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Connecting Power BI to OBIEE via BI Connector

Connecting Power BI to OBIEE: How BI Connector Bridges the Gap?

Organizations using OBIEE are adopting the bimodal analytics approach to effectively complement the data visualization limitations in OBIEE with self-service analytics tools like Power BI.

Some organizations have even switched to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) but still want to connect Power BI to OAC, as a significant number of users (who are already well-acquainted with Power BI) prefer to do so.

In this blog post, we’ll see how to connect Power BI to OBIEE using BI Connector based on your unique needs. Then we’ll wrap up with the pros and cons of connecting Power BI to OBIEE using BI Connector.

First, let’s see what is BI Connector.

What’s BI Connector

BI Connector is a purpose-built connector for integrating OBIEE data sources with modern visualization tools like Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik. BI Connector helps to effectively complement the data visualization limitations of OBIEE with advanced visualization tools in a bimodal approach.

From a technical standpoint, BI Connector is an ODBC driver and connects to both OBIEE Subject Areas and Reports DSNs. When connecting to the Subject Areas, you can retain the table joins as well using BI Connector.

BI Connector (Power BI certified) converts Power BI queries into OBIEE queries and fetches the underlying data from OBIEE into Power BI. BI Connector comes in 2 editions:

Desktop edition for Power BI Desktop
Server edition for Power BI Service

BI Connector works seamlessly in both Import and Direct Query modes. BI Connector also helps to smartly avoid OBIEE/Power BI version compatibility issues as well.

In short, BI Connector meets all the 5 must-haves of a Power BI OBIEE Connector.

Ok, now let’s go to the how-to part!

How to Connect Power BI to OBIEE using BI Connector

In this section, you could be looking for different answers, based on each of the unique needs you have. Let’s see them one-by-one!

How to setup OBIEE Report (or Subject Area) DSNs using BI Connector

How to Connect Power BI to OBIEE Reports via Import

How to Connect Power BI to OBIEE Reports via Direct Query

How to Connect Power BI to OBIEE Subject Area via Import (and retain your OBIEE joins)

How to Connect Power BI to OBIEE Subject Area via Direct Query(and retain your OBIEE joins)

Now let’s dive into the pros and cons of BI Connector.

⋙ Here’s our simplified guide to the comparison of Power BI Vs OBIEE.

Pros of BI Connector

With BI Connector, the users can connect to OBIEE Subject Areas and Reports DSNs in both Direct Query and Import modes. As BI Connector retains the joins and aggregations in OBIEE, there’s no need for the user to recreate them in Power BI.

BI Connector is battle-tested, and can handle union reports and reports with subqueries in OBIEE without any hassle. BI Connector consistently ensures the version compatibility of OBIEE (11g and 12c) and Power BI, in order to keep up with the monthly Power BI updates.

As mentioned earlier, BI Connector is available in both Desktop and Server editions for connecting Power BI Desktop and Service seamlessly to OBIEE. BI Connector supports scheduled refresh via the On-premise Gateway.

Here’s a pictorial representation of how BI Connector connects Power BI to OBIEE:

Further, with BI Connector’s Power BI OBIEE Connector, you can connect Excel to OBIEE DSNs, and import your OBIEE Subject Areas/Reports data.

Got questions regarding Data Security? Here’s a whitepaper explaining the security aspects of BI Connector.

Cons of BI Connector

The only disadvantage of BI Connector is it comes at a license fee that’s priced based on the number of CPU cores on the Gateway Server (starting at 8 cores).