When Oracle decided to push Oracle EPM to Cloud, it was a
very big decision. There were always questions in my mind back then whether it
will be an integrated platform “Oracle EPM Cloud” or it will be individual EPM
product components. I didn’t have a clear picture / vision but I was definitely
sure that having an integrated platform might work for big organizations who
have most of the EPM products in place. But, cloud is different. You need to be
a differentiator, competitor and yet provide all the needed functionality.
Most organizations are faced with the challenge of not just
Cost but also Fast and Quick.
Q: How quick can I get on to the Cloud?
A: Immediate. Sign a deal, choose the number of users and
you are up
Q: How quick can I have my application in the cloud
A: As-is, within a week / two all the basic functionality.
Keep in mind that if you are using Workforce/Capital/Project planning and have
customized it to your needs, it would take time
Q: How secure is my data
A: If you look and understand what and how Oracle is working
in terms of providing a very high-secure environment, you will not have any
doubt that your data is safe. Think about the risk and severity it is for
Oracle who supports many clients
Q: Do I really need cloud? Can’t I do it in my environment
A: You definitely can. But, think about extreme
circumstances where spending so much on infrastructure, to manage, to update
and to keep it running across multiple products and databases is a huge task.
It is better to leave it to the experts who know it lot better and then let us
focus more on the application side. Cloud is environment ready and you can get
it up and running in days.
Oracle has really changed the game of EPM not just in terms
of bringing every single product to the cloud, but is also very aggressive in
terms of the patches that are released. When you were on-premise, when was the
last time that you had a patch that was released back to back in a month (Unless
a security flaw was identified). I don’t remember.
The
point I am trying to make is the ability to manage and deliver patches for
every single Cloud EPM product is a big feat and I commend their team for doing
that. Patches doesn’t mean just “Bug Fixes”, it also includes new features,
workaround solution, tips, best practices and what not.
In the world of connected devices, connected systems, we now
have connected EPM all in the cloud
So, what exactly you get with the Oracle EPM Cloud?
Oracle
has pushed itself to the next level by collecting all the best practices
accumulated over-time in the world of EPM and come-up with the industry
standards and put all that together as a framework (OOTB – Out of The Box
functionality) enabling for rapid deployment. You get all the required / needed
components (cannot be deleted though but with limited modifications to the
pre-built content)
When Hyperion was an independent company way back in beginning
of 2007, I didn’t had access to any resources. I was working at a client and
for 1 year all I had was the Application Manager 6.5 and the DBAG. I was new to
Essbase. It took 4 months without any formal training to be able to understand
and read-through the whole DBAG. I am not sure how many of them have actually
read the whole DBAG. But, I might have probably read it 2-3 times in that 1 year.
When Oracle acquired Hyperion in 2007, it was a game changer. Slowly, things started to change. Hyperion
System 9 documentation was available. Slowly, the software was also made
available for developer versions and people started using it. Lots of blogs
started floating in with expert advice and oracle forums came to existent.
Note: Whatever I have mentioned above is how day by day I
came to know about the new things happening around Hyperion. They have existed
many years back but It was at that time when I came to know about them
When
cloud got released, few things remained same and few things changed but in a
good way. If you are ON-Premise, you would install Oracle EPM in your new
machine as soon as the new version is available and explore all the new
features. When it comes to cloud, you do not have access to the EPM cloud
environment, unless you take a subscription
Oracle
is aware of this and have curated lot of videos with detail navigation of the
process. The documentation also has been updated and aligned to the list of
tasks and activities that you would work on. Another good thing is that these videos
are part of the documentation to keep the flow going
For
those who are part of Oracle Partner Network, you would have access to few
additional resources which is not available for general audience. Here are a
few that I am curating and will keep updating once the list keeps increasing
- Oracle demo cloud environments
As it has become extremely difficult to have access to cloud
environments as you cannot install them in your own machine, Oracle is
providing free cloud environments for partners. You can access these
environments from https://demo.oracle.com.
Keep in mind that these are only accessible for oracle partners will silver
level as the starting point. Having access to these environments will give you
a heads up when you go to demo clients on cloud capabilities
Along with EPM, you also get access to other cloud
environments as wel
- Oracle Partner Training
If your company is part of Oracle Partner network, reach out
to oracle counterpart to get registered for partner training's. If you are
unsure whom to reach out to, you can send your nominations to the contact list
provided in the workshop registration page. These training sessions are
delivered in-class across various regions. However, there are few which you can
attend online if you cannot be physically present. You can look at full
schedule here
- Cloud Customer Connect
Oracle is bringing more and more customers together to a
central platform where they can connect, answer other customer issues /
problems in forums, idea lab where you share new product ideas / improvements
for a better customer experience. Similar to above two, you need to be part of
Oracle Partner Network to be able to access the customer connect
What I
like about the Orace CCConnect is about various events related to new features,
functionalities that are released / will be released in next Oracle EPM cloud
products. You will also see some best practice sessions as well. My focus is
only towards EPM Cloud but the CloudCustomerConnect do include other cloud
applications. It’s definitely worth checking out
You can access Cloud Customer Connect here
Note: The Cloud Customer connect link is also made available
in all the EPM cloud applications. You can access it from the dropdown that is
next to your userid when you login to any EPM Cloud SaaS Application
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