Oracle BI Applications compared to DBI

Technorati Tags: DBI,OBIA,Oracle BI Applications

1. Main reasons for using DBI:

• Highly efficient, scalable and performs very well due to summarized materialized views on top of EBS tables in a single instance.

• Quick implementation and OOTB (out of the box) set of reports for EBS

• Executive level reporting along with rapid insight into operational business processes at the detail level

• Integrated BI to provide information within EBS screens

• Pre-aggregated summarized dashboard reporting for a single EBS instance

• Tightly integrated with Oracle EBS and can drill down into the transaction detail.

What it was not meant for:

• Provide an Enterprise wide BI solution

• Complex customization & extensions, e.g. adding complex metrics & dimensions

• Data integration with content outside of single EBS instance

• A substitute for a data warehouse

2. OBI (Oracle Business Intelligence) pre-built Applications

• Out of the box pre-built “Data Warehouse” for Oracle EBS

• Capability to integrate multiple data sources & versions

• Support for multiple languages & currencies

• Integrates many business processes for analysis

• Provides an Enterprise wide BI solution based on the data warehouse

• Ease of customizations and extensions using Answers and Informatica ETL

• Most Oracle EBS ETL mappings pre-defined and available to plug-in

• Can integrate with non-Oracle EBS data sources as well

Comparing OBI with DBI for Order Management functional area

Order Management	OBI Analytics	Daily Business Intelligence
Number of Dashboard Pages	18	8
Number of Reports	100	73
Number of Metrics	307	33
Primary Roles Supported	7	2 (can be extended)
Support Multiple Sources	Yes	No
Provide a standardized, single business view across entire organization	Yes	Yes
Customizable Dashboards	Yes	Yes
Move and transform the data (ETL)	Yes	No
Data Warehouse	Yes	No
Drillable	Yes	Yes

When to Use DBI or Oracle BI Apps

DBI is a good option when:

• Budget is low and there is no significant customization

• Need quick implementation while OBI apps rolled out (or custom DW)

• Appetite for BI investment or content is low

• Plan to use both DBI and OBI apps

• Only need reporting from a single EBS source

OBI Apps is a better option when:

• there is scope of various customizations

• You need a true “Data Warehouse” outside the oltp instance.

• You don’t want to build a DW from scratch

• You need to implement, grow, extend, evolve in a short time frame.

Creating Custom Reports using DBI Designer

Technorati Tags: DBI,Daily Business Intelligence

Using the Daily Business Intelligence Designer responsibility we can create custom DBI reports or dashboards based on Oracle EBS views or tables. To create a new report, select the Report designer Menu item. Enter the Report attributes like name and Application. Select the functional area as Customer Defined.

Select the required view or table as the data source. The lookup will find the object if apps user has privileges on the object.

Once the table or view is selected, the designer shows all the fields available. We can select any fields required for the report and associate it with a seeded dimension or set the column as a measure. If a dimension object is selected then we can associate it with a corresponding seeded dimension object mapping. Enter the display label needed for this column on the report. Click finish.

Once the tabular report with columns is selected, it will show up as shown below. The top section saying Oracle Report1 is the report name and can be customized with the report title. The section below that is usually used for selecting parameters. The section below that is used for adding in a graph for the report. Click on Save or Finish and the report witl show up as an item in the Customer Defined functional area.

We can then enable this menu item to any responsibility, so users can access this report from the corresponding responsibility.

Oracle Daily Business Intelligence

Overview of Daily Business Intelligence

Technorati Tags: Daily Business Intelligence,DBI,Business Intelligence

Daily Business Intelligence is an integrated out-of-the-box reporting and analysis
application that enables senior managers and executives to see relevant, accurate, and
timely information using self-service dashboards. The data is refreshed in these dashboards based on incremental nightly loads from Oracle E-Business suite applications.




Intelligence Areas

The following intelligence areas leverage the Daily Business Intelligence reporting and analysis framework:

• Customer Support
• Depot Repair
• Field Service
• Financials
• Human Resources
• Interaction Center
• iStore
• Maintenance
• Marketing
• Product Lifecycle Management
• Projects
• Procurement
• Quoting
• Sales
• Service Contracts
• Supply Chain

Perform the common Daily Business Intelligence setup steps before you set up the
dashboards provided by each intelligence area. Current DBI is supported on both 11i and R12 release versions of Oracle Applications.

Architecture Overview



Pre-Packaged DBI Content


Oracle BI Strategy



Daily Business Intelligence provides the ability to drill down directly to the transaction detail from the dashboards

Discoverer Vs DBI

Advantages of DBI

• Easy and simple reporting
• Over 40 Overview pages and 900 pre-canned reports available
• Complete cross-module visibility from Oracle single sign-on.
• Drill features Integrated with the ERP modules into Order Management, Procurement, Purchasing etc.
• Easy to maintain and refresh objects
• All reports Web enabled and user friendly.
• No Additional software or end-user training is needed to use it. (Html reports)
• Very efficient and reports render in a very short time. (no performance issues!)
• Use Apps security model and integrated with Apps.
• Users can customize pages and reports based on other existing DBI content.


Advantages of BIS Discoverer

• Ad-Hoc Query capability, to create custom workbooks based on needs.
• More than a 1000 folder items and 200 reports.
• Folders based on the Transactional tables available, so data is current.