What do you mean restricted use Oracle DRM?!

At Kscope recently we heard that EPMA will not be available in Oracle EPM 11.2, and that it will be replaced by "Restricted use DRM".

See our latest blog post: Life without EPMA - What are my options with Oracle EPM 11.2?

One option to keep the functionality you've counted on with EPMA is to utilize DRM on a free, but restricted, use basis*.

So what is 'restricted use' DRM, you say?

The fully licensed version of Oracle DRM is a deeply configurable hierarchy management tool. In addition to having parents and/or child nodes, each node in DRM can be configured to store additional information in properties (attributes). The properties can be defined, inherited or derived from other information. It is a truly a general purpose metadata management tool capable of providing structure to all types of systems (ERP, Data Warehouses, etc.)  

Sounds like a neat product right? It is, but let's see what restrictions they have placed on it for use with the EPM product suite.

• Much like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), it can ONLY be used to maintain Oracle EPM applications.
• NO syncing data from cloud instances. It's only being licensed for use with on-premise applications, meaning if you have any cloud applications you would either have to manage them with something else like EDM or purchase a full use license.
• Does NOT include functionality around Data Relationship Governance and process control management
• There is a limit of five (5) stewards of master data, so it looks like other users can have visibility into DRM but only 5 people will be able to manipulate the hierarchies and node properties. It also seems to suggest that the hierarchies maintained in DRM would have to be done so without integration or automation (ODI).

Naturally all these restrictions are removed for customers who either already own DRM or wish to purchase "Full Use" DRM. Be aware that unless something has changed on the licensing front, DRM is licensed on a per-node basis. So if you have a large number of members in your application this can be fairly costly. One of the slides at Kscope seemed to suggest that using DRM for mapping maintenance (FDMEE) may not be part of the restricted use license.

Lastly, Oracle is promising to include a whitepaper and scripts to assist in the migration from EPMA to DRM, although it will probably take some knowledge of  SQL and the DRM migration client.

Remember, all on-premise Oracle EPM versions prior to 11.2 will reach end-of-life in December 2021. Once you upgrade to 11.2 all prior versions of EMPA will no longer be available. Now is the time to plan on how you will handle this transition.

Transitions can be hard, but the certified Oracle consultants at Tevpro collectively have over 50+ years implementing EPM technologies. If you'd like a hype-free assessment and pragmatic advice on your current EPM environment, we'd love to help!

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