REPLACING ORACLE?

REPLACING ORACLE? 

Consider Questica for your next budget solution

INTRODUCTION 

HOSTING AND DEPLOYMENT 

SECURITY 

INTEGRATION 

CONFIGURABILITY 

AVAILABLE CAPABILITIES 

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT 

COST 

TRAINING 

ON-GOING SUPPORT 

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REPLACING ORACLE? CONSIDER QUESTICA FOR YOUR NEXT BUDGET SOLUTION

INTRODUCTION 

Oracle recently announced it is decommissioning Oracle Public 

Sector Budgeting (PSB), which leaves many public sector 

organizations open to a new budget solution. While upgrading 

to Oracle’s Hyperion may be at the forefront of administrators’ 

minds, jumping into a new solution without considering all of the 

available solutions that provide Budget Preparation and Budget 

Management capabilities to the Public Sector could result in an 

organization contracting for a solution that is not the best fit for its 

specific needs or the most cost effective. Before making a decision 

that could affect an entity’s efficiency, long-term productivity, and 

public perception, administrators should consider these 10 

crucial factors: 

REPLACING ORACLE? CONSIDER QUESTICA FOR YOUR NEXT BUDGET SOLUTION 

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1. HOSTING AND DEPLOYMENT 

Every organization has unique priorities and concerns, which is 

why multiple deployment options are necessary for any platform. 

Depending on the size of an organization, its technological 

infrastructure, IT support and funds, it may wish to deploy a budget 

solution on its own site/network. However, entities that lack the 

necessary infrastructure or the internal technical expertise may 

prefer a cloud deployment. The best hosting and deployment 

options for an organization will be time-and cost-efficient and not 

disruptive to the work flow of the office during deployment or in 

the long run. 

Questica offers its customers on-site and cloud deployment 

options. On-site allows for entities to retain their information 

completely within their secure networks, while cloud hosting is 

offered in a multi-instance environment. Through multi-instance 

architecture, each of Questica’s customers receives its own isolated 

solution – not just a portion of a single cloud like in multi-tenant 

environments. Every client’s unique instance can be optimized and 

upgraded based on the entity’s specific needs. Unlike the multitenant 

environment where all customers must accept upgrades 

at the same time, Questica’s multi-instance solution provides 

customers the ability to control the timing of all upgrades, much 

the same way they would if hosted on-site. 


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2. SECURITY 

Security concerns don’t end at the discussion of hosting and 

implementing the solution, particularly as the number of external 

and internal cybersecurity threats continues to rise. A budget 

platform contains sensitive and even confidential information, 

which should be viewed and changed by only those granted 

authority. The right product for any organization is one like 

Questica, which allows administrators to determine access based 

on the principle of minimal privilege. Executives and department 

heads can specify, and modify if necessary, the information workers 

see. Additionally, administrators can set permissions for making any 

or certain changes within the system, which are always tracked for 

oversight and audit purposes. 


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3. INTEGRATION 

Organizations draw financial information from numerous 

departments and systems, and a budgeting platform isn’t useful 

and cost-efficient if it doesn’t seamlessly integrate with an entity’s 

pre-existing software to import the necessary data. The right choice 

for a new solution works with an organization’s ERP, financial, 

payroll and even human resources programs to ensure the right 

data is always available. 

Organizations moving on from Oracle PSB may be concerned 

with whether a platform will integrate with their other Oracle 

solutions and lean toward Hyperion for this reason. However, 

many other providers have experience with the Oracle platforms. 

Questica integrates with more than 25 financial systems and has 

extensive experience with JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and the Oracle 

E-Business Suite. 


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4. CONFIGURABILITY 

A platform should adjust for the entity - not the other way around. 

The true measure of a budget solution is how well it can be shaped 

to fit the internal processes of an organization without drastically 

increasing costs and time spent prior to implementation and use. 

By offering a Commercial Off-The-Shelf product, Questica delivers 

all of the necessary budgeting tools while also offering multiple 

options for a high level of configurability. The additional modules, 

including a staff planning tool, enhance Questica’s software, 

enabling the platform to benefit any entity no matter the size. 

Many other budget solutions, like Hyperion, ultimately offer many 

of the same capabilities, but only through extensive customization 

that increases both the financial and time investment of customers 

as well as the overall complexity of the solution. 

Questica’s focus is on improving the budgeting process for 

organizations, not making these entities adapt to a new solution. Its 

products offer tailored work flows, report scheduling and automated 

distribution, dashboards, user-defined fields and configurable entry 

screens, advanced search capabilities for detailed analysis, change 

requests and interdepartmental allocations. 

Not only is Questica’s solution 100 percent Web-based, supporting 

the most commonly used browsers, but also there is no footprint 

on the workstation and no need for IT to install or distribute 

software when new releases or updates are made available. Any 

system with Internet access can be used by an authorized user to 

access and work on the Questica solution. 


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5. AVAILABLE CAPABILITIES 

Beyond implementation, entities need to consider the finer details 

of potential budget solutions. What are the true capabilities the 

solution offers and how easy is it to gear them to the entity’s 

preferred workflow? 

Organizations need to be able to do more than pull financial 

data to track costs. They must have the tools to easily compare 

expenditures versus the budget, run audits, make departmental 

transfers, compare versions, forecast for years into the future and 

prepare customized analytics and reports. Unlike many of the other 

Budgeting software providers that service any and all areas of 

business, the Questica solution was purposely built for the Public 

Sector. Questica understands the inherent needs of public sector 

organizations, which is why it offers all of these capabilities and 

more within Questica Budget. 


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6. PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT 

Performance factors impact an organization’s bottom line as 

much as financial elements, which is why it’s crucial an entity’s 

budget is based not only on the hard numbers, but also nonfinancial 

measures. Internal performance metrics such as employee 

engagement and productivity are crucial to the long-term success 

of an organization and may indicate if funds are being put to good 

use. Additionally, external elements that are known to impact 

operations can be tracked to better forecast for future need, 

leading to more educated allocations of funds. 

An organization in need of a new budget solution should look to 

implement a complementary performance measurement solution 

as well. Questica offers Questica Performance to better align 

budgetary and non-financial considerations for any organization. 

Measures can be established and monitored to track progress 

toward the organization’s overall strategic objectives. 


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7. COST 

The cost of new technology is a major consideration for any 

organization. Whether it is hardware, software or the associated 

implementation costs, an entity needs to ensure its money is 

well spent and that the latest purchase will benefit it for many 

years to come. Questica understands the pressure public sector 

organizations face to maximize the value and return on their 

investments, which is why it offers a comprehensive platform at a 

competitive price when compared to the cost of upgrading to Hyperion. 


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8. TRAINING 

Technological investments will fail if employees don’t know how to 

use them. If an organization’s new budget program isn’t intuitive, 

well laid out or delivered with proper training, any money or time 

saved prior to implementation is quickly lost. Employees need to 

be able to use their new budget solutions from day one. It may 

take a few training sessions to bring them entirely up to speed, but 

the system must be well-documented and intuitive. 

Questica prides itself on its products’ ease of use. Workers can dive 

into the solution from the very beginning, but Questica doesn’t 

expect them to go it alone. Questica ensures that everyone is fully 

trained and that the education process continues even after the 

completion of the implementation. Fully searchable and modifiable 

On-Line Help is available throughout the Questica solution. 


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9. ON-GOING SUPPORT 

A new budget solution isn’t merely a tool entities purchase before 

going on their way. It’s an opportunity to create a partnership with 

a provider that benefits the organization for years, which is why 

entities should choose a solution that comes with a comprehensive 

support offering. Beyond the initial training, administrators, 

employees and IT support are bound to come up with a few 

questions, and Questica is there to help. Questica offers unlimited 

customer service through its support desk, inclusive of a selfservice 

web portal and knowledge base. Understanding the need 

to go above and beyond basic tech support, Questica offers free 

monthly Web-based training sessions for its customers. 

Questica has more than 15 years of experience providing public 

sector organizations with a strong budget solution – one that is 

consistently improved upon through a combination of industry and 

customer input. 


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10. EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS 

Arlington Public Schools, a former Oracle PSB customer, which 

encompasses more than 30 schools and programs including more 

than 23,000 students, recently implemented Questica Budget. This 

is but one example of Questica’s previous success and familiarity 

with Oracle systems. Questica integrated the solution with the 

Oracle E-Business Suite to enable the school district to better 

manage personnel budgeting, account for changing enrollment 

and scale as the district grows. 

If you are looking for alternatives to being forced to upgrade 

from Oracle PSB to Hyperion and want to learn more about 

Questica’s products and Public Sector experience, contact us today. 

questica.com 

905-634-0110 ext 513 

info@questica.com 


11

980 Fraser Drive 

Suite 105 

Burlington, Ontario 

Canada L7L 5P5 

questica.com 

905-634-0110 ext. 513 

info@questica.com

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