Why not EPMA…who needs DRM?

Should I use EPMA or DRM?

Over the past several months, and quite possibly the past year or two, there have been numerous discussions regarding the need for a separate master data management (MDM) tool such as Hyperion / Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) to manage Hyperion metadata outside of the Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA) tool that comes with Hyperion System 9 and Oracle Fusion 11.

Recently at a users’ conference, I heard comments like “EPMA is DRM ‘Light’” and “EPMA is DRM with a Web interface”.

Hyperion, and obviously now Oracle, has invested deeply in EPMA and it is difficult to identify how and where it might differ from the DRM product. Oracle has even used portions of the DRM base code and underlying architecture in EPMA and when looking at vapor-ware demos, you might draw similar conclusions to those quotes above. In reality, EPMA, in its current state, is a pumped up version of the old Hyperion HUB as it relates to metadata management. Granted, EPMA has updated the user interface leveraging the glyphs (icons) and nomenclature from DRM while completely missing the intellectual aptitude that a master data tool provides.

Below are the key uses that were provided in a recent Oracle presentation as well shows the difference between EPMA and DRM:
EPMA

• Unifies and aligns application administration processes across the Hyperion EPM system
• Imports and shares business dimensions in the Dimension Library
• Builds, validates, and deploys applications in the Application Library
• Designs and maintains business rules in Calculation Manager
• Loads and synchronizes transaction data into and between EPM applications

DRM

• Manages change of business master data across enterprise applications
• Consolidates and rationalizes structures across source systems
• Conforms dimensions and validate integrity of attributes and relationships
• Synchronizes alternate business views with corporate hierarchies
• Key Features include:

           i.      Versioning and Modeling
           ii.     Custom rules and validation
           iii.    Configurable exports
           iv.    Granular security
           v.     Change tracking

 *Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Fusion Edition 11.1.1- Robin Peel

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.

 

Reporting with OBIEE & Essbase

OBIEE + Essbase

Oracle Hyperion’s Essbase is a fast and flexible multidimensional database and has been widely used for this reason.  Similarly, reporting against Essbase has been in top demand because of the speed and efficiency of Essbase.  However, there has been no single front-end reporting application that is integrated with Essbase to the extent of the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition – OBIEE (BI Answers, BI Interactive BI Dashboard, BI Scheduler, and BI Publisher components).  This combination may be the answer for many users who have seen this disparity in reporting.

Traditionally, those users who have worked with reporting tools realize that their complete need for reporting can’t be handled with a single application.  Users either develop multiple front-end reporting applications to integrate into their business decision making or opt to go with less reporting.  The trade off of doing more with different applications cost time and money while doing less doesn’t give them fully utilized analysis of their data nor do they get a full return on their investment.  In the Hyperion world, users are asked to create reporting views on a Hyperion Reports application for mid-level managers – a group who understands detailed data where they can pivot dimensions and see alternate views.  But for senior management or C-level executives, a Web Analysis canned reporting view is a must because they are less familiar with the detailed data.  While it has been acceptable and necessary to create reporting views of the same data on different applications in the past, OBIEE may solve this issue for the future.

OBIEE is a powerful reporting application that can also be utilized as a middleware tool to manage Essbase data and provide the same or similar reporting capabilities like Web Analysis, Reports, Interactive Reporting, and Crystal Reports all rolled into a single package.  Within OBIEE, reports can be created for different types of users where data can be presented in many different layers for viewing but managed within a single application.

Options within OBIEE provide more robust capabilities that weren’t possible before.  Users find that they spend their development time creating a work around more often than not because their application can’t do this or is limited to that.  This diminishes reporting empowerment for the user and also limits their full use of relevant data.

Oracle has managed to find a way to merge different technologies from different companies that make sense of reporting development while adhering to the demands and needs of users.  The sooner users leverage these hybrid offerings, the sooner their data and their return on investment can be fully realized.

I’m open to your comments. Look for the next OBIEE article on how this integration between Oracle BI Enterprise Edition and Essbase is accomplished.

Contributed by:
Michael Duong, Lead Consultant
Hyperion Essbase Certified
Ranzal & Associates
mduong@ranzal.com