The ability to drill through from BPC to more detailed information is a high value exercise for a relatively low investment - yet it continues to be one of BPC’s most overlooked features. 

The typical use cases are as follows:

• Lower level connection with details
  • Exact, accurate actuals for run rates, deconstructing numbersDetails necessary to calculate drivers that drive the accurate plan
  • Ability to link to transactional systems at the lowest level of detail for drill through
  • Time definition is the frequent axis for alignment
• Automate time to explain variances & identify anomalies
  • Understand exactly what transaction drives variance (if applicable)
  • For close, audits, and other reconciliation exercises, spot suspect numbers
• Convenience builds user adoption Adds functionality like drill through to details, even possibly images
  • “One stop shopping” user experience
  • No need to switch tools wholesale as data gets lower in details

Our Technical Services team has received an influx of service tickets regarding issues with the recently released SAP BPC EPM Add-in Service Pack 29.

Problem

With EPM Add-in SP29 installed, we noticed that none of the built-in reports or report templates are working when trying to refresh with BPC 10.1 Microsoft (MS). When attempting to refresh, it keeps prompting to login to SAP NetWeaver (NW) system, instead of BPC 10.1 Microsoft.  Please see example below:

ldcie3f.wdf.sap.corp EPMAddin_ODBOSP3 Consolidation

We are connected to the Planning model for BPC MS but it is trying to login to BPC NW Consolidation.

During November and December, Column5, in conjunction with our client DNB, three interesting and informative webcasts ran on the exciting and rewarding journey taken by DNB ASA, Norway’s largest financial services group.

This series of webcasts focused on the following specific and important elements of Enterprise Performance Management:

• Financial Consolidation for Statutory and Regulatory Reporting
• Intercompany Reconciliation
• The Last Mile of Financial Reporting

Each topic was underpinned by informing the attendees how SAP EPM solutions help companies achieve excellence and efficiency based on this real life DNB example.

Applicable Releases:

• CPMBPC 800 SP18+
•  CPMBPC 801 SP11+
•  CPMBPC 810 SP07+

1. Business Scenario

Business logic is often dependent on which process is being performed.  For example, during Budget season, an EPM application will execute one set of logic over many different time periods.  However, during a monthly Consolidation process, a different set of logic will be executed to prepare data for financial reporting.

Long term BPC customers know that one of the tool’s key strengths, its powerful and easy to use reporting  interface, can also be a challenge at inconvenient times. Over
the history of BPC’s reporting interface, dating back to OutlookSoft with venerable EvGet functions, relatively few changes have been made to the system.

In the last article we looked at the definition and content of the EPM Maturity Model.

In this article we’ll look at how to gauge EPM Maturity and how to identify areas to improve. At the core of the Maturity Model is the definition of:

• Right Model
• Right Audience
• Right Time

Across these definitions we lay a scale that moves from low levels of maturity to high levels of maturity:

Organizations need to plan, measure and manage across Strategy, Operations and Finance. Isn’t that what Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is all about? It seems like a simple formula. But what about if we change the question to ask what makes successful EPM and successful organizations? If we start with the definition that “Successful EPM drives organizations that dramatically outperform their competitors in terms of both financial and non-financial results” – this gives a very different perspective on the importance and value of EPM. It also means that you need to have a mechanism and framework to objectively review your EPM capabilities and relative maturity.

At Column5 we always advocate the approach to EPM that yields the highest value returned to our clients and EPM users in general. One emerging best practice in EPM is adopting packaged content in lieu of custom developed solutions for your EPM functionality. The advantages are legion: faster time to value, more robust functionality, enhanced performance, improved supportability, lower project cost and total cost of ownership over time. Packaged content is most applicable when facing standard requirements that are consistent across customers.

Whether I am in a development role or supporting a solution I am often faced with the task of identifying why an EPM report or input form is not behaving as expected.  Regardless of who originally created the content and whether or not you have any background information on how it was configured there are many transferable troubleshooting techniques that can be executed in order to uncover the root cause of a problem.  I will cover what areas you should consider investigating to uncover common issues.

When considering tradeoffs between performance, ease of maintenance, and integration with platform functionality, choosing the “language” to author business rules in BPC is a key decision. Of the many options available to BPC administrators & developers, BPC Script Logic is often selected as a reasonable compromise to access the power of database calculations without the high bar of outright code development. Promising a good balance between functionality, maintainability and performance, Script Logic is a set of functions that simplify the calculations most often needed in EPM processes.

BPC script logic provides powerful and flexible functionality, but if you don’t have previous SQL or coding experience, it may seem unapproachable.