SUNNYVALE, Calif., -- In today's environment of financial scrutiny and cost cutting, measuring performance and driving business success has grown beyond the sole responsibility of the CFO and become a companywide imperative. Hyperion, the leader in business performance management software, and BEA Systems, the world's leading application infrastructure software company, will deliver the solutions required to tap performance data and analysis when and where it is needed across the enterprise. By extending the reach of business performance management, companies can drive profitability, enable strategic decision making and achieve continuous improvement. As one of the leaders providing infrastructure software for Hyperion's Web-architected applications, BEA creates a highly scalable platform for building, integrating and extending enterprise applications. BEA's portal technologies also help push Hyperion's analytic capabilities to more users throughout the enterprise. Together, the combined solutions can enable executives to achieve corporate objectives while meeting new, demanding financial reporting guidelines. With corporate data readily accessible through Hyperion and BEA solutions, managers can also increase accountability for business planning and performance. "Finance and corporate IT departments are working more closely than ever for a variety of reasons," said Scott Leibs, editor-in-chief of CFO IT Magazine. "This creates new possibilities for more effective use of technology to drive smarter decisions and ensure that employees at all levels of the company have access to current data, as well as the tools needed to make the most of it. While technology can't compensate for weak processes, it can help forward-thinking companies achieve better and faster results, from analysis to final reports." Leibs will moderate a panel focused on the intersection of finance and IT at the Hyperion User Group, being held today at The United Center in Chicago. Along with John Kopcke, Hyperion chief technology officer, management leaders from BEA, BearingPoint and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young will answer questions from Leibs and an expected audience of more than 200 regional executives. The event offers managers the opportunity to learn and discuss how to overcome the challenge of capturing, measuring and reporting financial and operational performance data. "Business performance management must be pervasive, not just relegated to the financial department, to ensure that people, processes and functions are aligned across the company," said John Kopcke, chief technology officer for Hyperion. "BEA's high-performance, reliable and secure infrastructure offers a critical platform for deploying Hyperion's Web-architected applications throughout the enterprise. Together, our solutions can simplify information access for corporate stakeholders who demand detailed performance data at a moment's notice." Financial data and analysis is no longer just the domain of financial managers. Business performance information is being driven to the desktops of not only executives, but also operational users globally across the organization. This requires new levels of scalability, performance, security and usability. BEA WebLogic Server and BEA WebLogic Portal lead the market today in high-performance and reliability. Hyperion's industry-leading software integrates with BEA Systems to simplify, personalize and lower the cost of enterprisewide access to information. By embracing the technology and culture of business performance management everywhere, companies can improve productivity, drive profitability and ensure proper measurement and analysis of planning, forecasting and overall performance. "CIOs today must be responsive to the CFO, CEO and even the needs of shareholders," said Scott Edgington, vice president and general manager, global software partners, BEA Systems. "Hyperion business performance management solutions are designed to ensure that all executives have accurate analysis for planning, forecasting and performance measurement. When used in a trusted environment from BEA, these solutions can help companies meet the increasing demands and expectations for corporate reporting."