Enhanced Data Integration with Fusion Financials Cloud: It’s new & it works

The October 2016 PBCS update saw the release of the “Enhanced Data Integration with Fusion Financials Cloud”. After the previous Fusion integration process turned out to be nothing more than a flat file load, I was sceptical of this new “Enhanced” version. I’m pleased to report that this time it truly is seamless!

The Oracle documentation is pretty good so instead of spouting out the step by step process, I’ll explain some things I picked up on during the process:

Obstacle #1: The Oracle documentation

“The Initialize process brings over the Fusion General Ledger data into the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud system as ASO Essbase cubes. Each ASO Essbase target application represents a chart of accounts definition from the source Fusion General Ledger instance.”

At this point, I’m thinking that initialising this connection is going to create ASO plan types in my PBCS application, I couldn’t figure out why this would be necessary or how, if that was the case, I was going to be able to load from Fusion into my BSO plan. Turns out that this isn’t the case at all and all it’s referring to is the setup of the Fusion cube in Data Management. Phew!

This is what you’ll see in Setup > Target Application in Data Management after initialising the Source System:

Obstacle #2: Import Format source dimensions
The next thing that stumped me was that when I went to create my Import format (source Fusion, target PBCS) I had all my PBCS dimensions in the drop down for source dimensions as well as my Fusion dimensions. Bug?

Before creating the import format, click Refresh Members in the Target Application. This will fix the issue and show you only the Fusion dimensions in the drop down.

Obstacle #3: Period Mappings

For a standard data file upload into PBCS, the period keys are irrelevant, so I never take much notice of them. For the Fusion upload, the period keys need to be set correctly. For example, if your Years in PBCS are financial years spanning Apr-Mar i.e. FY17 is Apr 2016- Mar 2017, then your Apr-17 mapping needs to have the dates from 2016. See below  

Alternatively, you could set up your own Source Mappings and choose Period Mapping type “Explicit” in your Data Load rule.
Your turn: Please comment if you can enlighten me as to how these months are ordered…

Obstacle #4: Duplicate member names in Fusion

If Fusion has duplicate members, you might need to set Use Qualified Member Name to ‘Yes’ when creating your source filters to prevent the import from failing,

Obstacle #5: Drill through

Once the URL is set and the Drill through option is set to Yes, drilling back into Fusion (Yes, all the way back into Fusion!) works well, I can drill through to see the transactions that were loaded into PBCS and then I can go one step further and drill back into Fusion itself.

I have found this usually doesn’t work first time, I get so far as the login screen before being faced with:

Noooo!

But all hope is not lost, if I go back to my drill through screen above, and click “Drill through to Source” again, Fusion opens and I can see the transaction and the journals that make it up. Hurray!

Writing the Budget back to Fusion

Writing back to Fusion is a very similar process to loading the Actuals to PBCS, except of course your import format will have the source and target swapped over and you’ll have to redefine all your Mappings with the Target set to Fusion.

You will need to enter the Budget Type, Budget name in the Data Load Rule > Target Options and specify the Functional Currency in your Location.

I have to say, adapters to other source systems can’t come soon enough, it has huge time saving implications for clients who no longer need to fuss around generating flat files and has opened up doors for comparing Actuals and Budgets with greater ease.

All we need now is for Data Management to be able to automatically update metadata. Here’s to hoping…

Anything else you've picked up on? 
Comments & Questions always welcome.

Becoming a Cloud Champion with Brovanture

From Uni to Nando’s, yum!
I still remember that dreary rainy evening in February 2012, sitting in a damp student house in Guildford desperately searching the web for placement opportunities. My mood mirrored the weather as I continually struggled to answer the inevitable first stage questions like “Why do you want to work with us?” the unwritten answer being “I don’t know, I just need a placement already!”
 
Then I found Brovanture’s job spec: a technical, client facing role in a small local company dedicated to improving a business’s budgeting and forecasting process by implementing something called Oracle Hyperion software. In all honesty, I didn’t entirely understand everything I was reading, but I understood enough to realise that Brovanture was a different kind of company – focussed on providing variety, challenges and opportunities in a friendly environment.
 
When I stepped into the interview, I immediately felt at ease meeting Emma – a fellow Surrey University maths student in her intern year. She had already been offered a permanent role after graduation! Then I met Martin, a consultant who has been working with Essbase longer than I’ve been alive (sorry Martin!). The more I found out about the company, the more I wanted to work with them. Finally came the million-dollar question: “Do you like Nando's?" and it was then that I knew I was born to work with Brovanture.
 
During my interview, I also met Malcolm who explained proudly how he and another fellow South African, Marc, had set up the company in 2005 and had built it from the bottom up working from Malcolm’s living room with no salary for the first 6 months. They now had 15 employees and were resident in Surrey Research Park’s “business incubator”.
 
Needless to say, I was hired and benefitted from (compulsory extra hot) Nando's every Friday for a whole year! Om nom nom…

Our team, yay!
But seriously, I learnt so much more than I ever imagined I would. I was nurtured by Martin who taught me the revolutionary cube structure behind Essbase, the differences behind the two types of databases and the optimal ways in which to build a database. Within months, I was Essbase certified and from there I started contributing to client work before delving into Hyperion Planning to see what all the fuss was about.

Over the year, I got to know everyone’s personalities. To name a few:

Malcolm: The big boss, firm but reasonable.
Marc: Head social event organiser. Oh, also Director, pre-Sales and Planning Consultant.
Martin: Essbase and tech guru, forever studying!
Sarah D: Senior HFM consultant, meticulous and glamourous.
Emma: The intern who set the bar so high I had to jump to reach it.
Tony (aka DJ T): Sales during the day, DJ from 4pm and fisherman at the weekend.
Ram: Support, the human documentation library. May he never take leave or get sick.

By the end of my year I had seen Brovanture outgrow the incubator (move to a larger office), become ISO certified and reach new revenue highs. The secret – or perhaps not – behind it all being the people, whose congruent goal was adding value and ensuring clients were happy with the service.

Cloud Champion, woo!
When returning to Brovanture after graduation, there was a new kid on the block – PBCS. Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service was the latest cloud innovation by Oracle, which lifted on-premise Planning into the Cloud - woop! No more remote desktop onto servers, manually restarting services or remembering what software’s installed on what server!

I jumped on the opportunity to get involved in some of our first PBCS implementations and it soon became apparent that the monthly upgrades would need to be monitored and each new functionality tested as it was unveiled; hence my starring role as PBCS Champion was born.

Okay so maybe I was lured into the role by the promise of the ‘Champion’ title; the responsibility of keeping myself and the team up to date with PBCS functionality falls with me, but I enjoy it so it’s worth it.

If you’re still reading and think you might like to join us, then feel free to contact me on LinkedIn or drop me an email and I’ll pass on the message!

Thanks for reading! Now you should probably get back to work… :)

Jazmin – PBCS Champion of the World! Brovanture!