Unique challenges in Oracle Hyperion EPM Data Governance

Transcription

1 Unique challenges in Oracle Hyperion EPM Data Governance A solution overview by Orchestra Networks Disclaimer Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to are the property of their respective trademark holders. These trademark holders are not affiliated with Orchestra Networks, our products, or our website. They do not sponsor or endorse our product or any of our solutions.

2 ! UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE One of the greatest challenges confronting modern organisation's finance department running multiple instances of Hyperion applications is the need to manage, consolidate and govern the Hyperion metadata across all data instances. While it is possible to run complex organizations off of a set of dusty, double-entry ledgers (in point of fact, the East India Company did not have Excel) today s modern organizations have on and off-shore assets, multiple subsidiaries and joint ventures that face a patchwork of tax regimes and policies. Tools such as the Oracle Hyperion EPM applications help Finance departments navigate this complex environment. Financial Hierarchies Accounts Entities Currencies Cost Centers Profit Centers Consolidation & Reporting Products Customers Employees PLANNING Budgeting & Forecasting Regions Suppliers Other Master and Reference Data ESSBASE Analytics ORACLE HYPERION EPM APPLICATION SHARE DIMENSIONS AND HIERARCHIES Core to how the Hyperion EPM applications function are the shared identifiers, attributes and hierarchies used by Finance to combine costs and revenues. Ensuring consistency, or data quality, across this Hyperion metadata is critical. In its most simple case if we do not all use the same identifier for a specific division, group, or cost center, we cannot consolidate. In more complex cases, a mismatch in the hierarchies can lead to the improper attribution of costs (or revenues) for a specific group. In the best case, these mismatches lead to substantial amounts of reconciliation; worst case, bad decisions are made because we re not accounting for our costs and revenues properly.! 2 of! 10

3 ! UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Most common challenge faced by our clients is around the governance of the Hyperion metadata of their organisation. The top three issues they ve outlined are: Difficulty synchronizing metadata between the Hyperion EPM products (, Essbase and Planning), Challenges rolling-up (and rolling-down) information between levels of the corporate hierarchy, and finally Problems governing the four primary versions required by Finance : As-of: historical editions, «What happened» Effective dated: approved future states, «What will happen» Proposed: hypothetical, or test cases, «What could happen» and of course Current: the version in use today, «What is happening.» In this brief we examine difficulty synchronizing metadata between Hyperion EPM applications. Duplication of hierarchies across EPM applications and other systems (ERP) Duplication of hierarchies across multiple instances of EPM applications Corporate ERP ESSBASE BU1 BU2 PLANNING BU1.1 HIERARCHIES ARE DUPLICATED BETWEEN APPLICATIONS AND INSTANCES! 3 of! 10

4 UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Synchronizing dimensions between multiple Hyperion EPM applications Many large organizations have multiple applications in one or several Hyperion products, namely, Essbase and Planning. All these applications need to use a standard, shared set of dimensions for accurate performance reporting and consolidation. Given that these applications are physically separated how is information shared and governed between them? Manual approaches Some firms approach the problem using decidedly low-tech methods, choosing to re-key or use spreadsheets to transfer data between systems. While there aren t many positives, by keeping the synchronization process in the hands of Finance users, these firms make sure that the individuals who understand the meaning and purpose of these account hierarchies, entities or consolidations are managing the information transfer process. By doing so, you are more likely to catch any business logic problems before they happen. The downside is this approach s labor intensity. Because labor is one of the largest organizational expenses, a manual approach means lots of labor expense. Also, because governance and auditing is manual it relies a great deal on the conscientiousness of your staff. While accounting and finance professionals are naturally conscientious, as you increase the number of applications being synchronized the probability of unintentional errors increases. And since auditing is not built into the process, finding errors is a manual exercise. The net effect is even more time is spent after the fact in reconciliation. Technical approaches To address the downsides of the manual approach, some firms have turned to technology to aid in synchronization. By using middleware, such as extract-transform-and-load (ETL), or technical hierarchy management applications the IT groups supporting Finance can reduce the amount of labor consumed by the process of synchronizing private reference data.! 4 of! 10

5 UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE While any reduction in labor cost is welcome, these approaches are a partial solution. First, the technical sophistication required to operate these applications means that IT becomes responsible for implementing the synchronization process. However, rarely does IT possess the financial knowledge to catch any business logic problems. This means that patently illogical hierarchies and consolidations can slip through the cracks. In addition, these are generic, technical solutions which means that additional effort (or cost) must be expended to configure these tools to support, Essbase and Planning. Configuration does not come cheap, it is well documented that the cost of integration can often exceed the cost of purchasing the software by a multiple of two. Finally, because many of these solutions were designed for complete automation, governance processes are bolted on after the fact. Because of these severe challenges, only the largest, most complex firms flirt with this level of technology investment. Master data management as a potential solution What if Finance could retain control and management while using technology to improve productivity? Master data management platforms, specifically those that support the central authoring and governance usage pattern, could provide the labor savings of the technical solutions while enabling Finance to retain complete control. As a unified repository of all your Hyperion dimensions, members and relationships the hub could maintain versions and act as the primary source of dimensions and metadata for all your applications. Only one problem stands in your way, most MDM platforms have not been configured to support Hyperion EPM applications. This means considerable effort to design the necessary components to meet the requirements of, Essbase and Planning.! 5 of! 10

6 ! UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Enter MDM for Hyperion from Orchestra Networks MDM for Hyperion from Orchestra Networks provides you with a ready-to-use enterprise class MDM system pre-packaged with everything you need to meet your Hyperion data governance challenge. Based on Orchestra Networks MDM platform, EBX5, MDM for Hyperion includes a prebuilt, unified data model that is an enrichment of the standard Hyperion vocabulary and information architecture. This means that it can describe and maintain any dimension or hierarchy expected by, Essbase or Planning. Included are a set of connectors, designed for importing and exporting data between the EBX5 repository and your Hyperion EPM applications. As a MDM platform of the central authoring and governance style, EBX5 has all the auditing features required to keep traceability of each create, update or delete of your dimensions. Best of all, because MDM is designed for business audience, it's easily adopted by Finance users. No special programming skills, knowledge of enterprise architecture or even integration patterns are required to use EBX5. This means that Finance can reduce the amount of manual effort without sacrificing control over this critical asset. Import master data from any system of record ERP EBX Pre-built data models for Oracle Hyperion EPM End users & EPM administrators maintain metadata/hierarchies using a browser-based user interface with built-in workflow Import dimensions from files, staging tables or services Export dimensions and update to files, staging tables or services PLANNING ESSBASE! 6 of! 10

7 ! UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE MDM for Oracle Hyperion EPM in Action In this example, the dimensions of six Hyperion applications are governed with help of the MDM for Hyperion: Essbase ASO, Essbase BSO and Europe Planning are under the responsibility of Europe Financial data. Two applications named USA East Subsidiary data and USA West Subsidiary data are under the control of USA Financial data. The USA Planning application is also under this same responsibility structure. MDM#for#Hyperion#allows#sharing,#or#inheritance,#of#dimension#data#between#levels.#For# instance,#the#two#essbase#applica=on#aso#and#bso#can#inherit#dimensions#from#the#level#of# Europe#Financial#data;#the#same#is#true#for#USA#East,#USA#West#(they#inherit#from#USA#Financial# data).#while#our#example#is#geographic,your#company#can#organize#these#applica=ons#in#a# manner#that#best#suits#your#needs:#geographic,#temporal,#organiza=onal.#orchestra#networks# does#not#impose#a#specific# view#of#the#world #on#your#dimensions.#! 7 of! 10

8 UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Importing and inheriting dimensions MDM#for#Hyperion#comes#with#builtPin#importers#that#can#pull#data#from#your#Hyperion,#Essbase# or#planning#instances.##arer#the#import,#every#dimension#is#ready#to#be#governed.# With#inheritance,#addi=ons,#dele=ons#or#changes#made#to#dimensions#in#USA#Financial#Data#or# Europe#Financial#Data#can# flow#through #to#the#dimensions#being#managed#for#essbase#aso,#or# USA#East.###Depending#on#permissions#the#subsidiary#applica=ons#can#selec=vely#override# updates#from#their#parents.##this#is#especially#useful#if#the#subsidiary#is#facing#different#tax#and# repor=ng#regimes.# Managing and authoring your dimensions When#authoring#data,#a#unified#view#of#informa=on#for#the#three#Hyperion#products#is#ready#to# use:#,#essbase#and#planning.#only#applica=ons#authorized#to#the#user#is#presented.#through# this#easy#to#use,#browser#based#interface,#permiwed#users#also#have#access#to#governance# workflows#and#version#management#features.### #! 8 of! 10

9 UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Exporting to, Essbase and Planning When#the#dimensions#have#been#approved#and#are#ready#for#use,#the#dimensions#are#exported# using#the#export#tools.##mdm#for#hyperion#supports#exports#to#,#essbase#and#planning.## #! 9 of! 10

10 UNIQUE CHALLENGES IN ORACLE HYPERION EPM DATA GOVERNANCE Learn more Orchestra Networks MDM for Oracle Hyperion EPM Applications is a single platform for managing all your dimensions and hierarchies. With built-in Oracle Hyperion models and unique hierarchy customization and management features - MDM for Hyperion provides you the tools you need to maintain dimensional consistency across organizational level, applications and time. With one-click integration to, Essbase and Planning, changes can be made once in a central repository, rather than in multiple, Essbase or Planning instances. For more information please visit : Copyright 2015 Orchestra Networks. All rights reserved. Orchestra Networks, the company s logo and tagline are trademarks of Orchestra Networks. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.! 10 of! 10