You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Oracle' tag.
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.
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
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
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.
