Hyperion Myth #2: Root Cause Analysis Requires Large Teams and Days to Complete

Any solution as powerful as Oracle’s Hyperion suite of business process management and business intelligence software will eventually be the target of certain “myths”: collective folk knowledge about how it operates and what is and isn’t possible to accomplish.

Unfortunately, a great deal of these Hyperion myths just aren’t true–and when it comes to crucial tasks like root cause analysis, it’s more important to bust them than ever.

The Myth

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a problem-solving technique that’s frequently used by, although not limited to, IT teams. As the name suggests, RCA involves tracing a given issue backward from the symptoms that you observe to the immediate causes of those symptoms all the way to the original (“root”) cause.

For many IT teams, the exact methods of performing RCA are “tribal knowledge” and will differ from organization to organization. In addition, although the ultimate responsibility for fixing the issue lies with a given person or group, RCA traditionally requires the input of multiple teams.

For example, a performance issue that you observe in a particular Hyperion application may be traced back to a faulty entry in your database, which itself may be attributed to a network issue. Each link in the RCA chain may require input from people with special expertise in a different subject. As a result, getting everyone involved and on the same page can be harder than organizing a six-year-old’s birthday party, with multiple SLA requests that may take hours or days to be fulfilled.

The Myth-Buster: Datavail’s APM Platform

Datavail’s Applicaton Performance Management (APM) platform, developed by Hyperion specialists at recent acquisition Accelatis, treats root cause analysis as a given, rather than an extra obligation. Our software makes it easy to unify the content and data that are most relevant to RCA in a single place. By providing a central repository, it’s possible for clients to more easily get the information they need and find bottlenecks and other issues.

One of Datavail’s clients, a mining company headquartered in the United Kingdom, also operated a number of satellite offices around the world. When the company experienced a remote user problem–a performance issue discovered by a user in one of these satellite offices–the problem-solving process before they installed our software platform was slow, disorganized and laborious. Collecting the necessary data could require as many as two dozen people over a period of three days just so the IT team could understand what to do next.

Upon switching to Datavail’s platform, the client has drastically improved the requisite time and effort involved in root cause analysis for Hyperion issues: just a single hour with a single person. Our software is constantly monitoring the Hyperion environment and collecting data, which means that there’s no need for troubleshooters to wait for the information they need. Data on system and user activities is readily available at all times.

Final Thoughts

Companies often find that managing Hyperion performance is difficult, time-consuming and expensive–but with the help of Datavail’s performance management software, it doesn’t have to be. Better, faster, and simpler root cause analysis is just one of the many benefits of using Datavail.

For more details on how to debunk the 9 Hyperion myths, read out in-depth white paper: 9 Hyperion Myths That Are Making You Less Effective.