Profitability and Cost Management uses dimensions and members created in Performance Management Architect to represent many of the structural elements of the business model in the Essbase outline:
Dimensions that provide the structure for the model and scenarios, such as drivers, assignments, and so on
Business dimensions that reflect the business-specific elements of the model, such as departments, General Ledger accounts, activities, customers, or products
Point Of View (POV), such as time periods
Scenario
Version
Other attribute dimensions, as required
The database outline provides the data structure for the model, and includes calculation instructions, and formulas. Dimensions in the Essbase outline are hierarchical, and data is stored at dimension intersections. Each stage in the model may include up to three dimensions.
Caution! | Members must not be repeated within the same dimension; however, the member can be repeated across several dimensions. |
The following illustration shows a sample Essbase outline of a calculation database, shown on the Essbase console.
Dimensions exist as Shared or Local:
Shared dimensions, which reside in the Shared Library in Performance Management Architect, can be used by multiple applications.
Local dimensions are detached, independent dimensions that only exist in one application, such as Profitability and Cost Management. These dimensions are used only for the application for which they have been created.
Although there is no physical limit to the number of dimensions and members that can be created, performance issues occur with large dimensional structures.
The dimensions are created and maintained in Performance Management Architect, and must exist before they can be used in models. Through Performance Management Architect, the Profitability and Cost Management Administrator can select existing dimensions and members from other products, or create new dimensions and members specifically for the model. The common data can be shared and updated between multiple products and applications. The dimensions and their members are available in the Profitability and Cost Management application after the application is deployed.
Caution! | Oracle recommends that you do not add or delete dimensions and dimension hierarchies after the modeling process has begun. |
For each dimension, a dimension type and dimension name must be specified:
The Dimension type is a dimension property that enables the use of predefined functionality in the application. For Profitability and Cost Management dimension types, see Dimension Types.
The Dimension name identifies the contents of the dimension, in relation to your organization or business. For example, a dimension of Account type may be given a dimension name, such as General Ledger or Chart of Accounts. The dimension name does not need to reflect the dimension type, although it may.
To enter or load a data value to an Essbase database, you assign the data value a member from every dimension in the database. This is referred to as the dimension intersection for the data value. A dimension intersection identifies a unique database location or cell.
For detailed information on creating, maintaining and working with dimensions, see the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Architect Administrator's Guide For naming conventions for dimensions and members, see the Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management Administrator's Guide.