Frequent asked questions related to Hyperion Planning\ Essbase On-Prem vs On Cloud (PBCS).

How to migrate On-Prem Planning\Essbase applications to Oracle PBCS?

For customers with existing Hyperion Planning applications, the migration path from Hyperion Planning to PBCS is very easy. If a customer is on 11.1.2.3.500 or greater, it is a three-click process:

1. Use Lifecycle Management and export the application definition,
2. Upload through the automation utility in PBCS, and
3. Import it on the PBCS side. Earlier versions may require minor modifications to the XML files for the LCM packet, but we have yet to see a migration that takes more than a few hours.

There are also many part of your on-premises Hyperion Planning application that won't migrate and many files you'll need to adjust.

Does PBCS have the same functionality as Hyperion Planning?

It’s been a couple of year that PBCS is announced and couple years ahead of on prem Planning in different ways — some of the important one’s are.

The two applications have a complete different user interface. Hyperion Planning still uses Workspace, while all pods in the cloud no longer have Workspace. The simplified interface is all that's available on PBCS, which has significant advantages.

From an administrative perspective, the cloud environment is significantly easier to administer because you don't have to manage things like server-to-server point communications, logs and tuning, etc.

PBCS doesn’t have rules for data load, report script to export data and Maxl Automation scripts.

PBCS comes with EPM automate utilities to schedule processes. Data management to create load rules.

How do data loads and pushes occur?

PBCS comes with inbuilt data integration tools. If you are familiar with Oracle FDM or FDMEE, FDMEE is embedded directly within the PBCS application called data management.

Load data directly into PBCS using the web interface.

PBCS includes the EPM Automate Utility to schedule simple data loads or using data management rule. Users can run EPM automate from their local machines as well.

How do dimension builds occur?

There are different ways we can use load dimensions.

PBCS allows direct dimension maintenance inside of Smart View, if you have hierarchy definitions that live in an Excel file, you can import them directly through Smart View or apply them.

Another way is to load the .csv\text file directly into the web interface.

Users can use the EPM Automate Utility to upload the dimension build files.

Make change directly in create and manage – Dimensions.

Enterprise Data management cloud also supports PBCS and EPBCS formats and import metadata to EPM Cloud.

Cube need to be refreshed to apply changes. If refresh is required during day the application can be put into maintenance mode to ensure that users are all out, and changes applied to the database.

How many plan types are available in PBCS?

3 BSO, 3 ASO, and 1 consolidated plan type for reporting.

How to move\copy data between PBCS cubes?

Smart Push is the new feature which allows the data to be moved to the reporting cube almost immediately. You can move application data from:

• Block Storage cubes to aggregate storage cubes
• Block Storage cubes to block storage cubes

Export and import using text\csv files.

Use data management to move data between cubes.

How to connect to PBCS?

Smart View.

PBCS - URL (Oracle provides unique URL for your company to connect to PBCS)

EPM Automate utilities.

On Prem - FDMEE

What web browsers does PBCS support?

Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari

Is it possible to use a spreadsheet located on the client machine to connect to the Cloud application?

Yes. Just like any On-Premise Planning application, PBCS can use Financial Reporting Studio and Smart View to perform both ad-hoc retrieves as well as perform Financial Reporting for those who want a better visual display of the data. 

How would we load ERP source data into PBCS?

FDMEE, which has replaced FDM, would be the best solution for providing an ERP flat file in addition to performing mappings and importing the source data into your PBCS application.

Can the "Planner" role carry out ad-hoc analysis in read-only mode in PBCS?

Yes, this is a common scenario. Users with read-only access have full capability to do ad-hoc reporting. 

How do we maintain security in PBCS regarding shared services?

PBCS security is not synced with MSAD via connection to the MSAD; it is either manually controlled or imported via .csv for the users who are later provisioned for PBCS. Provisioning is also not performed in Shared Services for PBCS. It is controlled in the Oracle Cloud Identity Console.

How long migration from on prem to cloud takes?

A common misconception about cloud migration is that it will be a one time trip. But the reality is that the process of migrating data infrastructure to the cloud should happen gradually. A successful migration should feel as seamless as possible to the organization, so work isn't disrupted. Usually it takes around 8 weeks for the end to end migration along with consideration of new features of PBCS and 2-3 weeks for data validation after migration.

Thank you.

SST.!

Data is not getting Saved for a Member in Data form

Can't Save Data for a Member in Planning Data Form

With Essbase implied sharing, some members are shared even if you do not explicitly set them as shared. These members are implied shared members. When an implied share relationship is created, each implied member assumes the other member’s value. Essbase assumes (or implies) a shared member relationship in these two situations:

1. When a parent is having single child

2. When parent is having single child and it is consolidates to the parent

In a Planning form that contains members with an implied sharing relationship, when a value is added for the parent, the child assumes the same value after the form is saved. Likewise, if a value is added for the child, the parent usually assumes the same value after a form is saved.For example, when a calculation script or load rule populates an implied share member, the other implied share member assumes the value of the member populated by the calculation script or load rule. The last value calculated or imported takes precedence. The result is the same whether you refer to the parent or the child as a variable in a calculation script.

Now the issue which we are going to talk about is We loose data on save even when the parent is dynamic calc and has a single child.

A dynamic calc parent to a single child:

If we design the form with following selection shown in below screen shot:

In the planning data form we will find parent is below the member and this is by design whenever you make a selection using commands to select all member below parent

Lets enter the data in the data form

Save the data

Our data wiped out.

Now, we will change the selection of member while creating a data form

Here we go, data saved.

Now the question again why this behavior:

Data from Planning data form passes to Essbase row by row, because in data form the child member appears before the parent. First, data goes to Essbase for child (Single Store Child), then when Planning passes the data for parent there was #Missing or No data, Over writes the data to #missing.

Note : As we know that dynamic calc members are calculated on the fly they are not allocated with any memory in the Essbase, here the parent was dynamic calc and it was pointing to same memory as child in the background, when Planning was passing data to Essbase for second row it has updated the child with missing data.

For more information you can refer below link of Oracle Document regarding Implied Sharing.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hp_admin_11122/ch14s11.html

Hope this helps!

Greetings

SST!