The hybrid world is still a reality. Systems including Oracle EPM are transitioning to the Cloud, but for many, these are still residing on-premise and this may be the case for some time to come.
What role does EPM integration have in this space? How can we get data into EPM Cloud applications from on-premise data sources? What about extracting data from Cloud sources? Surely these and other questions have arisen in recent years during the implementation of integration solutions in your organisation.
As EPM Integration Specialists, inlumi has been helping customers answer these types of questions as well as providing future-proof solutions to meet these challenging integration requirements. One of the biggest demands we are experiencing in this ever-changing landscape is to provide end-to-end automation from external systems to EPM Cloud applications.
We have extensive knowledge of existing and emerging technologies to provide automated solutions between the vast array of source systems and Oracle EPM Cloud. Direct integration with relational databases, SFTP servers, or Web Services (SOAP, REST, OData) for Cloud systems such as SAP S/4HANA and Microsoft Dynamics 365 represents an additional value for organisations that want to reduce the time spent in business processes such as month-closing or preparation of budget and forecast plans.
However, there has been a noticeable integration gap with EPM Cloud due to limited support for direct integration with data sources such as on-premise databases or Cloud systems. Unless the source was Oracle Financials, HCM or NetSuite, the only option was file-based integrations. Much to the surprise of customers this has meant a new solution has had to be designed and built to extract data from the source system which will generate a file in the correct format. The file must then be uploaded to EPM Cloud and the integration run. This has caused a major headache for many customers as the assumption has been this type of functionality should be available by default with EPM Cloud.
Well, with the fast-moving pace of the Cloud this integration problem has been put to rest with a new game changer that bridges the gap in functionality. Oracle has recently released the new EPM Integration Agent, a lightweight agent that allows direct integration with any source system.
Some of the key benefits include:
- Direct data integration from any data source to EPM Cloud applications
- Data source definitions, custom SQL queries and filters controlled in the Cloud
- Integrations initiated seamlessly from the Cloud
- Extended functionality possible with event scripting
- Drill-through to source relational data
inlumi was selected by Oracle as one of the key partners for the testing phase of this new EPM Cloud feature. Our integration specialists have been actively testing the agent to provide feedback to Oracle which has led to several bug fixes and functionality enhancements. inlumi is closely engaging with Oracle to bring exciting new features to the Integration Agent in future EPM Cloud releases.
Integration lead Francisco Amores recently presented about benefits of having direct source system integration in FDMEE and Cloud Data Management. The new agent is also introduced in his session.
Our integration specialist John Goodwin, also known for being one of the top contributors in the EPM community, has posted an in-depth blog series about the new EPM Integration Agent. This blog series covers all functional and technical details, the journey of discovery starts at: EPM Cloud - Integration Agent Part 1 – Introduction.
If you would like to have further discussions about the new Oracle EPM Integration Agent or any other EPM integration related topic, please feel free to contact us.
