What are you doing the rest of your life? Or at least what are you doing for the rest of the 20th of September?

What are you doing for the rest of the 20th of September, 2017?

Alas, I cannot provide Dusty Springfield for a number of reasons (alas she’s dead, were she alive I’m not sure we’d be BFFs (alas, again, for me this time), and I’ll bet the number of you Gentle Readers who actually like this kind of music rounds down to zero but maybe this exposure will change a few minds), but I can provide an excellent opportunity for Bay Area (NB – One should, apparently, never refer to the area as “Frisco” lest hirsute, enraged, and man-bunned baristas take umbrage.) Oracle EPMers to meet, greet, commiserate, and congratulate one another at the San Francisco Bay Area Oracle EPM Meetup.

Whew, even for me that’s an awful lot of parenthetical references.  Let me boil that down:  There’s a Bay Area Oracle EPM meetup on the 20th of September.  You should be there.  

Back to my self-indulgent/sometimes informative active voice below.

Where, When, What, and Who

Who

Let’s go completely backwards (Why not the right way round?  Heh, why not?) on this one and give you the who first.  The who is, of course you, Gentle Reader as ultimately, that’s what meetups are all about:  people.  And this ODTUG EPM meetup has that in spades with Marc Seewald of Oracle as well as Western Digitals’s Bill Roy, Sree Putreddi, and Mark Govostes.

All of this being organized by longtime Oracle EPM manager Frank Chow in cooperation with the ODTUG EPM Community.  

What

Beyond the normal meetup networking and sharing, there is real business and technical content.  To wit, Mark Seewald will cover something near and dear to every Oracle EPM customer:  Oracle EPM’s roadmap.  Seriously, with all of the noise and rumors swirling about you owe it to yourself to hear just what Oracle has to say.

Your fellow customers aren’t MIA:  the team from Western Digital will be there to discuss their journey from on-premises to Exalytics and the cloud.  Without exaggeration, that’s got to be a fascinating story both in terms of how it was done but why.    

Here’s their agenda:

• Overview of WDC
• EPM @ WDC
• Why did WDC decide to move to EPM Cloud
• WDC Current Oracle EPM Footprint (On-Prem & Cloud)
• Roadmap of WDC Oracle EPM Cloud
• Business / Technical challenges
• Metadata Management / Integration / Automation
• Q&A
• Support model (On-Prem Vs Hybrid)
• User adoption of EPM Cloud products
• Open Questions

When

It’s on Wednesday, 20 September, 2017, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

Where

At Google’s offices, Google Bldg Plymouth 1. 1500 Plymouth Street, Mountain View, CA.

And oh yeah, Why

Why?  Why?  Really?  Why?  Ah, why.

Why is because while Kscope is awesome, like Christmas it comes but once a year; meetups are on offer all year round.  Yes, they aren’t a week of awesomeness, but the same people (well, at least some of them) come to meetups plus others who don’t get the chance and the same subject that is near and dear to all of us – EPM in all its forms – is the subject of discussion.  It’s vital to your job (come to think of it, mine as well) to be au courant on all things EPM and meetups are an excellent way to do that.

Join Frank, Marc, and the guys from Western Digital, won’t you?

Click here to attend.

Be seeing you there.

Miami, Florida ODTUG BI-EPM Oracle Cloud Stack User Event live blog

Where are you?  Probably not at the ODTUG BI-EPM Cloud Stack User Event.

Yr. Hmbl. & Obt. Svt. writes that because you’d not be reading my blog if you were.  Actually if you are here and you are reading this blog this can’t be a very good event.  With luck the number of people that fall into this category rounds down to zero because it actually is a pretty good event.

But I digress.

I’m going to try to live blog  totally suck when I try to live blog this meetup (Correction – I have been informed that this is a summit.  Fancy.) as well as do as much live video as I can on Periscope.  You can watch that if you are a Periscope user or also watch it via my Twitter feed @CameronLackpour.  Your choice as I aim to please.

To be a little fair to myself (eh, still lazy to the core), my laptop was being used for the presentations and my phone was being used for recording so apparently I’d either need to buy another laptop (nope) or phone (double nope) to be able to blog and present and record all at the same time.  Whew.  Given that the Chancellor of the Exchequer – me – isn’t going to allow that kind of capital expenditure I think I’m going to have to give up the notion of live blogging in future and settle for doing it after the fact.

Here’s the Periscope feeds (because again, I’m lazy and I suck and also because I accidently stopped the broadcast cf. I suck):

The first 1:50:18 https://www.pscp.tv/w/1ZkKzERnjkaxv

The second 2:43:50 https://www.pscp.tv/CameronLackpour/1lDGLRlReqoxm

I know it’s a lot (thank you, wireless carrier, for your “unlimited” data plan as I’m going to do my best to stretch that definition to the limit) to watch but there’s awfully good content if you ignore my presentation.

Lunchy-lunchy

This has to be some of the best food I’ve ever had at a conference.  It was awfully good.

Here’s the remnants of the food:

I don’t know if I’d suggest that you come to a meetup (sorry, summit) because of the food but it’s a thought.

The speakers

So again, if you want to experience the summit, watch the Periscope sessions.

Here was the lineup – all good, even the Periscope sessions.

Here was the lineup – all good, even my presentation:

12:00 PM - 12:45 PM Networking and Lunch
12:45 PM - 12:55 PM Welcome and Introductions
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Oracle Keynote Speaker: Jacques Vigeant, Senior Director Product Strategy
2:00 PM - 2:40 PM Doug Hahn, Enterprise Technology Officer at Invesco, How Do I Decide What Cloud is Best for Me?
2:40 PM - 2:55 PM Break
3:00 PM - 3:40 PM Phil Bernhardt, Finance Director of Strategic Planning at Scholastic Book Fairs, Scholastic Book Fairs Transitions to Oracle PBCS
3:40 PM - 4:20 PM Cameron Lackpour, Oracle ACE Director, Making the Administrative Transition: On Premises Planning to PBCS
4:20 PM - 4:30 PM Break
4:35 PM - 5:15 PM Lakshmi Balusu, VP of Financial Systems at Perry Ellis, A Journey to HCM Cloud
5:15 PM - 5:25 PM Closing Announcements: ODTUG Volunteer Opportunities and ODTUG Kscope17
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Poolside Networking Happy Hour

One of things that was interesting was that the audience at this meetup (sorry again, summit) was a real mix of attendees:

1. It actually was almost completely customers – a good thing as otherwise it is a consultant fest presenting to other consultants.  Boring.
2. It actually was a real mix of levels – yes, it is an Executive Summit but there were both directors, real honest-to-goodness executives, and Hyperion admins, so again, a good thing and not the norm for meetups which trend towards the geek.

The presenters

For those of you unwilling to view the videos, here are some snapshots of the Best and Brightest as they present.

The ever ebullient, enthusiastic, and positive Jessica Cordova kicking it off

Jacques Vigeant giving the keynote (it was really good)

Doug Hahn, an honest-to-goodness executive and a very good speaker

Phil Bernhardt presenting on a truly successful PBCS implementation

Yr. Hmbl., Fthfl., and Obt. Svt. at work and OMG I hate looking at myself

Lakshmi Balusu talking about the Good, Bad, and the Ugly of HCM Cloud

What did you think about the event?

Here’s Ileana Ryan’s take on things:

Click on the snapshot or here:  https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OyKAoZdvQMJb

Thanks to all

None of this would have happened without the aid of:

Oracle

ARC EPM Consulting

Skybridge Global

TopDown Consulting

Key Performance Ideas

and of course ODTUG.

Thank you sponsors and thank you attendees for coming together for such a great event.

Be seeing you.

The Compleat Idiot's Guide to PBCS, No. 17 -- License Compliance

This is never a fun topic, is it?

With the caveat that IANAL nor am I the guy that actually signs the contract nor do I work for Oracle, it has been pointed out to me that PBCS – which was once Planning-in-the-Cloud-but-better – is now a platform that supports multiple products such as PBCS, EPBCS, FCCS, the soon to be released (or is it out now?) PCMCS, and I would daresay a number of future products.  Multiple products equals (potentially) multiple contracts; certainly that is true if you follow the message of this post which is a note of warning because:

• Said products are not in your company’s contract unless you’ve specifically bought them.
• There’s not a (technical) thing in the world to prevent you from using what you haven’t paid.
• Oracle can see everything you’re doing on their pods.  You are after all paying to have Oracle manage the software.
• Oracle has a reputation for pursuing license non-compliance with gusto, verve, and tenacity.
• It really isn’t cricket to use what you’ve not paid for.

So can we say that playing with this sort of thing is as dangerous as A-Bomb testing?  Almost.

Like eating cookies in the supermarket before you get to the checkout

OMG that drives me crazy.  Do you have the money?  Is it yours?  Will you put it back if you don’t like it?  Maybe, no, and who knows but look at what you’re doing right now.  While I digress once again my philosophy on paying for things when one ought to should be clear.

Careening wildly back to the point of this post, the rules about using what you’ve paid for in the Cloud are actually no different than what happens in the on-premises world (or, arguably, the supermarket checkout line).   It isn’t yours if you (actually your company) haven’t paid for it.

It’s easy-peasy-no-big-deasy to navigate to eDelivery, download whatever on-premises EPM product your heart desires (sans patches as that is covered by your access at My Oracle Support), and – if you’re way smarter than me – flawlessly and quickly install the software in your environment.  Installed or not, if you haven’t paid for it, you’re in violation.  Yikes.

As just about everyone knows I am completely and comprehensively infrastructure allergic and moreover incompetent (I am incompetent in all sorts of areas; this one is infrastructure).  Contract violation is miles easier in the Cloud because you/I don’t have to install anything so even a profound allergy isn’t prophylactic.

Get thee behind me, Satan.  

Although I am a fan of the dramatic, I am not actually equating Oracle license violation with Luke 4:8 and Matthew 16:22-24 but I am making the point that temptation is staring you right there in the face.  Don’t be weak.

Here’s what we see on login to the service.  I feel like Eve in the Garden of Eden.  

I’m going to resist FCCS temptation not because I am morally superior but because I am not a beancounter.  I am going to go to Planning and Budgeting ‘cos that’s what I do.

With that warning, ooooooh, lookit that.  Would I like to click on EPBCS?  Why yes I would.  And what happens?

The wizard to build an EPBCS application fires right up.  And that is where I stop for now.

You Have Been Warned

I actually am too chicken to see what happens if I click on FCCS as a billet-doux from Oracle Contracts is not very high on my To Do list.  I’d ask who amongst the Best and Brightest of my many (ahem) readers have violated their license to see what happens but that would be self-incrimination.  I’m not here to tempt (there’s that theme again) you to throw away your 5th Amendment rights.

But seriously, folks, if you know what happens (I am guessing off you go on an FCCS application wizard and subsequent contract violation(s)) and you shouldn’t be doing it, there is a way to anonymously comment to this blog.  I’m curious to hear what you have to say.  And no, I don’t actually expect a response but who knows.

Also seriously, don’t do it.  If you’re a partner, sign up for that pod (these are precious things within consulting companies) internally; if you’re a customer, I understand Oracle has sales reps that are just itching to sell you all of these products.  I’ll bet they’ll figure out a way to make you happy.

Be seeing you.

Postscript

I really am going out on a bit of a limb with this post because I simply haven’t navigated into a product I shouldn’t have access to.  Typically (always, actually), I for real and for true do whatever I write about because how else could I write about it.  This is different.  Call me Scaredy Cat Cameron, but as noted I’ve got lots of other things to do with my time.

My point is, I am unusually anxious to correct whatever’s wrong in this post.  Credit will be given no matter how embarrassing it will be for me.  Besides, mild embarrassment is my normal state.

Hybrid Essbase, Oracle, Kscope16, and you

Surveying the Hybrid landscape

If you read this blog, you know that Hybrid is the future of Essbase.  If you don’t agree with that you should read this, and this, and buy this book, and listen to this podcast, and read this white paper, and read this, and this, and this, and then go find the downloads for these two presentations.  Convinced?  You should at least be convinced that I think Hybrid is the future.

But as with so many things in my life, what I think really doesn’t matter.  I need only reflect on my 15 years of life with my cat as proof positive that what I think or want or need is 100% not important except for meal times and when it’s cold and I can act as the human furnace.  This harsh relationship has taught me to focus on what others need, not what I want.  See cat haters, felines are agents of self-actualization.  And hairballs.  

What really matters

What really matters in the world of Essbase is what you want the product to do.  Oracle owns Essbase, invests money in it, brings new features to market, and is literally invested in your adoption, advocacy, and use of the tool but only if you buy and use it.

How does Oracle decide what, when, and how will a feature be supported or not in Essbase?

They set product direction based on what you tell them.

Case in point and the point of this post

Hybrid Essbase – the magical combination of BSO flexibility and ASO power – has been out there for almost two years.   There hasn’t been a lot of real world noise about Hybrid’s glorious success or ignominious failure which is odd given the push many, including Yr. Obt. Svt, have made.

So what’s really going on with Hybrid Essbase?  Has anyone actually for real and for true implemented Hybrid in production?  Is it wonderful?  Awful?  Something in between?  What challenges did you face?  What was amazingly easy and awesome?

You have an opportunity to tell world+dog at Kscope16 and an opportunity to send this feedback right back to Oracle product management via John Booth’s survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GotHybrid

Who knows – you might actually get picked for the panel.  Then you can tell Oracle both to their face (I estimate the chances of someone from Essbase product management being in the room to be quite high) and via the survey whether you actually use Hybrid in production, why, what’s holding you back, and what makes it awesome.  And of course you can share your experience with your fellow Kscope16 attendees.

Noting names

Fellow ACEs John Booth, Tim German, Mike Nader, and Yr. Obt. Svt. have all signed on for this.  We’re True Believers in this open relationship with Oracle.  We hope you will too.

Be seeing you.