How to Use FDMEE Cloud to Load Multi-Column Data Files to FCCS

Over the years one of the more challenging things about FDM Classic and FDMEE is that both require a source data file to have one amount value per row. To address this limitation we had to develop some custom solution to pivot the data. See the example below.   Finally, we can do away with this custom stuff. In a recent release of FDMEE Cloud – the version of FDMEE that comes with EPM cloud apps such as Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud (FCCS) and Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) – FDMEE can now handle multi-column data loads out of the box. FDMEE Cloud has several new file type formats, including 2 multi-column format options (see the image below).               In this blog post we’re going to use the multi-column numeric data format option. Note: The following integration exercise was done using FCCS. First, here’s our multi-column data file with Accounts in the rows and Programs in the columns.  We only want to load values for 4 of the eight data columns, those highlighted in red.           To start, we want to define our import format, selecting file type: Multi Column – Numeric Data.               Now, we go to the import mapping details and map the source columns to target dimensions. On the Amount field, we want to select the Expression Type of Driver.  The Add Import Format Mapping Expression dialog box appears.  In the dialog box we do the following: Specify the driver dimension: Program. Select the Program dimension members that correspond with each of the data...

KScope16 and FDMEE: Everything You Need to Know

KScope, ODTUG’s annual conference for Oracle Developers, was held just a couple of weeks ago.  And Oracle product managers were out en masse to reveal new offerings, application features, and product roadmaps. The Oracle mantra was pretty simple: cloud, cloud, cloud, and more cloud. In fact, if you drank a shot every time you heard the word “cloud” at KScope16, you would have been in a drunken stupor 5 minutes into Sunday’s EPM Symposium. Really, though, this is no surprise. Cloud services was the centerpiece of Larry Ellison’s Oracle OpenWorld 2015 keynote address. So, if you’re a Hyperion customer or implementation specialist using FDMEE what does all of this cloud rhetoric mean for you?  Here’s what you need to know. FDMEE and Hybrid Support Oracle mothership doesn’t see companies taking all of their EPM applications to the cloud right away. In fact, Oracle expects most companies will go for a hybrid approach – a mix of cloud-based applications and on-premises or hosted applications – for the foreseeable future.  In a hybrid world, companies need a simple, efficient solution to collect, transform and load data to all of their EPM applications.  This is where FDMEE comes into play.                       As of Release 11.1.2.4.200, on-premises FDMEE can integrate with on-premises and cloud-based EPM applications.  So, now you can use on-prem FDMEE to load your actuals data to Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) and to load your budgeting and forecast data to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS).  Yeah, this is kind of a big deal. It’s so significant that we re-worked our Peloton FDMEE Hands-on Training for this year’s KScope to highlight cloud...

FDMEE Has Its Very Own ‘Dummies’ Book

Recently, I was training a new FDMEE administrator at a long-standing client.  We spent most of the day covering every nuance of his company’s application – everything from data load workbench to GL integration with the open interface adapter.  Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon we wrapped up and he said, “Doug, this was great!  I think I’ve got a handle on things.  I’m wondering, is there a some sort of ‘FDMEE for Dummies’ book I can get for reference.”  My response: “Funny you should ask.  There is now.” This past spring, Tony Scalese published the first ever non-Oracle FDMEE Book – The Definitive Guide To Oracle FDMEE.  The book nicely fills the void between Oracle’s FDMEE Administrator’s Guide and Oracle’s FDMEE training course.  Unlike Oracle’s own FDMEE admin guide, this book has some worthwhile anecdotal information to complement the technical detail you’d expect. If you’re new to the world of FDM, or an experienced FDM Classic administrator looking to get up to speed on FDMEE, The Definitive Guide To Oracle FDMEE offers up lots of useful information.  Check it out. Note: For you e-book folk, currently the book is only available in paperback.  The publisher says the e-book will be available sometime before the end of...

How to Use FDMEE Data Sync to Copy Plan Data from HP to HFM

So, you need to copy data from one EPM application to another, specifically plan data from Hyperion Planning (HP) to Hyperion Financial Management (HFM). In a pre-Oracle Hyperion 11.1.2.4 world this could involve a few moving parts: An Essbase report script to export Plan data to a flat file, FDM Classic to transform and load Plan data to HFM, and Technology X, Y, and Z for end-to-end automation With Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Release 11.1.2.4 all you need is FDMEE Data Synchronization. Note: Before getting started, make sure your Planning and HFM applications are registered as target applications in FDMEE. Step 1 – Create your EPM to EPM import format. Important: To ensure the data is loaded as periodic vs. year-to-date (YTD), you may need to hardcode “Periodic” Value dimension in the import format. View Image Step 2 – Create a location and associate it with your new import format. View Image Step 3 – Create a data load rule to stipulate data extract parameters. View Image Step 4 – Define the source to target application mappings. View Image Unit test, fine-tune as necessary, and you’re done! Need to copy Actuals to Planning? See How to Use FDMEE Data Sync to Copy HFM Actuals to...

How to Use FDMEE Data Sync to Copy HFM Actuals to Planning

Okay, first off, when it comes to the data synchronization feature in FDMEE, we’re not a fan of the name.  Being techies, when we hear “synchronization” we think true two-way synchronization. That is, data is compared between two systems and reconciled with the latest changes in System A copied to System B and the updates in System B replicated in System A. That’s not how this works. You use this new FDMEE functionality to copy data from one EPM application to another EPM application. Consider it a one-way sync. So, the name might be a little misleading but this is still one killer feature.  In fact, we think it’s the most significant new feature introduced in FDMEE Release 11.1.2.4.  Why, you ask? Many of our clients have multi-product EPM environments with both HFM and Planning. And one of the most common monthly tasks is to copy Actuals from HFM to Planning for variance reporting.  FDMEE Data Synchronization, more commonly known as “Data Sync”, makes this really easy. Data Synchronization isn’t a component with its own a menu item. Instead, Oracle has baked this functionality into the import format and data load rule components. Here’s a rundown of how to set up. Step 1 – Create your import format. The import format is used to instruct FDM how to interpret the incoming data from HFM.  For the source application, pick your HFM application.  For the target application, select your Planning application.  From there, map the dimensions accordingly. View Image Step 2 – Assign your import format to a new location. Next, create a new location to associate with your new import format....

Part 6 – Legacy FDM to FDMEE: Where to Start

As you can see from the previous posts in this series, there are some complexities when going from FDM Classic to FDMEE.   If your company ever did a conversion from Hyperion Enterprise (HE) to Hyperion Financial Management (HFM), conceptually, it’s a similar effort.  Both HE and HFM are used for reporting and consolidations but are distinctive tools. When considering your upgrade project, we recommend engaging a consulting team with the following qualifications: Referenceable experience with Legacy FDM to FDMEE upgrade projects A solution architect with deep FDM Classic and FDMEE expertise A documented audit and migration process A consulting partner team with proficiency using the FDM Migration Utility You and your consulting organization will collaborate to determine the most effective method for upgrading your FDM Classic applications. The Utility can deliver a tremendous advantage when upgrading a large volume of FDM artifacts. A complete rebuild also has its advantageous. Depending on your Classic apps, a rebuild can be the faster, more direct way to FDMEE. If you do use the Utility, don’t overlook the opportunity to perform some spring cleaning. Also, we suggest introducing some simple enhancements to get your FDM end users more excited about making the leap to FDMEE. Blog Series: Choose the Best Way to Migrate FDM Classic to...

Part 5 – Rebuild vs. Migration Utility: Pros and Cons

Since the release of the FDM Migration Utility in September 2015, we’ve worked on several FDM Classic to FDMEE upgrade projects. We’ve elected to use the Utility for a handful of those implementations. Why? Rebuild Experience Oracle debuted FDMEE Release 11.1.2.3.0 in Spring 2013. The FDM Migration Utility was delivered more than 2 years later. During this time, you can say, we’ve become pretty good at rebuilding FDM Classic artifacts in FDMEE. We know the success factors for FDMEE upgrade projects. We’ve developed our own methods and home-grown utilities to accelerate the rebuild process. Most importantly, we know the benefits of rebuilding FDM in FDMEE from the ground up. There’s additional justification for manually re-creating all FDM content from scratch. Spring Cleaning and Simple Application Enhancements Remember the last time you moved from one place to another?  Maybe it was a local move to a bigger place or maybe you moved to a different state for a new job.  Either way, one of the major tasks when moving is determining what stays and what goes.  If an item is useful – it gets packed.  If it isn’t, it gets purged.  Think of your upgrade from FDM Classic to FDMEE in the same way. Most Legacy FDM applications can benefit from some spring cleaning.  Spending the time to examine your existing FDM Classic application(s) and associated processes can yield some worthwhile benefits. The main objectives of the application evaluation phase of your project is: Purge Outdated Content – Minimize application clutter by omitting outdated artifacts. Enhance Existing Integration Processes – Look for opportunities where FDMEE can offer a more efficient or effective way...

Part 4 – FDM to FDMEE: Artifacts and Migration Options

The FDM Migration Guide contains several FDM Artifacts and their Equivalents tables.  The tables display a listing of the main FDM Classic artifacts and their counterparts in FDMEE.  The tables also indicates if the Utility can convert each particular artifact to FDMEE. The information tables are a quick and easy way to understand old world to new world components and the migration options for each Legacy FDM component that you currently use. Right away, you can see the Migration Utility cannot migrate some artifacts, such as scripts, report objects, and security (User Maintenance and Object Maintenance) to FDMEE.  Here’s a listing of some of the artifacts you will have to rebuild from scratch in FDMEE. Scripts Reports Security Batch Processing Task Flows For most upgrade projects, the most time-consuming effort is re-developing scripts for FDMEE.  FDMEE uses Jython as its primary scripting language.  For more information on re-writing scripts for FDMEE, see Your Top 6 FDMEE Scripting Questions, Answered. Next: Part 5 – Rebuild vs. Migration Utility: Pros and Cons Blog Series: Choose the Best Way to Migrate FDM Classic to...

Part 3 – Does the Migration Utility Turn Classic to EE with a Push of a Button?

So, you’re probably wondering, Will the FDM Migration Utility convert one of our FDM Classic applications into a FDMEE application with a push of a button?   Spoiler alert: No. Not really. While FDMEE replicates most of the functionality found in Legacy FDM, it is not feature-by-feature rewrite of FDM Classic. Import formats, locations, mappings, and the guided workflow – the most utilized features are there.  However, some equivalent features slightly differ (e.g. batch processing), some objects are altogether new to the FDM world (for example, data load rules), and a few, seldom used FDM Classic features don’t exist in FDMEE (e.g., Financial Controls). Also, FDM Classic was built using Visual Basic for Microsoft Windows.  FDMEE is built on the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform. Same But Different Keep in mind, saying FDMEE is the successor to FDM Classic is little like saying your new 2016 BMW 6 Series is the successor to your 1996 Honda Prelude. Sure, both cars are sedans and both can exceed 100 Mph, but there are differences.  Your Prelude has a turn-knob stereo, pop-up headlights, 190 horsepower and has an outdated paper map in the glove compartment. Your 2016 BMW, on the other hand, has a Bluetooth stereo, LED headlights, over 400 horsepower, and an in-dash Navigation system. You get it.  Both cars accomplish the same goal – getting you from point A to point B – but the features aren’t exactly the same. And, let’s face it, you’d rather take out your date in the latest BMW vs. the old-school Prelude with your Hootie & the Blowfish CD. Given the differences, t’s reasonable to expect that a conversion utility can’t transform...

Part 2 – FDM Migration Utility: The Secret Sauce

The FDM Migration Utility is implemented using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). For those new to FDM Enterprise Edition, if you get under the hood of FDMEE, you will find ODI. ODI is the Extract Transform Load (ETL) engine of FDMEE. See the Oracle Data Integrator homepage for Oracle’s pitch on why ODI is a best-in-class ETL tool. The Utility consists of two (2) ODI Scenarios. The FDMC_EXTRACT_SETUP Scenario is used to migrate FDM Classic metadata objects, such as import formats and locations. The FDMC_EXTRACT_DATA Scenario is used to migrate historical data from Legacy FDM to FDMEE. (This scenario also creates data load rules.)   FDMEE comes with its own limited use license to ODI.  So, when setting up the Utility, you can use the instance of ODI installed with FDMEE.  There’s no need to license and download full-blown ODI. Next: Part 3 – FDM Migration Utility: Turn Classic to EE with a Push of a Button? Blog Series: Choose the Best Way to Migrate FDM Classic to...