Fourth edition
Yr. most hmbl. & obt. svt. seems to write an awful lot about documentation:
Why? Don’t I have anything else to do?
One might argue that documentation is boring (although this is sort of unlikely from someone who maintains an active blog, writes books (I have another one percolating, sort of), does white papers, etc.) and only a boring geek cares about docs.
But that would be wrong.
If mastery (well, sort of) of these EPM tools we know and love is needed to build good-no-great systems and stay employed, and we cannot absorb the functionality, nuances, and procedures through proximity, then surely we’ve got to figure out how to use the damn things. And that is what we learn from documentation. See, it ain’t boring?
Oracle’s EPM cloud documentation marches apace. The impact of Cloud funding and thus development is a dizzying sight to behold. Those $, £, and € have given the documentation team wings and it shows. Will on-premises documentation ever catch up? A geek can dream but the direction is pretty firmly set. #onpremisesmatters
And with that plea made, tongue firmly in cheek, let’s take a lookyloo at what the EPM documentation team have on offer.
Where it all begins
EPM Cloud documentation is part of a broad movement. Yes, you could go directly to the SAAS section of the documentation but you owe it to yourself to poke around other bits to see what’s on offer. Interested in PAAS? PAAS’ DVSS or BICS? It’s all there for the reading.
Bound and determined to deny your curiosity and actually focus on your work at hand? SAAS docs are but a click away:
It’s a living
Since I earn my crust in Planning in its on-premises and Cloud manifestations, let’s dive right in. Having taken a look at a few of the other EPM Cloud products I can say their approach is similar. As I’m not a CPA, I’ll focus on the products I’m most familiar with but I encourage you to explore.
Begin the beguine
One of the key advantages of PBCS or any other Cloud offering is that the “wonderful” world of infrastructure is Oracle’s problem. Huzzah! How to begin? At the Year Dot with a guide on how to buy Oracle cloud. This sounds silly for those of us without the corporate credit card but even we geeks need to understand how Oracle packages and sells its Cloud offerings.
Step by step by step – it’s all there:
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Will you (I am taking this from the consultant’s POV but the use case holds true for customers as well)– at least in the beginning – be managing users? It would be a miracle if you didn’t and it isn’t managed from within PBCS itself but at the cloud service level:
As you like it
There’s more than one way to shine a penny: discrete tasks, videos, and formal guides. The approach is up to you.
Task oriented
Interested in basic Planning administration that’s (mostly) applicable to PBCS and EPBCS? Dive right in.
Interested in loading data? A click on Import and export data will take you right into the PBCS Administrator’s documentation:
Page 60 of 553? Eeek. I think I prefer the task approach.
Video killed the radio star
EPM docs have used video before but it’s used like never before.
4:29 worth of how-to:
NB – Over on YouTube Oracle’s Oracle EPM & BI Tutorials channel is, as one might imagine, chock full of videos dedicated to nothing but the products we love and hold dear. Enjoy.
Read the book
Fear not, Gentle Reader, for the full documentation is still extant. In fact, individual Tasks link right into the docs as we saw above with the Import and export data task.
Or instead simply go into Books node. There’s enough here to keep anyone occupied for just as long as he likes. Or longer.
For giggles I added up all of the pages in the Administration section alone:
Is that not enough content? It’s what we need to keep working which, ‘cos unemployment otherwise, is kind of important. It ought at least to take you a fair time to go through.
Keep at it
I’m happy no thrilled no ecstatic to see that the EPM documentation team keeps expanding their offerings.
If you’re not using the documentation, you’re either a far better geek than the rest of us or a profoundly lazy and probably bad one. Admonitions aside, while figuring things out on one’s own can be interesting it can also be slow, incomplete, and sometimes plain wrong; reading the documentation at least as a start is a better way. You’d be surprised nay shocked to know how many never do.
Do you want it the hard way or the easy way? Your choice.
Be seeing you.
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