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 :)