by Doug Correa | 07 13, 2016 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE
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...
by Doug Correa | 03 28, 2016 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE
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....
by Doug Correa | 03 07, 2016 | FDM
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...
by Doug Correa | 10 04, 2015 | EPM, FDM, FDMEE
Over the past month, Oracle has released a couple of key patch set exceptions (PSEs) for FDMEE 11.1.2.4, PSE 21444040 and PSE 21819491. What are Patches? A patch is a small collection of files copied over an existing software installation. There are 4 types of patches – Patch Set Exception (PSE), Patch Bundle, Critical Patch Update (CPU), and Patch Set Update (PSU). Oracle provides infrastructure resources with the “OPatch Utility for applying interim patches. For more information about how patch types differ and how they are applied, see Fusion Middleware Patching Guide. The attached screenshot below shows a breakdown of the defects fixed in FDMEE 11.1.2.4 PSEs 21444040 and 21819491. Right away, you can see that 9 out of the 10 fixed defects address issues with HFM. No surprise there. HFM Release 11.1.2.4 was re-written from the ground up to achieve independence from the Microsoft platform. (For details on the new HFM, see Henri Vilminko’s post, Say Hello to HFM 11.1.2.4.) So, if you’re using FDMEE with HFM Release 11.1.2.4 you almost certainly want to apply these patches. Additionally, if you’re in this camp you absolutely want to install two patch set updates to HFM 11.1.2.4, PSU 100 and PSU 101. Both patch set updates fix a major number of defects in HFM. If you’re implementing FDMEE 11.1.2.4 or your company is already live on 11.1.2.4, please pass along feedback. The Oracle development team relies heavily on user feedback to improve the...
by Doug Correa | 06 11, 2014 | EPM, FDM, FDM Classic, FDMEE
What happened to my data? Why are my totals off? Why the *@#%! do I have to reload the same set of data AGAIN!? I’ve heard these questions on many-a-implementation involving FDM data loads to HFM and Essbase. Here’s why. Re-loading Trial Balance Data – It’s not uncommon to load trial balance data multiple times during the close. After all, it typically takes accountants and controllers a few passes to finalize their month-end financial information. Supplemental Data – It’s also not uncommon to have information for a single entity come from multiple sources. Consider trial balance data from the general ledger system and statistical data loaded manually via Smart View or data forms. The above data load circumstances can often lead to data integrity issues. This is where a custom FDM data protection solution can help. Data protection is about protecting target system data from being overwritten by multiple data loads to the same point of view. FDM Data Load Options Both FDM Classic and FDM Enterprise Edition (FDMEE) support two data load methods: Replace and Merge. For illustration, consider this example. Statistical data, e.g. headcount and units sold, is loaded once during the close. Conversely, during the same month-end cycle trial balance data is loaded several times as the financial information refined and finalized. Loading Data with Replace Mode When data is loaded using the standard Replace mode, the data for the specific point of view (POV) – Scenario, Year, Period and Entity – is cleared in HFM before FDM loads the new data set. Drawback – All data for the entity is erased. Based on our example,...
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