MFR “By the Numbers” – November 2017
- 1,087: Number of distinct users that ran financial dashboards in OBI
- 69,393: Number of distinct requests made using the financial dashboards, over a third of which were made of the “Transaction Listing All” dashboard (25,586 requests).
- 29: Number of individuals registered for the Introduction to OBI Financial Dashboard training
- 1,348: Number of users who have completed training
- 69.8%: Percentage of target audience who is trained on OBI. If you are one of the other 30.2%, register for OBI training today!
CREW Decommissioning Deadline: Tomorrow, Friday December 15!
The Modernization of Financial Reporting (MFR) Project Team has been working diligently with business leadership in the schools (specifically, the Financial Deans), its partners within the Data Management Services team and HUIT to improve the quality of the OBIEE (OBI) dashboards. After almost 18 years in service to the Harvard community, the Common Reporting Environment for the Warehouse (CREW) will be decommissioned tomorrow, Friday, December 15!
As of tomorrow, all access to CREW will discontinue and users will need to access other systems for work they have been doing in CREW. This change means that OBI will serve as the sole source for financial reporting and users will be unable to logon and retrieve any previously run reports in CREW.
Please note that there will be no changes to the desktop version of Interactive Reporting (also known as BRIO or Hyperion Interactive Reporting Studio) at this time. Users of IR/BRIO will be still be able to use the desktop version for their ad hoc reporting needs.
January Monthly Release
The next OBI release will begin on Thursday, January 25th at 6 p.m. All changes will be implemented and the release complete by 9am on Friday, January 26th. Keep an eye on the OBI Release Notes wiki page for details of dashboard changes in this release.
Tip of the Month: Using Date Prompts on the Transaction Listing Dashboards
When using the Transaction Listing dashboards (All, Summary Comp, and Limited Comp versions), users are often inclined to enter their date range into the “Effective Date” or “Posted Date” prompts. Did you know that using these prompts alone can cause the dashboard to take longer to render results?
For optimal performance, use the “Period” or “Period to Period” prompts instead. If the date range that you need includes only a portion of the month, enter the date range in your “Effective Date” or “Posted Date” prompts AND use the “Period” prompt. You will be amazed at making this little change to your prompts can speed up the time it takes for you to get your data!
Financial Dashboards Instructor Led Training
The MFR Project Team will continue to deliver Instructor Led Training (ILT) on the OBI Financials dashboards to schools and departments after the winter break. Users can view availability of training sessions through the Harvard Training Portal or the OBI Training Calendar.
- Wednesday, January 10, 2018: 9:30am – 11:30am, Harvard Medical School, Countway Library, Room L2-025
- Thursday, January 11, 2018: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
- Thursday, February 8, 2018: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 8 Story Street, Room B2
Additional Resources
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OBI Financials ILT will also be supported by readily accessible online simulations and job aids on the OBI wiki pages. Of particular note are:
- Onlne simulations for the Grants Financial and the Printable Grants Financial dashboards
- A job aid and video on the newly instated OBI Time-Out
- OBI Drop-In Hours are held twice a month through February. See the OBI Training Calendar for details.
MFR Project Questions
If you have questions about the MFR Project, please visit the MFR Wiki or reach out to your Local Implementation Manager.