Quand Le Monde Parlait Essbase en Francais

When the world spoke Essbase in French

Introduction

With apologies to Marc Fumaroli, did you know that French was once the world’s, ahem, lingua franqua?

French?  Cameron?  Mais bien sûr.  Have you ever gazed upon my Gallic nose?  Am I not the modern Jean Gabin of Essbase?  Non?  C'est juste trop mauvais.  

Okay, enough with my French ancestry (all-American mutt at your service) and my love of French cinema – why am I going on and on about this?   

An exciting new book

I won’t admit to how long ago I stopped my French lessons – let’s just say it was a long time ago.  And that’s a pity, not just because it highlights my ignorance, but because I can’t read an exciting new book titled Oracle Hyperion Essbase:  Master the world of analysis and performance management.  That link takes you to the translated version, here’s the real deal.  The printed copy is €51.30, the electronic copy is €43.20.

An important note – those Euros you see next to the book are not because I’ve upped sticks and moved back to Europe – this book is in French and you better be able to read it without recourse to a French/English dictionary.  It’s going after the not inconsiderable Franocphone market.  And remember, in the Old World, people aren’t completely monolingual like we Yanks, so the market is somewhat greater than the former French Empire.

Who wrote it?

Network54’s very own  Sébastien Roux, along with coauthors Wojtex Janeczek, Antoine Dinimant, and Laetita Terlutte.  

What’s it all about?

From the back cover

This book about Oracle Hyperion Essbase (addressing versions 6, 7, 9 and 11) is intended for all people in the world of analysis and BI: for IT professionals on the one hand, for business people on the other (finance, FPM, analysts, and so on), without any pre-requisite IT or accounting skill. Essbase original technology, based on multidimensional (OLAP) modeling, eliminates the gap between IT and business people and places them on a similar level. The book thus starts from a beginner level, let the reader come in where he wants, and drives him throughout the software to an advanced level.

The approach is resolutely educational and is based on examples and case studies. Each chapter, designed as a course, presents Essbase various features through examples. A dozen workshops, spread at chapter endings, gives some practice with the chapter’s key notions. All exercises have detailed answers, with not only the key but also the reasoning. Exercise files are available for download from www.editions-eni.fr.

This book walks you round the whole Essbase solution, from designing a model common to users and techies, to the most advanced features of version 11.

The four authors, who have experienced very different educations, are recognized Essbase specialists, each of them being (or having been) consultant as well as trainer; which ensures the dual technical and educational expertise necessary for such a book. The variety of their professional and educational experiences reflects the versatility of Essbase and allows them to encompass all aspects of a very rich software.

The table of contents (in English, remember, this book is in French)

• Foreword
• Introduction: Essbase and BI systems
• Part One: BSO architecture and use
• Modelize an Essbase cube (Workshop: modelize a cube from users’ reportings)
• Create the Essbase cube (Workshop: create the Country dimension with alternate hierarchies and Shared Members)
• Automatic dimension building (Workshop: build dimensions, alternate hierarchy and alias table)
• Data Import (Workshop: load free-form, load with DLR)
• View Data with the Excel Add-in (Workshop: common errors, create reports with mouse only, use Member Selector)
• Other Excel tools (QD, Smart View, Visual Explorer)
• Advanced Export and Reporting (Report Scripts, DATAEXPORT, etc.)
• Part Two: BSO calculation
• Dense and Sparse
• Dynamic Calculation and Formulas (Workshop: moving periods with years outside Time dimension)
• Calc scripts (Workshop: sample budget planning)
• Calculation commands, operators and functions
• Advanced outline features (Workshop: Varying Attributes)
• Currency conversion
• Part Three: ASO cubes
• Create and modelize an ASO cube (Workshop: migrate our sample cube from BSO to ASO)
• The MDX language in Essbase (Workshop: drills on formulas and queries)
• Parameter and optimize an ASO application
• Part Four: Essbase administration
• Administer, copy and backup cubes
• Essbase native security and security filters (Workshop: filters vs access levels, Essbase styles, Metaread)
• Security with Shared Services
• Partitions
• Optimisations
• Part Five: Program Essbase
• Administration languages : MaxL and ESSCMD
• Essbase and Visual Basic (Spreadsheet Toolkit, API – workshops : one button to refresh all tabs, custom VB form)
• Essbase and Java (JAPI, CDF)
• Appendices
• Install Essbase on your computer
• Essbase Studio
• The Oracle Hyperion suite
• Third-party tools and applications
• Application Manager: Essbase 6 administration console
• References

Conclusion

It’s a clever approach:  write it from beginner to expert so readers can pick what they want, use examples and case studies via workshops, have exercise files available for download, and approach it from multiple levels and perspectives courtesy of the different experiences of the authors.  It’s quite an accomplishment and knowing Sebastien as I do, it can only be good for those of you lucky enough to read French.

And oh yes, any book that shows you how to keep on using the beloved Application Manager has got to be awesome.

One more thing:  Sebastien knew I’d give a good review when he described me as “expert Essbase et Planning et gros contributeur des forums”.   :)