BI Connector vs Casabase ExoInsight: Which Is Better for ETL and Reporting on Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP?
Enterprises using Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP often face challenges in getting data out for data warehousing and reporting purposes. Oracle provisions these enterprises with options like FDI (formerly FAW), OAC, BICC, Rest APIs, etc. However, each option has its pros and cons, and none serves all purposes in a scalable, efficient solution.
Enterprises using Oracle Fusion ERP seek third-party tools such as BI Connector and Casabase Software’s ExoInsight to extract data from Oracle Fusion. In this blog post, we’ll compare BI Connector with ExoInsight for extracting Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP data for data warehousing and reporting purposes.
Note: This blog is written for Fusion ERP solutions but applies to Fusion SCM, HCM, and CX solutions.
Before we dive into the details, below is a quick table comparing both solutions:
| Criteria | BI Connector | ExoInsight |
| Ease of setup | ✅ Easy, no-code | ⚠️ Complex, requires coding |
| Time to production | ✅ Go-live in minutes, even for enterprise-wide rollouts | ⚠️ Requires a complex project plan to reach production-ready milestone |
| Report & DW Refresh Automation | ✅ Setup the schedules directly in Power BI Service via Gateway and Tableau Server ✅ Setup the schedules directly in Fabric and ADF for Data Warehousing use cases with both full and incremental loads | ⚠️ Requires a complex data staging setup for Power BI Service, and JSON file configuration for Tableau Server ⚠️ Users have to learn and adapt to ExoInsight’s automation builder |
| Certifications | ✅ Power BI and Tableau certified connector | ❌ Not certified by Power BI or Tableau |
| Data Connectivity | ✅ Data Models (the underlying source of most BI Publisher reports) ✅ OTBI Reports ✅ Custom queries, including base tables | ✅ BI Publisher Reports (most of which are created from Data Models) ❌ Doesn’t connect to OTBI Reports ✅ Supports custom queries (limited by rows), and base tables |
| Row Limits | ✅ Unlimited rows. BI Connector does not apply any row limits | ⚠️ Custom SQL Queries subject to the row limits applied in the pod level |
Time to ETL pipelines | ✅ Plug-and-play pipeline templates for Fabric and ADF for many target systems with incremental load support, shortens time to deployment to hours. | ⚠️ Users must set up pipelines for their target system from scratch and configure incremental loads themselves, leads to long deployment times, greater implementation risk, and slower time to insight. |
Ease of Setup
BI Connector is a lightweight, no-code connector that can be installed quickly on Windows PCs and Servers. It takes less than 5 minutes to download the Connector and create your first Data Source. The Connector’s UI is simple and designed for non-technical users.
ExoInsight, on the other hand, is for tech-savvy users familiar with coding. To achieve the integration, users must know Powershell scripting/Groovy/Python and must also understand extensive documentation specific to ExoInsight.
Below are the screenshots of both the tools to understand the level of no-code setup at BI Connector, and code-intensive ExoInsight setup:
Here’s a screenshot from the BI Connector:
In ExoInsight, the users frequently encounter code like below to get the setup work:
Another example is when it comes to setting up dates dynamically, like TODAY, TOMORROW, the users have to just select it from an intuitive date-picker shown below with a single click:
A similar setup in ExoInsight requires users to read and understand extensive documentation on ExoDate (an ExoInsight-specific date notation) and create complex expressions on top of these notations to set up dynamically referenced Dates. Below is a screenshot from the documentation:
In short, the difference between ExoInsight and BI Connector, when it comes to the ease of set up is huge. Setting up ExoInsight requires more time even for tech-savvy users, while setting up BI Connector is easy even for non-technical users.
Time to Production
The time to production is critical for many users. Most companies want to cut down the costs by eliminating manual efforts for their IT team, which is already bogged down with a multitude of other ad-hoc requests from time to time.
With BI Connector, companies can get started from zero to enterprise-wide deployment in a few minutes. Yes, you read it right. It’s as simple as installing BI Connector, activating the license, configuring the connection, and creating a table. From there, you can connect to the tables you want from Power BI or Tableau (for reporting use cases) and Fabric or ADF (for Data Warehousing use cases), and keep the engine running. As everything is managed in the UI, and no code is required, the simplicity of the setup does all the heavy lifting to get you going to production in minutes! It’s like starting near the finish line.
Further, any changes made to the Data Model or OTBI Report, such as adding or removing a column or filter criteria, can all be quickly replicated in Power BI or Tableau or Fabric/ADF when using BI Connector. So, change management is not something to worry about when your company relies on BI Connector.
On the other hand, with ExoInsight, companies rely a lot on their IT team to read and understand the extensive documentation of ExoInsight, complete the initial setup, and even get the platform up and running. Next, when you have complex use cases where you want to parse dates dynamically, the IT team must go back to referring to the documentation. ExoInsight adds to the significant costs, mainly due to the manhours spent by tech-savvy users to meet every requirement for creating each table or view in ExoInsight!
Try BI Connector risk-free with a 14-day guided pilot..
Report & DW Refresh Automation
One critical criterion to compare when using BI Connector or ExoInsight for reporting in Power BI or Tableau is the ease of automated report refresh.
BI Connector adapts completely to the Power BI, Tableau, Fabric and ADF ecosystems. The automated data refresh is a simple, straightforward process, where you configure the refresh schedule for BI Connector just like for any other data source in Power BI or Tableau or Fabric/ADF. So users are not required to create a staging database (for the Fusion data) that’s supported by these platforms. With BI Connector, the users can automate the report directly in Power BI Service or Report Server and Tableau Cloud or Server.
The automated refresh offered in ExoInsight for Power BI and Tableau or Fabric is complex. For example, the user must configure two schedules once in ExoInsight’s Automation Builder (to pull the data from Fusion ERP and push it to the staging database), and the other in Power BI (to consume the data from the staging database). This dual refresh setup burdens the companies with setting up a staging environment to fill the gaps of ExoInsight’s inability to adapt with the Power BI’s ecosystem.
Certifications
A critical factor that companies consider for using a connector is its certification by the platform they use.
BI Connector is both Power BI and Tableau certified. The connector was subject to stringent testing by Power BI and Tableau teams and passed their critical tests to achieve the certified status.
ExoInsight is not a certified connector of Power BI or Tableau. For using ExoInsight with Power BI, users rely on a staging database that’s supported by Power BI. In the case of Tableau, ExoInsight works as Web Data Connector (WDC), a deprecated option in Tableau.
Data Connectivity
BI Connector connects to base tables, BI Publisher Data Models and OTBI Reports, while ExoInsight connects only to base tables, BI Publisher Reports and not OTBI Reports.
The OTBI Reports are a quick way for business users to create their preferred views from the different Subject Areas that Oracle offers out-of-the-box. In most companies, the business users have already created the views they are interested in. With BI Connector, the companies can easily tap into these OTBI reports, and create quick wins for the business users. As ExoInsight lacks connectivity to OTBI reports, the OTBI reports cannot be reused and IT teams have to rebuild that business logic in data warehouse which is a very expensive affair.
Row Limits
The first question that most companies ask when evaluating the BI Connector is if it has any row limits? The quick answer is No. BI Connector does not apply any row limits to the data fetched from Oracle Fusion, and gets all the rows that Oracle returns for a query.
BI Connector has built-in the mechanisms to operate within the timeout and memory limits of Oracle, and yet fetch the entire data returned for the query without hitting any of the limits. It also has automated error handling logic to continue the data fetch from where it failed, in case Oracle fails to return the data at a certain point.
For ExoInsight, the users are asked to specify a row limit themselves when using the Custom SQL Editor. So when the query is run, the results will return only the number of rows specified in the setting. If your table grows beyond the row limit, you are out of sync!
Jumpstarter ETL pipeline Templates
For companies evaluating BI Connector and ExoInsight for Data Warehousing purposes, the question is how quickly they can get to production.
With BI Connector, the companies get plug-and-play data pipeline templates on both Fabric and Azure Data Factory (ADF) platforms. These templates take care of every aspect of ETL, from defining the primary key, to incremental refresh and everything in between. With these templates, the companies get to the production stage for pushing Fusion data to their desired warehouse within an hour. There is a separate template for several target systems, making the jobs much easier for the Data Engineers.
While ExoInsight claims to work with Fabric, the users are required to create their own logic in the pipelines for pushing data from Fusion ERP to their desired warehouse.
Summary: Simplify Oracle Fusion Reporting without Coding or Delays
Getting data out of Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, SCM or HCM is messy. Tools like BICC, REST APIs, and FAW often fall short. That’s why many teams turn to third-party solutions like BI Connector and ExoInsight. But not all connectors are created equal.
This in-depth comparison shows why BI Connector outperforms ExoInsight across the board:
- Faster Time to Value: BI Connector can be deployed enterprise-wide in minutes, no code required.
- User-Friendly Setup: Install in under 5 minutes; even non-technical users can configure data sources.
- Certified and Integrated: Fully certified for Power BI and Tableau. No staging DBs. No custom scripts.
- OTBI + Data Models Support: Unlike ExoInsight, BI Connector connects directly to OTBI reports – critical for quick wins and user adoption.
- Jumpstarter ETL Templates: Plug-and-play pipelines for Fabric and ADF slash time to warehouse deployment from months to hours.
If you’re looking to modernize Fusion reporting with minimal IT friction and maximum speed, BI Connector is the obvious choice.
Try BI Connector risk-free with a 14-day guided pilot..
