The generic rule in Essbase is that calculations FIX on sparse members because sparse members are what define the number of blocks. When you want to limit the members of the block on which the calculation is executed, an IF statement is appropriate. Read more
How many times have you been in a situation where you have to traverse through hundreds of lines and errors from an Essbase data load only to figure out that all the rejected records are caused by an issue with one member? You load the file again and wham – another error file with issues you didn’t see the first time.
Although this is typically less of an issue in a production environment, these situations are very likely in the development and testing phases of a project.
In2Hyperion is introducing another free tool that will navigate through errors and summarize the reasons for the rejects. Read more
Josh Forrest and I presented at last year’s Collaborate conference. Along with that presentation, we wrote a white paper on the implementation of Hyperion Planning. This paper included process of selecting a vendor, the project goals, requirements gathering, project methodology, and even the lessons learned once the implementation was completed.
The editors of OAUG asked us if they could publish the article in the summer edition, which was released this week. The article was written closely with Abercrombie & Fitch and represents the process from the business, not from the consulting services, point of view.
The article can be downloaded here at www.oaug.org. Access to the article requires free registration.
Oracle has confirmed a bug related to the deployment of security with a planning application maintained in EPMA in version 11.1.2.x. When the Shared Members checkbox is selected in an EPMA deployment of a Planning application, it ignores this option. Even if the Shared Members box is checked, the user still only gets access to Ohio Region, and not the children, in the example below. Oracle is currently working on a patch. Read more
Kscope was another fantastic event. Kudos to those responsible for organizing it. Thank you to all the speakers who volunteered their time and shared their knowledge. The most frequent request Josh, Rob, and I had, was to make our presentations available. They are available on the Kscope site, but many of you don’t have access. So, we are happy to make them available here.
I also had tremendous feedback on the ribbon. At least half the participants in our sessions used it. We got a couple of great recommendations as well. With some luck (meaning my schedule slows down a little), I will be working on those in the near future.
Download Josh Forrest’s presentation on Hyperion Financial Reporting
Rob Donahue’s presentation on Hyperion infrastructure
Download Kyle Goodfriend’s presentation on Hyperion Planning
The introduction of Hyperion 11.1.2 has some fantastic improvements. Many of these have been long awaited. The next few articles on In2Hyperion will describe some of the enhancements to Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Essbase, and Hyperion SmartView.
If you have been developing Planning applications, you are probably very familiar with the XREF function. This function is used in business rules, calculation scripts, and member formulas. It provides a method to move data from one plan type (Essbase database) to another plan type. It is executed from the target database and pulls the data from the source. XWRITE was actually introduced in later versions of 11.1.1.x, but is very stable in 11.1.2.x. XWRITE is executed from the source and pushes data to the target. This function is a huge improvement over XREF. Read more
Although implied shares can improve performance by not storing the same data multiple times, it has many negative impacts. For example, implied shares cause problems in Hyperion Planning at the load level (level 0). A parent with a storage property of Stored that has one child (or only one child that consolidates) will create an implied share. This results in level 0 members being locked, preventing web form data entry. In Essbase/Planning, the storage method of any parent with one child has to be changed to Never Share to allow user input.
For those of you who have been snake bitten by this, you will welcome a relatively unknown Essbase configuration setting in the Essbase configuration file (essbase.cfg). Read more
We will always be asked to do more with less. Finance is asked to produce more and better analytics with less people. Sales people are asked to produce more in a weakening economy with less marketing dollars, and yes, groups that manage Essbase environments are asked to produce and manage more data/applications with shrinking resources.
In a prior life, I used to manage a group responsible for managing the Essbase environment used to produce all the reporting for the group. It generated about 70% of the revenue for Bank One (now Chase). We delivered all the reporting, budgeting, and forecasting applications. It included nearly 2 TB of data (pre ASO) on four servers that included more than 50 databases. All the typical technologies were employed. A large number of filters existed to maintain security. Many of the applications were linked together with several types of partitions. Data was loaded daily, weekly, and monthly. SQL Server was used for all the ETL processes, and we completed the development and performed all the maintenance with four people.
The only way the group could be effective in developing and enhancing applications, was to eliminate our effort spent on typical production activities. With the number of applications and the frequency they were updated (daily, weekly, or monthly), communicating this information to the more than 250 users was also a large time commitment.
There are times when planning and forecasting databases grow for apparently no reason at all. The static data (YTD actuals) that is loaded hasn’t changed and the users say they aren’t doing anything different.
If you load budgets or forecasts to Essbase, you probably do what I’m about to tell you. If you are a systems administrator and have never seen how finance does a budget or forecast, this might be an education.
The culprit? Read more