Last updated: Saturday, July 13, 2019 – 10:41 AM PT

Jon the Librarian Feed

The who’s who of skilled people breaking free from the high cost and complexity of building Oracle Hyperion solutions is interesting.  Two directions of change taken frequently are conversion to OneStream and getting Connected Planning (Anaplan).

To think about such change as we head into Thanksgiving, followed by the first days of Winter, seems natural. The holidays should provide a shift in tempo that lends itself to breaking free of haphazard introspections that breed human mediocrity. Careful scrutiny of outcomes during this time of shift leads to more fully realizing our own powerful human potentials. But this time of shift can be suppressed if we have not kept the foundations of a life well-lived.

3000-hour years support healthy financials, but one or more of the other  foundations will suffer. New directions are needed if we are to maintain physical, mental, spiritual & financial freedoms. In (the last 7 years of) consulting so many colleagues achieved professional success with Oracle Hyperion implementations while creating personal failures in maintaining healthy body, healthy marriage, healthy family, healthy adventures, and healthy working relationships.

The work we do requires an intense personal commitment to building systems that work and to making our customers successful without exception. Yet, so often that commitment prevents us from getting into the gym every morning, before getting to the office by 7:30 AM. Frequently, that commitment leads to marriages dissolved with divorce. Universally, that commitment leads to birthday’s celebrated on FaceTime, and more than one colleague has raised a family with phone calls and FaceTime. Over and over, that commitment shows up in unused PTO balances at the end of every year as  colleagues are unable to schedule and enjoy the time off from work they have earned. Is such imbalance a requirement of intense personal commitment to our work?

Until the four foundational freedoms are consistently cultivated, the opportunities for healthy love and healthy adventure remain marginalized. The terms healthy love and healthy adventure in this context describe a disciplined life that occurs as we devote not only intense personal commitment to financial freedom, but also personal commitments to cultivating physical, mental & spiritual freedom.

don’t complain

Maya Angelou wrote a compelling summary of work and change.

“There were people who went to sleep last night,
poor and rich and white and black,
but they will never wake again.

And those dead folks would give anything at all
for just five minutes of this weather
or ten minutes of plowing.

So you watch yourself about complaining.

What you’re supposed to do
when you don’t like a thing is change it.
If you can’t change it,
change the way you think about it.

Don’t complain.”^[1]
― Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

To paraphrase Ms. Hepburn^[2], we see consultants who blame the vendor, the software, the client, the management, the resources and myriad other things on the way to “professional success” but it is none of those things, that create imbalance. Only a fearless commitment to everything in balance will create the love and adventure our work is capable of infusing into our lives. As Andy Dufrenes said to Red, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

When I think about people I respect most (among them, Chris Schulze,  Scott A. Smith, Cameron Lackpour, A. Chris Boehmer, Kathryn Watkins, Bill Lovelace, et al) now building solutions with new technology, I wonder how many of them are finding what they do makes a difference. I look forward to hearing their thoughts on that.

thanks giving

In the meantime and between times, I am thankful to my colleagues for the great commitments I have seen them make to each other, to their work, to the clients. “It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”^[3]

external links

None at this time

A growing number of reliable sources (like Intel, Apple Support, Azure Blog, Amazon, Red Hat, Xen, among many others) provide details regarding major security vulnerabilities that affect modern microprocessors, and two specific exploits, called Meltdown & Spectre.

Meltdown dissolves the barriers between user applications and the operating system; This allows a program to access the memory of other programs and the operating system.

Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications on a system, allowing even well-designed programs that operate without error to leak their secrets.

Such exploits would likely include passwords or sensitive data held in memory.

Note:  if you use these links, a fraction of your purchase helps pay my Internet costs.

Do understand there is more to Extreme Ownership than I can put in a short post; It is changing the way I work with people and the way I work.

“The North American concept is, well, I’ve been doing it for 6 years–I oughta know what I’m doing now…“

~ Murray Carter, the 17th Generation Yoshimoto Bladesmith

Some treat Enterprise Performance Management that way.

At the six-year mark, I was able to put together a working system; Each year since has made an exponential difference in the quality of the solutions that I provide.

Confidence gained from demonstrating mastery is radically different from confidence gained by counting years.

What makes you and your advisory team confident?

Perhaps it is an external certification; DiResta 55 – 1 million subscribers is what that looks like on YouTube. Perhaps it is repeat engagements or a long-term relationship? A strong indicator of confidence is that after routinely considering all the options,  we call back the same advisory team for further engagements.

Jim Rohn, an American business philosopher echoed^[1] a perennial business sentiment on confidence:

I would add that picking the advisory team is a critical decision in our journey to mastery.

applied to test environment on Friday, August 4, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, August 18, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document for August 2017  over time with most recent updates are at the top. Summarized from Oracle’s website on 28 JULY

Tanya Heise has outlined the August 2017 updates here

• • New chart type “Status Meter Gauge” quickly shows form values against threshold levels
  • Calculation Manager log values improved
  • Data Management will now provide option to include adjustment periods from Oracle GL source system
  • Data Management increased integration with FAH and FAHRCS
  • EPBC only, Consolidation Operator, Account Type and Variance Reporting are now editable options
  • EPBC only, Projects business process now provides Data Load Templates customized to the EPBC features enabled and any custom dimensions
  • EPBC only, Financials business process now provides Data Load Templates for Weekly Planning
  • Multiple Strategic Modelling enhancements
  • Get ready to update Smart View for Office to 11.1.2.5.710 to ensure compatability with the August 2017 update features and access new functionalities.
  • 19+ defects fixed

  Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

  The Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud updates for July

  applied to test environment on Friday, July 7, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, July 21, 2017

  Please note that Oracle updates the document for July 2017  over time with most recent updates are at the top. Summarized from Oracle’s website on 28 JULY

  Tanya Heise has outlined the July 2017 updates here

  • • New EPM Automate utility, including improved security on importsnapshot command
    • EPM Automate Manual
    • Installing the utility
    • Command Reference
    • CLEAR_CUBE added to EPMC REST API for specific data within input and reporting cubes
    • The Planning Clear Cube job has expanded options to include Essbase and relational (more detail in the “Creating Clear Cube Jobs” of Administering Planning for Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud
    • Provisioning Report updated to show total number of provisioned users
    • Designing Custom Navigation Flows is improved by the ability to create and edit existing navigation flows
    • Predictive Planning has been enhanced with new features
    • Member names with commas now supported in Data Management when loading to Oracle EPBC and PBC
    • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts
    • EPBC only, Weekly Planning now available in the EPBC Services for planning and forecasting at the weekly level
    • EPBC only, Weekly Planning has significant core functionality to support rolling forecasts and continuous weekly planning (13, 26, 52 weeks) all driven off the current time period (low maintenance)
    • EPBC only, Data Load Templates are now available customized to the EPBC features enabled
    • 27+ defects fixed
    • If using the Workforce framework, remove all custom members added to the Property dimension…see the announcement here
    • Workaround for gauage chart type that displays zero)

    Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

    The Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud updates for June

    applied to test environment on Friday, June 2, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, June 16, 2017

    Please note that Oracle updates the document over time with most recent updates are at the top. Summarized from Oracle’s website on 28 July 2017

    here for June 2017

    applied to test environment on Friday, June 2, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, June 16, 2017

    • New EPM Automate utility, including improved security on importsnapshot command
    • EPM Automate Manual
    • Installing the utility
    • Command Reference
    • Database query performance data now available in the enhanced Activity report (top 10 by worst performance, duration & execution)
    • Oracle Netsuite integrations to Oracle EPMC
    • Improved number formats for chart points in FR Web Studio
    • There is now only “Push Data” (eliminated separate “clear data” option)
    • A new “Approval Status Report” is provided (details in Administering Planning for Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud)
    • “Service Administrators can now set usage by cube for members of the Period dimension in the same way that they can set usage by cube for members of custom dimensions, the Account dimension, and the Entity dimension.”
    • “Interoperability with Google Chrome and Oracle Smart View for Office 11.1.2.5.700+ is available with this update.”
    • Service admins can manage applications from Smart View
    • Upload custom fonts (.ttf only) for FR (883 Google fonts available here)
    • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts
    • Other updates (see the June update for details)
    • EPBC only, Stategic Modelling
    • EPBC only, create business rules written in Groovy
    • EPBC only, Integration of EPBC Workforce with Oracle HCM
    • 27 defects fixed
    • Workaround for users are unable to access folders and reports (apply WORLD to the folder)

    Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

]]> http://epm.jonhwilliams.com/oracle-planning-and-budgeting-cloud-updates/feed/ 0 http://epm.jonhwilliams.com/oracle-profitability-and-cost-management-cloud-updates/ http://epm.jonhwilliams.com/oracle-profitability-and-cost-management-cloud-updates/#respond Mon, 03 Apr 2017 16:08:04 +0000 http://epm.jonhwilliams.com/?p=534 The Profitability and Cost Management updates for September

applied to test environment on Friday, September 1, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, September 15, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top

summarized on 30 August from:

here for September 2017 include these and others:

• “Integrate business process navigation flows can connect following subscriptions (** sources for connections)”
  • Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud**
  • Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud**
  • Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud**
  • Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud**
  • Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud
  • Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud
  • Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud
  • More details: “‘Connecting Subscriptions in EPM Cloud’ in the Administrator’s Guide of the source service”
  • “Connection across multiple subscriptions when services are in different domains within the same data center will be supported in a future update”
• Maintenance snapshots can now be submitted to Oracle for support
• Provisioning report has been improved
• Enhancements to the Activity Report identifies top 15 user interface requests by time to execute
• SSO is now available with Oracle Identity Cloud Services (IDCS)
• Addition of Copy Application Snapshot to the REST API
• Dimension Management now allows deleting dimension during early dev stages
• Simultaneous editing of all aliases for a member is now possible
• Analysis Views can now be sorted to aid simple reporting
• Ability to copy n number of rules added
• Smart View is supported across Private Connections
• In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

6 Defects Fixed…

The Profitability and Cost Management updates for August

applied to test environment on Friday, August 4, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, August 18, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top.

summarized on 28 JULY

here for August 2017 include these and others:

• IMPORTANT CHANGE to the USER role will allow write access on assigned data slice starting August and assignment of the VIEWER role where write access is denied
• Dimension Management allows editing Business, Attribute and POV dimensions in PCMC, including adding, moving, copying, deleting child members and their  properties (best used for minor edits, Validate and Enable required)
• Multiple alias table support coming in August
• Data Management now  provides access to Oracle GL through loads to Oracle Financial Cloud
• In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

Reminder:  Get ready to upgrade to Smart View ~.710 mid-August to enable new features and to support continued use of PCMC applications after August updates. Link will be here when 710 drops.

The Profitability and Cost Management updates for July

applied to test environment on Friday, July 7, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, July 21, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top.

summarized on 28 JULY

here for July 2017 include these and others:

• • Translated Books …”covers all features up to May 2017, except for Working with Smart View for Enterprise Performance Management Cloud…”
  • Enhanced Provisioning Report shows number unique users with Services roles
  • Run the Execution Statistics system report for Calculation Jobs, directly from the PCM job library
  • Export FR Web Studio grid to Excel
  • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for June 2017

applied to test environment on Friday, June 2, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, June 16, 2017

• Preview uploaded photo for PCMC Home page
• Now able to add queries as favorites on Home page
• NONEMPTYTUPLE property clause added to calculation formula can improve calculation rule performance
• New EPM Automate utility, including improved security on importsnapshot command
• EPM Automate Manual
• Installing the utility
• Command Reference
• Database query performance data now available in the enhanced Activity report (top 10 by worst performance, duration & execution)
• Upload custom fonts (.ttf only) for FR (883 Google fonts available here)
• 1 defect fixed (Copy POV is functional again for all applications)

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for May 2017

• • Support for larger outlines when copying POVs along with related API updates
  • A new customization of home page appearance (background color)
  • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for April 2017

Install wxPython:

brew install wxpython

Download Loxodo for OS X or (even better):

git pull https://github.com/sommer/loxodo.git

(you did remember git is context sensitive right?)

To run, cd into the location of loxodo.py and execute:

./loxodo.py

We prefer to execute from command line, so in /usr/<username> create a symbolic link:

ln -s  /usr/local/some/obscure/location/loxodo.py /Users/<username>/loxodo.py

Now one can open a terminal to run:

<computername>:~ <username>$ ./loxodo.py

“Cristoph Sommer’s pure Python Password Safe v3-compatible Password Vault Loxodo is a thing of beauty, especially when accessing the same v3 psafe archive file from multiple operating systems.”

“Renowned security technologist”^[1] Bruce Schneier, author of many books designed Password Safe for simple and secure password management. Password Safe is maintained at https://pwsafe.org/.

From git the source is open.

On Windows, each formal release of  Password Safe is digitally signed with the project administrator’s gpg key. To verify the signature, use this public key (key fingerprint = A703 C132 8EAB C7B2 0175   3BA3 9194 6451 5CCF 8BB3).

“If you do a lot of query and index performance tuning, you’re going to love the improvements in this month’s release of the First Responder Kit.”

First Responder Kit is from Brent Ozar Unlimited® via @BrentOzarULTD

Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System, Release 11.1.2.3.xxx or below
A right-click on an HFM application in Shared Services, throws an authentication error. The server is unable to process your request. Please have an administrator restart the Web server.
Click “OK”.
Click “Finish”.
Right click again on the HFM application in Shared Services. Assign Access Control seems to begin to work.
Logout, and back in, to Shared Services; The problem recurs.
This error indicates the EPM System was not properly shutdown during the last restart. The HsvDataSource.exe for the particular process and the CASSecurity hang and hold the memory. Manually clearing the HsvDatasource.exe process(es) and CASSecurity.exe process(es) will clear the holding memory which allow communication like “assign access control”.

steps

Shutdown HFM completely on all servers, including the processes HsxService.exe, HsxServer.exe, and HsvDatasource.exe, then kill process(es) CASSecurity.exe.
Restart HFM.

Details

The related error message will be like:

URI: http://servername.mycompany.com:port/hfm/security/securityAssignmentWizard.asp
Code: -2147023174
Description: An error occurred processing the result from the server.
Actor: Hyperion.HFMErrorHandler.1
Trace: Error Reference Number: {8CDD5ED5-C012-423B-843E-FAE0FB3F2403}
Num: 0x800706ba;Type: 0;DTime: 6/18/2013 7:18:18 PM;Svr: servername;File: CHITRegistryWrapper.cpp;Line: 1116;Ver: 11.1.2.2.303.3959;
Num: 0x800706ba;Type: 0;DTime: 6/18/2013 7:18:18 PM;Svr: SERVERNAME;File: CHFMwHITRegistry.cpp;Line: 777;Ver: 11.1.2.2.303.3959;

Prerequisites:
The environment is stable (Assign access control worked previously).
One can access all the HFM applications.
One can (re-)register the HFM applications.

Prevention: Modify the shutdown script to verify the processes HsxService.exe, HsxServer.exe, and HsvDatasource.exe end, and to verify CASSecurity.exe ends.

external links

None at this time