Our presentation at the June 19, 2015 OVOAUG meeting. We presented on the topic of "Optimizing User Productivity with Oracle Smart View 11.1.2.5" and provided a variety of power usage tips and tricks for users of Hyperion. We subsequently released an Excel Add-In that incorporates many of the features that we demonstrated, including the ability to speed up Smart View queries by 50% or more, and to conveniently save reusable Smart View templates on a shared network drive. Our blog post provides additional details and a download link: http://bakerfieldsolutions.com/2015/06/bakerfield-solutions-smart-view-toolkit/

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Optimizing User Productivity with
Oracle Smart View 11.1.2.5
Mark Cawi
Shane Axsom
Mark Mitchell
Oracle Certified Planning Specialists
Put Analysis back into Finance!

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Agenda Topics
● Overview and Highlights of Smart View
● “Power Usage” Tips and Tricks
● Additional Productivity Features

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● Founded in 2007, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN
● Experts in the areas of:
●Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
●Business Intelligence (BI)
●Data Warehousing
●Implementation and “Support as a Service” Offerings
Visit us at BakerfieldSolutions.com

4. Put Analysis back into Finance!
Agenda Topics
● Overview and Highlights of Smart View
● “Power Usage” Tips and Tricks
● Additional Productivity Features

5. Put Analysis back into Finance!
Excel-based interface to:
Enterprise Performance
Management (EPM)
● Hyperion Planning,
Essbase, HFM, etc.
Business Intelligence (BI)
● OBIEE
What is Smart View?
●Ad hoc and “canned”
reporting and analysis
●Data submission to
EPM products

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Quick History
● Introduced as part of Hyperion EPM System 9 in 2007
● Replacement for legacy Essbase Excel Add-in; brought
to parity as of version 11.1.2.1.102
● Latest version of Smart View is 11.1.2.5.410 (stepped
out of sync from rest of EPM system releases)

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Alternate interface
to browser access of
data forms
● Can use Excel
formulas
● Save and use
offline
Data
Forms

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Build Pivot table-
style reports
● Zoom In / Out
● Keep /
Remove Only
● Pivot
Ad Hoc
Analysis

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Function
Builder
Build Formula-
based reports
● HsGetValue
● HsSetValue
● HsDescription
● Etc.

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Financial
Reports
Generate and
refresh “canned”
Financial Reports

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OBIEE
Connect to OBIEE
Version 11.1.1.7+

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Drill to
Detail
Drill to see
transactional detail
in General Ledger
(if enabled)

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Agenda Topics
● Overview and Highlights of Smart View
● “Power Usage” Tips and Tricks
● Additional Productivity Features

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Power Usage - Templates
● For reporting in Smart View
●Excel Templates for free form reporting
●Financial Reports for “canned” reporting
● For data input into Hyperion Planning
●Task List to enhance navigation
● Can be pinned to Smart View Panel “Home"

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ExcelTemplate

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A central navigation in
Excel, created by admin,
linked to shortcuts; e.g:
● Websites
● Data Forms, Business
Rules, Manage
Approvals
● Instruction Manuals
● PDF Financial Reports
● Batch Scripts
Task Lists in Hyperion Planning

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● Smart View Ad Hoc vs. Functions
●Ad Hoc is king for swift Pivot Table-style analysis
●Functions are quicker to learn and more flexible for
multiple data sources, asymmetric reporting, etc.
● Planning Connection vs. Essbase Connection
●Essbase Ad Hoc - better features and performance
●Planning Ad Hoc - useful to convert Data Forms to
Ad Hoc, but large queries may crash Planning
Power Usage - Connections

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● Drag down from corner to Split the window
●Alternatively access from View Ribbon > Split
●More reliable with Smart View than Freeze Panes
Power Usage - Split Window

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●Learn Excel hotkeys for efficient use of Smart View
●Including…..
Power Usage - Hotkeys
● Move across ranges (Ctrl-Arrow)
● Also hold Shift to select cells in range
● Move to first/last cell (Ctrl-Home/End)
● Select Row or Column (Shift/Ctrl-Space)
● Delete selection (Alt-E-D)
● Paste Special Values (Alt-E-S-V)
● Turn on Auto Filter (Alt-D-F-F)
● Select all Formula cells in range (F5 Alt-S-F-
Enter)
● Convert Text to Columns (Alt-D-E-D)

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Power Usage - Hotkeys (cont.)
●Use Quick Access Toolbar for Smart View hotkeys:
●Zoom In (Alt-1) / Zoom Out (Alt-2)
●Keep Only (Alt-3) / Remove Only (Alt-4)
●Refresh (Alt-5) / Undo (Alt-6) / Redo (Alt-7)
●Performance Tip - For significant speed boosts, use
VBA in the hotkeys to switch Formula Calc to Manual

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PerformanceTip

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Power Usage - Smart View API
● Here are additional use cases with Excel VBA; a
caveat, we suggest to keep VBA development minimal
● Use case #1 - Excel Ribbon with features such as:
● Copy Ad Hoc Sheets to new tab with connection
● Trim numeric members and convert to Text
● Use case #2 - For a public agency, we developed a
table of contents for a 300+ page report in a specific
(required) format

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● Use Oracle’s “Quick
Options” Extension for
convenient access to
change options via the
Smart View Panel
● http://www.oracle.com/
technetwork/middlewa
re/smart-view-for-
office/downloads/index
-088403.html
Power Usage - Quick Options

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Agenda Topics
● Overview and Highlights of Smart View
● “Power Usage” Tips and Tricks
● Additional Productivity Features

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6 MORE Productivity Features
1.Member Information
2.Smart View Progress Dialog
3.Linked Content
4.Client-Server Smart View version independence
5.Smart Query
6.Metadata Management

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1. Member Information
● Click Member
Information to see
member formulas and
other details
● Specific to the
Essbase Connection

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2. Smart View Progress Dialog
● Smart View can provide its progress in a dialog
● Turn this on in Smart View Options > Advanced

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3. Client-Server Version Independent
● The latest versions of Smart View are compatible with
older versions of Hyperion EPM
● Oracle provides Certification Matrixes to validate
which versions are compatible
● Download the latest version here:
●http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/
smart-view-for-office/index.html

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Embed and refresh
data grids in Word
or PowerPoint
4. Linked
Content

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● Use Smart Queries for dynamic sorting/filtering
●E.g. Select Top 10% Customers by Revenue
●New members automatically add to the drill down
5. Smart Query

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● Released as of Planning
11.1.2.3
● Download the “Planning
Admin Extension” in
Workspace
● Administrators can
manage metadata and
refresh to Essbase
6. Metadata Management
Photo courtesy of John Goodwin

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Questions?
● Drop your card for raffle
●Anyone wanting code samples
●Anyone that stops by the booth