And now let’s try to connect EPRCS Management Reporting to EPM Cloud!

EPRCS is known as being an Oracle Cloud reporting tool. Therefore, it’s natural to assume that EPRCS can connect to most Oracle EPM Cloud technologies, including (but not limited to) FCCS, PBCS, and EPBCS. Much like connecting to Essbase Cloud, EPRCS can handle this integration through multiple tools under its umbrella: Narrative Reporting and Management Reporting (MR). In this post I’ll walk through how one of the EPM Cloud data source connections, EPBCS, can be set up, although the same principles should theoretically apply to all supported EPM Cloud data sources.

Before we get started, here are some notes about the EPM Cloud connection configuration:

• The EPM Cloud connections are set up in EPRCS by cube by instance. Therefore, if your EPM Cloud application has 4 cubes within Test and 3 cubes within Prod, you would need 7 separate MR Data Source connections to have full connectivity to all cubes within both Test and Prod.
• The EPM Cloud Administrator is responsible for defining and maintaining the EPM Cloud Data Source connections within EPRCS. EPM Cloud Administrator credentials will be required for each MR Data Source connection. Therefore, it’s recommended that the MR Administrator and EPM Cloud Administrator work in conjunction to set up each Data Source connection if the roles are segregated.
• Security notes for the various EPRCS roles:
  • MR Administrator: helps set up data source connections for MR and can develop new reports and maintain existing ones. Should be set up with Reports Administrator (minimum required) or Service Administrator rights within EPRCS.
  • MR Developer: creates and maintains MR reports. Should be set up with Reports Administrator rights within EPRCS.
  • MR User: consumer of MR reports. Should be set up with a minimum of EPRCS User rights and then must be granted at least view access to the appropriate MR reports.
• Pass through security notes for the same EPRCS roles on the EPM Cloud side:
  • MR Administrator: a matching user ID and password must be added to the EPM Cloud instance with a minimum of Service Administrator rights within that EPM Cloud instance in order to setup the EPM Cloud data source connection.
  • MR Developer: a matching user ID and password must be added to the EPM Cloud instance. Rights to the underlying EPM Cloud data source will pass through according to how the user is set up on the EPM Cloud side. Therefore, a user with full read rights on an EPBCS cube will see all data from within EPRCS when connecting to that EPBCS cube.
  • MR User: a matching user ID and password must be added to the EPM Cloud instance. Rights to the underlying EPM Cloud data source will pass through according to how the user is set up on the EPM Cloud side. Therefore, a planner user with specific read and write access on an EPBCS cube will see that same data access from the Management Reporting report.
• When any of the passwords expire for any of the above roles, the user should update the passwords in both EPRCS and EPM Cloud to keep them in sync.

Within EPRCS, connections to other Cloud products are set up in the Library through the Data Sources folder:

To create a new Data Source, press the + button and select “Data Source”:

Select the “Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud” option from the drop-down (and notice the other options available for future reference):

Then fill in all of the details. I’m going to choose to connect to the Oracle sample demo app in EPBCS, fantastically named “EPBCS”:

Some notes about the required connection details:

• Data Source Name: Since EPRCS can connect to multiple tools, I’d suggest a prefix that groups the data sources based on some logic. I’m choosing source technology in the screen shot above.
• Server Name: This needs to be the data source EPM Cloud URL, ending in “.com”
• Identity Domain: The domain of the data source EPM Cloud instance
• Administrator User ID: A Service Administrator on the data source EPM Cloud instance
• Administrator Password: EPM Cloud Service Administrator’s password
• Application Name: Data source EPM Cloud application name
• Cube Name: Data source EPM Cloud cube name

If everything is entered correctly (and with proper rights), you’ll get a successful message:

Once the connection is set up, you can use your EPM Cloud cube as a data source in MR.

Before we cover that part, let’s go through some common security error messages.

If you entered either the wrong username or password for the EPM Cloud Administrator or the wrong URL, domain, application, or domain, you might see this error message:

If the EPM Cloud Administrator you’ve entered does not have Service Administrator rights on the EPM Cloud instance, you might see this error message:

If the EPRCS Administrator does not have Service Administrator rights on the EPM Cloud instance, you might see this error message (repeat of above first error message…a little confusing):

Working with Planning Cloud as a data source is very similar to working with any other multi-dimensional data source. To see additional MR development details using Essbase Cloud as a data source, check out this past blog post here.