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/

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oracle Hyperion SmartView - New Features in 11.1.2 (Fusion Edition)

April 29, 2009 by Chris Khoury

New Features in the Fusion Edition Include:

1. Data Source Manager: Replaces Connection Manager. A dock-able pane which allows us to switch between the three interfaces: the Common Provider Connections, the Independent Provider Connections, and the Simulation & Forecasting Workbooks Connections.

2. Common Provider Connections (PROVIDED CONNECTIONS PREVIOUSLY ONLY BETWEEN SMART VIEW AND ESSBASE): Where we can manage connections our connections to Essbase, Planning, and OBIEE. The connections go through Hyperion Provider Services. Smart Slices of these data sources are created, stored, and accessed through this interface of the new Data Source Manager.

3. Independent Provider Connections: Is comparable to the previous Connection Manager. In it, we can manage connections to Hyperion Reporting and Analysis and HFM. We can use the Independent Provider Connections to connect to Planning, but we will be able to only use the functionality available in release 9.3.1.

4. Simulating & Forecasting Workbooks: If the user is licensed to use Crystal Ball, they can access and work with Oracle Crystal Ball through this interface.

5. Smart Slices: Is a reusable perspective (extract) of an Essbase, Planning, or OBIEE data source. It is composed of a single member, a combination if single members, filters, or combination of single members and filters. These components limit the users to the data they can work with (boundaries). There is no limit on how many Smart Slices can be created. For example; Smart Slices can be created for different sales geographical regions, different product lines. Smart Slices are created by Administrators and are stored in the Provider Services layer. Access to Smart Slices is assigned to the users by the Admins.

6. Report Designer: Reports writers can use this interface to manager reports based on Smart Slices. A report can be displayed as a Grid, Table, or a Chart. Report Designer works with Essbase, Planning, and OBIEE.

7. Essbase Enhanced Drill-Through Capabilities: using Essbase Studio.

8. Planning Ad Hoc Functionality: In previous Smart View versions, we were able to use the Ad Hoc Functionality only in Essbase connections. In this release, we can use Ad Hoc in Planning as well. We are able to Zoom In/Out, and Pivot. Ad Hoc Functionality in Planning is a part of the Web Forms Design (defined in Web Form Design).

9. Planning à Web Launch: Planning Web Forms can be launched directly into a Smart View Excel Sheet.

10. HFM Adding Members to Data Forms: If this feature is enabled by Administrators, user can insert additional members and enter and save data.

11. HFM Linked Forms: When Administrators create Data Forms, they can define links from one form to another to enable drill-through to a more specific data entry point. For example; a form that includes Account Summary Data, can be linked to another form which provides more details.

12. HFM --> Changing Database Passwords: We can change the Data Source Passwords for HFM directly from Independent Provider Connections.

13. Accessibility: Supporting Documentation accessible to the Disabled Community.

14. Installation and Configuration: Smart View can be installed by running the Executable File for Essbase. It is also available as a Standalone Executable file.

Oracle Hyperion SmartView Overview

April 29, 2009 by Chris Khoury

The Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office (Smart View) is a component of Hyperion Foundation Services. Smart View provides a common Microsoft Office interface designed specifically for Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Business Intelligence (BI). Using Smart View, you can view, import, manipulate, distribute and share data in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint interfaces. It is a comprehensive tool for accessing and integrating EPM and BI content from Microsoft Office products.

Ad Hoc -or- Free Form Analysis

This is for Users requiring an environment to have a conversation with the data. Typically they use the Excel environment to interactively investigate the data contained in the source(s). They may start with templates that begin the process (such as East->Cola->Sales) or a blank sheet where they begin shaping and altering the grids of data as they use the exposed functionality. Typically users go after the data from Oracle EPM sources such as Essbase, Planning or Financial Management using clicks & drag drop for the most part. Other data sources supported for ad hoc analysis includes Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

Predefined Form Interaction

EPM application users that execute predefined input/reporting forms find Smart View a convenient way of completing tasks within the Office environment. These would be planners, consolidators and the like that have a desire to work in the excel environment either for consistent experience compared to the web application or to tie other spreadsheet-based models into their process. For example, Pepsi Bottling uses Smart View for Planning in order to incorporate data still housed in spreadsheet and workbook-based models.

Report Design

Reporting is another dimension of Smart View usage which leverages the capabilities of EPM data retrieves. Once the data is available within Office we can create reports as needed based on a combination of data sources. For example Planning & Financial Management data could be used to compare actual to budget. Reports could be made more complex by providing the ability to compare multiple scenarios, for different periods etc. The power of office can be used to create Reports in the Office environment and can be refreshed periodically as needed.

Smart View Key Capabilities

- Ability to integrate EPM & BI data directly from the data source into Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Outlook

- Full ad-hoc and free form analysis capabilities for Hyperion Financial Management, Hyperion Essbase, Hyperion Planning and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

- Data access from Relational or Multi-Dimensional sources

- An alternative, Office-based interface for leveraging Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management, and Hyperion Workforce Planning data entry forms

- Ability to create data perspectives for end users called Smart Slices

- Ability to execute Hyperion reporting jobs from within Office applications

- Ability to dynamically refresh Hyperion data across Office documents with a single click

- Ability to perform selective, multi-page import of documents residing in a Workspace repository into Office documents, including reports created in Financial Reporting, Interactive Reporting, SQR and Web Analysis.

- Point of View (POV) search for efficient,context-based searching

- Support for highly formatted grids in Microsoft Excel

- Support for Hyperion Essbase Visual Explorer (included in the Smart View plug-in) delivering one-click visualizations, bi-directional communication, and linked data views

- Report Creation in Excel, Word and PowerPoint using EPM and BI data

- Comprehensive VBA toolkit for developing custom Office-based analytic interfaces