October 30, 2009

Collaborate Regional Conferences - First is Feb. 23-24 in NJ

OAUG Connection Point - EPM Regional Conferences
There is apparently a name for the 3 regional 2-day conferences on Hyperion/EPM/BI that OAUG is putting on in 2010. It's "Oracle Connection Point - Enterprise Performance Management" regional conferences. The first one of these (per Kerdock Consulting's blog) is going to be held February 23-24, 2010 in Jersey City, NJ at the Grand Hyatt.

I don't know any details yet on when the call for speakers is going out nor when they'll have more details on vendor information. As soon as I know it, I'll do an update. It can't be far off, because the conference is less than 4 months away.

There are supposed to be 2 more of these regional conferences in 2010, but I have no details at present on where or when these will be. I get the impression that OAUG is waiting to see how well the first one goes before making a commitment to the others.

October 28, 2009

Kaleidoscope Speaker Submission Extended to November 10

ODTUG Kaleidoscope is, as mentioned previously, the main national Hyperion/EPM conference for 2010. It will have content for all types of users on Essbase, Hyperion Planning, HFM, the Hyperion & OBIEE reporting tools, and more. There are 4 tracks entirely devoted to Hyperion & Essbase and as this the replacement (at least in 2010) for the old Hyperion Solutions conference, you'll definitely want to be there.

So since you're going, let's get you a free pass if we can. The easiest way to get a pass to K'Scope is to speak at the conference. Though the original deadline was October 27, they've just extended the deadline to November 10. Visit http://odtugkaleidoscope.com/ if you want to submit something by the 10th. The two tracks that could use more submissions are the Essbase and Hardcore Hyperion areas but also feel free to submit more in the Hyperion Applications and Hyperion Reporting Tools tracks as well.

While K'Scope is still looking for the advanced/guru/expert content they've offered in the past, this year they've expanded their tracks to have enough rooms to also have some more introductory and intermediate content. So if you want to present on something at a beginning level like a case study or success story of Hyperion or EPM at your company, please feel free. There will be room for all levels at K'Scope 2010. I hope to see you there even if you're not accepted as a speaker.

October 19, 2009

2010 Conferences - Speaker Deadlines Coming Up

If you want to be a speaker at either Kaleidoscope or Collaborate in 2010, the deadlines for submitting session topics for consideration are almost up. I know, it seems way too early to me too, but I guess Collaborate is only 6 months away.

Like most conferences, Collab & K'Scope will give a free pass to the conference to any accepted speaker. This makes it a lot easier to convince your boss to send you since these national conferences usually run upwards of $2,000 USD per person.

OAUG/IOUG/Quest Collaborate: Deadline is October 20
Collaborate will be held April 18-22, 2010 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. Yes, the deadline is tomorrow. Don't feel bad if you don't have time to get a paper together. Word on the street has it that OAUG (the main driver of Hyperion and Oracle EPM content at Collaborate) has reduced the number of Hyperion presentations to only 30. So not only are the odds of getting one of the slots pretty slim, most Hyperion attendees will be avoiding Collaborate in 2010 in favor of one of OAUG's regional Hyperion conferences (which will have more content than the national one anyway).

There are two good reasons to go to Collaborate: either you like gambling in Vegas (and face it, who doesn't?) or you're going for non-Hyperion content too. If you are going, you might as well get a free pass, so submit a presentation and hopefully get a free pass. The track you'll want to submit under is "BI/Data Warehousing/EPM":

The call for papers for the regional conferences isn't out yet, but I'll blog it when it's announced.

ODTUG Kaleidoscope: Deadline is October 27
Kaleidoscope will be held June 27-July 1, 2010 in Washington DC at the Marriott Wardman Park. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is the national conference you'll want to be attending in 2010 (and I'm not just saying that because I'm the Essbase/Hyperion Content Leader for Kaleidoscope '10). The call for speakers for Kaleidoscope has been going on since the end of September, but the deadline for submitting your abstract is Tuesday of next week.

There are 4 topic areas with Hyperion and Oracle EPM content in them at Kaleidoscope:
  • Essbase. Looking for Essbase content? Whether you’re a developer or an administrator, a novice or a guru, this track will is your home for Essbase information in all forms. Whether it’s sessions on tips and tricks, optimization, Essbase ASO, calc scripts, workarounds, Essbase success stories or Essbase esoteric, the “Essbase track” is your Essbase home.
  • Hyperion Applications. Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management, Hyperion Strategic Finance and the rest of the Oracle EPM (formerly Hyperion) packaged applications are found in the “Hyperion Applications” track. Everything from case studies in implementing specific applications up through tips, tricks, and best practices for developing, administering, or using the Hyperion applications will be covered here.
  • Oracle Business Intelligence & Hyperion Reporting Tools. The Hyperion community is used to Financial Reporting, Web Analysis, Interactive Reporting, SQR Production Reporting, Smart View, and Workspace. The Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition developers have been using OBIEE Answers, Dashboards, Publisher, Delivers, Business Indicators, and the OBI Server. Oracle is bringing these products together, so we’re merging the content. Whether you’ve been doing OBIEE or Hyperion front-end development, this track will show you the future of Oracle’s combined reporting technologies.
  • Hardcore Hyperion. If you’re looking for case studies, then this is not the track for you. You’ve asked for even more advanced, guru, hardcore, expert, “Top Gun” Hyperion content, and your wishes have been answered. The “Hacking Hyperion” track is your home for content that you won’t find anywhere else the entire year. If you have secret optimizations, ideas for modifying underlying tables and source code, tuning tips that you haven’t heard anywhere else, or any other content that would tickle the fancy of a seasoned Essbase, Hyperion Planning, HFM, or other Hyperion app developer, then join us as we enter the undocumented (and probably unsupported) world of Hyperion.
If you want to speak at Kaleidoscope, visit:

October 15, 2009

You don't need to go to Oracle World ever again and death to SAP!

Usually, you schedule out your trip and haul a bunch of stuff across the country and cope with jet lag, an unfamiliar bed, continental breakfasts and long lines to everything from registration to shuttles. You spend 3-5 days traveling, scheduling and sitting in sessions.  Typically you walk what seems to your unsuspecting arches and heels hundreds of miles and sleep little either due to what you picked up probably on the airplane over or from being hosted by eager sales reps hoping to influence you into agreeing to the next big sale for the next quarter.  Inevitably there is a moment one morning where you wake up and realize you are not sure what city you are in but you are sure you had a few drinks too many last night. Finally, when all this is done and over you need to get back into the rat race and likely are expected to deliver a report over what happened and catch up on all the work you missed while you were gone.

Well now there is a solution; Oracle OpenWorld Live!
Actually, Oracle has really embraced social networking and messaging technology in an unprecedented way.
You can live stream a video feed and watch sessions from any decent internet connection.  You can Tweet with attendees and fans about the feed and other events.  You can even join a Facebook group for Oracle open World fans. Not to mention integration and links with Linkedin, YouTube, OracleMix and RSS feeds.

After the show, popular presentations can be viewed by attendees by simpy logging back into the Oracle Open World site and for those that could not attend, they can access the presentations for a small fee and receive full access to all the recorded presentations.

So why attend the conference at all? Well, the truth is that there are still many reasons to continue attending the show in person, but for those of us that can't.  This is much better than waiting another year or getting second hand stories of what happened from your peers and reading Blogs.  There is still no technology that replaces the human need to connect completely.  This is pretty close though and definitely effective.  I plan to go back and sit in on the sessions I missed and a few that I liked to make sure my notes are complete and accurate.

A sign of what is to come with more and more conferences and such.  I promise, I'll still be there even when it's considered "old school" to attend in person when at Oracle Open World 2025, Larry announces Oracle's latest acquisitions. Quite possibly something like the Moon itself or Air.  We will all cheer since everyone attending will be an Oracle employee anyway and drinking Kool-Aid will be encouraged since it's an Oracle product. This will be announced as the final death blow to SAP by finally executing their strategy and refusing to Post Optionssupply Air to SAP and it's users and not allowing them to flee to the moon since we own it too.  Check mate SAP in 2025.

October 12, 2009

Oracle Announces Availability of EPM 11.1.1.3 - Two Months After It's Released

It must have been a slow news day at OpenWorld for Oracle EPM. Though 11.1.1.3 was released on August 6 and I blogged about the new 11.1.1.3 features a month ago, Oracle decided to put out a press release on the new functionality on October 12. Well, better late than never.

If you want to see Oracle's comments on what's new in 11.1.1.3 and a brief discussion of the new HFM Financial Close module they're developing, visit here:

In related news, I heard that tomorrow Oracle will be announcing the release of a brand-new product called Essbase (pronounced S-base) that's supposed to be some sort of "multi-dimensional database." I guess it's been in beta since 1992. Multi-dimensional databases? Could these be the next big thing? Discuss in the comments.

interRel Repeats as EPM & BI Partner of the Year


Wow, back-to-back wins. I am seriously stunned. Earlier this evening in Moscone South at the Oracle Partner Network Titan Awards, interRel won the award for "EPM & BI Solution" of the year.

Last year at Openworld was the first time they've given this award out and we were honored (and surprised, frankly) to win it then. We had zero expectation at interRel of being able to repeat as winners. Don't get me wrong: we do consistently good Hyperion and Oracle EPM implementations at interRel, but the odds of repeating seemed astronomically stacked against us. I didn't even know if you could or if Oracle liked to spread the wealth around to multiple partners.

This year, so we were told, the competition for this award was far more fierce than in 2008. We are ecstatic to have won it again making us the only company ever to have received the EPM Solution of the Year award. I am so amazingly happy right now that it's difficult to put into words. We're putting a press release together that should come out this morning.

UPDATE:Press Release has been rapidly assembled (good job staying up all night, Danielle):

October 11, 2009

Just Released - Look Smarter with Oracle Hyperion Planning: End User Guide

Planning End User Guide
In case anyone missed the press release, Tracy McMullen (Best.Coauthor.Ever.) and I released our newest book today. "Look Smarter Than You Are with Oracle Hyperion Planning: End User's Guide" came out this morning with a retail price of $29.95. If you're at OpenWorld, you can pick up a copy at the interRel kiosk in the Hyperion Pavilion at the Intercontinental Hotel. If you're off site,go to our publisher for a copy at LuLu.com:
http://stores.lulu.com/tracyamcmullen

If you've been waiting for this book to come out so you can buy copies for your entire user community, e-mail Danielle White, dwhite(at)interrel.com. She can arrange a bulk purchase for 30% off retail.

What's In The Book
We cover both the web and Smart View interfaces to Hyperion Planning. The screenshots are all from 11.1.1, but the book is usable by anyone on System 9 or 11x. The format of the book is a bit...different than your normal user manual. Here's the opening paragraph of the book:
Let’s face it: computer books are boring. So to make your job learning how to be an end user of Oracle Hyperion Planning a bit more interesting, we’ve decided to weave a musical comedy throughout this book. Bear with us, because we assure you that this will be far more entertaining than it sounds at the moment; however, if musicals “just aren’t your thing”, you can skip through the few scattered musical interludes and go straight for the Planning content. Don’t complain to us when it’s boring, though.
That's right: the world's first musical computer book. Yes, we're quirky. If you want the details of what's in the book, here's the complete table of contents:

SCENE 1: AN ORACLE PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION MUSICAL 1
  • PROLOGUE 1
  • A SEQUEL 2
  • BIG NEWS 3
SCENE 2: INTRODUCTION TO ORACLE HYPERION PLANNING 5
  • YOU GOT SERVED… WHAT’S A SERVER? 7
  • APPLICATIONS AND PLAN TYPES DEFINED 8
  • DIMENSIONS DEFINED 9
  • STANDARD PLANNING DIMENSIONS 14
  • THE PLANNING UNIT 21
SCENE 3: PLAN OVER THE WEB 22
  • THE PLANNING WEB CLIENT 22
  • WHAT IS THE WORKSPACE? 23
  • ADVANCED MODE VS. BASIC MODE 27
  • ENTER PLAN DATA 31
  • USE TASK LISTS 37
  • USE RIGHT CLICK MENUS 44
  • ADJUST AND SPREAD 45
  • ATTACH DOCUMENTS TO DATA FORMS 62
  • ADD SUPPORTING DETAILS 67
  • ADD CELL TEXT 70
  • ADD ACCOUNT ANNOTATIONS 72
  • PRINT AND EXPORT A DATA FORM 74
  • MISCELLANOUS PLANNING FEATURES 77
  • RUN A BUSINESS RULE 81
SCENE 4: PLAN IN EXCEL 88
  • GET STARTED 89
  • ENTER PLAN DATA IN SMART VIEW 98
  • SMART VIEW OPTIONS 106
  • BUILD MODELS IN SMART VIEW 108
  • AD HOC ANALYSIS WITH IN A FORM 112
  • SMART SLICES IN A DATA FORM 122
  • REPORT DESIGNER 134
  • OFFLINE PLANNING 151
SCENE 5: REVIEW AND APPROVE THE PLAN 163
  • INTRODUCTION TO WORKFLOW 163
  • MANAGE WORKFLOW 166
  • COPY VERSIONS 174
  • ANNOTATE THE PLAN 177
  • SCENE 6: PLANNING, MY WAY 180
  • SET PREFERENCES 180
  • SET USER VARIABLES 186
  • EPILOGUE 189
APPENDIX I PREPARE FOR BOOK EXERCISES 191
  • SET UP 191
  • UPDATE FORM SETTINGS 193
  • PROVIDE INFORMATION TO END USERS 196
  • WHAT’S MISSING? 196
  • MY PLANNING APPLICATION 197
APPENDIX II OTHER STUFF 200
  • NOTE ON THIS BOOK 200
  • NOTE ON PLANNING VERSIONS 200
  • WHY IS THIS OPTION GRAYED OUT IN SMART VIEW? 200
  • YOU HAVE BOTH EXCEL ADD-IN & SMART VIEW 201
  • QUICK QUIDE TO SMART VIEW MENUS 202
  • FINAL SONG 204
Planning Admin Guide
Originally, we were going to simultaneously release the Planning Admin and End User guides when Planning 11.1.2 came out some time in 2009. Now that the release date for 11.1.2 has slipped until February 2010 (or later), we've decided not to wait for it to release the End User guide. The goal for the Admin guide is to get it out sometime in the next 3 months. Publishing dates are notoriously fickle things, though, so keep watching here for updates on release dates.

October 9, 2009

Oracle OpenWorld - Updates on EPM and Hyperion

Blog - Frequent Updates
Yes, I will be blogging about the conference, but I don't know how frequent it will be. While I will try to blog multiple times per day, I can't guarantee it will be live, because I have several events to attend per day. To that end, I have enlisted some help blogging during OpenWorld, so don't be shocked if you see some updates from someone other than me.

If any news breaks, I or one of my collaborators will blog about it here immediately. If you just want to see the OpenWorld updates, use this link:

Twitter - Live Updates
If you do want live updates of every little, random thing that wanders through my mind, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter (account is ERoske). I'll warn you in advance that sometimes very scary things wander through my mind:

I'll be using my twitter account to give color commentary on the entire OpenWorld experience. I'll even have some pictures of what's going on at the conference, so it'll be just like you're there without actually having to suffer through tens of thousands of conference goers.

My OpenWorld Plans
Like most conferences, my schedule will be filled with sessions I'm attending, presentations I've giving, keynotes I'm blogging, meetings I'm attending, and food I'm avoiding. Subject to change at the drop of a hat, here is what I'm intending on doing. The bolded items below are presentations I'm delivering:

Sunday, Oct 11
Monday, Oct 12
Tuesday, Oct 13
Wednesday, Oct 14
Thursday, Oct 15
If You're at OpenWorld
If you're going to actually be at OpenWorld, all the presentations above (both by me and the ones by Oracle) have seats available at the moment. I encourage anyone attending in real life to pre-register for the sessions you want to see. The way OpenWorld works is that if the room looks like it will fill up, they will not let anyone in who hasn't pre-registered.

If you want to talk with me in person (can't imagine why you would, but crazier things have happened), start by going to the bolded items above. I'll have plenty of time to talk and answer questions during my book signing on Wednesday at 1:30-2:00PM. Contrary to popular belief, these book signings are very lonely affairs. You might also be able to find me at the interRel booth in the Hyperion Pavilion in the Intercontinental Hotel. Hope to see you there!

October 7, 2009

OAUG Hyperion SIG - Leadership Update

Board of Directors
While I was taking a break from blogging, the OAUG Hyperion SIG held elections for its board of directors. Some of them have been previously announced here, but congratulations go out to the following full list of people:
  • SIG Coordinator, Kristin Newman
  • Programs and Education Coordinator, Doreen Fox-Dwyer from Hess
  • Marketing Coordinator, Julie Jacobs from Titan-Pinnacle
  • Communications Coordinator, Todd Rebner from AdvancedEPM
  • Secretary, Todd Randolph from Optimum
  • HUG Coordinators, Angela Slayton from HealthMarkets & Mark West from P3
  • Partner Liaison, Suzanne Hoffman
  • Domain Lead Coordinator, Cathy McCain from Lockheed
I still think the OAUG Hyperion SIG Board of Directors has too many partners/vendors and not enough customers, but with Doreen, Angela, and Cathy, they're making strides in the right direction.

Domain Leads
I'd congratulate the Domain Leads, but most of their terms expire at OpenWorld in a couple of days. So if you'd like to be a domain lead, now's your chance. The OAUG Hyperion SIG is soliciting leads for the following areas:
  • Essbase
  • Hyperion Planning
  • Strategic Finance
  • Crystal Ball
  • HFM & Enterprise
  • Financial Data Quality Management
  • Data Relationship Management (formerly MDM)
  • Infrastructure
  • Data Integration (HAL, DIM, ODI, EPMA, etc.)
They'll be taking nominations until October 19 and they're really looking for customer experts in those areas. If you want to do your part to help the Hyperion and Oracle EPM community, e-mail cathy.l.mccain (at) lmco.com to request a nomination form.

October 5, 2009

Hyperion Solutions Conference Returns (in 2 different ways)

Solutions 2.0
The story first broke at Collaborate 2009 in Orlando when Kristin Newman (who's now President of the OAUG Hyperion SIG) announced that talks were underway to resurrect the Solutions conference. Now this meant different things to different people. Some thought of Solutions as the big, annual conference where 4,000+ Hyperion users got together. Others thought of it as a place where users of Hyperion could gather to be educated in-depth about Hyperion. So the question was, what exactly was going to happen in Solutions 2.0?

Turns out, there are two answers.

The National Conference
As I've blogged about before (some would say that I've blogged about it ad nauseum), where there used to be one major gathering in the USA per year, there became at least three post-Oracle acquisition: Oracle OpenWorld, OAUG/IOUG/Quest Collaborate, and ODTUG Kaleidoscope. If you added Hyperion attendance for all three of these conferences in 2008, you got less than a third of the people who made it to the last Solutions. So where did all the people go?

They stayed home. Simply, since no one was quite sure where to go, 3,000+ Hyperion Solutions attendees went... nowhere. Well, the good news is that the dust seems to have settled on these major conferences and we seem to have a winner: ODTUG Kaleidoscope.

Of the three conferences with major Hyperion content, it was the only one to grow its attendance from 2008 to 2009, and it's growing even more next year. Compare that with Collaborate which reduced the number of Hyperion presentations from 2008 to 2009. Further, Collaborate is reducing their presentations on Hyperion even more in 2009 to less than 50 total sessions. OpenWorld will have fewer Hyperion attendees this year than 2007 or 2008 and the trend will probably continue into next year.

In other words, if you want to have a ton of different options spanning the gamut from the introductory Oracle EPM sessions to the hardcore Hyperion presentations, go ahead and make your reservations now for Kaleidoscope. It will be held in Washington, DC from June 27-July 1 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. For more information, visit http://odtugkaleidoscope.com/.

If you want a free pass to Kaleidoscope (and who doesn't with companies as frugal as they are these days), ODTUG is currently looking for presenters for the 2010 conference. Some of the Hyperion (Oracle EPM) categories for which they need speakers include Essbase, Hyperion applications (Planning, HFM, HSF, et al), Hardcore Hyperion, and the OBIEE/Hyperion Reporting Tools. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 27, so hurry to:

The Regional Conferences
But what about those who can't devote a week of travel to Hyperion? For those users who want 2 days of intense Hyperion content including multiple presentations across multiple themes, theOAUG Hyperion SIG now has an answer for you.

The Hyperion SIG will be putting on a series of regional conferences in in 5 different cities around the USA over the course of 2010. These 2-day events will have 5-7 tracks of content and each track will have 10 or so different sessions in it. As such, users of Hyperion will be able to travel to their region's conference for more than 50 different sessions. For those cutting back on travel in 2010 (or those who only have 2 days to give to the cause of Hyperion and Oracle EPM learning), these conferences are a great option.

They're still trying to iron out the details for 2010, but as the Essbase Domain Lead for OAUG, I've been privy to some advanced briefings. Barring some political snafu, these conferences will definitely be happening. OAUG is finally to the point where they're starting to make the general population aware of these conferences.

OAUG Hyperion SIG Partner Briefing Call: October 9
There will be two introductory calls to brief the partner community on Friday, October 9. The first will be at 8AM Central and the second at 2PM Central. The dial-in number is (219) 509-8020 and the participant code is 154751. That's from an e-mail I received, so if that number doesn't work on the 9th, make sure to visit http://hyperionsig.oaug.org/ to see if they've updated the call-in information.

In case there were any partners who didn't received that e-mail, here's the bulk of it (reprinted with permission from OAUG Hyperion SIG President, Kristin Newman):

Dial-in Number:1-219-509-8020
Participant Access Code:154751

WE ARE EXCITED TO FINALLY ANNOUNCE AND SHARE INFORMATION WITH THE HYPERION AND BI COMMUNITY ABOUT 2010 CONFERENCES!! THIS IS A CALL YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS!!

Agenda:

1. Collaborate 2010 - Information on Hyperion presentations and focus for 2010 - presentation numbers, target audience, etc.

2. Regional Conference Model for 2 day "Solutions" type conferences across the USA for 2010.

This is a unique and innovative opportunity for Partners to be involved on the ground floor up! The OAUG has supported the Hyperion and BI community in supporting the need for Education in the local markets!

This has been in works all year and the Board of Directors of the Hyperion SIG and OBI SIG want to share first hand what we've been advocating for and what is happening.

We will discuss the conference model, sponsorship opportunities, speaking opportunities, tracks, etc.

If you receive this e-mail as a member of either the OAUG Hyperion SIG or OBI SIG, but you think that other decision-makers at your firms should attend, please forward this invite to them. We will hold 2 calls on Friday, October 9th to choose from. Additionally, we will discuss this model at our semi-annual meeting at OOW on Sunday, October 11 at the OAUG Hyperion SIG meeting (1-3pm). After Open World, we will publish this information on our website!

We look forward to sharing information with the Hyperion & BI Partner Community!!!

Kind Regards,
Kristin Newman
President/Coordinator
OAUG Hyperion SIG Board of Directors
E-Mail: hyperionsig(at)gmail.com
214.223.7171

So if you're a partner/vendor interested in presenting or exhibiting at one of the regional Solutions 2.0 conferences, make sure you attend the call on the 9th.

So, to be clear...
If you're looking to go to a national conference in 2010 that comes the closest to what you got out of Solutions, go to ODTUG Kaleidoscope. If you want something more regional in scope (like the Hyperion User Groups of old but on cool, designer steroids), make plans to attend whichver of theOAUG regional conferences in 2010 is closest to you.

So where does that leave Collaborate and OpenWorld? Well, I'd go to OpenWorld or Collaborate if Oracle EPM and Hyperion were not my primary concerns. These conferences will still be there for people looking to find out about multiple products though the EPM content will be noticeably light in 2010 (even more so than it was in 2009).

Personally, I'm breathing a sigh of relief because we finally have a clear answer as to where the Essbase and Hyperion user community will be gathering in 2010. I'm just glad we found out before the budget season closed. Go forth and make your Hyperion conference travel request for 2010.

Where does that leave me?
Not that anyone particularly cares, but I have to go to all of the conferences and that now includes five more regional conferences. An Oracle ACE Director's speaking life is never done.