Oracle EPM & BI Blog

Why Is It So Difficult to Maintain Data Consistency Across the Enterprise?

Establishing a common set of data parameters that your organization follows seems like it should be simple, but the truth is that every group needs their own view of the data. Consider a simple concept like “Total Monthly Sales.” If I’m speaking from a sales group perspective, I’m referring to all the business my sales organization closed in the time period I’m reporting for. If, on the other hand, I’m asking the group controller, his definition is going to reflect all closed business that has been booked to the ledger.

Hence, at month end, when the CEO is trying to review how the organization is doing against the stated goals, the answer he gets for “Total Monthly Sales” will be different based on whom he asks. The detrimental effect of alternate views is the inconsistency of data across the organization. Departmental management makes operational decisions based on what they perceive is the truth, and corporate management makes strategic decisions based on these perceptions. If the data is not the same, it is easy to see how operational decisions can conflict or adversely affect the strategic corporate goals.

The Best Account Reconciliation Tool? Oracle ARM (3 Reasons Why)

If you’re in the market for an account reconciliation solution, you’re probably feeling the pain points of manual processes. Fragmented data. Lack of visibility into progress. Time-consuming reconciliations that cause a major bottleneck in the financial close process.

The costly risks of manual methods — missing or lost reconciliations, unreconciled accounts, improper use of roll-forwards, and insufficient justification or documentation — can be prevented by automating your account reconciliation process. The question isn’t whether you should protect your organization with an account reconciliation tool, but which tool is best.

DRM Best Practices: Versions, Hierarchies, Nodes, Properties, and More

Oracle Data Relationship Management is a commonly misunderstood tool. Our expert data governance consultants continually see the same mistakes due to inexperience with the application. The good news is these mistakes can be fixed and your practices can be modified.

In this blog post, we’ll look at best practices for different components of DRM, including:

• Versions
• Hierarchies
• Nodes/Members
• Properties
• Queries & Validations

3 Things to Know About Integrating Oracle DRM with Your Applications

If you think Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) can only integrate with Oracle Hyperion applications, then you probably don’t know the history of DRM. The tool was originally developed by an SAP shop with the goal of supporting hierarchy and hierarchy reference data for reporting.

We’ve already debunked myths about DRM’s functionality as well as DRM’s project costs and timeframes. In the third blog post of this series, we’ll talk about how DRM will integrate with your applications: using DRM with non-Oracle products, supporting a SaaS-based cloud architecture with DRM, and maintaining Oracle EPM products with DRM’s automated integration. 

4 Myths About Oracle DRM’s Functionality

Those who have Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) often don’t realize the power of their solution and end up underutilizing the tool. Because DRM has been continually optimized over decades, many organizations are missing facts about DRM’s capabilities — facts that could be keeping them from a higher return on investment.

We’ve already debunked common myths around DRM’s project costs and timeframes. Now, in this second post in the series, we’ll take a closer look at DRM’s functionality and how to get more from the tool. These myths revolve around DRM use cases, mappings, workflows, and data cleansing.

The Truth About Oracle DRM Project Costs, Timeframes, and Uses

“But DRM doesn’t do that… does it?” This is a question our consultants hear regularly. Because people are often surprised by the answers to their Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) questions, we’ve set out to separate fact from fiction and help organizations make informed decisions.

In this first post of the series, we’ll focus on myths that keep companies from getting started with DRM and investing in a high-ROI solution — myths around DRM’s use cases, costs, and projects.

So, what are the myths? And, more importantly, what are the facts?

FDMEE Tutorial: 10 Steps to Using a Source Adapter Parameter to Filter Data

Financial Data Quality Management Enterprise Edition (FDMEE) and Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) are useful products with an abundance of features. The various menus, options, and setup screens within FDMEE and ODI can be overwhelming. This is why I was intimidated when initially challenged with the task of leveraging FDMEE parameters to filter data sets, but the task turned out to be a great learning experience. Going through the process helped me gain a better understanding of the relationship between FDMEE and ODI objects.

NOTE: The steps below will not walk through installing or setting up FDMEE. The assumption is that the environment is already setup and running with working source and targets.  

DRM Tutorial: 8 Steps for Adding New DRM Users in Bulk

 Recently, I was tasked with adding Users to DRM. The list contained almost 200 users! Inputting the users one-by-one was, in my opinion, not a viable option. Instead, I was able to save time by bulk inserting the users into DRM.

Bulk inserting DRM Users involves modifying/writing to back-end database tables. In addition to READ access to the DRM relational tables, you will also need WRITE access to the following six tables:

• RM_User
• RM_User_Role
• RM_Category_User
• RM_Object_Access_Group
• RM_Object_Access_Group_User
• DAL_Sequence

In the following example, users will be added to DRM with the “Workflow User” role.

Note: The below steps were used for an environment using MS SQL Server.

ARCS Update – Features for July 2016

With each Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud Service (ARCS) update, the implementation strategy changes due to increased functionality. Oracle has invested the time and effort to make each PSU game changing. In this blog, we’ll look at the latest PSU for ARCS.

Get the Most from Oracle ARM & ARCS: Automate Your Accounting Process

Spreadsheets used for account reconciliations are usually portrayed as the culprit in slowing down the financial close process. The simple truth is it’s not Excel’s fault — spreadsheets weren’t specifically designed as an account reconciliation tool.

Whenever I demonstrate Oracle Hyperion account reconciliation solutions — Account Reconciliation Manager (ARM) and Account Reconciliation Cloud Solution (ARCS) — I frequently hear the same thing, “The application looks easy and is pretty straightforward.” During the training phase, end users almost always remark how simple the process is to reconcile.

Performing reconciliations in ARM and ARCS is a push button solution. The magic is in the activity that occurs through automation and integration leading up to the preparer clicking the ‘submit’ button and the reviewer clicking the ‘approve’ button. Automating and integrating the accounting process will help speed up your close process and lead to a successful implementation of ARM or ARCS.