Posted by Joe Cajic on Wed, Feb 17, 2010
Typically television comedy doesn't go over my head; Frazier often challenged my mind as does Curb Your Enthusiasm. Last evening I found myself perplexed when Sheldon dropped "30 pieces of silver" in front of Leonard on the show Big Bang Theory. So with that I turned on my laptop to understand the reference, and of course that led me to playing with the latest version of Hyperion Planning 11.1.1.3.01. (Yes, the versions are starting to look like IP addresses.) Last night's newest feature: Smart Slices.
There are two forms of Smart Slices: 
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The first is rather simple, when a Planning form is "Enabled for Smart Slices" by an administrator (Manage Data Forms/ Other Options). The form, while in Excel SmartView, has the capability to move from a standard form into an Ad-Hoc mode, which is a big improvement for clients that are used to recreating a data form via Ad-Hoc analysis just to query the data they are already looking at. Honestly, I have seen clients create complex VBA scripts to do what now can be done in two clicks.
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The second part of data slicing is controlling a portion of Essbase for Ad-Hoc analysis. Basically you are creating an excel workbook of your data stored in Essbase; however, only the data inside that book is available to query. As an example, you can slice off a piece of data specific for your sales team and save this as a Smart Slice called "Sales". So when the sales team wants to view data, they can start at a specific intersection of data (rather than dig through the data base eating up valuable performance time) and not be able to review data outside of "Sales Smart Slice", like "Cost of Sales".
Additionally, by the use of sub-queries, you can expand the Sales Smart Slice to create an "Encyclopedia of Sales" where each volume can be set to a specific POV (such as final sales for Ohio and Mid Market). This way your sales team won't have to drill through further layers of dimensionality to get their desired data. But rather, they can select the "Ohio Mid Market Sales Smart Slice" in the "Sales Smart Slice". Whether a Smart Slice, or a sub query, access to a Smart Slice is controlled by the administrator who can modify user access as needed - a task not possible in Excel, without each person sharing the password.
Smart Slices solve issues for the security-minded as well. A Smart Slice can be created for the HR Department excluding sensitive employee data for only those that require access; employee salary is a perfect example. You may want only department VP's to view employee salaries for those employees that report to them. Such cross-dimensional security can be challenging when managing employees that are constantly crossing departments and for VP's shifting responsibilities. However, with a Smart Slice you can create an "Encyclopedia for HR" and a separate volume for salaries, with further volumes for each department.
Smart Slices take us down a path of efficiency and usability not seen in a centralized data source. It's almost like creating a separate database for each need, a major improvement and a great addition to the tool chest.
Oh, and "30 pieces of silver" refers to Judas..... I wonder how that show ended.