What is different about OHS server in Oracle EPM V11.2.7

 “Technology is no match for human errors.”

Every phase of every project, consultant will agree on this.
 
When we had referred the EPM V11.2.7 Installation-Configuration guide, remembered this point of explicit OHS restart. When actually coming to the end of configuration, checked Workspace URL and got following error.

Well, after remembering the OHS start point from guide, checked Workspace URL on Shared Services Weblogic port 28080 and it worked fine. We were able to access workspace. 

The first thing you may be wondering is: how do you start the OHS server? Well it's a change from the previous few versions as OHS no longer uses OPMN for this task. Instead it uses Node Manager. If you followed the official installation and configuration guide you should have a service like the below:

With that service running we have some helper scripts to get OHS online. Browse to MIDDLEWARE_HOME\user_projects\FND1\httpConfig\ohs\bin\. Then run the following command to start OHS and store the epm_admin credentials so you aren't prompted later:

startComponent.cmd ohs1 storeUserConfig

To stop OHS simply run the command:

stopComponent.cmd ohs1

From now on you can start OHS with:

startComponent.cmd ohs1

Above steps started the OHS server and hence workspace becomes available on 19000 port. 

Organizational Pyramid and EPM

 When a new joiner in IT,  in team asked about basic queries related to EPM, I thought it is good time to pen down  basic facts about EPM in any Organization's pyramid on this weekend. 

Where is EPM used in any organization?

What is the purpose of EPM?

Why it is referred as important finance technology? (Why do people get paid more considering it as niche skill? )

Yes, I used to always think of these queries and finally after some learning and experience , got a fair idea about EPM in any organization.

Let’s think about pyramid of any organization, whether it is IT, manufacturing, automobile, financial or any other domain.

Every organization has this pyramid
 

• 1)      Bottom Most Layer contains front end executives. These include day to day business operations. So these are nothing but operating activities of organization.
• 2)      Middle layer consists of integrations of various business activities, hence integration tools like CRM, SCP are included in this layer.
• 3)      Topmost layer is layer of top level executives who are strategic decision makers for organization. This layer include CFO, his/her core team who are responsible for executive decision making, executive learning, executive MBA. This layer executives are responsible for EPM – Enterprise Performance Management.

 Now let us move to EPM layer

 

•      Financial Planning and Analysis Team
• 
  
• Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is a set of four activities that support an organization's financial health:
• 1) planning and budgeting,
• 2) integrated financial planning, 
• 3) management and performance reporting,
• 4) forecasting and modeling. 
• FP&A solutions enhance the finance department's ability to manage performance by linking corporate strategy to execution. 
• 
  
•      EPM Consultants include both technical and functional consultants - We belong here. 
• From technical perspective, an EPM system such as Oracle EPM is an enterprise software that provides a platform (framework, product, tool…) specified for EPM purpose. Implementation consulting firm will base on that platform to configure, develop specific system that suits with specific company/enterprise/organization.
• 
  

For implementing EPM, there are many vendors and leading one is Oracle EPM contributing to 30% of EPM market.

 Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud

Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Service provides end-to-end business processes to meet the requirements of most organizations and ensure a connected and agile experience across multiple business processes.

1.       Connected Planning      
   
   
2.       Financial Close

3)      Narrative Reporting 

4)      Enterprise Data Management

Next Generation Reporting in Oracle EPM - 3 Things you should know

Oracle introduced major enhancements to its EPM reporting capabilities with the February 2021 update. These enhancements will undoubtedly provide Oracle EPM customers the opportunity to expand their current reporting abilities to meet the challenges facing organizations today. 

Continue reading below as we touch on three things every customer must know about the new functionality now available.

The Introduction of FR’s (Financial Reporting) Replacement: Embedded Reports

Per Oracle’s readiness release: “Management Reporting within Oracle’s Narrative Reporting offering has been available for the past few years. It is now embedded in the EPM Cloud Platform applications (Planning, Financial Consolidation and Close, Tax Reporting, and Free Form) alongside, and eventually replacing, Financial Reporting.”

The new Reports provides several advantages including an easy-to-use drag and drop interface for designing and editing reports, bundling of reports into Books, and report Bursting (the ability to run a report or book for more than one member of a single dimension for one data source).

 

The New Embedded Reports Offering Provides a Better User Experience

Customers will NOT have to wait for future releases in order to see new functionality that directly improves the reporting experience. The following lists immediate features/advantages of using the new embedded reports option over continuing to use FR reports:

• • • New Charts – Waterfall, doughnut, scatter, bubble, etc.
    • User Interaction – Selectable alias tables, member label display, ad-hoc zoom mode,
    • Narration – Intelligent Narrative Generation is available

 

Migrating from FR to the New Reports is Possible

Customers can perform an in-place (on the same instance) migration of existing FR reports . Users can select either all or individual reports to migrate. Not all elements of the FR reports will migrate automatically;  any the errors requiring resolution when opening a migrated report are shown to the users. The error messages will be provided in an easy-to-understand explanation of the issue.

Note: Due to architecture differences, migration from Narrative Reporting is not supported at this time.

 

As you can see, the next generation is here! We recommend that Oracle EPM customers evaluate their reporting capabilities, experiences, and goals against these new developments.

Contact us today if you have questions, or would like to understand how Capgemini HyperionCoE can help!

Global Enterprise Performance Management Market analysis - 2016 to 2025

What is EPM?

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is a process designed to support organizations such as companies, government entities, and nonprofits link their strategies to their plans and execution. EPM includes management processes such as budgeting, planning forecasting, and modeling. In addition, it includes consolidating results and closing books. Moreover, it analyses the performance and helps in making informed decisions. Furthermore, EPM software enables reporting the results to internal as well as external stakeholders. 

Enterprise Performance Management Outlook - 2016 to 2025

After following various surveys and due diligence, we have come up with these interesting figures and analysis. The global enterprise performance management market was valued at $4,738 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $12,562 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 11.70% from 2016 to 2025.

Rise in need for making business strategy transparent to all employees, increase in focus on core business, and improvement in performance are some of the major factors that propel the growth of the enterprise performance management market. Furthermore, the rise in adoption of cloud-based EPM across the globe is expected to provide promising opportunities for this market. However, risks in implementation and shifting of the workload from on-premise to cloud hamper the growth of this market.

The global enterprise performance management market is divided on the basis of various factors. It is segmented based on component, deployment, function, industry vertical, and geography. 

By component, the market is divided into software and services. On the basis of deployment, it is categorized into on-premise and cloud. Depending on the function, it is fragmented into finance, human resource (HR), supply chain, and others. According to industry vertical, it is classified into BFSI, IT & telecom, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, energy & utilities, and others. Geographically, it is analysed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

The global enterprise performance management market is dominated by key players such as Adaptive Insights Inc., Anaplan, Inc., BOARD International S.A., Host Analytics Inc., IBM Corporation, Infor Inc., Oracle, SAP SE, CCH Tagetik (Wolters Kluwer NV), and Workiva.

 

1) By Component:

It seems EPM software has set of clients and we see marginal increase in the number of clients, licenses. However, the services required to implement, support, enhance, migrate seem to increase rapidly in recent years. So EPM market definitely revolves more around providing services. 

 2) By Geography 

North America is expected to dominate the overall market during the forecast period, as it experiences the highest demand for enterprise performance management software. However, the Asia Pacific Enterprise Performance Management Market would witness market growth of 14.9% CAGR during the forecast period (2019 - 2025). 

3) By Industry Vertical

Later the global financial crisis, the banks have been very conscious about the measure that helps them reduce risk in their balance sheet and are restructuring their cost bases leveraging the economic prosperity and liquidity. However, many banks remain vulnerable to customers' financial circumstances, such as loan debts added with the commercialization of banks gives rise to cut-throat competition.

Thereby, Companies in the BFSI sector are increasingly deploying EPM applications to enable financial planning and budgeting processes streamlining. Blue Link ERP Launched the Financial Report Writer in Aug 2019 that is expected to aid its deployment in the BFSI sector. Also, industries such as the Swedish banking industry, the Thai banking industry have started to implement progress management solutions into their core operations.

The BFSI segment led the market in 2016, and is expected to dominate in the near future. However, the energy & utility segment is expected to grow at a significant pace during the forecast period.

4) By Vendor

In 2019, the top 10 EPM software vendors accounted for nearly 76.1% of the global Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) applications market which grew 8.5% to approach nearly $3.9 billions in EPM license, maintenance and subscription revenues, slightly above our previous projection.

Last year Oracle led the pack with a 27.6% market share riding on a 25% jump in EPM license, maintenance and subscription revenues. SAP was #2, followed by IBM, Anaplan and Workday in that order.

 

5) By Business Function

The Enterprise Performance Management market by business function has been segmented into finance, Human Resource (HR), supply chain, sales and marketing, and others, which include IT, operations, and support and maintenance. The HR segment to grow at the highest CAGR, as the HR department needs to maximize the potential of their workforce while increasing efficiency. EPM solutions offer better insights into human capital performance and streamline HR processes, right from recruitment to retirement.

Finance will continue to lead the EPM market. 

6) By Deployment 

Integration of cloud-based infrastructure and business analytics is expected to provide lucrative growth opportunities.

Faster time to value (TTV), reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), and increased autonomy are some of the factors, which are expected to fuel the market demand during the forecast period. The adoption of cloud-based EPM software is increasing significantly, owing to the benefits such as real-time availability of operational and financial data that is not available using existing legacy and on-premise systems. Infrastructure costs ranging from operating system updates to server upgrades also increase the costs of maintaining on-premise enterprise performance management systems, without an assurance of higher quality. Cloud-based EPM application updates are automatically pushed out to customers. Thus, all these factors are anticipated to offer future opportunities for cloud-based EPM software market. 

Disclaimer: The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the global Enterprise Performance Management market size began with capturing data from key vendors’ revenue through secondary research, annual reports, government publishing sources, the technical and market blogs, Factiva, Bloomberg, and press releases. So, numbers are not accurate but close to accurate.