Enterprise Planning and Budgeting –

Three Case Studies

David FustonDirector, Business IntelligenceLinium, LLCCell: 816.729.1033Email: david.fuston@linium.com

About David Fuston

Technical and functional consultant since 1989 with experience in applications development, IT management, and financial controller positions for Fortune 500 and World 200 companies.

Oracle Beta Tester and Early Adopter since 1997 for numerous programs, such as Applications 11i (OFA, DBI, EPF & EPB), 9iAS Discoverer and Drake 10g, Warehouse Builder 3i/9i, and 9i/10g OLAP. Beta tester and early adopter since 1999 for Microsoft Plato, OLAP Services, and SQL Server Analysis Services.

Officer, speaker, or sponsor in OAUG, BI/DW SIG, OracleWorld, AppsWorld, OpenWorld, IOUG, ODTUG, Collaborate, HEUG Alliance, NCOAUG, RMOUG, SCOUG, KCOUG, OOUG, PASS, NorCalOAUG, and Microsoft For Developers Only conferences and seminars.

Teaching and training role started in 1984 as a manufacturing plant “zero defects” trainer utilizing the Phillip Crosby Quality College methods.

Board member and Treasurer for Oracle Development and Tools User Group (ODTUG). Member of Oracle Business Intelligence Customer Advisory Board (BI CAB), and International Oracle User Council (IOUC) Product Development Committee and Fusion channel.

About Linium

•Linium is a certified consulting firm, with practices in Business Intelligence and Oracle Applications, and Service & Asset Management.

•Linium combines Best-of-Breed products and industry best-practices with our talented and certified IT consultants. Every Linium engagement is managed by our PMI, ITIL, or PRINCE2 certified project managers.

•With offices in New York, Connecticut, and Virginia, we are celebrating 8+ years, still privately held, with steady growth year over year, currently 200+ employees nationwide.

Partner Status with:

Agenda

• What is Enterprise Planning and Budgeting• EPB evolution from early adopter to version 2• Three mini-case studies

– US Air Force FIRST

– Guthy-Renker

– BAE

• Future Product Direction• Questions• Summary and Questions

Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB)

• Type 4 Application--Delivered as module of Oracle Applications, but can be run standalone

• Delivered as a patch to Oracle Applications 11.5.9 -- Included as part of the rapid install for 11.5.10

• Backports of EPB to 11.5.8 or earlier are not technically feasible• Requires Oracle9i Database 9.2.0.7 plus OLAP Option or above• If a customer has 10.7 or 11.0.x or no Oracle Applications, then the

product can be a standalone solution• More Planned Sources

– Projects– Fixed Assets– Human Resources– Grants

• Supports consolidated views and scenarios of Oracle and non-Oracle data via API(s) in FEM Schema, same as Enterprise Performance Foundation used by DBI modules, BSC, and PM

Oracle EPB vs Oracle OFA

Feature OFA (Tool)

EPB (App)

Installation/maintenance

Express Server Oracle9i/10g DatabaseOLAP option and E-Business Suite 11i

Client VB, Java HTML

Graphics Good Outstanding

Text commentary Text FDI Cell-level annotations

Workflow None Built in feature

Process management None Built in feature

Exception alerts None Built in feature

Data processing set up Manual Automated

End user calculations Express expressions

Business calculation templates

EPB definition

• Oracle Module starting with Oracle Apps 11.5.9, targeted as replacement for OFA.

• Does not use OFA data loader, but rather is built on top of Enterprise Performance Foundation (EPF, a.k.a. FEM relational schema). Load batch data via Oracle GL Link or via EPF interface tables.

• Unlike Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) task processor, EPB uses standard Oracle Apps workflow and concurrent manager controls.

• Unlike Discoverer 4i, EPB utilizes JDeveloper BIBeans for calculations and presentation layer, same technology stack as Drake (Discoverer 10gR2), Daily Business Intelligence (DBI), and Profitability Manager (PM, formerly known as Performance Analyzer and Activity Based Management)

EPB definition

• Unlike OFA which uses a Visual Basic client for Windows and a Java client for the web, EPB uses only an HTML client

• Unlike OFA tiered structure with Super Administrator, EPB uses 3 different un-scoped Oracle Applications responsibilities

• Unlike OFA, EPB has audit trail for each and every change made to the data, from the original worksheet entry thru each change until final approval via views

• Like OFA, EPB can be installed in standalone mode or, unlike OFA, as part of the rapid install of 11.5.10.2

EPB definition

• EPB stores all data in the Analytic Workspace• Shared AW• Personal AWs

• EPB, unlike OFA, has a built-in allocation engine. Uses undocumented FROM clause to AGGREGATE

• Like OFA, EPB has solves and models • In EPB, data in AW exposed through relational views• In EPB, during process run, calculate as much as possible

dynamically. After process run, persist certain levels in RAM to optimize access performance

FEM Schema

BalancesTable

20 DataTables

FixedDimension

Tables

10 UserDimension

Tables

HierarchyTables

AttributeTables

LevelTables

Simple DimensionTables

InterfaceTables

GL LinkAnalytic

Workspacefor EPB

FEM Schema Data Tables

• Balances Table• Dimensioned by all

hierarchical dimensions• Target for GL integration• Target for balance data• Used by other

applications directly• Numeric, date, text

measures

20 Data Tables• Administrator defines the primary key• Effectively 20 tables for storing uniquely dimensioned data• Numeric, date, text measures• Specifically for EPB but can also be used for other CPM applications

FEM Schema Data Tables

Analytic Dimensions

ORGANIZATION (COMPANY COST CENTER)

PRODUCT

CHANNEL

PROJECT

CUSTOMER

GEOGRAPHY

TASK

ACTIVITY

COST OBJECT

TIME (CALENDAR PERIOD)

Data ManagementSOURCE SYSTEMLEDGERDATASETCURRENCY

Financial CharacteristicsFINANCIAL ELEMENT NATURAL ACCOUNTLINE ITEM

Financial ConsolidationINTERCOMPANYENTITY

User-Defined DimensionsUSER DIM 1-10

Analytic Workspace

• OLAP in the Oracle9i or 10g Database• Container for collections of multidimensional data types

• Contains one or many ‘cubes’, data, formulas, stored procedures

• Stored in Oracle data files• AW tables have 2 columns

• Index• BLOB with data stored using Express algorithm (Each record is

like an Express extension file)• Fast and sophisticated multidimensional modeling and querying

Middle Tier

• Applications Framework 5.10• Set of common standards and components for UI and middle tier (self-service UI)• HTML user interface

• Concurrent Manager & Workflow (equivalent to Task Processor in OFA)• Used to automate business processes & handle multi-thread processes• Process run creates Workflow tasks, which are queued in concurrent mgr• Executed through concurrent manager• Integration with Collaboration Suite through email• Supports simultaneous execution of programs in background. CM runs the tasks in

the correct sequence for that business process (e.g. Load before Solve)• BI Beans 3.1

• Multidimensional query API against CwM metadata• Java OLAP API Writes SQL queries• Used against relational views on top of AWs (Discoverer, BO, Cognos Query)

BIBeans 3.1

• Java components that developers use to build applications

• Can be deployed as Java applets or as HTML• Crosstab and graph bean within EPB documents• Query builder bean within EPB documents, security,

and some task set up• Calc builder bean UI only for insertion of calculations

and solves• Persistence bean (BI catalog) for storing EPB

document, saved selection, calculation objects

Client Tier

• HTML browser interface• Portal• Export to HTML, PDF, Excel, Oracle Reports.

XML Publisher• Briefing books

Business Processes Batch Data Load

Relational Views with SQL Table Functions

FEM Tables

OLAP Catalog

Java OLAP API

Business Intelligence Beans

ApplicationCatalog

Shared AW

FEM Interface Tables

Personal AW

Personal AW

Load data into FEM interface tables

Schema administrator triggers data move to FEM tables

Controller Load data task in business process pulls the data into the shared AW

Manual Data Collection

Metadata for worksheet copied from shared AW to personal AW

• BUT only the data for the data collection business process is copied

• Formula used to reference shared AW data• When user makes changes to data, it is written to personal AW and can be saved• When user submits, a formula is created in receiver’s personal AW• When they are approved, then and only then, is data written to the shared AW

Data Entry Manual Data Load

Relational Views with SQL Table Functions

FEM Tables

OLAP Catalog

Java OLAP API

Business Intelligence Beans

ApplicationCatalog

Shared AW

FEM Interface Tables

Approver’sPersonal

AW

Submitter’sPersonal

AW

Data for the Budget view is copied to the submitter’s personal AW. This is the data that he/she will change when formulating the budget.

KEYData is moved or copied

Data is referenced by formula

1919

Data Flow When Budget is Distributed

Data for the Budget view is copied to the submitter’s personal AW. This is the data that he/she will change when formulating the budget.

Manual Data Entry

Relational Views with SQL Table Functions

FEM Tables

OLAP Catalog

Java OLAP API

Business Intelligence Beans

ApplicationCatalog

Shared AW

FEM Interface Tables

Approver’sPersonal

AW

Submitter’sPersonal

AW

The worksheet uses a formula to pull all other data in the worksheet from the shared AW

KEYData is moved or copied

Data is referenced by formula

2020

The approver’s worksheet uses a formula to pull all other data in the worksheet from the shared AW

Manual Data Entry

Relational Views with SQL Table Functions

FEM Tables

OLAP Catalog

Java OLAP API

Business Intelligence Beans

ApplicationCatalog

Shared AW

FEM Interface Tables

Approver’sPersonal

AW

Submitter’sPersonal

AW

The approver’s worksheet uses a formula to pull the data for the business process from the submitter’s personal AW

KEYData is moved or copied

Data is referenced by formula

2121

Manual Data Entry

Relational Views with SQL Table Functions

FEM Tables

OLAP Catalog

Java OLAP API

Business Intelligence Beans

ApplicationCatalog

Shared AW

FEM Interface Tables

Approver’sPersonal

AW

Submitter’sPersonal

AW

When the approver approves the budget, the data from the submitter’s personal AW is moved into the shared AW

KEYData is moved or copied

Data is referenced by formula

2222

Agenda

• What is Enterprise Planning and Budgeting• EPB evolution from early adopter to version 2• Three mini-case studies

– US Air Force FIRST

– Guthy-Renker

– BAE

• Future Product Direction• Questions• Summary and Questions

Enterprise Planning and Budgeting v1

• Version 1 (ZPB.A) – September 2004• See TechNote:258249.1 “About Oracle Enterprise Planning and

Budgeting Mini-pack 11i.ZPB.A” for all pre-requisites– In version 1 of EPB, reuse the OFA General Ledger link, but it

will only bring data from GL into the FEM schema; it will not allow you to write data back to GL – this will be a future enhancement.

– In the FEM schema, it is not a star schema: it is optimized for other processing. There are open interface tables to all of these metadata and data tables, and some “hidden tables”.

– New Migration technote published as “EPB OFA Migration Tech Note.pdf” dated March, 2005

– Single chart of accounts and single USD currency supported• Delivered on top of Oracle Applications 11.5.9, but Included as part

of the rapid install for 11.5.10+ applications, but can be run standalone If a customer has 10.7 or 11.0.x or no Oracle Applications

• Backports of EPB to 11.5.8 or earlier are not technically feasible

Enterprise Planning and Budgeting v2

Version 2 (ZPB.B) – September 2005– Requires either 9.2.0.7 or 10.1.0.4+ database plus patches,

Apps CU2 (11.5.10.2), EPF FEM.D.1, and EPB ZPB.B patchset G

– License• OFA/OSA licenses can migrate to either

• Full user EPB licenses or Oracle BI licenses (Discoverer)

• Express licenses migrate to Database Enterprise Edition plus OLAP Option run time only licenses

EPBv2 Features Enhancements for Enterprise-wide rollout• Budgeting in multiple currencies• Additional calculation templates (If-Then-Else)• Improved security management (via Security API)• Business areas (Multiple SoB/charts of accounts)• Improved business process management (Solve

Options for multiple hierarchies whether value-based or level-based)

• SQL access to shared data (SQL access layer on top of EPB metadata)

• Support for XML Publisher• Import from MS Excel

Agenda

• What is Enterprise Planning and Budgeting• EPB evolution from early adopter to version 2• Three mini-case studies

– US Air Force FIRST

– Guthy-Renker

– BAE

• Future Product Direction• Questions• Summary and Questions

USAF FIRST BF Program

• Goal -- Develop and install the first fully integrated, real-time financial information system for the USAF. The resulting Financial Information Resource System (FIRST) will collect all accounting data into a single integrated system and provide an enterprise-wide view of financial activity.

• Goal -- Replace existing three disparate financial systems which includes isolated historical budget data. FIRST will integrate, consolidate, and aggregate budgeting data across all levels of organization to streamline the budgeting process, increase efficiency and better support decision-making.

USAF FIRST BF Program• Budget Formulation includes the entire Oracle Technology stack

– Oracle Designer – metadata repository for Legacy Data Warehouse

– Oracle Warehouse Builder -- transform all legacy systems data into a single unified architecture

– Single Sign-On using Oracle Application Server authentication

– Oracle Discoverer (aka Drake) – ad hoc and standardized reporting from the Data Warehouse

– Oracle Applications 11.5.10 Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB) in controlled release – standard and custom business process workflows

• Original design utilized OFA, but then switched to an EPB focused design as an early adopter. There were ninety-seven separate features/functions as determining factors in comparison to switch.

USAF FIRST BF Program Metrics• EPB Configuration Specifications:

– Source custom DW = 6+ TB (est) containing up to 40 years of data from 10+ heterogeneous sources

– Stand-alone EPB instance technology stack• BIBeans 3.1• Drake (aka Discoverer 10gR2)• Database 10.1.0.4 plus OLAP option• Oracle Workflow 2.6• EPB 11.5.10 CU2 with EPB patchset F (controlled Release)• FEM Schema patchset D.1• 500+ users via USAF portal in phase 1, potential 3000+ in

phase 4– 11 hierarchical dimensions, no simple dimensions– 90+ custom attributes

USAF EPB v2 Problems, Issues, Concerns

• Team has logged over 61 TAR(s) from March 15,2005 to February 17, 2006

• Team has identified 8 workarounds, 3 bugs, and 2 enhancement requests

• Sub-BPA, sub-controllers, sub-schema administrators, like had in OFA, not yet available

• Backup and archive strategy designed but not yet implemented

• Documentation -- user versus admin• Data Scrubbing and Staging – still 60-70% of effort • Agreement among diverse operations for a consistent

business process flow

Company Background

• Established in 1988, Guthy-Renker is today one of the world's direct response television companies with sales of more than $1.3 Billion per year and an average annual growth rate of 25% over the last 10 years.

• The company has become vertically-integrated, now covering every area of electronic retailing. Channels have expanded from the original television broadcast into cable and satellite, as well as telemarketing, direct mail, and retail channels.

• For those unfamiliar with the company, you will definitely know them by their spokespersons and brands:

– Proactiv Solution Vanessa Williams– Principal Secret Victoria Principal – Winsor Pilates Daisy Fuentes– Meaningful Beauty Cindy Crawford– Get the Edge Anthony Robbins– Natural Advantage Jane Seymour

Environment

• With the tremendous growth in vertical integration and the expansion of product lines, the need to organize the planning, forecasting, and budgeting processes became more acute in the back office.

• Each product manager historically operated autonomously from the other brand managers, including marketing staff, channel management, customer service, IT, and accounting policies,etc.

• New CFO is breaking down internal barriers– common measurements for determining “go or

no-go” decision on new product launches– upgrading the Oracle Applications to single

11.5.10 2 instance

Environment

• Current annual budgeting process is current year detail plus five year summary forecast.

• Current process uses an incredible 190+ interlocking MS Excel spreadsheets, which are maintained by two people. Some MS Excel formulas were traced back to be 14 levels deep. Other spreadsheet data is being re-keyed from scratch up to five times.

• Recognizing the need for a more stable platform that could be accessed by more stakeholders, the search began for software to meet their needs.

Alternatives and Actions• As part of the search a team was sent to Oracle User Group

Collaborate06 conference to research possible solutions, which identified Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting.

• Granular external sales and cost data is held by outsourced manufacturing and distribution operations at EDS and other fulfillment houses. This data is sent weekly to GRC, pre-sorted by FoxPro at GRC, and loaded via flat files into a sales data mart, which then feeds the GL only using top level consolidated numbers.

• An internal study was launched to compare what requirements from original failed custom software project could or could not be met by the EPB module. Once Finance team deemed EPB possible, then analysis began in earnest. Redundant, overlapping, missing, misstated, and inconsistent business requirements were identified. Gaps, workarounds, standard functionality, possible extensions, and future requirements were compiled. A Kepnor-Tregoe methodology to the requirements analysis to enable an overall team decision.

Alternatives and Actions• Major factors in decision to move forward with EPB were:

– Minimum manual intervention and data re-keying required versus current MS Excel method

– Ability to run various planning models multiple times in any one day– Facility to centralize data collection for both annual budget and monthly

forecasting– Ability for multiple users to access/update forecasts for specific items

based on established security levels.– Ability for individual users to create their own reports and analysis ad

hoc from one central data repository– Ability for individual users to create their own “what-if” scenarios in their

own workspace, without affecting master repository– Capability to download and upload data into and out of MS Excel– Capability to control pixel level formatting for certain key reports via .pdf

or .xml formats (i.e., BI Publisher)– Single central store of data with an audit trail for analysis as the final

“version of the truth”

EPB Results• Direct integration via GL Link for data feeds. Not enough

detailed data, so pursuing granular data feeds from fulfillment houses.

• Integration of budget/forecast/actuals into one report without manual re-keying of data

• Accountability for results on existing products, new product rollouts, and entire product lines is at an all-time high

• Oracle OLAP database option is running both Oracle Demand Planning module and Enterprise Planning and Budgeting module in same instance on a large Sun box.

• Parallel system run for a complete overlap from old MS Excel and new EPB systems is currently in process, matching on multiple key financial reports and multiple ad hoc reports

EPB Results Continued• FY2007 Budget process is utilizing MS Excel

spreadsheets download from EPB worksheets for individual manual input and documentation purposes

• Complete System Testing included – EPB module– 11i Integration– Data integrity

• Administrative hands-on training with consultants in addition to administrative documentation available from Oracle

• Scope increased from original estimate to include building reports and graphs using XML Publisher and multiple reporting currencies inside EPB budget based on new international entities

Lessons Learned

• EPB will not produce certain reports if the data is outside of GRC today

• EPB and ODP use the same OLAP technology stack, but are designed for different purposes (GL versus OM/PO/INV data sources)

• EPB has capability to reduce the monthly closing timeline, but is not an instantaneous reporting tool.

• Detail level Operational KPIs are not included in EPB, but are included in the BI data mart (separate project).

• Aerospace & Defense company based in U.K. with US subsidiaries– Platform Solutions line of business

headquartered in Johnson City NY– Military and Commercial customers– Using Oracle since 2002

• e-Business suite: Financials, Manufacturing, Service.

• Apps version - 11.5.10 Cumulative Update 2

Oracle Financial Analyzer environment• OFA Live in 2002

– GL-Link for Overhead Accounting group• One set of books/one currency

– “Programmatic” reporting and budgeting capability added in 2003:

• Captures actual program costs from various Oracle modules

• Consolidated reporting and budgeting tool for our line of business

– Approx. 100 users across six US sites.– Weekly refresh of “actuals” from Oracle apps.– Quarterly planning cycle.

Business Pains & Needs• Why replace OFA?• Increasing Cycle times for data refreshes

– Business demands – 4 + hour update for solves: actuals and

planning• End of life for OFA; no future enhancements• Administrative OH is burdensome; manual

processes; no workflow; email notifications.

Why Enterprise Planning & Budgeting?

• Oracle suite is strategic choice for our Line Of Business and our parent Operating Group (US BAE)

• Analysis showed that EPB is capable of meeting the requirements of our business.

• No additional software cost - We had already purchased the software as part of our Oracle suite.

EPB Implementation Details• Opportunity to improve our design

– Is there a better way to do it? i.e. Build a better mousetrap?– Addition of customer enhancements (thankfully, not many!)– Simplification: elimination of many attributes, hierarchies,

dimensionsReduce our 200+ FDI(s) currently in place in OFA

• Utilize process driven aspects of EPB and Oracle Workflow

• Reduced administrative OH burden– Access tied to Oracle login, not unique UNIX/OFA login– Less “babysitting” required (OFA) - ability to schedule repeatable

jobs via Oracle Conc. Mgr.• No more Express/SPL requirements; rely on generic Oracle DBA

expertise.• 100% web• One login for Oracle

EPB Implementation Details (continued)• Development complete; now in UAT instance• Reduced OFA structures which need to go to EPF tables

– Dimensions, Attributes, Hierarchies• Tighter integration with Oracle GL

– Entire Trial Balance in EPB; Only expenses from chart of Accounts in OFA

• Consolidation of OFA FDIs– Shared dimensionality = same Analytic Workspace.

• Developer modifying the data extracts. Over 80% of our data loaded in OFA is custom extracts outside of GL Link, and most of this 80% is Oracle Project Accounting data

• Opportunity to clean house for increased efficiencies, such as pulling hierarchies directly from GL Link in lieu of separately maintaining hierarchies in OFA.

Lessons Learned…• Need to work very closely with Oracle DBA and Developer• Run STATS often on FEM, OLAPSYS, ZPB, SYS, SYSTEM for

performance• EPB enforces a higher level of data consistency than OFA:

– Dimensions with required attributes.– Level-based Hierarchy must have members be consistent; not a

requirement in OFA.– Important to get setup of EPF right.

• Still need to run OFA through parallel transition• US GAAP and UK GAAP make for some interesting discussions,

dimension member parents, hierarchies, attributes, and report formats to satisfy both groups

• Pioneering the projects accounting data in same business area with OGL data will require design assistance from Oracle

Success Metrics & Results• Anticipate reduced cycle times through:

– Reduction of number of dimension values – Improvements in underlying OLAP engine

Potential Issues:• EPB is shared with other Oracle Apps.

Can’t optimize EPF/EPB at the expense of other apps.

• Historical data – how much?– Analysis or Audit requirement

Looking Forward• Oracle Data Warehouse

• Addition of one of our UK business areas that is part of our line of business.– Use EPB “built-in” multi-currency option.

Agenda

• What is Enterprise Planning and Budgeting• EPB evolution from early adopter to version 2• Three mini-case studies

– US Air Force FIRST

– Guthy-Renker

– BAE

• Future Product Direction• Summary and Questions

Oracle CPM Roadmap to FusionEnterprise Performance Foundation• Unified analytic and CPM semantic model, including integrations to

support CPM functions for all customers (Oracle, PSFT, JDE, Siebel, other):

– Integration with PSFT GL– Integration with Oracle HR and PSFT HCM-- Integration with OBIEE (formerly Siebel)

Enterprise Planning and Budgeting• Write-back to Oracle GL, • Integration with PSFT GL for expense budgeting & encumbrance

accounting• Integration with Oracle HR and PSFT HCM for salary planning &

position budgeting• Simplification of setup processes: business process, metadata

management, security

Customizations/ Extensions

• Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting is fully configurable by the customer

• There are no customization hooks within the application. All non-OGL data must conform to EPF requirements

• Customizations to Oracle Workflow can be done using the standard Oracle Workflow APIs

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More Questions?

Enterprise Planning and Budgeting –

Three Case Studies

David FustonDirector, Business IntelligenceLinium, LLCCell: 816.729.1033Email: david.fuston@linium.com