It is commonplace for JDE customers to use only a fraction of available capability – sometimes because specific features do not fit the needs of a particular user.  More often, a capability is not used because it is not understood or is hard to implement.  This seems to be the case with the imbedded finance, sales and manufacturing dashboards that EnterpriseOne began offering with release 8.11 SP1 as part of the Financial Management Compliance Console (FMCC). 

Our experience indicates that relatively few JDE E1 customers at or beyond 8.11 have tried them.  In some cases there is no perceived need.  Others have not found the time to evaluate and install them.  Most often, there is little understanding of what they are and the pros and cons of making use of them.  Hopefully, the information provided below will motivate some of you to at least consider them. 

There are two dashboards/consoles provided in the FMCC – Financial Management Dashboard (FMD) and Plant Manager Dashboards (PMD). In the FMD, there are 48 metrics grouped into 8 groups – Profitability Management, Activity Ratio, Accounts Payable Activity, AR & Collection Activity, Leverage & Liquidity Ratios, Profitability Ratios, Profits (Actual vs Planned) and Revenue Management.  In the PMD, there are 23 metrics grouped into 6 groups – Cash & Capital Management, Customer Shipment Performance, Inventory Management Effectiveness, Manufacturing Performance, Revenue Management and Supplier Performance.  Additional metrics and groups may be created by customers. 

In addition to the dashboards, FMCC provides Corporate Governance which includes a segregation of duty (SOD) capability.  SOD enables organization to comply with financial management mandates and standards specified by the company or by a governing body to protect against fraud. 

FMCC also provides a useful but poorly named feature called whistleblower.  Don’t worry, it is not a way for disgruntled employees to rat on their bosses.  It is simply an email alert capability.  By clicking a link on the console summary page in the FMCC a notification message is sent to the individuals set up in the Whistle Blower Recipient List about a specific issue. 

EnterpriseOne FMCC is a financial analytics system that is based on the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne toolset. EnterpriseOne FMCC system does not require additional or third-party toolsets to install or support the functionality. Batch programs are used to populate data from existing operational tables into a set of aggregate tables. The system then moves the data to a target data structure optimized for reporting and analytics—the Star Schema. 

The console reads the data in the Star Schema and displays information in the console.  FMCC minimizes the work needed to build metrics. Technical users can use various components of the console, including applications for presenting the user interface (UI), charting, data caching, and application program interfaces (APIs),as templates for new metrics. The EnterpriseOne FMCC provides an intuitive, multi-layered interface to assist with managing exceptions, determining exception causes and allows you to take appropriate action. 

As with any reporting capability imbedded within an ERP system, FMCC has a number of limitations that include:

  • The amount of time and expertise needed to set them up.
  • A relatively long learning curve and the need for training.
  • A very limited and awkward drill down capability
  • A JDE seat license is required to access them that can add to cost. 

In spite of these limitations, these dashboards can be quite useful if:

  • Set up by a knowledgeable person
  • Users are trained and shown how to use them
  • Expectations are realistic
  • Data validation is performed 

The imbedded dashboards were never intended by Oracle to take the place of a full function BI solution and they don’t.  While there is no cost to get the software itself if the appropriate release is being implemented, there are significant indirect costs to make them operational.  If used effectively, they can be well worth the effort and cost needed to get them working and can be a sound first step to developing a complete Enterprise Performance Management System. 

This posting was contributed by Bobby Miravite, a CPA with 18 years of JD Edwards finance experience. Bobby has assisted numerous clients with JDE software implementation, support and in the installation and use of the EnterpriseOne Financial Management & Compliance Console.  He can be contacted directly with questions at rmiravite@andrewscg.com.

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