Kscope18 Recap and Presentations – Take 2

So…I posted my presentations here, but then forgot to update them on the Kscope18 site.  So, if you prefer to get them from the Kscope18 site, they should now be updated to the same version as below.  Also, there was another Kscope18 recap, so I thought I would mention here as well.

Kscope18 Recaps

Kscope18 Presentations

And just in case you would rather get them from the US-Analytics site…here they are:

ASO and BSO and Hybrid! Oh My!

I’ll say that this presentation left me a little unnerved.  I’ve never had a presentation with so few questions.  We had questions at the end, but very few if any during the presentation.

Teaching On-Prem Planning Some PBCS Tricks

This presentation was actually sited as a “featured presentation” by ODTUG.  So…no pressure.  I actually felt much better about this presentation simply because there were a ton of questions.  And they were really, really great questions.

Wrap Up

Overall, Kscope18 was a great experience, as always.  This was my 9th Kscope in a row.  I am really hoping to have a presentation selected next year to make it an even 10 years!  So…hopefully I’ll see everyone next year in Seattle!

 

 

 


Kscope18 Recap and Presentations

As it does every year, Kscope18 has come and gone in a blur.  It’s been quite some time since my last post, something I hope to change now that Kscope18 has concluded.  This year, as has become the unfortunate trend for me, was another quick trip.  I flew in on the day of my first presentation and out the very next day of my last presentation.  I was fortunate enough to spend some time with old friends and people did show up to my presentations, so I’m calling this year a success!  While I didn’t get to spend much time at the conference, many of you did, and several of you were kind enough to put together a real recap.

Kscope18 Recaps

Kscope18 Presentations

This year I was honored to have two presentations.  You can download them from either the US-Analytics website or the Kscope website:

ASO and BSO and Hybrid! Oh My!

I’ll say that this presentation left me a little unnerved.  I’ve never had a presentation with so few questions.  We had questions at the end, but very few if any during the presentation.

Teaching On-Prem Planning Some PBCS Tricks

This presentation was actually sited as a “featured presentation” by ODTUG.  So…no pressure.  I actually felt much better about this presentation simply because there were a ton of questions.  And they were really, really great questions.

Wrap Up

Overall, Kscope18 was a great experience, as always.  This was my 9th Kscope in a row.  I am really hoping to have a presentation selected next year to make it an even 10 years!  So…hopefully I’ll see everyone next year in Seattle!

 


Kscope18, Here I Come!

As my family and I wrapped our first-ever family trip to Disney World, I received four e-mails from ODTUG.  The first two that I read let me know that two of my abstracts had been declined.  The second two let me know that two of my abstracts had been accepted!  So…back to Disney World I go!  I’m extremely honored and excited to have been selected to speak at Kscope18.  Thank you to everyone on the Kscope18 selection committee for the countless hours required to review over 1000 abstracts and narrow it down to around 300.  So what will I be presenting?

Teaching On-Prem Planning some PBCS Tricks

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? PBCS has continued to add features since its initial release at a very good pace. Unfortunately, the exact opposite is true for on-premise Hyperion Planning. With little more than basic patches having been made available, PBCS is well over 3 years ahead of its on-premise sibling. If you are stuck with on-premise Hyperion Planning and would like to add some of the cool new features from PBCS to your application, this session is for you. Learn how to harness the power of Smart Push…on-premise. Learn how to create and use Smart Lists dynamically connected to dimensions…on-premise. This session will come complete with various demos and sample code to get you up and running with your shiny new PBCS tricks on your old-school on-premise application.

ASO and BSO and Hybrid! Oh My!

Essbase started off with BSO, and everyone loved it. BSO is still loved by many in the Essbase community, but many applications work much better in ASO. Now Oracle has given us Hybrid mode…which is also great. But which technology is the best? The answer, as many consultants like to tell clients is…it depends. Each choice has strengths and weaknesses…some unexpected. We’ll discuss tuning Hybrid applications using non-traditional block sizes. We’ll discuss why ASO can’t always be replaced by Hybrid applications. We’ll even talk about Smart Push and why Hybrid may not matter for many applications. If you are considering which storage option to use for your application, this session should help you make a decision. We’ll even throw in a live demo to show some of the massive differences between each storage technology.

See you at the Dophin and the Swan!


Kscope17 is a Wrap!

Kscope17 is officially over.  I was fortunate to attend several sessions this year along with presenting a few times myself.  It’s always great to get together with the ODTUG community and all of my friends that I only get to see a few times a year.  Kscope is a great event and I’m happy to have been a part of it.  I greatly appreciate the immense amount of work that went into making it such a great conference.  So long San Antonio!

Hello Orlando!  Next year, Kscope18 will be held at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin!

Kscope18 will also be a little bit earlier in the month of June than years past.  With some luck, I will be fortunate enough to be selected to speak next year so that we can all have some fun at Disney World!  And with that…I leave you with EPMMickey:


Kscope17 is Almost Here

The year has really flown by and Kscope17 is less than 2 weeks away.  I thought I would take a moment to highlight the top 9 sessions I’d like to attend this year.  But, before I do that, let’s start with a shameless plug of the sessions that I have to attend…my sessions.

IT Made Me Virtualize Essbase and Performance Sucks: Making Essbase Fast in Any Environment

When:  Monday, June 26, 2017 @ 11:45 am

Where:  Grand Oaks G

What:  We can’t all have an Exalytics box for our Essbase environment. In fact, if you haven’t made it to the cloud, then you are most likely already on a virtualized environment or being “encouraged” heavily to go to a virtualized environment. This presentation will focus on making sure that your transition is as smooth as possible. We’ll discuss specific settings in the virtual environment, the operating system, and Essbase to get the most out of your server. We’ll also compare specific benchmarks around different hardware configurations related to CPU, memory, and storage. Attendees will receive the new EssBench application for standardized benchmarks to see how your system stacks up. This application is deployable to any planning server to test various aspects of your server’s performance to identify areas for improvement.

Essbase Lunch and Learn

When:  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 12:45 pm

Where:  Grand Oaks G

What:  Eat a quick lunch from 12:15 – 12:40 PM in Grand Oaks K-S/Cibolo Canyon 6/7 and at 12:45 PM join one of the information-packed sessions led by a panel of Oracle ACE Directors, ACEs, and ACE Associates. Bring your questions; these are the people who have the answers!

Introduction to Planning

When:  Wednesday, June 28, 2017 @ 4:15 pm

Where:  Grand Oaks I

What:  As part of an introduction to EPM series, this presentation will focus on Hyperion Planning and Oracle’s Planning and Budgeting Cloud Services (PBCS).  If you are totally new to the EPM space and would like to see what Oracle’s solutions have to offer, this session is for you.  Rather than PowerPoint everyone to death, a live demo will be provided and guided by the audience.

Now on to the fun stuff…the presentations that someone else has to build.

What’s New and Coming in Planning

Who:  Prasad Kulkarni

When:  Monday, June 26, 2017 @ 2:00 pm

Where:  Grand Oaks I

What:  This is specific to On-Prem Planning…so I’m taking bets on it being a single slide that said “PBCS.”  Any takers? Kidding…

Mother/King/Queen of All CDFs Has Arrived

Who:  Celvin Kattookaran

When:  Monday, June 26, 2017 @ 2:00 pm

Where:  Grand Oaks G

What:  Groovy can do basically anything, so I expect amazing things from Celvin in this session.  Don’t let me down!

The Future of On-Prem EPM

Who:  Matt Bradley

When:  Monday, June 26, 2017 @ 3:15 pm

Where:  Peony

What:  For all of you still holding out hope that On-Prem isn’t dead, this should be of interest.  Is it bad that a part of me expects this session to somehow get cancelled? 😉

Introduction to the EPM REST APIs

Who:  Jake Turrell

When:  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 11:15 am

Where:  Cibolo Canyon 2/3/4

What:  While Jason and Jon focus specifically on the PBCS REST API, Jake is casting a broader net.  Knowing Jake, I bet we can expect some time of spectacular demo and/or document.  Also, something 3D printed for free (I know you read my blog, so I expect free things).

Understanding HFM System Tables

Who:  Keith Berry

When:  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 11:15 am

Where:  Grand Oaks E/F

What:  The HFM system tables are a lot of fun.  Granted, I say that as a guy who has done this same presentation on the Planning side a few times, so I may be bias.  Either way, Keith always does a phenomenal presentation.  Whether you need to understand these tables for your project or you just want a better understanding of the back-end of HFM, this should be a great session.

Trends and Hot Topics in Finance for the EPM Professional

Who:  Natalie Delemar

When:  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 2:00 pm

Where:  Peony

What:  I may be a giant nerd, but I also enjoy the functional side of the EPM world.  That’s why Natalie’s presentation should be very interesting.  Kscope is not just about the technology, but the functional needs and trends that drive that technology.

The PBCS REST API Demystified

Who:  Jason Jones

When:  Tuesday, June 27, 2017 @ 3:30 pm

Where:  Cibolo Canyon 2/3/4

What:  I love coding…sometimes.  The REST API for PBCS is a fun way to do that…sometimes.  Jason and Jon should give us a great overview of the technology and how to use it.

Report Automation Techniques from Essbase and Hyperion Financial Reports with VBA and Smart View

Who:  Jennifer Guzik

When:  Wednesday, June 28, 2017 @ 11:15 am

Where:  Grand Oaks E/F

What:  I have more than a few clients that love to do everything in Excel.  Jennifer will be showing of a process that keeps us using Excel, but also leverages Financial Reports.  Add in a side of VBA coding, and you have my attention.  Plus, I love sessions entirely by customers and not just consultants.

Essbase Cloud – How You Do It (Live Demos) and Expanded Q&A

Who:  Tim German and Cameron Lackpour

When:  Thursday, June 29, 2017 @ 9:00 am

Where:  Grand Oaks H

What:  I’m sure Tim and Cameron will show us everything we ever wanted to know about OAC.  More importantly, I’m a sucker for a live demo.  And if the title is to be believed…we’ll get more than one demo!

 


Kscope16 is over…Kscope17 is coming!

Kscope16Logo

As has been the case for many of my Kscope experiences, Kscope16 was quick and yet still exhausting. The conference, as always, provided seemingly limitless information for Oracle EPM and BI professionals. Even in the small amount of time that I was able to attend, I managed to learn a great many things.

I also had the pleasure of meeting some of my fellow bloggers for the first time and seeing others that I’ve known for years.  Sadly, many of us only get to see each other once a year.  I have a new badge to add to my collection:

2016-07-07 00.03.28

I also received a nice polo as a presenter gift:

2016-07-07 00.03.52

Jake was kind enough to take a picture of me during one of my presentations:

MeAtKscope16

While I didn’t spend enough time this year at the event to really produce a great blog post with lots of pictures, I did have a great, if not brief experience, as I always have.  I’d like to thank everyone at ODTUG for their hard work putting together a great conference.  I’d also like to thank all of the volunteers that take time out of their year to help ODTUG put this event together.  Finally, I’d like to thank all of the presenters that spend countless hours putting together amazing content year after year.

Kscope17LogoReal

With Kscope16 in the history books, it is now time to set our focus on Kscope17.  We will be back at the JW Marriott in San Antonio, Texas.  Those of you who attended Kscope12 may remember this venue.  I’ve been to seven Kscope venues and by far the JW has been my favorite.  It has a great water park for the family and great golf.  I’ll be working hard for the next few months to have a set of abstracts submitted so that I can attend again next year.  Ok…so I’ll probably wait until the day before abstracts are due to actually do this, but I’m going to TRY to do it in advance for a change.  By now everyone is already back home (or back on the road) after safe travels.  See everyone next year!


Brian @ Kscope16

It’s that time of year again…Kscope!  Unfortunately, Kscope always occurs during my busy season.  As a result, much like last year, this will be a very quick in and out trip.  I’ll be there Tuesday, June 28th only.  Luckily, both of my presentations happen to be on that day, so it worked out nicely for me.  I also have a few meetings with Oracle that I’m not allowed to talk about that occur on that day as well.  Here are my presentations:

PBCS is Still Hyperion Planning

Jun 28, 2016, Session 9, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

With Oracle’s release of PBCS, many service companies have started releasing their one-size-fits-all implementations. The unfortunate truth is that PBCS is still Hyperion Planning. This presentation discusses the best practices around implementing PBCS and how to avoid the pitfalls of implementations offered at insanely cheap (and underestimated) pricing. Attend this session if you don’t want to have your PBCS project “land and expand.”

The Planning Repository Revisited: Beyond the Basics

Jun 28, 20165, Session 10, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

If you’ve enjoyed my past presentations on the Planning repository, you should enjoy this presentation even more. We’ll take a step beyond the basics and provide a whole new set of examples that take a leap into real-world use. Whether it’s synchronizing metadata across applications or deleting dimensions, this presentation will dive deeper than ever before into the repository. But wait…there’s more. This presentation will have full samples in both Transact SQL for SQL Server users and PL/SQL for Oracle users. That’s two languages for the price of one (shipping and handling not included).

And of course, you can find me on the Kscope16 site here.

I hope everyone enjoys the content!


Brian @ KScope 16

As the year rapidly passes me by, I realize that KScope isn’t really that far away.  I hope to meet many of in Chicago this June!  I’ve been very fortunate to have two presentations selected again this year:

PBCS Is Still Hyperion Planning

Date, Time, and Session # TBD

With Oracle’s release of PBCS, many services companies have started releasing their one-size-fits-all implementations. The unfortunate truth is that PBCS is still Hyperion Planning. This presentation discusses the best practices around implementing PBCS and how to avoid the pitfalls of implementations offered at insanely cheap (and underestimated) pricing. Attend this session if you don’t want to have your PBCS project “land and expand.”

The Planning Repository Revisited: Beyond the Basics

Date, Time, and Session # TBD

If you’ve enjoyed my past presentations on the Planning repository, you should enjoy this presentation even more. We’ll take a step beyond the basics and provide a whole new set of examples that take a leap into real-world use. Whether it’s synchronizing metadata across applications or deleting dimensions, this presentation will dive deeper than ever before into the repository. But wait…there’s more. This presentation will have full samples in both Transact SQL for SQL Server users and PL/SQL for Oracle users. That’s two languages for the price of one (shipping and handling not included).

And here:

http://kscope16.com/presenters/presenterlist?last_id=137

I’ll update this post once we have dates and times.  Looking forward to Chicago!


Brian @ Kscope15

It’s been a long time since my last post.  Moving and life seem to have slowed me down a bit, but I’m still here!  Right now I’m in Hollywood, Florida getting ready for my presentations at Kscope15.  I’m here for a quick trip in and out, so if you are at the conference, you can find me Tuesday only until around 2pm.  I have two presentations:

Cash Rich, Forecasting Poor

Jun 23, 2015, Session 5, 8:30 am – 9:30 am

In many Hyperion Planning applications, cash flow is overlooked or left out of the forecast. But many well-run companies manage their Treasury operations strategically. They need to manage their cash flow and forecasting on a daily basis, and the absence of a strong cash management approach to Hyperion is a financial risk. This session will focus on one client’s approach, with a demo of an application where cash is king.

Voiding Your Warranty: The Planning Repository Exposed

Jun 23, 2015, Session 7, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Hyperion Planning provides an excellent platform for deploying enterprise-scale budgeting and forecasting solutions. Let’s take that world-class solution and peel the warranty label off so we can have some real fun. Learn how to delete years from the past, remove dimensions you no longer use or need, and report on secured objects and who is doing what on your applications. This session will also provide a primer to the Planning Repository and a variety of queries for attendees to take home and leave Oracle with an uneasy feeling that more support tickets could result from this session.

And here:

http://kscope15.com/presenters/presenterlist?last_id=205

I hope everyone enjoys the content!