Classic Excel Add-in in Windows 7

Since my post on how to install the Essbase stack on Windows 7, I have had a few people tell me that the classic Essbase add-in doesn't work on Windows 7.  We took a look at the issue and found that the classic add-in now needs modification to three environment variables instead of two.  The classic add-in has always required two environment variables:

• ARBORPATH - Set to the Essbase home directory (ex. C:\Hyperion\products\Essbase\EssbaseClient)
• PATH - Set to %ARBORPATH%\bin

The add-in now requires a third environment variable which was not properly setup by the installer on Windows 7:

• ESSBASEPATH - Set to the same directory as ARBORPATH.

I don't know for sure when (or why) they added this new environment variable, but in the cases we have worked with, if manually add the variable to your system (and, perhaps, reboot afterwards), the classic add-in should work for you.

HUGmn techday2010 - March 11 in Minneapolis

I will be presenting next week at the Hyperion User Group - Minnesota 'TechDay 2010' event next week in Minneapolis.  The user group has lined up a number of great speakers including fellow Oracle ACE Directors Edward Roske from interRel Consulting and Eric Helmer from The Hackett Group.  Oracle Essbase product managers Alan Lee and Karen Zubetz and HFM product manager Mike Malwitz will also be doing presentations along with a number of other consultants. 

Alan Lee will be speaking on the new features coming in Essbase 11.1.2 and Karen Zubetz will discussing the new OBI Applications Essbase Integrator which will, in essence, spin Essbase cubes from Oracle BI Server sources.  Mike Malwitz will talk about what is new, and what is coming, with HFM.  My presentations are on Essbase 11 installation and on converting a VBA application to Dodeca.  Here is the full agenda for the meeting: http://www.harbinger-group.com/HUGpage.html#.

I will be in Minneapolis for a couple of days and I have promised myself I would take a bit of time to enjoy my trip.  I am planning to visit the climbing gym in St Paul on Wednesday night (Vertical Endeavors - http://www.verticalendeavors.com/st_paul/index.html) and am planning to ski on Thursday night (Afton Alps - http://www.aftonalps.com).  Anyone interested in joining me?

Wisdom of Crowds BI Market Study

Howard Dresner, formerly the Chief Strategy Officer at Hyperion, is now an independent BI Strategy consultant and is currently conducting a BI market survey. His “Wisdom of Crowds” Business Intelligence Market Study is not underwritten or sponsored by any vendors and no detailed data will be shared with the outside world. If you are interested in having your opinions help shape the BI market, you can participate in the study at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QMZTVSV.

I have known Howard for a number of years and we became fast friends when we learned we were both pilots. For some reason, however, my 210 is faster than his airplane although I didn't buy his explanation that salaries for 'Chief Strategy Officers' are not that high.. Rather, I think it boils down to the fact that I spend a greater part of my salary for the care and feeding of my plane!

Win a Free Kaleidoscope Registration

ODTUG is set to announce a new contest that gives you a chance to win a free registration to Kaleidoscope or, alternatively, a suite upgrade at the Marriott Wardman Park.

All you need to do is create a 3 minute (or less) YouTube video on “Why You Need to Attend ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010”.  Make it funny, musical, or informational.  Mostly, make it memorable.  Make it viral and we will see you in DC!

To qualify, make sure to include the ODTUG Kaleidoscope logo and submit your video for consideration by emailing you name and YouTube video link to Crystal Walton at crystal@odtug.com.  By the way, Crystal works on the small team of full-time ODTUG people who work very hard to make Kaleidoscope the best Hyperion conference in the world.

Video Contest Guidelines: Video must be three minutes or less, contain no inappropriate content, and be posted publicly to YouTube by March 31, midnight EST. All videos must remain in public domain until after July 1st, 2010. The winning video will be selected from among all the entries. The judges’ decision will be final. Judges may include members of the ODTUG Kaleidoscope Conference Committee and others. Winner will be notified by April 2nd, 2010. Winner will have the choice of a complimentary non-transferable registration to ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2010 or a suite upgrade at the Marriott Wardman Park.

Essbase 11 Formatted Values, Text and Date Measures

There was a question on the Network54 recently about formatted values in Essbase 11, so I thought I would post a little info from 'under the covers' with formatted values and how they relate to Text Measures and Dates.

First, Essbase does support formatted values in Essbase 11. You can see in this screenshot from EAS, the format string is a property of the member.

The format string is in MDX format and there seems to be no valid examples in the docs of how to actually do a format.  Thanks to the beauty of the internet and the hard work of Venkat at RittmanMead Consulting, I found an example on their blog.  In the screenshot below, you will see the result of the formatted value:

Under the covers, there is a setting at the API level that determines if the formatted values are retrieved from the database.  Uses of Smart View control this setting using the 'Format String' option in the Options dialog.

The same setting also governs whether Date and Text Measures are returned as either the formatted values or as numbers (which are what are stored in the database).   Here is a screenshot of how the Java API returns formatted values with both the formatted values returned and the the formatted values not returned:








The value circled in yellow is a formatted value; note that the number below is the numeric value (which can also be returned in the same retrieve at the API level).  The value circled in green is a Date measure; I don't think my date values are valid though.  It seems limited that the earliest date supported is January 1, 1970 (and I think I used Excel dates to fill the cell which starts at January 1, 1900.

The values circled in red and blue are Text Measures.  Text Measures get their values from Smart Lists.  Here is the EAS editor showing my simple Smart List:















OK, so it says 'Text Lists' in the dialog, but if you look at the API level, you see Smart Lists:

Now you probably know more about Formatted Values, Text and Date Measures than you ever cared to know.

Ohio Valley OAUG Meeting - February 19 in Cincinnati

I will be attending the Ohio Valley OAUG meeting in Cincinnati in a couple of weeks.  Though I will not be doing a presentation there, one of our customers, Matt Holt, from Kroger will be presenting "Kroger's use of the Dodeca product with Oracle EPM".  Kroger uses Dodeca in a number of areas, including executive management, finance, regional operations, store reporting, manufacturing and merchandise planning, to save their users time, save the company money and to gain a competitive advantage.

The full agenda for the meeting, which includes tracks on Hyperion EPM/Essbase, Oracle E-Business Suite, and Technology, is available at http://ohio.oaug.org/Feb19agenda.pdf. 

The cost of attending this day of education is an extremely reasonable $30.  For more information, and to register, visit http://ohio.oaug.org/.  I hope to see you there!

EPM Connection Point® Regional Conference - Jersey City

The full conference schedule for the OAUG Connection Point® — Enterprise Performance Management regional conference has been released.   The conference will be held later this month, February 23 and 24, in Jersey City, NJ.  The full conference agenda is at http://oaug.org/conferencesandeducation/conferences/2010/cpepm/cpepmagendagrid.pdf. 

This mini-conference is targeted towards business decision makers who want to better understand the Hyperion EPM products, including Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management and Hyperion Strategic Finance, and would like to learn best practices via case studies of various company implementations.

As my focus is primarily Essbase, I don't currently plan to be at this conference.  A number of friends, including fellow Oracle ACE Directors Edward Roske from interRel Consulting, Tracy McMullen from interRel Consulting, and Eric Helmer from The Hackett Group, will be speaking there.  Other friends speaking there include Juan Porter from TopDown Consulting, Rob Cybulski from Finit Solutions and Kevin Corlett from Decision Support Technologies.  Jay Laabs from Bluestone International is more of an acquaintance but may be the world's foremost expert on Hyperion Strategic Finance.

If you are in the New York metro area, check the agenda to see if the content interests you and, if it does, sign up and go!

Note: the PDF is labeled for the Dubai - 2009 conference, but this conference really is in Jersey City.  As an aside, my wife lived in Abu Dhabi just before I met her 22 years ago and she played in a one-pitch softball tournament in Dubai - If the pitch is a strike, you're out and if the pitch is a ball, it's a walk. Otherwise, you hit the ball and run.  That is the way to play softball when it's 120° F (46° C) outside.