SAP Analytics
Thought Leadership

Google “EPM Performance or Memory issues” and you will receive millions of hits from your search results.  When it comes to performance and especially memory consumption, not only is the “magic bullet” fix rare but the resolution is potentially complex and multifaceted in nature.  On a recent project, we started to see symptoms that became issues including long refresh times.  For one user, we saw an Input Schedule consume so much memory it resulted in the “White Screen of Death (WSoD) and Excel crashing.  In this article, I wanted to look at the challenges we faced and strategies employed to resolve the issues.

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.

Successful projects, delivering real results, are a must in today’s competitive environment.  Setting projects up for success can occur by following a proven methodology.   Optimally, organizational processes, behaviors, and results are directly correlated to, and as a result of, the creation and cascade of an overall organizational vision.  From the vision, a strategy is born.  However, your strategy may never become a star if it remains relative obscure to the larger organization.   One of the key challenges many companies face is operationalizing, or making the strategy a reality.  Projects are the vehicle to move strategy from the boardroom to the back offices and ultimately a core plank in delivering your overall strategy.

This past weekend, my daughter turned 5. Everyone knows how important daughters are to their fathers, and I couldn’t be happier with my daughter’s “mermaid & unicorn phase”. However, at her birthday party, dark clouds began to gather as she invited her “boyfriend” from school. She held hands with this little guy and even thinking about it now, it makes me slightly crazy. I can only imagine where I will be in 10 years. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers, please.