With Kscope19 rapidly approaching it's hard not to notice the Essbase track. Essbase has quite a large number of available sessions and it makes sense. Essbase has expanded into new products the last couple of years and is a critical component in the cloud. In this article, we hope to help you better understand the target audience and decide on the sessions you want to hit.

Monday

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
It begins with two potentially very interesting sessions; first BSO Solve Order: A Funeral for the Two Pass Calculation makes a bold promise but one that many that have used ASO know is possible. Solve order is relatively new to BSO but has been around for a while in ASO. We think this is going to be the better option for most Essbase professionals, who couldn't use a refresher on the in's and out's of solve order. That said, if your well versed in solve order and interested in the REST API and how it can be used to update your Essbase cube, you might want to take a look at Building a New EAS? APEX Meets OAC. In this session the presenter is promising to build an administration utility based on the REST API using APEX. In theory this is a neat idea and could be potentially useful even if your company doesn't license APEX.

11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
Next, you have a session that focuses on Optimization, Security and "Enterprise" Essbase. In Seven Weird Tricks for Essbase Optimization Which Really Work!!! Edward Roske (one of the people who literally wrote the book(s) on Essbase) promises to help you tune Essbase. In OAC Security Standard Practice Kavi is going to discuss how to setup single sign on (SSO), locking down OAC as well integrating with identity tools. Last in A Journey Across the Kroger Enterprise Essbase Environment from the Grocery Store to the C-Suite Executive the fine folks from Kroger will discuss how in addition to Essbase and the other Oracle EPM tools that Dodeca has enabled them to get to the information they need to compete in the grocery industry.

02:15 PM - 03:15 PM
This is the most busy hour of the day on the Essbase track. If your organization is looking at a possible move to the cloud you will definitely not want to miss a Case Study: How to Plan Your Migration from On-Prem Essbase to the Cloud. Likewise Get Your Forecast Rolling at the Speed of Light is definitely recommended if you or your organization is considering implementing this highly popular report. Also at this time the folks at GE bring you Sleepless in Spreadsheets? Essbase…It’s Nice to Meet You! which promises to take a look at how one of the largest Oracle EPM customers uses the suite of products and how Dodeca makes it even better. Finally, Karen Zubetz from the Essbase Development team is going to talk about some tips, tricks and new features (including multi-cell drill through) in Essbase Technical Tips and Tricks.

03:45 PM - 04:45 PM
In the final sessions of the day, the ever popular topic of the REST API makes it second appearance. So if you missed the first and are interested in what can be done via the API you might want to join Mike for an Introduction to the Essbase REST API. If you are new to Essbase and its calculation methodologies or would like to learn a bit more you will probably want to check out My Favorite Calc Code. Ron is hoping to help you learn by example by providing some strategies and code snippets. Lastly, we have our first panel discussion of the Essbase track in Essbase Design Architecture Panel. In this session, several Essbase architects will discuss past implementations and take questions from the crowd.

Tuesday

08:50 AM - 09:50 AM
On this morning, there are three sessions to start your day on. First, Karen Zubetz who did Essbase Technical Tips and Tricks on Monday will discuss the Essbase product roadmap and try to explain how Essbase is setup to succeed for years to come in Essbase Product Roadmap and Reasons to Upgrade. This same hour Jared is going to share his tool (presumably VBA) for managing Essbase security in on-prem environments in Finally, an Easy Way to Monitor Essbase Security! and he is planning on providing instructions for getting it setup in your environment. Lastly, Pete is inviting us to join him for The Dark Art of BSO Essbase Optimization, in this session Pete is going to take the guesswork out of tuning Essbase and provide some examples and testing methodologies.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
The first thing to be aware of when looking at this time slot is that there is a hands-on session starting 15 minutes later that will cover Oracle Data Visualization (DV). If DV is something you are interested in you might want to skip these sessions. Next up Doug Pearce is going to discuss the various features of Essbase load rules in Everything You Need to Know about Essbase Load Rules and it sounds like he is going to cover almost everything. Another long time Essbase veteran, Tim Tow, is presenting an Introduction to Essbase MDX for Reporting. If MDX reporting is something of interest I highly suggest attending this since Tim probably knows as much as the Essbase developers (possibly more) about this kind of reporting.

10:15 AM - 11:45 AM
As stated earlier this hour and half session is a hands-on with Oracle Data Visualization (DV) in Hands-On Lab: Visual Analytics Made Simple with Oracle DV. DV is a great way to provide visual analysis for data in Essbase.

01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
You might want to grab your sack lunch and head over for this Panel discussion (Oracle Groundbreakers Lunch and Learn: Essbase Panel). Since this is pretty much the only thing going on, it's generally pretty popular and can be a good time to meet some of your fellow attendees.

2:15 PM - 03:15 PM
To start we have Destination OAC—A Traveler’s Guide: One Client’s Summer Adventure on the Journey from On-Prem, this is a look at migrating Essbase/Planning to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC), what changes had to made to achieve that goal and how administration changed in the process. Another option in this time slot is Empowering Users with Analytical MDX, in this session Ron will give attendees a primer on MDX and show how MDX can be used in SmartView to create reports that would otherwise not be possible. Finally Jason Jones is going to explore the Essbase (OAC) REST API and examine some of the differences versus the Java API in Up & Running with the OAC Essbase REST API.

03:45 PM - 04:45 PM
First in Do You Have Enough Juice? Load Testing Techniques for OACS Deployments, Jon Harvey examines how load testing has changed in the cloud and how loads can be simulated. Next, Dodeca Beyond Essbase – A SQL Interface for Streamlining DRM Change Request Workflows examines how LexisNexis is using SQL and Dodeca in the Oracle DRM Governance process to speed up changes and satisfy SOX compliance. Then Mihaela Ciota details how Abbott uses Dodeca, SQL and ASO applications to do long range (multiple years) planning and expense tracking for the medical industry in Trials and Tribulations.

Wednesday

09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
You can start off the day with ASO Tuning and Calculations where Tim will explain how to optimize ASO applications and implement calculations. Tim Tow will explain how to get your on-prem application loaded into the cloud and what you need to get connected to it in Congratulations on Your Shiny New Oracle Analytics Cloud Essbase Account! Now What Do You Do?. If neither of those strike you fancy, Mike will be exploring Cube Designer and how to create Essbase Cubes from Excel using "Expert Mode" in Cube Designer: Become a Hybrid BSO Expert.

09:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Also beginning at 9am is the Hands-On Lab: OAC Essbase Workshop. If haven't had a chance to get your hands on OAC this is highly recommended. It is also highly recommended that you arrive early as sometimes these can fill up fast. This lab promises to provide a ground up build of an Essbase cube as well as creation of visualizations using Oracle DV.

10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
There are three options if you aren't in the hands-on lab here. First, ShutterFly shares their secret sauce in Automate the Fixed Asset Roll Forward: Technical Deep Dive into Essbase, Oracle DB, Essbase Studio, and EBS Sources. Next, Jason Jones examines how you can deploy Essbase on your own cloud using Docker in Docker & Essbase: Bring the Cloud to You and how this type of setup can allow for easier development and testing. Then in Essbase Cloud and OAC Are Not Just for Finance: The Story of the FIFA World Cup Cube, Yves uses Essbase and OAC to analyze the public data provided by FIFA to show how the results of the last World Cup were actually quite predictable.

11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
With all this talk of OAC and Data Visualization getting graphical analysis has never been easier, however, there are ways it could be better and Essbase Design Rules for Data Visualization examines what changes you might want to make to get the most out of Essbase and DV. Also at this time, The Essbase Cloud REST API: What We Know Now, this session examines the changes in the API from the prior year, will go over some of the new documentation and provide API samples. Then, Josie claims to know the best ways to design and organize ASO applications in Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices with ASO Applications (Calling All PBCS, PCMCS, and Essbase Admins!).

02:15 PM - 03:15 PM
To close out the day you can choose between these sessions or the following hands-on lab. First up is How WeWork Used Oracle Analytics Cloud to Improve Budgeting and Forecasting in which WeWork explains how what started as a endeavor to enhance analytic capabilities morphed to include a transformation in budgeting and forecasting while staying on budget due to flexibility within OAC. Next, Yves talks about how, while sparsely documented, XML for Analysis (XMLA) has become a reliable data transformation vehicle in Lightning Fast Essbase MDX Queries with XMLA (XML for Analysis). Then we have a another look at Oracles new Cube Designer in OAC Cube Designer—Manipulate Your Hierarchies on the Fly and how it can be used to create backups, perform restores and execute migrations.

02:15 PM - 04:30 PM
Hands-On Lab: The New Face of Oracle Analytics, in this hands-on Stewart will guide the participants developing a data-driven culture and how Oracle Analytics connects to cloud-native data warehouses like Snowflake and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse services to change the face of BI.

03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
The last Essbase session of the day is Where the Wild Cubes Are. This session takes a look at the non-General Ledger Essbase cubes and what people are using Essbase for beyond finance. This one specifically mentions web traffic analysis which sounds like an interesting use case. In any case this session promises to help you identify situations were Essbase could be used with great success in a non-traditional way, it also attempts to point out some potential pitfalls.

Thursday

09:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Congratualtions you made it back to the conference (and to the end of this post.) Now, grab some coffee and head over to Deep Dive: Block Creation—The Final Countdown. It's the only session before closing ceremony and it should be a good one.

That does it for this preview if you are attending and would like to speak to someone from Tevpro, please reach out to Faraz or Cortney. Also you may want to take a look at the Kscope 2019 Preview of Integration. Have fun at the conference!