finit answers your questions june 2012

Getting the Most out of EPM: Fi it A ti ?Finit Answers your questions?

June 22, 2012Joe Mizerk ModeratorJoe Mizerk – [email protected]

www.finitsolutions.com

Th Fi it S l ti S iTh Fi it S l ti S i

Getting the Most out of EPM: Finit Answers your Questions

Finit IntroductionThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Finit Solutions specializes in consulting services in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Solutions suite of products:

Financial Close and Consolidation– Financial Management (HFM)– Hyperion Enterprise

Planning and Business Intelligence– Planning

– Core Planning– Financial Close Management– Disclosure Management– Account Reconciliation Module

– Modules (Workforce, CapEx)– Essbase (ASO / BSO)

Integration– Financial Data Quality Management (FDM)– Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)

Reporting Tools– Financial Reporting– Smart View / Essbase Excel Add‐Ing ( )

– Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA)

– Data Relationship Management (DRM)

– OBIEE– Financial Management Analytics

(OFMA)

www.finitsolutions.com‐ 2 ‐

– Other (ERPi, EIS, etc.) – Web Analysis



Finit Services The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Finit’s consulting services cover a broad range of implementation and post implementation options.

Finit Solutions Implementation Services– Full cycle implementations

– Discovery and Requirements– Global Design– Detailed Design and Build– Testing and Training– Deploy

– Infrastructure Services– Data Services (historical data, GL data integration)– Project / Program Management– Product Upgrades– Redesign / Enhancements




Finit’s FocusThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

We strongly believe that Service + Solutions = Maximum ValueService– Consultant compensation model is based upon client satisfaction with

consultant’s work, not how many hours they charge.– Finit has no external owners and Finit partners are involved in every full‐Finit has no external owners and Finit partners are involved in every full

cycle implementation.– Finit uses its own employees, not contractors.SolutionsSolutions– Finit consultants are Hyperion product experts who enjoy designing, building

and deploying great solutions, applications and processes.Fi it k l l ith O l H i d l t d t t t– Finit works closely with Oracle Hyperion development on product strategy and beta testing.

– Finit consultants receive 2 weeks of product / functional training a year.


– Finit Answers provides support services on a pay‐as‐you‐use model.



Finit’s ValuesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series




Finit’s Client ServiceThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Our client service approach has led to 100% customerOur client service approach has led to 100% customer satisfaction for every Finit client (160 and counting) for every Oracle Hyperion project (over 280 and counting).j g




About the ModeratorThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Joe Mizerk• Finit Sales• With Finit since June, 2010• In the Hyperion World for 20

years (Micro Control user & Enterprise Admin / UpStream / Hyperion / Oracle)

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting (Passed the CPA Exam)




About the PanelThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Greg Barrett – PartnerFinit Director ‐ Data Integration• 9+ years experience with Hyperion

Jay Hampton – PartnerConsolidations / Planning / Integrations• 8+ years as a consultant / partner with9+ years experience with Hyperion

• 7+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions

• HFM Certified• Involved in 40+ FDM Projects

8+ years as a consultant / partner with Finit Solutions

• 8+ years experience with Hyperion• HFM Certified

K t S hl ttInvolved in 40+ FDM Projects

Cindy EichnerFinit Director ‐ Essbase / Planning • 16+ years experience with Hyperion

Kurt SchletterFinit Director ‐ Infrastructure• 20 years of IT server / infrastructure exp• 8 yrs of Oracle Hyperion Infrastructure

Scott Sawers – Partner

• 3+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions• Essbase , Planning & HFM Certified• Involved in 50+ EPM Products

exp• 45+ client installations

Mike KerkeringFinit Director – Consolidations

Finit Director ‐ Consolidations• 8+ years experience with Hyperion• 7+ years as a consultant with Finit Solutions• HFM Certified

Finit Director Consolidations• 15+ years of experience with Hyperion• 4+ years consultant with Finit Solutions• HFM Certified• Involved in 10+ HFM Projects


• Involved in 25+ HFM Projects• Involved in 10+ HFM Projects



How to Ask a QuestionThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series




AGENDAThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Finit Answers Overview

HFM

FDM FDM Reports Clearing Maps HFM

HFM Removing Zeros HFM Version Differences Reporting KPIs

Clearing Maps Planning / Essbase

Budgeting Options Essbase Training ASO vs BSO KPIs

Cell Text VB

Infrastructure HFM Size Limits

ASO vs. BSO Plan Types

HFM Size Limits EPM Monitoring EPM Resource Support EPM Common

Infrastructure problemsInfrastructure problems


What’s on Your Mind?

i iFinit AnswersJay Hampton




Finit AnswersThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Answers & Support With Efficient, Responsive Service– Time and Materials Support – You only pay for what you use at an hourly rate. No fixed fee contract

and no minimum required.– Guaranteed Response Times – Production issues will have response times of one business day.– Tech and Admin / Functional Support – Support for technical issues and questions as well as

product‐specific functionality or design questions.product specific functionality or design questions.– ‘Insurance Policy’ for your Hyperion Environment – Finit provides you with a safety net when you

need it.– Hyperion Product Expertise – Finit Answers is staffed with dedicated Hyperion Consultants– Flexibility – Willing to customize the support package to meet customer needs– Customer Service Focus – The Finit Answers team and Finit consultants are measured and

compensated on your satisfaction with their work, not on the number of tickets closed or hours charged.

– Available for all Hyperion customers whether post‐implementation or as an “insurance policy” to your existing Oracle Support contract

– Finit is also providing a unique pledge for Hyperion Enterprise customers as a sign of our partnering approach: All Hyperion Enterprise support fees you pay to Finit will be applied as a credit to a future


approach: All Hyperion Enterprise support fees you pay to Finit will be applied as a credit to a future project in which you use Finit consulting services to replace Hyperion Enterprise.


HFMHFMScott SawersMike Kerkering

HFM Removing Zeros HFM Version Differences Reporting KPIs Cell Text VB


VB



HFM – Removing ZerosThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

I th ffi i t f

e o g e os

Is there an efficient way of removing loaded zeros in HFM? A k ifHFM? As we know, even if a value has a zero balance, it

t t d l Icounts as a stored value. Is there an efficient and effective

f l i ?way of cleaning up our app?

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM – Version DifferencesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

We are evaluating the new

e s o e e ces

We are evaluating the new release of HFM 11.1.2.2 and understand that a big difference from 11.1.2.1 is unlimited custom dimensions. Are there any other significant changes inany other significant changes in functionality?

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



Reporting The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Are there best practice d f h

Reporting

recommendations for what types of reports should be built in Financial Reporting vsFinancial Reporting vs SmartView? My users like the flexibility of SmartView but as an Admin I prefer to know what myAdmin, I prefer to know what my users are looking at, which I know if I create the reports in FR.

Scott Sawers


Scott Sawers



HFM – KPIs The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Do many clients build key performance

HFM KPIs

Do many clients build key performance indicators (KPIs), such as Days Sales Outstanding and Inventory Turns, in HFM? If so, how do they account forHFM? If so, how do they account for the various ways to calc each across the enterprise? We have found that we have no consistent way that our entities calc these KPIs, thus making a rule in HFM not very meaningful. Just curious if/how your customers handle thithis.

Mike Kerkering


Mike Kerkering



HFM – Cell Text The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

I it ibl t ll ll t t

HFM Cell Text

Is it possible to pull cell text on a line item basis in H i Fi i l R tiHyperion Financial Reporting (HFR) and/or SmartView?

Mike Kerkering


Mike Kerkering



HFM – VB The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

W ld d th t

HFM VB

Would you recommend that a HFM/FDM administrator be

ll d i Vi l B iwell‐versed in Visual Basic (VB)? If so, what is the best

t bt i th tway to obtain that knowledge?

Mike Kerkering


Mike Kerkering


fInfrastructureKurt Schletter

HFM Size Limits EPM M it i EPM Monitoring EPM Resource Support EPM Common Infrastructure problems




HFM – Size LimitsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

A th d d i

S e ts

Are there recommended size limits for the size of a HFM database and/ordatabase and/or application? What about Data Audit and Task Audit tables? AtAudit and Task Audit tables? At what thresholds should be concerned for applicationconcerned for application performance and stability?

Kurt Schletter


Kurt Schletter



HFM – Size LimitsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

The generic recommendation from Oracle is “truncate after 500,000 rows”. I am not a fan of

S e ts

truncate as it literally wipes all data from the table (throwing out the baby with the bath water). The approach I advocate is “get rid of everything older h d ” ( ll b l fthan X days” (I personally use a baseline of 110 days – current quarter close plus prior quarter close). You didn’t mention it, but there is also the HFM Errorlog table the recommendation is theHFM_Errorlog table – the recommendation is the same for this. Finit has SQL Server stored procedures that we can put into place to automatically handle this purge (your DBA wouldautomatically handle this purge (your DBA would need to schedule this). On occasion, I have created specialized versions of the purge (e.g. “keep all system load tasks” – load metadata, load rules, etc)Kurt Schletter


y , , )Kurt Schletter



EPM – MonitoringThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

We have seen CPU usage spike on our HFM servers causing significant performance

o to g

g g pdrag. Reboots seemed to rectify the issue. Nothing has changed in our Hyperion environment We noticed one process inenvironment. We noticed one process in particular that was causing this spike –HSFDataSource.exe running under HFM S i Sh ld b d?Service. Should we be concerned? Are there areas we should focus on or logs that will tell us what caused the spike? How do pmost Hyperion customers monitor/manage their infrastructure/environment?

Kurt Schletter


Kurt Schletter



HFM – MonitoringThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

HSVDataSource is an HFM application. It is normal and expected behavior for that to take a lot of CPU

o to g

(and in general this is highly desirable). For example, a well tuned HFM application, when running a consolidation, can take 8 CPUs and run

h h ( ff l !) f h l dwith them (efficiently!) for however long it needs to. So, when you killed HSVDataSource, you likely stopped a large consolidation in progress. There are lots of ways of monitoring from spending aare lots of ways of monitoring – from spending a bundle to free. PerfMon (bundled with Windows Server) is totally free and great for monitoring.

Accelatis is a highly specialized tool that can be used to monitor an HFM environment

Kurt Schletter


Kurt Schletter



EPM – IT Resource SupportThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

What do you recommend and/or have

esou ce Suppo t

What do you recommend and/or have seen other clients implement in regards to IT support (i.e. how many people resources and best practices)? (On‐going support and not initial implementation)

Kurt Schletter


Kurt Schletter



EPM – IT Resource SupportThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

This is a question with a lot of different answers –because much will vary depending on your

esou ce Suppo t

implementation model and controls. For example, UTC uses a model where admin rights in PROD reside only with the IT team (so all metadata, rules l d h h ) h k d llloads, etc went through IT). This worked very well for UTC. But obviously a model with a higher IT resource load. You also touched on a really important point ongoing/steady state vs theimportant point – ongoing/steady state vs the implementation period. I would say during the implementation period (early in project thru go‐live + 3 months) IT resources will be roughly 50%live + 3 months), IT resources will be roughly 50% to 100% higher. So much depends on your model. For example, does IT (only) have Admin rights? How will Smart View be rolled out? (this is getting Kurt Schletter


( g geasier by the way).

Kurt Schletter



EPM – Common problemsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

What is the most common “bump” in the

Co o p ob e s

What is the most common bump in the road that clients run into on the infrastructure side during implementation? How different are the EPM products of today (11.1.2.x) compared to a couple years ago from a p p y ginfrastructure maintenance perspective?

Kurt Schletter


Kurt Schletter


FDMGreg Barrett

FDM ReportsFDM Reports Clearing Maps




FDM – ReportsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

I’d love a quick glance into how FDM t b t il d S ifi ll

epo ts

reports can be tailored. Specifically, I’ve seen the canned report in FDM where we can see account maps p(source account, source description, and target FM account). Since FDM “talks” to HFM I presume we can alsotalks to HFM, I presume we can also add the description (from HFM) of the target FM account to a report, but I’ h li h hiI’m not sure how to accomplish this.

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett



FDM – Clearing MapsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

In FDM, is there a way to clear all or t f M M it t fpart of a Map Monitor report for a

specific location(s)? For those locations that have been around for awhile and may have made many mapping additions/changes over time, these reports can be rather large andthese reports can be rather large and take some time to open. Is there a way to clear the entire log or a

ifi d f h l (ispecified range of the log (i.e. anything older than a certain date)?

Greg Barrett


Greg Barrett


l i / bPlanning / EssbaseCindy Eichner

Budgeting OptionsBudgeting Options Essbase Training ASO vs. BSO Plan Types




Essbase – OptionsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

I it ibl t d lIs it possible to develop a budgeting & forecasting system i E b l d tusing Essbase only and not

purchasing Planning? What is b t ti ?best practice?

Cindy Eichner


Cindy Eichner



Essbase – TrainingThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Sh ld Pl iShould a Planning administrator also have E b t i i ?Essbase training?

Cindy Eichner


Cindy Eichner



Essbase – ASO vs BSOThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Wh t i th diffWhat is the difference between ASO and BSO. Why h ld I h thshould I choose one or the other?

Cindy Eichner


Cindy Eichner



Essbase – Plan TypesThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

I Pl i h t i thIn Planning, what is the purpose of multiple Plan T ?Types?

Cindy Eichner


Cindy Eichner



Finit ContactsThe Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series

Questions? [email protected]? g @f

‐>Joe Mizerk

Email us for aJoe [email protected]

copy of the slides or

link to the recordingMore EPM Questions?

[email protected] to the recording.


finit answers your questions june 2012

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