Organizations store their business-related transactional data in databases or in other various data sources. These data sources are often called Online Transactional Databases (OLTP) and they are designed to improve the performance of business applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning applications and Customer Relationship Manager applications.
This raw data is very important for daily operations, but on the other hand, there is a need for valuable information and knowledge. Obviously, the raw data that is stored in transactional databases needs to be converted to valuable information and knowledge. Business users need analytical reports to make effective decisions.
Business intelligence is a group of processes and technologies that transform the transactional data into valuable knowledge. This enables business users to make correct decisions and thus improves the productivity of their enterprises, especially in the markets where there is huge competition.
Business intelligence is evolving as the time passes and new business challenges emerge every now and then. In past days, business intelligence was related to only historical data. But now, real-time reporting is one of the most important requirements. Before, there were many reporting tools that were part of transactional applications. They were used to generate operational reports. But now, as you will imagine, there are many applications that are based on different technologies in an enterprise and a unified reporting solution is an important requirement.
Oracle had acquired Siebel Systems in 2005. After the acquisition, Oracle introduced a new product named Oracle Business Intelligence 10g that was formerly known as Siebel Analytics. The latest version of this product is Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g. OBIEE 11g provides every solution to all business requirements. We're going to discuss the features of this product in this book.
Chapter 1, Exploring and Building the Repository, discusses the major components of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g and the basics of the repository. This chapter covers how to create a blank repository and set up the three layers of the repository from the beginning. At the end of this chapter, we're going to upload the new repository and make tests by running sample analyses.
Chapter 2, Working with Logical Dimensions, covers the different types of dimension hierarchies in depth. Both the level-based and the parent-child hierarchies will be discussed and you're going to learn how to create them. We will also create the level-based measures and presentation hierarchies.
Chapter 3, Using Aggregates and the Time Series Functions, covers the creation and usage of aggregate tables in order to improve query performance. There are two methods of implementing the aggregate tables and both of them will be covered. Also, we will discuss the advantages of the time series functions in this chapter. You're going to learn how to create the measure columns that include these functions in their formula.
Chapter 4, Working with Multidimensional Data Sources, offers an overview of the multidimensional sources, which are definitely important in business intelligence projects. We will discuss the implementation of the cubes in the repository. Essbase cubes are going to be used in our sample scenario.
Chapter 5, Security in Oracle BI, discusses security concepts. Authentication and authorization methods are also covered. Setting up the permissions on the repository objects, configuring the query limits, and creating the data filters are the other subjects that you'll find in this chapter.
Chapter 6, Managing Usage Tracking and Enabling the Cache, covers how to enable usage tracking, as monitoring the users' behaviors is very important in BI projects. Also, we will discuss the advantages of the cache mechanism in the BI server and you will learn how to maintain the cache.
Chapter 7, Creating Simple Oracle Business Intelligence Analyses, tells you about the basics of analyses. We're going to construct a simple analysis and discuss the properties of the views that are used in the analyses. You will learn how to change the formatting options of table views and discover the usage of filter types. Also, we will use selections in this chapter.
Chapter 8, Adding Views to Analyses and Advanced Features, offers the usage of additional views other than the table view. Pivot table views, gauge views, graph views, column selector views, and the other view types are going to be covered. You will also learn how to configure the master-detail setting in this chapter.
Chapter 9, Measuring Performance with Key Performance Indicators, discusses the need for Key Performance Indicators. You will learn how to create KPIs and how to publish them in the dashboards. KPIs are the building blocks of Enterprise Performance Management so scorecards are also going to be covered in this chapter.
Chapter 10, Creating and Configuring Dashboards, covers the creation and the configuration of the dashboards in Presentation Services. You will explore the object types that you can publish in the dashboards. You will also discover the dashboard prompts and learn how to create them with all the details.
Chapter 11, Oracle BI Best Practices, offers the best practices of the implementation steps in Oracle BI projects. You will find recommendations about the repository including all three layers. Then we will discuss the design of the analyses and the dashboards. Also you will find important tips about performance and security.
Appendix, The Major Components of OBIEE 11g, explores the major components of OBIEE 11g and discusses the role of each component. Also, processing steps of an analysis will be covered.
You need to have the following:
Oracle Database 11g R2.
Oracle Sample Schemas (HR and SH): Sample schemas can be installed during database creation or can be installed manually after the database is created. SH Schema could be used for the activities.
Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite 11g.
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g.
Oracle BI Publisher 11g.
Oracle Essbase.
Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management.
A web browser (Internet Explorer 8.0 or above / Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or above).
This book is designed for the following audience:
Business analysts
Technical consultants
Business Intelligence developers
Business Intelligence administrators
It is recommended to know the basics of data warehouses before starting to read this book. Although you don't need to write SQL statements while constructing analyses, it is recommended to know the structure of the SQL statements that will be generated automatically.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "In order to access the variables from the repository, we'll have to use the VALUEOF function."
A block of code is set as follows:
select distinct 0 as c1, D1.c2 as c2, D1.c1 as c3 from SAWITH0 D1 Order by c2
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "You can easily set the allowed or disallowed periods by clicking on the Allow and Disallow buttons."
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