Wednesday, July 22, 2009

BI Publisher + Sharepoint Integration

So we had a few questions on how we had achieved integration between BI Publisher and Sharepoint. There are only a few configuration steps you have to take, both in Sharepoint and BI Publisher in order to accomplish this.

First of all you need to enable either Digest or Basic authentication in IIS. Make sure you understand the security issues with each of these, specially if you are not using SSL over the internet.



In the Sharepoint website properties click "Edit" in the "Authentication and access control" section.

Enable Digest, Basic authentication or both. See my warning above about understanding the security risks.

Now go to BI Publisher and setup your Webdav directory:
In BI Publisher admin screen edit the webdav directory adding the host, port (if necessary) and match the Security setting with the selected one in the IIS configuration (basic or digest).

Save your changes.




Select the report you want to schedule and click the “Schedule” button which will display the above screen. Select “Web Folder” in the Delivery section and select your configured SharePoint WebDav directory. Enter your username/password and the path to the file you want to save. Make sure you include the name of the file (in this case I selected Price List.pdf which is the sample Price List report that comes standard with BIP). Once you click submit it will start the job.


When it’s finished it should display “Success” in the Status column like so:



Finally, go to your SharePoint site and the file should be there:

Thursday, July 9, 2009

GI Joe BI Campaign - Summer 2009

by Jim Glazar June 9, 2009



Kerdock is launching a GI Joe BI campaign this summer which will include Oracle BI presentations and culminate in a screening of the new GI Joe movie in August. The event will take place in Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. If you are interested in attending please visit our website at http://www.kerdock.com/ or shoot me an email.

I will post more details about the event as they emerge.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

OBI EE Training Classes

by Jim Glazar posted 6-24-2009

I still get asked by clients who are new to OBI EE what Oracle training classes they should take. So I thought I would provide a few suggestions. If you are interested in taking classes provided by Oracle I would recommend the following:
  • Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Create Reports & Dashboards - This 3 day class covers the fundamentasls for creating Answers requests and Interactive Dashboards
  • Oracle BI Suite EE 10g R3: Build Repositories - This 5 day class covers how to create the three layers of the repository (Physical, Model, & Presentation) utilizing the BI Admin tool

If you are going to do an OBI EE implementation utilizing the BI Apps (Pre-Builts), then I recommend also taking the following class:

  • Oracle BI Application 7.9: Develop A Data Warehouse - This 5 day course covers the build of the OBAW data warehouse and the Informatica ETL processes

Since Kerdock Consulting is an Oracle Certified Education Partner we offer these training classes out of our Houston, Tx office. To see our latest class schedule go to our website at http://www.kerdock.com/default.aspx and click on the link that says "Certified Training"

If you would like to take some additional OBI EE courses beyond what is offered by Oracle, I recommend looking at the custom curriculum created by Business Intelligence Consulting Group (BICG). Their website is http://www.biconsultinggroup.com/

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

OBI EE Integration Points Presentation

by Jim Glazar 6/23/2009

Last Wednesday Pablo Bryan and myself delivered an OBI EE presentation at the Houston HOUG meeting. Our presentation covered the current integration points with OBI EE as well as some future integration points that are coming down the road.

As many of you well know Oracle has been on the path of converging their EPM and BI solutions under one umbrella called Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). This includes the Hyperion applications as well as the analytic applications from Siebel. I think everyone would agree that this is a good thing for clients and end users. However, the key to making this successful is integration between the products.

Our presentation covered the current integration points that exist with OBI EE version 10.1.3.4 which included integration with the iPhone, Microsoft SharePoint, Adobe Flex, Hyperion Workspace, Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion SmartView, and Oracle EBS. Our presentation included a live demonstration of many of these integration points. Future integration points covered included Hyperion HFM & Planning as well as autmated Essbase aggregation and summary maintenance.

If you are interested in obtaining the slide deck for this presentation, feel free to email me at jim.glazar@kerdock.com. Also, if you are interested in seeing these products integrated with OBI EE, feel free to contact me to arrange on an on-site demo or webcast.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Smart View 11.1.X Webinar Today

by Jim Glazar June 5, 2009

Event Details:FridayJune 5, 200912:00 pm - 12:45 pm CST
Phone Dial-In:888-437-3188 or 201-604-5096
Web Log-In:www.infiniteconferencing.comParticipant Code: 4149413

What is Smart View?The Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office provides a common Microsoft Office interface designed specifically for Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence. Using Smart View, you can view, import, manipulate, distribute, and share data in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint interfaces.
What You Will Learn
Integration Points with Planning, Hyperion Financial Management and OBIEE
Smart Slices
Planning Ad Hoc Functionality
Combined Data Display

Join us for this free webinar to learn the benefits of Oracle Hyperion Smart View when integrated with your Microsoft Office Environment.
Featured Speaker Chris Khoury is a Consultant within Kerdock Consulting's Business Intelligence Practice. He has 6+ years experience in Information Technology. He has worked in Software, Oil and Gas, and Telecommunications industries.
About Kerdock Kerdock is more than just a consulting firm, we are an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner, specializing in Enterprise Performance Management, Oracle Business Intelligence, and Oracle E-Business Suite with a unique offering of services, training, and licensing.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Back From Collaborate 09

May 8, 2009 by Jim Glazar

So I am back from Collaborate 09 and have to say that overall had a pretty good time. On Sunday we had our OAUG OBI SIG meeting and had a great Build vs. Buy panel discussion. The folks from Humana and Gallup provided a lot of insight into the decisions that went into their OBI EE implementations. Ray Payne who heads the OAUG came by and said that Oracle is looking at possibly sponsoring a conference that would be specific to EPM much like the old Hyperion Solutions conferences. I will post more details as I get more information. I also got a chance to meet several of the OAUG Hyperion SIG Board Members and look forward to working with them more closely as Hyperion EPM and Oracle BI continue to merge under the Oracle EPM umbrella.

On Monday morning I attended the key note speech given by Charles Phillips. One of the key announcements that relates to Oracle BI was the rollout of BI Apps version 7.9.6. One of the key additions is the inclusion of Project Analytics. Another announcement was the enhancements to their Beehive product which includes new collaboration functionality to compete with the Microsoft suite of tools such as SharePoint. Oracle is touting the integration of this product in comparison to Microsoft's disjointed applications. Charles also went on to highlight Oracle's accomplishments this year and this list was pretty extensive.

The participant estimates for the conference was around 4500 so not too bad considering the current economy. It was a great opportunity to network and forge new partnerships and I look forward to Collaborate 2010 which will be at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas.

Friday, May 1, 2009

OAUG OBI SIG Meeting Agenda

May 1, 2009 by Jim Glazar

As a Board Member on the OAUG OBI SIG I highly recommend that those of you who will be at Collaborate on Sunday May 3rd attend the OBI SIG meeting as there will be some great discussions on OBI EE. The agenda for the meeting is below.

Join us at Collaborate 2009
Sunday May 3, 2009
1:00-3:15PM

Here is the Agenda:
1:00 pm – 1:15 pm - Introductions

1:15 pm – 2:00 pm - Oracle Business Intelligence – Direction & Vision
Alan Lee, Director,Product Management, Oracle BI Product Management Team will speak to current and future state of Oracle’s BI solution. Mr. Lee is currently leading Essbase Product Management. He has over 12 years of experience in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing and has been working with Oracle Business Intelligence for over 5 years.

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm - Point - CounterPoint - "Buy vs. Build"
"Do I Buy or Build my Business Intelligence Solutions?"
Hear experts from Humana and Gallup discuss the different approaches their organizations took in creating their BI solution and answer questions from the audience.

2:45 pm – 3:15 pm - BI RoundTable Discussion – Ask the Experts A panel of BI experts from Oracle Corporation, including Shad Syfert, Alan Lee, Michael Schrader, Gayl Czaplicki from Oracle Corporation, Gallup, Humana and the OBI SIG Board will take any and all questions from the audience.

Look forward to seeing you there.