Ranzal & Associates

Oracle Essbase Financial BI Starter Kit April 14, 2009

Dave Bundy Mike Killeen Oracle BI Specialist Ranzal Practice Director

Agenda

Introductions About Ranzal Oracle Essbase Overview Finance BI Starter Kit Service Offering Overview of Fusion Edition New Features
Optional - Fusion Upgrade Considerations

Q&A

What This Presentation Will Not Be Best Practices session

See tips and tricks at the Ranzal Blog at http://ranzal.worldpress.com

Detailed review of Fusion release or upgrade tips

See our replay webinar at http://www.ranzal.com

Instead, we want to focus on: How to identify quick fixes for reporting and analysis challenges in finance departments Share our methodology for leveraging Oracles Essbase to deliver the fix

About Ranzal
Founded in 1996, Ranzal has implemented Hyperion solutions for 350+ companies (600+ projects since the acquisition) Oracle / Hyperion Certified Advantage Partner - Highest Status Hyperion Americas Reseller Partner of the Year Certified EPM Consultants & Instructors Vertical Expertise with High-Profile Clients from Coast to Coast Sound Project Methodology Insures Project Success One of the Largest Hyperion Practices in the U.S. Best Planning & Essbase Practices with Best HFM Practice
Support Business Applications from start to finish East Coast & West Coast Presence 1999, 2005 & 2007

Hyperion Development utilizes Ranzal for Planning, Essbase, HPCM and HFM product direction

Regarded Regarded in in the the industry industry as as one one of of the the "BEST "BEST at at leveraging leveraging OLAP OLAP technology technology to to develop develop EPM EPM Applications Applications

Applications & Industries

Our team has been involved in 700+ successful EPM Implementations
Financial Consolidation & Management Reporting Budgeting & Planning Profitability Management Solutions Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Infrastructure Planning and Performance Tuning Business Process and Project Management Financial Services Insurance Retail / Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturing Pharmaceutical & Hospital Hospitality / Travel / Entertainment

Strong client portfolio across leading Industry Sectors including

High Technology / E-business Energy / Utilities Distribution Government Other

Certified consultants and instructors

Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, HPCM, Hyperion Enterprise, Hyperion Strategic Finance, Hyperion BI+ (Web Analysis, Financial Reports, Interactive Reporting, Production Reporting), Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management, Data Services (including ETL, Warehousing)

Oracle Essbase Overview

What is Essbase?
Multi-Dimensional Database that serves as the platform for building analytic applications
Essbase Databases are often called Cubes Cubes are defined by dimensions, which themselves are collections of hierarchies and members

Engine optimized to support On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) as opposed to the more traditional transaction processing (OLTP) found in relational databases
Provides rapid response times for large volumes of users Proven Technology originated by Arbor Software in the early 90s
Top 10 Technology from Info World Magazine along with Google, Blackberry, etc Often imitated, never duplicated

Strategic Component of the Oracle Hyperion Product Suite

Engine Behind Packaged Applications such as Planning Optimizer Behind Packaged BI Solutions Multi-Dimensional Data Store for Analytical Applications

Oracle EPM System*

EPM EPM Workspace Workspace
Performance Management Applications
HSF Planning HPCM HFM

BI Applications

Essbase

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOUNDATION Common Enterprise Information Model BI Server Real Time Decisions

Fusion Middleware

OLTP & ODS Systems

Data Warehouse Data Mart

OLAP

SAP, Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Custom

Excel XML

Business Process

* Slide courtesy of Oracle

Why Essbase*

Essbase

* Slide courtesy of Oracle

A Best in Class OLAP Server* Multi-source OLAP Server What-if calculations Multi-dimensional allocations Multi-user read/write Financial intelligence

* Slide courtesy of Oracle

Where does Essbase Fit?

Essbase has been involved in successful EPM Implementations
Financial Consolidation & Management Reporting Budgeting & Planning

Is Essbase a data source or is it an application?

Essbase has elements of both Potential Data Source for other Business Intelligence Tools Stand Alone Application to eliminate spreadsheet reporting

Is Essbase an IT product or a Finance product?

Its both! If you look around an Essbase training class, you will see:

Someone from FP&A who is looking to use Essbase to get out of spreadsheet heck Someone from IT who is looking at Essbase as an enabler of ad hoc, speed of thought analysis against the data warehouse An operations analyst looking for a way to build customized analytical apps A line of business power user looking to create dashboards

Types of Essbase Applications

Analytical Applications
Price-Volume-Mix Applications Profitability Management and What-If Scenario Modeling

Budgeting & Forecasting Consolidation Financial Close Support

Stand Alone Business Intelligence Solutions

Contract/Lease/Loan Amortization Modeling Sophisticated Depreciation Schedules SOX compliance better than stand alone spreadsheets, not as good as transaction embedded Variance Explanation Self Service Dashboards and Management Reporting Limited IT Support and/or No Data Warehouse Enabling speed of thought Ad-Hoc via Excel Providing Drill-Through to granular data Rapid Prototyping Tool for BI Implementations

Extending Investment in Existing Business Intelligence Solutions

Financial BI Starter Kit

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
Essbase ("Extended Spread Sheet dataBASE) patented by Arbor Software in 1992 Original premise for the invention of OLAP remains true today there is still a need for a solution that combines the raw material of a database with the value added power of a spreadsheet In other words Please get me out of the importing/exporting, transcribing, formatting, cajoling business and into the business of figuring out what is working and what is not

Youll know Essbase can help if you find yourself saying

It takes me two days to get the file and then several hours of formatting to make the reports look right. How did you arrive at that number? My results are different. Put in a request for a new report NOW, we should have it in time for next months meeting. You want that analysis when? You do realize it is 4PM on Friday afternoon.

Financial Reporting in Excel

Other Current State Reporting Practices

Essbase Has Out of the Box Features That Make it Ideal for Financial Apps
Support for Ragged Hierarchies (Accounts, Departments, Legal Entities) Support for Measures or calculated values in more than one dimension Out of Box Time-Series Intelligence
Accounts (e.g. Gross Margin %), Scenarios (Budget Variance %) Support for Balance and Flow Accounts Automatic QTD, YTD, and HTD reporting

Out of Box Currency Conversion Modules Out of Box Expense Analysis - Favorable/Unfavorable Reporting Robust integration with Excel to support write back of budget, forecast and statistical data, with cell level security to control access Comprehensive library of 350+ functions to support modeling and what-if analysis Support for Alternate Hierarchies and Custom Groupings Automatic restatements of data with hierarchy change
Same Store Sales Analysis Internal vs. External Views of Financial Data Linear Regression, Statistical, and Allocation Functions

What is the Finance BI Starter Kit?

Quick Win Implementation Methodology developed for finance departments to allow them to solve tactical reporting and analysis needs. Typical Deliverables:
Software Installation/Configuration Essbase Cube to support financial budget/actual data collection, standardized reporting, and speed of thought ad-hoc analysis Suite of Standardized Reports for Information Consumers Training for Power Users and Administrator Automated Text File and Excel Data Interfaces for budget and actual data Infrastructure, Application Design and System Admin Documentation

Key Benefits:

Productivity less time spent preparing numbers, more time spent analyzing numbers Superior performance of reporting solution and easy office integration encourage power user adoption Timeliness and Accuracy of the Data One Version of the Truth Insight into key drivers that effect financial performance Low Risk Entry Point into a more comprehensive EPM strategy
Expand with Hyperion Planning for generation of budgets and forecasts Expand with Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management for analyst driven customer, product, and departmental profitability results Expand with OBIEE for operational dashboards and production reporting

Detailed Elements of the Starter Kit

Hardware Recommendations Purchased from Hardware Vendor New License and Software Maintenance Recommendations Purchased from Oracle Implementation Services Purchased from Ranzal
15 User Essbase Licenses 15 User License for Financial Reports

Software Installation and Configuration in Two Windows Environments (Dev/Test and Prod) Design Session with resulting Design Document and Implementation Timeline Application Build
Provide File Formats and SQL templates for defining flat file extracts out of a variety of packaged GLs Build Dimensions and Hierarchies Load and Validate Actual data from GL Load and Validate Budget/Forecast data from Excel Workbooks or separate GL ledger Implement Currency Conversion and Aggregation Calculations, and simple ratios/metrics Create up to 5 Standardized Reports Implement System Backups Administrator Training Class for 1 User Financial Reports and Smart View Customized Training Class for up to 12 Power Users

Training

Support for End User Testing Rollout Support

System Administration Documentation Administrator Knowledge Transfer Cutover to Production Environment

1 Enterprise Data Sources Fusion Edition includes: 2 Foundation Services EPMA 3 Shared Services Security Life Cycle Management 4 Workspace Web Access Smartview for Office Oracle EPM Offerings: 5 Applications Hyperion Financial Management Hyperion Planning - Addl: Capex, Workforce Strategic Finance Performance Scorecard 6 BI Tools & Technology Essbase Financial reporting Web Analysis Production Reporting Interactive Reporting 7 Data Integration FDM (Upstream) HAL (Vignette) ODI (Sunopsis) DIM (Informatica) 8 Master Data Management MDM (DRM)

Financial Starter Toolkit Software Elements

1
M CR P ER

DW Y AC G LE

7 8

2 4

Financial Model Key Dimensions

Financial Cube Key Dimensions Account (Sales, Cash) Fiscal Period (Jan:Dec) Fiscal Year (FY09, FY10) Scenario (Actual, Budget) Report Currency (Local, USD) Legal Entity / Company Mgmt String Dimensions (Varies By GL)
Line of Business Geography Cost Center/Department Profit Center/Product Line Project

Typical Implementation Timeline and Staffing

Typical Engagement Timeline 8-9 Weeks Order of Magnitude All-In Cost (Hardware/Software/Services) - $150K to $160K

Optional Engagement Services

Drill Through to GL Transaction Details What-If Scenario Modeling End User Interactive Dashboards Management Allocations Additional IT Needs
SSL Configuration Disaster Recovery Failover Installation/Configuration Training

Elements of the Fusion Release

Fusion Release
Version 11.1.x
FKA Kennedy release or 9.5 Sometimes called System 11 Renamed and numbered to match Oracles naming conventions Simplified installation

Key Elements

Common Foundation Elements Essbase Features

Lifecycle Management EPMA

From 250+ install screens to 27 Includes a validation option to check installation

Essbase Server Essbase Administration Services Hyperion Provider Services Essbase Integration Services Essbase Spreadsheet Add-In (Classic) Essbase Studio (New!)

Lifecycle Management

Consistent, repeatable movement of apps, cubes, repositories or individual artifacts between dev, test, prod

User interface & command line capabilities Auditing & application comparisons LCM is managed via Shared Services

EPMA

Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA)

Central repository for metadata Allows for quickly building out multiple applications that share all or some parts of a dimension

New Features - Essbase Varying attributes (Slowly changing attributes) Typed Measures Text or Date Backup, Transaction logging and Replay ASO Features
Partial Data Clear Target of a Partition Write Back to Level 0

New Time Intelligence, Calc Script, and MDX Functions XOLAP (Relational Access) Integration with Life Cycle Management

Varying Attributes

Text and Date Measures

Essbase Studio

Next generation of Essbase application building and administration

Graphical modeling environment Integrate Cube creation capabilities of EIS and EAS Promote reuse and consistency Manage change through impact analysis and artifact lineage Update data source administration and access

Upgrade Considerations

Vernacular Migration
The process of moving an application from within the same version from one environment to the another. (Development, Test, Production)

Upgrade

Installing a later version of software and the process of converting applications from earlier versions of software to later versions. Upgrades typically involve a migration in order to facilitate a parallel production environment whilst the upgrade procedure and testing occurs.

Pre-upgrade Decisions Supported Hyperion Upgrade Paths to Fusion Relational Storage

9.3.X, 9.2.X Other . . . Yes, of course

Version Change No Impact Software Change Example - SQL to Oracle or Oracle to SQL
Impacts migration process

External Authentication Changes

Example - LDAP to MSAD?
Change external authentication after applications are upgraded

Essbase Upgrade EAS Migration Wizard will Upgrade and Migrate objects from Source to Fusion
Register applications in EAS for HSS (excepting planning)

Essbase.CFG
Partitions BSO Logging and Recovery
NODENAME

TRANSACTIONLOGLOCATION TRANSACTIONLOGDATALOADARCHIVE

Legacy Spreadsheet Add-In

Support for MS Windows SP3 Office Compatibility

Compatible with Office 2007 Does not support Office 2007 Tiles Presentation as opposed to Smart View

Consider transitioning Spreadsheet Add-In VBA to Smart View

Upgrade BI Plus (Reports and Analyzer)

Pre-System 9 Reports Migration Utility

Migrate Groups, Users, and Report Objects Object Access Rights stay attached to reports Provisioning migrated to HSS

System 9 Migrations to Fusion

Export and Import Objects Consider Importing POV and Pre-set Preferences

To schedule a live demonstration, contact Mike Killeen at MKilleen@ranzal.com.

1996

350/600

Partnership Focus Methodology Services Customers People

Mike Killeen mkilleen@ranzal.com

Mija Deering mdeering@ranzal.com