Oracle Business Intelligence 10g 1echnical

Oeriew

.v Oracte !bite Paer
Decevber 2001


OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 2

Oracle Business Intelligence 1echnical
Oeriew


Lxecutie Oeriew.......................................................................................... 3
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4
Phase 1: Consolidation ..................................................................................... 4
Step 1: Map transactional sources to a target data warehouse .............. 5
Step 2: Generate the code to extract, transorm and load data............. 5
Step 3: Generate the business area............................................................ 6
\arehouse liecycle management............................................................... 6
Phase 2: Discoery ............................................................................................ 6
Business areas deined automatically ......................................................... 6
Authenticity is eriied on demand ............................................................
Phase 3: Sharing Data .......................................................................................
Query results are shared and personalized................................................
OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-in.......................................................................... 8
Generate once and deploy in any ormat .................................................. 9
Generate once and deploy anywhere ....................................................... 10
Lxpanding Business Insight........................................................................... 10
Rapid Deelopment o Custom Applications ........................................ 10
Integrated OLAP, Uniied Access............................................................ 11
Data Mining................................................................................................. 11
Personalization............................................................................................ 11
Portal............................................................................................................. 12
Oracle BI 10g or business intelligence architecture................................... 12
Conclusion........................................................................................................ 12


OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 3

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
In an increasingly competitie world, as a business executie, you are constantly in
need o business intelligence ,BI, that empowers your decision makers to act on the
inormation and keep your products and serices competitie. No matter how you
decide to compete, you need complete business intelligence about your company`s
operations and its customers to assess the potential opportunities and risks
associated with arious types o competitie response. 1o build a BI system or the
enterprise, I1 proessionals would purchase point solutions piecemeal.
Unortunately, such piecemeal solutions result in prolierating complexity and
escalating maintenance costs. lor example, each upgrade would require
dismantling and recalibrating the system. lurthermore, when multiple disparate
endors upgrade their respectie products they rarely account or any impact on the
other products that are part o the oerall solution. Oten the customer is let stuck
in the middle with a lot o inger pointing between endors each time the system
undergoes an upgrade, or maintenance cycle. 1he net result is more time and
money to stitch together and maintain point solutions compared with a truly
integrated solution.
More importantly, there can be a real business impact or un-integrated systems
beyond just the maintenance costs. \ith arious tools using dierent copies o
metadata, you could hae multiple users iewing the same data, but arriing at
separate conclusions. Consider or a moment the impact o sales territory
reorganizations. I the CRM application is updated with the latest territories, but
the inancial application still points to the outdated territories, the projected
reenue reports would yield two dierent results. Imagine the spirited dialog
between the VP o Sales and VP o linance as they discuss uture business
directions based on their own reports.
Oracle oers an integrated BI solution that proides the business user with a
complete picture across the entire organization. \ith an integrated solution rom a
single endor, customers who implement Oracle Business Intelligence beneit with
the ability to:
Make the right decisions faster
Lasy end-user customization
Sel-Serice BI` gets the right inormation to the right person at the
right time
Lnable more employees with the information they need
Consistent, intuitie end-user experience
1ransparent access to relational and multi-dimensional data
Improve Information Quality
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 4
Oracle business intelligence is designed to easily and quickly integrate dierse data
sources, ind inormation rom the database, share the newound inormation, and
exploit the data to learn more about the business and its customers.
INTRODUCTION
1here are typically three phases in building a BI system: consolidation, discoery,
and sharing. In addition, the BI solution should be designed with robustness to
include expansion, as the business needs change. At irst glance, the three phases
may seem simple, but a closer look at each phase reeals potentially complex
implementations as the system is integrated. lor example in the irst phase,
consolidation, the number o complications escalates as the number o dierse data
sources increases. In addition, the data usually requires a degree o transormation,
or name and address scrubbing during data consolidation. Once the consolidated
data is prepared or discoery, a myriad o reporting tools must be integrated to
delier business intelligence to the appropriate business decision maker. Such
reporting tools include analytical applications, query & analysis, enterprise reporting
and lineage. linally, each tool may hae its own high perormance engine that must
be integrated into the BI system.
By integrating such an intricately complicated system that includes data
management, reporting tools, and perormance engines rom multiple endors, the
organization aces
Very high sotware costs
Lxpensie and time consuming training
A wide ariety o technology expertise
Protracted and complex implementations
Lxtensie system upgrades and maintenance
1he moement o data between disparate data stores
Oracle Business Intelligence is designed as a single integrated platorm or business
intelligence. 1his paper proides an outline o the integrated business intelligence
unctionality aailable rom Oracle. Included in this paper are illustrations o the
tight integration between indiidual components as they are applied to each phase
in building a complete and integrated BI solution rom a single endor that is
ounded on open standards, takes ull adantage o the BI capabilities embedded in
the Oracle 10g database and is ery competitiely priced.
PHASE 1: CONSOLIDATION
Consolidating data is becoming increasingly complex as businesses ace mergers
and acquisitions, reorganizations, and globalization. 1he data tends to become
spread throughout the entire organization in multiple data sources, making it
increasingly diicult to gather business intelligence. Oracle \arehouse Builder
,O\B, is designed to consolidate disparate data sources, perorm any required data
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 5
transormations, manage the warehouse liecycle, and integrate with the analysis
tools. O\B proides capabilities to ensure data quality.
Step 1: Map transactionaI sources to a target data warehouse
Once the business questions and data requirements o the end-users hae been
determined, the I1 proessional starts identiying and connecting to the data
sources containing the data to meet these requirements. Connections to lat ile
sources, or relational data sources such as Oracle, DB2, Inormix, Microsot SQL
Serer, Sybase, and SAP R,3 are made possible by simply selecting the appropriate
OracleBI \arehouse Builder ,O\B, integrator. 1he user then creates source
modules that store data deinitions containing both connection inormation and
table deinitions. Once connected to the data source, the integrator is used by
O\B to extract data and metadata rom that source. 1he other type o module the
user creates with O\B is the warehouse module, which contains deinitions o the
acts, dimensions, staging tables, etc. that make up the data warehouse. 1ogether,
these two types o modules orm the central elements used in warehouse design.
1he user can simply drag and drop objects rom the modules to use as building
blocks in designing a target warehouse. Ater the objects o interest are selected,
O\B proides a graphical mapping enironment where users can model all aspects
o a mapping in the orm o a datalow diagram. 1hese mappings include
participating source and target tables and all other operations that apply to the
extraction, transormation, and loading ,L1L, process. O\B can perorm the L1L
operation in one complete step, making warehouse deployment ast and easy.
Using O\B to map data sources to targets is easy with a graphical Mapping Lditor,
where the user isually designs, or models all aspects o the L1L operation.
Deeloper productiity is enhanced as the user designs complex transormations,
inline expressions, multiple joins, aggregations, etc. with an intuitie interace,
without requiring specialized SQL programming knowledge.
Step 2: Generate the code to extract, transform and Ioad data
Once the mapping models are completed, O\B can generate the SQL and
PL,SQL code to instantiate and populate the data warehouse, both Relational and
OLAP targets. 1his saes time and reduces the leel o expertise required to
program SQL code. lurthermore, O\B is open to allow users to inspect the code
at any step in the L1L operation. 1his adds to the lexibility in the eent a
customized operation is required. In addition, the O\B Code Generator can
generate code that`s optimized with respect to the data source. lor example, i the
data is clean with no anticipated conlicts, the user simply clicks the set based code
generation option and high perormance code is generated to load the data as an
entire set. On the other hand, i the data has high potential or constraint
iolations, or other load errors, the user clicks on the row based code generation
option and instantly the code is rewritten to load data on a row-by-row basis.
Because the PL,SQL packages are automatically generated and do not require any
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 6
specialized PL,SQL programming knowledge, the tool is aailable to more users,
reducing the cost o ownership and increasing the productiity o the department.
Step 3: Generate the business area
Now that the data is consolidated and loaded into a target warehouse, the
multidimensional design is easily shared with Oracle reporting tools. All repository
and runtime metadata is exposed ia public iews. 1his means that Oracle
reporting tools can understand` the cubes, dimensions and hierarchies as well as
all table names and column headers. As a result, aluable programming time is
saed because the user is not required to recreate the metadata when deploying the
Oracle10g reporting tools, as would be the case with point solutions.
Warehouse IifecycIe management
Once the warehouse is deployed, managing changes to the warehouse is essential.
Ineicient maintenance o the warehouse can strain any I1 budget. Changes, such
as tables, columns or iews in the source are added, dropped or modiied. \hen
these changes occur, most L1L tools today can only detect something changed
between the source and target, but leae the users to reconcile the dierences.
OracleBI \arehouse Builder, on the other hand, reconciles any changes in the
source and target objects. lor example, i a change occurs ater a source module
was created in the O\B repository, the repository deinitions are out o sync with
their corresponding source objects. 1he re-import unction o Oracle \arehouse
Builder automatically reconciles and restores the synchronicity o deinitions in the
repository or the source objects. Or, the warehouse upgrade unction
synchronizes the deinitions in the repository with the target objects. 1he user
saes time maintaining the warehouse, constantly trying to keep track o source
data changes and extending those changes to the target database.
PHASE 2: DISCOVERY
Now that the data is located in one place, the powerul ad hoc query and analysis
tool, OracleBI Discoerer unleashes potential opportunities and risks associated
with your products, customers, and marketplace.
Business areas defined automaticaIIy
Discoerer hides the complexity o underlying database structures like OLAP
cubes, tables, columns, joins, etc. by presenting a business-oriented iew o the
data. Business users create reports by opening up subject oriented business areas
represented by ile drawers and olders, moing selected items onto a worksheet.
Logical hierarchies, calculated Items, join deinitions, custom sort orders and more
enable users to perorm otherwise complex tasks by simply clicking and dragging.
\ou create a business area in OracleBI Discoerer Administrator using the Load
\izard or, as preiously discussed, using O\B.

OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 7
1he tight integration between OracleBI \arehouse Builder and OracleBI
Discoerer allows users to easily populate business areas by using a wizard-based
interace. 1he dimensions and hierarchies created in O\B are understood by
Discoerer, which improes productiity and proides aster deployment to the
end users or ad hoc query and analysis.
Authenticity is verified on demand
Proiding lineage reports extends the integration with O\B een urther.
Discoerer users can drill rom their queries to the metadata deinition in O\B
and can iew the objects impacted by a particular data transormation. lor
example, i the aggregated reenue rom a region abroad were questionable, the
user could drill on the item to iew a graphical representation o all the calculations,
or other transormations used to calculate that reenue. Now, users can create
their own queries and easily eriy the alidity o the results in the same session.
PHASE 3: SHARING DATA
Oten much time and eort by the users are expended in the discoery phase
where just the right query and analysis is perormed. Once the right inormation is
generated, sharing the inormation across the enterprise beore it becomes stale can
be challenging.
Query resuIts are shared and personaIized
OracleBI Discoerer promotes sharing the queries with the enterprise ia its tight
integration with Oracle`s publishing tools. 1he tight integration between OracleBI
Discoerer and OracleAS Portal empowers users to publish their aorite reports or
list o reports to OracleAS Portal. Other users in the organization easily access the
inormation by browsing these portal pages. Users publish their reports as portlets
as a list or content. "List o workbooks portlet" proides a list o
workbook,worksheet names, "\orksheet Portlet" contains data -- table or cross-
tabular report, a graph, or both, and Gauges Portlet` enables users to easily
isualize the data in a speedometer as shown below.
igvre 2: .v eavte of a gavge orttet for ae.igvivg erforvavce aa.bboara.


OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 8
Inormation to be published is oten deried rom data in corporate data sources,
which may be SQL based ,relational databases, or non-SQL based, such as XML
data. It is oten necessary to combine data rom additional sources like Oracle10g
OLAP, \eb Serices, 1ext iles, or JDBC data sources. Oracle Application Serer
Reports permits multiple queries in the same report, where each query can be based
on a dierent data source. Deelopers can also add additional jaa-based data
sources ,called Pluggable Data Sources,.
OracIeBI Spreadsheet Add-in
1he OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-In enables end-users to display and naigate Oracle
OLAP data directly rom within Microsot Lxcel. 1he users can treat the Oracle
OLAP data as regular Lxcel data, or example create ormulas and graphs, enabling
them to combine the powerul analytic capabilities o Oracle OLAP with standard
Lxcel unctionality. lere, Lxcel acts as an intelligent ront end connected directly
to an Oracle OLAP enabled database.
1he OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-in is installed similarly to other Lxcel Add-ins - but
the real application power and lexibility remains contained within the Oracle serer
and requires no local maintenance. 1he add-in does not stop Lxcel being used in
the normal way, and it is usually possible to hae seeral add-ins installed without
interering with each other. Most add-ins proide their own main menu entry and
releant, right-click context menus. Many also hae one or more tool bars, which
can be turned o when not required.
1he main adantage o using OracleBI Spreadsheet Add-in is it allows users to
create, manage and execute queries directly against the OLAP dimensions and
measures using all the processing power o the database. 1his allows users to query
extremely large database warehouse instances, which would normally be beyond the
capabilities o Lxcel, due to its well-documented structural limitations. Once a user
has built a query the data is presented within Lxcel as a normal spreadsheet, with
additional controls or dimension paging. Since the OLAP query looks and eels
exactly like a normal Lxcel spreadsheet the user is ree to enhance and extend the
query using the normal Lxcel business tools such as adding a chart, as can be seen
below in ligure 1.
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 9
igvre 1: O.P reaa.beet .aaiv reort v.ivg O.P aata ava cet cbart.

laing created a complex report, users do not want to rebuild their queries each
time new data is loaded into the warehouse. By using query conditions
spreadsheets can become dynamic in nature, proiding the user with the ability to
continually reresh with the latest data without the need to rewrite the query. Using
Oracle`s OLAP Query Builder users can construct queries using business terms and
deinitions. Both calculations and queries are based around measures and their
related dimensions. Using a wizard drien interace, users can select data rom
Oracle OLAP simply by choosing rom a list o alues, or by creating adanced
selections, such as exceptions, top, bottom or hierarchy-based queries. In addition,
the user can create Oracle OLAP based calculations using a similar wizard.
1he built-in Query \izard is based on the Oracle Business Intelligence Beans
Query \izard. 1his wizard is used across all the Oracle OLAP products, ensuring
a consistent interace with other Oracle Business Intelligence Beans based
applications.
Generate once and depIoy in any format
Reports has always been a powerul tool to publish data in a ariety o ormats:
PDl, XML, l1ML, l1MLCSS, Postcript, PCL, Delimited text, and R1l. Now,
users can publish data using industry-standard JSP`s. 1his means that deelopers
can create a \eb page template using an l1ML editor, then bring it into the
OracleAS Reports enironment and integrate data rom arious data sources into
that \eb page. 1his includes using business logic and your own corporate styles to
ashion and control a report`s appearance. O course, a JSP doesn`t hae to return

OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 10
l1ML, as it can be used to create any text-based output ormat ,e.g. \ML,.
linally, because JSP`s are used, when a report is updated, all the \eb pages tagged
with that report are updated instantly.
Generate once and depIoy anywhere
Printer, \eb, ile-system, Lmail, and OracleAS Portal are all destinations that
Oracle Application Serer Reports Serices has supported or some time now on a
wide ariety o platorms. \ith OracleAS Reports Serices, as well as greatly
enhancing the product`s out-o-the-box emailing capabilities, deelopers are now
able to create their own jaa-based extensions to the Reports Serer to open it up
to preiously unsupported destinations such as lax, l1P, \ebDAV, etc. 1he
broadcast o this inormation can be done on-demand or scheduled, or een as a
reaction to an eent that has occurred within an Oracle10g Database, Oracle
\orklow, or an application that communicates ia \eb Serices. Lmail and
wireless notiications o the report success,ailure are aailable, and once again,
deelopers can plug-in their own jaa-based notiication mechanisms. O course
inormation security is o paramount importance, and with OracleAS Reports,
administrators hae the lexibility to secure Reports, Report Serers, and printers
or ine-grade control o who can do what, where, and when.
EXPANDING BUSINESS INSIGHT
Reacting quickly to business needs is critical. Sometimes it is necessary to build
custom applications to allow insight into real-time business perormance in order to
make better business decisions. OracleBI Beans in Oracle JDeeloper ,JDeeloper,
is designed speciically to deelop powerul business intelligence applications that
are integrated with all Oracle business intelligence tools. Deelopers can quickly
assemble an integrated BI application rom high leel, reusable components while
taking adantage o Oracle10g OLAP capabilities. Oracle deelopment teams make
extensie use o OracleBI Beans in the building o the query analysis and reporting
tools, these beans are also proided to your deelopers so that any custom
application can keep the same look and eel.
Rapid DeveIopment of Custom AppIications
JDeeloper and OracleBI Beans proide the most productie deelopment
enironment or building custom business intelligence applications. OracleBI
Beans proide high-leel components that encapsulate OLAP business logic or
querying and presenting data. Data can be presented in tables, crosstabs, and
graphs. Using BI Beans QueryBuilder and CalculationBuilder, deelopers easily
access the adanced analytic capabilities o Oracle10g OLAP or generating queries.
1he combination o these lexible query and presentation options make it ery easy
to isually design OLAP objects. \izards are proided in JDeeloper that package
these components into applications in the orm o either serlets or Jaa
applications. A BI Beans tag library is also aailable enabling the rapid
deelopment o JSPs.
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 11
Integrated OLAP, Unified Access
Adanced analytics are the heart o any business intelligence application. Oracle10g
OLAP proides centralized analytic processing in a scalable and secure
enironment. 1he BI beans make it easy to ormulate those business questions
inoling complex multidimensional queries. 1he results o such queries are then
displayed in both crosstab and graphical presentations using the presentation beans.
1he QueryBuilder is a powerul, patented tool that enables users to speciy query
properties without expertise in SQL. Complex multidimensional queries are made
simple by presenting the query deinition in business terms, which end users can
modiy to meet their needs. lor example, a deault query deinition called 1op 5
Products based on Sales` can be modiied to Bottom 10 Products based on Sales`
by selecting the appropriate query commands rom a drop down list. \ith
unlimited query possibilities, users quickly leerage adanced database analytics to
ask complex business questions o their data. Utilizing the BI Beans Catalog, users
sae and share their discoeries with others across the enterprise. Users are
proided the same uniied access to their relational and OLAP data sources
regardless o which tool they use - OracleBI Discoverer, OracleBI Spreadhseet
Add-in and OracleAS Reports Services provide support Ior a transparent access to
all your data.
Data Mining
Oracle10g Data Mining allows companies to build adanced business intelligence
applications that mine corporate databases to discoer new insights and integrate
those insights into business applications. 1he Oracle10g Database has embedded
data-mining unctionality like classiications, predictions, and associations. 1his
allows application deelopers to integrate data-mining capabilities into their
business intelligence applications to support such actiities as:
Preenting customer attrition
Cross-selling to existing customers
Acquiring new customers
Detecting raud
Identiying the most proitable customers
Proiling customers with more accuracy
Oracle10g Data Mining opens the door or integrating sophisticated data-mining
capabilities, once the domain o specialized serers, into mainstream business
intelligence applications.
PersonaIization
OracleAS Personalization is more than business rules` or collaboratie iltering. It
is deliering indiidualized` recommendations, adertisements, and content
deliered with the touch and timing o a close personal riend. Its scope extends
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 12
beyond recommending similar items based on a collection o clicks rom potential
buyers. Personalization brings together the entire customer experience, which
includes clicks`, purchases, returns, complaints, support requests, ratings, wish
lists, and demographics. An automated, timely, and non-intrusie recommendation
based on a complete iew o the customer is true personalization.
Deelopers use OracleAS Personalization`s Recommendation Lngine API to equip
a \eb site to tag, or capture a isitor`s clicks` and to request real-time
recommendations. 1hese click` data are combined with historical data, i aailable
within the OracleAS Personalization schema, and passed to the OracleAS
Personalization Recommendation Lngine. 1he Recommendation Lngine searches
or rules` or recommendations that best it the current session and historical data
scenario and passes the recommendations to the \eb application in a raction o a
second. Integration with the Oracle10g Database deliers power and scalability
with a minimum o data redundancy. OracleAS Personalization collects and stores
the data, then builds predictie models all within the Oracle10g Database. Next,
the powerul data mining technology embedded in Oracle10g Database
automatically discoers indiidualized behaior patterns to generate highly accurate
personalized recommendations in real time.
PortaI
OracleAS Portal is a complete ramework or deelopment and deployment o
\eb-based portals. It includes user administration, security, content customization,
and deelopment eatures to create and maintain basic reports, charts, and orm-
based applications. Creating a Business Intelligence dashboard personalized by job
role is easy with OracleAS Portal. Charts and,or reports representing key
perormance indicators ,KPI`s, can be rapidly deeloped. 1hese charts and reports
are deployed as Portlets. Indiidual users may customize their portal presentation
by selecting the KPI portlets that are most releant to their management ocus. I
users are gien the authority, they can change the KPI`s to suit their own
requirements and portal will handle the indiidual customizations seamlessly.

ORACLE BI 10 FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ARCHITECTURE
Oracle proides a complete, integrated, open and aordable Business Intelligence
solution out o the box, as well as an open and extensible architecture or
deeloping analytical applications. All tightly integrated with Oracle10g Database
or superior reliability and scalability.

CONCLUSION
Oracle Business Intelligence continues to enhance the industry leading Oracle
database platorm with capabilities to support business intelligence systems.
1oday`s managers and data analysts are inundated with inormation and under time
OracIe Business InteIIigence 10g TechnicaI Overview Page 13
constraints to make key business decisions. 1hey need isual cues to identiy the
latest business trends and then make strategic management decisions. All o which
must be shared with the right people throughout the enterprise. \hen the tools
used or data consolidation, data analysis and enterprise reporting are integrated
and aailable rom one endor, Oracle, it is clear that companies deploying Oracle
Business Intelligence are armed or success. 1hey hae the capability to delier the
right inormation to the right person at the right time, at the right price.


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