Last week I read an article from Bernard Marr about why #SelfService #BI, #Analytics and #Reporting might not be such a good idea.
There is a growing need with Business Users to do things themselves. The world is changing fast and there are situations where people want to act quickly to stay ahead of the competition. In this situations the use of various (sources) of data is essential. Some of this data is available in environments managed by IT. This data is modelled, governed and validated. Everyone who looks at these figures will get the same results; ‘One version of the Truth’. But what if there is additional data necessary? What if Sales data needs to be combined with figures about vistors or weather data. This kind of data normally is not available in an IT managed Data Warehouse. Still this data can be essential to make deciscions about increasing Sales based on visitors and weather conditions. In these case it might not be desirable to wait for IT before they combine and deliver the different data sources. Self Service capabilities would offer a Business User the tools to analyse this data.
“Oracle’s Business Analytics Product offering focusses on IT as well as the Business. It’s Oracle’s vision to support both to be able to realize the full potential of Analytics.”
Early this year there was a lot of noise about the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms. I wrote about the differences of opinion between Oracle and Gartner.
Gartner writes the following in their Summary; “The BI and analytics platform market’s multiyear shift from IT-led enterprise reporting to business-led self-service analytics has passed the tipping point. Most new buying is of modern, business-user-centric platforms forcing a new market perspective, significantly reordering the vendor landscape.”
Oracle’s Business Analytics Product offering focusses on IT as well as the Business. It’s Oracle’s vision to support both to be able to realise the full potential of Analytics.
Oracle’s Business Analytics Product offering
From what you can see from the picture below is that Oracle’s Business Analytics offers a Business Driven Data Visualization Suite. This suite includes products like Visual Analyzer and the Oracle Data Visualisation Desktop (DVD). Read some more about Oracle Data Vizualisation License Pricing here. Next to the Business Driven Data Visualization Suite Oracle offers IT Supported integrated platforms like OBI 12c and the Oracle BI Cloud Service (BICS).
Oracle’s strategy is to deliver the Oracle Business Analytics Product offering both On-Premise as well as in the Cloud. It does not matter where you use Oracle’s products, they are build on the same footprint.
One of the great advantages of the Oracle Business Analytics Product offering is that Oracle is able to combine IT curated data and additional data at runtime. If we go back to the previous example of the Sales Data combined with figures about vistors or weather data. Oracle Business Analytics allows you to upload a sheet or connect another Data Source. A Business User is able to connect the Sales data from the IT Supported Data Warehouse with external Data Sources (visitors, weather). All of this without interference of IT.
See the picture below. There is one Source of Truth where we can retrieve Revenue Data. The Oracle BI Server’s Computation Engine allows to combine Revenue Data with personal Forecasts. Both Data Sources can be combined into one visual. No need to export data to e.g. Excel and analyse data there.
I believe in Oracle’s strategy when it comes to Business Intelligence and Analytics. If necessary or desired, I would be happy to put things in context.
Originally written for LinkedIn.
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