At this point most Oracle Hyperion (Oracle EPM) on-premise customers have either upgraded to 11.2 or plan to before the end of the year. This blog post is directed towards those of us who don’t want to lose their beloved EPM Architect (EPMA) and are uncertain if Oracle DRM is the right path forward.

If you have been enjoying the ease of using EPMA, you’re naturally frustrated by the thought of having to lose all that great functionality. Now you have a steep learning curve to learn and master restricted-use DRM.

At the very least, Oracle customers want DRM to achieve the same results as EPMA, with as little work and disruption as possible, so you can continue to maintain metadata as you’re used to.

EPMA is purpose-built for sharing metadata across your Hyperion applications—and it works well. Companies have grown accustomed to it. It’s familiar and safe. But EPMA was built specifically for Hyperion planning, and is therefore somewhat limited. We’re happy to tell you that DRM is a very robust tool with tons of configuration options and capabilities well beyond what EPMA ever offered.

Here are some of the benefits of Oracle DRM you may not be aware of:

Versatility. DRM is a platform-agnostic tool that’s capable of doing so much more. It’s ‘open box’, meaning that it works with non-Oracle products too. It can be used to configure SAP, IBM, or even older EPM systems. DRM creates flat files* that can be ingested by other platforms so you will now have the ability to support other areas of the business, not just finance. Think sales, or complex product hierarchies.
*DRM can write to databases as well. Essentially, it's platform agnostic meaning it can be configured to export data in just about any format (file, SQL). Important to note, it doesn't come with a default export so even that has to be configured.
Ability to code business logic. Using Oracle DRM, you can build your own business validations into your Hyperion applications. For example, if you have a list of children objects in one place and you want to make sure they exist elsewhere, too, you can write a rule about it.
Manage metadata in steps. Perhaps you want to update your metadata and you want to bring in all those numbers at once. Previously, with EPMA, your options for doing this were more limited. You could bring those numbers in and write over what you have—but if something went wrong, you had no way of walking it back.
DRM offers you a more flexible process. It provides more of a “sandbox” around validation of metadata before you push it into the EPM application. You can do imports, run validations, merge changes, and control which properties you want to merge—while everything remains separated until you decide otherwise.
One-time, easily shareable FDMEE mapping. DRM lets you use the same map across multiple applications, without having to make them twice.
Versioning. DRM lets you keep whole copies and different versions of metadata. You can see snapshots of various points in time, including when changes are made and who made them.

There are many other capabilities in the fully licensed version of DRM. If that pricing model makes sense for your business and you leverage this powerful tool to its full potential, DRM is a huge win. At the same time, this can make DRM more challenging and complex. The fact that there are consultants who specialize only in DRM tells you that mastering this tool is no easy task.

At Tevpro, we recommend our clients consider moving to the restricted-use license of DRM, but to solicit the help needed to set it up correctly the first time.

Picking the right partner

Unless EPM and DRM are in-house skills at your company, the move to DRM can be overwhelming - and not getting it set up right can be very costly in the long run. Solicit the help of an EPM expert to make sure your next upgrade will actually be an upgrade and not a step backwards.

Tevpro consultants have abundant experience upgrading clients to Hyperion 11.2. We can use our breadth of knowledge to help you make the transition from EPMA to DRM successful. Or, we can help you move to Oracle Cloud EPM or explore alternative EPM/CPM options other than Oracle Hyperion, such as the OneStream Software platform.

Need help figuring out the switch to Oracle DRM? Contact us.

About Tevpro

We help companies identify the best enterprise solution for their business’ needs. With a combined 50+ years of experience across a range of industries and technologies, our EPM/CPM consultants are dedicated to solving the most complex IT and finance challenges. To discuss your company’s needs in more detail, schedule an assessment call today.

Michael Patrick