OBIEE – What is it good for?

January 12th, 2010 by Adrian Ward

I’m showing my age here with a reference back to the iconic eighties pop song, but with age comes experience, which I thought I share with you today in the form of a question and answer session.

Q. What Does OBIEE Do?

  • Reports on data from a database.
  • Provides a web platform for content
    • e.g. Reports, Embeded Content (websites/Services)

Q.  So, Is OBIEE a Database?

  • NO

Q. What Databases will it Report from?

  1. Oracle
  2. SQL Server
  3. DB2
  4. MySQL
  5. ODBC Sources
  6. MS Access
  7. SyBase
  8. Redbrick
  9. SAP BW
  10. SQL Anywhere
  11. DB2 AS400
  12. Informix
  13. Netezza
  14. Times Ten

Q. Can It Connect to Other Sources?

YES

  1. Excel
  2. XML
  3. Oracle OLAP
  4. Oracle Essbase
  5. MS Analysis Services

Q. But what does it do?

  1. Creates Web pages – Dashboards
  2. Has a Report Writer – Answers
  3. Sends Reports and Messages – Delivers (aka iBots)
  4. Pixel Perfect Reports - BI Publisher (e.g. Statements, invoices, cheques)

Q. What are the main ‘Features’?

  1. Hierarchy Drilling
  2. Graphical Reporting (Charts, Pivots, Gauges, etc)
  3. Scheduled Report Generation
  4. Ad Hoc Analysis
  5. Global support and development capabilty

Q. What are the Advantages?

Comparing OBIEE with other products:

  1. Mass deployment via Intranet
  2. Scalable
  3. Open standards based
  4. Deploys on all platforms

Q. What are the benefits?

  1. Reduces Skills required for report production
  2. Removes redundancy in Report production
  3. Removes time to produce reports, enabling more time to analyse the results
  4. Provides “Actionable Insight” i.e. it Highlights where action is required
  5. Enables Single Version of the Truth Common data and reporting objects

(FAB Virgil !!)

Q. But Which component do I use for my Work?

So you want to…

Q. Send a daily report in the same format to senior management, updated with the latest data?

  1. Use BI Publisher to create the report, and use Delivers to send it by Email

Q. Give teams a set of standard reports that highlight issues on KPI’s

  1. Create a standard set of reports (using Answers) and place these on Team dashboards.

Q. Create Pixel perfect documents?

  1. Use BI Publisher to produce reports, using the common data set of OBIEE

Q. Make sure everyone is using the numbers (i.e. one version of the truth)?

  1. Drive all reporting from same database that OBIEE uses.
  2. Direct as much as possible to the use of dashboards, Answers and BI Publisher.

Q. Improve Data Quality?

  1. Expose as much data as possible in the dashboards. Do not hide ‘odd’ data.
  2. Make sure that all senior management reports come from the OBIEE system.(This will also aid user adoption)

Q. Run a daily Invoice run

  1. Use BI Publisher on the latest financial data

Q. Store Reports for Audit Purposes

  1. Use Delivers to email a copy of a report or dashboard to a storage account
  2. Use Briefing Books to store data
  3. Save a report in PDF or HTML format and save in a share drive

Q. What departments is OBIEE suited for?

  1. Front Office
  2. Risk
  3. Finance
  4. Production
  5. Distribution
  6. Marketing
  7. Sales

All of them really !

Q. What size of company should use OBIEE?

  1. Very Large – Global Corporations, Banks, Mining
  2. Large – Government Agencies, Technology, Manufacturing, Consultancies
  3. Military – Ministry of Defence, Army, Navy, Airforce
  4. Medium – Retailers, Transport
  5. Small – Consultancies, Sports clubs

Any organisation that has any data to analyse!!

Note: There are licensing options for smaller companies

Q. Where do I start?

  1. Get a free copy of OBIEE from Oracle to evaluate how easy it is.
  2. Train up a couple of internal staff on how to use the product
  3. Get some independent advice
    1. Join UKOUG
    2. Go to the User Group conferences
  4. Talk to the Integrators

Q. Any Tips?

  1. Run a small POC.
  2. Identify the benefits to your organisation, but don’t ‘boil the ocean’ – Keep work packages small enough to get regular delivery
  3. Use OBIEE experienced Business Analysts
  4. Work with the end users in an ‘Agile / RAD’ way
  5. Build a platform for reporting, then build on it with the end users
  6. Focus on Dimensional Modelling avoid Normalised data reporting
  7. Call in Rittman Mead Consulting!!

Did i Mention work with the end users!

Remember, with any reporting project, it’s all about the database – however graphical or well laid out the reports are, they will rely on the speed and accuracy of the database. OBIEE is not a silver bullet for reporting issues, but it should be in your armoury.

For those youngsters who were in nappies in the eighties, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Goes_to_Hollywood

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Comments

  1. mghong Says:

    January 12th, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Hi Rittman,

    I just saw your post on my RSS feed, i actually being interest to store monthly data which we pull from customer ticketing tools and store it for our own use for problem managment.

    But we don’t have a BI expert in our team , is this tools easi for us to use ???

  2. Gareth Roberts Says:

    January 13th, 2010 at 5:01 am

    Hi Adrian,

    With regards to future direction of the OBIEE product can you comment on your statement “avoid normalized data reporting”? Ie. is there anything up and coming that will alleviate this restriction?

    Thanks,
    Gareth

  3. Adrian Ward Says:

    January 13th, 2010 at 6:50 am

    Hi Gareth
    There are several reasons you should avoid reporting against 3rd normal form data, here a few of them:
    1. Performance – We often report against tables with millions of records in, and making those join to other large table will slow down query response times.
    2. Performance – Oracle databases have the ‘Star Transformation’ functionality that understands dimensional models, and has a fast way to find the data for a report.
    3. Performance – When building aggregations in the ETL, the query will be slower if it has to traverse tables, or use some form of link back to itself
    4. OBIEE Logical models are Dimensional – Building and maintaining the rpd will be much easier if your tables are already in dimensional form

    The way to get around the problem of normalised datasets as a source maybe to try Jon Minkjans method. At last years BI Forum he presented on how they create Materialised views over a normalised database. You cannot have a zero downtime ETL (because the MViews have to rebuild) but it maybe useful in a POC

  4. Adrian Ward Says:

    January 13th, 2010 at 6:56 am

    The OBIEE reporting product is very easy to use, with little training most users can be creating reports and dashboards with ease. However, building the system for the end users will take some skills. These skills can be learned over time, with training and with good hands on experience. Dowload the product from oracle, try their QBE training and then I suggest taking one of the Rittman mead courses, of course!

  5. Justin Townsend Says:

    January 13th, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    Hi there,

    these clarifications are often useful for existing customers and prospective clients.

    Well laid out.

    Justin

  6. Kranthi Says:

    January 15th, 2010 at 8:04 am

    Hi Ward,

    It looks simple but really a good way of representing about the tool and its features.Would benefit for vendors to understand it and go for the tool.

    Regards,
    Kranthi.

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