Hi there! My name is Jay, and I am a technology consultant that works primarily with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) tools such as Essbase and Hyperion Planning, and cloud solutions such as Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC), Planning Budgeting Cloud (PBCS), and my personal favorite, Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud (EPRCS). I’ve wanted to start my blog for some time now, and thanks to a great mentor of mine, I’ve decided that there is indeed no better time than the present (thanks Opal!).
Before becoming a consultant, I worked in Higher Education for close to 12 years. I’ve been in Finance, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and even worked on a grant-funded project. In all my years in higher education, technology always interested me. Whether it was activating my boss’ brand new iPhone 3G (yes a 3G), helping a colleague with an excel formula, or finding a way to automate a process (like loading budget transfers), I never shied away. I think that is why there was always this desire to become a consultant. Heck, I remember I even applied to Deloitte, once, twice, maybe three times, but I digress.
I began using Hyperion back in 2008 as an end user and loved to the tool so much that I quickly became a power user. About five years later, I jumped at a promotion opportunity and became the system administrator. The only problem was, I had no idea how to administrate this wonderful program (Essbase, what’s Essbase??), and paying thousands of dollars to attend training was out of the question (remember, I worked in higher Ed!). So I read every blog, every discussion board, and taught my self enough to be “functionally technical.” In other words, what it takes to get the job done without over complicating things, or heaven forbids, having to learn to code (I am an Econ major thank you very much)!
My hope with this blog is to share tips, tricks, overviews, and insights into the world of Oracle EPM technology. Let’s be real, speaking from experience, we all know that you don’t have time to figure out why your business rule is not working, or why your next year’s budget data is not populating. So let me do that for you. We’ll laugh, cry, and share stories (i.e., comments) together, and maybe, just maybe you too, will become “functionally technical.”
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
functionallytechnical.blog 