Custom Navigation Flows for EDM... Just another unicorn... or maybe not.

"Why does EDM show all these things that show up on the home screen that we never access and don't know what they do?"

In the past couple months I have been asked the same question by a few clients. To be honest, I didn't even know what they were talking about to begin with. What extra "things"? Then it hit me, they were talking about the cards to take them to Node Types, Hierarchy Sets, Node Sets, etc.. I never thought of them as items that should be hidden... but I almost exclusively live in the world of an Administrator where I use these to build and configure EDM everyday.

My initial answer and thoughts were that they shouldn't see these being only a user in EDM. Quickly I could see that I was incorrect. When logging into EDM as a data steward these items were still openly displayed and accessible. What could I do with them? Well, not much. I could open and inspect all of the objects but I could not edit or configure them. And in some cases like expressions, I could not inspects and see them as I needed edit rights to get to the expressions. Again in my mind I asked.. What could I do with these? The answer that came I came up was... Nothing. I could not do anything with these, they gave me out of context information. If I was not able to edit or understand how to interpret or edit them, these did nothing for me.

Next logical thought was... How can I hide these from the data stewards so they don't have to see them and they can have a clear path to what is relevant in EDM to manage metadata from a data steward perspective. Again, came to a road block in my mind... "Are there no settings to hide these 'Admin' only objects?" ... Sadly EDM does not have any features as of yet to do this.

I reached out to others in the community and they all agreed, EDM shows these to all users and there was nothing that can be done within EDM to prevent it.

My next thought was there should be a method to hide these unnecessary admin items and only give the users a clear path to navigate. So, I went to the EDM ideas lab to see if someone has already suggested this type of feature in EDM. I did not find anything so I posted my idea and proceeded to wait to see what if any actions could be done to get this added to EDM.

Here is a link to my Idea Lab post if you want to provide some feedback to Oracle: Hide tiles not used by 'users'

As part of the feedback I got from the community on my above idea, I was introduced to an EPM feature by Nate Keller, a former co-worker of mine from about a decade ago. In Nate's comments he referred the the Navigation flows that can be setup with in an FCC or Planning EPM instance and that these flows could also be used to isolate a "Navigation" or workflow for EDM.

It took me a week or so to get access to a Planning EPM pod where I could test this out. 

After a brief overview on how navigation flows work in EPM ( I had never used or seen them before), I spent 30 minutes or so and I had a working EDM flow where only the cards needed for the EDM data steward were being displayed. 

While this is very promising, there are many, many questions I still have to make this truly usable for the data stewards.

Let me know your thoughts on this and if you have seen or used this feature for EDM.

SP

Template migrations have a big hole that most are not aware of...

On a current project I stumbled onto an issue that is causing a great amount of manual work. 

The issue at hand is that not all things migrate in EDM using Templates to migrate applications and dimensions from one EDM instance to another. 

This week while testing and documenting the migration process for a project I am working on, I found what I thought was a HUGE bug in the EDM migration. As I have many times in the past, I completed my code development, ran a small amount of unit testing and felt it was time to test the migration of my code against a current version of production. I had the client provide a snapshot LCM from production, so that I could simulate the migration process in another test instance outside of the instance I had been developing in. I did the typical steps of importing the snapshot into the test instance and exporting my "templates" from my development instance. Since the work involved was a full new EDM application (actually 2), I used the option of exporting the templates at the application level to ensure all objects I created were included.

Now that I had my simulated production target and my source templates I was ready to test out the migration. This should just be a simple import of the template and a quick look around to see that there were no unexpected results and all the objects appeared as they should on the target. I loaded the template into the preview option to see that EDM was reading the file correctly... All looked good.

Once I spent a few minutes looking at each of the items in the preview, it was time to run the import and see the results.

I was surprised that I received some warning messages on the import. Something I had not seen before. With the release of 23.03 EDM in test just a couple weeks ago, there was a new feature for compares that allowed you to define and save a compare definition. I had played some with this in my development application and even did a demo for the client on how they worked. I left several of the compare definitions in the application so the client had some samples to look at as they moved forward post production.

From Node and To Node will need to be updated.

It took me a second to realize why I was getting this warning message. Then it came to me, since I was loading this template for the first time, the target nodes would not be in the application yet as i had not imported data. I was ok with this warning thinking that if I load the data then come back and re-run the template import, the warning would go away and the missing top node information would migrate. So with that I took a note to do these steps later and moved on.

Then came the big head knocker... I started to navigate through the freshly imported applications to see that all of the objects appeared as they should. Thinking in my mind that since there was an issue with top nodes in the compare import but no other warnings for any place else top nodes were defined... I should look in common locations where top nodes would be defined to ensure they imported correctly. I presumed they would have since there were no other warnings on the import.

I got to the subscriptions thinking these are objects that use top node filters all the time and in these applications I had imported there were dozens of subscriptions with top node filters. 

Side note - I had opened an Ideas Lab post on subscription top node filter maintenance while I was developing these applications since there were so many top nodes that had to be defined and the UX in EDM was less than user friendly to do this setup.

Now that I am in the subscriptions and navigate to the filter tab... To my surprise, of of the top nodes I had painfully defined and tested are missing. I was in shock. I first thought what happened in my source app, why were these gone. I quickly logged into the source instance and found that the top nodes were all there as I had set them up... Huge relief.

Not sure what was going on, I thought I should reset the test target and try the import again. Maybe there was an error or warning that I didn't notice the first time. So, I re-imported the production snapshot into my test instance and went through the steps again to preview then import the template. Again, only the warning on the compares... nothing for the subscriptions.

First thing I thought... This is a big bug and I need to open an SR with Oracle ASAP. Not noticing this before when doing migrations, I thought this must be a bug with the 23.03 release. Shortly after opening the SR, I was contacted by Oracle support where they pointed me to the user guide, where it was clearly documented that subscription top nodes do not migrate with templates; as the top node information is considered "data" and the templates do not migrate data.

OK, that all makes sense... but does it?

First, for data we have a method to migrate. We can export the data from each dimension on the source and import it directly to the dimension on the target... But this will not do anything for the "data" in the top node section of subscriptions. 

So how do we get the top nodes into the target without redoing all the setup of the top nodes? Keep in mind from above that there is not a user friendly interface to do this setup in EDM.

Also, why did the import not give me a warning, like it had for the top nodes on the compares?

In doing a quick search in documentation on how I might be able to migrate this, I found nothing... with the exception of a recent post on the ideas lab that made me think I was not the only one with this issue.

CA_User has recently posted this idea: 

Ability to upload subscription from report generated by the source system

In this post he asked to have an enhancement to EDM to allow the importing of subscriptions based on the report that can be exported. Great idea... but again, this just left me with the gap in my migration process and a big hole to fill.

If you have experienced this issue or have thoughts / comments on the subject, please comment here or more importantly, comment and give thumbs up to these ideas on the Ideas Lab so Oracle gets the feedback it needs to fill in this hole ASAP.

EDM Ideas Lab - Related Cloud Customer Connect posts:

ability-to-upload-subscription-from-report-generated-by-the-source-system

need-multi-select-option-for-subscription-top-node-selection

Back soon with more ... SP

EDMCS Idea... Need Ability to define controlling hierarchy for FCGL so inheritance can work

Need Ability to define controlling hierarchy for FCGL so inheritance can work

Description:

Currently inherited properties are not supported for FCGL applications because the properties are exported from a list view point. 

With this idea you should be able to identify a "controlling" hierarchy view point for the FCGL dimension that will define the property value on the list view point.

Use Case and Business Need:

Account Type is the best use case for this. Since account type is typically set very high in the hierarchy and all descendants have the same value, inheritance is the best data governance method for managing this property. Doing this allows members to be added and a value based on the hierarchy location is determined by default. Then when there are contra accounts the data steward only has to manage these few exceptions.

Status:

Under Oracle Review

More details:

A simple drop down on the FCGL default view inspector could allow for the assignment of the "controlling" hierarchy view point for inherited properties.

Or, when defining a FCGL property as inheritable, you can have the hierarchy view point list drop down selection there.

Once the controlling hierarchy view point is defined, the values on the list view point for FCGL will be calculated from the controlling hierarchy inherited value. 

Oracle EDMCS Idea... Allow saved connections to be used in exportDimension EPM Automate command

Allow saved connections to be used in exportDimension EPM Automate command

Description:

In the Feb 2020 Release of EDM there was an updated command added to EPM Automate for EDM called exportDimension. This new command is missing the ability to specify a defined connection for the export. 

We need the ability to specify the saved connection in EDM for this command so that we can send exports to both EPM targets (Consolidations & Planning) along with ERP (FCGL) targets. 

Use Case and Business Need:

The business wants to use a consistent batch scripting tool without the overhead of REST API or OIC build efforts. Using EPM Automate allows for simple batch command line automation from EDM into the supported applications. 

As an Oracle Cloud application, it is expected that simple configuration in needed to integrate from EDM to EPM or FCGL application as these are out of the box "detected application adapters" provided in EDM for EPM and FCGL.

More details:

Having the option in the exportDimension command or a new command called something like exportDimensionWithConnection is a must have to complete the enterprise data governance process from reference data inception through approval and ultimately into the target consuming applications.

How Does IT Manage Financial Master Data?

Traditionally, financial data marts and operation data stores are built and managed by IT. So how does the business user view and manage the hierarchies and metadata attributes without IT getting in the way? Coming from the IT side of the house, I have had the opinion that the business might “know the business”, but given the opportunity to manage a technical system they will take shortcuts and ultimately bring the IT solution back to a level they are comfortable with…and thanks to Bill Gates, Microsoft Excel ends up trumping the investment in technology.

I have found that there needs to be a bridge between IT and business users. By the nature of a bridge, there is a span that straddles an open gap with the potential if not built correctly the plunge can be a long and ‘fatal’ fall.

There are many companies offering workflow tools to bridge the gap by helping the communication between business and IT. Alone these solutions still leave opportunity for failure as IT is managing systems it does not have an intimate ownership in. Nor does IT have the knowledge to determine if the business is going to request a change that will impact the system. IT presumes that if the software allows the change than there is no reason why not to do it. As we all have experience one time or another, this is a bad assumption.

Of the many tools I have worked with, currently the Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) tool (formally Hyperion MDM / Razza Dimension Server) fills the gap between business and IT. Using a tool such as this gives a strong user interface that the business can use and buy into while allowing IT to be involved by building edit checks and integrity checks into DRM. Additionally it provides IT the vested ownership while keeping the business from impacting their own “business rules”. Not to mention IT’s data governance policies are enforced which keeps IT happy.

A win, win for everyone… right?

Why not EPMA…who needs DRM?

Over the past several months, and quite possibly the past year or two, there have been numerous discussions regarding the need for a separate master data management (MDM) tool such as Hyperion / Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) to manage Hyperion metadata outside of the Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA) tool that comes with Hyperion System 9 and Oracle Fusion 11.
Recently at a users’ conference, I heard comments like “EPMA is DRM ‘Light’” and “EPMA is DRM with a Web interface”.
Hyperion, and obviously now Oracle, has invested deeply in EPMA and it is difficult to identify how and where it might differ from the DRM product. Oracle has even used portions of the DRM base code and underlying architecture in EPMA and when looking at vapor-ware demos, you might draw similar conclusions to those quotes above. In reality, EPMA, in its current state, is a pumped up version of the old Hyperion HUB as it relates to metadata management. Granted, EPMA has updated the user interface leveraging the glyphs (icons) and nomenclature from DRM while completely missing the intellectual aptitude that a master data tool provides.
Below are the key uses that were provided in a recent Oracle presentation as well shows the difference between EPMA and DRM:
EPMA
• Unifies and aligns application administration processes across the Hyperion EPM system
• Imports and shares business dimensions in the Dimension Library
• Builds, validates, and deploys applications in the Application Library
• Designs and maintains business rules in Calculation Manager
• Loads and synchronizes transaction data into and between EPM applications
DRM
• Manages change of business master data across enterprise applications
• Consolidates and rationalizes structures across source systems
• Conforms dimensions and validate integrity of attributes and relationships
• Synchronizes alternate business views with corporate hierarchies
• Key Features include:
i. Versioning and Modeling
ii. Custom rules and validation
iii. Configurable exports
iv. Granular security
v. Change tracking
*Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management, Fusion Edition 11.1.1- Robin Peel