Getting Started

Think of the last time you boarded a plane. If you glanced to your left – into the cockpit – you probably noticed a spectacular collection of glass panels, levers, knobs, and switches covering nearly every square inch of space. Pilots dedicate years of study and practice learning how to operate these marvels of modern engineering.

Now, think of the last time you stopped at an ATM, perhaps to withdraw some cash or deposit a check, or just review your account balance. Even if you have never been to this particular bank and have never seen this make or model of ATM, it will no doubt take you mere seconds to familiarize yourself with the device, perform your transaction, and go on with your day.

Both of these experiences – piloting a state-of-the-art airliner and operating an ATM – require a human-facing interface to control very complex processes behind the scenes. But the requirements of the people using these interfaces are very different. A well-designed cockpit will be comprehensive, with every control and information source that the pilot will ever need in any phase of flight or unexpected circumstance. And although nearly all aircraft conform to certain fundamental standards of cockpit layout, each individual make and model will have its own unique nuances, design decisions, features, capabilities, and specialized controls required to operate that specific machine safely and efficiently. Needless to say, it is well worth the time and effort required to train the pilots that will be flying these planes.

On the other hand, a well-designed ATM must be intuitive, self-explanatory, and require no training at all. Only the most common transactions will be supported, but that is a fine trade-off for the users of this machine – no one will expect anyone to refinance their mortgage by pushing a few buttons on an ATM.

The corporate performance management (CPM) systems of large and complex organizations support many interrelated processes and must meet the needs of very diverse communities of end-users. Like airline pilots, some users will require a comprehensive and sophisticated user interface providing efficient access to multiple, complex, and highly specialized capabilities to perform their duties. Other users, like the customer at the ATM, will be much better served by a front-end that simplifies their experience, presenting them with only the information they need and the controls they are likely to use.

These differing needs usually depend on various factors, such as the user’s role within the organization, CPM experience and proficiency, and so on. For example, a seasoned system administrator or controller with ten years of CPM experience, who is in the system every working day, will typically need more application access than your average end-user planner who just wants to log in and complete a forecast once a month.

The OneStream platform provides the best of both worlds. With a well-designed implementation, the navigation, Workflows, Dashboards, and Reports that any one User sees will be well-aligned with how that User will be interacting with the application and what capabilities are most important to them.

Why It Matters

As you plan, deploy, maintain, and extend your OneStream implementation, you will, of course, pay close attention to the data sources and dimensionality, Business Rules and Member Formulas, User security, Confirmation Rules, Workflow approval processes, and all the other fundamental architectural aspects that make your application whole. But, along the way, to ensure a world-class implementation, you should also keep in mind the day-to-day experiences of the ultimate End-Users of your application. The best set of KPI Calculations ever created will be of very little use to the financial analyst who needs them if that analyst doesn’t know (or doesn’t remember) they are there! No process efficiency improvements will be achieved if the time-consuming manual efforts your implementation is hoping to eliminate are simply replaced by time-consuming hunting-and-pecking as Users try to remember how to access the amazing functionality they were introduced to several weeks (or months) ago but haven’t revisited since.

If an End-User’s Experiences while interacting with an application are confusing, inefficient, unnecessarily complex, or even just plain unattractive, no matter how well the underlying business model was designed or how perfectly the functionality meets the organization’s requirements, the actual User will have a negative view of the application. Or perhaps worse… they will avoid using it at all.

In the pages that follow, you will learn how to design and configure User Experiences that meet the needs of your diverse community of End-Users, balancing the varying levels of front-end simplicity, functional completeness, and ease of use that these Users need and deserve. We will explore the various tools and techniques available to you, the best ways to design and deploy your application’s User Experiences, and walk through multiple detailed examples, from the very simple to the very sophisticated, always with the requirements, skill sets, and objectives of your End-Users in mind.