Gartner’s latest version of the Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms (#BIAMQ) caused a lot of noise in the Analytics Market. Gartner and Oracle have different views of this market. Gartner sees a difference; “…between a modern BI and Analytics Platform and a traditional, IT-centric Reporting and Analysis Platform”.
It’s clear that Oracle and Gartner have a different view on the Analytics Market. Is it Agile BI and / or Enterprise Reporting? There are probably several pros and cons for either view. In the end I don’t believe it’s a matter of right or wrong. Although Oracle is not included in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, that does not mean that Oracle does not have a strategy when it comes to Business Analytics. It’s important that you see and understand the context of a certain view. I will try to give some more insights into Oracle’s Business Analytics Strategy.
Oracle Business Analytics Strategy
If an organization wants to stay ahead of the competition, it should focus on innovation. The Oracle Business Analytics Strategy supports this drive towards innovation with the Oracle Business Analytics Portfolio. This Portfolio consists of the following elements:
- Operational Reporting (Monitoring)
- Strategic Analytics (Optimization)
- Visual Discovery (Innovation)
Operational Reporting (Monitoring)
Although there is more and more focus on innovating an organization’s business, people still need (real-time) operational information to support their daily work. Employees use operational reports to solve problems or to monitor their daily operations.
Operational Reporting represents the current state of the different areas of the organization.
Strategic Analytics (Optimization)
Operational Reporting is specific per Line of Business. Business Leaders tend to look across the different Lines of Business. Strategic Analytics focuses on metrics that deliver insight. Questions like; ‘Why did it happen?‘ and ‘What will going to happen?‘ need to be answered.
Strategic Analytics represents the state of an organization as a whole.
Visual Discovery (Innovation)
The first two elements of the Oracle Business Analytics Portfolio are considered traditional forms of BI. Over the last years organizations have developed a need to explore various data sets without IT support. Organizations use visual data discovery tools to identify patterns and opportunities for innovation. These visual data discovery tools focus on ease of use and the ability to visualize different (complex) data sets.
Visual Discovery helps organizations answer questions like; ‚Should we invest in new sales channels?‘ or ‚Has a discount a positive effect on our revenue?‘.
To summarize, the Oracle Analytics Portfolio supports the drive towards innovation across the entire organization for all users and all analytic needs. According to Oracle, organizations need a bi-modal Business Analytics Strategy. This strategy is designed for IT-led (consistancy & scalability) and Business-led (speed & discovery) analytics initiatives.
Hybrid Cloud
Traditional BI platforms are characterized by IT-controlled reports and analysis on desktop dashboards. New BI platforms must be able to support the visualization of different (personal) data sets on mobile and wearables in the cloud or in a hybrid environment.
Oracle wants to extend existing investments in on-premise architectures with innovations in the cloud. Therefore the Oracle Analytics Portfolio can be deployed anywhere on-premise as well as in the cloud or in any hybrid form. It does not matter which deployment option is chosen, it’s the same architecture, the same standard and the same product.
Oracle’s Business Analytics Strategy aims at supporting IT-led buying as well as buying driven by the business. Next to that Oracle’s Business Analytics portfolio can be deployed on-premise as well as in the cloud. When it comes to; ‚buying driven by the business‘, Oracle offers Stand alone products as well as products integrated in the platform.The Oracle Business Analytics offering consists of the following products:
- Data Visualization On-Premise
- Data Visualization Cloud Service (DVCS)
- Oracle BI Cloud Service (BICS)
- Including Data Visualization
- Oracle BI 12c
- Data Visualization (add-on)
Oracle Data Visualization
With Oracle Data Visualization users can; ‚See the Signals‘. Oracle offers Visual Analytics in every solution, on every device, embedded in the cloud or integrated in the platform and even in the Big Data stack. Oracle Data Visualization enables users to create rich visuals of any data set in an intuitive way. Users can bring in different types of data sets to blend data together. Visualizations can be shared with others. Oracle Data Visualization supports; ‚Storytelling‘. This way users can help others see the same patterns and opportunities. Last but not least, Oracle Data Visualization is fully portable between any (mobile) device.
Oracle Data Visualization is simple but powerful. It is designed to support (small) departmental initiatives which should be performed without IT support. Oracle Visual Analytics projects can be started small, but can grow if necessary.
An organization can start with a subscription to the Data Visualization Cloud Service (DVCS) at a price of $150 per named user per month with a minimum of 5 users.
Sign up for a trial subscription to the Oracle Data Visualization Cloud Service here.
Oracle BI Cloud Service
The Oracle BI Cloud Service (BICS) is a complete Cloud Solution for Enterprise BI. With BICS it’s possible to combine any data from any data source. Via dozens of visualizations and calculations users can gain unique insights. BICS runs in the Oracle Cloud. The environment is fully managed, patched, backed up and upgraded by Oracle. This means that organizations running BICS can reduce significantly on operations, software, hardware and facilities.
Visual Analytics can be embedded into an Enterprise solution and that’s what makes Oracle unique. BICS makes it possible to integrate (blend) personal and enterprise data. Finally, BI applications are portable between on-premise and the cloud.
Sign up for a trial subscription to the Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service here.
Oracle Business Intelligence 12c
OBI 12c is one integrated platform which runs on-premise. Oracle Data Visualization can be embedded as a paid add-on. Oracle Business Intelligence 12c has a modern interface design. The new Alta UI, which is used across all Oracle’s applications, has a clean page design and is focussed on the data. One of the key new features in OBI 12c are the Advanced Analytics capabilities. This way a user can instantly answer predictive and statistical questions via a free distribution of R. Next to that Oracle made improvements to the mobile experience and the in-memory performance. Last but certainly not least, Oracle has made the OBI 12c a lot simpler. This means that Oracle has simplified the installation and configuration. This makes upgrading from 11g to 12c a lot less difficult than the upgrade from 10g to 11g. Also Regression Testing is made easy with the Baseline Validation Tool.
Oracle Business Intelligence 12c is an Enterprise Analytics Platform. It is Business Leader friendly as well as IT-friendly. OBI 12c allows users to upload their personal data and combine the results with IT-curated data for quick analysis and data visualization.
Summary
The Oracle Business Analytics Strategy is based on three pillars:
- See the Signals
- Visual Analytics in every solution
- Sprint to Innovation
- Cloud First strategy
- Scale the Insights
- One integrated platform
Quistor believes in Oracle’s strategy when it comes to Business Intelligence and Analytics. If necessary or desired, we would be happy to put things in context.
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