FAQs on Tableau, Power BI, Qlik to OBIEE BI Connector

BI Connector offers performance, cost savings, and time savings advantage over the ODBC driver which practically doesn’t work. To learn more, please refer to this article in Tableau website.

BI Connector is a purpose-built connector that offers both live and exact capability in addition to being battle-tested in several large customer deployments. Web data connectors such as Unify or EzDataMunch just extract data from OBIEE and are not proven to handle OBIEE complex queries/reports. Please refer to this article on the five areas where BI Connector is different from other connectors.

BI Connector supports custom integration with SSO modules such as Oracle Access Manager, Windows Native Authentication, SAML etc. BI Connector’s SSO integration will enable users to log in to OBIEE using their SSO credentials. Because of the limitations of Tableau Server, BI Connector does not support automatic login. Users should log in to OBIEE data sources using their SSO credentials after logging into Tableau server.

Since each SSO deployment is unique, SSO integration for BI Connector is offered as a Professional Services effort based on Statement of Work (SOW) at an additional cost. SSO integration starts at $9,500. Please contact us to learn more.

If you are using Tableau Server, BI Connector Server Edition is installed on the same machine where Tableau Server is installed.

If you are using Tableau Online, BI Connector Server Edition is installed on the same machine as the Tableau Bridge.

Yes, users connect to OBIEE from Qlik Sense using their OBIEE credentials and only see the data that they are authorized to access in OBIEE.

Yes. Connectivity to OBIEE reports is generally available. Connectivity to Subject Areas is in beta testing. Please contact us if you are interested in evaluating BI Connector.

ODBC connection is similar to import. When you connect to OBIEE, Power BI imports the data into its in-memory cache. You can create visualizations from the imported data. To see the current data in OBIEE, you should refresh.

When you use DirectQuery, Power BI Desktop does not import or copy the OBIEE data. You can view the list of columns in Fact and Dimension tables. As you create visualizations by choosing the columns, data is queried from OBIEE via BI Connector. You always see the current data in OBIEE. DirectQuery works well with large multi-dimensional data sources such as OBIEE.

To learn more about the difference between ODBC and DirectQuery connections to OBIEE, please refer to our blog article on this topic.

BI Connector Server Edition is installed on the same machine in which the Power BI On-premise Gateway is installed.

Microsoft Power BI team is working hard to support DirectQuery for custom connectors on On-premise gateway. It is expected to become available in Q3 2018.

Companies have invested years of effort and millions of dollars in Oracle BI(OBIEE) to develop the metadata, security model and reports for their business intelligence data warehouse. But users find OBIEE difficult to use and prefer to use visual analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI and Qlik.

BI Connector provides an easy and efficient solution to transition users from OBIEE to Tableau/Power BI/Qlik. Regardless of whether you plan to retain OBIEE or migrate eventually from OBIEE to the new visualization platform, BI Connector enables users to visualize OBIEE subject areas and reports with their favorite tool using their own OBIEE credentials. Users securely access only the data that they are authorized to access in OBIEE. With BI Connector, users eliminate the manual, cumbersome and repetitive export/import of OBIEE data. IT teams benefit from a smooth transition of users to data visualization tool without expensive re-engineering, testing, or retraining.