7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 1/10

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The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define moredetails with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths

By Alexandra Georgescu on Mar 27, 2012

After having been almost unchanged for several years, starting with the 11.1.2 release of Oracle´sHyperion Planning the Process Management has not only got a new name: “Approvals” now isoffering the possibility to further split Planning Units (comprised of a unique Scenario­Version­Entitycombination) into more detailed combinations along additional secondary dimensions, a so calledPlanning Unit Hierarchy, and also to pre­define a path of planners, reviewers and approvers, calledPromotional Path. I´d like to introduce you to changes and enhancements in this new processmanagement and arouse your curiosity for checking out more details on it.

One reason of using the former process management in Planning was to limit data entry rights to oneperson at a time based on the assignment of a planning unit. So the lowest level of granularity for thisassignment was, for a given Scenario­Version combination, the individual entity. Even if in manycases one person wasn´t responsible for all data being entered into that entity, but for only part of it, itwas not possible to split the ownership along another additional dimension, for example by assigningownership to different accounts at the same time. By defining a so called Planning Unit Hierarchy(PUH) in Approvals this gap is now closed. Complementing new Shared Services roles for Planninghave been created in order to manage set up and use of Approvals:

The Approvals Administrator consisting of the following roles:

Approvals Ownership Assigner, who assigns owners and reviewers to planning units forwhich Write access is assigned (including Planner responsibilities).Approvals Supervisor, who stops and starts planning units and takes any action on planningunits for which Write access is assigned.Approvals Process Designer, who can modify planning unit hierarchy secondary dimensionsand entity members for which Write access is assigned, can also modify scenarios and versionsthat are assigned to planning unit hierarchies and can edit validation rules on data forms forwhich access is assigned. (this includes as well Planner and Ownership Assigner

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 2/10

responsibilities)

Set up of a Planning Unit Hierarchy is done under the Administration menu, by selecting Approvals,then Planning Unit Hierarchy. Here you create new PUH´s or edit existing ones. The followingwindow displays:

After providing a name and an optional description, a pre­selection of entities can be made for whichthe PUH will be defined. Available options are:

All, which pre­selects all entities to be included for the definitions on the subsequent tabsNone, manual entity selections will be made subsequentlyCustom, which offers the selection for an ancestor and the relative generations, that should beincluded for further definitions.

Finally a pattern needs to be selected, which will determine the general flow of ownership:

Free­form, uses the flow/assignment of ownerships according to Planning releases prior to 11.1.2In Bottom­up, data input is done at the leaf member level. Ownership follows the hierarchy of

approval along the entity dimension, including refinements using a secondary dimension in the PUH,amended by defined additional reviewers in the promotional path.Distributed, uses data input at the leaf level, while ownership starts at the top level and then is

distributed down the organizational hierarchy (entities). After ownership reaches the lower levels,budgets are submitted back to the top through the approval process.

Proceeding to the next step, now a secondary dimension and the respective members from thatdimension might be selected, in order to create more detailed combinations underneath each entity.

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 3/10

After selecting the Dimension and a Parent Member, the definition of a Relative Generation belowthis member assists in populating the field for Selected Members, while the Count column shows thenumber of selected members. For refining this list, you might click on the icon right beside theselected member field and use the check­boxes in the appearing list for deselecting members.

TIP:

In order to reduce maintenance of the PUH due to changes in the dimensions included (membersadded, moved or removed) you should consider to dynamically link those dimensions in the PUH withthe dimension hierarchies in the planning application. For secondary dimensions this is done using thecheck­boxes in the Auto Include column. For the primary dimension, the respective selection criteriais applied by right­clicking the name of an entity activated as planning unit, then selecting an item ofthe shown list of include or exclude options (children, descendants, etc.).

Anyway in order to apply dimension changes impacting the PUH a synchronization must be run. Ifthis is really necessary or not is shown on the first screen after selecting from the menuAdministration, then Approvals, then Planning Unit Hierarchy: under Synchronized you find thestatuses Yes, No or Locked, where the last one indicates, that another user is just changing orsynchronizing the PUH. Select one of the not synchronized PUH´s (status No) and click theSynchronize option in order to execute.

In the next step owners and reviewers are assigned to the PUH.

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 4/10

Using the icons with the magnifying glass right besides the columns for Owner and Reviewer therespective assignments can be made in the order that you want them to review the planning unit.While it is possible to assign only one owner per entity or combination of entity+ member of thesecondary dimension, the selection for reviewers might consist of more than one person. Thecomplete Promotional Path, including the defined owners and reviewers for the entity parents, canbe shown by clicking the icon. In addition optional users might be defined for being notified aboutpromotions for a planning unit.

TIP:

Reviewers cannot change data, but can only review data according to their data access permissionsand reject or promote planning units.

In order to complete your PUH definitions click Finish ­ this saves the PUH and closes the window.As a final step, before starting the approvals process, you need to assign the PUH to the Scenario­Version combination for which it should be used. From the Administration menu select Approvals,then Scenario and Version Assignment.

Expand the PUH in order to see already existing assignments. Under Actions click the add icon andselect scenarios and versions to be assigned. If needed, click the remove icon in order to delete entries.

After these steps, set up is completed for starting the approvals process. Start, stop and control of theapprovals process is now done under the Tools menu, and then Manage Approvals.

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 5/10

The new PUH feature is complemented by various additional settings and features; some of them atleast should be mentioned here:

Export/Import of PUHs:

Out of Office agent:

Validation Rules changing promotional/approval path if violated (including the use of User­defined Attributes (UDAs)):

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 6/10

And various new and helpful reviewer actions with corresponding approval states.

More information

You can find more detailed information in the following documents:

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Backup and Recovery Guide(rel. 11.1.2.1)Oracle Essbase Online Documentation (rel. 11.1.2.1))Enterprise Performance Management System Documentation (including previous releases)

Or on the Oracle Technology Network.

If you are also interested in other new features and smart enhancements in Essbase or HyperionPlanning stay tuned for coming articles or check our training courses and web presentations.

You can find general information about offerings for the Essbase and Planning curriculum or otherOracle­Hyperion products here; (please make sure to select your country/region at the top of thispage) or in the OU Learning paths section, where Planning, Essbase and other Hyperion products canbe found under the Fusion Middleware heading (again, please select the right country/region). Or dropme a note directly: bernhard.kinkel@oracle.com.

About the Author:

Bernhard Kinkel started working for Hyperion Solutions as a Presales Consultant and Consultant in

7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 7/10

1998 and moved to Hyperion Education Services in 1999. He joined Oracle University in 2007 wherehe is a Principal Education Consultant. Based on these many years of working with Hyperion productshe has detailed product knowledge across several versions. He delivers both classroom and live virtualcourses. His areas of expertise are Oracle/Hyperion Essbase, Oracle Hyperion Planning and HyperionWeb Analysis.

Category: Hyperion

Tags: hierarchies hyperion oracle paths planning promotional unit

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7/26/2015 The new workflow management of Oracle´s Hyperion Planning: Define more details with Planning Unit Hierarchies and Promotional Paths (Insights…

https://blogs.oracle.com/ou_trainers/entry/the_new_workflow_management_of 10/10

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