UPenn Enhances Oracle Hyperion with MindStream AppCare Managed Services

Overview

Since opening its doors in 1751, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), an Ivy League institution founded by Benjamin Franklin, has achieved numerous milestones, including establishing one of the first medical schools in the U.S. With nearly 25,000 students across four undergraduate and twelve graduate schools, including the renowned Wharton School and Annenberg School for Communications, UPenn maintains a 6:1 student-teacher ratio. To support its growing business analytics needs, UPenn relies on the Oracle Hyperion platform, including Hyperion Planning, Essbase, Financial Reporting, and SmartView. Previously, the university depended on in-house IT staff to manage this infrastructure, but this approach failed to deliver the desired end-user experience. UPenn sought a partner to manage, monitor, and maintain its Hyperion applications while providing hosting services.

Challenge

UPenn’s in-house IT team struggled to support its broad Oracle Hyperion infrastructure, resulting in suboptimal performance and user experience. The university needed a managed services provider with:

• Expertise in both infrastructure and application management.
• The ability to bridge in-house IT and business-user resources to scope changes effectively.
• A shared sense of urgency for major issues, ensuring a robust response.
• A clear, structured support model to address past concerns about vague service promises.

Solution

UPenn partnered with MindStream AppCare for a comprehensive managed services and hosting solution. MindStream addressed UPenn’s concerns with a proven engagement methodology, including:

• Comprehensive Onboarding: A structured process with weekly reviews and a dedicated AppCare Account Manager to monitor and maintain the engagement.
• Scheduled Tasks: Monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks, including updates to substitution variables, security additions, and log file management.
• Unscheduled Tasks: Support for unforeseen needs like hierarchy changes, new calculation line items, and report modifications.
• Ticketing Platform: A system to capture service requests and allocate them to MindStream’s Hyperion experts efficiently.
• Automation and Portal: Automated task generation to minimize interruptions and a portal to capture and prioritize unscheduled tasks.

Results

MindStream AppCare delivered significant improvements:

• Cost Savings: Streamlined processes reduced operational costs.
• Enhanced Performance: Proactive monitoring, tuning, and reliable ticket resolution improved the Hyperion environment’s performance.
• Proactive Service: UPenn was pleasantly surprised by the level of proactive support and the detailed, structured managed services agreement.
• Future-Ready Implementation: UPenn is currently implementing Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services (PBCS), with MindStream’s Consulting and AppCare teams supporting the transition and providing ongoing services post-go-live.

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