Introduction to Modeler Tutorial

Author: Ian Britz

Introduction

Kepion is a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software platform and at its core is the Modeler. The Modeler is a powerful tool used to design, build, and publish CPM Applications. With a straight-forward interface and easy-to-configure components, robust solutions can be built quickly and easily.

Applications built from the Modeler can bring together users from all areas and departments of your business, and help build a connected approach to your planning, budgeting, and forecasting process. As data is collected in real-time, it creates an always up-to-date and accurate picture of your business's potential.

The Modeler has the tools and capability to build out both the back-end infrastructure of the application, as well as the front-end design and user experience. As Kepion Applications are built from an underlying database, leveraging Microsoft SQL technology, all of your data and logic can be unified and secured into a single source.

Kepion has been used to craft Planning, Budgeting, Forecasting, and Workforce Management solutions for enterprise businesses on every continent, in every industry. Customers such as Energizer, Unilever, Playtex, BHP, GE Capital, and Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals have all turned to Kepion in order to streamline their budgeting and forecasting process with real-time reporting and analysis.

Getting Started

In this tutorial we'll take a look at the basics of using the Modeler. We'll walk through the process of creating a new application, defining the Dimensions and Models, constructing the Forms and Dashboards, and creating Data Rules to drive the calculations. By the end we'll have a fully-functioning application to use as an example. A backup of this application is attached below for reference.

Our application will contain a single Dashboard App which we'll use to track the revenue and expenses for a business. Our business will sell a generic product and we'll track how much the product costs to make, how much it's sold for, and how many we're selling. In addition, we'll track some basic operating expenses and then calculate everything together to plan for the future and track our bottom line.

There are five key data points, or Dimensions, we need to model in order to build this application: Account, Time, Scenario, Product, and Metric.

These Dimensions will be used to define three OLAP cubes, or Models: an Assumption Model, Expense Model, and Reporting Model.

We'll then use these Models to create a number of reports, or Forms. Forms allow us to interact with the data stored in the Model.

And lastly, we'll setup the calculations and business rules that define how the data in the application should be presented in the Net Income Report. At the end of the tutorial, you should have a strong understanding of each of the basic components that drive a Kepion Application. To begin, select Part 1 - Application Settings from the Table of Contents below.

Table of Contents 

Part 1 - Application Settings - Setup the initial application and configure default settings.

Part 2 - Dimensions - Define and configure the five dimensions needed.

Part 3 - Models - Use the newly created Dimensions to define three Models.

Part 4 - Forms I - Learn the basics of Form design, and construct a simple input form.

Part 5 - Forms II - Learn more about Form design with two additional forms.

Part 6 - Dashboards - Build the interface for end-users to interact with the application.

Part 7 - Administrator Settings - Set permissions for writing data and create a Dashboard App.

Part 8 - Dashboard Apps - The basics of using a Dashboard App and entering data.

Part 9 - Data Rules - Build two Data Rules to calculate the Net Income Report.