Whatever Happened to Edward Roske?

Where have I been for 8 months?

Answering that could take a while.  Suffice to say, it's been a busy year.  The largest amount of time beyond my normal job was spent being Conference Chair for the last two years for ODTUG's Kscope conference.  If anyone ever offers to let you chair a conference and then tells you "it's mostly a symbolic position that doesn't require much work," they're lying.  Run away quickly.  Chairing these things is a lot of work, and I am happy to say that my replacement as Conference Chair, Mike Riley, will doubtless put my conference chairing to shame as he carries on the good I did and takes it up a notch from good to great.

While running Kscope was an amazing lot of work, it was definitely worth it.  I encourage every one of you to make it to Kscope13 in New Orleans, LA from June 23-27 in 2013.  Kscope13 will continue to be the home for Hyperion, Essbase, Oracle EPM & BI (in addition to ApEx, Oracle RDBMS, Fusion, and lots more) and it's adding content in those areas including entirely new tracks around EPM.  Side note: abstract submission is open through October 15, so if you want to get a free pass to Kscope13, now's your chance: http://bit.ly/Content13.

Kscope kept me busy from early in 2010 until the summer of 2012.  I then took a month off to recuperate (in other words, focus on my actual duties at interRel which apparently include CEO: who knew?) and now I'm back to blogging.  I'm sure you're shedding a single tear right now and I'm choosing to believe it's because you're so choked up with emotion.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with a great deal of travel as I'm presenting at several conferences.  I'm hoping to be able to blog from a few of these conferences.  If you're at any of them, be sure to find me either up on stage somewhere speaking or at our booth.  If you want to know more about any of these conferences, you can always send an e-mail over to the intelligent, beautiful, and obscenely overworked Danielle White at info@interrel.com.

September 11
Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Denver

Oracle and interRel put on a series of free, multi-track training days around North America each year.  We have one on September 11 at the Grand Hyatt in Denver and like most of the Roadshows we do, it's open to both current and prospective customers of Oracle EPM & BI.  I'm giving three sessions at this conference including the keynote on the future of Oracle EPM (11.1.2.2 and beyond).  If you're anywhere near Denver (or could fly there easily), there's a great half-day agenda followed by free tickets to a Colorado Rockies game afterwards (they're playing the San Francisco Giants).  My good buddy, Glenn Schwartzberg, will also be presenting along with a few Oracle speakers talking in detail about 11.1.2.2.

September 30 to October 4

Oracle OpenWorld
San Francisco, California

If you don't want to miss your annual chance to hear Oracle talk about Oracle, you'll want to come to a city vaguely resembling San Francisco during the first week of quarter close for most companies.  That's right: in what is, I'm sure, not a big "sod off" to finance and accounting users everywhere, Oracle has decided to hold their annual Oracle awesomeness conference during the first week of October.

To be completely honest, I actually like being able to hear once per year directly from Oracle their stance on recent releases and future plans. While it's huge, overcrowded, 90%+ marketing, and expensive, there are great networking and educational opportunities to be found if you know where to look.  Word of advice, though: don't ever try to stand in a cab line; you'll be there for 2 hours and it's probably quicker to just walk wherever you're headed.

I've got 3 or 4 sessions at this year's conference including a non-Hyperion one on the Fusion User Experience.  Most of my sessions will be part of the ODTUG's EPM Symposium at Moscone West in room 2008 on Sunday afternoon.  interRel also has a kiosk in the Hyperion Pavilion on the 5th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel.  Make sure you stop by and see us at one of those locations.

Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon will be performing at the Wednesday night party on Treasure Island, so bare minimum, you can get in touch with your alternative side.  There's also free booze, so ya, you got that going for you.

October 16

Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Seattle

This conference is similar to the one in Denver except for three important differences:

1. It's in Bellevue, Washington on a different date.
2. The keynote speaker is the VP of Oracle EPM Development, Matt Bradley.  He's a great speaker and this is an excellent opportunity to hear from development themselves about all the great things they have planned for the next year.
3. The after event is at Lucky Strike instead of at a baseball park, because let's face it: there's no way in Hell that the Seattle Mariners will still be playing baseball in mid-October.

This event, like the other road trips, is free.  You just have to get yourself to Seattle (and not be a competitor, obviously).

October 23

Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Phoenix

This time, we're heading down South to Phoenix, Arizona.  The agenda will be very similar to the Denver event above and there will be great fun in the evening after, so join us for education and networking all for free.  Just to prove that geography is not our strong suit, in this exact same week, we'll be traveling to:

October 25

Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Calgary

I'm told that Canadians are very scary and intimidating, but I'm hoping they'll be nice as we take our first road trip North of the border.  Expect a similar agenda to the others but with a dash of vegetarian back bacon.  I'm looking forward to the Calgary Flames game after the day's education is complete because apparently hockey is trying to become a major sport, and this is my one chance to learn something about it (red line? blue line? icing?).  Jenny, our business coordinator at interRel, is from Canada and she assures me that if hockey doesn't take off, at least curling will.

October 30

Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Los Angeles

The agenda for this event is quite different.  Among other things, it's a full-day instead of a half-day and it has 3 full tracks instead of 2.  It's basically a one-day, free Hyperion conference.  This year, it'll be at the Hilton inside Universal Studios and our after event will be at Jillian's on the Universal City Walk.  Here's the complete agenda:

Hyperion Solutions Road Trip to Southern California
8:30 AM	Check In & Registration
9:00 AM	Keynote: Analytics-Led Business Innovation, Matt Bradley, Oracle
	Experience the Future of Oracle EPM 11.1.2.2 Live Demos Included!	The World of Hyperion Applications	The Foundations of Business Intelligence: Oracle Essbase & OBIEE
10:00 AM	Taking Control of Your Hierarchies with DRM 11.1.2.2	Introduction to Integrated Business Planning	BI Foundation Suite: Integrating Oracle Essbase & The New OBIEE 11.1.1.6
11:00 AM	The Next Evolution in Forecasting: Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.2	Reducing Your Close Cycle: Financial Close & Account Reconciliation Management	Oracle Essbase Worst Practices: Lessons from a Moron
11:50 PM	Lunch
12:20 PM	Ask a Guru Panel Session
1:30 PM	Managing Your Project Budgets: Introduction to the New Hyperion Planning Project Module	Best Practices for Your Strategic Oracle EPM Road Map: Building Your 3 Year Plan	Extending the Value of Oracle eBusiness Suite with Oracle EPM
2:30 PM	Hyperion Financial Management 11.1.2.2: Unlimited Dimensionality & Financial Management Analytics	Optimizing Your Oracle Hyperion Planning & Oracle Essbase Outlines	Exalytics: In-Memory Business Intelligence for Oracle Essbase & OBIEE
3:20 PM	Break
3:50 PM	Breaking Away from the Excel Add-In: Welcome to Smart View 11.1.2.2	Integrating Hyperion Financial Management & Hyperion Planning	What’s New in OBIEE 11.1.1.6: Oracle on Your iPhone & Other Cool Things
4:40 PM	Drawings / Networking
5:30 PM	Dinner/Drinks/Entertainment at Jillian’s at Universal Studios City Walk

November 5-6

OAUG Connection Point - EPM&BI
Orlando, Florida

Each year, OAUG puts on a 2-day Oracle EPM&BI focused conference.  It has nowhere near as many sessions on Hyperion as Kscope, but it's by far the second-best conference out there.  It has around 50 sessions and this year, interRel is giving 6 of them.  I'm giving a session on Exalytics and other interRel speakers will include Glenn Schwartzberg on Smart View 11.1.2.2, Tracy McMullen on multiple topics, and  Dr. Troy Seguin talking on Predictive Analytics.  We will also have a booth there with our newest 11.1.2.2 books.

Unlike the Road Trips mentioned above, this conference isn't free.  That said, it's a lot cheaper than OpenWorld with far better targeted content.  If you're in the Southeastern United States, I strongly encourage you to make it to Connection Point at the Peabody Hotel.

November 15-16

ODTUG Seriously Practical - EPM&BI
Auckland, New Zealand

ODTUG is putting on two 2-day conferences in Australia and New Zealand in November.  This is the first of those conferences.  There's a charge for them, but it's minimal for the content you get over 2 days. Cameron Lackpour (ACE Director and all-around decent human being) and I are the featured speakers.

There are actually two tracks: one is focused on Hyperion and Oracle EPM.  The other track is focused on Oracle BI.  I'm giving sessions in both rooms as well as some excellent local speakers and Oracle luminaries.  Make sure you visit the ODTUG website closer to the date for more details.

November 19-20

ODTUG Seriously Practical - EPM&BI
Melbourne, Australia

This is basically the same 2-day, 2-room itinerary as the event in Auckland.  I have presented at the InSync conference in Melbourne before and I love the city.  If you can't make it to Auckland, I'm hoping you can fly down to Melbourne.  They have koalas.

After this, I hope to return back to the good ole US-of-A with a month to spare before TEOTWAWKI.  I have some final things I need to take care of before December 21.  Among other things, I'm hoping to clean out my Inbox, because my mother always told me that you don't want to face an apocalypse unless you have a clean Inbox.

Oh, is that all?

Seriously?!?  That's the busiest conference schedule I've ever had with the exception of the 3-week multi-continent trip last year with some of the Oracle ACE Directors from the Oracle Technology Network.  I'm hoping that with all those travel dates over the next 2 months, I'll run into some of you in-person.  If you're anywhere near, please try to stop by.  I'm also hoping that all this travel will give me time to blog on airplanes.

It's good to be back.

I'm Totally Lost: Which Conference Do I Go To for Hyperion and Oracle EPM/BI Content?

The final Hyperion Solutions conference (the great big conference Hyperion used to put on with non-stop Hyperion content and over 4,000 attendees) was in the spring of 2007.  Back then, everyone knew which conference to attend, because there was only one national conference (Solutions) and then a whole lot of regional HUG (Hyperion User Group) meetings.  But then Oracle bought Hyperion and immediately disbanded the conference leaving the user community in disarray.


There are now several options depending on what you're looking for.  While I could attempt to make some sense out of the whole conference jumble in a blog post, I decided it would be better explained in a webcast.  To that end, I'm devoting two webcasts this week to the question “Now that the Hyperion Solutions conference is gone, which conference should I attend?”


I'm going to compare the benefits of the better known 2011 conferences:

• Collaborate. April 10-14 in Orlando, FL.
• Kscope. June 26-30 in Long Beach, CA.
• Connection Point. Probably in July in Seattle, WA and November in Atlanta, GA.
• OpenWorld. October 2-6 in San Francisco, CA.

I'm in a unique position to do this, because I don't work for Oracle and I have some ties to every one of these events (so you could say that while I'm biased, I realize the value each one can bring to the right audience).  Usually, our webcasts are only open to Oracle customers (not partners) but in this case, I want everyone to know why you'd want to go to each of the conferences so they don't find themselves wasting money at a conference that's totally not right for them.


Click on the links below to sign up for either Tuesday or Wednesday's webcast:

   Tue, Mar 1, 2011 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

   Wed, Mar 2, 2011 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST

I will spend around 45 minutes covering all the conferences and then take questions from the audience.  Before you sign up for one of the conferences, devote 45 minutes of your life to making sure you won't find yourself trapped in the 7th circle of hell (otherwise known as stuck at a conference you hate).

OpenWorld 2010

I'm getting ready to leave for Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) and I'm mentally preparing myself the same way one would prepare oneself for, say, storming a beach under a steady barrage of heavy machine gun fire: by trying to pretend that my memories of the last time I survived this experience couldn't possibly be as bad as the real thing. No, I'm not a fan of Oracle OpenWorld. It's too many people spread across too many venues with too few hotels and buses to handle them all.

So that probably makes you wonder: why am I going? Because everyone else is, basically. Last year had something like 45,000 attendees and with the addition of the Java users, this year should be more like 50,000 to 55,000. A lot of Hyperion/EPM/BI attendees have stopped going to OOW, so I was hoping my schedule for this year would be lighter. We just finished putting together the interRel Customer Guide for this year (helping our customers with things they might want to see or do), and on the contrary, it actually seems to busier than in prior years. I'm giving four presentations and hosting a Hyperion day on Sunday. Glenn Schwartzberg is giving another 4 sessions, and Eduardo Quiroz (co-founder of interRel, among other things) is giving a session too.

About the only thing cut out from this year is that I'm doing a book signing. We had 2 of the Top 20 best selling books at the OOW bookstore last year, so they asked Tracy McMullen (Best. Co-author. Ever.) and I to do another booksigning. Since Tracy's not going this year due to some family obligations, I just didn't think it'd be the same signing books all by myself. There will still be lots of our books on sale, though.

Like last year, there will be a "Hyperion Pavilion" on the 5th floor of the Intercontinental hotel next to Moscone West. We will have a booth right by the entrance in case you want to come by and say hi to one of the members of the interRel team (Danielle White will be giving away an iPad, so make sure you find her and give her a business card).

In case you want to stalk me (what better way to show you really care?), here's my schedule for the next week:

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:

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Oracle-Corporation-NASDAQ-ORCL-1058232.html

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.

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.

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:

http://looksmarter.blogspot.com/search/label/OpenWorld

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:

http://www.twitter.com/ERoske

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

• 13:00-14:00. Room 3014, Moscone West L3. What’s New in Hyperion and Enterprise Performance Management in the Last 12 Months? (ODTUG) - Al Marciante, Oracle
• 14:00-15:00. Room 3014, Moscone West L3. Is Oracle’s Hyperion EPM 11x Ready for Prime Time, and If So, How Do I Get There? (ODTUG) - Edward Roske, interRel
• 15:30-17:00. Room 3014, Moscone West L3. Enterprise Performance Management: Driving Management Excellence (ODTUG) - John Kopcke, Oracle

Monday, Oct 12

• 08:30-09:45. Hall D, Moscone North. Keynote: The Art of the Possible--Charles Phillips and Safra Catz, Oracle
• 11:30-12:30. InterContinental C, InterContinental Hotel. The Road Map for Oracle’s Hyperion Performance Management Applications - Oracle
• 16:00-17:00. Room 3014, Moscone West L3. What’s New and What’s Coming in Oracle Business Intelligence Answers - Oracle

Tuesday, Oct 13

• 08:30-09:45. Hall D, Moscone North. Keynote: Innovation Across the Stack--Thomas Kurian, Oracle
• 11:30-12:30. Nob Hill AB, Marriott Hotel. Integrating Oracle Business Intelligence, Enterprise Edition Plus, with Oracle Essbase - Edward Roske, interRel
• 13:00-14:00. InterContinental C, InterContinental Hotel. Oracle Hyperion Financial Management: What’s New and What’s Coming - Oracle
• 14:30-15:30. InterContinental A, InterContinental Hotel.Oracle Hyperion Planning: What’s New and What’s Coming - Oracle

Wednesday, Oct 14

• 11:45-12:45. Room 3024, Moscone West L3. Achieving a Common Goal: Creating an Oracle Hyperion Center of Excellence - Edward Roske, interRel
• 13:30-14:00. Oracle Bookstore, Moscone West. Book Signing of "Look Smarter Than You Are with Hyperion Planning: An End User's Guide" - Edward Roske, interRel
• 13:45-14:15. InterContinental A, InterContinental Hotel. New-Product Overview: Financial Close/Disclosure Management Including XBRL - Oracle
• 15:30-16:30. Hall D, Moscone North. Keynote: Larry Ellison - Oracle
• 17:00-18:00. InterContinental A, InterContinental Hotel. Oracle EPM System Infrastructure: What's New and What's Coming - Oracle

Thursday, Oct 15

• 09:00-10:00. Room 308, Moscone South. Oracle Development Panel: Meet the EPM and BI Experts - Robert Gersten, Oracle
• 10:30-11:30. Room 3014, Moscone West L3. Introduction to the New Oracle Essbase Studio - Edward Roske, interRel

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!