Fun with MDX

Someone had the following issue with MDX using a formula applied to shared members in a dimension and I had the same issue--basically you need to use the contains () function. 
case when 
is(Contains([Dimension of shared members].Currentmember, {member set including shared members}  )

If you use ISANCESTORS it won't work!
Then it worked for me beautifully.

BIWA Summit--Please register and come to this great event, I will be speaking!

Registration is open, and we have a ton of great sessions for the 2015 summit, the event is taking place, Jan 27-29, 2015, we already have a great crowd coming out to the event!

See the Session list:
http://www.ioug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=844

I'm talking on  How to really go Agile--Continuous Integration with OBIEE, hope to see you at the session! 


BIWA Summits have been organized and managed by the Oracle BI, DW and Analytics SIG user community of IOUG (Independent Oracle User Group) and attract the top Oracle BI, DW and Advanced Analytics and Big Data experts. The 2.5-day BIWA Summit'15 event involves Keynotes by Industry experts, Educational sessions, Hands-on Labs and networking events. We have a great line up so far w/ Tom Kyte Senior Technical Architect in Oracles Server Technology, Doug Cutting (Chief Architect, Cloudera), Oracle BI Senior Management, Neil Mendelson, VP of Product Management Big Data and Advanced Analytics, Matt Bradley, SVP, Oracle Product Development, EPM Applications, other features speakers, and many customers/tech experts (see web site and HYPERLINK "http://www.ioug.org/p/cm/ld/fid=844"search % Sessions). Our BIWA Summit offers a broad, multi-track user driven conference that has built up a growing reputation over the years. We emphasize technical content and networking with like minded customers, users, developers, product managers (Database, Big Data Appliance, Oracle Advanced Analytics, Spatial, OBIEE, Endeca, Big Data Discovery, In-Memory, SQL Patterns, etc.), etc. who all share an interest in “novel and interesting use cases” of Oracle BI, DW, Advanced Analytics and Spatial technologies, applications and solutions. We’re off to a great start this year with a great agenda and hope to pack the HQ CC this Jan 27-29, 2015 with 300+ attendees.

Future Big Data Concept getting applied to Oracle Products

Everyone is talking about Big Data and how it's going to transform Data Warehousing.  What I'm wondering is when is Oracle going to make Oracle BI products work across multiple servers and use multiple CPUs and RAM?  I would expect within the next 5 years Oracle DB, Essbase, OBIEE, etc, to be re-written to take advantage of increased abilities and as a result, increased performance.  What do you think?

Oracle BIWA Summit 2014--and more on Essbase/OBIEE Integration (Key Factors)

As I touched down in San Fransisco ready for my talk on Essbase and OBIEE integration, I considered all of the factors that go into making the integration work well.

One:  Having Essbase cubes built properly.  Having ETL work take place on the database side, and not in Essbase Studio or another tool.  Having Essbase cube that doesn't use ragged hierarchies.

Two:  Having Oracle or another Relational Source that matches the Essbase Cube. Also having a relational source that does not use ragged hierarchies.

Three:  Then, understanding the RPD, how to integrate and combine these sources.  Essbase needs to integrate with OBIEE here. Mixing the levels together of Essbase and OBIEE.  I recommend creating a standalone Essbase model, a standalone relational model, and then once those are working properly try to integrate the two models separately. 

The conference and the setting were great, hope to see everyone again next year!

2013 ODTUG Kscope was a great EPM conference learned a ton of great things, and some things to test out.

Really enjoyed 2013 ODTUG Kscope in New Orleans, and learned some great things.

Some things to test out later:

SmartView Plug-in interaction with OBIEE for OBIEE 11.1.1.7, while it allows the retrieval of answers created Dashboards and Reports, it is not a fully functional ad-hoc tool.  Word is they are trying to figure the ad-hoc part out.

Parrallel Restructuring edit to essbase.cfg file in Essbase 11.1.2.2 and later does speed up restructure time.  This would of course be dependent upon having multiple processes to parallel process with :)

OBIEE runs smarter queries in latest versions of Essbase(11.1.2.3) and OBIEE(11.1.1.7). 

Oracle SQL you can use recursive queries in place of using connect by.

Liked Planning and it's offering,when I queried some developers/users, no one seemed to be using the workflow part of it.  They complained it was too much work/necessary process.


Let me know if you have already tested these things out and how they are working for you.

Oracle BIWA Virtual Summit 2012 - Aug 15-16

Oracle BIWA Virtual Summit 2012 - Aug 15-16

The First ever BIWA Virtual Summit will be held on Aug 15 - 16, 2012. This will be a virtual only event spread over two days. Each day the event will be between 11 AM ET and 5 PM ET, mostly in 1 hr sessions.

I am speaking at Noon ET on August 16th on Essbase Predictive Analytics and Budgeting. Will be some great content and other speakers as well.

For more info check out:

http://oraclebiwasig.blogspot.com/2012/07/oracle-biwa-virtual-summit-2012-aug-15.html

It's time to do more statistical analysis with less

Oracle R is an open source statistical analysis tool that is open source and runs off of Oracle DBs, You do need to have Oracle 11g.

Statistical analysis is something that all places need to do more of, and having something free to use can be a great boon. It's an easy sell, hey, we need to install this for free, and then see if it will help us manage our business better.

An example, a company that makes a great product but cannot ship product because it is so backlogged is not managing inventory correctly. They will lose customers because they haven't planned out their demand properly.

Great uses for Statistical analysis:
--Investigate and Minimize Fraud
--Inventory planning based on prior trends
--Sales and Cash flow planning

Learn about Oracle "R" Enterprise via a BIWASIG Techcast on Nov 30, 2011, noon EST by Mark Hornick. http://oraclebiwasig.blogspot.com/2011/11/biwa-sig-techcast-oracle-enterprise-r.html

IOUG Conference this year

I'm speaking again, for the third time this year at IOUG conference in Orlando. I'm speaking on Thursday morning. This time I'm speaking on Forecasting with business and technology tips, focusing on using Essbase to create Forecasts.

2010 the year of OBIEE

2010 is officially the year of OBIEE integrating with Essbase, finally we are getting closer to one vision of true reporting--relational and OLAP sources married together in a way that actually works and makes sense.

BUT...OBIEE doesn't work super well with Essbase, it doesn't play together all that great in pre-11 OBIEE releases. I need to try out release 11 and see how well it integrates.

Maybe 2011 will be a better year for reporting integration. And, when are we going to see Reporting and Analytics integration? OBIEE and crystall ball all rolled up together--man, that would be sweet.

Going to Kalediscope 2009

Next week is Kalediscope 2009, last year I learned a ton of great info. This year has even more content, and I'm looking forward to seeing some old Essbasers. I will blog some of the things I take away from the conference. If you are around shoot me an email.

How to go end-to-end in Business Intelligence in 1 week

Going from beginning to end in Business Intelligence in 1 week, these are the steps I would take. This could all happen in 1 week if you have the environment setup and data available to use.

0. Start--Gather requirements quickly and then rapidly Prototype.
1. Secure the data--If you have no data, then you have no system.
2. Understand the data--How does it work, what nuances do you need to be aware of?
3. Build the star schema--Keep it simple, find 11-13 total possible dimensions max for your first run.
4. Load Using EIS--It's a simple tool to load using Hyperion EIS, that can take your star schema into a workable protype model.
5. Build your Essbase cube from EIS--Dont' worry too much about calculations, etc
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until you come close to a point where showing a business user could add some insight and create some depth.
7. Finish the prototype and start the steps over with more detailed requirements. I've even finished whole reporting systems in 1 week before :)

More on How to be an Essbase Guru

1. Take the Oracle Training Course--this can be helpful in getting an initial idea of how things work, but if you don't use these skills then you will lose them.

2. Contextual Learning--Learn by doing. By working on a project with seasoned developers you can start to learn why they are doing things.

3. Take a business course if you're too technical--you will need to understand how businesses work, and specifically the business where you are working.

4. Buy the latest version of Edward Roske's book, now they are on version 11.

5. Build an experimental cube, and go through all the pieces that you will need to know. Data Loading, Outline building, Calc scripts, filters, Temporary Variables, etc.

How could you learn about essbase?

A friend of mine just asked me--How could you learn to be an Essbase Developer/guru?

I would recommend doing several things.

1. Read Look Smarter than you are:
http://stores.lulu.com/tracyamcmullen
Sign up for an essbase class, talk with Oracle, and get them to show you their demos of essbase.

2. Make sure that you understand business processes and functions. Form a partnership with business groups, and truly undertand what they are doing.

3. Make sure that you understand technology well. You'll have to understand how to implement ETL, SQL, star schema, and essbase technologies.

4. Make sure that you understand project management. When you're on a project you need to be able to play all roles, Project Manager, Tester, Requirements gatherer, designer, etc..

5. Start using the tool, and get on a project that uses it. Learn by working with others who can teach you the nuances, in a lot of ways Essbase is an art form.

6. Come to my conference speaking session in Orlando IOUG. I will be going over some tips over how to successfully develop and mitigate risks.

Speaking at IOUG Conference in May in Orlando

Exciting Times! I'm speaking at the IOUG Conference in May, my presentation is called "Financial Planning Risk Management and Automation". I'm speaking from 3:15-4:14pm on May 6th, which is on Wednesday, so I hope that you can attend.

Here is an abstract of what I'm talking about:

When building a financial planning system, it is important to use strategies of risk management and plan out ways to automate system maintenance. These strategies include dealing with the problems of data reconciliation, system maintenance, business process mapping, and people issues. These strategies can be used not only on new systems, but also on existing systems, to help ensure the long-term success of the financial planning system.

Business Intelligence--the real value 5 key measures

How do you capture true value in business intelligence?

You need to be open to changing how you think about business practices. Take a step back, assess your business processes, and implement new ideas to make your company a success.

5 Key ways to measure value using business intelligence:

1. Cash Flow--how does your cash position look, are your receivables coming in too slowly, can you extend your accounts payable.

2. Expenditures--are you spending money on worthwhile things? Plan and fund all expenses as you need them, and keep aside reserve money in case you hit rough times. I have heard several stories of companies going out of business or bankrupt because they paid too much money in rent. Clients do not care about your office space, they care about what you can bring to the table. Telecommuting saves companies money and can result in companies lowering rent, utilities, and other infrastructure costs.

3. Return on Investment for Projects--when you spend money, do you see the payback? Also, how do you measure payback? Is it productivity based, revenue generating based, analytically based, etc. Not every project is going to generate additional revenue for the company, but that does not mean that it is not worthwhile.

4. People management--turnover rates and employee satisfaction. People are the greatest asset to organizations and yet they are frequently underutilized. Seek out employee feedback then setup meetings to review and implement change.

5. Customer satisfaction--are you pleasing your customers? What could you do better? Does the customer come to you because you are the only choice or because of what you do? Ask the customer what they are looking for--you'll be surprised to what that can lead to.

So, how would you capture these in a business intelligence tool? That's where the technical knowledge and ability comes into play. It would not be hard to imagine a balanced scorecard/dashboard that had these key metrics available to senior executives, so that they could take action and correct issues when needed.

Blog Entry #1 02/2009

JS Business Intelligence, LLC has officially started now and I am going to make a concentrated effort to update the blog section of this site as frequently as possible.
I'll start off here with some thoughts on what makes Business Intelligence successful.
1. Backing of the Customer
If the client is not behind the solution then the system will not work because they have not invested themselves in the success of the system.
2. Support from up High
If Senior Executives don't make a push, then don't expect anyone to automatically embrace your system, just for the sake of it.
3. Good Data--or at least reasonable data
If your data is bad, then your system will usually be bad as well. Put another way, with garbage into a system, it is very difficult to have something useful come out.
4. Customers that will actually use the system
If at the end of the day a great system has been built, but no one wants to use it. It could be that the client is too focused on doing their transactional job and cannot take the time to look at the bigger picture. Or it could be that the company is not ready yet for it.
At this time, I recommend convincing the client that your system is valuable. Tell them that in time with their help and continued development it can become something that will help them be successful.