SmartView Thoughts

One of the most commonly used components of any EPM suite, is SmartView.  The SmartView component is most frequently used as an add-in to Microsoft Excel, but it is a full Office Suite add-in, and can be leveraged in other products in Office.

One of the common issues around usage of the SmartView suite, is about connections.  There are 2 kinds of connections in SmartView, Private and Shared:

• Shared Connections are leveraged to allow all users to connect to anything they have access to within the Workspace.  The goal here is for all users to share a common connection interface.

• Private Connections are local, and not managed via a central interface and control panel.  These can be named to suit the individual user.

  • Additionally, all Essbase 21c connections are private.

SmartView offers a comprehensive users guide, that explains both the functionality of different connection types, but also a lot of EPM product specific information for those working in HFM or Planning or Essbase.  It can be found here.

Lastly, a word about versioning.  In SmartView the Oracle developers have done a great job of keeping the clients backwards compatible with older versions of the EPM suite.  However, this does not make the SmartView package forward compatible. 

As such, I always recommend that customers getting the latest EPM server level patching, include planning to update SmartView.  The latest version is here, which is also where the EPM Workspace link will now take you as well.  It should be noted that downloading SmartView now requires a free Oracle support account, so plan accordingly.

As always, it’s a pleasure to share thoughts with you, and should you have any questions about EPM, SmartView, or need assistance with anything ‘cloud’ related, let the team here at iArch Solutions know.  We’re here to help.