In today’s environment, we are consistently looking for ways to make our jobs more efficient, especially when it comes to those monotonous daily tasks. When working in PBCS, EPM Automate is a great tool to take tasks off your plate so you can spend your valuable time elsewhere. EPM Automate allows users to automate repeatable tasks such as importing/exporting data, running business rules, and downloading snapshots (just to name a few)! Once you get a better understanding of the tasks that you will be able to automate using this tool, you may never have to work again! Ok, maybe this is a little overboard, but you get the idea…
Types of EPM Automate Commands
EPM Automate commands are extremely versatile because they allow users to complete a wide variety of tasks within PBCS or another Hyperion Cloud solution. If you are thinking “This sounds great in theory, but it is probably too complicated for me to implement”, don’t worry! Let’s look at a few basic EPM Automate Commands that almost any PBCS user could implement today:
- uploadFile:
- Uploads a file from a user’s local machine into PBCS
- Practical uses include loading a data file into Data Management and loading metadata
- Uploads a file from a user’s local machine into PBCS
- runDataRule:
- Executes a data load rule in Data Management.
- This command allows you to specify everything from the specific rule, periods, import/export mode and file name.
- Executes a data load rule in Data Management.
- refreshCube:
- Refreshed the application cube
- Great to use after executing a metadata upload
- Refreshed the application cube
- setSubstVars:
- Creates or updates substitution variables at the application or cube level
EPM Automate Command Syntax
EPM Automate commands use mandatory parameters that must be passed in the same sequence identified in the command. To get a better idea of what this means, consider the following Login command:
Login tells EPM Automate which command to run while USERNAME, PASSWORD, URL and INDENTITYDOMAIN are the parameters unique to the user that must be entered in that order to successfully execute the command.
Driving Efficiency with PowerShell
There are many ways that these commands can be even more efficient. Using a Windows PowerShell script is one way because it allows users to perform multiple commands in one script. This type of functionality is very helpful for automating more complex jobs that will require multiple commands to run in sequence in order to execute correctly. A common example of PowerShell use would be automating the entire process of loading data into the system and performing all the required rules. There are a few steps that need to be completed to execute a PowerShell script successfully:
- Set Function:
- Take and EPM Automate command and give it a Function name that will be called forward in the script (EPM Automate login command given the name “connect-to-Cloud” below)
- One function can have multiple EPM Automate commands
- Take and EPM Automate command and give it a Function name that will be called forward in the script (EPM Automate login command given the name “connect-to-Cloud” below)
- Create script calling required Function
- Run the script in Windows PowerShell or set up a task scheduler to do this for you
Why Implement EMP Automate?
EPM automate is a tool that almost every business using PBCS could see great value in using. Automating manual tasks frees up users to think bigger and spend time on more crucial and value adding jobs. Almost anyone can execute these commands, regardless of experience, making it an extremely versatile tool across the entire FP&A team.
