1. BI Publisher and Report Manager Mark Bulle, DP&L
FSG Publishing:
BI Publisher and Report Manager
Mark Bulle, DP&L
Jon Riley, AXIA Consulting

2. Introductions Mark Bulle Jon Riley DP&L Project Manager
Report Manager Implementation Lead
Jon Riley
Consultant, AXIA Consulting
XML Publishing Implementation Lead

3. Business Scenario
Create over 125 new Financial Reports by Business Unit
Publish reports directly from the Financial System of Record
Bypass Excel!
Professional presentation/format suitable for executive review
Paperless distribution preferred
Project to be completed < 90 days
Objective will be to provide an overview of the tools with an emphasis on the lessons we learned.
Focus on the specific functionality we used for publishing FSG reports. There is other functionality available (Template Builder, publishing standard reports, for example) that we will mention briefly but not cover in detail.

4. Oracle Applications Solution
FSG Reports
BI (fka XML) Publishing
Microsoft Word RTF templates
PDF document output
Report Manager Repository
Electronic distribution
Security by User Responsibility
Nothing new to buy! ( CU2)

5. BI Publisher Overview We created templates using Word Published to PDF
Report
Templates
XML Data
Report Output
XSL
XML
EFT
Data gathering independent from format for publishing. Can use one data extract as the source to publish reports in many different formats, and there is potential to separate duties (IT provides extracts, functionals develop their own templates)
(FSG)
Source: XMLPUBLISHERINTRO.ppt

6. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Create the FSG for XML Output

7. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Create an RTF template
XML Publisher Administrator responsibility
Templates page
Find the FSG: Basic Template
We used FSGCOLS.rtf which we downloaded from metalink note However, that template is no longer available from Oracle.

8. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Create an RTF template
Click the Template name.
Download the template.

9. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Modify the Template
We used a different template called FSGCOLS.rtf. That template is no longer available (not sure why), but it worked fine for us.

10. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Modify the Template

11. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Register / Upload the template

12. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Register / Upload the template
Must use General Ledger as the Application

13. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Run and Publish an FSG (2 step method)
Run the FSG for XML Output

14. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Run and Publish an FSG (2 step method)
Publish the Output

15. Publishing FSGs using BIP
Run and Publish an FSG (2 step method)
View Output

16. Report Manager What we will be Covering
Single Step Financial Report Submission
Repository Management
Publish Report Set
Define Report Set Publishing Parameters

17. Financial Report Submission
Select the FSG report name and period to execute

18. Financial Report Submission
Select the FSG template associated to the report
On hold pending review does not work

19. Financial Report Submission
Select the location in the Repository where the output of this report is to be stored

20. Financial Report Submission
Select the menu location under the responsibility this report should be posted
Security Definition

21. Financial Report Submission
Review submission parameters prior to execution

22. Repository Management
Archive process
bugs

23. Publish Report Set Be sure to place date here and click Save button
Can not predefine report set parameters and create menu option under Define Report Set Publishing Parameters

24. Report Viewing Drop down box for multiple periods
Output type can normally be Excel, .pdf or HTML
Templates created in Word can not be viewed as Excel
Using 13 templates to produce 114 specific Income Statements.

25. Lessons Learned (FSG and BIP)
Start at BIP or 5.6.3
Some functions may not work in lower versions
Be aware that patching to disables single-
step submission
May need patch related to MS Word
Need Adobe Reader 7.x or better to view output
Edit, Preferences, Internet, Display PDF in Browser
Unique requirements for printing PDF from EBS (see metalink notes and )
Template Builder add-in for Word available, useful for building reports from scratch

26. Lessons Learned (FSG and BIP)
Not all FSG fields come over in the XML output
Some FSG functionality not available
Page Breaks
Line Skips
Row heights are not dynamic
Control of FSG definitions becomes important

27. Lessons Learned (Report Manager)
No seeded Report Manager responsibility
Issues with the Financial Template Editor
Technical issues
Can’t modify the seeded, generated template
High maintenance cost (row and column adds, changes)
Initial setup for Report Sets can be time-consuming
Menu Generation does not work – Define Report Set Parameters
Currently working issues with:
Archiving
Review / Approval

28. Conclusion
Successfully developed and implemented >100 new Financial Reports via electronic publishing in < 90 days.
BIP is low-cost (lower-frustration!) alternative to traditional Oracle Reports development.
Integration with FSG makes professional-quality presentation relatively simple and easy!
Integration with Oracle Report Manager enables paperless publishing/distribution with user security access control.
Potential for wider use is great, and we already own the tools we need!

29. Good References
XML Publisher User Guide
XML Publisher Blog:
XML Publisher Technical Forum
Oracle Report Manager User Guide (B )
Metalink Service Requests
Google!

30. Questions / Closing