Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Upgrade Benefits!!

We have seen several blogs and webinars on EPM 11.1.2.4 Upgrade , Benefits and features. Let me take some moment to give some highlights around the benefits from Infrastructure and Application stand point.

    EPM 11.1.2.4 Upgrade Infrastructure Benefits

New Database Certification:

Oracle Database 12c release 12.1.0.1+

New Client Certifications:

• Windows 8, 2012 server
• Internet Explorer 10,11
• Firefox 24 ESR
• Note: Support for Firefox 17 ESR is deprecated with this release.
• Microsoft Office 2013

New Server Virtualization Certifications:

• Microsoft Hyper-V (Virtualization Windows Server 2008 and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for Windows)

Mobile Certifications:

EPM Mobile App:

• iOS7, phone and tablet
• Android 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 phone and tablet

Tablet-Friendly Planning User Interface:

• iOS7, tablet only, Safari and Chrome browsers
• Android 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, tablet only, Chrome browser
• Windows 8 Standard, Pro and Enterprise Editions, tablet, Chrome and Internet Explorer 10 browsers

Financial Reporting:

• iOS7, phone and tablet, Safari browser
• Android 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, phone and tablet, Firefox 26+ browser

    EPM 11.1.2.4 Upgrade Application Benefits

•New Look and Better Navigation for Users

•Enhanced feature with Microsoft Office Integration

•Dimension and Hierarchy Change can be managed via Excel Smartview

•Adhoc Reporting with Advanced feature in Excel Smartview

•Expected Performance Improvement on Web , Smartview

•Enhanced Planning ADF Webform with better load time.

•Manage Essbase Substitution variable from Web to minimize maintenance

•Mobile Access of Application and Financial Report

•Streamline Planning Process with Integrated Approval Workflow

•Build your own Dashboard from Planning Webform

•Graphical representation of Planning process and Task List monitoring

• Advanced feature for Data and metadata export and Import

Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Look:- and feelJ

The main page will show users a main screen with options for dashboards, tasks,

plans, rules, approvals, reports, console, settings, academy, and navigator.

    Hyperion planning - Look and Feel

Hyperion Planning and Budgeting on Cloud

    Planing Webform enhanced

Managing Application Dimension

Create or rename dimensions

• View the details of a dimensions
• Set the order of dimensions to determine how calculations are performed.
• Set the evaluation order to specify which data type prevails when an intersection has conflicting datatype

     Financial Data Quality Management Enterprise Edition

• Migration assistance for customers moving from FDM to FDM EE

   – Migration of core artifacts from FDM to FDMEE in 11.1.2.4 • Additional integrations

   – Data Sync between EPM Applications

   – Tax Provision and Explicit support for HPCM

   – Fusion Commitment Control with PSPB

   – Data Warehouse Adapter: Import from any relational db source with simple UI mapping

   – SAP BW Metadata Load

• Road map

   – Data Relationship Management: load from ERP; import maps

   – Sub-ledger transactions for Account Reconciliation Manager (via generic table/view adapter)

   Hyperion Financial Management New Features

•Create and edit application profiles and configuration settings on the web

•Select multiple Load Data, Load Documents, Load Journals, and Load Inter company Transactions up to 10 at a time

•Reorder tabs in applications

•Launch OFMA from HFM

Excel Smartview New Features

•Submit data without refresh and submit data range

•POV and Pivot enhancements

•customize the extension update process so that Smart View end users can control when they install, update and remove extensions

•New Diagnostics tool allows users to create and collect log files and screenshots to send to Oracle Support.

•An Essbase administrator can require that users specify a user name and a password when logging on to the data source to access drill-through reports.

•Version recommended is version 11.1.2.5.400

Hyperion Workspace Dash-boarding

Mobile/New User Interface

Control Enable Webforms for Tablet / Mobile Phone Access

End of the day the Evaluation/Strategies from Upgrade stand point very from organization to Organization!!! 

Keep reading my Next blog on Installation and Configuration of EPM 11.1.2.4.......

Creating Essbase Cube- Multidimensional Database

Hyperion Essbase Architecture:

Essbase go with three tier Architecture.

You must have seen below generic architecture diagram of Oracle Hyperion EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) , Essbase is the key components as a MOLAP database sits in the Database tier.

EPM Client/End User:

• Excel Addin- Almost going to retried 
• Excel Smartview
• Hyperion Workspace
• Hyperion Reports
• Interactive Report
• Financial Report
• SQR Production report
• Web Analysis
• OBIEE Dashboard
• Tableau Dashboard
• Several Other third part Reporting Tools.

EPM Application Layer:

• Hyperion Planning
• Out of Box Module
• Workforce Planning
• Capital Asset Planning
• Project Financial Planning
• Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
• Hyperion Financial Management
• Hyperion Financial Close Management
• Hyperion Profitability Management
• Hyperion Strategic Finance
• Integration(ETL/ELT)
• Financial Data Quality Management
• Oracle Data Integrator

Database Layer:

• Hyperion Essbase

Hyperion Essbase itself follow three tier architecture to build,load and Access data and metadata.

Essbase as 3-T

• Client
• Application
• Database

End user Stand point- They will be accessing Stand Alone Essbase cube using MS Office Integrated Smartview or legacy Essbase Excel-Addin . But from Developer Stand point Client tier consist of 

Essbase Admin Console- This is the Developer GUI to design a multi dimensional database /Essbase Cube

• Essbase Administration Server
• Essbase Server
• Provider Services(Broker between MS Office and Back end database)

In One Session of EAS Console- you can add more than one Administration Server but at one point of time only one can be connected. You can add more than one Essbase Server(Development, Test, Production etc) You can access to respective Essbase server by connecting via right Administration Server.

Security and User/Group level access to server and application controlled in Hyperion Shared Service. You can native users,groups etc and you can also configure LDAP or MS Active Directory to enable Single Sign-on to access the Installed  Hyperion product components.

Creation Essbase Cube:

We Can create two type of essbase Database- Single Currency and Multi Currency with different Storage Type Application. Maximum Char of Application name is 8.

• Aggregate Storage Application
• Block Storage Application
• Unicode
• Non-Unicode

To know the high level difference between ASO and BSO database: several blog exist but just i found this one handy and having good explanation in layman terms.

http://hyperiontools.blogspot.com/2011/02/aso-and-bso.html

One Essbase Server--> Multiple Application

One Application--> More than One Database

One Database--> One Outline(.otl file)

Creating ASO Database:

Application Name:

Create Database:

Database Name:

Click OK and database got created.

Different method to Build the Dimension - Using Essbase Build Rule, but at this point you can use the Outline how to create it manually.

Creating BSO Cube:

Right click on Application and create Block Storage Essbase App

Enter database Name: 8 char Maximum

It creates a Blank database

Within the Database- It is having a blank Outline

Open the Outline in Edit mode then you will see the toolbar menu icons will be enabled. Keep your mouse cursor on top of each icon to know how to add Child, Siblings ,changing member properties etc. I just added 6 base dimensions. then we can add members under the dimensions. Save the otline. We call it Restructure the Essbase database.

Build the members using Essbase Build rule or create Manually for practice.

In BSO cube: You will see different type of dimension

Dense - Probability of getting Data is High, Ex: Account, Period

Sparse- Probability of getting data is Low  Ex: Product, Customer

It is not always true you will get data for all product,customer combination where as it is true even if you get one product or one customer data, all the measure will get the data. So i said in above example as Account and Period is dense whereas product and customer Sparse.

Attribute - Used as a Reporting dimension for Grouping the data with certain attribute Ex: Product Type, Customer Type

Essbase Database Objects:

After we create Essbase application, these are the objects created in the back end Essbase Server in File system.

        Database Outline(.otl file)
Data Source
Rules Files(.rul)
Calculation Scripts(.csc)
Report Scripts(.rpt)
Security Definition/Filters(.sec)
Linked Reporting Objects
Partitions

Close the EAS console:

Continue reading the Next Blog to get more on Hyperion EPM 11.1.2.4 :)

Essbase Database - Hierarchy Concept!!

When we talk about Multidimensional Database, we talk about Dimension, Data, Metadata & Hierarchy . Lets talk on about we define the Dimension Structure in Essbase Cube which will give us enough understanding on hierarchy and its impact on data Aggregation/Consolidation inside the Cube.


What is Hierarchy:

For each dimension, you can organize the set of its members in a hierarchy.

The Hierarchy is defined with the relation of Parent and Child

Top to Bottom , goes as Generation Starts with Gen1,Gen2 etc
Bottom to Top goes as level.- Starts with Level0,Level1 etc

In the Above Example : Jan,Feb March- Level0 members. These are also called leaf members. Data in Essbase cube always get loaded at level0 and it gets aggregated to upper level as per the Aggregation/Consolidation operator defined during the Dimension Build.

Same way Year is GEN1,Quater1 is GEN2, Jan/Feb/Mar are GEN3 members.

Quarter1 is Parent of January
January is called Children of Quarter1


Generation:
Generation defines a member’s location within the outline hierarchy from the top of the dimension.

Level:
Level defines a member’s location within the outline hierarchy from the bottom of the dimension.

Genealogy:

Genealogy names relationships between members in the outline.

When we talk about Multi Dimension and Mutili Dimension Database, Hyperion Essbase try to look at your organization data in 6-D 

• Account - This one is the Measures
• Year       - Calendar Year
• Time Period  - Weeks,days,Months,Qtrs,YearTotal
• Scenario - Budget,Forecast,Actual, Budget vs Actual, Budget vs Forecast etc
• Version  - Working, 1st Pass, 2nd Pass, Reviewed, Final
• Entity    - Some company called it Geography, Departments, Divisions etc. all depending on how you want to look at your data. This is a key dimension when you want to track the data in Multiple currency . Each Geo /location/country having different local currencies whereas the Organization to report the Profit& Loss or Revenue in reporting currency (can be USD or INR depending on the Comp requirement)

If  your requirement goes to more dimension- then you can add Custom dimensions like Product,Customer, Project etc. This is purely your organization requirement and design decision stand point.  

Note: the Performance of the Multidimensional database directly depends on how many dimension you are adding and how they are defined in the essbase Cube.

Multidimensional Operations: There are 4 keys operation we talk when someone ask me what can i do better in a multidimensional database.

• Selection (slice and dice) defines a sub cube.
• Aggregation (roll up) defines dimension reduction.
• Navigation to more detailed data (drill down).
• Visualization operations (pivot).

Slice and Dice:

Ex: Sales in California during January and February by product

Aggregation(Roll Up) & Drill Down

Ex: Total Sales by product or  Ex:Supporting data for sales in California during 1st quarter

Pivot:

Ex:Reorientation of the data cube Display of a 3-D data cube in a series of 2-D planes

Continue reading the Next blog to understand the Architecture of Essbase Cube and hoe to create Multi-Dimensional Database using Hyperion Essbase....

Hyperion Essbase!!!!

Overview:

I have seen many people ask this question - What is Hyperion Essbase and How it is Different from real time transaction based relational Database(RDBMS)..... let me give some highlights in layman terms!!!

Hyperion Essbase is a Multi Dimensional Database - It is MOLAP(Multi Dimensional Analytical Processing) . In Simple term you can say , It enables you to Visualize and Analyse your data in multiple angle with more than two Dimension(which is Row and Column in Relational Database).

EssBase Stand for Extended Spreed Sheet Database


Business Limitation With Excel

• Excel was never designed for complex calculations.
• Its error-prone and difficult to audit
• Disconnected from networks or backups
• Data Security Risks with distributed environment with multiple workbooks
• Doesn’t scale up to enterprise standard
• No controls / audit trails when someone try to manipulate data
• Multiple calculations
• Spreadsheets are inefficient for more than two dimensions

When you want to look at your Organization Data in Multiple Angle , either you will add more columns in the Same Excel Worksheet or you will add multiple Workbook. That is where your Problem Exacerbates...

That is where EssBase Come into picture to play a Bigger role!!

What is Essbase:

• The leading enterprise multi-dimensional database engine in the world
• Provides real-time analytic infrastructure for business intelligence and enterprise performance management (EPM) applications. 
• Engineered for scalability, security, and rapid-response.
• Through an intuitive interface, business users can manipulate large data sets to model complex scenarios, forecast outcomes, and perform “what-if” analyses to identify trends and optimize business results. 
• Essbase utilizes  a multi-dimensional database.
• Multi-dimensional database are usually queried top-down – the user starts at the top and drills into dimensions of interest.
• An Essbase database is considered a “cube”, with each cube axis representing a different dimension, or slice of the data (accounts, time, products, etc.)
• All possible data intersections are available to the user at a click of the mouse.

Why Essbase:

• Enterprise Budgeting and Forecasting
• Historical Budget and forecast performance Analysis
• Budget variances Analysis
• Variance and profitability analysis
• Performance trends
• Profitability metrics and Foreign Exchange impact
• Multidimensional database management system (MDBMS) that provides a multidimensional database platform upon which to build analytic applications.
• One Version of the Truth
• Speed-of-thought analysis for thousands of concurrent users
• Easy for users to consume data via spreadsheets
• Write-Back capability of data and Powerful calculation engine
• Scalable to enterprise-level user base
• Premium Performance & Optimized Storage
• Ease of development, deployment and maintenance.
• Stand Alone Application to eliminate spreadsheet reporting

What is Multi-Dimensional:

It is All about Data Surrounded by Metadata In the form of Star Schema

You can get Basic idea on Star Schema: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_schema

Look at your Data in Multiple Angle is called Multi Dimensional View

Take a Example :

If  I will give you a number $15000, does it make any sense to you?  Answer is NO

But if i Say, In the month of  May 2015 , the Routers & Switch Sales Revenue in North America is $15000. This make absolute sense to anyone. 

15000 is the Data or Fact. The Elements provide the information about this data is called Metadata or Dimensions.

What is 3-D (Dimensional) Cube:

You look at your data in three different angle. We call Essbase Database as Essbase Cube.

Here three Dimensions are  PRODUCT, MARKET, TIME PERIOD

MOLAP: Data sits in Multi Dimensional Database and End User access it via OLAP server

ROLAP: Data sits in Relational Database within tables(Rows x Columns) and accessed by end user using PL/SQL Statements

HOLAP: Combination of Rational and Multi-dimensional 

Continue reading the Next blog on concept of Essbase Database Design and Dimension Hierarchy !!!!!