Taking A (Blogging) Break

Things are going to be a bit quiet around here for the next few weeks, as I'm going to have to take a break from blogging for a while.

Mainly, this is because I'm starting a new job within Plus that means I'm going to be particularly busy over the next month or so. My new role involves working a lot closer with our customers, talking about, demonstrating and prototyping some of the interesting new Oracle BI&W technologies due for release over the next few months, which will mean being out of the office more with consequently less time for site updates. I'm also heading up our involvement with the Discoverer 'Drake' / Oracle 10g Business Intelligence beta program, which should give me lots of new material for when the product is finally launched, but in the meantime means I'm limited in what I can actually say.

In the meantime, look out for the following over the next few weeks and months:

• Discoverer 'Drake', and the 10g Business Intelligence suite should be out within the next few months. It'll be part of AS10g (although not necessarily launched at the same time as AS10g Release 2), will include Discoverer OLAP Plus (a.k.a. 'Drake'), a new version of Discoverer Viewer, and new Discoverer portlets, including a 'gauge' portlet
• Alongside the AS10g elements of 10g Business Intelligence will be the DS elements, including the long-awaited Excel-addin and the next version of BI Beans, including lots of enhancements to the thin-client JSP beans.
• Enterprise Planning & Budgeting will probably get a release of sorts towards the end of 2004. It's currently being used by a number of 'early-adopter' customers and there'll probably be more news, and demos to look at, at the Openworld events in London in October. Look out for material on Appsnet, and for presentations at user groups later in 2004.
• Look out also for the 10.1.0.3 version of Oracle 10g, which comes with a number of enhancements to Oracle OLAP including the new AWXML feature.
• The next UKOUG Business Intelligence & Reporting Tools SIG meeting is on the 12th October. The agenda is being finalised at the moment, but it looks like we've got presentations on EPB, Discoverer 'Drake' and the Excel Add-In, Balanced Scorecard, Change Data Capture, and reporting using Discoverer. If you're a UKOUG member book a place soon, as it's one of the most popular SIGs and there's usually a waiting list for spaces.
• The UKOUG Conference & Exhibition is on the 1st-3rd November, at the Birmingham ICC. Plus Consultancy have a stand there, and I'm presenting on "OLAP Analysis Using 10g And Discoverer 'Drake'". I was involved in the BI&W paper selection, and can let you know that we've got an excellent selection of BI, warehousing and reporting presentations lined up for conference attendees.
• Oracle Openworld is on in London and San Francisco later this year. I'm lucky enough to be going to the San Francisco one this year (courtesy of a free conference pass from Oracle for winning one of their OTN community awards) so this should be a good chance to get up to speed on what's coming for Oracle BI&W next year.
• Keep a look out for new BI&W material on the Plus Consultancy website, and on DBAZine, and if you've not already subscribed, sign up for the Oracle OLAP mailing list.

No doubt I'll post the odd article over the next few weeks if something particularly relevant crops up, but until then, bye for now...