Finit answers your questions june 2012

Getting the Most out of EPM:
Fi it A ti ?Finit Answers your questions?
June 22, 2012
Joe Mizerk ModeratorJoe Mizerk – Moderator
jmizerk@finitsolutions.com
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 Introduction The 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)
‐ 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
‐ 3 ‐

Finit’s Focus The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
We strongly believe that Service + Solutions = Maximum Value
Service
– 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.
‐ 4 ‐
– Finit Answers provides support services on a pay‐as‐you‐use model.

Finit’s Values The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
‐ 5 ‐

Finit’s Client Service The 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
‐ 6 ‐

About the Moderator The 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)
‐ 7 ‐

About the Panel The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
Greg Barrett – Partner
Finit Director ‐ Data Integration
• 9+ years experience with Hyperion
Jay Hampton – Partner
Consolidations / 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
• HFM Certified
K t S hl ttInvolved in 40+ FDM Projects
Cindy Eichner
Finit Director ‐ Essbase / Planning
Kurt Schletter
Finit 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 Kerkering
Finit Director – Consolidations
Finit Director ‐ Consolidations
• 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
‐ 8 ‐

How to Ask a Question The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
‐ 9 ‐

AGENDA The 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
‐ 10 ‐

What’s on Your Mind?
i iFinit Answers
Jay Hampton

Finit Answers
The 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
‐ 12 ‐
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.

HFMHFM
Scott Sawers
Mike Kerkering
 HFM Removing Zeros
 HFM Version Differences
 Reporting
 KPIs
 Cell Text
 VB
 VB

HFM – Removing Zeros The 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
‐ 14 ‐
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
‐ 15 ‐
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
‐ 16 ‐
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
‐ 17 ‐
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
‐ 18 ‐
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
‐ 19 ‐
Mike Kerkering

fInfrastructure
Kurt Schletter
 HFM Size Limits
 EPM M it i EPM Monitoring
 EPM Resource Support
 EPM Common Infrastructure problems

HFM – Size Limits The 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
‐ 21 ‐
Kurt Schletter

HFM – Size Limits The 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
‐ 22 ‐
y , , )Kurt Schletter

EPM – Monitoring The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
We have seen CPU usage spike on our HFM
servers causing significant performance
o to g
g g p
drag. 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 p
most Hyperion customers monitor/manage
their infrastructure/environment?
Kurt Schletter
‐ 23 ‐
Kurt Schletter

HFM – Monitoring The 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
‐ 24 ‐
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
‐ 25 ‐
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
‐ 26 ‐
( g g
easier 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 g
infrastructure maintenance perspective?
Kurt Schletter
‐ 27 ‐
Kurt Schletter

FDM
Greg Barrett
 FDM ReportsFDM Reports
 Clearing Maps

FDM – Reports The 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
‐ 29 ‐
Greg Barrett

FDM – Clearing Maps
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
‐ 30 ‐
Greg Barrett

l i / bPlanning / Essbase
Cindy Eichner
 Budgeting OptionsBudgeting Options
 Essbase Training
 ASO vs. BSO
 Plan Types

Essbase – Options
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
‐ 32 ‐
Cindy Eichner

Essbase – Training
Sh ld Pl iShould a Planning
administrator also have
E b t i i ?Essbase training?
Cindy Eichner
‐ 33 ‐
Cindy Eichner

Essbase – ASO vs BSO
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
‐ 34 ‐
Cindy Eichner

Essbase – Plan Types
I Pl i h t i thIn Planning, what is the
purpose of multiple Plan
T ?Types?
Cindy Eichner
‐ 35 ‐
Cindy Eichner

Finit Contacts The Finit Solutions SeriesThe Finit Solutions Series
Questions? insights@finitsolutions.com
Questions? g @f
‐>Joe Mizerk
Email us for a
Joe Mizerk
jmizerk@finitsolutions.com
919.349.5029
copy of the slides or
link to the recording
More EPM Questions?
ask@finitsolutions.com
link to the recording.
‐ 36 ‐

Finit answers your questions june 2012

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