Business Intelligence Technology Environment – Welcome to the Buffet

Business Intelligence Technology Environment or BITE is my own little tag line and acronym (maybe I should copyright it) to express the host of solutions available in the Business Intelligence application world today. (It could also be used as a verb to describe the plethora of poorly designed solutions… ahh but that is another story.)

My current blog series will be Oracle EPM/BI+ solution centric while remaining Oracle EPM/BI+ application agnostic (now dictionary.com is paying off). I hope that you will enjoy this real life approach to the process of decision making on software solutions interspersed with some genuine tips and tricks of the trade — some that you have seen before and some you have never imagined.

In other words, I hope that you will not find this blog to be represented by my newly coined acronym — BITE.

Rules of conduct while at the Buffet

First we need a definition. Yes a definition! Don’t be afraid, definitions are a good thing, they keep us grounded, they set limits and finally they determine if we are true to our mission. I define BITE as processes, software and goals needed to precisely solution the business data critical to the legal, accounting and business decision needs of a specific entity.

Inventive techno junkies, single tool consultants and one track sales people – CLOSE YOUR EYES / SHEILD YOUR COMPUTERS for this next statement else you might go blind. “Precisely Solution” in the definition of BITE includes the moral imperative of not misusing software for intent other than its design and picking software that fits the current business life cycle of a company. (Those of you with Software Misuse problems, I will be posting a number you can call to get help. Remember the first step is admitting you have a problem.)

The application stack for EPM / BI+; HFM, Essbase (with all its add-on modules), Smart View, OBIE, OBAW, FDM, DRM, ODI and a few products you might not have heard about or you’ve heard about but never assessed for your purposes. NO, NO, No, no folks this is not a software sales blog, it’s a solutions blog and in our solutions toolbox we need to do more than use a single hammer creatively to remain competitive from an efficiency and business life cycle standpoint.

The Personalities in the Buffet Line

Now that we have some parameters (and I know it was painful for you left brainers) by which we can solution, we need some realistic company situations to solution. Let’s start with four companies each different in their business life cycle, staff sizes and demands for a BITE at success. You can email me if you will absolutely die without a very specific company example however, I cannot boil the ocean here in this blog (small ponds are all that will be possible).

Our four companies need to be different to see solutions in the work. Let’s pick a manufacturer, a technology company, a retailer and a commodity group. In my next addition we will outline the companies, their mission, their needs and their resources.

The Workflow Revolution – Changes to Financial Reporting

Thomas Friedman first talked about how globalization impacts business life in The World is Flat.  In this book, he describes the ‘flattening of the world’ as the idea that workers from around the globe could collaborate and work across systems and wide spans of geography.  One specific part of this flattening is a change he refers to as the “quiet revolution in software, transmission protocols” that he calls “the ‘workflow revolution’ because of how it made everyone’s computer and software interoperable.”

I see this amazing transformation offered within financial software today, but many companies don’t completely understand the value or the concepts to implement this approach.

New financial systems today allow for the immediate submission of data.  The best practice applications of these systems allow for the validation, translation and commentary of this submission to be owned by the end users.

When I discuss the applied concept with clients, I speak of this ‘changing conversation.’  Before this workflow revolution, legal entities in remote parts of the globe would prepare financials and fax them, or teletype them, to a corporate office.   A process that was manual, slow and disconnected.

The end users owning the process changes the communication of the business.  The old typical conversation before might have been a submission of some financial data followed by a response that the data is incorrect or incomplete, and then a resubmission – all taking days to complete.  The process was also flawed in that it relied completely on the receiving member being proactive, and finding the errors.  Surprisingly, many companies still use this approach.

The technology exists to solve this problem and provide two major benefits.  First, products today make the validation systematic, hence reliable.  The end user knows immediately if the data is wrong, and can resolve the issues.  The system provide consistency and reliability that cannot be accomplished with people.  Second, the end users can be made aware of potential problems and begin researching proactively.  This proactive approach cuts days from the process and improves data quality.

Within my next blog posting, I will discuss many of the controls I am seeing in these systems like SAP’s BPC and Oracle’s HFM products, and how they improve data quality and speed of reporting.

 

What is Temporal translation and how does HFM handle that?

Hyper-Inflationary translation means you must use what is called ‘Temporal’ as opposed to the common ‘Current’ method (which is out of the box).

Under the temporal rate method, the objective is to measure each subsidiary transaction as though the transaction had been made by the parent. Monetary items (e.g. cash, receivables, inventories carried at market, payables, and long-term debt) are remeasured using the current exchange rate. Other items (e.g. prepaid expenses, inventories carried at cost, fixed assets, and stock) are remeasured using historical exchange rates.

The Temporal Method:

• Monetary assets and liabilities (cash, liquid securities, accounts payable and receivable, debt) are converted at the current rate of exchange. – default rates in the system .
• Nonmonetary assets and liabilities (fixed assets and inventory) are translated at historical rates. Thus no accounting capital gains or losses arise from these items. – In HE, I would do this via USD overrides.
• Income state items are converted at the average exchange rate for the accounting period unless, as in the case of depreciation or cost of inventory sold, they are directly associated with nonmonetary items. In this latter case the historical cost is used for the translation. – Same as above using overrides.
• Dividends and other distributions are converted at the current rate of exchange at the time they were paid.
• Under the Temporal-Rate Method the net gain does go into the consolidated income statement but since no fluctuations in the value of fixed assets occur the effect on net income is moderated. Because the Temporal-Rate Method uses different exchange rates for different account items there is a problem in the consistency of the accounts. This is a rule you would add to the impact the expenses, I have seen this in other expenses, or other operating expenses. It is likely they know where they want to this impact.

I can’t imagine doing this with rates in HE. You would need a rate for each entity potentially.

Contributed by:
Peter Fugere, Practice Director
HFM & HE Hyperion Certified
Ranzal & Associates
pfugere@ranzal.com

What is PVA and VAL? And How should I do translation per GAPP in HFM?

There are 2 standard methods of translating an account, PVA and VAL.

PVA:

This method retrieves the periodic value for an account and multiplies that by the exchange rate for that period to obtain the translated amount for the current period. Then the translated amount for the current period is added to the prior period’s year-to-date (YTD) translated balance in order to calculate the YTD translated amount. The PVA method is usually applied to Income, Expense, and Flow type accounts.

VAL:

This method retrieves the YTD value in an account and multiplies that by the exchange rate. The VAL method is usually applied to Asset, Liability, and Balance type accounts.

An example of PVA and VAL is as follows:

PVA

	JAN	FEB	MAR	(Divide)
AVERAGE RATE.FRANCS	0.5	0.6	0.7
INCOME ACCT (EURO)	100	300	600	(YTD Amounts)
INCOME ACCT (USD)	200	533	962	(Translated Amt After Consol)

The PVA method takes the periodic value in the INCOME ACCT and divides that by the exchange rate for that period. It then adds this result to the translated value from the prior period. It does not change the exchange rate amount or look to the prior period for the exchange rate at all. In the example above the calculations are as follows:

JAN 100 / 0.5 = 200
FEB (300 – 100) = 200 / 0.6 = 333 + 200 (JAN) = 533
MAR (600 – 300) = 300 / 0.7 = 429 + 533 = 962

VAL

	JAN	FEB	MAR	(Divide)
AVERAGE RATE.FRANCS	0.5	0.6	0.7
INCOME ACCT (EURO)	100	300	600	(YTD Amounts)
INCOME ACCT (USD)	200	500	857	(Translated Amt After Consol)

Using the VAL method instead of PVA, the results would be:
JAN 100 / 0.5 = 200
FEB 300 / 0.6 = 500
MAR 600 / 0.7 = 857

Contributed by:
Peter Fugere, Practice Director
HFM & HE Hyperion Certified
Ranzal & Associates
pfugere@ranzal.com

Welcome to Ranzal & Associates’ Blog!

Ranzal specializes in Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management with a concentration in Oracle/Hyperion’s toolkit. Ranzal works closely with corporate executives, line-of-business management, end users, and information systems departments alike to address the business issues and challenges inherent in data gathering, management, and dissemination. Organizations from various industries have engaged Ranzal with outstanding results.

Topics of discussion:

• Common Essbase & Planning Problems & Resolutions: The Essbase Add-In
• What is PVA and VAL? And How should I do translation per GAPP in HFM?
• What is Temporal translation and how does HFM handle that?