertise, coordinate well with internal stakeholders, respond urgently to major issues, and provide a more structured support framework than it had previously experienced.
The Solution
UPenn partnered with MindStream AppCare for a comprehensive managed services and hosting solution. MindStream addressed the university’s concerns using a proven engagement methodology built around structure, accountability, and proactive support.
The engagement included comprehensive onboarding with weekly reviews and a dedicated AppCare Account Manager to monitor and maintain service quality. MindStream also handled scheduled monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks such as substitution variable updates, security additions, and log file management.
For unscheduled needs, the support model covered hierarchy changes, new calculation line items, report modifications, and other ad hoc requests. A ticketing platform helped capture service requests and route them efficiently to Hyperion experts, while automation and a support portal reduced interruptions and improved prioritization.
Key solution components included:
The Result
MindStream AppCare delivered significant improvements for UPenn. Proactive monitoring, tuning, and dependable ticket resolution improved the performance of the Hyperion environment and created a stronger experience for users who depended on the system.
The engagement also helped streamline processes and reduce operational costs, while the structured and proactive service model gave UPenn greater confidence in ongoing support. The university was particularly pleased by the level of proactive service and the clarity of the managed services agreement compared with prior expectations.
Looking ahead, UPenn is implementing Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services, with MindStream’s Consulting and AppCare teams supporting the transition and continuing services after go-live. That positions the university with a stronger foundation for future planning and analytics needs.