Nobody will argue that Oracle Support is a word class experience.  Like it or not, the service is here to support thousands and individuals can get lost in the process.  If you navigate the process correctly, you can get results.

What Do Do First

Your first step should be to troubleshoot the issue.  Do everything you can for support.  The more you provide, the less “did you plug in the computer” type questions that delay you getting help  you will get.  Be clear and concise.  The first few levels of support are likely less experienced than you and will only be able to provide novice level help most of the time.

Next, make sure the content of your support ticket is complete.  Don’t leave any questions.  What I have found to be extremely helpful is to video the issue.  Make sure you show the problem and walk through the calculation or script or whatever is the source of the issue.  This doesn’t have to be a professional video.  There are free screen recording applications.  There are also some pretty inexpensive ones.  If you use a Mac, ScreenFlick is 35 bucks and well work it.  It gives you the basics.  If you use SnagIt, it also works just fine.

If you are a Windows user, there is a nice free option, but you probably haven’t noticed it, and for good reasons.  If you look through the Start menu, you won’t find any reference to a screen recorder. You’re not missing it… it simply isn’t there. That’s because rather than making the screen recorder a standalone app, Microsoft included it as a feature of the Xbox Game Bar in Windows 10.

Your Second Step

After you open a ticket and provide your video of the issue, proving there is an issue without a doubt, follow these steps

• Make sure you get a duty manager assigned and push for escalation
• Call 1-800-223-1711
• Press 1 and enter your SR number
• Press 2 to speak with a manager
• Do not press 1 to speak with Engineer, this will likely result in going straight to Voicemail
• Tell the Support Hub the critical impact you are facing
• Request a Duty Manager callback ASAP
• Repeat request level 2, then level 3, to level n, until you get what you want
• Call hourly until you get what you want – the squeaky wheel gets the grease

During this process, here are some things make sure you get the most out of the experience.

• Speak with the support hub manager
• Describe the impact, include key project milestones at risk and communicate what you need for progress
• If your issue is CRITICAL you should ALWAYS make a request for a duty manager call back.
• If you ask for a duty manager call back, wait 30-60 minutes until you receive the call and reiterate the problem
• Be strategic with your request
• Don’t just say you need to escalate – describe the impact and communicate what you need for progress
• Keep in mind, your SR will NOT appear in an “escalated” state unless you negotiate this with a duty manager

That’s A Wrap

Should you have to do all this?  No.  The experience should be better, but yelling about it and banging your fists on the table won’t change anything.  You have to play the game and go through the process.  If you use these tactics, I guarantee you will improve the response.

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.

Think about how many emails you delete without reading. Your inbox gets cluttered with specials from your favorite stores that you requested to be sent.  You just but didn’t realize a new email would show up every other day. Everyone has the friend who sends emails that he or she thinks is so funny that aren’t. There’s also the person who seems to update his status multiple times a day and “checks in” at the grocery store, work, dinner, etc. Sometimes it’s your system administrator sending you updates about every aspect of the system that you delete. Then you think, Wait, I am the administrator. My emails are always read!  Right?

Are You That Friend?

Well, I hate to tell you, but to your users, you may be the “that” friend. You may be the one telling them what time you woke up, when you got to work, and where you ate dinner.  You may be on the dreaded auto delete list.  Your email might be the email that triggers the twitch and the water cooler comments.  The big question is, What happens to that one important email out of the 20 you send?

How To Remove Yourself From The Auto-Ignore List

If you are a system administrator, it’s critical that you filter the information to your users to minimize the irrelevant communication.  Not all your users require the same information.  Here are some suggestions that may improve your communication and limit the frustration of your user population.

1. Only send out global communications when it is appropriate.  If only one of your servers will be impacted, make sure only the users that will be impacted are notified.
2. If you have more than one application, create a distribution list for each one.  This will ensure that relevant information is sent to the appropriate users.
3. If you have users with different responsibilities, make sure you separate those responsibilities.  If information is sent out about when the system will be open to change a budget or forecast, only inform those that have the ability to make those changes.
4. Let your users choose what they are notified about.  If you have a list of topics that are typically communicated, let your users decide which email groups they associated with.

When developing this methodology, use careful consideration about your approach.  For environments including only a few applications and a small population of users, don’t try a multi-tiered solution.  A spreadsheet would likely meet your needs.  For environments that are larger, think about the implications of managing these lists with a lot of applications and hundreds of users. Managing offline lists could become a job in itself, and become outdated and useless over a short period of time.

A Thought

Prior to consulting, I managed a fairly large environment.  We had more than 250 users and 10 to 20 applications.  They ranged from field headcount reporting, to home office budgeting and forecasting.  The approach I used was not complicated, it was easy to setup, and it gave the users all the control in deciding what they received.  A relational database was created to hold the distribution lists, users, and their emails.  Users could access this from a website (one asp/.net web page) that allowed them to enter their email, return the topic groups they are associated with, and allow them to change it in real-time.  Any time a new distribution group was added, a global email was sent out notifying everyone of the addition.  Email distributors (in our case, the system administrators), could use this website to send out emails by selecting which groups should be notified.

Happy Customers

This approach above took less than a day to create.  It significantly reduced the frustration from the user population. They only received emails they wanted to receive, they were aware of the different types of communication, and THEY controlled the amount of communication they received.  By empowering them, critical information was far less overlooked.

Overview

Essbase is widely considered to be the industry leading OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) server. Built on a real-time analytic infrastructure, Essbase provides BI and EPM users the ability to quickly dissect and analyze data through an intuitive interface.  Essbase end-users have multiple options for interacting with data including Microsoft Excel, Hyperion Financial Reporting and Hyperion Web Analysis. By bringing Essbase together with other Oracle applications, users will find broad support for demanding business requirements.  Breaking down large datasets, working with best-case/worst-case scenarios, forecasting multi-line expenses, and reporting variance analysis is now at your fingertips. Essbase ultimately allows end-users to interact and analyze real-time data through an integrated, rapid-response, and secure environment.

Product History

Arbor Software Corporation, an OLAP software company that designed and marketed multidimensional database software for planning and analysis, developed Essbase (Extended Spreadsheet Database), first branded “Arbor Essbase” in 1992. This multidimensional database product was originally developed to address the scalability problems associated with spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.

In 1998, Hyperion Software Corporation, a company with packaged analytic applications specializing in financials, and Arbor, merged to become Hyperion Solutions Corporation. Their first assignment after the merger was obvious, integrating Essbase with Hyperion Pillar, Hyperion Enterprise, and Hyperion Reporting.

After the merger, Essbase became the backbone to a full suite of applications for planning & budgeting, financial consolidations, scorecards, reporting, and more. Hyperion Solutions become a leader in the world of performance management software with Essbase leading the way.

In 2007, Oracle purchased Hyperion Solutions. At the time of the acquisition, Hyperion applications were being used by approximately 12,000 companies, including 91 of the Fortune 100. The acquisition made Oracle a leader in the EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) market and strengthened the Oracle offerings.

Strengths / Benefits

In2Hyperion is a consortium of experts in a field often referred to as Business Intelligence, Enterprise Performance Management, and a host of other fancy acronyms. The focus of this effort will be around the Oracle Hyperion suite of products, but won’t be limited to them.

This space has been developed to help inspire people to search and implement betters ways of doing the same old thing.  Whether it be using a more appropriate software solution, or using your existing assets in a more efficient and effective way, we believe there is a lot that can be done to overcome our current challenges.  We intend to grow this website to create a rich resource that those inside and outside of this industry can tap in to and become more effective.  Inspire us by posting comments and sharing your experiences so we can grow as a team, and help more and more of our friends in the BI spectrum.