Hyperion Bridges Financial and Operational Planning

Creates More Nimble Organizations in Uncertain Times

LAS VEGAS - HYPERION SOLUTIONS 2003 CONFERENCE, May 5, 2003 -- Think the financial planning process is exclusively the job of the CFO's office? Not according to recent customer feedback collected by Hyperion (Nasdaq: HYSL). Hyperion said that many of the more than 3,000 customers and partners participating in this week's Solutions conference are finding that planning is most successful when it is a company-wide process where operational-level plans and high-level financial plans are created in a highly collaborative and dynamic manner.

"There is a powerful trend toward moving from pure 'budgeting' to a comprehensive, dynamic planning process -- which empowers managers across divisions, departments and geographies to continuously forecast and plan for their segment of the business using non-financial information, said Toni M. Miller, vice president and chief financial officer for Bass Pro Shops. "Ask the store manager of a retail chain how much the profit that location will generate in a given quarter, and they may not know. But ask them to forecast based on what they know best -- selecting, marketing and selling individual items -- and they can provide a clearer picture of that store's financial future. Hyperion allows each of our operational groups to plan in the language they know best."

There will be more than 60 sessions at Hyperion's user conference this week, describing how Hyperion's planning solutions are helping them create a powerful process between traditional financial planning and non-financial, operations-owned planning. As a result, they are seeing an increased involvement in the planning process, dramatically improved accuracy and a spike in employee accountability and motivation to reach and achieve the goals they've helped set. But the process isn't just about bridging financial and operational plans, it is also about providing the ability to plan dynamically versus statically, giving companies the ability to adapt and be more nimble in uncertain times.

"We needed to make our planning and budgeting process more efficient, raise the overall quality of data trapped in spreadsheets and obtain more accurate pricing and revenue information," said Christian Bustos, manager of financial controls for Boston Beer. "We knew our sales managers and sales force were the best touch-point for financial projections, but we didn't want to take their focus off the job they do best -- selling. Hyperion's ability to tie high-end financial plans to operational plans helped us build much more accurate forecasts, eliminating the need for massive spreadsheets, and reducing our planning cycle from five weeks to three weeks which has made it extremely easy for our sales team to contribute."

"Financial plans are only as valuable as they are accurate, and they are only accurate if there is participation by all internal stakeholders," said Nazhin Zarghamee, chief marketing officer for Hyperion. "The companies that master dynamic planning will be those that allow the individuals closest to the day-to-day operations of the business to provide information in the manner they know best. Operational managers shouldn't have to be accountants to participate in the planning process, and shouldn't have to go to finance to get an accurate picture of the financial health of their organization. It should be self-service. And accountants shouldn't have to translate business information into financial estimates. That's what our software is for."

Hyperion Planning: Built to Support Dynamic Planning

Hyperion Planning provides financial executives with the tools they need to build high-level plans based on financial data, while empowering managers at the divisional and operational level to participate by providing non-financial, user-driven-based forecasts. By treating financial planning as a process that impacts every level of the organization -- not just financial analysts -- everyone is empowered to provide more accurate forecasts and set actionable goals to realistically achieve them.

Hyperion Planning -- a core component of the Hyperion Business Performance Management suite of products -- was built from the ground up to support a multi-directional planning process, inherently tying traditional financial planning with operations-owned planning. With bi-directional communication throughout the planning process, each operational group's estimates go back and forth between the feedback and approval process, and are eventually rolled up to a numerical forecast that can be approved by the office of the CFO, ultimately creating a more performance accountable organization.

Hyperion Planning allows companies to centrally manage and collaborate on every step of the planning process and communicate targets to all decision-makers via the Internet, intranet and a standard Web browser, eliminating the need to collaborate around hundreds or thousands of spreadsheets. Operational decision-makers across the organization can create, own and communicate detailed plans and the calculations behind the assumptions, across the enterprise, improving user participation and value of data.

The Hyperion Annual Solutions User Conference is being held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada from May 4 through May 7, 2003.

About Hyperion

Hyperion is the global leader in Business Performance Management software that enables companies to translate strategies into plans, monitor execution and provide insight to improve financial and operational performance. More than 6,000 customers use Hyperion's flagship business performance management suite of packaged and tailored applications and its leading business intelligence platform worldwide. Hyperion has a network of more than 330 partners to provide innovative and specialized Business Performance Management solutions and services.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Hyperion generated annual revenues of $492 million in fiscal 2002. The company employs more than 2,200 people in 20 countries and is represented in 16 additional countries through distributor relationships. Hyperion is traded under the Nasdaq symbol HYSL. For more information, please visit http://www.hyperion.com, http://www.hyperion.com/contactus or call 800-286-8000 (U.S. only).

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements concerning the potential success of anticipated product features, the anticipated product offerings and the potential market opportunities for business performance management software. Such statements constitute anticipated outcomes and do not assure results. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to the company's ability to retain and attract key employees, the successful and timely development of new products, the impact of competitive products and pricing, customer demand, and technological shifts. For a more detailed discussion of factors that could affect the company's performance and cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, interested parties should review the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Report on Form 10-K filed on September 25, 2002 and the Report on Form 10-Q filed on February 7, 2003. The company does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

NOTE: Hyperion is a registered trademark of Hyperion Solutions Corporation. All other trademarks and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Hyperion Solutions Corporation

Web Site: http://www.hyperion.com