Hyperion Solutions Corp. has long been known for high-powered software used to manage complex financial analytics like budgeting and forecasting. With the release of the latest version of its main business intelligence (BI) platform, Essbase 7X, the company is now adding to the mix data from more nonfinancial, operational functions, offering a product that can more easily unite information from both sides of an organization to improve enterprise-wide performance management.

BI platforms like Essbase are increasingly being designed to support more business performance management (BPM) applications, so users can produce more accurate forward-looking, strategic plans around historical trend data. By tying operational data with its core finance-oriented software, Hyperion is offering customers access to a more end-to-end business view that can give a finance department greater ability to measure areas of cost and profitability. "For the CFO today there are issues that span the financial and operational worlds that require an integrated view," says Srikant Gokulnatha, director of product marketing and strategy at Hyperion.

Hyperion designed 7X to be more flexible, scalable and capable, out of the box, to integrate finance department functions with operational processes such as marketing, sales, supply chain and human resources. "It extends [Hyperion's] reach to analytic applications where they were not strong before," says Dan Vesset, research director, business intelligence at IDC.