|
|
 |
Oracle OLAP Newsletter
|
|
| In This Issue: February 2008 |
|
| |
|
|
| Customer Feature |
|
Oracle Partners continue to use or add Oracle OLAP into their portfolios to enhance their product offerings. Two such partners utilizing Oracle OLAP in their products are Micros Systems and Bissantz & Company.
Micros Systems is the world's leading developer of enterprise
applications serving the hospitality and specialty retail industries.
Their customers range from one-off independent hotels to many of the
world's largest hotel chains.
MICROS is in the process of enhancing its OPERA Enterprise Solution to
include OPERA Business Intelligence, a tool built using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBI EE) and
Oracle OLAP. Customers will be able to add the OPERA BI solution for a
minimal cost. The new add-on product will provide customers with a 360 degree
view of their entire chain or hotel, enabling in-depth analysis of
revenue and profitability. In addition, they'll be able to review
historical performance data to more accurately project future bookings
and support appropriate planning.
The OPERA Enterprise Solution runs on Oracle Database. Because OLAP is
an internal database option, its use brings several advantages. First,
it makes both development and administration of the solution easier.
Second, the cost to customers for OPERA BI represents a minimal
additional investment. And third, and perhaps most importantly say Micros, Oracle OLAP
enables excellent performance for sophisticated calculations and advanced reporting for instant decision making; Oracle OLAP actually runs the calculations and aggregates the data to return the data to OBI EE quickly. It
should also be noted that OBI EE has allowed MICROS software engineers to
build great flexibility and additional security into the application.
Francisco Silva, Director Business Intelligence for OPERA, states,
"Oracle Database is the backbone of our applications; utilizing the
Oracle OLAP database option makes OPERA BI an extremely cost effective
extension to our product, thus making it very attractive for our
customers. Moreover, the simplicity of having OLTP data, Data Marts and
OLAP in the same database makes it possible to smoothly deploy BI -
bundled in the OPERA suite - to hundreds of clients over the world. Our
prospects are impressed by OBI EE's ability to display complex calculations with ease and its clear presentation of analytical
details."
Bissantz & Company is a software vendor based in Germany, who specializes in data analysis and visualization in the areas of management information and Business Intelligence.Their flagship product, DeltaMaster, provides a unique visual experience when driving in depth analysis and creating reports based on multidimensional data. DeltaMaster leverages data from many sources including Oracle OLAP. Bissantz describe their approach as "combining the ability of modern computers to explore large volumes of data with the unsurpassed talent of human beings to intuitively recognize and evaluate patterns''. They won the Innovation Award of the German Society of Computer Science for this product in 2007. The unique user interface of Deltamaster features visual objects such as cockpits, sparklines, graphic tables, analytic see and go, geo analysis and virtual hierarchies. It enables business users to gain a much clearer understanding of presented information, particularly when exploring large volumes of data, such as in a Data Warehouse environment.
Michael Westphal, CTO Bissantz & Company states "Due to the analytical capabilities and performance of Oracle OLAP we can provide high-end analytical-reporting and visualisation for customers with DeltaMaster."
For previous Oracle OLAP Newsletter article on other Oracle Partners see here.
View more Oracle OLAP Customer and Partner references here.
back to the top |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Product Management Oracle OLAP Update |
Oracle OLAP Q&A
Q: What is the recommended version of Oracle OLAP if using Oracle Database 10g? A: 10.2.0.3 is available for most platforms.The OLAP 'A' Patch is available on MetaLink as patch # 5746153 for all platforms except Windows. Patchset 17 is available for Windows - Patch Number 6627412 (win32), 6627413 (win64), 6627414 (AMD 64bit).
Q: What is the recommended version of AWM if using Oracle Database 10g? A: AWM 10.2.0.3A is available on MetaLink as Patch 6032088. AWM 10.2.0.3A for Windows is available on OTN.
Refer here for more information on recommended releases.
Q: What about using Oracle Database 11g? A: Oracle Database 11g (11.1.0.6) is available for LINUX, Windows, HP UX, HP-IT, Solaris and AIX 5L on OTN. The required OLAP 'A' patch is available on MetaLink as Patch #6459753 for Linux and Windows 32 bit. The new AWM 11g version (11.1.0.6A) for Windows is available on OTN and MetaLink.
Q: What about migrating from OLAP 10g to 11g? A: Until migration tools become available, analytic workspaces created in 10g or before will need to recreated in 11g.
Q: What about using OracleBI SE tools? A: Fusion Middleware 11g R1 will include Discoverer and should be certified post 11.1.0.7 availability.
Oracle BI Beans 10.1.2.x is planned to be certified to work with Oracle OLAP 11g. BI Beans are being repackaged as ADF Data Visualization components (ADF DVT). These components are available in JDeveloper 11g and include Graph, Gauge, Geographic Map, Gantt Chart, and Pivot Table.
DVT components work against pure relational as well as OBI EE data sources using standard ADF Data Control mechanism.
In the first release of 11g direct access to OLAP cubes from the DVT components will be via SQL through the ADF BC layer or directly via Java code.
Q: What about using OracleBI EE tools? A: OBI EE will work with any version of Oracle OLAP since it generates SQL queries to accesss OLAP data.
Q: What are the plans for the 10.2 code stream? A: 10.2.0.4 will be released shortly.
Q: What help can I get for implementing OLAP 11g? A: The Oracle OLAP Development group is offering some technical help and advice to a small number of committed customers, as part of an OLAP 11g Reference Program initiative. If interested please send an email to orpnews_us@oracle.com. We'll contact you to find out your plans and if we can help each other.
Read more about Oracle OLAP on OTN.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| OLAP Tech Feature |
|
Which reporting tools can I use with Oracle OLAP?
Any tool that emits SQL can query Oracle OLAP cubes (10g or 11g).Oracle offer tools such as Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBI EE ex Siebel), Application Express, Discoverer. Partner tools such as Cognos, Microstrategy and Business Objects also emit SQL; many Oracle OLAP customers are using these products. Other partners such as Bissantz, Micros, Arcplan and others have leveraged Oracle OLAP within their custom tools to provide their customers with excellent performance and the availability of advanced calculations . See above for information on Bissantz DeltaMaster and Micros OperaBI.
Also supported for OLAP 10g access are Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition (BI SE) tools, that is BI Beans, Discoverer for OLAP, Excel Add In and OLAP API custom written applications. These BI SE tools are certified with various versions of 10g. See OTN for more details on certification.
For further information refer to Bud Endress' White Paper: Improve SQL Based Business Intelligence Tools with Oracle OLAP 11g
|
| |
| back to the top |
|
|
|
Using cube Materialized Views to get a performance boost?
To check your materialized views are performing well, do the following:
1.Check the MVs are fresh:
SQL>select owner||'.'||mview_name cube_mv,rewrite_enabled,staleness
from all_mviews where container_name like 'CB$%';
2. Check statistics have been gathered for the Cost Based Optimizer to run well:
SQL> exec dbms_aw_stats.analyze('DIM_NAME');
SQL>
exec dbms_aw_stats.analyze('CUBE_NAME');
3. If rewriting to a new cube materialized view, set QUERY_REWRITE_INTEGRITY mode to STALE_TOLERATED then progress to the 'tighter' TRUSTED and ENFORCED modes to give different plan output.
4. Check that all of the required and correct primary key and foreign key constraints have been created on the base tables. AWM can be used for this.
5. Check the execution plans. For example, when testing from SQL*Plus this can be achieved by running the utility script
@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlxpls. The plan displayed will show the operation MAT_VIEW REWRITE CUBE ACCESS if it is rewriting to a cube materialized view.
6. Finally, is your underlying cube performing well? Is it defined correctly and aggregated appropriately? Is it partitioned well to ensure best performance? Make use of the AWM 11g Cube Sparsity Advisor, Cube Partitioning Advisor and Cost Based Aggregation to help with this.
|
| |
Register to join in a Field Reference Forum. On March 4th, our host from BNP Paribas will describe their implementation and answer your questions. Read about their success here. Let us know if you'd like to register.
Join the Oracle BIWA Special Interest Group.
Collaborate 08 Conference, April 13 – 17th, 2008 in Denver, CO |
|
The Oracle OLAP newsletter brings targeted technical news, articles and customer stories, to our customers in the Oracle OLAP community. Please send questions or comments to orpnews_us@oracle.com. Copyright 2006,2007 Oracle. All rights reserved. Published in the U.S.This document is provided for information purposes only, and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor is it subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission.
Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. |
|
|
| |
Bookmark
