Smart View is a Microsoft Office add-in that uses a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet interface to access data in a variety of Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System products. You can load Essbase ad-hoc queries, Planning forms, or Strategic Finance entities into Smart View, and then use Crystal Ball EPM to define assumptions, decision variables, and forecasts and run Crystal Ball simulations directly on the underlying data using the applications' own business rules or other logic (Using Business Rules with Crystal Ball EPM). This technique uses the Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management Connector (About the Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management Connector).