What is data compression and why do I need It?

Project Costing stores large amounts of transactional data for a project, so you have the project details you need to manage projects in your organization.  The Project Resource table is a large table that stores these details including cost, revenue and billing; it grows as your transaction volume grows.  Most organizations have hundreds or thousands of projects, some active and others closed, and many with multiple years of historical data.

When the Project Resource table gets too large, it can degrade performance; online entry can be slower, batch processes run longer, and queries fail.  That’s when you should look to data compression to reduce the size of your data and improve performance.

 

I want to improve performance, but how will project data look after data compression?

We understand organizations may be hesitant to compress their project data because of the uncertainties, such as:

  • Which projects to compress?
  • What happens to the data after compression?
  • What is the appropriate level of summarization after compression?
  • What if I need to restore the transaction detail? 

First, compression is not archiving.  Data compression replaces detailed transactions with higher-level summary transactions.  The new functionality delivered in PeopleSoft Update Image 32 provides increased visibility into your existing compression process.

 

Tell me more about these enhancements.  How will they help my organization?

With the new features, you can add project compression to your regularly scheduled maintenance activities, be it a quarterly, annual, or some other occurrence.   You’re able to configure what status a project needs to be in, to be eligible for compression.  A streamlined user interface allows you to easily approve projects ready for compression.  And before you begin compression, you can run a simulator to help you anticipate the reduction in transaction rows. These enhancements give you greater assurance before running the data compression process.

Now, let’s take a quick peek at these new features…

 

Projects Eligible for Compression

How does an organization determine what projects are eligible for compression?  We’ve added a new flag to the Project Status Type setup page.  Use this flag to identify what status types are eligible for compression.

In this example, the Project Status Type of “C”, for closed”, is eligible for compression.  Note that the Processing Status does not have to be “Inactive” to be eligible for compression; you can compress projects with any status as long as the ‘Eligible for Compression’ box is selected.

 

In a typical organization, Project Controllers, a.k.a. Project Administrators, are responsible for maintaining project configurations and running monthly close processes for their projects.  The Project Controller knows whether their projects are just starting, already closed, or getting ready to close, whether they have large amounts of transactional volume, and whether the project is a good candidate for data compression.   With this new functionality, Project Controllers determine whether to update the project’s status to one that is eligible for compression, based on their knowledge of their projects.

 

Review and Approve Projects to Compress

After Project Controllers have updated their projects as eligible for compression, these projects will be listed on a new Project WorkCenter page called the PC Compress Projects page.  The projects need to be reviewed and approved for compression by someone within your organization with access and security to review and approve projects for compression.  Only users who are given this authority can approve projects for compression.  This is performed by selecting the ‘Mark for compression’ checkbox as shown in the page below. 

   

Before approving projects for compression, you can run a simulation, by clicking the Simulate Compression pushbutton: .  Running simulation will estimate the number of rows after compression.  The estimate is based on the Compression Template assigned to the project.  A Compression Template is automatically assigned by default and can be changed by the approver.

A note about Compression Templates:  Compression Templates allow you to define the level of detail you want preserved (or summarized to) in the compression process; you can choose a different compression template for certain projects, if necessary.

Although Project Compression Templates are not new, they have been enhanced so you can identify a specific template as the default template. 

Here’s an example of a Project Compression Template that has been designated as the default template.  Expand the Compression Details section for each module to identify the fields that will be preserved (or summarized to) during compression.

 

 

Run Compression

After projects have been reviewed and approved, they are ready for data compression.   Compression is initiated from the same Project WorkCenter – PC Compress Projects page, where projects were marked for compression earlier.

The compression process can be run ad hoc but is typically scheduled as part of normal maintenance activities, outside peak usage.  All approved projects are included in the run. 

 

 

Only individuals with the PC Compression Super User Role, as defined on the Project Costing Installation page, may run the compression process; this is typically a technical, system administrator type individual who monitors activity during scheduled maintenance windows. 

To support the separation of duties, the person running compression should not be the same person who has the authority to review and approve projects for compression.

 

Other Available Features

  • From the PC Compress Projects page, you can navigate to the Project Compression Tracking page to review previously compressed projects.  You navigate there by clicking the link called:
    . 

The Project Compression Tracking page is not a new page.  Use it to view details about each project that was compressed. You can also take further action from this page to Archive, Purge or Restore previously compressed project data.

 

 

  • Also new in PeopleSoft Update Image 32, is a new Fluid Tile that summarizes Uncompressed rows by Business Unit:

 

 

Start exploring the new capabilities we’ve added to project data compression.  The new features give you greater visibility into the compression process and provides all who are invested in the process, from your functional to your technical staff, a role in decision making and control over the results.  Work with your technical staff to review simulation results in a test environment.  Start discussions about the level of summarization needed in your compression templates.  Reducing the size of your Project Costing table can dramatically improve performance and end user experience.  

 

For more information

To learn more, refer to PeopleSoft Project Costing Online Help, for these topics:

 

Also available is the Peoplesoft Image Highlights, FSCM Update Image 32 video, where you’ll find video footage highlighting these data compression enhancements.