PROPHIX CPM Blog

OLAP Technology for CPM

PROPHIX is a comprehensive CPM solution that emphasizes not only budgeting, planning and scenario analysis, but also makes extensive use of the underlying OLAP cube for budget process, planning, financial consolidation, data analysis, fiscal and non-fiscal reporting, and scorecarding.

PROPHIX customers benefit from our comprehensive approach. With such a strong OLAP foundation, customers are assured that our solution will grow as their requirements change.

PROPHIX’s OLAP foundation enables the following, distinctive features and functionality:

• OLAP technology is purpose-built for slicing and dicing, and flexible reporting. Reports are simple to construct with PROPHIX, with the added flexibility of being able to have multiple aspects / views of the data on a single report which is where organizations typically wish to progress to once the fundamental P&L and Balance Sheet statements are done.
• Workflow Administration and Control - Workflow Control with pictorial views of progress is key differentiator for PROPHIX that few in the CPM space can match.
• Ad Hoc Analysis - Drag and drop functionality around the OLAP cube is unique to PROPHIX and is an essential component for analyzing data of a variety of types. Non-OLAP solutions struggle when reporting anything beyond what is standard.
• Scorecards and dashboards with key performance indicators are easier to calculate and better presented with PROPHIX because of its OLAP foundation.
• As an OLAP technology, PROPHIX is able to construct multiple cubes with different or common dimensions related. For example, a revenue planning cube can feed into the finance cube that may also pick up data from the personnel cube. This level of flexibility is not available in non-OLAP solutions.
• Process management includes functionality like data manipulation (Infoflex) , allocations, forecasting functions, spreading, what-if analysis, and scenario planning.
• Automatically load dimensional (Chart of Accounts) and transactional data.
• Create Account mappings (Mapping tables) and connect to virtually any data source.
• This type of functionality is generally an add-on or simply not available in non-OLAP solutions

• Delta Analysis – patent pending. Unique to PROPHIX, this capability is powerful for analysis, comparing, and changing values. This includes Trend Analysis, What-if Analysis, and Year-over-Year comparison.
• Report Binders and Report Types - Includes external/supporting documents (Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint), control security and distribution, and provides access to external systems. This includes all-encompassing reports, relevant financial data, enrollment data, detailed relational data (Journal entries), and management dashboards reflecting the true status of the organization viewable from one report. Users can protect the results, use PDF encryption, and distribute reports via email or store the reports centrally, schedule distribution, or include distribution as part of a larger process.
• Drill thru to actuals – When analyzing key reports, users can view the transactional level detail (to find out the cause of the variance) through a right-click function in PROPHIX.
• Audit - PROPHIX is an efficient multi-user system and as such, requires an equally proficient auditing tool. PROPHIX Auditing functionality tracks events within the model enabling users to see when and which account has been added to the structure or who logged into the model at a specified time. The events in the Audit Log are organized by module, and each module tracks specific types of events. We also have filter capabilities to hone in on one specific day or one specific user. These records are invaluable, especially to those companies who require compliance.
• Excel Integration - PROPHIX allows the organization to offer both online and offline data entry at the manager level. This means that Excel can be used as the offline mode of entry and the technology can simply import in once the Excel spreadsheet is ready to be read. The online data entry gives the user lots of flexibility to construct a data entry template that includes multiple views of the data from the cube including the various driver accounts. Entry level products tend to be more rigid a restrictive on what can be presented to the user.
• Ease of use for end users – with PROPHIX you can create templates that end users can access with a single click or even by using the offline mode as described above. Functionality is readily accessible, easing the learning curve for training.

Summary

OLAP technology is very powerful and is the foundation of many of the features and functionality in PROPHIX. Regardless of the size of your organization, your current and future requirements can be met with PROPHIX. This statement cannot be applied to non-OLAP solutions as they are limited in scope and do not have the flexibility to scale beyond simple budgeting and planning.

But don’t take our word for it. With more than 1,400 customers worldwide, we believe that our customers say it best. We invite you read one of our case studies.

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