{"id":2687,"date":"2020-12-07T08:19:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T08:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biconnector.com\/blog\/?p=2687"},"modified":"2023-06-02T08:47:31","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T08:47:31","slug":"obiee-guide-to-oracle-bi-data-visualization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biconnector.com\/blog\/obiee-guide-to-oracle-bi-data-visualization\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Guide to Oracle OBIEE Data Visualization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In this blog post, you\u2019ll know how to overcome OBIEE\u2019s data visualization limitations without cumbersome excel exports or expensive re-engineering.
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If you\u2019re not familiar with OBIEE, no worries! We\u2019ll go from scratch. First, we\u2019ll cover what\u2019s OBIEE, followed by its architecture and features, with a quick analysis of its pros and cons. We\u2019ll also compare OBIEE with other tools, and share the ways to simplify OBIEE data visualization.
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In short, this blog post will serve as your go-to resource for simplifying your Oracle OBIEE data visualization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)<\/a> is a traditional BI and Analytics platform used by enterprise companies for around a decade. OBIEE was one of the most-sought BI platforms by enterprises, until the leading data visualization tools of today flooded the market and revolutionized the analytics experience with a self-service model. In today\u2019s scenario, where data-driven decision-making is new normal, maintaining a single source of truth alone is not enough to meet user demands. The users want to visualize the data in a self-service model. This important piece is missing in OBIEE. Despite the absence of true self-service capabilities, OBIEE still maintains an edge over the modern data visualization tools from a data management perspective. At present, a large number of enterprises using Oracle OBIEE have already created a single source of truth with decades of effort and investment. OBIEE is in fact, an organizational asset for these companies as effective data management is a necessity for data-driven business decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The OBIEE has 3 layers at a high level: In simple terms, the physical layer is where your OBIEE gets directly connected with your different data sources. Some of the commonly used data sources are: or any other application or tool, the data from which helps in making business decisions. The physical layer serves as your OBIEE\u2019s touchpoint with the different data sources and helps you access the data on an as-is basis. In other words, you can access the raw data in the physical layer. In the physical layer, you can also schedule data refresh, or manage live connectivity with your data sources, based on the options available in each of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attributes of the data in each data source connected to your OBIEE\u2019s physical layer could vary a lot. For example, consider the following scenarios: In this case, you cannot combine the data from your CRM and HRMS for analysis until they all use the same format. You may experience slower queries if you don\u2019t eliminate the duplicated rows\/columns. There are many such scenarios we could talk about. OBIEE\u2019s Business Model Mapping layer helps you navigate all such scenarios successfully. You can structure\/format the incoming data in the Physical layer with the Business Model Mapping layer. The Business Model Mapping layer also enables you to perform calculations to your dataset. You can also create and manage custom dimensions in the Business Model Mapping layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Presentation Layer is where the data processed in the Business Layer is organized in an analytics-ready and structured format, for performing data analysis. The data is managed in Subject Areas, as well as Reports, which are in turn created based on the Subject Areas data. Each Subject Area has fact and dimension tables, and their relationships are defined based on the Star or Snowflake schemas. The role-based data access privileges are also managed in the Presentation layer. The data in the Presentation layer is your organization\u2019s single source of truth. The end-users consume data from the Presentation layer and perform their data analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now let\u2019s take a quick look at the features of Oracle OBIEE. Here\u2019s a quick list of the key features of OBIEE: Interactive dashboards are essential for BI & analytics. Oracle OBIEE provides the interactive dashboards feature. You can create different reports using visuals, and place the critical reports in your OBIEE dashboard. The interactive dashboard feature plays a critical role in enabling business users to have a quick view of essential data. The enterprise reporting feature helps IT teams create and publish reports for use by multiple stakeholders, based on each of their data access privileges. The feature also equips the users to create formatted report templates and documents for reuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In OBIEE, the users can set up alerts (and get notified proactively) triggered by conditions based on their individual needs. It could be anomaly detection in the data or a certain data point reaches a threshold level or any other scenario on which a user wants to be alerted, in order to take appropriate action. The users can also set up preferences over the medium or channel through which they want to be notified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Actionable Intelligence feature of the OBIEE equips users to set up an action based on an event. The event technically is a certain condition met by the data, which when triggered, can invoke a business process usually through web services. For example, if the Inventory level is nearing the threshold for a refill, the Purchase Manager can use the Actionable Intelligence feature to place an order to a vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OBIEE allows users to integrate with their Microsoft Office solutions and provides convenience to embed the reports in presentations\/word documents. This feature provides additional ease of use for Microsoft shops. In this section, we\u2019ll take a quick look at the advantages and limitations of Oracle OBIEE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data Management is a mission critical part of Analytics. Creating a single source of truth is one of the primary goals of effective Data Management. The main advantage of Oracle OBIEE is its Data Management capabilities. OBIEE, despite being a traditional BI tool, is still used by many organizations because it is an organizational asset for them! Surprising? Yes, it\u2019s true! These organizations have already invested heavily in OBIEE over the years, and built a single source of truth. They have already established connectivity from OBIEE to the different data sources and the systems they use. Further, the data governance policies must also be implemented in OBIEE over its decades of use. In OBIEE, it is easy to connect to the different data sources like XML files, denormalized datasets, multi-dimensional data etc., using the readily available adapters. OBIEE equips the IT teams to structure, format and maintain complex datasets consistently for years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years, the modern BI platforms like Power BI, Tableau, Qlik etc have taken the Business Intelligence landscape by storm. The users of OBIEE have started sensing the absence of the data visualization features in it. The end-users rely heavily on the IT teams even for visualizing data with simple bar and pie charts. However, the users are no longer interested in waiting for the IT teams to create and publish data visualizations, but want to create data visualizations with simple drag and drop actions. Therefore, the downside of OBIEE is – it\u2019s not self-service friendly, and that ultimately defeats the purpose of modern analytics, where self-service analytics is inevitable. To help users overcome this data visualization limitations of OBIEE, Oracle introduced the Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC)<\/a> and Oracle Analytics Server (OAS – the on-premise version of OAC). Many organizations using OAC or OAS still prefer trying tools such as Power BI, Tableau etc, as most users are already familiar with using those platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this section, let\u2019s compare OBIEE with 2 data visualization tools – Power BI and Tableau.
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nOBIEE Architecture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Physical layer <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nBusiness Model Mapping Layer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nPresentation Layer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nOBIEE Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Interactive Dashboards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nEnterprise Reporting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Alerts and notifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Actionable Intelligence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Microsoft Office Integration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nOracle OBIEE\u2019s Advantages and Disadvantages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Advantages of Oracle OBIEE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nLimitations of Oracle OBIEE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nOracle OBIEE vs Power BI vs Tableau<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nFactor<\/strong><\/td> OBIEE<\/strong><\/td> Power BI<\/strong><\/td> Tableau<\/strong><\/td><\/tr> Self-service capabilities for end-users<\/td> No, high dependence on IT teams<\/td> Yes<\/td> Yes<\/td><\/tr> Ease of using complex schemas<\/td> Quite easy<\/td> Complex, Star schema is recommended. Offers flexibility with cross-filtering options<\/td> Complex, Star schema is highly recommended<\/td><\/tr> Data visualizations<\/td> Difficult to create<\/td> Easy to create with simple drag and drop actions, even for advanced visuals, like maps<\/td> Easy to create with simple drag and drop actions, even for advanced visuals, like maps<\/td><\/tr> Data Management<\/td> Easy<\/td> Has inbuilt options for basic ETL functions<\/td> ETL tool is available at additional cost<\/td><\/tr> Data source connectivity<\/td> Has inbuilt connectors for fewer, widely used data sources<\/td> Has a relatively more inbuilt connectors covering more data sources <\/td> Has a relatively more inbuilt connectors covering more data sources <\/td><\/tr> Data blending options with external data sources<\/td> Difficult<\/td> Easy<\/td> Easy<\/td><\/tr> Scalability friendliness<\/td> High<\/td> Low<\/td> Low<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n Simplifying Oracle OBIEE Data Visualization<\/h2>\n\n\n\n