By John O'Rourke May 24, 2018
After three eventful days in Chicago listening to our customers and partners; sharing best practices and discussing future plans, the OneStream team is more energized than ever.
Coming off Splash 2018 -- our biggest and best User Conference & Partner Summit to date with over 750 attendees -- we have a sharper understanding of customer needs, industry trends and future direction for OneStream.
Highlights of OneStream Splash 2018
The energy and buzz at Splash 2018 in Chicago was just amazing. Conference attendance was up 50% over last year with over 750 OneStreamers, Partners, Customers, Prospects and others taking over the Drake Hotel and Navy Pier for the event. Our Tuesday Admin and End-User Workshops were oversold. And the engagement continued from the welcome reception on Tuesday evening, to the Keynotes on Wednesday morning at Navy Pier, through the conference sessions and especially at our 80's party on Wednesday evening, and on through the Thursday sessions and closing reception.
5 Key Take-Aways from Splash
We had many lively and candid discussions that validated and at times challenged our thinking. Several topics stood out as the key take-aways from this year's conference:
- OneStream is Rapidly Innovating announcing Lease Accounting, Tax Provisioning and other new XF MarketPlace solutions at the conference. In fact, the XF MarketPlace continues to grow as we add the solutions customers demand. We now have more than 40 tried-and-true solutions for customers to download, configure and deploy.
Details on these solutions and others in the XF Marketplace can be found at https://onestream.com/xf-marketplace/
- Machine Learning is rapidly gaining momentum as raw computing power and access to massive amounts of useful data come together. The challenge is to separate industry hype from real solutions that can streamline processes. In his keynote, our CEO, Tom Shea previewed some of the Machine Learning capabilities OneStream is developing, and he drilled deeper into this during several breakout sessions.
Tom discussed our plans for leveraging Machine Learning to make SmartCPMTM even smarter by automatically scaling cloud resources and by simplifying processes such as reconciliations, financial and operational planning, account mapping and assisting users with chatbots. Interest among customers and partners alike was high, with OneStream's Machine Learning capabilities emerging as one of the hottest topics at this year's Splash event. Keep an eye out for more on this later in the year.
- Increasing Cloud Adoption is not a new topic in the CPM space, particularly for organizations seeking to migrate from on-premise Hyperion products. But we are starting to see signs of a significant cloud tipping point approaching.
Ultimately, it comes down to choice and allowing customers to migrate to the cloud on their own timeline. OneStream supports a "have it your way" approach with XF Cloud, hosted or on-premise deployment options – and the best path to cloud CPM.
- 100% Customer Success is our mission statement and it was on full display at Splash 2018. Endo Pharmaceuticals, Victaulic, Guardian,The Carlyle Group and Printpack were among several of the customers who presented best practices at Splash 2018. That included several sessions on migrating from Hyperion, which accounts for nearly 75% of OneStream customers.
- We'll make a bigger "Splash" in …. New Orleans! A part of our culture is to learn and continuously improve. Splash is a big part of that. As successful as Splash 2018 was in Chicago, we are striving to be even better next year in New Orleans May 14-16th We'll continue to deliver effective sessions, provide more in-depth content on solutions, and highlight customer and partner success stories while making our executives highly available. In fact, our 'Ask Me Anything' sessions with our CEO, top engineers and key experts remained a favorite at this year's Splash.
Plus, we are always seeking to exceed the previous year in terms of fun and entertainment too. We follow the creed "work hard, play hard." The 80s-themed party at the Navy Pier fit the bill for the latter. It was inspiring to see everyone dress up and get into that totally rad 80s spirit. Just wait for next year!
In the meantime, if you have the opportunity to catch up with us in Amsterdam, Splash 2.0 takes place on September 27. Plus, we have regional events throughout the year to connect with us as well.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next year in the Big Easy. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
John O'Rourke is Vice President of Product Marketing at OneStream Software. With a background in accounting and finance, John has over 30 years of experience in the software industry, including 20 years of experience in product marketing at Hyperion Solutions, Oracle and Host Analytics. He has worked with many customers and partners on financial reporting and planning initiatives and has spoken and written on many topics in corporate performance management. John has also held positions in strategic marketing and product marketing at Dun & Bradstreet Software, Kenan Systems and Decisyon. Find me on:
