Source: Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in Statement of Direction [ID 1466700.1]
Statement of Direction
Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in is an option to Oracle Essbase and is an Excel Add-in that allows end users to perform ad hoc analysis against Essbase data sources.
After of January 1, 2013, Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in will no longer be available for general distribution with new releases of Oracle Essbase. Releases prior January 1, 2013 should be considered a terminal release for Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in and customers should make preparations to migrate to Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office. Existing licensed customers of Oracle’s Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in will continue to be supported per the terms of their maintenance agreements with Oracle.
The Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View) is the strategic Oracle direction for office add-in for EPM and BI. Oracle Smart View has a flexible open architecture that enables it to support all of the EPM and BI offerings from Oracle. This provides the basis to extend the feature set and richness of analytics against Essbase when compared with Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in and to offer compatibility with later versions of the Microsoft Office Suite.
Release 11.1.2.1.102 of Smart View added significant features for users consuming Oracle Essbase data sources. Changes were also made to Essbase and Anayltic Provider Services (APS). As such to get the benefit of the new Smart View features Essbase and APS need to be upgraded as well. Oracle encourages customers of the existing Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in to adopt Smart View release 11.1.2.1.102 or above, along with Essbase and APS upgrade to a corresponding version, for advanced analytics with a richer experience.
I, like many others, have many fond memories of the speed and power of the classic add-in, especially pre Office 2007. It is great to see Smart View now on par feature-wise with the classic version though and there is no doubt a more feature rich, new-user friendly add-in was the way forward.
I'll be moving out of a consulting role to an internal position very shortly working with 11.1.2 onwards so for me.. goodbye classic add-in!
