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Challenge
RMIT University Vietnam was established in 2000 as an Asian campus of Melbourne-based University RMIT. Within a short period of time RMIT Vietnam has grown to a University with two campuses, 6000 students and 630 staff. In 2013 RMIT Vietnam took the opportunity to transform the way the University manages its affairs (from program focus to course focus), introduced a new chart of accounts and engaged Taysols for the design, development, ongoing support and hosting of a state of the art Hyperion Planning application covering both, student load as well as financial management aspects.
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Approach
The initial engagement covered the design of a Hyperion planning application supporting the budgeting, forecasting and reporting needs of RMIT Vietnam. Working closely, but mostly remotely, with key RMIT
team members, Taysols delivered the solution design swiftly and provided a detailed project schedule for the build and deployment of the student load and finance applications. During the build phase Taysols
took on an advisory role for the 'simpler' elements of the build and a hands-on role for the development of the more complex parts, in particular sophisticated allocation models. Whereas the development
work was performed from Australia, RMIT and Taysols jointly delivered a Hyperion roadshow on site to launch the Hyperion solution to all users in late 2013. Since the successful deployment, Taysols has
been engaged by RMIT Vietnam to fully host and support the application including the delivery of ongoing enhancements. The chosen collaborative approach delivered superior results for all parties as knowledge
transfer was maximised throughout the engagement - today the RMIT Hyperion Team and Taysols enjoy a strong partnership
RMIT's business analytics solution provides budgeting, forecasting and reporting capabilities for student load, labour and financial information. Source data is integrated using Oracle's Financial Data
Quality Management (FDQM) tool allowing drill-back to source from Hyperion Planning. 'Real' and 'virtual' allocations provide detailed insight into the University's performance. In some ways the implementation
of Hyperion Planning acted as a change agent for the introduction of RMIT's new business control model. The multi-dimensional nature of its underlying Essbase database allowed full visibility into the
before and after state of multiple allocation steps providing in its final state a full profit & loss statement at course level. In recognition of Taysols as an expert hosting and support provider for
Business Analytics solutions, RMIT Vietnam decided to migrate its operational planning solution to Taysols' secure data centres taking advantage of strict service levels, efficient back-up routines and
full disaster recovery capabilities.
"The expertise provided by Taysols has been outstanding. We view Taysols as a reliable business partner for the ongoing development, support and hosting of our Hyperion solution."
Khanh Le Minh, Finance Director