Setting Up Pointers

This chapter provides an overview of pointers and discusses how to:

• Set up pointers to use with your drivers.

• Use volume definitions.

Understanding Pointers

A sustainable Activity-Based Management model must be highly integrated (using pointers, implicit pointers, and transaction pointers) with the operational warehouse-enriched (OWE).

Pointers let you extract values from the operational warehouse-enriched (OWE) tables within the EPM database, and then use those values as driver quantities. By using pointers, you avoid entering static driver quantities that require maintenance. SetID defines and uses pointers. You can identify pointer-resolved quantities by their associated business unit, fiscal year, and accounting period. Activity-Based Management assures that only the correct numeric value is available for extraction. As long as your warehouse is current, your model remains current.

For example, you might define a driver as the number of cases. You assign to a driver the specific quantity that represents the amount of this driver for a given period of time. This driver quantity resides in a table such as the Sales Transactions table. To associate this value with the specific driver, define where the value is located within the OWE. Information that you enter in the setup page for pointers acts as a roadmap for the Activity-Based Management engine to locate the specific data.

Using Filters, Constraints, and Units of Measure

In Activity-Based Management, filters and constraints:

• Help define pointers, implicit pointers, and transaction pointers.

• Help the Activity-Based Management engine process large amounts of data efficiently by defining subsets of the data from the datamap.

Pointers, implicit pointers, and transaction pointers are defined in terms of the constraint. You can optionally incorporate units of measure to ensure that Activity-Based Management only uses driver quantities with the same unit of measure designations.

Using Value Objects

Value objects enhance the power of your filters by letting you enter a constraint string that defines the target field of a filter so that you can share filters in your constraints that use the same datamap. Using value objects also lets you reduce the number of metadata filters that you create and maintain; you don't need to create an individual filter for each pointer because you can create generic filters to reuse for each pointer.

To help understand how value objects work, consider the example of setting up an implicit pointer using a value object. If you use value objects, define just one filter and constraint pair that you can then reuse for one datamap. In the Filter Rules group box of the Selection Criteria page, specify your DataMap Column, and select Obj (object), and then enter %AB_VAL_OBJ_VAL in the Value field.

Next, set up the constraint to use the filter that you just defined. In the Filter Code field, enter FL8 – the code for the filter that you just defined.

Understanding Key Performance Indicators and Pointers

When used with PeopleSoft Enterprise Scorecard, your pointers can use key performance indicators (KPIs) instead of constraints. Use KPIs like constraints; they return a quantity—or quantity and key target object ID—to be used as a measure for a key that is a source object ID.

Types of Pointers

You can create basic pointers, implicit pointers, and transaction pointers.

Basic Pointers

Basic pointers point to driver quantities in OWE tables. They point to an object ID for every target in the driver.

Implicit Pointers

Implicit pointers let you define a table, or a subset of a table, as the target for a driver. For some purposes this is more efficient than defining an object ID for every target in a driver. The table that you define as the target then provides both the object ID and driver quantity of the driver target. You use filters and constraints to define a subset of the table.

Implicit pointers are particularly useful when you need to access a large transaction table. For example, assume you find that the cost of an activity is allocated to customers on the basis of the number of times a customer creates a transaction. An implicit pointer lets you incorporate the table that includes the customer IDs, the associated cost object ID, and transaction quantity data into a driver.

Transaction Pointers

Transaction pointers are even more specific than implicit pointers. Transaction pointers let you define tables (or a subsets of tables) and indicate what columns within the tables represent the product, customer, and channel dimensions in a multidimensional object.

Common Elements Used in This Chapter

Prerequisites

Before you can complete the task of setting up your pointers, you must:

• Set up filters, constraints, and datamaps in the EPM Foundation.

• Set up KPI IDs (if you are using KPIs).

Setting Up Pointers

To complete your pointer setup:

1. Access the Pointers page to define basic pointers.

2. Access the Implicit Pointers page to define implicit pointers.

3. Access the Transaction Pointers page to define transaction pointers representing the volume for a transaction.

4. (Optional) Recompile pointer metadata.

5. Create drivers.

Pages Used to Set Up Pointers

Defining Pointers

Access the Pointers page (Activity Based Management, Setup, Pointers to Drivers, Pointers).

The fields on this page are described in the Common Elements section.

See Common Elements Used in This Chapter.

Defining Implicit Pointers

Access the Implicit Pointers page (Activity Base Management, Setup, Pointers to Drivers, Implicit Pointers).

Dimension	Enter the appropriate dimension to specify the datamap column number that the system uses to obtain a subset of the data.
Inter Unit	Select to use the pointer for inter-business unit cost assignments, and then select the appropriate IBU Business Unit (inter-business unit) and IBU Model ID.
Complexity Flag	Select if the pointer uses a complexity factor for weighted calculation, and then select an ABC Complexity Factor.
Compile Implicit Pointer	Click to generate the new SQL if you defined a new data element or modified an existing one.

Defining Transaction Pointers

Access the Transaction Pointer page (Activity Based Management, Setup, Pointers to Drivers, Transaction Pointers).

ABC Dimension	Displays the dimensions for the selected transaction.
Transaction Tbl Dim Name (transaction table dimension name)	Select at least one transaction table dimension name to identify the column within the transaction table that represents the dimensions that you want to use for this transaction. Note. Consider defining three table dimensions including a channel ID, a customer ID, and a product ID.
Compile Transaction Pointer	Click to generate the new SQL if you defined a new data element or modified an existing one.

Compiling Pointer Metadata

Consider occasionally recompiling your pointer metadata using the Mass Compile page in Enterprise Performance Management Fundamentals 9.1 PeopleBook. This would be a good thing to do, for example, if you change any constraints and filters on which your pointers are based.

Creating Drivers

You are now ready to create drivers using either the Drivers or the Inter Unit Drivers component.

See Understanding Drivers.

Using Volume Definitions

There may be times when you must calculate volume costs. Once you supply the system with a volume amount, it uses that value as the denominator in an equation that establishes a metric for a given activity or cost object by pointing to the table location of the required data. For example, to determine the cost of production per unit, and the total cost of units is the numerator, supply a volume amount for the denominator. Activity-Based Management then calculates the cost of processing per unit.

Note. Before adding volume definitions, you must establish your activities, cost objects, and pointers.

Establish volume definitions using pointers for:

• Activities using the Activity Volume page.

• Cost objects using the Cost Object Volume page.

Note. Activity-Based Planning and Simulation (ABPS) uses these pages to calculate the change in volume required to calculate resource spending needs. In ABPS, depending upon the model type, you must define the correct budgeted, capacity, or rate pointer along with the actual pointer.

See Also

Understanding ABPS

Using Activity-Based Planning and Simulation (ABPS)

Pages Used to Define Volumes

Establishing Activity Volume

Access the Activity Volume page (Activity Based Management, Setup, Activities, Activity Volume).

Select an Actuals Pointer ID, Budgeted Pointer ID, Capacity Pointer ID, and Rate Pointer ID to indicate the table location of actuals, budgeted, capacity, and rate information respectively.

Establishing Cost Object Volume

Access the Cost Object Volume page (Activity Based Management, Setup, Cost Objects, Cost Object Volume).

Select an Actuals Pointer ID, Budgeted Pointer ID, Capacity Pointer ID, and Rate Pointer ID to indicate the table location of actuals, budgeted, capacity, and rate information respectively.