Consultant – Hyperion Technical Support and Administration

This consultancy will work with the Budget Section of DFAM, more specifically the Project Team. The Project Team is partnering with other divisions to implement a new planning and budgeting application (Oracle Hyperion Planning) that will be used in upwards of one hundred and fifty country/regional offices and headquarter divisions. The new application will be integrated with the organization’s financial systems (SAP) and will support and strengthen Results Based Management (RBM) and Results Based Budgeting (RBB).

Organizational context:

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Consultancy context:

UNICEF, the world’s leading organization working for the rights of children, seeks a consultant to assist in the technical administration and support of a scalable Budget Planning tool based on the Oracle Hyperion framework.

The consultant will work with the Division of Financial and Administrative Management (DFAM). DFAM is based in New York and is divided into five Sections that carry out accounting and financial reporting, facilities management and administration, budgeting, cash and treasury management, and divisional coordination, liaison and management activities.

This consultancy will work with the Budget Section of DFAM, more specifically the Project Team. The Project Team is partnering with other divisions to implement a new planning and budgeting application (Oracle Hyperion Planning) that will be used in upwards of one hundred and fifty country/regional offices and headquarter divisions. The new application will be integrated with the organization’s financial systems (SAP) and will support and strengthen Results Based Management (RBM) and Results Based Budgeting (RBB).

Purpose and objective of the consultancy:

The consultant is required to:

1. Manage the day to day administration of the Hyperion Planning application including but not limited to: security management, smartlist updates, workflow management, identification of bottlenecks, and update of business rules, …
2. Identify and resolve reporting inconsistencies by modifying underlying planning data and adjusting intersections as necessary as well as creating and updating existing reports for end-user self service
3. Work with and transition support knowledge to UNICEF’s in house IT organization, building up internal capabilities around Hyperion application support practices and administration
4. Provide first-line support to the integration between the Hyperion Planning solution and SAP, review error logs, identify bottlenecks or inconsistencies in file extracts leading to failure and reprocess all failures upon correction for both inbound and outbound interfaces utilizing ODI where necessary
5. Work with the Systems Integrator to transition solution ownership to UNICEF and drive decisions on future-state design as related to application support and sustainability
6. Oversee and participate in all administrative and support activities surrounding UNICEF’s Hyperion Planning Solution
7. Work with UNICEF helpdesk to institute policies for issue identification and escalation and develop processes for level 1, level 2 support

Major Tasks

• Align support and administration practices with industry standards for Hyperion Planning
• Assist UNICEF in building repeatable processes for continued application support, maintenance and operations
• Participate in issue identification and resolution: pre-production and post go-live
• Support product post golive, identify bottlenecks and propose and implement technical solutions for resolution
• Update existing and create new Hyperion planning objects (dimensions, forms, task lists, …) based on changing needs
• Maintain existing and create new reports using Hyperion financial reporting (HFR)
• Maintain existing business rules and calc scripts and modify/update as needed or in response to emerging requirements
• Maintain and implement all security changes within the application aligned to UNICEF policy and procedures
• Onboard new users and establish /change profile attributes and security as necessary
• Create load rules (for loading of meta-data and data), mxl scripts and batch scripts for admin task automation as needed
• Create complex smartview data pulls and train users on their use and management
• Visual basic coding for reports and data aggregation using smartview add-in
• Application Version/scenario management and maintenance (opening, closing, copying data) by country and specific phase/version/scenario combination
• Review and resolve workflow bottlenecks / update/identify gaps in approval process and develop procedures and guidelines for resolution
• Work with IT and helpdesk resources to establish support organization and identify knowledge base for recurring issues and common resolution
• Assist end-users with year-end planning application setup based on historical information as well as 5-year cycle planning administration and setup per UNICEF process

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

• Updated technical support documentation
• Knowledgebase for all issues with corresponding resolution
• Hyperion development objects and artifacts as modified and necessary
• Admin guide and technical administration manual
• Business Process technical diagrams – workflow, etc.
• Best practices guide
• Daily issues log

Level of Input:

•  All activities of the consultancy will be completed over a period of six (6) month timeframe.
• All resources to undertake the consultancy will be provided by the consultant. The consultant will draw on inputs from members of the Project Team and will directly interact with UNICEF’s Systems Integrator Partner as well as directly interacting with business end-user of the application

Reports

The consultant will provide hard and soft copies of progress reports and analysis in Microsoft Word as required.

Education:

A minimum of a first degree in computer sciences or related fields or advanced university degree in same/similar fields

Experience:

A minimum of 12 years’ experience in supporting and administering software utilizing the Hyperion platform 

Prior experience as a Hyperion Planning administrator or within a Hyperion planning support organization 

A minimum of 8 years’ experience with Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Essbase, HFR and ODI 

Familiarity with RDBMS systems (Oracle, MSSQL) and Multi-dimensional Data cubes (ESSBASE) 

Experience setting up a helpdesk organization 

Experience using ODI for data transformation and error handling 

Experience with EPM version 11.x (11.1.2.4 preferred) 

Experience with Hyperion Administrative functions (version management, ceiling, security, etc.) 

Experience with form design and data representation including use of smartview for data access/retrieval 

Knowledge of Hyperion workflow, locking, dimensions and associated impacts 

Knowledge of finance subject matter, specifically budgeting and planning for non-profit organizations 

Experience conducting training for Enterprise Software Systems and Applications with specific focus on Oracle Hyperion development.

Language Requirements:

Excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written, required.  Working knowledge of a second UN language, preferred.

Other qualifications/skills:

Strong analytical skills. Excellent organizational, co-ordination and time management skills in meeting deadlines.  Previous UNICEF or UN experience is an asset.

Applications:

Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, C.V. as well as a reference to previous deliverables (e.g. online links)

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily rate (all inclusive) in US Dollars to undertake the above terms of reference.  Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered.

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

NOTE: UNICEF does not sponsor H1 visa.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourage qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic background, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become part of the organization.