Authors: Mohan Chanila and Tyler Feddersen, Performance Architects
One of the perceived issues with the release of Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) in 2014 was the lack of full-use Essbase in the cloud. With this, the ability to use load rules to modify, edit, and prepare a data file to upload into the cloud was taken away, and the PBCS interface did not provide the ability to tweak and modify a data file. However, “Data Management,” sometimes referred to as “Financial Data Quality Management (FDMEE) for the cloud” is included in your PBCS subscription, and can be used to replicate load rule functionality.
This blog entry highlights three examples where you can easily replicate on-premise Essbase load rule functionality in PBCS using the power of Data Management in PBCS: merging data fields; prefixing fields in a data file to match a PBCS dimension; and mapping fields in the data file to certain dimension members:
- Merging Data Fields
A common task performed in Essbase load rules is to use a non-formatted data file to merge or concatenate two or more columns in the file to provide a PBCS field.
In Data Management, this task can be performed in the setup window using the “Import Format” option. The sample window looks like this:
Choose “File” as your source and the EPM application and plan type to load the data into as your target. In order to concatenate or merge multiple columns together, simply click on the “Add” button and then enter an expression that specifies which columns in the data file you want to merge.
- Prefixing Fields in a Data File to Match a PBCS Dimension
A good example of prefixing fields in a data file to match a PBCS dimension includes a case where you need to load accounts, and the source system provides data files with a numeric account code (for example, “40001”) which you need to convert to a PBCS account member that contains a prefix (for example, “AC_40001”).
This can be done using Data Management in the “Workflow” tab under “Data Load Mapping.” In the sample screenshot below, you would simply use the “LIKE” expression to say, “All accounts should be prefixed with an “AC_” (the actual expression would be, “LIKE * to target AC_*”).
- Mapping Fields in the Data File to Certain Dimension Members
One of the more difficult load rule tasks is mapping fields from a data file into specific dimension members in Essbase. This is rarely done using load rules since it is far easier to format a data file to provide the requisite fields. However, in many situations (such as a smaller organization with limited IT resources), this is something that the EPM specialist may have set up for on-premise applications.
When you move onto PBCS, since load rules are no longer available, this task can now be performed using Data Management. First, in the setup window, you will need to specify the source as a data file and the target as your EPM application. This is explained in Section 1 above.
After this, navigate to the “Workflow” section and the “Data Load Mapping” window. This time, you can set up a complex mapping table using the source and target mappings you’ve created and replicate them in FDMEE using the various functions available in Data Management. You can choose to do explicit mappings using one-to-one mappings; choose a range using the “BETWEEN” function; or use the “LIKE” operator to map all. Another nice feature in Data Management is that these mappings can be saved and imported in bulk.
Sample screen shot shown below:
We can list many more examples of load rule functionality that can be recreated seamlessly in Data Management in PBCS; however, that would take a lot more real estate than is possible in this blog entry.