Examining the ongoing challenges of delivering high-quality, value-added ERP services in Higher Education.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
It has been three weeks now since I spent a few days in the
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center for the Higher Education User Group (HEUG)
Alliance '12 Conference. This conference brings together IT professionals from higher education customers of Oracle ERP systems for three days of information sharing, networking, and discussion. Hard to believe, but this was my fifth year attending (and presenting) although it seems like only yesterday I was a newbie (at MGM Grand that year...)
My organization is fortunate to have three members of the Product Advisory Groups (PAGs) to provide feedback and input to Oracle Corporation as they plan the future direction for various systems and modules. While my PAG reps arrived in Nashville on Thursday, I didn’t arrive until Sunday. By that time they almost knew their way around the “bio-dome” and helped me avoid getting totally lost! They also forged some strong relationships (I hope) with other institutions and made our wishes known to the powers that be in Oracle Product Management!
The Executive Forum was quite insightful this year.
Michael Horn from the
Innosight Institute, who co-wrote
Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns with Clay Christensen and Curtis Johnson, was especially evocative in his discussion of the pressures on higher education and the notion of “disruptive innovation.” My favorite bit was “why did you hire that milkshake” – see
here for more info… We also heard from
Nicole Engelbert from Ovum regarding market trends and Tom Fisher from Oracle Cloud Services.
In the general sessions I was able to spend time learning about Oracle E-Business Suite, Fusion Applications, Oracle Hyperion EPM, and OBIEE. It is always insightful to learn how other institutions are using these applications. It was especially fun to see old friends from Harvard’s implementation of Hyperion Planning present about their progress at Berkeley! And Fusion Accounting Hub (including Essbase under the covers replacing GL Balances) was mighty intriguing... My own presentation (Oracle iProcurement) was sparsely attended but we fielded several good questions – not a tremendous success, but far from a failure.
Perhaps the brightest success of the week was that the E-Business Suite PAG -- generally a minority at the conference -- decided to call attention to itself by passing out Mardi Gras beads at the opening afternoon Mix and Mingle. The beads were quite popular and generated a lot of positive buzz. When HEUG President Ted Simpson strode on stage wearing a string of purple (or were they green?) beads the EBS folks went crazy!
In summary, an exhausting but valuable few days... Major kudos to HEUG leadership and the Alliance program committee for their hard work! I look forward to seeing everyone next year in Indianapolis!
Labels: Alliance12, Conferences, HEUG
Monday, March 14, 2011
In Oracle’s Hyperion Planning, data forms are configurable screens that allow end users to input and adjust data in their active budget and forecast scenarios. Configuration is remarkably easy–one of the true strengths of the application. Through a wizard-like interface, designers can easily define which dimensions appear as spreadsheet-familiar rows and columns, as drop-down “page” selections, and as fixed point-of-view (“POV”) dimensions. Unfortunately, the layout wizard will allow a designer to create any template—even one that can cause the application server to crash!
[One of my favorite lessons learned from the early days of our implementation of Hyperion Planning… As the project team began to build data forms in our development environment, the “preview” option in the data form wizard was identified as a root cause for frequent application-tier failures. Rather than identify the data form design itself as the culprit, we authorized a customization to prevent users from activating the preview feature!]By default, Planning raises an alert to the end user anytime the potential data grid (row dimension members x column dimension members) exceeds 1,000. Any guesses about a typical potential grid size of our initial design? How about 4,000,000,000? Yikes.
Customers initially requested all Chart of Accounts members in the rows of the data entry forms—similar to the Excel spreadsheets they had long used for annual budget submissions. Unfortunately, the Hyperion Planning gurus gave us the following advice:
- Row and Column contain dense dimensions only
- Page and Point of View (POV) contain sparse dimensions only
- Suppress Missing Data option enabled so as to not display Rows or Columns without data
- Split data forms into multiple data forms that contain fewer Rows and Columns
- To put it more simply – KEEP DATA FORMS SMALL!
Everything about our initial design contradicted the recommended practice. So how would we balance customer needs with performance standards?
Learn more at the HEUG Alliance 2011 and OAUG COLLABORATE ’11 conferences:
HEUG Alliance 2011 -
Monday March 28, 12:45-1:45pm, Room 712OAUG COLLABORATE '11 -
Sunday April 10, 1:30-2:30pm, Room W304DLabels: Alliance11, C11, EPM, HEUG, Hyperion, OAUG, Oracle
Friday, March 11, 2011
I have a busy few weeks ahead, traveling to Denver for the Higher Education User Group (HEUG) Alliance 2011 and to Orlando for the Oracle Applications User Group (OAUG) COLLABORATE '11. At both conferences, I will present a paper on Harvard's implementation of Hyperion Planning. The session, entitled "Dude, Where's My Budget? An Innovative Budget-Entry Solution in Hyperion Planning" (a groan-inducing title of which I'm very proud), was developed in collaboration with
Ryan Sullivan, our crackshot Planning and Essbase Product Manager.
The session is targeted to a broad audience, balancing business context, solution design, and interactive demonstration, with a smattering of old-fashioned "geeking out."
Presentation summary: "Learn how Harvard University used Hyperion Planning features and outside-the-box thinking to build a robust data-entry solution for managing complex and confusing budgets. Harvard developed a network of interconnected data entry web forms to allow planners to drill-down from their high-level budget to the lowest level seven-segment chart of account budget. The end result is 50% report, 50% data form, and 100% geared toward improving the user experience and simplifying the process of entering budgets and forecasts."
My goal is to demonstrate the following themes:
- Overview of Hyperion Planning implementation at Harvard University
- The challenges (and potential solutions) for detailed budgeting and forecasting with a massive chart of accounts
- Using under-the-radar native functionality to streamline navigation of data entry forms in Hyperion Planning
- Effective techniques for managing continuous service improvement
Over the days leading up to the conference, I'll be posting details of the presentation and looking for questions or comments from potential attendees (please feel free to post here or contact via Twitter) that I can incorporate into the final presentation.
For those of you already registered for these conferences, time and location information provided below. I look forward to seeing you!
HEUG Alliance 2011 -
Monday March 28, 12:45-1:45pm, Room 712OAUG COLLABORATE '11 -
Sunday April 10, 1:30-2:30pm, Room W304DLabels: Alliance11, C11, EPM, HEUG, Hyperion, OAUG, Oracle