Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition For Discoverer Users. Mark Rittman, Rittman Mead Consulting

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1 Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition For Discoverer Users Mark Rittman, Rittman Mead Consulting

2 Who Am I? Oracle BI&W Architecture & Development Specialist The Rittman of Rittman Mead Consulting Specialist provider of Oracle BI&W consulting and education 10+ years with Discoverer, OWB etc Now working with BI EE, BIP, Data Integrator Oracle ACE, Articles at OTN, Oracle Magazine etc Chair of UKOUG BI & Reporting Tools SIG Co-Chair of ODTUG BI&DW SIG Author of forthcoming Oracle Press book Oracle BI Suite Developers Guide

3 Oracle BI Discoverer Overview Oracle s standard ad-hoc query and reporting tool Part of Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.2) Access Oracle data, and other RDBMS through Oracle database Now at x Web-based, with MS Windows admin tool Integration with OracleAS Portal, Oracle Warehouse Builder

4 Discoverer Strengths Easy to use, lots of wizards, many years of UI refinements Leverages calculations, analytics etc in Oracle RBDMS Integration with Oracle RDBMS and OAS security Native access to Oracle OLAP multi-dimensional model Integration with Oracle E-Business Suite

5 Discoverer Weaknesses Oracle-dependency difficult to connect to other RDBMSs requires Oracle database to hold EUL and provide security Routes all data through Oracle (database links) Performance Difficult to tune its SQL Sluggish performance No alerting, distribution OracleAS Portal as a dashboard Use of Java applet Security, installation issues No APIs, connectivity from and to SOA

6 Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Oracle Next-Generation BI tools platform Based on Siebel Analytics Originally developed by nquire Standards (J2EE) based Heterogeneous connectivity Server and Web-based Oracle BI Server Oracle Presentation Server Oracle BI Answers Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards Oracle BI Delivers Oracle BI Administration

7 OBI EE Architecture

8 Oracle BI Answers Equivalent to Discoverer Ad-hoc analysis Report against business model Tables, Cross-tabs Graphs, Gauges View and column selectors Narratives Publish to Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards Database-neutral Connects through BI Server

9 Common Enterprise Information Model Equivalent to End User Layer Physical layer connections to DBs RDBMS, XML, MDX, MS Excel etc Semantic Object Layer business model Logical tables, columns Dimensions (hierarchies) Calculations Presentation Layer Equivalent to custom folders

10 Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards Main method of interacting with reports Fully interactive Drill on data, graphs Switch between views Drill out to detail Incorporate images, web content Role-based security Lightweight, DHTML

11 Oracle BI Publisher Publishes Answers reports as PDF, XLS, RTF etc Also direct access to metadata layer Pixel-perfect reports Used for distributionquality reporting Integrated into dashboard

12 Oracle BI Server Virtual data warehouse, connects to source databases Integrates incoming data in real-time Translates SQL against business model into optimal SQL against physical data sources Own dialect of SQL Common functionality across platforms SQL passthrough also possible Caching, summary management Security Partly equivalent to Discoverer Server, partly to Oracle RDBMS EE

13 Oracle BI Delivers Scheduling and distribution Uses ibots ( Intelligent Bots ) Integration (through Java) with BPEL ibot chaining, calling from BPEL, calling BPEL Permits alerts, through execution of Answers reports If report returns rows, alert triggered Alert appears on dashboard, via , SMS, cell phone Can trigger narrative and conditionally-appearing reports on dashboard

14 OBIEE Benefits Compared to Discoverer Connectivity to non-oracle data sources DB/2, SQL Server, MDX, XML etc More visualization options Charts, gauges, pictures, controls Interactive dashboards, drill-in-place Performance Easier to tune SQL Caching, summary management Alerting, distribution SOA and Web Services connectivity All end-user tools thin-client

15 Moving from Discoverer to OBIEE Coming soon: Migration utility Migrate EUL to OBIEE Common Enterprise Information Model Migrate workbooks to Answers Some post-migration work will be necessary Make OBIEE model time-series aware Workbook fine-tuning? Take advantage of all the new features Now: Manually recreate in OBIEE Easy to do Useful for simple proof-of-concepts, demo systems Helps you understand how it all works

16 Manual EUL Migration Steps 1. Create an ODBC data source for use with Oracle BI Administrator 2. Import physical tables in to BI Server metadata layer 3. Create logical model (drag and drop from physical layer) 4. Add dimensions (hierarchies), calculations, derived columns 5. Drag and drop in to presentation layer, create complex folders as required

17 Analytical Calculations Calculations can either be created in the metadata layer, or within the Answers report In the metadata layer, OBIEE uses its own SQL version Creates logical columns Consistent calculation ability across DB platforms In Answers, can create using OBIEE SQL, or pass-thru native SQL Allows you to leverage Oracle-specific analytical SQL

18 Time-Series Calculations AGO value of a measure x months, quarters, years ago AGO(Videostore."Sales fact view".sales, Videostore.TimesDim."Month", 1) TODATE value of a measure to the end of a month, quarter, year AGO(Videostore."Sales fact view".sales, Videostore.TimesDim."Quarter", 1) Requires at least one time dimension in the metadata layer

19 Creating the Videostore Time Dimension 1. Create logical columns in logical model to derive descriptions and sortable IDs for each time dimension level (or create view in DB) e.g. Jan-2000, Sort description fields by sortable ID fields 3. Add new level IDs and descriptions in to time dimension Ensure sortable IDs are unchecked as drill-down columns 4. Select Transaction Date (usually DATE) as chronological key Optional: select keys for other levels as additional chronological keys (useful when creating month, quarter etc summaries)

20 Demonstration The Migrated Videostore End User Layer

21 New Reporting Capabilities with OBI EE Oracle BI Answers is the equivalent to Discoverer Tables, crosstabs (pivot-tables) Additional graphing options (funnel, gauges etc) Formatting improvements View switching Narratives Tickers Works across all databases Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards is the equivalent to Portal Portlets, web clippings More interactivity, all activity takes place in dashboard page Oracle BI Delivers, Oracle BI Publisher add completely new functionality

22 Answers Views Each report ( request ) contains a single query Possible to union, minus etc with similar queries Query has one or more views associated with it Table, pivot-table Chart, gauge, funnel chart Title, narrative View and column selectors Views are combined in the compound view Compound view generally displayed in dashboard

23 Answers Formatting Options Columns can be formatted on column, or other column value Colors, fonts, Images and icons Can replace or supplement figures Images can be added to report titles Comes with a library of stock images

24 Dashboard Interactivity Prompts can be added to dashboard Drop-down lists, multi-select Passes parameters to reports Switch between different views Change columns used in reports

25 Dashboard Alerts & Guided Analytics Enables content and layout of dashboard to change based on information analyzed Sections or links can be defined to only appear when there is interesting information in the data

26 Demonstration Videostore Reports in Oracle BI EE

27 What s Missing? OLAP functionality Answers is essentially a relational query tool OLAP data converted to tables and columns Some analytical and time-series functions Rank, TopN, BottomN etc present Limited time-series (ago, todate) SQL pass-through possible ETL tool integration ODI possible future solution?

28 Fusion Intelligence for E-Business Suite OBIEE pre-built integration with Daily Business Intelligence (DBI) and other E-Business Suite data Role-based dashboards Guided navigation Full ad-hoc analysis Covers the following Intelligence modules Financials Procurement Human Resources Supply Chan CRM Integrated with SSO

29 Interoperability Alternative option integrate Discoverer with OBI EE Delivers: alerting, distribution, guided analytics Dashboard: integrate Discoverer worksheets in dashboard Publisher: use Discoverer worksheets as data source Additional option, use instead, of or as well as migration Requires you to license relevant OBIEE components Due pre-11g

30 Summary Migrating Discoverer to Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition is a relatively straightforward task Do now manually, or wait for migration utility Some post-install work needed Create or enhance time dimension Take advantage of new Answers and Dashboard features Add alerts, guided analytics Publish and distribute reports using Publisher E-Business Suite customers can migrate to Fusion Intelligence

31 Next Steps Talk to Mark about OBIEE, Discoverer during SIG breaks Download OBIEE, and coming soon, OBI Standard Edition One OBI SE One comes with Answers, Dashboard, BI Server for $1k per named user Ideal migration path for departmental Discoverer deployments Free One-Day Migration and Interoperability Workshop with Mark Assess current use of Discoverer Review range of workbooks, End User Layer Discuss requirement for new features (alerting, publishing, dashboards) Demonstration of migrated Videostore data Initial roadmap for migration and/or interoperability Discuss proof of concept Produce report on next steps

32 Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition For Discoverer Users Mark Rittman, Rittman Mead Consulting