To be, or not to be, that is the question.

I'm not Shakespear but I do know FDM and FDMEE.  I have been amazed at how difficult FDM or FDMEE is made to be when I have arrived onsite with a client and how often it is over-engineered. I have also been amazed at how “simple” FDM or FDMEE is made to be when I have arrived onsite with a client where built-in features are not utilized.  Bad information creates these types of scenarios. Why? Because of “questions”.  Some questions belong to the consulting firm and others belong to the client but the consulting firm and the FDM/FDMEE consultant is responsible for the following main questions;

• Are you asking the correct questions?
• Are you answering the client’s questions correctly?
• Are you asking enough questions?
• Are you asking the questions to the right persons?
• Do you continue to ask questions throughout the project?
• Are you providing the client with the correct information?
• Do you have the right people from the consulting firm asking and answering questions relative to FDM and/or FDMEE?

Would you bring a knife to a gun fight?  Then why are you having your HFM expert “who knows FDM” asking and answering questions to and from the client about FDM?  I have been in meetings with consulting firms that have contracted me where my answers contradict what the consulting firm gave to the client and it make the meeting somewhat awkward.  Carpenters are good with their hands and most of them know where the brain is but I won’t let a carpenter perform brain surgery on me. (even if you think it may improve me!)

Don’t ask IT personnel functional questions and don’t ask functional personnel IT questions.  Get both groups in the room and then ask the questions of “how does the data come out of the system and what happens before it needs to be loaded” etc.

There are two types of upgrades; Most upgrades are in migration only meaning moving from one version of Hyperion to a newer supported version.  That brings no value to a client.  If you want to make a difference then upgrade the client’s process not just the version of software.  Don’t just give them a newer version of a broken process.  The client pays a lot of money for these projects and I always aim to upgrade the client’s process with FDM/FDMEE.  Give them solutions not upgrades.  Remember to always ask questions.

Here are two questions that always crack me up.

• Sometimes this is a comment from a FDM/FDMEE “expert” – If the Check Report fails then the data is not loaded into HFM.
  • Answer: False – The data has to load into HFM and run through the HFM metadata/rules etc to know what the values will be for the Check Report to evaluate.
  • Note – Sometimes people will say that the data is automatically pulled out of HFM which is also not true.
• Can you do currency translation in FDM/FDMEE?
  • Answer: Yes – Everyone will say no but you certainly can perform currency translation in FDM/FDMEE.  BUT you never want to do this.  "Why would you want to do this in FDM?" is a good question to ask!  Anyway, it has to be customized in FDM/FDMEE and it is complicated to do so.  This is a strength of HFM, not FDM/FDMEE, so let the strengths of each application do what they do best.  Just because you can do something in FDM/FDMEE doesn't mean you should and the same goes for both HFM and Essbase!

Never use FDM/FDMEE to “fix” data unless you have to.  Always go back to the source system and start there.  Sometimes the process of getting the source data can be tweaked to “fix” the data.  The only way to know the answer for this "fix" is to ask the correct questions!

Feel free to contact me if you need help on a project with FDM/FDMEE!