AST Blog Series: Reporting Tool Selection
EPM applications integrate with multiple sources and have the capacity to generate reports using a variety of tools. Your Systems Integrator will ensure that you thoroughly understand your options and determine what tools and approach should be used for reporting in your system. For example, you may need to decide if a specific report should be developed using Hyperion Financial Reporting or a simple SmartView (which is an Excel add-in tool). You will also need to determine if it is feasible to move your budget reports to BI. By integrating the EPM planning application with the BI application, you may give users more flexibility and visibility on how they view the data.
Available reporting tools include:
- Hyperion Financial Report (HFR): Used to generate fully formatted reports
- Reporting scripts/MDX: Used to create reports which do not need full formatting
- BI Dashboards/Publisher: OBIEE integrates with Hyperion Essbase to create dashboards with graphical representation of data
- Excel SmartView: An Excel add-in heavily utilized by business users
It is important to know what type of underlying database will be used for reporting. There are two types of databases, a Block Storage Database and an Aggregate Storage Database. Both will drive how and what type of reports are developed.
Don’t miss our next installment regarding Security Setup and Configuration.
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