Kscope15 -- The Essbase sessions I want to attend

What am I talking about?

Why Kscope15, of course.  Could there be any other conference?  Thought not.  So why am I writing this?

To bore you to death share with you the sessions, events, and activities that make up the very (really) best EPM conference anywhere.  It really is that good.

I should note that these are the sessions I’m interested in.  You may have a completely different take on what’s worth seeing but I’ll bet our tastes overlap.

I should also note that I will never get to attend most of these sessions because of all of the Oracle and ODTUG obligations I have at the conference.  But a man can dream, right?

And finally I should also note that this post will only cover Essbase as it’s just too long to put all of the other tracks together into one post.  Look for multiple posts on this during the week.

OMG, one last, last note.  Check out Ludovic de Paz’ post on things to do in South Florida

when you’re not being a sad, pathetic, but awfully keen Essbase geek.  I hear there is life beyond Kscope although I couldn’t tell you what that actually is like.  Perhaps Ludovic can help.

And with that, we’re off.

All of the Essbase sessions I would like to attend but probably won’t

I seem to make a living more off of Planning and (gasp) ODI, but I do get the odd “pure” Essbase (It’s an interesting choice of words, isn’t it?  I’m not the only one who refers to Essbase that way.  Does that mean that the other tools are adulterated?  But I digress yet again.) project from time to time and I really enjoy them.  I really enjoy the puzzle solving nature of “How do I analyze this” almost as much as the “How do I optimize this” part of Essbase projects.  

Here’s what I’m looking forward to:

Monday, 23 June 2015

Unappreciated and Maligned Core Essbase Features

George Cooper , Gap

Co-presenter(s): Doug Pearce, Analysis Team

When: Jun 22, 2015, Session 2, 9:45 am - 10:45 am

Anyone who can write, “What deranged person would do that?“, has to be a good presenter.  George has been around in the Essbase world seemingly forever and really knows his stuff.

Pushing Essbase to the Limit: A Load and Stress Testing Exercise

Tim German , Qubix

Co-presenter(s): John A Booth, Infratects

When: Jun 22, 2015, Session 4, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

My fellow co-authors Tim and John are bringing more rigor to Essbase, cf. George Cooper’s session.  Given that so much of what we do is rule of thumb, and how incredibly inadequate that can sometimes be, I am really looking forward to this session.  I should also note that this session touches on some of the topics Tim wrote about in Developing Essbase Applications:  Hybrid Techniques and Practices.

Drillbridge: The Easy and Free Way to Implement Relational Drillthrough

Jason Jones , Key Performance Ideas

When: Jun 22, 2015, Session 4, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

So cool  So very, very cool.  It’s drillthrough from Essbase to relational but without Studio.  So cool.

Essbase: Advanced Design Patterns from the Trenches

George Cooper , Gap

Co-presenter(s): Bill Kamal Reddy, Analysis Team

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 8, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

This is another one by George.  I’m interested in design patterns (I am trying not to write crap code; this is one way to design nirvana.) and what George has on offer looks like interesting stuff.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

The Vision for Essbase and How It Should Already Change How You Do Things

Gabby Rubin , Oracle Corporation

Co-presenter(s): William Bradstreet, Bradstreet Business Services, LLC

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 5, 8:30 am - 9:30 am

Bill participated on a Hybrid Essbase OTN Archbeat podcast with me and a handful of the Best and Brightest on Hybrid Essbase; he has actually for real and truly implemented Hybrid at a customer.  AFAIK, he may be the first in the world.

Enjoy Better MDX for Financial Metrics: From Design to Online Help

Ted Hollenberg , Time Warner Cable

Co-presenter(s): Ron Moore, TopDown Consulting

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 7, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm

Ted is a real, live, honest-to-God customer who really knows his stuff.  Ron is a long time Essbase consultant and instructor.  I cannot imagine not learning something (or an awful lot) from this session.

I Develop in Essbase: Why Do I Need to Know SQL?

Cameron Lackpour , CL Solve

Co-presenter(s): Glenn Schwartzberg, interRel Consulting

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 8, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Yr. obt. svt. is presenting this along with MMIC.  If you don’t know SQL and you use Essbase, you’re really missing out.  SQL is the Swiss army knife of corporate computing.  Glenn and I have put together a moderately advanced presentation with a lot of techniques and code.  It should be good stuff, despite my participation.

ASO, BSO, and Hybrid Calculations: What's Fastest, How Hard Is It, and Which One Should You Use?

Cameron Lackpour , CL Solve

Co-presenter(s): Tim German, Qubix

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 9, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

I am very, very, very excited about this one.  Tim and I are going to both present on different techniques and (and this is even more exciting) provide a method for determining what should be selected based on objective measures; there will be a subjective feasibility component as well.  It’s actual real honest-to-God consulting.  In some ways it’s an extension of the evaluation engagements I sometimes now do.  I plan on using this approach with those customers.  Come to think of it, I’m going to use it on my own approaches as well.

Customer Panel: A Panoramic View of Exalytics

Gary Crisci , General Electric

When: Jun 23, 2015, Session 10, 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm

A real, live, breathing, red blooded, Exalytics customer.  What will Gary say?  Knowing him, not a single punch or praise will be pulled.  It should be both enlightening and entertaining.

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Designer Aggregation Scripts for ASO: Make Them Fit Without Being Too Tight

Ted Hollenberg , Time Warner Cable

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 11, 8:30 am - 9:30 am

Ibid.

Essbase New Features and Roadmap Update: 2015 Edition

Steve Liebermensch , Oracle Corporation

Co-presenter(s): Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 11, 8:30 am - 9:30 am

The future, as presented by the Oracle Essbase product manager.  Do you care about the future of Essbase?  You should.

The Essbase of Things: Essbase on the Cloud, Essbase with OBIEE, and What It All Means

Steve Liebermensch , Oracle Corporation

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 13, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm

The future of the future, as presented by the Oracle Essbase product manager.  Do you care about the future of Essbase?  You should.  Again.

Automation of Focused Aggregations Creation

Dmitry Kryuk , Independent Consultant

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 14, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

I’ve blogged about focused aggregations in Planning.  Would you believe analytical and algorithmic?  Again, more rigor applied to Essbase.  It looks like I need to up my game yet again.

BYO MDX Editor: BMGS (Become More Groovy-Savvy) in the Process

William Hodges , The Hackett Group

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 14, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

William’s session is based on his chapter in DEA Hybrid (I am not going to type this out again and again and again).  This is a really cool concept and if you dabble or live in MDX and Excel, it is highly recommended.

Hybrid: We Have a New Essbase Engine, and Its Fuel Is Data

John Booth , Infratects

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 16, 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm

Hybrid, Hybrid, Hybrid.  It’s almost like Hybrid is the future of Essbase.  It is, actually.  John always does excellent work and I’m super curious to see what’s come up with, particularly wrt Planning.

Exalytics - Creating the Best Platform for Essbase, EPM and BI

Gabby Rubin , Oracle Corporation

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 15, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

There’s little chance of me ever working on an Exalytics project given my company size of exactly one, but what happens in Exalytics sooner or later mostly trickles down to standard Essbase.  

Why Didn't I Think of That? How Can I Do It in Essbase?

Glenn Schwartzberg , interRel Consulting

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 14, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm

Glenn aka MMIC always surprises me with the weird and wonderful things he knows about Essbase.  I think he’s even sadder of a geek than me, which is saying something.  I think that’s a positive attribute.  Maybe.

A Simple Solution to Performing Complex Eliminations in Planning and Essbase

Joseph Watkins , Huron Consulting Group

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 16, 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm

Joe does some fascinating work.  I am super interested to see how he accomplishes it-can-only-be-done-in-HFM in Essbase itself.

Advanced Calculations in Calc Manager

Ron Moore , TopDown Consulting

When: Jun 24, 2015, Session 13, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm

I know that Ron has been working with Calculation Manager product management and development.  This ought to be super interesting and a chance for Essbase rather than Planning use cases.

Thursday, 25 June 2015

Thursday Deep Dive - Essbase: What's New in 11.1.2.4?

Cameron Lackpour , CL Solve

Co-presenter(s): Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation

When: Jun 25, 2015, Deep Dive Session , 9:00 am - 11:00 am

I swear this is the last of the lot that involves yr. obt. svt., which given that it’s the last session of the conference (sob) is pretty predicatable.  What, you’re not sticking around for the after party?  The good news is that I’m solely the interlocutor and Gabby Rubin, Steve Liebermensch, and MMIC Glenn Schwartzberg will be actual brains.  This is similar to what I did last year with the Planning Deep Dive.  I’m very excited about this opportunity to put the screws to Oracle product management and you should be too.  :)

And that’s the end of the Essbase sessions

If you read through the notes and see that many of the sessions I want to attend are simultaneously schedule, that is the nature of a conference only a few days long.  Happily, all sessions are recorded and Kscope attendees can view them at their leisure.

My next post either tomorrow or the day after will be on Planning.

Be seeing you.