Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management

CDS can help your organization accelerate the financial close process, reduce annual audit fees, eliminate data bottlenecks and improve the productivity of your professional financial staff with our Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management consulting services.

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What We Offer:

  • Mapping Table Triangulations
  • Automated Processing
  • Multi-Period Processing
  • Source System Direct Connections
  • Data Warehouse Integration
  • Data Protection
  • Advanced Reports
  • Collection of HR Data
  • Integration into HFM, Enterprise, Planning, Essbase, data warehouses, tax software tools and various other target systems

Mapping Table Triangulation

When implementing a new consolidation system, clients are faced with the challenge of creating new maps from source systems for use in new HFM or Hyperion Enterprise accounts and dimensions. This can be an extremely complicated and time-consuming process; however, CDS’s FDM Triangulation service can greatly reduce the complexity and effort involved in map conversion. FDM Triangulation involves the following steps:

  • CDS first works with the client to develop a map from the original consolidation system to the new consolidation system. For example, a client who is upgrading from Hyperion Enterprise to HFM would develop a map from the Hyperion Enterprise accounts to the HFM accounts and custom members.
  • CDS collects the original maps that are already in place to map from the source systems into the new consolidation. In our example, this would be the source system to Hyperion Enterprise accounts, and these might be stored in Ledgerlink, FDM, or some other data mapping tool.
  • CDS uses FDM Triangulation to convert the original source system maps into maps for the new consolidation system. In our example, the source system to Hyperion Enterprise maps would be triangulated against the Hyperion Enterprise to HFM map, resulting in source system to HFM maps for all data submission sites.
  • CDS’s clients use FDM Triangulation to quickly produce new mapping tables for all sites, with minimal effort. This dramatically reduces implementation time and effort needed from end users during the project.

Automated Processing

CDS helps companies create truly automated processing by leveraging the batch load process in FDM. Automated processing eliminates manual data loading steps, thus providing dramatic time and cost savings for any company. Automated processing can be set up to:

  • Import data into FDM, validate and export the data to its final target system with no manual intervention required.
  • Automate the mapping process, so that unmapped accounts automatically map to a suspense account.
  • Automatically generate emails to alert corporate finance and IT of any process deviations.
  • Run a batch process to log all processes, track any errors and report all finalized files that have completed the batch process.

By automating manual processes, CDS tightens controls and shortens data processing times for numerous clients using lights out processing in FDM.

Multi-Period Processing

CDS helps clients employ the multi-load function in FDM to reduce processing time. This functionality supports loading up to twelve data periods from a single file. CDS can help you implement a multi-load solution to meet your needs:

Direct Links
Creating inter-connectivity between certain systems (Oracle/PeopleSoft ERP’s and GL’s, various Hyperion Systems) for direct insertion of data into FDM. This eliminates the manual process of load file creation, the potential for data load errors and saves corporate users vast amounts of time.
Batch Loading
Incorporating batch loading to automate the entire process from moving the data from the source system into FDM, and then, loading it into the target Hyperion Financial System.
Files
When Batch Loading is not possible, we create automated .bat files to initiate the data pull and store the source file on the server. The FDM batch process then grabs the multi-period file and loads it through FDM to the target system automatically.
CDS clients use multi-load to accelerate the process of loading large, multi-period files, especially in cases where the forecast and budget must be loaded frequently and in multiple iterations.

Source Systems Direct Connections

Companies are increasingly requesting the ability to query source systems directly to obtain data in place of uploading flat file extractions into target systems. CDS has helped many companies develop integration scripts that directly query general ledger systems, staging tables and data warehouses to extract data for FDM import. Points to consider regarding source system integration include:

  • The process can be developed using either the standard FDM user-driven “4 fish process” or FDM’s batch processing functionality.
  • The combination of direct source system integration and FDM batch processing can result in a process devoid of manual intervention between the source and target systems.
  • Once the source system integration script is created, it executes consistently every time; ensuring that every extraction thereafter will run correctly.
  • CDS’s clients use source system integration to greatly improve the controls around the data extract and load process.

Data Warehouse Integration

Many of our clients are now using FDM not only as an integral part of their Oracle Hyperion suite of tools, but also as a tool for loading data into non-Hyperion target systems. Some of the integrations that CDS helps clients implement include:

  • Utilizing the DataMart adapter that, unlike basic Hyperion adapters, integrates with non-Hyperion systems. Using FDM’s core functionality, the DataMart adapter prepares a flat file for upload into a data warehouse or database table.
  • Loading financial or operational data into data warehouses, staging tables or back to the originating general ledgers.
  • Developing a complete integration with target systems that performs validation checks on the data loaded to the target system.

By using FDM to integrate with non-Hyperion systems, many of CDS’s clients have extended their use of FDM beyond its original purpose and have gained greater return on their investment in the tool.

Data Protection Solution

Financial organizations face the dilemma of loading data via FDM while protecting existing data in the target system. CDS’s solutions address this problem by restricting overwrites to data previously loaded via FDM  Our solutions work in the following way:

  • End users load trial balance and other data via FDM. The users also enter data into HFM via other methods.
  • The end users need to reload the trial balance or other data via FDM using the Replace method. However, the users do not want to erase the other data that exists in HFM.
  • The end users reload using our solution. Our solution archives the last loaded data file for each FDM location, category, and period. For subsequent loads, our solutions update the current data file so that it contains the previously loaded data records with a value of ‘NO DATA’ as well as the current data with the actual values. The ‘NO DATA’ designation removes the value that existed previously.
  • Our solution loads the new data values and preserves the data in HFM that was not loaded via FDM.

CDS’s clients use our solution to make the data loading process much more flexible and less prone to rework; users never have to start over and re-enter all their data if they need to reload a trial balance.

We recommend this solution on all FDM implementations, and almost all our clients have chosen to apply this custom script to simplify and streamline the data submission process.

Advanced Reports

FDM is delivered with a standard set of reports, ranging from trial balance, location process monitoring, and mapping and system audit reports. CDS has helped numerous clients extend the breadth and meaning of these reports by augmenting existing reports and by creating entirely new ones. Examples of custom FDM reports that CDS can create include:

  • Trial balance reports that sort by chart of accounts, as opposed to alphabetically
  • Custom reports that modify the stages and details of batch processing
  • Reports that automatically populate an Excel sheet with values from the target system

Find the report that fits your needs from our extensive library of custom reports, or tap our reserve of FDM report developers who can create new custom reports to meet almost any requirement.

Collection of HR Data

CDS is helping clients find increasingly unique ways to utilize FDM as more than just a data-loading tool. One popular use of FDM facilitates validation and consolidation of HR data. Some of the FDM-HR solutions that CDS helps clients implement include:

  • Processing hundreds of thousands of records of HR data, with up to 60 disparate dimensions.
  • Validating HR records to ensure that all fields match a set of predefined criteria.
  • Setting up automatic email alerts to users for data submission deadlines or data validation checks.
  • Scheduled consolidation, encryption, and FTP transfer of the HR data to the organization’s benefits provider at specified intervals.
  • Designing custom FDM-HR reports, such as process monitors, error listings, critical changes in employee information, and agency transfers.

Our clients use FDM to streamline their HR data collection process and to collect weekly HR data in a matter of minutes rather than days. This unique use of FDM provides tremendous efficiencies and greatly increases organizations’ return on investment in the software.

Key Benefits of Implementing Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management

  • Robust reporting with pre-built audit, log, system, and process management reports
  • Audit reviewing to track evaluations, gap analysis and action plans, and trace consolidated financial results back to original sources
  • Functionality linking financial close activities with key internal controls
  • Data preparation engine integrates, transforms, and validates data from any source system
  • Ability to automate as much or as little of the data loading process as you require
  • Guided workflow helps users create sophisticated data mappings and repeatable processes
  • Complete audit trails from trial balance providing a transparent view of data and processes
  • Source adapters make it easy to load data from any data file, or connect directly to a variety of transaction systems
  • Support multi-GAAP reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
  • Standardize with repeatable financial processes