Tag Archive: Enterprise Performance Management

Seven US-Analytics Presentations Selected for ODTUG Kscope12 Conference

US-Analytics Presents the Magnificent Seven

US-Analytics Presents the Magnificent Seven

 

US-Analytics Presents the Magnificent Seven

“We’re excited about joining the technical community for the Kaleidoscope conference in our home state of Texas this year,” said Jon Rambeau, Director of Consulting at US-Analytics. “There’s no better place to hear world renowned speakers in business intelligence and data servers and share your expertise with others.”

“We’ve become well-seasoned veterans to the Kaleidoscope conference in the past few years, and believe it’s one of the most informative and beneficial conferences for the Oracle Hyperion and Essbase community,” said Wayne Conrad, Vice President of US-Analytics. “We’re looking forward to sharing our expertise in our presentations this year.”

The consulting firm will cover the following:

Large-scale ASO, Making Essbase Silky Smooth with Terabytes of Data
Brian Marshall, US-Analytics     >>     Monday June 25, Session 5, 4:15 pm – 5:15 pm

So you have a giant cube with giant dimensions and giant data sets. No problema! ASO can do that. Drawing from experience with real clients, learn some simple tricks and some advanced techniques to maximize your ASO database performance. Do you have millions of members? Do you have billions of rows of source data? Do you have a huge server with lots of resources and vast Essbase potential? If so, this presentation is for you. From changing configuration settings to changing outline settings, if you want to get the most out of your large-scale ASO database, this is a must-see session.

Data-driven Rules in HFM
Keith Berry, US-Analytics     >>     Tuesday June 26, Session 8, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Data-driven rules are rules that generate focused transactions in response to specific data in HFM. Data-driven rules can be faster, safer, and easier to write than more standard approaches. As data volumes rise with the introduction of 64-bit HFM, the technique should be an essential part of every HFM developer’s toolkit. The presentation will cover the benefits and pitfalls of data-driven rules and how to identify where they should be used. The majority of the session, however, will be spent learning the key functions of data-driven rules and working through practical examples.

HFM vs. Essbase BSO: A Comparative Anatomy
Keith Berry, US-Analytics     >>     Tuesday June 26, Session 9, 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm

So, you’re working on a joint HFM/Planning implementation and want them both to perform with lightening speed. What makes Essbase fast should work in HFM, right? Well, maybe! This presentation will compare in detail the inner workings of HFM and Essbase BSO and highlight the different strategies used by each system to process data. The session will discuss where familiar Essbase concepts such as dense/sparse, block size, dynamic calc, etc. apply to HFM and where they don’t. The session will highlight the different design principles needed to optimize each system and touch on other issues (shared hierarchies, data integration) designers face on joint HFM/Planning/Essbase implementations.

Opening Pandora’s Box: The Planning Repository
Brian Marshall, US-Analytics     >>     Wednesday June 27, Session 12, 8:30 am – 9:30 am

Hyperion Planning provides an excellent platform for deploying enterprise-scale budgeting and forecasting solutions. However, the Hyperion administrator’s options for reporting on the underlying metadata repositories are limited. This task is further complicated by the de-normalized nature of the tables. This presentation will expose many of the secrets of the Planning Repositories and provide a set of pre-built queries ready to deploy. Attendees will receive printed and digital copies of all queries along with explanations of specific functionality and a live demo of the content.

Hyperion Planning Approvals and Data Validation
Jake Turrell, US-Analytics     >>     Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

With the release of Hyperion Planning 11.1.2, Workflow and Data Validations are tightly integrated. This presentation will walk attendees through the process of configuring Approvals. A detailed live demo will highlight each of the three Approvals templates and show how Data Validations can be inserted into the workflow process.

Running Hyperion Planning on Your Laptop
Jake Turrell, US-Analytics     >>     Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

 Hyperion Planning and its related applications represent an increasingly complex and frequently changing set of tools. The associated learning curve is significant, and staying up-to-date can be difficult. Developers who want to master these tools need an environment where they can learn and experiment without affecting a “real” environment. A personal EPM Sandbox environment is a critical tool for any serious developer or administrator who wants to gain a deeper understanding of Hyperion Planning. This presentation will provide attendees with a step-by-step guide to getting Hyperion Planning up and running on a laptop.

Essbase/Planning Metadata Management with ODI Across Environments
Terry Ledet, US-Analytics     >>     Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

As an Oracle Essbase/Oracle Hyperion Planning administrator, do you need to compare outlines between development, test, and production to quantify the differences? Do you need a method to know all members with a certain UDA, Attribute, etc? This hands-on session will demonstrate how to utilize Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) to extract the Essbase outline to a relational database table which can be queried. The session will then demonstrate a similar technique for Planning. ODI will then be utilized to determine differences in outlines between environments based on the context selected in ODI.

 US-Analytics encourages enthusiasts to join them at ODTUG Kaleidoscope this year by registering online.

REGISTER TODAY!

Tip: Use the code “USA” and receive a $100 discount off the registration price.

Event: Join US-Analytics at Kscope12 (and save $100)!

Join US-Analytics at Kscope12 (and save $100)!

 

 

Join US-Analytics at Kscope12 (and save $100)!

US-Analytics will be at ODTUG Kscope12, June 24-28 at the JW Marriott in San Antonio, TX, and we hope you will be too! This is the place to be to learn from the world’s leading experts on Oracle technology.

REGISTER TODAY!

Tip: Use the code “USA” and receive a $100 discount off the registration price.

US-Analytics will be presenting the following sessions:

Hyperion Planning Approvals and Data Validation
Running Hyperion Planning on Your Laptop
Data-driven Rules in HFM
HFM vs. Essbase BSO: A Comparative Anatomy
Opening Pandora’s Box: The Planning Repository
Large-Scale ASO, Making Essbase Silky Smooth with Terabytes of Data
Essbase/Planning Metadata Management with ODI Across Environments

Other conference highlights include five Sunday Symposiums featuring Oracle VPs and product managers where you will learn what is new and what to look for in the future, plus more than a dozen Hands-on Training sessions. The size of Kscope12 (approximately 1,400 participants) is perfect—large enough to attract top-notch expert speakers yet small enough to allow for great discussions.

During the conference, you can choose from more than 250 sessions on:

  • Business Intelligence
  • Application Express
  • EPM Business Content
  • Database
  • EPM Beginner
  • Developer’s Toolbox
  • Essbase
  • Fusion Middleware
  • Hyperion Applications

November 8: US-Analytics to Present at DOUG Meeting

DOUG Sponsorship Thumb

US-Analytics Doug Sponsorship
Don’t miss the Business Intelligence and EPM Roadmap & Master Data Management Luncheon, sponsored by US-Analytics
!

This Dallas Oracle Application Users Group event is free to the public.
11:00 a.m. – Registration
11:30  – 12:15 - Lunch and Learn with a Key Note “Business Intelligence and EPM Roadmap” by Oracle, Al Marciante, Senior Director, Product Management.
12:15 – 1:00 - ”Master Data Management” by US Analytics - MDM best practices, trends in the marketplace and Oracle tools that you can use to consolidate, maintain and distribute master data across the enterprise.

Register Today

After all these years, why isn’t Essbase presumed to be a part of every company’s analytical technology strategy?

Jon R

Jon R., Director of Consulting

There are only 3 movies that have ever made me laugh so hard that I started to cry. You know the kind of laughter that you can’t stop. It’s so involuntary. The first one was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And it happened more than once. Mind you, I was only 12 when I first saw it. The second one was There’s Something about Mary, and you might be able to guess the scene. The last one: Groundhog Day.

If you haven’t seen any of these movies, you’re definitely missing out on some comedic genius in each of them. And to spare any of you unfamiliar with the Groundhog Day movie from a long synopsis, the basic premise is that the lead character, played by Bill Murray, gets stuck in a loop, re-living the same day over and over again.

Has anyone also had the feeling that they were trapped in life’s equivalent of an infinite do loop? If not, God bless you. I think I’m in one right now. In all honesty, I’ve been stuck in one for many years.

As a multidimensional dude long before Essbase was a product, as an early adopter customer of Essbase in 1993, and as a very early employee of Arbor Software (maker of Essbase) in 1994, I didn’t presume that everyone was going to ”get it“ overnight. But, after all these years, why isn’t Essbase presumed to be a part of every company’s analytical technology strategy, and as ubiquitous as water? Why doesn’t it get implemented with every Data Warehouse, BI, or EPM project?

Don’t get me wrong, Essbase is all over the place. And sometimes it’s been running in the same old, poorly-designed-but-still-useful state for years. It’s just that it could be helping so many more people. I have been in prospective accounts in the past month alone that run the gamut of: (a) never heard of Essbase; (b) heard of it, don’t use it; (c) use it in Finance only still; (d) use it, running version 6.5 still; (e) use BSO, have 50gb, 30 hour calcs; (f) use BSO Essbase and wonder what ASO means; (g) use it and think that optimization comes from a book, a web board, an hourglass outline design, caches, etc.; (h) think that ASO is very limited; and every other dated Essbase paradigm you can imagine.

My goodness do people need some fresh, new education on what Essbase can do for them, and is doing for other companies today. Essbase, when delivered by real experts, can:I heart Essbase

  • Reduce the cycle time of their core business processes
  • Improve the quality and complexity of their analyses
  • Support 360-degree management of their business
  • Provide richer types of analyses, scaling much larger data sets
  • Deliver rapid, high ROI, high business impact solutions

I’m hopeful that Oracle’s renewed interest in selling Essbase to everyone, with the continued leadership of my old friend at Hyperion, Robert Gersten; and the continued success of our firm and others in delivering loads of Essbase application-based solutions, will produce a day when I can walk into every meeting with an existing or prospective client to hear them say,

“Jon, we have a complex, analytical business problem, and we need your help to solve it with Essbase”. Ahhh.

Truth be known, although that’s been a great desire of mine dating back to my days of running the Essbase business unit for Hyperion, when that day arrives, there won’t be enough talented people to solve the complex problems. More about that in a future posting.

For now, let’s just tease it as being part of the systemic inertia of organizational and human behavior.

With no ill will towards the incredibly strategic big brother of Essbase database technology (the relational database), let’s be clear about a few Essbase things…

  • This Johnny-come-lately notion of user self-service and enablement never met a better product technology than Essbase
  • The closest thing to the end of spreadsheet hell for millions of users is Essbase
  • Yes, every single company, institution, and organization on Earth would benefit from Essbase deployed as a strategic technology

My father once told me that disappointment stems from the gap between reality and expectation. While my Essbase disappointment has been long-lived, it will come to an end, and my team at US-Analytics will continue to play a part in that reality.

Oracle Essbase for Not-So-Dummies

EPM for Not-So-Dummies
Oracle Essbase (Hyperion Essbase)

To help business and IT leaders making decisions about enterprise IT platforms, products and consulting, US-Analytics has undertaken to provide basic definitions for enterprise IT products and services. We would call it EPM for Dummies but it doesn’t seem wise to call our prospects dummies. So welcome to Enterprise-Performance-Management-For-Really-Smart-Business-People-Who-Have-Had-Better-Things-To-Do-Than-Learn-About-Techie-Stuff (Until Now) or EPMFRSBPWHHBTTDTLATS(UN) for short. I know … so catchy … we should definitely go into advertising.

First of all, Oracle is more than a mysterious old lady in Matrix movies. It’s also a global, leading edge provider of software tools for enterprise-class business intelligence and performance management. In the world of corporate data-wrangling, Oracle is Neo. In fact, the Matrix itself could have run on Oracle software.
OK, enough Keanu Reeves talk. Wait…
“Whoa … I know Kung Fu!”
OK, now we’re done.

According to the Oracle web site, “Oracle Essbase is the industry-leading OLAP (online analytical processing) server.”

There are two things to explain about this sentence:

1. OLAP is an industry term that can have hidden and technical meanings. In general though, OLAP is an approach to database construction that allows databases to quickly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. Databases configured for OLAP use a multidimensional data model, allowing for complex analytical and ad-hoc queries with a rapid execution time.

2. Hyperion = Oracle. For decades – as early as 1981 – Hyperion was producing top-quality Business Intelligence and Analytical software. Through various stages and ownership structures, the company has been called Micro Control, Arbor, and Hyperion. Hyperion’s notable products include Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion Intelligence, Hyperion Enterprise, Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Workforce Planning, Hyperion Strategic Finance, Hyperion Financial Management, and Hyperion Master Data Management.

In 2007, Hyperion was purchased by Oracle, but by then Hyperion had such a strong following in the marketplace that Oracle knew better than to simply scratch its name off of every product it had ever built. Instead, Oracle has taken a phase-in approach to name changing, keeping the Hyperion name on some products (like Hyperion Financial Performance Management), and mixing both names on others (such as Oracle Hyperion Financial Management). Essbase, however, has now officially lost its Hyperion moniker. The proper name is Oracle Essbase. But many in the industry still call it Hyperion Essbase.

So now let’s get on with Oracle’s definition.

“The newest release of Oracle’s Hyperion Essbase product, Oracle EssbaseOracle Essbase enables the business to quickly model complex business scenarios. For example, Oracle Essbase makes it easy for line-of-business personnel to develop and manage analytic applications that model complex scenarios, forecast the business and perform “what-if” analyses in order to look into the future. Oracle Essbase supports extremely fast query response times for vast numbers of users, for large data sets, and for complex business models. It is hot-pluggable across any data source.” provides an environment for rapidly developing custom analytic and enterprise performance management applications. With a rapid application development environment that is managed by the business,

All of that is tech-speak for this:

Oracle Essbase is a super-intelligent database software that allows the world’s largest companies to collect, maintain, protect and query their data to make it reliable and meaningful. CEOs rely on Essbase reports to give them insight into what’s really going on in their business, allowing them to make informed and strategic decisions with confidence.

Oracle Essbase is about framing all of a company’s disparate data to make it meaningful, actionable and beautiful. It’s one way that US-Anlytics helps clients Picture Results.