What is Oracle PBCS?
Oracle PBCS is an Oracle Cloud product called Planning Budgeting Cloud Service, recently renamed as Planning and Budgeting Cloud. PBCS is the first Hyperion EPM product on the cloud. It’s an application supported by Oracle Hyperion Planning that supports enterprise-wide planning, budgeting, and forecasting within the cloud. PBCS’s core functionality is that the same as Oracle Hyperion Planning on-premises.
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud offer integrations with Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint using the “Smart View” plugin for Planning and financial reports; this suggests that users can view planning data forms from within Microsoft Excel equivalent functionality because of the web-based interface. Both interfaces support ad-hoc analysis of knowledge where row, column, and page dimensions are often pivoted to make different views of comparable data.
Oracle PBCS Pricing
Data centers or cloud servers where PBCS is hosted are owned and maintained by Oracle. Since there’s no CAPEX infrastructure cost, virtually no learning curve, and minimal IT resources required, the PBCS solution is often employed by a corporation of any size. the value structure for PBCS may be a per-user per-month license.
Maintenance Costs
Software versions are always up-to-date and maintained by Oracle, allowing clients to the newest and greatest version without requiring any downtime to upgrade. Oracle provides test and production environments for each PBCS implementation. Oracle updates test environments first, then gives notice for when updates are planned, what the changes are, and the issues resolved within the remake.
Loading Data
Financial Data Quality Management Enterprise Edition (FDMEE) is also part of the design and Budgeting Cloud. It is employed to load data to planning BSO (block storage) and ASO (aggregate storage) cubes. Planning data are often moved from BSO to ASO cubes, and other reporting data also can be loaded to ASO cubes directly. Data in PBCS also be loaded through EPM Automate, a utility that permits you to automate certain common administrative tasks.
Deploying Oracle PBCS
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud come with flexible deployment options. Clients can prefer to deploy the design application on the cloud or are often utilized in tandem with on-premise Hyperion Planning applications. it’s an excellent tool for clients who have already got on-premise Hyperion Planning as they will use PBCS to develop and test new applications on the cloud before choosing to deploy it on-premises.
We highly recommend that companies of all sizes think about using Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud (PBCS) if they’re trying to find a replacement EPM solution or are upgrading an existing planning solution.
Functionality included in PBCS:
- Planning – Hyperion Planning
- “Classic” managed applications only – no EPMA
- Rules Management with Calculation Manager
- Data Integration through FDM EE
- Flat file loads for Hyperion Planning
- Large file uploads using http protocol
- On-premises app migration using LCM
- Reporting with Hyperion Financial Reports
- Smart View integration with MS Office
- Guided Demo Application
What are the benefits of using PBCS?
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service removes infrastructure barriers and allows businesses of any size to deploy a planning and budgeting application briefly. PBCS requires no onsite hardware or software, facilitating a fast deployment — ideal for patrons trying to find hosted applications and no IT maintenance.
A web interface provides quick access to the Oracle Cloud, which is sweet for a distributed workforce. the answer offers the administrator several features, including full administrative access for application maintenance, external data integration, and support materials like video tutorials and step-by-step instructions.
What is different about PBCS from on-premises Hyperion Planning?
Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service contain equivalent features and functionality as on-premises Planning with a couple of distinctions. PBCS allows for one core planning application per deployment, with the flexibility to incorporate capital asset and workforce planning capabilities. The optional planning modules, like Capital Asset Planning, Project Financial Planning, Workforce Planning, and Public Sector Budgeting, aren’t yet available within the cloud model. Calculation Manager was upgraded to incorporate key features usually located in EAS, thus removing the necessity to utilize EAS during a PBCS deployment. User Management is handled outside of PBCS using OIC (Oracle Identity Console) — also referred to as the IDM console. Active Directory users should remember that credentials got to be loaded into OIC. Finally, end users can download the Smart View and Financial Reporting Studio clients directly from PBCS, thus removing/reducing IT support.
Who should consider a PBCS deployment?
There are several scenarios during which a corporation utilizing Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service is sensible. Below are some samples of why a corporation might want to think about PBCS over an on-premises deployment:
- Looking for fast deployment with no infrastructure maintenance
- Interested in evaluating the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management suite before making an outsized infrastructure investment
- Lacking a fanatical IT department or the experience to install/maintain an Enterprise Performance Management environment
- Complementing on-premise deployment with rolling out PBCS quickly to field units or new divisions, etc. during a hybrid model
Key benefits of Oracle PBCS for your organization include:
- Best practices out-of-the-box to urge you up and to run in no time
- Tailor the design solution to your specific requirements with a configurable, upgradable planning framework
- Easy to use and straightforward to take care of
- Scalability to deal with both operational and financial planning processes
- Intuitive business wizards allow you to regulate your planning process as your business evolves.
- Powerful dashboards, analytics, what if, and predictive capabilities offer you improved insight into your business.
- No CAPEX infrastructure investments are required within the cloud.
PBCS vs. EPBCS: The Planning Cloud Decision
Oracle offers TWO Planning applications on the cloud: PBCS and EPBCS. the subsequent blog will describe the differences between the two and how Perficient can demonstrate the differences by attending our Planning Create & Manage class in Houston.
First off, I’m sure most of you’re wondering, what do those acronyms mean? PBCS stands for Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service, and EPBCS stands for Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service.
Next, you would possibly be asking yourself: What are the differences?
Like the on-premises version of designing, PBCS allows for flexibility to form changes to business rules and, therefore, the business rules behind the system templates. The current Planning class uses the new simplified interface to create the appliance and two new 11.1.2.4 features:
- Execute the work Scheduler (Automation utility to import/export data or metadata, launch a business rule, and refresh the database.)
- Create Dashboards in Planning (quick field of vision of key data using an intuitive drag and drop method of forms, charts, and external links.)
This is where EPBCS departs from on-premises Planning. EPBCS has out-of-the-box modules that allow little or no custom modification inside plan types. These are the four business processes found within EPBCS:
- Financials Business Process (Revenue/Gross Margin, Expenses, record, and Income Statement)
- Workforce Business Process (HR/Finance can plan by employee, or job code, for compensation-related expenses)
- Capital Business Process (Capital features to manage new capital investment and existing assets)
- Project Business (Projects features including project type, revenue, and expense)
Whether you select PBCS or EPBCS, and Oracle cloud application’s public benefits are the same: no upfront cost for hardware or software, less IT involvement, and no annual maintenance costs.
