That’s taken care of that
The title of this post has managed to: intrigue, titillate, and insult all of you, Gentle Readers, at the same time. Unpossible! And yet. I do my best.
But beyond alienating my ever-diminishing group of followers, the purpose of this post is to suggest a few sessions that I – and you – Really Ought to See at Kscope.
ROtSaK? Rucksack? Nope, Really Ought to See at Kscope
Usually I painstakingly break this out by day and by track and by technology and some other obsessive selection criteria that drive you – and me – completely round the bend. Nope, not gonna do that this time, mostly because I am – as has been pointed out to me with some force – lazy.
I don’t want to disappoint my ardent detractorsfans so this is going to be my quick and dirty view by day.
In reading this you will note that there are conflicting sessions. This isn’t because I have finally been successful in cloning myself – Could the world take more than one Cameron? I certainly couldn’t. – but because I am as always torn when it comes to choosing sessions. I want to go here but I also want to go over there and at the same time I need to be there. :( Where I’ll end up won’t be determined until I actually am facing the decision. See, I am both indecisive and lazy.
Read the below to see what’s going to be covered but the big things I’m interested in are product direction related although there is a good smattering of technique sessions as well. And yes, this is a copy-and-paste from the conference website but: I am lazy and the presenters, including Yr. Obt. & Fthl. Svt., spent an awful lot of time writing these abstracts during the submission process. How could I do a better job? Exactly.
Sunday
There isn’t as far as I can tell any official agenda for the Sunday symposium but it is definitely not something to miss. You can read about the reaction to the announcement about the rebirth (delayed execution?) of what exactly is on-premises EPM 11.2 here.
From that Network54 thread, here’s Sunday’s schedule:
8:45 AM Keynote: Matt Bradley, Sr. VP of Business Analytics Product Development
9:30 AM On-Premise Update
11:00 AM Bridge to Cloud (Hybrid)
12:00 PM Lunch Cibolo Canyon 5/6/7
1:00 PM EPM Cloud
2:30 PM Special Preview from the Data Relationship Management Team
3:10 PM EPM Cloud (Continued)
4:30 PM BI Cloud Services for EPM
What will these product direction announcements, particularly the on-premises direction, result in? Will there be a giant love-in? An enormous sigh of disappointment? A riot? The only way to find out is to be there. I will be.
Monday
I've Got an MDX Script for That
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 2 , 11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: MDX
With the release of Essbase 11.1.2.4.010, it is now possible to get clean MDX output from a MaxL script. This opens many doors and possibilities for developers and power users, and makes knowing how to write a solid MDX script - a must-have skill for Essbase professionals.
In this session, EPM Principal Technologist and Oracle ACE, Gary Crisci, will discuss the fundamentals of writing MDX scripts. He will introduce the new delimited output options and discuss different ways to leverage this new feature. Gary will show attendees how they can use their MDX scripts to create advanced reports for users and how to format data for ingestion to other systems. Gary will also discuss how to use the Query & Load (Q&L) method to leverage MDX scripts as an alternative to ASO calc scripts. Don’t miss this informative session from a noted MDX expert.
Shootout at the Public Cloud Corral: Oracle vs. Amazon vs. Google vs. Microsoft
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 3 , 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Room: Cibolo Canyon 2/3/4
Topic: EPM Infrastructure - Subtopic: Cloud and Hybrid Infrastructure
How do these Infrastructure as a Service offerings stack up in terms of features, price, and performance? We will set up an all-in-one Hyperion environment including Planning and HFM on four major public cloud providers and discuss ease of use, management, and how a Hybrid cloud environment integrates with your on-premise systems.
Extreme Calc Manager
Co-presenter(s): Ron Moore, TopDown Consulting
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 3 , 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks A/B
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Planning Optimization
Calc Manager is at the center of Oracle’s EPM suite. It’s the place to develop logic for Essbase, HFM, and Planning on-premise or in the cloud. It’s chock full of advanced features, and it’s quite a task to master all of them. That’s where we come in. Join Ludovic De Paz, TopDown Consulting senior manager, and Ron Moore, TopDown Consulting solutions architect, for a deep dive into some of the more advanced features of Calc Manager.
We will focus on features that save time and/or allow developers to do things they otherwise couldn’t do and explore:
• how to take advantage of Calc Manager’s modular nature to develop rules and rule sets quickly and benefit from reusability
• all types of variables and some advanced variable tricks
• how to troubleshoot using the debugger, error messages, and logs (especially with the cloud)
• how to use custom-defined templates to adapt your rules to different outlines and applications
• how to use custom-defined functions
This session promises to satisfy the most geeky of you, and with several real-life stories and demos you will be able to take your business rules to the next level.
What's New and Coming in Planning
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 3 , 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Other Planning
In this session you will hear Oracle's strategy for on-premise offering in the Planning domain.
Mother/King/Queen of All CDFs Has Arrived
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 3 , 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks G
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Calculation
The mother, the king, or the queen of all CDFs has arrived. This session talks about the latest CDF offering from Calc Manager, which can be used to write CDFs from calculation scripts itself. What if you want to execute a SQL procedure from calc script? What if you want to run a select statement?
All that and beyond is now possible with @CalcMgrGroovyString and @CalcMgrGroovyNumber functions. This session will include sample codes for all the topics covered above.
Programming (Flexible) Automation to Use Processing Cubes (and Other Automation Tricks)
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 4 , 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Other Essbase
Essbase must be automated, but most Essbase automation consists of a MaxL script within a .cmd/.sh file. But that’s crude, inconsistent, and a maintenance nightmare. A better approach is a parameter-driven automation framework that dynamically spawns batch streams, applies the same processes consistently, and – because the actual code base is small – centralizes maintenance. As a bonus, this ease of development streamlines the migration from development to quality to production. Join Bill Bradstreet as he describes, demonstrates, and dives into a programming methodology and the code behind it to show how you can bring the power and flexibility of this approach to your system today.
EssCS: The New Old Essbase
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 4 , 3:15 pm - 4:15 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase-related technologies
Remember when Essbase could be installed from a floppy disk? You could get a cube up and running in a couple of days. Well, those days are back with the new Essbase Cloud Service (EssCS). Essbase in the cloud takes us back to simpler times where you can build an Essbase database with a simple Excel spreadsheet template. All you need is Excel and Essbase on the Cloud. Join us for the session where we will walk you through Essbase Cloud Service and how to build Essbase applications in the 21st century. Don't miss this chance to get to know (reacquainted with) the new-old Essbase.
Essbase Dashboard Smackdown!
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 5 , 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase-related technologies
Confused about which solution to pursue for Essbase visualization? We compare Web Analysis vs. Tableau vs. Oracle
Don't Worry, You Can Still Get Geeky with Planning Cloud
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 5 , 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
As with all of their cloud products, Oracle wants EPBCS to be friendly to users and administrators in the business community, reducing the level of technical expertise required to implement and maintain the application. Techies everywhere are left to wonder what role is left for them. This session provides the answer. From new techniques for creating custom functions to tweaking the user interface to automating processes and data flows, you'll see there is still plenty for the geeky among us to do.
Elevating Your Workforce Planning Solution to the Cloud
Co-presenter(s): Ludovic Isaac De Paz, TopDown Consulting
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 5 , 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks A/B
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
Thinking about elevating your organization’s workforce planning solution? Want to see a detailed demo of the capabilities of the latest version of Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS) SWP (Strategic Workforce Planning) and Workforce Planning modules? What has changed since the days of deployment in on-premise, and how can you be leveraging the enhanced functionality for your organization? Learn the differences between an on-premise deployment and strategies for getting you to the cloud in no time. The demo will have a unique San Antonio twist to get you in the spirit of being in the heart of South Texas. Join seasoned WFP architects and Kscope speakers Ludovic De Paz and San Antonio native Nicholas Blazosky for this informative deep dive into the newly enhanced world of Workforce.
Tuesday
Essbase Development Team Panel
Co-presenter(s): Kumar Ramaiyer, Oracle Corporation
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 6 , 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Other Essbase
Come put your questions to members of the team who build Essbase and Essbase Cloud Service. This panel discussion is co-presented by Kumar Ramaiyer and Mike Larimer, both of Oracle Corporation.
Essbase Cloud Service: Architectural Evolution
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 7 , 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Design
Essbase Cloud Service: How did it come about? What are its architectural foundations? Why does that matter?
To think that EssCS is an evolution of the Essbase we've known and loved since 1992 is to vastly underestimate its power and importance. Moving to the cloud was an opportunity to completely remake Essbase from the ground up -- design, functionality, management, and hardware have all changed and for the better. Understanding the conceptual, architectural, and technical forces that drove this fundamental shift will enable you to extract the true value of this transformation in your current and new applications.
Join Kumar Ramaiyer, vice president of development at Oracle, as he explains how the confluence of development innovations and Essbase resulted in a database unlike any you've seen before.
Introduction to Essbase
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 8 , 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Other Essbase
In this session you will get an overview of why and how we use Essbase. You will learn about the business problems the product solves and how, what’s involved in implementing an Essbase solution, and how it fits into a typical enterprise architecture.
Essbase Cloud is Here. Now What?
Co-presenter(s): Tim German, Qubix
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 9, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Other Essbase
Essbase Cloud is finally among us. But what does that really mean? How does it fit into our existing EPM environments? What does Essbase Cloud actually do that’s better than before? What paths are not taken? In short, does Essbase Cloud live up to its promise? Join Tim German and Cameron Lackpour as they explore and explain Essbase Cloud’s’: architecture, functionality, use cases, cost, and performance. This comprehensive review of the essence of Essbase in the cloud gives you the answers and direction you need to go forward with Essbase now and in the future.
Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase New Capabilities
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 10 , 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase-related technologies
Learn about new and upcoming Essbase capabilities with Oracle Analytics Cloud. Explore the new ways to create and manage Essbase applications, new scripting options, and more.
Cloudy with a Chance of PBCS: Tips and Tricks for Migrating On-Premise Oracle Hyperion Planning to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS)
When: Jun 26, 2017, Monday Session 1 , 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
Many organizations have made the switch from an on-premise Oracle Hyperion Planning solution to Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS). This move allows them to take advantage of the benefits that exist in an Oracle SaaS model and some of the newer features available in PBCS. However, many other organizations, while very interested, are hesitant to make this leap, in fear of the unknown and the potential process involved in migrating to this model. In this session, you will learn from industry experts about a variety of considerations, tips, and methodologies utilized in planning and executing this type of change. Specifically, this session will explore the dynamics of this migration through real-life examples, including the steps for assessing the current application(s), decisions surrounding a "lift and shift" versus a "rebuild" approach, the process for executing the migration, and how to acclimate system administrators and users to a PBCS (cloud) methodology and interface. Additionally, this session will explore the facets of data integration and security; how these capabilities may be the same or different than the current on-premise model; and how to build a strategy to successfully create these capabilities in PBCS. Please join us in navigating from the ground to the cloud.
A Deep Dive into All Things Planning from On-Premise to PBCS to EPBCS
When: Jun 29, 2017, Deep-Dive Session, 9:00 am - 11:00 am
Room: Cibolo Canyon 2/3/4
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
Join Mark Rinaldi, Shankar Viswanathan, and Prasad Kulkarni as we take a deep dive into all things Planning from on-premise to PBCS to EPBCS.
· Roadmaps
· Functionality differences between on-premise Planning, PBCS, and EPBCS
· Migration from on-premise to cloud
· Simplified user interface
· Excel-based application creation
· Q&A with Oracle regarding product strategy and roadmap
What’s New, What’s Next: Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service
Co-presenter(s): Prasad Kulkarni, Oracle Corporation
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 9, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) is one of Oracle’s broad selection of enterprise-grade cloud solutions delivered via software as a service. This session provides an overview of this solution and an update on new and planned functionality.
When: Jun 27, 2017, Tuesday Session 10 , 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Other Essbase
Visualization provides a means by which you can gain insight into your data. For some, visualization can be a report that appears in their e-mail inbox or on a web page. For others, it could be a grid of numbers with a chart in Excel. The key is to provide the correct, most efficient approach to users. It is far easier to spot trends, patterns, anomalies, etc., when you can examine the data, in its entirety in a single view. If the data set is so large that you find yourself scrolling up and down and side to side, your analysis will suffer. To meet the challenge posed by larger data sets, software vendors have created new ways to query data that promote better visualization. In this session, we will introduce you to Tableau, formerly available in Smart View as Hyperion Visual Explorer, as visualization option against Essbase.
Wednesday
Eliminating the Eliminations Problem in Essbase
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 11, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Calculation
For as long as there has been Essbase, people building financial applications have wanted to perform intercompany elimination calculations. Unlike HFM, Essbase up to now has not had this capability built in. So what to do, especially if eliminations are a key part of your reporting or planning requirements? Various approaches have been taken over the years and interestingly, there may be no one ideal solution even today.
This session will compare four techniques for calculating eliminations: three purely within Essbase and a fourth using an adjunct relational database. We’ll examine each according to these criteria, so you can choose an approach best suited to your needs:
- Ease of implementation
- Amount of ongoing maintenance required
- Flexibility
- Performance
Understanding EPM Cloud Infrastructure: What's New?
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 12 , 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Room: Grand Oaks E/F
Topic: EPM Infrastructure - Subtopic: Cloud and Hybrid Infrastructure
New to EPM Cloud and want to know the ins and outs of managing your service? Then this is the session for you. Topics include service provisioning, backup and restore, security and user management, and service maintenance. This is the one-stop destination to orient you with everything you need to know about the operational aspects of working with EPM Cloud.
Advanced Calculation Techniques: Going Beyond the Calc Dim
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 12 , 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Room: Grand Oaks H
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Calculation
Join us as we take a deep dive into some of the ways the Essbase calculation engine can be used to solve complex business problems, all derived from real-life examples learned from the school of hard knocks. Techniques include combining spreadsheets and calc scripts to compute variances for hundreds of member combinations, designing recursive calculations to analyze a product’s components, and building a structure that allows user input to any level of a hierarchy. We’ll review the different methods of writing allocations, ways to optimize your parallel calculations, and block creation techniques and calculation features you are told “never to use” but might want to use anyway. This presentation is intended for intermediate Essbase developers, but all are welcome.
Extreme Essbase Calculations: New Frontiers in What-If, Goal-Seeking, and Sensitivity Analysis
Co-presenter(s): Ludovic Isaac De Paz, TopDown Consulting
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 14 , 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Room: Grand Oaks G
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Calculation
Doing what-if isn’t new. As long as I can remember everyone talked about it and the goal-seeking functionality using LOOP has been around for decades. But do most of our calculations use causal drivers or are they “type it in and agg it up” type databases? And how much "what-if-ing" can you really do if the database takes an hour to aggregate?
Today more and more companies are using driver-based designs and recent improvements such as hybrid aggregation, new calculation functions, and bigger hardware mean that there are new possibilities. Profit opportunities don’t usually follow simple linear patterns. Well-designed driver-based models capture complex patterns and help identify risks and opportunities that would otherwise be missed. Goal-seeking can significantly reduce the time it takes to set and distribute targets. Sensitivity analysis can help set priorities by identifying the most important drivers. It can also help compare a range of options to identify sweet spots.
First we will examine the business logic behind some useful what-if calculations that help uncover financial dynamics that make a difference in business results. Then we will examine the outline and business rule considerations and options. Then we will dig into the code.
We will show examples of outlines and business rule code for:
• Pushing down top-side budget adjustments
• Driver based what-if calculations
• Goal-seeking for target setting
• Prioritization and range comparison with sensitivity analysis
Last we will show some examples of using these techniques in real-world applications.
Break the Shackles of Planning with Hybrid Essbase
Co-presenter(s): Cameron Lackpour, ARC EPM
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 15 , 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks G
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase Design
Planning is Essbase, Essbase is Planning. This powerhouse multi-dimension database enables Planning but then shackles it with BSO’s long aggregation time and ASO’s poor procedural calculations. Hybrid Essbase breaks these architectural constraints by combining the calculation power of BSO with the aggregation performance of ASO and as a result fundamentally transforms how we design Planning applications.
Join Peter Nitschke and Cameron Lackpour as they demonstrate the value of Hybrid Essbase through its impact on real-world Planning design. You’ll see multiple plan type applications collapsed into one, plan types literally small enough to fit on a USB stick, real-world performance benefits, and calculation techniques that take best advantage of Hybrid while working around its current limitations. The best use case of Hybrid Essbase is Planning and if you’re a Planning practitioner you should be using Hybrid Essbase. To do that, you need to attend this session and bring our real-world Hybrid Essbase experience to your application today.
How to Get the Most Out of Essbase in the Cloud
Co-presenter(s): Paul B Hoch, TopDown Consulting
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 16 , 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
Room: Grand Oaks G
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase-related technologies
Essbase in the Cloud has been eagerly anticipated and now that it is finally here we will explore how Essbase in the Cloud can replace, enhance or serve the same role as your current on-premise Essbase environment. This session is a thorough look at Essbase in the Cloud, including a look at the differences between on-premise Essbase and the Cloud offering, what you’re getting and what you’re giving up, best practices for working with Essbase in the Cloud, particularly if you are running a Hybrid EPM Solution, plus tips and tricks for how to make the most of Essbase in the Cloud. This session will also include a review of features like calculations, currency conversions, sandboxes, and other key things you need to know to get started. It will also include real-world examples. You will leave with a solid understanding on how to work with Essbase in the Cloud so that you can start taking advantage of all it has to offer.
Cloud2Cloud – IoT and EPM: Connecting GE’s Predix Industrial Internet Cloud Platform to Oracle’s Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS)
Co-presenter(s): Venkatesan Kailasam, GE
When: Jun 28, 2017, Wednesday Session 15 , 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Room: Grand Oaks I
Topic: Planning - Subtopic: Cloud Technologies - PBCS & EPBCS focused
The Internet of Things (IoT), also known as the Industrial Internet, is changing the way industries work. By combining machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, industrial big data analytics, technology, cybersecurity, and automation, it’s driving new levels of efficiency and productivity.
What if you could predict events before they happened? By connecting machines, gaining operational visibility, and leveraging analytics, you can drive operations to their fullest potential and predict what will happen before it occurs.
GE’s Predix platform is a cloud-based solution that can capture industrial data. Now that you have this valuable information, how do you get it in the hands of the people who need it and in a tool that allows them to use the information to make better decisions?
In this presentation, Gary Crisci, principal data and information architect, Shyam Nath, partner account director, and Venkat Kailasam, senior data and information architect, will walk you through the Internet of things (IoT). We will illustrate how we capture industrial data from sensors using GE’s Asset Performance Management SaaS cloud solution to determine leading indicators of when large maintenance events are likely to be due and what the nature of the maintenance required will be. Lastly, we will demonstrate how to transfer the data into an Oracle PBCS cloud application for planning and budgeting purposes.
Come learn about the next great frontier in information technology and how we are leveraging EPM and IoT to drive better business decisions.
Thursday
The last day of the conference is the day when most of us take a deep breath (or sleep in and miss the entire day after the debauchery of the Wednesday night Special Event).
For those of us (un)lucky enough to be part of the Thursday deep dives – two hours of somewhat excruciatingly-yet-wonderfully detailed examination into what makes Oracle EPM tick – we know that the end of the conference is in many ways the best. Attendees have had a chance to listen to sessions, talk to their peers, party (cf. that comment at the beginning about geeks socializing however awkwardly), and finally synthesize the whole shebang in these capstone sessions.
Tim German, Kumar Ramaiyer, and I are running the Essbase deep dive. We’re going to do this a little differently this year. We will not be sitting on the dais trying to pontificate (well, Kumar and Tim actually could; I can only fake it) but instead will be working through use cases explaining as we go and then hold a Q&A session after each demo. The idea is that you see for real how things work and then you pepper us with question after question after question and see if we can in fact answer those questions. As noted, Kumar and Tim likely can and I will fake it. It should be a lot of fun.
The week that was or will be
Kscope is the highlight of my professional year as I know it is for many others. It’s exhilarating, educational, fun, and ultimately exhausting. I love it.
Be seeing you.
