Oracle EPM Planning Cloud (EPBCS) - Design Considerations - Part 1

Namaste!

It has been a pleasure sharing my thoughts as always.

In this blog series, I wanted to discus my experience with Oracle EPM Planning cloud (Oracle stopped using EPBCS term as marketing Jargon).

So, I would refer EPM Planning Cloud and EPBCS inter-changeably., going forward., hope that would be okay to you!

Let me give some background of my journey from Hyperion On-premise to Cloud equivalent.

After working for more than 15 years in On-premise Hyperion suite, I got a chance to work on PBCS, FCCS and EPRCS in and around year 2016.

Like many of you., I straight away used PBCS (planning and budgeting cloud service) just as a Hyperion hosted platform and start building out whatever that is required to meet client requirements!

Well, PBCS was meant that way when it was released., meaning there was no out of box functionality (except few bells and whistles) to use in planning application development., No regrets so far!

Now I got a chance to work on a project in 2017 where Oracle sold EPBCS (Enterprise planning and budgeting cloud service) to client.

Looks like, Oracle sales reps told client that there is no development or customization required at all., simply buy subscriptions, configure, and use them :)

In fact, from Oracle side, it has been a progressive thinking to make Hyperion equivalent cloud offerings as much configurable modules as possible.

Oracle succeeded well with Oracle ERP Cloud offerings in this line!

So, going back to 2017., when I had to use Oracle EPBCS to build Budgeting, Forecasting and Reporting application for a client.,

I had no clue how to map client requirements with Out of box functionality that came with EPBCS., I am sure many of you might have gone through this phase like me :)

My first impression was it was a overkill to use all modules that comes with EPBCS., since client's requirement was just revenue and expense planning.

Next thing., out of box functionality such as Direct entry, driver based, and trend-based assumptions were not passed in fit-gap analysis of the requirements workshop.

Now, I end up with EPBCS instance that I had no clue how to make it work to meet client's requirement.

Should I go back to client and tell them you could have purchased PBCS instead of EPBCS., topic for another day., I leave that part here.

Anyways., I end up not using any out of the box functionality for that client., instead build all custom functionality to meet client's very specific requirements of budgeting models.

Let's not judge and conclude here with just single instance of project experience!

I am fortunate enough to work with other clients., where they had a requirement to use the Workforce, Capex along with Financial Planning.

Here EPBCS., now EPM Planning cloud scores big points., especially with Workforce and Capital modules.

Just to give a background on typical Workforce requirements of clients., it is complex module with many moving parts around., here are some typical workforce features:

 

• Salary Defaults and Workforce Assumptions
• Benefits and car allowances
• Add New Hire Requisition
• Social Security Tax
• Federal Tax
• Bonus Pay
• Existing Employees details
• Change Hiring Requisition
• Transfer Employee between entities and departments
• Partial Payment Factors
• Merit Based Planning
• Calculate Merit Details
• Hire Contractor

 

I remember spending count less hours on design and development of the web forms, business rules, menus, and validation rules to achieve the above features and functionality in On-premise Hyperion Planning implementations!!

Now, EPBCS workforce module comes to rescue us with all the above functionality available out-of-box.

We would simply have to know how to configure the "Workforce" module., no need to spend time to develop such complex functionality by ourselves!!

How about rest of the modules., like "Capital" and "Projects" and finally all integrated into "Financials"?

Here are some interesting scenarios pops up!

Let's discus those pros and cons which will eventually help us to generate design alternatives!

Let's continue to discus them in next blog.

Meanwhile., please share your side of the story with EPM Planning cloud from design perspective.

It would certainly help us all.

Happy thinking and learning!

I am excited to announce that I have published the much awaited course "Oracle EPM Cloud Planning (EPBCS)"

https://www.udemy.com/course/oracle-cloud-epbcs/?couponCode=EPBCSADV001