In recent years there has been a noticeable change in emphasis within the software industry, from transactional perspectives towards added-value analytic applications. Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) is one of the key Oracle Analytic Solutions products in this area.

This book uniquely draws on the authors' wide experience as OFA professionals to harness common knowledge from many projects and offer insights gained from running a number of OFA projects. It effectively bridges the existing gap between product functionality-focused courses, and unstructured experiential learning to offer you a comprehensive guide to successfully implementing OFA projects.

Aimed at business analysts, technical architects, project managers and OFA implementors and administrators this book will give you invaluable support , whether you are working on a first project or are extending an existing one.

The book starts with an overview, followed by in-depth discussion of project scoping for OFA, assisting the business analyst in identifying the business processes to which it should be applied. It then focuses in detail on the key features of OFA and goes on to consider related issues of Enterprise Resource Planning systems and the Data Warehouse.

All principles and practices discussed are explained through references to a number of case studies and each chapter is roadmapped, assisting you in structuring your reading of the book to meet your own project requirements.

OFA project implementation principles covered:

• sponsorship,
• business process modelling,
• change management planning,
• design of the application architecture,
• database design,
• infrastructure specification,
• documentation,
• roll-out and continuing change management,
• backup and recovery

Features:

• CD modelling an organization with Sales, Finance, Board, regional organization and all client types including Web, plus script to explain structure of organization and prompting user to perform some of the tasks required to operate a tiered OFA system. This will enable you to validate your progress in understanding how a complete OFA architecture is deployed.
• Web-site portal for discussion of issues raised in book.

Appendices: covering Tuning for OFA, Data loading, hints & tips on the GL link and the potential impact of future developments.

Contents

Preface

1 Introduction 1

2 Project Scoping for Oracle Financial Analyzer 6

• 2.1 Identifying the business processes to which OFA can be applied 7
• 2.2 Packaged solutions as part of the solution architecture 28
• 2.3 Common data sources and business processes 33

3 Oracle Financial Analyzer Key Features 39

• 3.1 OFA key features and functions 39
• 3.2 Controlling the flow of structures and data 84
• 3.3 More workstations and their functionality 90

4 Enterprise Oracle Financial Analyzer, ERP And the Data Warehouse 99

• 4.1 The Oracle General Ledged and Oracle Financial Analyzer 100
• 4.2 Other ERP systems and Oracle Financial Analyzer 106
• 4.3 Operational data stores, the data warehouse and OFA 109
• 4.4 OFA, tactical solutions and the data warehouse 116

5 Project Principles 120

• 5.1 Sponsorship 121
• 5.2 Business process modelling 124
• 5.3 Change management planning 131
• 5.4 Design of the application architecture 132
• 5.5 Database design 158
• 5.6 Infrastructure specification 200
• 5.7 Documentation 235
• 5.8 Roll-out and continuing change management 244
• 5.9 Backups, database reorganizations and data archiving 252

6 Case Study in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Industry 264

• 6.1 Company overview 264
• 6.2 The requirements of the OFA system 264
• 6.3 Sponsorship and change management 268
• 6.4 Business process modelling 269
• 6.5 Design of the application architecture 270
• 6.6 Database design 271
• 6.7 Roll-out 286
• 6.8 Continuing change management 287

7 Case Study in the Financial Services Industry 288

• 7.1 Company overview 288
• 7.2 The requirements of the OFA system 288
• 7.3 Roll-out 289
• 7.4 Sponsorship 290
• 7.5 Change management 291
• 7.6 Requirements 291
• 7.7 Design of the application architecture 293
• 7.8 Database design: management reporting 295
• 7.9 Interface design: management reporting 299
• 7.10 Database design: budgeting 303
• 7.11 Database design: profitability 305
• 7.12 Infrastructure specification 308

8 Case Studies in Activity-Based Management 309

• 8.1 Activity-based costing: the principles 310
• 8.2 Oracle Financial Analyzer and activity-based planning and budgeting 328
• 8.3 A more detailed look at the generic ABC business process model and OFA 346

• References 366
• App. A Tuning OFA 367
• App. B Data loading 374
• App. C The GL Link: hints and tips 386
• App. D History, future developments and their potential impact 391
• Index 400