BPC Upgrade Guide Whitepaper 09242015

7/25/2019 BPC Upgrade Guide Whitepaper 09242015

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UPGRADE GUIDEBPC

PRESENTED BY

version 7.xto version 10.x


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Confidential. Do not distribute, copy, or reproduce in whole or in part without express written permission of Column5

Consulting. All rights reserved. Column5 Consulting Group, LLC 2

BPC

UPGRADE GUIDE

CONTENTS

Executive Overview............................................................................................................................Thoughts on Preparing for the Upgrade.............................................................................................

Process Guides.......................................................................................................................

Detailed Insights.................................................................................................................................

EPM Roadmap.......................................................................................................................

Technical Considerations When Upgrading BPC...............................................................................

NW Technical Comments.............................................................................................

Microsoft Comments.....................................................................................................

New Features...........................................................................................................................

Web Interface ..............................................................................................................

EPM Add-In (Word, PowerPoint and Excel).................................................................. Move Away from EV Formulas......................................................................................

Technical Upgrade Process......................................................................................................

Proper Care and Usage Regimen for BPC........................................................................................

Building a Competent Team....................................................................................................

Attend Events........................................................................................................................

Use Tools for Support and Validation.....................................................................................

Extended Support........................................................................................................

Managed Service.........................................................................................................

Hosting........................................................................................................................

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................

Contact Us.........................................................................................................................................

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EXECUTIVE

OVERVIEW


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EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

SAP Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) is a powerful

solution that is used by thousands of signicant organizations

around the world to perform functions associated with Enterprise

Performance Management (EPM). While the solution is ranked

at the top of the market by Gartner, and many customers are

successful with the product, for many others their BPC experience

could be greatly improved.

A challenge with EPM solutions is that they can be implemented

with a very wide degree of exibility, and the access to data

that clearly spells out preferred approaches is very limited. The

purpose of this document is to help BPC owners of versions 7.xand earlier make the most of their upgrade to version 10.x. The

powerful features of v10.x contain great potential to improve the

user experience delivered by earlier versions, while the upgrade

process provides an opportunity to signicantly expand the value

BPC returns to the business as an EPM solution.

Column5 is a market leader among all types of rms that offer

SAP EPM professional services. The comprehensive capabilities

offered by our team are unique in the marketplace, as is the

value partnering with our organization can deliver for any size/

complexity organization. For more information about Column5,

our services, and how they can assist you in your EPM journey,

please see www.column5.com.

I invite you to use this document as a guide to help your

organization advance your EPM capabilities, improve your user

experience, and increase your success with BPC. Should you

have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our organization or me personally.

Best of luck with your upgrade,

David Den Boer

CEO

Column5 Consulting

[email protected]

+1.480.779.6906
http://www.column5.com/http://www.column5.com/


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DISCLAIMER

All recommendations made throughout this document are based on the best available informationas of the date this document was published, and are subject to change as new information becomes

available. Column5 believes these to be accurate and correct to the best of our knowledge, and it is ou

intent to update this document from time to time as more information is analyzed.

Upgrades can be a turning point where new functionality and improved performance is released to

users to their delight, or they can be a disruptive and frustrating experience. At Column5, we believe tha

frustrations are not often experienced because of a single bad decision, but rather are the cumulative

result of a series of overlooked opportunities to take a better approach; therefore, knowing what needs

to be done to get it right throughout the upgrade project is essential to a successful outcome.

Some BPC customers will leverage the upgrade as a point of inection on their EPM journey to expandand enhance their solution. Others will try to make the change as seamless as possible with very little

change, and at the lowest possible cost. Whichever scenario is your objective, following our suggestions

can save time and money, while expanding the opportunity to have a superlative result with the upgrade

process.


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THOUGHTS

ONPREPARING

FOR AN

UPGRADE


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Our team was extremely pleased with the technical

expertise Column5 provided in an engagement to upgrade

BPC v7.5 MS to v10.0 MS. From the advice/guidance

that was purely technical (i.e., tuning the servers, etc.)

to the application support, we could not have been more

pleased. The project was completed on time and on budget.

In addition to the onsite consulting that was provided,

we also took advantage of the excellent educational

opportunities Column5 provides. Through a combination

of remote and online training, the finance team was well

prepared to assume ownership of the application toensure a successful budget process.

- Vice President

Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center


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Like most undertakings, proper planningis essential to increase the likelihood

of success. Before we discuss specific

approaches, lets set the right context

for the upgrade and answer questions

around the when, what, how and who of

the upgrade process.

When and why do we need toupgrade?

SAP BPC is a very sophisticated software

application with numerous dependencies on

underlying components. The most popular

reporting interface is Microsoft Excel, in addition

to other members of the MS Ofce suite. BPC sits

on top of a database, and depending on which

version you have, relies on certain components of

that platform as well as webserver components.

Any one of those objects could be patched to

upgrade its functionality at any time, and this

patching of dependent components and sometimes

indirectly related software modules, can and often

does introduce some compatibility issues to BPCs

otherwise smooth operation.

SAP has announced for every version an end of

mainstream support date, which means that the

services available via support will start to change.Change how? Mainstream support will come to

an end and then Priority One support may be

available. The following information is according to

this SAP site (click here) on Priority One support.

Under Priority One, Enterprise Support Service

Level Agreements will no longer be delivered.

For previously resolved issues reported tothe support desk, there will be no change

The support personnel will direct you to the

existing SAP note that addresses that issue

For newly reported issues reported to the suppor

desk, a determination will be made as to the

severity of the issue. Issues deemed to be below

very high (see denitions here) will no longer be

xed. You will be encouraged to upgrade to the

latest version or implement a work around. Whilethe fees for Priority One support are included in

your full maintenance payment, the remedies

available to you will be reduced.

It will be up to each organization to determine

how comfortable it is with the amount of risk

introduced with this change in the support terms

We believe many should be motivated to make

plans to upgrade before any changes are made

to the available support options that may increasethe risk of BPC problems in your environment

Recently, several Microsoft patches for Ofce

products have interfered with BPCs functionality

As time goes on, we predict more of this wil

occur as the patch levels of Ofce, Windows, and

other components further diverge from BPCs

compatibility. This will result in your IT departmen

burdened with controlling which patches are applied

to your key software applications to accommodateBPCs end of mainstream support. Column5s

assessment is that this state of uncertainty wil

be progressively less desirable than the benets

of being on a fully supported version, therefore

our recommendation is to upgrade as soon as is

practicable.

THOUGHTS ON PREPARING FOR AN UPGRADE
https://support.sap.com/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-strategy/phases/priority-one-support.htmlhttps://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/67739https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/67739https://support.sap.com/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-strategy/phases/priority-one-support.html


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What can be done to elevate my EPM

program ROI and increase the value ofmy business case?

BPC has likely been part of your organizations process

for a few years now, and you may feel that there is some

distance to go to realize all you had hoped in the initial

ownership period. At the same time, you may feel you

have a complete understanding of BPC and EPM value in

your organization. However, before fully embarking on an

upgrade, it is an ideal time to revisit the original intent of

the investment in EPM, assess the progress made to date,

and determine what further steps can be taken as part of

the upgrade and beyond to achieve the next level of EPM

value.

Column5 offers an EPM Assessmentthat covers these

very topics to help organizations focus their investments in

the highest impact areas. More details about the value of

establishing an EPM Roadmap are discussed on page 14.

What should we seek to accomplish

during the upgrade?Some customers view moving to a new version as a simple

lift and shift experience, with only subtle changes needed.

With v10, several new features, including a new reporting

interface, have been introduced, so the potential to slip in the

new version without the users noticing is likely not possible.

Whether the appetite for the amount of change during the

upgrade is minimal, or this pivot will be leveraged to introduce

more sweeping changes, it is important to identify what is

eligible for change, and allocate sufcient time to make

changes, test, and train before deploying for best results. A

list of items that could be changed are:

Performance improvements

User Interface (UI) enhancements

New UIs (web, mobility, MS Ofce: Excel/Word/

PowerPoint)

It is a risk to not

focus on those

issues most

visible to your

user community

as a top priority.

Prepare a list of

known issues tha

are expected to

be resolved due

to the softwareupgrade or

related services

so the delivery of

these solutions

can be validated

during testing.

HOT TIP
http://www.column5.com/serviceshttp://www.column5.com/services


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Workow & other process support

New function coverage (strategic planning,CapEx, HCM, OpEx, S&OP, & more)

Automation (transaction load, master data

load, report distribution, logic runs)

Improved integration (reporting to ERP

transaction detail & BI/EDW)

Automated variance

For most BPC owning organizations, the

above list contains the potential for major

enhancements. Which are right for your usage

of BPC? This document will provide more

information about some of these items, but the

best way to determine what is best for your

situation is to get educated on the functionality

directly. To facilitate learning, Column5 offers

recorded webinars and demos in our Webcast

Library. Alternatively, custom demonstrations

of the latest BPC product can be requested for

your organization.

To save time and money while preparing

the upgrade, assemble an inventory of

existing Report and Input Schedules th

exist in the current system. Prioritize the list to identify which are critical to ha

operational by the targeted go-live. Then look for reports which are no longer us

or may be out of date; these will be candidates to be excluded from the migratiAlso be sure to interview all users for one-off reports they may have created

satisfy a local need. Once you are confident you have the complete list, priorit

the list to indicate which are critical for go-live. Many times, the complete

cannot be rebuilt (if needed) by the targeted go-live date for the completion

the upgrade, and those can be divided up among users for conversion at a la

date.

HOT TIP!

What can be done to reduce the

risk of disruption & frustration?With any change, there is the potential to have

users feel alienated with their familiar environment

being taken away and some new experiences

being thrust upon them. Several steps can be taken

to avoid this perception. They include:

ORGANIZE: Have users nominate a review

committee to be involved in the upgrade.

COMMUNICATE: In our experience,

disenfranchised users that have the ability toclaim, I wasnt aware this was happening

or I had no inuence are going to be the

most motivated critics. A strategy of proactive

engagement will help convert critics to advocates

early.

EDUCATE: Involve inuential users in the

educational process mentioned above so they

can build a sense of anticipation for the new

version. Consider forwarding links to Column5s

Webcast Libraryfor demos on v10 functionality,
http://column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://www.column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://www.column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://column5.com/webcast-library


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or arranging a demo of BPC focused on your

organizations areas of interest.

TRAIN: Train power users at the earliestpossible opportunity when they can

begin to interact with v10 in a development

environment, and have them take on some

of the report conversion tasks. When the

interfaces are theirs they will be much more

likely to be supportive.

TEST PLANNING: Having a proper testing

plan that simulates performance loads and

mitigates challenges before going live is

essential to make the experience whollypositive.

TEST GROUPS: Giving users an opportunity

to identify concerns early and have those

addressed before going live will build empathy

for the upgrade team should any challenges

be encountered after go-live.

Is having a qualified third party

participate in the upgraderecommended?

Has user adoption been a challenge in the

past? We recommend engaging a third party

for Organizational Change Management, with

specic experience with EPM solutions.

Do you already experience performance or

stability issues? Have a plan to address these

concerns prior to the upgrade by working with

a highly competent third party with specicofferings for BPC performance tuning.

Do your users feel competent working

independently with the solution? Train your

end-users, ranging from eLearning to custom

onsite training content to build users familiarity

with BPC v10.

What resources should I plan

to make available during the

upgrade?

Your organization will need to make both technica

and functional staff available. In addition to this, a

qualied third party is highly recommended. The

Column5 team is not aware of many upgrades

that have been successfully completed by

clients without the benet of experienced third

party resources. Securing a commitment from

selected users will also be very useful to ensure

the system is well received. Depending on thenature of changes made during the upgrade,

executive process owners may be required to help

advance capabilities of EPM processes around

the organization.

How does this specific upgrade

(to v10.x) differ from upgrades I

have done in the past?

The biggest change with this upgrade is the newreporting interface. The potential exists to create

a very dynamic reporting capability that our

clients report is much easier to use. While some

navigational experiences may receive a facelift

that looks more professional, the Excel reports

most are accustomed to will not necessarily look

different depending on your existing solution.

By taking advantage of some of the new features

present in v7.x that were not deployed for whatever

reason, plus the signicant technical advances in

v10.x, this upgrade can be a major turning point in

the users perception of BPC.


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THOUGHTS ON PREPARING FOR AN UPGRADE

Process Guides

Your upgrade should follow a structured process

to ensure the best possible outcome. You will want

to ensure your project includes a detailed planning

phase, followed by the technical upgrade process.

Once the technical foundation is laid, the work

can begin on building the v10.x system in detail.

Testing, performance tuning, and go-live will round

out the steps to complete the upgrade.

With each organizations BPC solution specics,

and their desire for change (or not), the volume of

tasks at each stage will vary.

All upgrade steps should follow a comprehensive

blueprinting phase that covers a right-sized agenda

calibrated to match how aggressive the upgrade

approach should be. A more detailed discussion

of the importance of plotting an EPM roadmap

is located further on in this document. Once the

blueprint is agreed upon, the ow of every upgrade

should follow this diagram as closely as possible

for best results.

TECHNICAL UPGRADE

FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

TESTING

A key to the success of the project will be the Functional Regression Testingprior to the Systems Integration Testing. Conclude the Testing Phases with

User Acceptance Testing to be sure nothing has been missed. The Go-Live

and Post Go-Live Phases will include migration to production and support

and maintenance of the upgrade post go-live.

TESTING

System Landscape

Design

Installation

Performance Tuning

Post Go-Live Support

Replicate Existing

Interfaces

Create New

Interfaces

Migrate Data

Integration

Enhance Automation

Functional Regression

Systems Integration

Performance Remediation

Disaster Recovery

User Acceptance


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DETAILED

INSIGHTS


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DETAILED INSIGHTS

Making your BPC upgrade successful is

our primary goal, and the place to start

is agreeing on how you define success.

At Column5, we have a very broad view

of the potential value of an EPM solution.

We believe that EPM is one process that

every single business must operate, and it

should cover the entire enterprise (thats

why they call it Enterprise Performance

Management). We further believe that

more competitive companies (measured

in market share, profitability, market

capitalization, etc.) are also superior

EPM process operators. Said another

way, to the extent your organization has

a superior EPM processyour company

will be more competitive in your market.

Some customers only strive to replace manual

processes with automated versions of the

same basic capability. Others focus exclusively

on nancial processes, omitting Strategy and

Operations planning functionality. Regardless of

how you have deployed BPC to date, an opportunity

for improvement near the top of every list is

improved performance and stability. How should

you approach the project to leverage this upgradeas a major advancement in your EPM journey?

EPM Roadmap

As previously stated, the rst step is to dene your

organizations vision for upgrade success. To our

team, that means taking a step back and evaluating

the overarching purposes you are aiming to achievIn our surveys, 75% of customers do not have a

EPM roadmap despite implementing BPC. Th

number is in line with scores for other EPM product

and maybe not surprisingly, as it correlates to th

reported 70% of survey respondents that report

struggle to clearly achieve positive value with the

EPM investments.

The upgrade process presents an opportunity t

unlock that hidden value, and revisit how well yoare using EPM for current objectives, and identif

major capabilities you may aspire to include. From

people perspective, getting a vision clearly outline

can align your team around a more valuab

blueprint for EPM in your organization and industr

Dening this vision, and the value from a mor

capable platform, can help you make clear priori

decisions on which projects to do and when, an

what features to include and why.

At Column5, we encounter customers froother partners who spent signicant resource

on developing complex tasks that unfortunate

achieved minimal process value. More than mere

missed opportunities, unnecessary complexity an

low usability can present a major issue with use

satisfaction, and can lead to poor performance an

even staff turnover.

Column5 has an EPM Framework that is part of ou

PAVE methodology Process to Achieve Value wit

EPM that helps avoid these oversights, misseopportunities, and dissastisfaction. Applying thes

principles can bring structure and clarity to an

organizations intended ROI.


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DETAILED INSIGHTS

Of all the new features with v10, some

of the most anticipated and impactful

will be the performance and stability

enhancements. This section will review

the details of the various improvements

for each platform option.

NetWeaver (NW) Technical

Comments

BPC v10.x for the NetWeaver platform contains

architectural enhancements that enable new

features, and performance improvements stemming

from numerous platform renements. First, the

.NET server is no longer required for BPC v10.x.

This enhancement removes a communication (and

performance) bottleneck, and removes anotherlayer requiring management. Communication now

ows directly from BPCs front-end user interface

to the ABAP layer.

From a security perspective, further enhancements

have been made. ABAP users are now created

with BPC v10.x users, and Active Directory users

are no longer required. This provides for more

detailed tracing of specic activities to individuals

as opposed to Active Directory users that were tied

to three generic ABAP user proles: BPC_USER,BPC_ADMIN, and BPC_SYSADMIN. Because

the individual user was not identied in ABAP,

debug users had to be created for troubleshooting

purposes.

BPC v10 for NW includes some major performance

improvements. The SAP EPM 10 client and the

BPC components no longer have to be on the same

service packs. This allows the freedom of adding

xes to the front-end without having to complete an

upgrade to the back-end. The enhancements on

the front-end have made signicant performance

improvements. The new EPM client also has two

versions, the Standard and Big Volume. The Big

Volume EPM client takes advantage of Microsof

Ofce 64-bit and enables reports that return

datasets with larger volume.

Transports used to migrate objects in the BPC

environment (formerly known as appset) in BPC

v7.x required that the whole environment be

transported each time. In BPC 10.x, transports

are now more granular allowing portions o

the environment contents to be targeted whenoperating transports. Normal mode and Delete

mode of transports are now supported.

With BPC v7.x systems, it was not possible to

integrate BPC into a Central User Administration

(CUA) environment. For this reason, BPC system

security was handled separately and could no

be a part of CUA implementation. With BPC v10.x

systems, BPC can be tightly integrated in a CUA

landscape. There are a few additional steps to

enable and activate this conguration. If a CUAlandscape is your preference, contact Column5s

technical services team today.

BPC v10.1 integrates more tightly with other

products that may aid in expanding the reach

TECHNICAL Considerations When Upgrading BPC


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of your EPM capability. For example, BPC v10.x

now offers mobile support for the Apple iPad and

RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. This capability

is enabled by SAPs use of an HTML5 toolkit UI5

that has no software prerequisites. This exible

platform offers greater support for mobile devices

and touchscreens. UI5 also provides a new Web

admin client, now called the BPC Admin Console,

in BPC v10.1 and replaces the v7.x Admin client.

All administration activities including maintenance

of environments, dimensions and models, user

security and role creation, etc. are now handled

using BPC Admin Console. Where the v7.x Admin

client required SAP Cryptographic Software, theenhanced BPC Admin Console does not have this

prerequisite.

BPC v10.1 also has a Unied version which

combines the best parts of SAP IP/PAK and BPC.

The models use BW InfoObjects rather than

BPC dimensions, and Planning related functions

are developed using IP functionality. Clients

that desire this integration with BW InfoObjects

may benet from simpler support and greater IP

Planning performance. The Unied version willrequire BPC v10.1 to be installed on HANA.

Parallel Data Manager Loading is now available in

BPC v10.x. This enhancement will allow you to run

Specic Data Manager packages in Parallel and

will greatly improve the run time of long-running

and large data loads from Data Manager.

Special Caching Mechanism for Report Meta

Data will further improve BPC read time by

implementing a special Meta Data caching

mechanism for Reports that are used often. This

is made available starting in BPC v10.0 SP8.

Support for Time Dependent Hierarchy is also

available in BPC v10.x. This will enable users to

see data reected differently based on changes to

master data over time. Users will be able to toggle

to different versions of hierarchy by selecting a

key date within EPM Add-In and web reporting

with reports and input forms. Models with time

dependent hierarchy enabled allow users to

select the key date with both reporting UI fo

reports and input forms. For more info on this seeNote 1800842 - Time-dependent hierarchy fo

Planning and Consolidation 10.0. This note gives

a description, instructions on how to activate, and

settings.

BPC 10.1 requires a minimum of NetWeaver 7.4

SP5, so this takes full advantage of enhancements

contained within the latest NetWeaver version

BPC v10.1 supports the latest operating

systems and databases. This allows access to

improvements made in the latest versions ounderlying technologies, which again improves

BPC. The HANA database is also supported in

BPC v10.x.

As of BPC v10.0 SP9, MDX on HANA is a new

option. The MDX syntax has been known to cause

signicant adverse performance impacts in BPC

v7.x, so this new option can be a major improvemen

in functionality for those who require it.


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MICROSOFT (MS) COMMENTS

Clients on BPC 7.x for the Microsoft platform canalso receive many benets by upgrading to BPC

10.1 at each tier of the technology stack. This

includes specic Ofce, SQL Server, Windows,

and BPC functional items.

CLIENT SIDE

EPM Add-In: Flexibility & Power

Flexibility In SAP BPC v7.x for the Microsoft

version, if there was a need to upgrade the serverside components to a higher Service Pack or

patch, it was a requirement to have the versions

match on the client side as well. This required

having all users on the old BPC client to rst

uninstall the old version, then download the newest

and reinstall. Several challenges arise from this

process, not the least of which was invoked by

policies where users did not have rights to install

new software of their local machines.

In the latest version of BPC v10.1 MS, the EPM

Add-In no longer requires the client and server

side versions to match. In fact, there is more

exibility as several versions of the EPM Add-In

can be installed on various workstations without

any issues. For example, if a bug was discovered

within a couple of workstations in Europe but was

not being witnessed elsewhere, you could simply

upgrade both workstations without impacting

other users.

Improved Query & Data Handling Power

In SAP BPC v7.x MS, the only acceptable and

supported version of Microsoft Ofce that could

be used was a 32-bit edition. This limited the size

of les and amount of data sent within MS Excel.

BPC v10.1 MS allows support for MS Ofce 32-bit

and MS Ofce 64-bit. There are now two versions

of the EPM Add-In (BPC Client): one whichutilizes the standard 32-bit Ofce (.NET 3.5), and

the second is the high data volume EPM Add-In

BIG VOL. version that works with Ofce 64-bit

(.NET 4). Of course by using the 64-bit version

of Ofce you are able to also make use of higher

amounts of RAM on the client machine for larger

volumes of data sends.

Administrative Console (optional)

In SAP BPC v7.x MS, there are two portionsto the Administrative client. There is a web-

based segment that includes application set

parameter setup, application parameter setup,

audit activity and setup, report publishing, and

edit drill through. The other portion includes a

thick client that gets installed on a workstation

that handles security, security management,

application set management, application

management, dimension management, business

rule management, work status setup, journals

management, and script logic management.

In the latest version of SAP BPC (BPC v10.x), the

Administrative Client no longer utilizes any web

services and is unied into one thick client that

handles all administrative tasks.

SERVER SIDE

COM+ Components

Better Design The Microsoft version of

SAP BPC v7.x was developed using COM+

Components, an extension of Microsofts

Component Object Models (COM). COM+ is both

an object-oriented programming architecture and

a set of operating system services which handles

many of the resource management tasks needed


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to run BPC. This original design relied heavily on

DLL les being of the right version and properly

registered within the system. Under certaincircumstances, these les could fail to register

during upgrades causing unstable environments

and poor performance. Many times these small

programs would crash, causing users to receive

errors and experience erratic performance and

instability. Maintenance was required each time

a new BPC Service Pack or patch was applied

to each relevant components application pool, a

property used for multiple application process calls.

This detailed requirement has been inconsistently

adhered to, and our team sees a correlation toclients who upgrade hoping to improve stability

and their experience has not improved.

In BPC v10.x MS, SAP has redesigned their

product and has removed all major dependencies

on COM+ Components (there is only 1 left) and

has replaced those objects with web-services

(IIS Internet Information Services) creating better

performance, stability, and usability.

Server & RDBMS Version

Broader Platform Choice Upgrading to BPC

v10.x provides clients the opportunity to take

advantage of the most up-to-date Operating

Systems and Relational Database Management

Systems, such as Windows Server 2012/R2,

Microsoft SQL Server 2012/2014 and the latest

Ofce versions. These platforms allow for full

64-bit support on all BPC, server, and client

components and provide a broader selection of

installation languages.

Microsoft Analysis Services has always offered

Partitioning that allows for making smaller sets

of data to improve input schedule and report

performance. This can enable a 50% gain in

retrieve performance when using the BPC client

software. SAP has added some great functionality

to the newest versions of BPC with respect to

Analysis Services Partitions. Instead of performing

this function in Analysis Services manually, they

now have a wizard to perform the job for you.

Web Interface/HTML5

Better Web Client - BPC v10.x MS extends

the web deployment options for customers by

leveraging a new HTML5 client for reporting and

inputs. With this new HTML5 client, customers

now have greater exibility in areas such as

standardization of text with browser options, easier

navigation, more exibility with comment viewing,

and greater control over locked dimensions and

customizations.

The strategy to adopt HTML5 development

standards has removed the need for Adobe Flash

Player, which has been known to have support

and compatibility issues with some web browsers

including Microsoft Internet Explorer.


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DETAILED INSIGHTS

NEW FEATURES

A new HTML5 Interface provides enhanced

Web Reports and Web Input Form capabilities.

Comments have been enhanced with new

features to view history and see comments in a

column right next to the data or a variance on the

Web. For Web Reports, the charts and graphs

have also been improved. Business Process

Flows have been enhanced along with improvedAutomated Variance Analysis options (Microsoft)

and Web-based System Reporting.

The Administration Interface, now 100% Web-

based (NetWeaver) has been improved in the

HTML5 interface with the ability to graphically

modify hierarchies and also graphically create/

modify formulas, logic, and business rules.

Consolidation features for Journals and theOwnership Manager have been enhanced in

the HTML5 interface for both platforms. The

NetWeaver platform has additional graphical

consolidation capabilities with a Process Monitor

and a Controls Monitor which provides the ability

to perform incremental currency translation, as

well as incremental consolidation.

EPM ADD-IN GETTING COZIER

WITH OFFICE

A new and improved Ofce Interface called the

EPM Add-In provides a major leap forward in

capabilities to interact with the back-end database

(read and write) from Word, PowerPoint, and

Excel [up to Ofce 2013]. There are two new

tabs in the Excel ribbon an EPM tab and a Data

Manager tab. The EPM tab is consistent across

all of the Ofce solutions, and nearly all of the

WEB INTERFACE

Excel report Data Manager functions have been

placed onto a separate tab for ease of use and

better visibility.

New capabilities include the ability to Drag & Drop

within the Excel sheet for report writing and input

form creation. This makes it much more intuitive

to design and modify templates. Also, Member

Recognition allows users to simply type members

into the spreadsheet and the members are

automatically recognized by the database. If there

is a member that is not recognized, a selection

box will appear with alternate suggestions for the

ambiguous term. You can also type in your own

formulas and you have an option of automatically

applying a database-level formula and saving it

in the template as a Local Member. There is also

a new graphical interface (similar to the graphical

EvDRE interface) called the Report Editor that

provides Drag & Drop capabilities and additional

options when building a Report or an Input Form

Advanced Ranking, Filtering, and Sorting.

Microsoft PowerPoint and Word integration has

been vastly improved, as it is much more userfriendly with the same interface that is used for

Excel, including the EPM Tab, the EPM Context

(formerly Current View), and the EPM Pane

(formerly Action Pane).

MOVE AWAY FROM EV

FORMULAS

There are a new set of formulas/functions that

all begin with EPM and you can still retrieve

and send a single cell with EPMRetrieveDataand EPMSaveData. While the new functions

communicate with the database more efciently,

most of the old EV functions will work. Basic

EvDREs will also work, but more complex,

multi-nested EvDREs will most likely need to

be rewritten using the new EPM Add-In due to

the advanced nesting capabilities that are now

available.


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DETAILED INSIGHTS

TECHNICAL UPGRADE PROCESS

Once you have evaluated your EPM process for

effectiveness and identied enhancements via the

EPM roadmap, checked the new feature list to see

if your organization could benet from functionality

added to v10, and reviewed your system to identify

performance and stability improvements, you

are ready to begin the technical aspects of your

upgrade.

Column5 recommends this comprehensive

process:

1. System Landscape Design

2. Prepare for Upgrade

3. Create v10 Technical Environment

4. Upgrade Environment from v7 to v10

5. Upgrade & Adapt Each Object to v10

Standards

6. Testing

7. Performance Tuning

8. Disaster Recovery Plan, Congure, & Test

9. Post Go-Live Support Plan

Following this process is very important to get the

most out of the new system and to ensure users

are not disrupted. Done properly, there should be

increased functionality, value, and user satisfaction

from the upgrade process.

1) SYSTEM LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Given the numerous improvements in database

technology, and the architectural changes

impacting where the processing loads occur with

both BPC versions (Microsoft & NetWeaver), every

organization contemplating an upgrade would be

well advised to consider reconguring their BPC

landscape as part of the upgrade.

Key questions to ask:

Will you upgrade in place or migrate BPC to a

new or upgraded hardware platform?

Will you upgrade the database, OS, or

middleware as part of the upgrade?

Does BPC or any other component

change trigger new software compatibility

requirements?

Do you need to recongure your hardware to

address past performance challenges, adapt

to changing pressures of the new version, and

prepare for future needs as your system usage

grows?

Using expert resources from a third party who is

deeply familiar with the technical aspects of how

BPC works, and how the processing loads aredistributed during normal usage evolutions is

highly recommended to get the best experience

during and after the upgrade.

2) PREPARE FOR UPGRADE

Preparing for the upgrade from a technica

standpoint is important. You wouldnt want to be

left with a partially functioning system should the

worst case occur. While there are many specic

steps to prepare for the platform and nuances ofyour exact scenario, the following apply broadly

across all scenarios:

Has the hardware been provisioned and

congured per your design above?

Have you identied the version and patch leve

of the intended upgrade destination?


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Have all prerequisites been thought through

and software (les/media), licenses, and

compatibility been conrmed as available and

accessible?

Do system, administrative, and application

users have access to needed server

components?

Has the development environment been

refreshed from production, reecting the latest

conguration changes?

Has a window been identied to cease

developing new objects in v7.x if possible?

Do you have scheduled availability for internaland external resources needed to support

these steps? (eg: DBA, Infrastructure, BPC

Administrators, third party technical experts,

etc.)

3) CREATE V10 ENVIRONMENT

BPC v10 for both MS and NW platforms require a

specic order with which to build the environments.

Installing and conguring the operating system

(OS), the database layer, the web server,application server, and conguring each to access

available resources, operate within the security

structure, and leverage preferred networking

communication protocols is a complex series of

events that must be done to the right specication

and in the right sequence to make sure no stone

is unturned. Failing to do this in the right order

may leave a aw embedded within the system

that will be difcult to locate should you run into

any challenges.

Bringing the design, all the preparation steps,

and the hardware/software together to form a

solid and well-performing BPC platform requires

technical talent and familiarity with the myriad

of conguration options. A powerful and exible

system like BPC is also sophisticated enough to

ensnare those who assume it is easy to install

this product and gloss over the detailed steps

necessary for success.

Our recommendation is to obtain the best availablethird party resources who have the experience,

skill, and volume of experience to justify placing

your trust for this critical step in them. Having

experience installing SAP products, Microsoft

products, or even BPC a few times before does

not necessarily produce equal results when BPC

specic nuances are considered.

How will our technical policies impact how

BPC should be installed?

How will our usage prole and system loadchange over time?

Which options should we select when creating

this environment to enable current desired

functionality and functionality likely to be

desired in the future?

How do we structure the environment to make

best use of available resources in the right

proportion to allow for best performance during

different usage scenarios?

How do we congure the environment with

proper tasks to heal the environment on

an automated basis to ensure the system

monitors itself for emerging challenges and

proactively repairs or noties of potential

adverse performance or stability impacts?

4) UPGRADE ENVIRONMENT

FROM V7 TO V10

SAP has released a utility (UJ_Migrate forNW and Migrate Environment for MS) that will

upgrade an Environment (formerly known as

AppSet) from v7.x to v10. This wizard will move

basic structures from one version to the next, but

it is far from an automated upgrade solution with

the wave of a magic wand. In fact, it only ensures

the underlying stored procedures, Built-in Data


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Manager Packages, and a few other items are

updated, but does none of the other aspects of

the upgrade process. Additionally, the Wizardhas not always worked in a few different service

packs and these steps must be completed

manually. Column5s comprehensive technical

services ensure, regardless of service pack, that

these critical steps are completed properly even

if the Wizard does not work correctly.

Database objects will be migrated, but security

settings and object version compatibility will

not be included. Any adjustments made on any

aspect of the solution to ensure compatibility,

improve performance, increase usability,address previous defects, or to take advantage

of new capabilities are not included. Many users

may conclude that virtually all of their desired

changes are not included in the upgrade utility.

Still, the upgrade utility does have a role to play

in the process by starting out in v10 with a bare

bones environment that reects the same design

previously congured in v7.x.

Some users will feel that there are issues with

BPC 7.x such that they do not want to start byrunning this utility, but rather rebuilding in v10

from a clean slate. Depending on the complexity

of your environment, this decision may add a day

or two of time to your upgrade timeline. On the plus

side, making such a decision creates complete

knowledge that every object was created in v10

in a clean manner. Some organizations enjoy this

peace of mind as several such upgrade utilities in

the past inadvertently introduced instabilities into

the AppSet (Environment)/Application (Model)

objects.

Column5 believes the currently available utility to

be free from such defects, but as stated above,

the expectations should be set conservatively to

rely on the upgrade tool for just minimal structural

migration from v7 to v10, not as a utility that will

create all that is needed to produce a ready

to use v10 environment. Further, full testing to

validate that steps handled by the utility were

done properly is still highly recommended.

However your organization decides to move

your v7 app to v10, by running the utility and then

upgrading each object or by cleanly rebuilding

each object in v10relying on a qualied third

party or following all available instructions to

the precise letter is highly recommended, if not

required.


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5) UPGRADE AND ADAPT EACH

OBJECT TO V10 STANDARDS

A typical BPC environment contains many objectsthat have been customized to each clients needs.

Dimensions, business rules, logic, data manager

packages, reports & input templates, Excel objects,

report & input template web objects, EPM Unwired

& other mobility interfaces, integrations with third

party products like ETL, EDW, and BI solutions,

workows, custom menusand the list goes

on. While SAP has made every effort to support

backward compatibility for all the major objects, it

is impossible to account for every customization

you may have present in your system.

Even objects like an EvDRE report from v7 may

be functional in v10 or it may not. SAP says

v10 may not support advanced EvDREs. The

denition of advanced is not clearly spelled out,

so the upgrade contains some risk if a detailed

effort is not made to go through each component

to ensure compatibility with version requirements.

Additionally, SAP has released functionality on the

client to improve performance of the rest of the

product by specically disabling EvDRE functions

in some scenarios.

If you change the database or middleware version

be sure to double check business rules and data

import/export packages to ensure compatibility. If

you also change ofce versions, be sure to check

all MS Ofce integrations (including Excel) for

continued function.

If you intend to enhance any aspects of your

solution, each affected object will need to beadjusted to the extent they are impacted. New

dimensions or properties can have far-reaching

impacts across many objects. Rened business

rules may require changes in how the logic is

triggered or scoped in both default and manually

invoked congurations. Even simple things like

property lengths in dimensions are now enforced.

In the past, for example, if a dimension property

was set to 10 characters, but the actual length was

12, the system would truncate the extra characters

Now you will get an error or the dimension will not

process.

Reports should be revisited as a separate initiative

altogether. Recommended processes on how to

deploy and manage the new reporting interface

contain one approach that is appropriate for the

short term to facilitate completion of the upgrade

and go live, and another, longer term approach

to building an internal competency on the new

version. Deciding which report will be subject to

which approach is essential to have a smooth

upgrade. Identifying a reasonable plan that doesnassume users with v7 experience will be quickly

competent to migrate reports and input templates

to v10 for example, will determine the risk level of

the upgrade process.

6) TESTING

Throughout this document, numerous

opportunities and potential risks are discussed

Ensuring that some combination of workable

objects with a top tier priority is able to go live bythe intended date should be the primary focus o

the upgrade team. Every single object, process

or function should be thoroughly tested to ensure

that risks to a successful upgrade are identied

and mitigated before your BPC system is live and

in jeopardy of being adversely impacted by some

unforeseen complication. Testing is key, especially

for the most critical objects.

A good test plan is required and competent third

parties will have several layers of testing involvingdevelopment resources (System Integration

Testing or SIT) and another round involving

users (User Acceptance Testing or UAT)

An experienced third party will offer testing

processes and standards that instill condence

that successful completion of those checklists wil

truly reduce risk of failing to catch a defect before

go-live.


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7) PERFORMANCE TUNING

During testing it is a recommended step to tackle

performance challenges via a concerted tuning

effort. Performance is one of the most common,

but also the most nebulous, complaints about BPC.

Some customers feel performance is the result of

a single error or oversight, but this is incorrect.

The perception of performance fast or slow

is the cumulative impact of every functional andtechnical decision/conguration in your solution.

Is the technical landscape properly sized for the

scale of your solution and intended usage prole?

If not, then any load you process through your

platform will forever have your system gasping for

breath. While having a properly sized environment

is mandatory to make possible BPC experiences

of performance and stability, a properly sized

platform by itself is not an absolute guarantee for

a perfect performance experience.

One aspect of the technical conguration with

respect to performance is the initial settings of

memory for the different back-end services. When

a system is installed, the Column5 team relies on

our time-tested guidelines on how to optimize the

available server memory parameters. However,only performance tuning based on metrics

captured while the system is busy under load from

users will give the most accurate picture on how

the values should be set.

Overarching design themes (such as dimension

conguration, logic approach, and the scope of the

challenge tackled by BPC with an Excel interface)


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set the stage for success or struggle. Add to this

a qualitative assessment where even a properly

sized technical landscape with appropriate designthemes can suffer from poor quality development

executionand thus performance will be perceived

as poor. Navigating these complex layers and

the proportional and sequential impacts how

each tier is congured has on the perception of

performance by users is a complex task best left to

qualied resources who can measure empirically

how a given process traverses each tier.

An ideal time to proactively identify any gaps in

conguration is before you go live, not after. Testingis a great opportunity to have technical resources

monitoring the system for any runaway processes,

disproportionate resource consumption, and

other telltale signs of an impending performance

challenge. Before going live, the upgrade team has

ample room to identify and mitigate these issues

before user satisfaction is adversely impacted.

Column5 has extensive experience in identifying

and mitigating such challenges proactively and

reactively. We can deploy a variety of methodsto quantify the scalability of your solution up to

and including making use of solutions like HP

LoadRunner to ensure your system will perform

well under peak usage scenarios.

8) DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN,

CONFIGURE, & TEST

It is quite likely that a number of major components

have changed with BPC and in the tiers below.

As a result, there are likely to be impacts to yourneeded disaster recovery conguration. No one

likes to be told when there is a catastrophic failure

that all or much of their data has been lost when

your system fails under load. A little planning and

preparation goes a long way here.

We recommend revisiting your Disaster Recovery

(DR) plan, and ensure it is up-to-date per any

changes to component changes made during

the upgrade. Since your upgrade may well have

included many aspects of your platform, this planmay be quite comprehensive. Once the plan

is updated, you will need to implement those

changes in your environment.

The DR conguration needs to be tested before

complete condence can be placed in your plan.

This should also be done prior to going live, to

make sure that there is no period where your

system is at risk without knowing you have a

basic insurance plan in place to minimize the risk

of loss.

A system that fails a DR test is strongly

recommended not to go live before correcting this

condition.

9) POST GO-LIVE SUPPORT

Despite all the efforts to think of everything and

plan for the worst, sometimes things still go wrong

Having an appropriate plan to report incidents

from users and escalate internally to SAP or to

a third party needs to be provisioned in advance.

Having this chain of communication prepared and

procedures well-understood will ensure a smooth

process for all involved.

The above is appropriate for a major challenge or

outage. But what about early warning indicators

and symptoms that could be caught by a process

that runs health checks proactively and routines

to optimize and re-optimize conditions and

variables in advance of having any kind of adverse

experience? These are possible when there is a

proactive plan for support in place.

The time to think about a support plan for post go-

live is before your v10 solution goes live and there

are numerous options.

See the upcoming section on proper care and

usage regimen for BPC for best results.


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Column5 has always taken a very professional approach

with our engagements. They are thorough in the project

planning and project management process, which hasresulted in our upgrades coming in on time and on budget.

- SVP, Director of Business Intelligence, Banking

Institution


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PROPER

CARE &

USAGE

REGIMEN

FOR BPC


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PROPER CARE & USAGE REGIMEN FOR BPC

Column5 Consulting Group, LLC. Not to be distributed without express permission of Column5.

28

Getting your upgrade completed isundoubtedly an important first step in

properly caring for your EPM solution,

but does this mean your job is done?

Column5 does not believe that is the

case. Continuous enhancement to your

EPM capabilities will orient your EPM

program to return high value for your

organization. A specialized team that

monitors your technical solution and

EPM processes for effectiveness and

identifies opportunities to advance

the effectiveness of your capabilities

amidst changing market conditions and

technical capabilities is what is needed.

There are two ways your organization can

approach this: build the internal capabilities to

meet this challenge head-on, or buy a service

that does all this for you. You dont have to select

one or the other of only two approaches, but rather

use this as a scale which you slide across opting

to build certain components while buying others.

The following sections outline tools and functions

you should be using for proper care and use of

your BPC system.

Building a Competent TeamSince its early OutlookSoft days, BPC has always

been touted as a tool that enables nance teams

to own & manage their own systems. Often this

translates to a deployment model where the

assumption is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

model is dependent on the assumption that BPC

can just be added to the list of supported systemsIT covers. In some organizations IT has been told

explicitly: Dont touch BPC! Fast forward to SAP

acquiring BPC, where many SAP shops technica

teams take great pride in their internal capabilities

to fully own their systems, and the stage is set for

potential conict. It isnt shocking that many of ou

clients have come ready to meet the challenge

of proper care and usage with an internal team

that is largely IT based. Column5 applauds this

approach and has created numerous tools to helpyour team succeed.

Establish an Internal Center of Excellence

(COE)

We recommend our clients form an internal EPM

center of excellence or EPM competency center

with the sole purpose of evaluating how effective

are our EPM processes? on an ongoing basis

This team should be looking to establish effective

KPIs for your success. These KPIs should cove

topics like user satisfaction, system errors, scope

of the solution, system performance, and process

cycle time related to a planning cycle or nancia

close. Benchmarking available through Column5

that evaluates your organizations EPM process

effectiveness against a global dataset from EPM

(EPM International) is an excellent source to

identify opportunities to focus on to advance EPM

process maturity. Additionally, your COE can use

Column5s PAVE (Process to Achieve Value with

EPM) methodology to examine other gaps insyncing your nancial, operational, and strategic

plans. Your COE can benet from the guidance

of an EPM Roadmap (see page 13) to be a key

component in this groups charter. Ultimately

the goal is to make your EPM solution adaptable

to dynamic needs: improve user satisfaction


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BPC

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and engagement, system effectiveness, and

organizational competitiveness.

Grow Capabilities in Your Organization

One of the greatest implementation

misperceptions is the idea that a single training

session at the end of a deployment is all you need

to move forward to unlock full value. As with many

other professional careers, continuing professional

education coursework and training is required to

maintain prociency. Accountants, doctors, and

lawyers are all examples of this model where a

process is enforced for practitioners to be keptcurrent of latest changes in the industry for best

results. Given the mission criticality of the EPM

system to your organizations operations, making

a similar commitment to your EPM process will

make the difference to those who experience

increasing prociency to those who struggle

to keep up with changes. There are several

choices in how to achieve and maintain a high

level of prociency with an EPM system, and

we encourage you to chart a deliberate course

of learning. Contact our team today to discussoptions.

Attend Educational Events

EPM Leadership Summit

Echoing statements from before, we believe

there are two undeniable facts: 1) Well-run EPM

processes are the cornerstone of effective

nancial, operational, and strategic control of

your organization.2) Technology is constantlychanging. Put these two facts together and

there is an immense need to stay up-to-date on

what is changing, connect with peers and EPM

professionals to share successes and failures,

and lastly capitalize on training related to all of

the above. Having an internal viewpoint and

position on how technologies like the cloud, SaaS,

mobility, predictive analytics, and HANA inuence

your potential level of success for EPM processes

in your organization is vital to extract maximum

value from EPM investments. This is exactly thetype of material that is covered at our worldwide

EPM Summits, making this a must-attend event

for any organization that is striving to maximize

the impact of their EPM investment.

EPM Summit Online

OurAnnual Pass also includes three online live

events per year in the second, third, and fourth

quarters, with content available on-demand

throughout the entire year. Featuring a growingnumber of high quality, deep-dive, EPM sessions,

there are approximately 15 sessions delivered per

live event. Each session is recorded for playback

at your convenience. The Column5 EPM Summit

annual subscription details the latest technology,

product, and best practice updates delivered by

proven experts and customers in three tracks:

Functional, Technical, and Executive. Each track

features 5 hours of sessions with each live session

being worth one CPE credit for participants.

Although attendees wont have time to view allthe sessions during the live event, you are able to

increase your expertise beyond the live sessions

with full access to all three tracks of content in the

virtual environment, year-round.

Use Tools for Support and

Validation

Blogs & Webinars

Column5 is the leading BPC partner committedto providing original content related to everything

EPM. Have a question on a particular topic?

Trying to prep for your internal COE roadmap

discussion? Try searching our Webcast Library

(of over 70 videos) and use this free information

provided by the experts at Column5 to elevate

your conversation.
https://www.column5epmevents.com/register/http://www.column5.com/webcast-libraryhttp://www.column5.com/webcast-libraryhttps://www.column5epmevents.com/register/


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EPM International Benchmarking

Gain insight into how your core performance

management processes, organizationalstructures, and systems for consolidations,

planning, and reporting compare with other

international companies, and assess where you

have a good practice and potential improvement

opportunities.

Two main topics are covered at this level:

Close Cycle Rankings where does your

organization stack up among peers in your

geography, industry, size in terms of the speed

with which you disclose nancial results?

This analysis is available customized to your

organization on request.

EPM Process Benchmarking report participate

in our survey to nd out how your organization

rates among your peers with process standards

and effectiveness. This is an appropriate way

to identify gaps where your process may lead

ahead of or lag behind industry standards and

competitors opportunities.

Technical Health Check

Even if you are condent in your teams ability,

doesnt an occasional check-up help validate your

teams performance, and more importantly help you

hedge against unseen risks? Periodic environment

reviews and performance tuning are one of the most

prudent steps to help you avoid dreaded downtime

or sluggish performance, which ultimately drives

your user satisfaction down.

Buying an Adequate Level of Service

The solutions and concepts outlined in prior

sections are recommended for all of our clients, but

we have found many clients looking for additional

continued support post go-live. Column5 has

assembled a number of services designed to ll

any gaps in your EPM deployment plan.

Extended Support

Extended Support offers a wide range of

online support sessions and vendor support

issue-tracking for technical and application

issues. Whether you need answers to how

to questions, a health check, performance

tuning, or an investigation of deeper problems,

Column5 Extended Support gives you peace

of mind. Depending on your organizational

needs, Extended Support is available in Basic,

Enhanced, and Premium planseach of whichgives you a preset number of support hours per

month. Options include vendor liaison services to

see software support issues through to resolution,

rapid troubleshooting through the Column5 data

center, and guaranteed response times of 24

hours or less.

Managed Service

Recent trends have led some companies to

outsource all or part of BPC administration andmaintenance. Clients have found that nding and

maintaining their own internal resources to handle

every aspect of their BPC environment can be

tricky. Some companies struggle to support a global

user community with a regional support team.

Almost all nd themselves committing signicant

resources to handle simple administrative tasks

at the expense of pursuing enhancements to their

EPM capabilities. Column5 Managed Service

offers a remote proactive system administration.

Clients are able to choose any set of supportfeatures applicable to their needs. Examples of

these include: technical server administration,

upgrades, functional system monitoring, planning

support, and even functional enhancements.


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Hosting

Column5 offers several deployment options, andamong the most exciting for fast start-up time and

cost efciency are the cloud offerings. Column5 can

host solutions temporarily internally, can deploy to

the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, and can

leverage SAPs HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC)

as just a few of the available deployment options.

As a partner of Amazon Web Services Hosting,

a system that is certied and recommended by

SAP, Column5 can tailor a exible plan that meets

the needs of our clients. Benets to the cloud

deployment go beyond guaranteed system uptime

and cost efcient on-demand pricing; Column5

Technical Experts can provide server stewardship,

data direct and other options for data integration,

and lower total cost of ownership. There is no need

for Basis, Database, or operating system support.


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CONCLUSION


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CONCLUSION

Thank you for downloading our comprehensive

guide on upgrading BPC. It is our hope that many

of the suggestions made throughout this document

resonated with you and apply to your experience

with BPC. However, we anticipate the net effect of

this information may be where do I start?

We know many customers are very happy

with the functionality delivered by BPC in their

organization. If that ts your opinion, then the

experience will continue to be positive with BPC

10 on either platform. Follow the directions and

advice contained within this document to proceed

to the next version and enjoy better performance,

improved functionality, and more value for your

business.

On the other hand, perhaps you have experienced

anxiety with BPC wondering Is this how other

organizations deploy BPC? Is this really the best

performance BPC can produce? Maybe your view

of BPC is that of a black box and it is impossible

for anyone to understand the inner workings or

make the solution stable. While we hope that is n

the case, we speak to customers daily that ho

those views to be true.

Whether you have had a mostly positive experienc

or have struggled with the solution, the Column

team stands ready to assist. A great place

start in either case is with our EPM Assessmen

which is a comprehensive review of your EP

process, BPC solution, and EPM technolog

platform. The primary output of this review is

list of recommendations of actions to take that w

improve your experience and the value returne

by this solution. We encourage all customers

consider the context of the upgrade an opportun

time to reevaluate your EPM progress to date.

If you have any questions or need assistanc

please contact the Column5 team today.

Best of luck with BPC v10.
mailto:EPM%20Assessments?subject=http%3A//hubs.ly/H01bLmV0mailto:success%40column5.com?subject=BPC%20v7.x%20to%20v10.x%20Upgrademailto:success%40column5.com?subject=BPC%20v7.x%20to%20v10.x%20Upgrademailto:EPM%20Assessments?subject=http%3A//hubs.ly/H01bLmV0


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BPC

UPGRADE GUIDE

CONTACT US

Column5 Consulting UK Ltd4th Floor Rex House

4 - 12 Regent St.

London, SW1Y 4RG

Phone: +44 20 7183 0760Email:[email protected]

EMEA

Column5 Consulting Group, LLC4800 N Scottsdale Rd. Ste.2300

Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Phone: +1 480.779.6990

US Toll Free: +1 800.360.7839

Email:[email protected]

AMERICAS

Column5 Consulting PtyBA Lepanto Bldg, 14th Floor

8747 Paseo de Roxas

Makati City, Philippines

Phone: +632 403 5983

Email: [email protected]

APJ

Column5 is the leading consulting rm

focused on delivering client value by

partnering with our visionary customers to

aid in advancing the effectiveness of their

EPM processes. Our organizations broad

capabilities, coupled with our long history of

solving EPM challenges for a whos who of

leading enterprises around the world, have

uniquely enabled our team to deliver high

value results in complex EPM circumstanceswith the most advanced requirements.

Column5s teams provide EPM consulting

services with a special focus on integrating

SAPs EPM portfolio via our global network

and resources in close proximity to our

clients in the Americas, EMEA, and APJ

regions.

Column5 is a proud member of EPM

International, the SAP Partner Ecosystem,

Partner Member of SAPs EPM AdvisoryCouncil, ASUG & SUG UKI Members,

Accredited by SAPs Partner Quality

Program, Named Top 100 Most Promising

SAP Solution Providers by CIO Review,

lauded by Gartner for our leading customer

satisfaction in the 2012 CPM MQ, and 4 time

consecutive winner of Fortune Magazines

Inc. 5000 awards.

BPC Upgrade Guide Whitepaper 09242015

Documents

Transcript of BPC Upgrade Guide Whitepaper 09242015