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Many Hyperion Planning implementations work but are maintenance and administration nightmares. Forms are built with static columns and rows. Separate business rules are created for each newly invoked scenario/version combination. Another calc script is written every time an administrator needs a different section of the database calculated. When looking at the list of calcs who knows what is a production calc versus an ad hoc calc? Financial Reports are modified monthly in order to provide the report needed by management. Hyperion Planning applications should not cause nightmares. During this session attendees will learn best practices in order to build dynamic Planning applications.

Substitution variables are great for rolling forecasts but during this session I am going to show how to use substitution variables for most, if not all, of the forms, business rules, and reports in an application. In this way when a planning cycle changes from budget to forecast, the administrator only needs to change some substitution variables, run a business rule to pre-populate the scenario with data, and start workflow. If the planning cycle includes 10, 20, 50, or more forms and business rules then they will automatically be updated for the new cycle allowing for comparisons to different scenarios. An administrator will not need to update and test every form and business rule requiring many hours or days of effort.

Essbase experts know that defragmenting databases improves performance, especially when many data updates and calculations are performed. Building a nightly process to defragment the underlying databases for Planning is a best practice and can also be built dynamically. I will show attendees how this can be accomplished and how the code for one database can be used for other databases.

Financial Reports can also be built to dynamically change for the planning cycle and also for metadata changes. By showing examples to the attendees they will learn how to build their reports to require the least amount of maintenance.

Empowering users by providing them with flexibility while controlling the planning cycle can be a challenge. By following best practices in the development of business rules users can have the flexibility they want while administrators maintain control of the cycle. Attendees will learn how to make business rules dynamic and use run time prompts efficiently.

Throughout the session attendees will see demonstrations in the product and not just PowerPoint slides. They will see the techniques discussed shown in a working application. Attendees will leave the session with the tools and ideas needed to take their applications from a static state to dynamic implementations reducing maintenance and administration while following best practices.