DATA Warehouse

Announcement - Decommissioning of EPM

With UW's Administration Transformation Program (ATP), Workday will be implemented as a replacement for the current PeopleSoft HRS on July 1, 2025. The scope of this project will impact and decommission the use of EPM by 4/30/26.

Currently in Phase 1 - Slowdown (3/1/23 - 6/30/24)

  • Slow introduction of changes to EPM per strategy criteria
  • Continue critical maintenance and security related updates

For additional information on the decommissioning of EPM, reference the Project Readiness page. This will provide an overview of the planned approach as well as what current phase the project is in.

Overview of EPM Nightly Batch Update Processing:

EPM Nightly Batch Processing Schedule

  • EPM Batch Updates run Sunday - Friday Nights
  • EPM Batch Update Window: 8pm to 6am (time reserved for EPM Batch processes to run)
  • Sunday Night EPM Batch updates pick up data from HRS entered Saturday and Sunday
  • Beginning on 07/19/2014, the EPM data view UW_AM_BAL_VW will be updated every Saturday night. The change will impact the "freshness" of the data in this data view. The data will be static for one week, "as of" the previous Saturday evening.
  • Beginning on 12/27/2014, the EPM data view UW_TL_GR_DTL_VW will only be updated every Saturday night. The change will impact the "freshness" of the data in this data view. The data will be static for one week, "as of" the previous Saturday evening.
  • NOTE: Please do not schedule processes to run against EPM during the EPM Batch Window (8pm to 7am, Sunday - Friday). Doing so risks delays or errors in the nightly processing of the EPM Batch jobs, which could adversely affect the EPM updates.

How to Verify EPM Batch Completion Times

You can verify the EPM Batch completion time on the Service Operations Administration webpage (https://uwservice.wisconsin.edu/administration/). See the "EPM Refresh" message under "HRS Process Notifications" on the upper right side of the web page.

What is the "EPM Batch"?

Every day, people update employee information in the HRS production system. Every night (excluding Saturday night), the EPM Data Warehouse is brought up-to-date with those changes. The process that runs nightly to update the EPM Data Warehouse is called "Extract / Transform / Load" or "ETL", and is run through a series of steps known as the "EPM Nightly Batch". During the "EPM Nightly Batch", any data that was added, updated, or deleted in the HRS production system since the previous "EPM Nightly Batch" is brought over to the EPM Data Warehouse through a three step process:

  1. Any changes in HRS production data (added, updated, or deleted data) are "extracted" from the HRS production database.
  2. These changes are "transformed" into a more usable format for EPM
  3. The "transformed" data is "loaded" into the EPM Data Warehouse

NOTE: The EPM Batch processes run after the HRS Batch processes, such as payroll calcs and confirm, in order to provide the most current EPM data possible. Occasionally, especially during payroll processing or if a problem is encountered in the HRS Batch, the EPM Batch updates are delayed and do not complete by 7am. When this occurs, a notification will be sent out to EPM users. You can also check the "EPM Refresh" time on the Service Operations Administration page as described above.

Announcement - Decommissioning of EPM

For additional information on the decommissioning of EPM, reference the Project Readiness page. This will provide an overview of the planned approach as well as what current phase the project is in.

Accessing the EPM Data Warehouse

The HRS Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Data Warehouse simplifies the difficult tasks of finding, consolidating, and preparing HRS information for distribution. The EPM Data Warehouse serves as a platform for basic queries and reports, and also as a data feed for external supplemental systems.

There are two methods of accessing the EPM Data Warehouse.

Accessing/Querying EPM:

  1. "Individual" External EPM Database Access: For people who need to use HRS EPM data to feed simple systems (usually Microsoft Access Databases or other simple reporting tools) that they utilize to do their job functions. This type of access should not be used for Supplemental Systems that have a broader use or provide information to other entities (Campus/Division/Department/External). This access provides an "individual" with credentials that they can use to connect to the EPM database directly.
  2. "System/Application" External EPM Database Access: This type of access is used for Supplemental Systems that need a data feed from the HRS EPM database, and that have a broader use or provide information to other entities (Campus/Division/Department/External). This access provides a "system" with credentials that the system would use to connect to the EPM database directly.

Announcement - Decommissioning of EPM

For additional information on the decommissioning of EPM, reference the Project Readiness page. This will provide an overview of the planned approach as well as what current phase the project is in.

Requesting Access to the EPM Data Warehouse

Requesting "System/Application" External EPM Database Access:

Before you request access to the EPM Data Warehouse, you should become familiar with the EPM Data Views in order to determine which of them contain the particular data that you need to access. You should start by reading the "EPM Data Warehouse Resources" section, and review the EPM Data Dictionary.

Requesting "Individual" External EPM Database Access (ODBC):

Once you've determined which Data Views you would like to access in EPM, you need to determine the EPM Security Roles that provide access to those Data Views. The EPM Security Roles are described in the HRS-HCM Security Role Catalog on the HRS Security web page.

"Individual" External EPM Database Access (ODBC) can be requested through OIM (Oracle Identity Manager).

For instructions on how to request access using HRS, please refer to KB: Request and Remove HRS Security Roles in HRS.

Note: All HRS security requests must be approved by your campus approver/s before your EPM access will be granted.

Requesting "System/Application" External EPM Database Access (ODBC):

Those requiring an external EPM data feed to a Supplemental System or other external campus application will need to request "System/Application Access" to EPM. Instructions and the form required for requesting "System/Application Access" are listed in the sidebar to the right.

The "System/Application Access" request, when approved by the HRS Decision Council, provides credentials which allow Supplemental Systems to have a direct database connection to the EPM Data Warehouse. The EPM "System/Application" credentials provide access to the EPM (production) and EPQAS (QA) environments.

Requesting Access to the "EPM Quality Assurance" Data Warehouse environment, "EPQAS"

The "EPM Quality Assurance" Data Warehouse environment, "EPQAS", is available for people who want to test Supplemental Systems interfaces to EPM though ODBC. EPQAS database access is included with approved "System/Application Access" and approved "Individual External EPM Database Access" requests.

Note: "Restricted data" is masked in EPQAS (NOTE: SSN and bank account information are the only restricted data elements available in EPM, and are only available in the "secured" EPM Views both will be "masked" with false data).

Announcement - Decommissioning of OBIEE

For additional information on the decommissioning of EPM, reference the Project Readiness page. This will provide an overview of the planned approach as well as what current phase the project is in.

EPM Data Warehouse Resources

EPM Data Dictionary Documents

(Updated 11/29/2021)

Archived EPM Data Dictionary:

HRS = "live data" - HRS data captured in the PeopleSoft HCM (Human Capital Management) application is the production database that contains the live transactional data. HRS is the data source for reports delivered with the PeopleSoft HCM system (also known as "delivered reports").

EPM = "day-old data" - The EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) Data Warehouse will extract data from HRS on a nightly basis. EPM will be the source for most custom reporting needs, since most reports do not require "up to the minute" data.

Data Views

The HRS Data Warehouse team has developed a number of data views in different functional areas that will simplify your ability to access HRS data. The data views offer a number of advantages over querying the database table structures directly:

  • HRS contains many very complex relational database table structures
  • EPM data views simplify data access by performing complex joins and supplying code/description data pairs from lookup tables (see the link for the "Configuration Values" document in the sidebar)
  • EPM data views are available for HRS "current data" PLUS "historical data" PLUS "future data"
  • There are separate EPM data views for secure vs. non-secure data

EPM Data Dictionary

The EPM Data Dictionary is a spreadsheet that details the EPM Data Views and the data fields that they contain. It is invaluable for understanding the EPM Data Views and how to utilize them in your queries and reports.

  • EPM Data Dictionary: Contains detailed information about all the EPM Data Views that are available in the production EPM Data Warehouse
  • Archived EPM Data Dictionary: Contains previous version of the EPM dictionary

Announcement - Decommissioning of EPM

For additional information on the decommissioning of EPM, reference the Project Readiness page. This will provide an overview of the planned approach as well as what current phase the project is in.

FAQs and Documentation

List of Reports in HRS & EPM

"Intro to EPM" Workshop Documents

PSQuery Training

  • "Reporting Fundamentals" course on Desire2Learn
    • Go to Desire2Learn at: http://www.uwsa.edu/d2l
    • Log in with your campus credentials.
    • Click the Self Registration link in the top left corner
    • Choose the course you want to register for (i.e. Reporting Fundamentals)