Dimension Decisions:Dimension Decisions:A Guide to Defining Dimensions for Your A Guide to Defining Dimensions for Your

Oracle EPM SolutionOracle EPM Solution

November 16November 16thth, 2011, 2011

RJ LinehanRJ Linehanrj@innovuspartners.comrj@innovuspartners.com

Presentation AgendaPresentation Agenda

Presenter Biography Dimensional Modeling Concepts Oracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

Financial Management (HFM) Planning Essbase

Common Design Scenarios Questions

Presenter BiographyPresenter Biography

RJ Linehan, Innovus Partners Eleven Years experience consulting in the EPM/BI Space Expertise in functional and technical requirements gathering Deployed over 30 EPM/BI solutions Key Industry experience

Consumer Packaged Goods Retail Insurance and Financial Services

Primary Application Experience Management Reporting Applications Budget & Forecasting Solutions Workforce and Capital Asset Planning Models Customer/Product Profitability Models Executive Dashboards

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

A single set of common data that satisfies the following user requirements Ability to make informed business decisions based on the right

data Expectation of accurate data provided at the correct grain Delivery of the data in a secure and timely fashion Capacity to change with business requirements

What is a dimensional model?(Borrowed from "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross)

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

• A fact is a business measure that is typically numeric• A fact is the numerical data stored in an EPM application• A fact can be additive or non-additive• The list of dimensions that encompass an EPM application

defines the grain of the fact and the scope of measurement

What is a Fact?(Borrowed from "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross)

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

• A dimension and its attributes describe the facts stored in an EPM application

• Dimension attributes define the 'By' in a report (Revenue by Quarter by Region)

• A dimension is a type of Metadata

What is a Dimension?(Borrowed from "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" by Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross)

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

• Insist on complete functional/business requirements• Know the data that will encompass the subject area• Engage and learn from the business users• Provide detailed pre-design questions for the business

and IT• Request sample dimensions from legacy applications

Successfully Defining Dimensions During Design

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

Existing User Reports Leverage existing user reports to ensure the design supports

reporting requirements MS Excel

Employ MS Excel to illustrate sample report layouts Outline Editor

Utilize an outline editor and the MS Excel Add-in / Smart View The business user Your ears

Design Tools Used to Define Dimensions

Dimensional Modeling ConceptsDimensional Modeling Concepts

DEMONSTRATION

Successfully Defining Dimensions During Design

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

• Oracle EPM applications support standard and custom dimensions

• A dimension member is an attribute of the dimension that is typically unique to the application

• A hierarchy denotes a roll-up of dimension members within a dimension that is either aggregating or non-aggregating

• Fact data must be loaded to a member from each dimension in the EPM application

• Dimensions are often shared across EPM applications

Dimension Definitions for Oracle EPM Applications

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

• A standard dimension is a required dimension in an EPM Application

• A standard dimension offers consistency• A standard dimension provides out-of-the-box

functionality for select features of an EPM Application

Standard Dimensions in an Oracle EPM Application

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

• A custom dimension is typically not a required dimension in an EPM Application

• A custom dimension provides for customization to satisfy reporting requirements

• A custom dimension expands the perspective of data stored in an EPM Application

Custom Dimensions in an Oracle EPM Application

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

• Standard Dimensions– Account - reflects the measures/statistics– Intercompany Partner (ICP) – dynamically built using the entity

dimension to capture intercompany transactions– Period - describes the time characteristics– Entity - represents the organizational structures– Scenario - reflects the management planning cycles– Value - provides for consolidation, elimination, adjustments, and

translations– View - provides calendar views– Year - describes the year characteristic

• Custom Dimensions– HFM supports an additional four custom dimensions

Oracle Hyperion Financial Management Dimensions (Rigid)

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

Standard Dimensions Accounts - reflects the measures/statistics Periods - describes the time characteristics Entities - represents the organizational structures Scenarios - reflects the management planning cycles Versions - denotes copies of the management planning cycles Years - describes the year characteristic HSP_Rates - represents the exchange rates Currency - reflects the currencies

Custom Dimensions Planning can support up to fourteen custom dimensions

without multi-currency support

Oracle Hyperion Planning Dimensions

Oracle EPM Dimensional RequirementsOracle EPM Dimensional Requirements

• Standard dimensions do not apply to Essbase Applications

• Flexibility of Essbase offers extreme dimensional customization

• Offers support for Planning and Financial Management applications as well as most other reporting solutions

Oracle Essbase Dimensions

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

• Organize data sets that will be planned into groups of common dimensionality

• Avoid building one application with many dimensions to support all planned data

• Leverage a separate application to support consolidated reporting

• Consider loading data instead of deriving it when calc inputs are not dimensionally relevant

Dimensional Design for Budget & Forecasting Applications

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Dimensional Design for Budget & Forecasting Applications

DEMONSTRATION

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Dimensional Challenge When consolidation occurs in HFM, eliminations for

intercompany transactions are stored at the parent with the first common currency

Shared Dimensions Accounts Dimension Entities Dimension ICP Dimension Value Dimension

Other Dimensions Data Type Dimension Version Dimension

Dimensional Design for Integrating HFM Dimensionality within a Planning Application

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Dimensional Design for Integrating HFM Dimensionality within a Planning Application

DEMONSTRATION

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Types of Audit Trails User

Track data entry by user Entity

Track data movement across entities Scenario/Version

Track data movement across data sets such as allocations

Dimensional Design to Support Audit Trails

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Dimensional Design to Support Audit Trails

DEMONSTRATION

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

The view dimension provides alternative perspectives of the data stored in the EPM Application

View examples Scaling Percent of Sales Utilization Conversion

Careful attention to implementation is required to avoid performance issues and/or inaccurate results

View Dimension

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

View Dimension

DEMONSTRATION

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Standard time dimensions Years Periods Days

Calendar-based time dimensions Custom calendar dimension Date-Time Dimension

Time-Based Dimensions

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Time-Based Dimensions

DEMONSTRATION

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

Three types of currencies Functional currency Transactional currency Reporting currency

Implementing currency conversion Native vs. Custom

Design for future support of currency conversion

Dimensional Design for Currency Conversion

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

DEMONSTRATION

Dimensional Design for Currency Conversion

Common Design ScenariosCommon Design Scenarios

• Attribute dimensions are virtual dimensions tied to a base dimension that expand the scope of reporting for that dimension

• Direct one-to-one relationship between a member from the attribute dimension and a member from the base dimension

• Provides reporting along more than one axis in a report• Adds no additional overhead to the application

Oracle Essbase Attribute Dimensions

Dimension Decisions:Dimension Decisions:A Guide to Defining Dimensions for Your A Guide to Defining Dimensions for Your

Oracle EPM SolutionOracle EPM Solution

November 16November 16thth, 2011, 2011

RJ LinehanRJ Linehanrj@innovuspartners.comrj@innovuspartners.com