Importing data directly into PBCS can be done in two ways. There is a planning format and an Essbase format. Yes, it can be loaded through Data Management, but this is focused on explaining the direct import process, the formats, and the benefits to each. Read more
Identifying the months to calculate plan and forecast has always been a delicate balance between performance and maintenance. Having a calculation for each required duplication of forms or calculating more than what was required. Calculations required more complicated if logic than what it should have or (I hate when I see this) a calculation that just does both forecast and plan regardless of what needs calculated. Read more
I don’t normally write up monthly updated, but this month there are a number of intriguing changes/updates/enhancements that are important to know. Some may change existing processes. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are things I think all of us should take note of. Read more
Have you ever used a variable and received this error? Error: Unable to retrieve variable [variable name] deployed in the application [app name] Rule [app name].[plan type name].[rule name]. You likely saw this when a Groovy variable was used inside of {}. Read more
I am currently working on a migration of on-premise to cloud project (going GREAT by the way). One of the things we are working on is the change with the data integration. One of the processes loads the number of working days to the application from a source that provides it. “Why not use Groovy,” I ask? It turns out to be a great question. Read more
Changing application settings was always a little bit of a pain with an on-premise Planning application. It was a time intensive task of recreating the application, artifact groups at a time. If you were a little bit of a risk taker, you might have figured out that there were fields in the relational repository that could be updated. Is there an easy way to do this with PBCS? Read more
I can’t tell you how many times I have been at a client and they wanted to replicate eliminations at the first common parent like HFM, or some other consolidations system. Maybe there is a good way to do this, but I could never find an efficient and effective way to accomplish it with Essbase calculations. Well, that is history. This is yet another example of how to solve an historically complex problem very simply. Read more
I had a great question today so challenge accepted! A reader asked if it was possible to run a data export and have the system date in the file name. The answer is very simply, yes. I don’t have any content around the question, so I will answer it in two ways. Read more
To date, we have talked about the performance improvements Groovy introduces, as well as the creative validation we can add. One thing that hasn’t been covered yet is the ability to add functionality to make the input easier for a planner. Replicating changes through the months, resetting the values back to the defaults, and many other concepts can be developed to make the user’s lives easier. Read more
Manipulating dates is not something you may think is that useful, but there are a number of things that we have done in the past that are slow performing in Essbase, and others that were not possible or you may not have ever thought of. This is going to walk visitors through ways to manipulate dates for all kinds of uses. Hopefully it inspires some ideas for you to make your application a little more polished. Read more