One of FourIn my so-called career, I’ve known four geniuses: one evil, one chaos made flesh, and two nice; Dan is in the last group. There are many theories around what makes someone a genius; I define it as the ability to make connections where others cannot see them. Dan is professionally (at least in EPMland) best known for his deconstruction of ASO Essbase, understanding its architecture and fundamentals, and how to optimise it. If you were in his "Essbase ASO Performance: When NOT ...

30 Years in the Making and Oh Yes, Can I Borrow Your Belt?I first met Tim when he worked for (I think this is the name – it’s so long ago it is outside of the ken of the World Wobly Web) Lex Software who had built, with Microsoft, an Executive Information System (EPM/CPM in today’s language) toolkit that married Excel to what was then Arbor’s Essbase (at least I think this is what it was). Tim was the teacher and we (my fellow J&J Executive Information Systems colleagues) were learn...

It seems as though I’ve known Neviana seemingly forever, but it can hardly be more than 10 years. Neviana quite simply packs more into a decade-plus of friendship than many pack into a lifetime – she is that kind of dynamic personality. Beyond her charisma, she harbors a fierce vision and ambition and drive: EPM, analytics, ODTUG board member, and now chatelaine of Aquila’s Nest Vineyards, in Newtown, Connecticut. Celvin and I are fans – we think you will be as well. Join u...

Yes, it’s different, but we still think it’s good. Also, this is all you’re getting. The latest OneStream Splash (that would be 2025’s) is behind us and interesting it was. While I’ve typically live-ish blogged Splash (and what was once Open World and of course ODTUG Kscope), I was largely (completely0 unable to attend sessions because I was ensconced in a fancy suite in the Nashville Westin conducting Black Diamond Advisory’s BDA Splash Podcast (yes, Celvin and I are on multiple podca...

26 Years in the MakingTim and his company, Applied OLAP, has been in the Performance Management space for 26 years. That’s longer that many of the people in this space have worked, longer even than some of the people in this space have been on God’s green earth. That longevity isn’t accidental, but rather the result of a vision, a not unmeasurable amount of determination, a focus on continual product improvement, and oh yes – a pretty damn cool product – Dodeca. I think so h...

Three competitors in one podcastI have been characterized by some (my coworkers, my friends, my family, me) as being a tad cynical. Part of that cynicism is borne from experience, part of it is seemingly intrinsic to my nature. I find that I am often not disappointed when it comes to a certain level of disbelief. At the same time, I am beyond pleased and maybe just a little bit less jaded when I see people not behave in a self-interested way and instead come together for the benef...

Matt Bradley, SVP of Development at Oracle will likely be well known to listeners; he’s a familiar face to customers and partners and can often be found talking about Oracle’s EPM strategy at conferences and other events. Matt has worked for Oracle not just once but twice, led a healthcare decision support company way back when we still called it decision support, and joined Hyperion as the development for Planning on Valentine’s Day 2000. Listeners old experienced enough to remember the v...

Oh How The Tables Are Turned I trust you’ve listened to Part the First of the interview with Gabby. This episode is better. Why? Simply because Gabby starts interviewing us and we get a taste of what it’s like to be on the other side of the metaphorical table. I’m not going to reveal any more than that – it’s simply too good and if you don’t end up laughing at Gabby’s interrogation techniques and our squeamish answers, well, you must be bereft of humor. Join us,...

What’s past is prologueI (and the rest of your EPM Conversations hosts) first knew Gabby from his time in Essbase product management, a role he has long left. Celvin and I (50% of your host population) have been out of the Oracle space since 2017 so it’s difficult to remind ourselves that nothing stands still, and certainly not a dynamic personality like Gabby. Forgive us two if some of our questions dwell overmuch on the past, where Natalie’s and Tim’s are focused on today.  ...

This one is differentEPM Conversations has been lucky to have a variety of Performance Management guests: vendors, people from other places and tongues, fantastic players in our little technological space, and of course the Women in EPM series. All of them are great (even the ones where Yr. Obt. Svt. is a guest), insightful, interesting, and often quite funny. In short, they are the stuff that technology podcasts dream of. What we have not had is a consultant who does ...

TitleA Portrait in Leadership: Women in EPM with Oracle Barbie aka Kate Helmer A doll by any other nameKata Helmer, aka Oracle Barbie formerly known as Hyperion Barbie, Oracle Ace Director, and oh yes ODTUG board member is just one person, but oh my, what an accomplished one. I’ve always been intrigued by Kate’s alias: she’s quite obviously a professional of some import and yet names herself after a child’s doll. Why? Subversion vs. celebration Barbie (the doll,...

Let’s not forget that it also sent Natalie’s kids to collegeWe (your EPM Conversations hosts) owe a lot – a financial kind of debt as well as a professional one – to Shankar and Hyperion/Oracle on premises /PBCS/EPBCS/EPM Cloud Planning. Seriously, I first set eyes on what was then Hyperion Planning Desktop (which alas I cannot find a screenshot of but know it’s out there somewhere), I thought, “Cameron, you idiot, this is the future” and so it has been through (gulp) decades of w...

Yr. Obt. Svt. finds broad cultural movements to be interesting both conceptually (what are they, why do they exist, how did they start, and the rest of the who, when, and where list) and in practice because of their broad outcomes and impact on individuals. My inveterate curiosity aside, women in STEM (STEAM) has been a current in social and professional change for roughly the past decade. Various organizations and companies, e.g., ODTUG, PwC, OneStream, Oracle, and many others, h...

Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi Roger Cressy is a fascinating guest, unlike any other we’ve had. His jobs have spanned from retail management (yup, a department store, a really nice one – I’ve been there – and not the one in the States or the UK) to our Beloved Performance Management. Roger’s is also a geographical journey, from Malawi/Nyasaland (he just missed the Central African Federation) to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, to South Africa, to the United Kingdom, back to South Africa, and the...

It’s a Book, It’s a Podcast Episode, It’s Kismet A bunch of geeks (native born, immigrants; Americans all) interviewing an Australian and a New Zealander/Australian/American (it’s complicated) set Yr. Obt. Svt. to immediately think of the title of this podcast (eh, I need to get more than one hobby), who then looked up the phrase and found that…it’s a travelogue of a New Zealander’s view of the USA, circa 1888. Seriously, what are the chances that the Mind of Cameron (often non compos m...

Why is Yr. Obt. Svt. not part of this podcast? Aren’t you glad I’m not?The Culture Clash series has – from the feedback we’ve heard – been well received. Thus far it’s been Americans talking to our comrades in performance management arms about their experience in their home country and in North America. What we’ve not had is someone from another country talking to his countrymen. This podcast deviates from that model because my Objectively Younger, Taller, Smarter and ...

Our guests, conferences, and we’re much the same but really quite differentThe second in EPM Conversations’ Culture Clash series features two guests from Latin America: David Blanco and Belen Ortiz. I know both from conferences only. Actually, all of my cohosts and all of our guests are, one way or another, part of EPM Conversations (and my life as well) because of conferences. OneStream’s Splash is coming up in just over a week, 17 to 20 April, ODTUG’s Kscope is happe...

Culture Clash or 50 Million Frenchmen Can’t Be WrongThe performance management world is broad. Those who practice within it are wide in skills, dispersed in geography, deep in talent, and – in general – all jumbled together. Your hosts are all North Americans (Canadians and Mexicans rejoice for this American has finally figured out how not to use “America” as shorthand for that quarter-or-so of the globe above the equator and a bit west of the Greenwich meridian) but hail f...

Selectively extrovertedCelvin and Yr. Obt. Svt. struggled over recording this podcast in two ways. Firstly, talking about ourselves: no matter what you might think about geeks with blogs, presentations, books, and yes, this podcast, talking about other things is pretty easy; talking about yourself is hard. Secondly, deciding to do so and then recording the podcast wasn’t particularly easy, even the technical bits (your author used the old podcast software that buggered us up...

Many years ago (just over 10!), Yr. Obt. Svt. wrote a blog post on why he Hated and Loved Calculation Manager. I even did it twice. I am – oft times, still, it continues unabated – a complete smartass who pays little heed to what he says and writes and this was most definitely one of those times. These posts were a continuation of not altogether terrifically awesome judgement as they were an expansion of a similarly-snarky two parter on Hyperion Business Rules. 2009?&n...