Building a Better Goldfish

Many of my long standing clients have been using FDM Classic for years.  For the most part, they’re very happy with their goldfish, a la the guided workflow.  So, you can imagine they’re a little leery of this new thing called “FDMEE“.  I get it.  FDM Classic is easy-to-use, has internal controls baked-in the product, and it’s been around for years.

But when it comes to a data transformation tool for Oracle EPM applications, I tell my clients that Oracle has built a better goldfish.  And with the forthcoming release of FDMEE 11.1.2.4 there’s even more reasons to make the switch.

With FDMEE, you go from this guy…

To this guy…

So, What’s Coming in 11.1.2.4?

In the last three months, I’ve had the opportunity to attend KScope14, take part in Oracle’s FDMEE Summit, and I presented a FDMEE customer success story at OpenWorld.  I’ve got the scoop on what’s coming in 11.1.2.4.  Among the variety of enhancements and parity features, here’s a quick list of what my FDM clients will care the most about in 11.1.2.4.

At this point I should point out Oracle’s standard “”Safe Harbor Agreement”.  The Safe Harbor Agreement simply states that some of these features may never see the light of day.  That’s right, no guarantees here (wink, wink).  With that out of the way, here’s what to expect with FDMEE 11.1.2.4.

New Stuff in 11.1.2.4

Here’s a list of four major enhancements coming to 11.1.2.4.x.

1) EPM to EPM Data Sync

2) True Integration with FCM

3) Enhanced Metadata Integration

4) DRM to FDM Map Integration

Remaining FDM Classic Features Coming in 11.1.2.4

With FDMEE Release 11.1.2.3.520, most of the worthwhile FDM Classic features have been incorporated in FDMEE.  Here’s a list of remaining parity items that will be rolled out in in 11.1.2.4.x.

• Fix Mapping Errors Inside of Data Load Workbench – In FDMEE 11.1.2.3 users can only resolve data load mapping errors on the Data Load Mapping screen.  With 11.1.2.4.x users will be able to fix mapping errors right where they’re encountered – on the Data Load Workbench > Validation screen.
• Location Level POV Locking – Release 11.1.2.3.520 introduced POV locking to FDMEE, but it only works for all locations.  In 11.1.2.4.x, users will be able to lock the POV for individual locations.
• Export to Excel Option on More Screens – Like FDM Classic, this feature will allow end users to easily export metadata items from just about any screen.
• Copy Maps Option – Using this feature users can easily copy mapping tables from source location to a target location.
• Graphical Import Format Builder – Instead of creating import formats for from scratch, users can use this wizard to map source fields to target dimension members.
• Location Hierarchy Groups – FDMEE 11.1.2.3 has a flat structure for locations, that is it’s simply a listing of locations with no groupings.  With 11.1.2.4.x, location groupings (e.g. control review locations) are back!

So, When Do We Get 11.1.2.4?

Oracle hasn’t given an official release date for 11.1.2.4.0 but we’re hearing Santa may have it in your stocking by end of year.

Important – In this post you will notice a number of references to the “.x” release of 11.1.2.4, e.g 11.1.2.4.x.  Why?  Because some features may not be available in the .0 release of 11.1.2.4.  Instead they will be rolled out in a patch release to 11.1.2.4.