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IWelcome back to your favorite Hyperion Vlog epmfox. You missed me, didn't you? It's okay, I'm back. In the third chapter of the "Hyperion Upgrade 11.2 - What's Going On?" video series, I answer the question of what options you have left after EPMA ends and the pros and cons of each option. So, stay tuned!  Let's get right into the first chapter!

Chapter 3.1 – The end of EPMA

For those who don't know:  Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA) is a component of Oracle EPM Suite 11.1 and is used to manage metadata for Hyperion Planning, Financial Management, Profitability and Cost Management and Essbase applications.  

What is metadata? Metadata (or "master data") is structural data that forms the framework of an application in which the actual data is later embedded. For example, accounts with their associated properties (name, account number, account type, IC account or not) are defined in the metadata. So are the companies, periods, years, etc.  It is not worth to say more about EPMA, because in Hyperion 11.2 there is no EPMA anymore. Oracle has discontinued the product. So EPMA users must think about how to migrate the metadata from EPMA to the new environment and how to maintain and load metadata for Hyperion in the future. This leads us to the first question:

Chapter 3.2 - What are my options without EPMA? 

Option 1. DRM
The first alternative offered by Oracle is DRM (Data Relationsship Management). What is DRM?  DRM is a much more powerful tool than EPMA. Why? Let's take a closer look at some of its features.

- DRM is a metadata tool that can be used to create, maintain and copy metadata to target applications. An important difference to EPMA is that the target applications are not limited to Oracle Hyperion, but that DRM can be used for the maintenance of all metadata of the systems used in the company. DRM is therefore product and vendor independent.

- It can create Flat Files that can be loaded directly into the target systems or write to databases from which the target systems can serve themselves. These processes can be automated by scripts. Among other things, it is possible to link changes in one system to another system, thus ensuring that, for example, the chart of accounts or the company hierarchy is always identical in several systems.

- DRM is more flexible than EPMA when it comes to actually working on the metadata. Changes can be made offline, cached, set only partially productive. The metadata can be versioned, snapshots can be created, which can be viewed and loaded again when needed.

- DRM is more transparent than EPMA because you can track exactly who made and loaded which change and when. A joy especially for auditors.  

- DRM has an integrated process control and change management. This means it supports people involved in the process from the request to the release and implementation of metadata adjustments.

- It serves as a central repository for FDMEE mapping. So, you can use the mapping also for other applications than only FDMEE.

DRM is, on balance, more versatile, flexible, transparent and solid than EPMA...but unfortunately also more complicated. Many functions do not come out-of-the-box, but have to be set up initially. You should therefore consult an expert, especially for the initial setup. Contact us, we are happy to help.  

In terms of cost, there's good news and bad news.  Let's start with the good: Oracle Hyperion 11.2 licensees get DRM for free.  
But, and now to the bad news: this is a restricted version. What does it mean exactly?  

•Oracle DRM can only be used for Oracle Hyperion products.  So no reading and feeding of metadata to/from other applications such as cloud instances, data warehouses, BI tools, etc. •No functionality around process control and change management.
•No DRM analytics functionality.
•Max. 5 DRM users

If you want the full DRM version with all functionalities, you have two options: Either you purchase the normal DRM license or  the ORACLE EPM Cloud Enterprise Data Management license.  

Speaking of which, do you want DRM? I happen to have a very interesting offer for you.  Whether you choose the limited or full version depends on the extent to which you want to use DRM. If you want an enterprise-wide metadata tool that also serves non-Hyperion systems such as ERP or BI tools, then you should opt for the full version. Likewise, if you have more complex structures that change often and need to be synchronized across multiple systems. Otherwise the restricted version is sufficient.  

Option 2. Classic

The second option is to convert your existing EPMA application to a "Classic" application.  Classic means that after the conversion the classic way for maintenance of metadata is used, which a product offers as standard (e.g. HFM Client -> Load Metadata, EAS Console, etc.). The disadvantage: the metadata of a Classic application is product specific. A synchronization of metadata across products is no longer possible. For example, the chart of accounts in an HFM Classic application cannot be shared with a Planning application.   If you don't want to share metadata across applications or your shared dimensions rarely change, this option is still perfectly sufficient. By the way, according to Oracle's roadmap, there should be a "Native Metadata Editor" for HFM at some point. But when exactly it will be released, there is no info about it.

Option 3: FDMEE 

Another option that is hardly ever used but should not go unmentioned is FDMEE, which can load metadata too. However, since this option has too few advantages, we will not discuss it further here.

Option 4: infranaut console
The last option is third-party vendors who have created their own solutions to simplify metadata management. One option is the "Infranaut Console" offered by our partner infranaut, which was developed specifically for HFM. Sit back and take a look for yourself. Foxbot, music please!  

Let's sum it all up: Here are all 4 options with their pros and cons So ladies and gentlemen, that's it! As always, everything short, simple and to the point.   Did the video help you? Then subscribe to epmfox.com and don't miss the next videos!