Hi,
You may like to read my earlier post Hyperion Essbase Interview Questions.
Today I will be posting few more questions on Hyperion Essbase more from an Administrative perspective.
The questions and answers have been designed by me and are not copied from anywhere.
Que:1 What are LRO's( Linked Reporting Objects)?
Answer: They are specific objects like files, cell notes or URL's associated with specific data cells of Essbase database. You can link multiple objects to a single data cell. These linked objects are stored in the server. These LRO's can be exported or imported with the database for backup and migtarion activities.
Que:2 What are the specified roles other than Aministrator to view sessions, disconnect sessions or kill users requests for a particular application?
Answer: You should have the role of Application manager for the specified application.
Que:3 What are the three options specified in Username and Password management under security tab in Essbase server proprties.
Answer: 1. Login attempts allowed before username is disabled.
2. Number of inactive days before username is diabled.
3. Number of days before user must change password.
Que:4 Why do objects gets locked and when does this happens?
Answer: Objects gets locked to prevent users to make simultaneous and conflicting changes to Essbase database objects. By default whenever an object is accessed through Aministrative services console or Excel spreadsheet add-in, it gets locked.
Que: 5 I have created an application with one database in Essbase at test environment and now needs to copy the entire application with all security permissions to the production server which is not connected to the test server. How can I do that?
Answer: You can acheive this using migration wizard to migrate an application to a text file which you can take physically to the production server.
To know how you can do that, take a look at this post Essbase Application Migration.
Que:6 From the above question, When I migrated the application to the production server I do not see any data in the Essbase database. What has gone wrong and how to correct this?
Answer: Nothing has gone wrong. Migration utility does not migrate the actual data. If you want to copy the exact data from the test machine, get it exported using export utility and import it on production machine.
Que:7 Referring to the above question, Can I still do this if my production server and test server are two different operation systems. Explain.
Answer: While exporting the database, you can write the database data to an ASCII text file which enables you to load data on different platforms.
Que:8 How can we backup an aggregate storage database?
Answer: To back up an aggregate storage database, copy the application directory ARBORPATH/app/appname.
Que:9 How does Essbase recover from a database crash?
Answer: After a database crash or server interruption, Essbase automatically recovers a database after rolling back the transactions that were active at that time.
Que:10 How can you make a Max L script run at a specified time?
Answer: MaxL scripts can be called from a BAT file which is used for scheduling.
More questions will be coming soon...
Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Implementing Business Intelligence
Checklist for Implementing Business Intelligence-
If you are planning to implement a Business Intelligence solution there are a number of things to check before you decide on a solution.
1. Cost of the project: The cost of a project comprises of
(a) The cost of the product licenses.
(b) New hardware to be purchased for product installations.
(c) Any third party software to be purchased.
(d) Implementation cost including user’s trainings.
(e) Support and Maintenance cost.
It is very important to evaluate these costs before choosing a product. Certain tools may be cheap to buy but implementation and maintenance cost comes out very expensive.
2. Product’s Credibility: The product should be evaluated by considering the following-
(a) High Stability- The product should be matured enough being in the market for atleast 5 years. This is important as chances of bugs in the product are minimal, the product becomes stable. Couple of years back there were not many products in the market and the options were very less but now this is not the case.
(b) Completeness- The product should have a completeness considering all aspects of features. Some products may be very good in some aspects or features and in most of the sales demonstrations/POC’s they display those capabilities only and always try to avoid any discussion on weak points. Please ask questions as many as you can and also verify whether these capabilities/features are available out of the box functionality using wizards and drag and drop features or they just have workarounds using some code. The product should be a balanced mix of all the capabilities.
(c) Level of execution- Check whether the product can be executed for large number of users even if you have small numbers of users and how the product scales, handles high avalability, clustering environment etc.
(d) References- The product as well as the implementation partner should have good number of references where the product has been implemented sucessfully. Also check for the implementation partner's credibility, financial status and implementation capability.
---- more will follow
If you are planning to implement a Business Intelligence solution there are a number of things to check before you decide on a solution.
1. Cost of the project: The cost of a project comprises of
(a) The cost of the product licenses.
(b) New hardware to be purchased for product installations.
(c) Any third party software to be purchased.
(d) Implementation cost including user’s trainings.
(e) Support and Maintenance cost.
It is very important to evaluate these costs before choosing a product. Certain tools may be cheap to buy but implementation and maintenance cost comes out very expensive.
2. Product’s Credibility: The product should be evaluated by considering the following-
(a) High Stability- The product should be matured enough being in the market for atleast 5 years. This is important as chances of bugs in the product are minimal, the product becomes stable. Couple of years back there were not many products in the market and the options were very less but now this is not the case.
(b) Completeness- The product should have a completeness considering all aspects of features. Some products may be very good in some aspects or features and in most of the sales demonstrations/POC’s they display those capabilities only and always try to avoid any discussion on weak points. Please ask questions as many as you can and also verify whether these capabilities/features are available out of the box functionality using wizards and drag and drop features or they just have workarounds using some code. The product should be a balanced mix of all the capabilities.
(c) Level of execution- Check whether the product can be executed for large number of users even if you have small numbers of users and how the product scales, handles high avalability, clustering environment etc.
(d) References- The product as well as the implementation partner should have good number of references where the product has been implemented sucessfully. Also check for the implementation partner's credibility, financial status and implementation capability.
---- more will follow
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Hyperion customer move to OBIEE
Hi,
I got this question from someone and I am really not getting any strong arguments for this.
The question is -
How would you convince a Hyperion customer so that he would get ready to move to OBIEE. What would be your key points?
Any suggestions?
I got this question from someone and I am really not getting any strong arguments for this.
The question is -
How would you convince a Hyperion customer so that he would get ready to move to OBIEE. What would be your key points?
Any suggestions?
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Disadvantages
Hi,
You may want to read my earlier post Qlikview Vs Others
You may also be interested in similar posts.
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Enhancements-Charts
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Enhancements- Live Charts
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Tutorial
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Disadvantages
There are some points which I found Interactive reporting lacks as compared to Qlikview.
This would help users who are evaluating IR and Qlikview.
1. To create a selection box (or LOV) and link it to report objects in the dashboard, we need to write some script and cannot be done with drag and drop features. You can do this using Dashboard studio using wizards but the way you do it in Qlikview is just amaging and even users without having any knowledge of the tool can do it in few seconds. Though in version 11, Oracle has introduced some charts and slider which can be interlinked to see the data changing but needs lots of improvements. Hyperion Web Analysis has this feature present.
2. The way we can do what-if analysis in qlikview with the help of slider and variables is really quick and effective. Nothing of that sort can be done in Interactive Reporting. But the concept is IR is not made for that purpose. The way to do this is Essbase to which we cannot just compare Qlikview.
3. To create pivot reports with member showing(+) sign to further drill down and (-) sign representing the last member is not possible in IR. Qlikview can do this very well.
Manohar Rana
You may want to read my earlier post Qlikview Vs Others
You may also be interested in similar posts.
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Enhancements-Charts
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Enhancements- Live Charts
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Tutorial
Hyperion Interactive Reporting Disadvantages
There are some points which I found Interactive reporting lacks as compared to Qlikview.
This would help users who are evaluating IR and Qlikview.
1. To create a selection box (or LOV) and link it to report objects in the dashboard, we need to write some script and cannot be done with drag and drop features. You can do this using Dashboard studio using wizards but the way you do it in Qlikview is just amaging and even users without having any knowledge of the tool can do it in few seconds. Though in version 11, Oracle has introduced some charts and slider which can be interlinked to see the data changing but needs lots of improvements. Hyperion Web Analysis has this feature present.
2. The way we can do what-if analysis in qlikview with the help of slider and variables is really quick and effective. Nothing of that sort can be done in Interactive Reporting. But the concept is IR is not made for that purpose. The way to do this is Essbase to which we cannot just compare Qlikview.
3. To create pivot reports with member showing(+) sign to further drill down and (-) sign representing the last member is not possible in IR. Qlikview can do this very well.
Manohar Rana
Hyperion Essbase Interview Questions
Hi,
You may also like to read Essbase Interview Questions.
I have got this request from someone to post some FAQ's on Hyperion Essbase. Please do not just rely on these questions only. I recommend you read the Essbase documentation and get some hands on to understand the basics. The questions below shold guide you to narrow down your search for the topics you should focus on.
Que 1: What are the two storage options available in Essbase and what are the differences?
Ans: ASO( Aggregate Storage Option) - Used for 1. If we have large number of dimensions(generally more than 10) 2. Most of the dimensions are sparse 3. We cannot write back in ASO. I heard recently that ASO will also have the writeback capability. I don't remember.
BSO (Block Storage Option)- 1. Dimensions are less and dense(recommended values for no of dim are between 4 and 8) . 2. We can write back hence much suited for planning applications.
Financial applications are generally dense structures and normal analytical cubes are sparse. Here we also need to understand what are these dense and sparse members. When the intersections or cells of two dimensions mostly contains a value it is dense. Say for example we have two dimensions period(Month or quarter) and region and we are calculation the sales amount. Generally maximum regions(countries, cities) will have some sales value for a particular month or quarter. Hence we can say that our period dimensions would be dense. But now instead of period, consider another dimension products. Now there are some products which are sold in only some particular regions hence for them there will be no values in other regions or will have very low percentage of data values hence the structure will become sparse.
Now the question arises what is the use of calling them dense or sparse. What difference does it make. Do some research and try to find the answer.
Que 2: Can we build dimensions directly from data sources without using rule files.
Ans: No.
Que 3: When do we generally use build rules files?
Ans: To automate the process of creating dimensions with thousands of members.
Que 4: What are the three primary build methods for building dimensions?
Ans: 1. Generation references
2. level references
3. Parent-Child references.
Que 5: In what case we can define generation 1 to a feild in generation build method.
Ans: We cannot define that as Generation 1 is not valid.
Que 6: Suppose we have assigned Generation 2 and Generation 4 as of now and think of adding generation 3 later some time. Can we build the dimension.
Ans: No. If gen 2 and gen 4 exists, we must assign gen 3.
Que 7: Can we create more than 2 dimensions using only one build rule file.
Ans: Yes, we can do that but it is recommended to use seperate rule file for each dimension.
Que 8: What is UDA( user defined attributes). How are they different than Aliases.
Ans: UDA represents the class of the members. Aliases are just another names of the members. both are different and has different usage.
Que 9: Can we query a member for its UDA in a calculation script.
Ans: Yes. You can query a member for its UDA in a calculation script.
Que 10: How does UDA's impact database size?
Ans: Absolutely no impact as UDA's do not require additional storage space.
Que 11: What is the difference between UDA's and Attribute dimensions?
Ans : Attribute dimensions provides more flexibility than UDA's. Attribute calculations dimensions which include five members with the default names sum, count, min, max and avg are automatically created for the attribute dimensions and are calculate dynamically.
Que 12: How does Attribute dimensions and UDA's impact batch calculation performance?
Ans: UDA's- No Impact as they do not perform any inherent calculations.
Attribute dim- No Impact as they perform only dynamic calculations.
Que 13: How can we display UDA's in reports? How do they impact report report performance.
Ans: UDA's values are never displayed in the reports and hence do not impact report performance.
Que 14: How does Attribute dim impact report performance?
Ans: They highly impact the report performance as the attributes are calculated dynamically when referenced in the report. For very large number of att dim displayed in the report, the performance could drastically reduce.
Que 15: While loading the data, you have applied both the selection criteria as well as rejection criteria to a same record. What will be the outcome.
Ans: Thw record will be rejected.
Que 16: How is data stored in the Essbase database?
Ans: Essbase is an file based database where the data is stored in PAG files of 2 GB each and grows sequentially.
Que 17: Can we have multiple databases in one single application?
Ans: Yes. But only one database per application is recommended.
Que 18: Can we have one ASO database and one BSO database in one single application. If yes, how and If No, why.
Ans 18. No. Because we define ASO or BSO option while creating the appication and not database. Hence if the application is ASO, the databases it contains will be that type only.
Que 19: What are the file extensions for an outline, rule file and a calc script.
Ans: .OTL, .RUL and .CSC
Que 20: What is the role of provider services.
Ans: To communicate between Essbase and Microsoft office tools.
Que 21: What is an alternative to create metaoutline, rule file and load data.
Answer: Integration services and in version 11, we have Essbase studio.
Que 22: Can we start and stop an application individually. How ca this be used to increase performance.
Ans: Yes. We can manage our server resources by starting only the applications which receive heavy user traffic. When an application is started, all associated atabases are brought to the memory.
Que 23: We have created an application as unicode mode. Can we change it later to non-unicode mode.
Ans: No.
Que 24: How can I migrate an application from my test environment to the production environment. Can I still do this if my test environment is a windows one and my production env is UNIX one. Also can I still do it if my test env and prod env versions are different.
Ans: Hyperion Administrative services console provides a migration utility to do this but onluy the application, database objects are migrated and no data is transferred. the answers to other two questions are Yes.
Que 25: A customer wants to run two instances of an Essbase server on a same machine to have both test env and Development env on the same server. Can he do that?
Ans: Yes. We can have multiple instances of an Essbase server on a single machine and there will be dfferent sets of windows services for all these instances.
Que: 26 suppose I have a dimension A with members B and C and I do not want B and C to roll up to A. how can I do this.
Ans: Using (~) exclude from consolidation operator.
Que 27: What does never consolidate operator(^) do?
Ans: It prevents members from being consolidate across any dimension.
Que 28: Can we have multiple metaoutlines based on one OLAP model in Integration services?
Ans: Yes
Que 29: Can we have an metaoutline based on two different OLAp models.
Ans: No.
Que 30: What is hybrid analysis?
Ans: Lower level members and associated data remains in relational database where as upper level members and associated data resides in Essbase database.
You may also like to read Essbase Interview Questions.
I have got this request from someone to post some FAQ's on Hyperion Essbase. Please do not just rely on these questions only. I recommend you read the Essbase documentation and get some hands on to understand the basics. The questions below shold guide you to narrow down your search for the topics you should focus on.
Que 1: What are the two storage options available in Essbase and what are the differences?
Ans: ASO( Aggregate Storage Option) - Used for 1. If we have large number of dimensions(generally more than 10) 2. Most of the dimensions are sparse 3. We cannot write back in ASO. I heard recently that ASO will also have the writeback capability. I don't remember.
BSO (Block Storage Option)- 1. Dimensions are less and dense(recommended values for no of dim are between 4 and 8) . 2. We can write back hence much suited for planning applications.
Financial applications are generally dense structures and normal analytical cubes are sparse. Here we also need to understand what are these dense and sparse members. When the intersections or cells of two dimensions mostly contains a value it is dense. Say for example we have two dimensions period(Month or quarter) and region and we are calculation the sales amount. Generally maximum regions(countries, cities) will have some sales value for a particular month or quarter. Hence we can say that our period dimensions would be dense. But now instead of period, consider another dimension products. Now there are some products which are sold in only some particular regions hence for them there will be no values in other regions or will have very low percentage of data values hence the structure will become sparse.
Now the question arises what is the use of calling them dense or sparse. What difference does it make. Do some research and try to find the answer.
Que 2: Can we build dimensions directly from data sources without using rule files.
Ans: No.
Que 3: When do we generally use build rules files?
Ans: To automate the process of creating dimensions with thousands of members.
Que 4: What are the three primary build methods for building dimensions?
Ans: 1. Generation references
2. level references
3. Parent-Child references.
Que 5: In what case we can define generation 1 to a feild in generation build method.
Ans: We cannot define that as Generation 1 is not valid.
Que 6: Suppose we have assigned Generation 2 and Generation 4 as of now and think of adding generation 3 later some time. Can we build the dimension.
Ans: No. If gen 2 and gen 4 exists, we must assign gen 3.
Que 7: Can we create more than 2 dimensions using only one build rule file.
Ans: Yes, we can do that but it is recommended to use seperate rule file for each dimension.
Que 8: What is UDA( user defined attributes). How are they different than Aliases.
Ans: UDA represents the class of the members. Aliases are just another names of the members. both are different and has different usage.
Que 9: Can we query a member for its UDA in a calculation script.
Ans: Yes. You can query a member for its UDA in a calculation script.
Que 10: How does UDA's impact database size?
Ans: Absolutely no impact as UDA's do not require additional storage space.
Que 11: What is the difference between UDA's and Attribute dimensions?
Ans : Attribute dimensions provides more flexibility than UDA's. Attribute calculations dimensions which include five members with the default names sum, count, min, max and avg are automatically created for the attribute dimensions and are calculate dynamically.
Que 12: How does Attribute dimensions and UDA's impact batch calculation performance?
Ans: UDA's- No Impact as they do not perform any inherent calculations.
Attribute dim- No Impact as they perform only dynamic calculations.
Que 13: How can we display UDA's in reports? How do they impact report report performance.
Ans: UDA's values are never displayed in the reports and hence do not impact report performance.
Que 14: How does Attribute dim impact report performance?
Ans: They highly impact the report performance as the attributes are calculated dynamically when referenced in the report. For very large number of att dim displayed in the report, the performance could drastically reduce.
Que 15: While loading the data, you have applied both the selection criteria as well as rejection criteria to a same record. What will be the outcome.
Ans: Thw record will be rejected.
Que 16: How is data stored in the Essbase database?
Ans: Essbase is an file based database where the data is stored in PAG files of 2 GB each and grows sequentially.
Que 17: Can we have multiple databases in one single application?
Ans: Yes. But only one database per application is recommended.
Que 18: Can we have one ASO database and one BSO database in one single application. If yes, how and If No, why.
Ans 18. No. Because we define ASO or BSO option while creating the appication and not database. Hence if the application is ASO, the databases it contains will be that type only.
Que 19: What are the file extensions for an outline, rule file and a calc script.
Ans: .OTL, .RUL and .CSC
Que 20: What is the role of provider services.
Ans: To communicate between Essbase and Microsoft office tools.
Que 21: What is an alternative to create metaoutline, rule file and load data.
Answer: Integration services and in version 11, we have Essbase studio.
Que 22: Can we start and stop an application individually. How ca this be used to increase performance.
Ans: Yes. We can manage our server resources by starting only the applications which receive heavy user traffic. When an application is started, all associated atabases are brought to the memory.
Que 23: We have created an application as unicode mode. Can we change it later to non-unicode mode.
Ans: No.
Que 24: How can I migrate an application from my test environment to the production environment. Can I still do this if my test environment is a windows one and my production env is UNIX one. Also can I still do it if my test env and prod env versions are different.
Ans: Hyperion Administrative services console provides a migration utility to do this but onluy the application, database objects are migrated and no data is transferred. the answers to other two questions are Yes.
Que 25: A customer wants to run two instances of an Essbase server on a same machine to have both test env and Development env on the same server. Can he do that?
Ans: Yes. We can have multiple instances of an Essbase server on a single machine and there will be dfferent sets of windows services for all these instances.
Que: 26 suppose I have a dimension A with members B and C and I do not want B and C to roll up to A. how can I do this.
Ans: Using (~) exclude from consolidation operator.
Que 27: What does never consolidate operator(^) do?
Ans: It prevents members from being consolidate across any dimension.
Que 28: Can we have multiple metaoutlines based on one OLAP model in Integration services?
Ans: Yes
Que 29: Can we have an metaoutline based on two different OLAp models.
Ans: No.
Que 30: What is hybrid analysis?
Ans: Lower level members and associated data remains in relational database where as upper level members and associated data resides in Essbase database.
Que 31: Why top-down calculation less efficient than a bottom-up calculation?Being less efficient, why do we use them.
Ans: In the process it calculates more blocks than is necessary. Sometimes it is necessary to perform top-down calculation to get the correct calculation results.
Que 32: On what basis you will decide to invoke a serial or parellel calculation method.
Ans: If we have a single processor, we will use serial calculation but if we have multiple processors we can break the task into threads and make them run on different processors.
Que 33: What is block locking system?
Ans: Analytic services(or Essbase Services) locks the block and all other blocks which contain the childs of that block while calculating this block is block locking system.
Que 34: What are the types of partitioning options available in Essbase?
Ans: 1. Replicated partition. 2. Transparent partition 3. Linked partition.
Que 35: Dynamic calc decreases the retreival time and increases batch database calculation time. How true is the statement?
Ans: The statement should be just opposite. As dynamic calc members are calculated when requested, the retreival time should increase.
Que 36: A customer has a cube with 13 dimensions and the performance was fine. Now they have added two more dimensions in the existing cube and the performance becomes very very slow. Customer said logically nothing wrong with the two new dimensions they have added. What could be the reason for slowdown.
Ans: Even I dont have any clue. I experienced this few days back with a customer. If you can throw some light on this, please post your answer.
If you have more questions with answers, please post them so that all of us can benefit.
Also let me know your views and suggestions.
Manohar Rana
If you have more questions with answers, please post them so that all of us can benefit.
Also let me know your views and suggestions.
Manohar Rana
Hyperion Essbase Migration
Hi,
Check out my recent post where I have shown how we can Migrate Essbase Applications from one server to another using file system.
For past few days, I was getting too many queries for upgradation and migration from lower versions to system 9.
1. Brio version 5 to Interactive reporting system 9- This is the most difficult and time consuming migration. Brio customers having versions lower than 6.5 needs to first migrate to atleast 6.5 and then they can migrate to system 9. The BQY documents containing features not supported may not migrate correctly or fully.
2. Hyperion Essbase customers will not have that many problems. Using migration utility they can migrate an Essbase application from lower version to higher version on different server or on different platform.
Customers who are using version less than 9.2.0.3 will have to first come to this version and then they can upgrade to 9.3.1 or 11.1.
if you have any specific questions relating to migration, please post them.
Check out my recent post where I have shown how we can Migrate Essbase Applications from one server to another using file system.
For past few days, I was getting too many queries for upgradation and migration from lower versions to system 9.
1. Brio version 5 to Interactive reporting system 9- This is the most difficult and time consuming migration. Brio customers having versions lower than 6.5 needs to first migrate to atleast 6.5 and then they can migrate to system 9. The BQY documents containing features not supported may not migrate correctly or fully.
2. Hyperion Essbase customers will not have that many problems. Using migration utility they can migrate an Essbase application from lower version to higher version on different server or on different platform.
Customers who are using version less than 9.2.0.3 will have to first come to this version and then they can upgrade to 9.3.1 or 11.1.
if you have any specific questions relating to migration, please post them.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Business Intelligence Interview Questions
I have got these queries from someone and I would like to share my views. I dont claim my answers to be correct and hence wherever you dont agree, please let me know and share your views.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them.
Question:How you generally Approach to ur Analytics Project?
Answer: Any project should start from defining the scope of the project and the approach
should be not to deviate from the scope.
Then the project should be functionally divided into smaller modules generally done by
project managers alongwith technical and functional leads.
The functional leads then decide on majorly three things:
1. According to the defined scope of the project they start gathering requirements while
interacting with the clients.
2. They had a discussion with the technical leads and try to reach a solution.
3. Technical leads decides what schemas to create and what requirements are going to
fulfill by that schema.
Technical leads discuss all this with the developers and try to close requirements.
Simultaneously testing and deployment is planned in a phased manner.
Question: How we are going to decide which schema we are going to implement in the data warehouse?
Answer: One way is what is mentioned in Question above.
If you ask me to blindly create schemas for the warehouse without knowing any requirements,
I will simply first divide the schemas on the basis of functional areas of an Organisation
which are similar to the modules in an ERP like sales, finance, purchase, inventory,
production, HR etc.
I will broadly describe the expected analysis an organisation would like to do in every
module. I think this way you would be able to complete at least 40-50 % of the
requirements. To move ahead, study the data and business and you can create few more
schemas.
Question: What are the Challenges You Faced while making of Reports?
Answer: Making of an report has never been a difficult task. But problem comes when users
are reluctant to adopt a new system. I have experienced that if you are not able to create
the report in exactly the way they used to see, they will keep asking for the changes. Your
approach should be to first show them what they want to see and then add more information
in the report.
Question: What you will do when your Report is not Fetching Right Data?
Answer: this is the biggest problem in report creation and verification. There could be two
reasons for report not fetching the right data.
1. Mostly clients do not have correct data in their database and on top of that to correct
the results they make some changes at the report level to bring the desired result which
you may not e aware of while creating the reports. Clients try to match the data with their
existing reports and you never get the correct results. you try to discover the things and
at later stage come to know of all these problems and you are held responsible for this
delay. Hence always consult the SPOC(Single Point of Contact) and try to understand the
logic they have used to generate their reports.
2. If the database values are correct, there there could be a problem with the joins and
relations in the schema. You need to discover that analysing and digging deep into the
matter.
There are more questions which I will try to answer later.
The questions are very specific to OBIEE and I dont have much experience in that. Hence you may not agree to my answers, but wherever please post a comment and let me know too.
Question: How analytics Process Your Request When you Create your Requests.
Answer: If the Question means how does Oracle BI Analytics Server processes the user requests, the answer is- Oracle BI server converts the logical SQL submitted by the client into optimised physical SQL which is then sent to the backend database. Also in between it performs various tasks like converting the user operations like user selections to form a logical SQL, checking and verifying credentials, breaking the request into threads(as Oracle BI is a multi threaded server), processes the requests, manages the cached results, again converting the results received from the database into user presentable form etc.
Question: From where u Get the Logical Query of your Request?
Answer: The logical SQL generated by the server can be viewed in BI Answers. If I have not understood the question, Please raise your voice.
Question: Major Challenges You Faced While Creating the RPD??????
Answer: Every now and then there are problems with the database connections but the problem while creating the repository RPD files comes with complex schemas made on OLTP systems consisting of lot of joins and checking the results. Th type of join made need to be checked. By default it is inner join but sometimes the requirement demands other types of joins. There are lot of problems with the date formats also.
Question: What are Global Filter and how thery differ From Column Filter?
Answer: Column filter- simply a filter applied on a column which we can use to restrict our column values while pulling the data or in charts to see the related content.
Global filter- Not sure. I understand this filter will have impact on across the application but I really dont understand where and how it can be user. I heard of global variables but not global filters.
How to make the Delivery Profilers Work?
When we are Use SA System how Does SA Server understand that It needs to use it For Getting
the User Profile information?
Where to Configure the Scheduler?
Answer: I am not sure if Iam correct but we configure the OBIEE schedular in database.
Question: How to hide Certain Columns From a User?
Answer: Application access level security- Do not add the column in the report, Do not add the column in the presentation layer.
Question:How can we Enable Drills in a Given Column Data?
Answer: To enable Drill down for a column, it should be included in the hirarchy in OBIEE. Hyperion IR has a drill anywhere feature where dont have to define and can drill to any available column.
Question: Is Drill Down Possible without the attribute being a Part of a Hierarchical Dimension?
Answer: No
Question: How do u Conditional Format.?
Answer: while creating a chat in BI Answers, you can define the conditions and can apply colour formatting.
Question: What is Guided Navigation?
Answer: I think it is just the arrangement of hyperlinks to guide the user to navigate between the reports to do the analysis.
How is Webcat File Deployed Across Environment?
Question: How the users Created Differs From RPD/Answers/Dashboards Level?????
Answer: RPD users can do administrator tasks like adding new data source, create hirarchies, change column names where as Answers users may create new charts, edit those charts and Dashboard users may only view and analyse the dashboard or can edit dashboard by adding/removing charts objects.
Question: Online/Offline Mode how it Impact in Dev and Delpoyment????
Answer: Online Mode- You can make changes in the RPD file and push in changes which will be immediately visible to the users who are already connected. This feature we may use in production environment.
Offline mode- can be useful in test or development environment.
Questions: Explan me the Schema in Your Last Project???????
DB What happens if u Reconcile/Sync Both????
If you have any questions or comments, please post them.
Question:How you generally Approach to ur Analytics Project?
Answer: Any project should start from defining the scope of the project and the approach
should be not to deviate from the scope.
Then the project should be functionally divided into smaller modules generally done by
project managers alongwith technical and functional leads.
The functional leads then decide on majorly three things:
1. According to the defined scope of the project they start gathering requirements while
interacting with the clients.
2. They had a discussion with the technical leads and try to reach a solution.
3. Technical leads decides what schemas to create and what requirements are going to
fulfill by that schema.
Technical leads discuss all this with the developers and try to close requirements.
Simultaneously testing and deployment is planned in a phased manner.
Question: How we are going to decide which schema we are going to implement in the data warehouse?
Answer: One way is what is mentioned in Question above.
If you ask me to blindly create schemas for the warehouse without knowing any requirements,
I will simply first divide the schemas on the basis of functional areas of an Organisation
which are similar to the modules in an ERP like sales, finance, purchase, inventory,
production, HR etc.
I will broadly describe the expected analysis an organisation would like to do in every
module. I think this way you would be able to complete at least 40-50 % of the
requirements. To move ahead, study the data and business and you can create few more
schemas.
Question: What are the Challenges You Faced while making of Reports?
Answer: Making of an report has never been a difficult task. But problem comes when users
are reluctant to adopt a new system. I have experienced that if you are not able to create
the report in exactly the way they used to see, they will keep asking for the changes. Your
approach should be to first show them what they want to see and then add more information
in the report.
Question: What you will do when your Report is not Fetching Right Data?
Answer: this is the biggest problem in report creation and verification. There could be two
reasons for report not fetching the right data.
1. Mostly clients do not have correct data in their database and on top of that to correct
the results they make some changes at the report level to bring the desired result which
you may not e aware of while creating the reports. Clients try to match the data with their
existing reports and you never get the correct results. you try to discover the things and
at later stage come to know of all these problems and you are held responsible for this
delay. Hence always consult the SPOC(Single Point of Contact) and try to understand the
logic they have used to generate their reports.
2. If the database values are correct, there there could be a problem with the joins and
relations in the schema. You need to discover that analysing and digging deep into the
matter.
There are more questions which I will try to answer later.
The questions are very specific to OBIEE and I dont have much experience in that. Hence you may not agree to my answers, but wherever please post a comment and let me know too.
Question: How analytics Process Your Request When you Create your Requests.
Answer: If the Question means how does Oracle BI Analytics Server processes the user requests, the answer is- Oracle BI server converts the logical SQL submitted by the client into optimised physical SQL which is then sent to the backend database. Also in between it performs various tasks like converting the user operations like user selections to form a logical SQL, checking and verifying credentials, breaking the request into threads(as Oracle BI is a multi threaded server), processes the requests, manages the cached results, again converting the results received from the database into user presentable form etc.
Question: From where u Get the Logical Query of your Request?
Answer: The logical SQL generated by the server can be viewed in BI Answers. If I have not understood the question, Please raise your voice.
Question: Major Challenges You Faced While Creating the RPD??????
Answer: Every now and then there are problems with the database connections but the problem while creating the repository RPD files comes with complex schemas made on OLTP systems consisting of lot of joins and checking the results. Th type of join made need to be checked. By default it is inner join but sometimes the requirement demands other types of joins. There are lot of problems with the date formats also.
Question: What are Global Filter and how thery differ From Column Filter?
Answer: Column filter- simply a filter applied on a column which we can use to restrict our column values while pulling the data or in charts to see the related content.
Global filter- Not sure. I understand this filter will have impact on across the application but I really dont understand where and how it can be user. I heard of global variables but not global filters.
How to make the Delivery Profilers Work?
When we are Use SA System how Does SA Server understand that It needs to use it For Getting
the User Profile information?
Where to Configure the Scheduler?
Answer: I am not sure if Iam correct but we configure the OBIEE schedular in database.
Question: How to hide Certain Columns From a User?
Answer: Application access level security- Do not add the column in the report, Do not add the column in the presentation layer.
Question:How can we Enable Drills in a Given Column Data?
Answer: To enable Drill down for a column, it should be included in the hirarchy in OBIEE. Hyperion IR has a drill anywhere feature where dont have to define and can drill to any available column.
Question: Is Drill Down Possible without the attribute being a Part of a Hierarchical Dimension?
Answer: No
Question: How do u Conditional Format.?
Answer: while creating a chat in BI Answers, you can define the conditions and can apply colour formatting.
Question: What is Guided Navigation?
Answer: I think it is just the arrangement of hyperlinks to guide the user to navigate between the reports to do the analysis.
How is Webcat File Deployed Across Environment?
Question: How the users Created Differs From RPD/Answers/Dashboards Level?????
Answer: RPD users can do administrator tasks like adding new data source, create hirarchies, change column names where as Answers users may create new charts, edit those charts and Dashboard users may only view and analyse the dashboard or can edit dashboard by adding/removing charts objects.
Question: Online/Offline Mode how it Impact in Dev and Delpoyment????
Answer: Online Mode- You can make changes in the RPD file and push in changes which will be immediately visible to the users who are already connected. This feature we may use in production environment.
Offline mode- can be useful in test or development environment.
Questions: Explan me the Schema in Your Last Project???????
DB What happens if u Reconcile/Sync Both????
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2008
Gartner's Magic Quadrant is an easy way of knowing the various tools with their capabilities, shortcomings and market position.
Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2008
Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence 2008
Hyperion Licensing Information
for hyperion essbase pricing policy, you can refer to the Oracle Price List
This document is for general purpose.
My main motto behind writing this post is to throw some light on types of licensing policies of softwares.
Before some time there was lot of confusion about the types of licenses. Let me explain them.
1. Named User License:
A named user license allows the software to be used by one specific user named when you purchase the software. Named user licenses may be installed on multiple computers but they may only be accessed by the named user, they may not be shared in any way. A named user license may not be used at the same time on different computers.
It can also be defined as an individual authorized by you to use the programs which are installed on a single server or multiple servers, regardless of whether the individual is actively using the programs at any given time. A non human operated device will be counted as a named user plus in addition to all individuals authorized to use the programs, if such devices can access the programs.
2. Concurrent user license or Floating user license:
A floating user license, sometimes known as a concurrent user license, allows the software to be used by more than one user at the same site but limits the number of simultaneous users to the number of licenses purchased.
For example, three floating user licenses permit three users to access the software at the same time. A fourth user must wait until one of the current users exits the software before they may use the software. A floating user license is sometimes called a concurrent or shared license. Floating user licenses should be purchased for any installation where multiple users may access the software on the same computer such as a build server.
3. Processor based license:
This is defined as the number or procesors where the software is installed and running. The number of cores and core processor licensing factor which generally ranges from 0.25 to 0.75 also decides the number of processors to be considered for licensing.
For example, an XYZ server installed and/or running the program on 6 cores and having core processor licensing factor of .25 would require 2 processor licenses (6 multiplied by a core processor licensing factor of .25 equals 1.50 which is then rounded up to the next whole number which is 2).
There are some other types of licensing terms but only these are used mostly.
This document is for general purpose.
My main motto behind writing this post is to throw some light on types of licensing policies of softwares.
Before some time there was lot of confusion about the types of licenses. Let me explain them.
1. Named User License:
A named user license allows the software to be used by one specific user named when you purchase the software. Named user licenses may be installed on multiple computers but they may only be accessed by the named user, they may not be shared in any way. A named user license may not be used at the same time on different computers.
It can also be defined as an individual authorized by you to use the programs which are installed on a single server or multiple servers, regardless of whether the individual is actively using the programs at any given time. A non human operated device will be counted as a named user plus in addition to all individuals authorized to use the programs, if such devices can access the programs.
2. Concurrent user license or Floating user license:
A floating user license, sometimes known as a concurrent user license, allows the software to be used by more than one user at the same site but limits the number of simultaneous users to the number of licenses purchased.
For example, three floating user licenses permit three users to access the software at the same time. A fourth user must wait until one of the current users exits the software before they may use the software. A floating user license is sometimes called a concurrent or shared license. Floating user licenses should be purchased for any installation where multiple users may access the software on the same computer such as a build server.
3. Processor based license:
This is defined as the number or procesors where the software is installed and running. The number of cores and core processor licensing factor which generally ranges from 0.25 to 0.75 also decides the number of processors to be considered for licensing.
For example, an XYZ server installed and/or running the program on 6 cores and having core processor licensing factor of .25 would require 2 processor licenses (6 multiplied by a core processor licensing factor of .25 equals 1.50 which is then rounded up to the next whole number which is 2).
There are some other types of licensing terms but only these are used mostly.
Hyperion Reporting and Analysis Architecture
Lets understand the various components of Hyperion:
Workspace is a common window to view the contents of all Hyperion components.
Hyperion Reporting and Analysis:
Client: The client tools consist of
Workspace: It is a DHTML Zero footprint web client and provide the user interface for viewing and interacting with the reports created using Authoring studios.
Authoring Studios: These are the client interfaces to create the reports and includes-
(a) Hyperion Interactive Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to different data sources including the flat files and build very interactive presentation reports like reports in simple tabular format, pivot reports, graphs and charts with drill anywhere feature which means that you don’t have to define the hierarchy or drill path and slicing and dicing and Dashboards with many features like hyperlinks to the details reports and embedded browser which can be used to view any other web application to open within the Dashboards.
(b) Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to the multidimentional data sources and create highly formatted financial reports by simply dragging and dropping rows and columns and defining page breaks.
(c) Hyperion SQR Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to wide range of data sources and produce high volume pixel perfect operational reports and can be scheduled.
(d) Hyperion Web Analysis: Java applet where you can connect to different data sources using JDBC and build interactive reports and dashboards.
Smart view for office: This is a tight integration with Microsoft Office tools where ou can do analysis like drill downs, keep only and remove only options, POV manager, data refresh, copying data cells and pasting to MS Word and Powerpoint which automatically gets refreshed if the data changes in the source etc. There is one more component in smart wiew which is Hyperion Visual Explorer(HVE), where again you can view the data in presentable interactive graphs and charts.
Application Layer: It consists of two parts :
Web Tier: It consists of two parts (a) Web server- to send and receives content from the web clients. (b) Application server- it is a J2EE application server.
Web server and application server are connected using an HTTP connector.
The web Tier hosts the web applications like workspace, web analysis, interactive , SQR and financial reporting applications.
2. Services Tier: It contains services and servers that controls the functionality of the web applications and clients. Core services handles repository information, authorization, session information, documents publication.
Workspace is a common window to view the contents of all Hyperion components.Hyperion Reporting and Analysis:
One zero-footprint Web-based thin client provides users with access to content:
● Financial reporting for scheduled or on-demand highly formatted financial and operational reporting from most data sources including Hyperion Planning – System 9 and Hyperion Financial Management – System 9
● Interactive reporting for ad hoc relational queries, self-service reporting and dashboards against ODBC data sources
● SQR Production reporting for high volume enterprise-wide production reporting.
● Web analysis for interactive ad hoc analysis, presentation, and reporting of multidimensional data.
Hyperion Reporting and Analysis Architecture:(This diagram is taken from some Hyperion Document)
Client: The client tools consist ofWorkspace: It is a DHTML Zero footprint web client and provide the user interface for viewing and interacting with the reports created using Authoring studios.
Authoring Studios: These are the client interfaces to create the reports and includes-
(a) Hyperion Interactive Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to different data sources including the flat files and build very interactive presentation reports like reports in simple tabular format, pivot reports, graphs and charts with drill anywhere feature which means that you don’t have to define the hierarchy or drill path and slicing and dicing and Dashboards with many features like hyperlinks to the details reports and embedded browser which can be used to view any other web application to open within the Dashboards.
(b) Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to the multidimentional data sources and create highly formatted financial reports by simply dragging and dropping rows and columns and defining page breaks.
(c) Hyperion SQR Reporting Studio: Windows client where you can connect to wide range of data sources and produce high volume pixel perfect operational reports and can be scheduled.
(d) Hyperion Web Analysis: Java applet where you can connect to different data sources using JDBC and build interactive reports and dashboards.
Smart view for office: This is a tight integration with Microsoft Office tools where ou can do analysis like drill downs, keep only and remove only options, POV manager, data refresh, copying data cells and pasting to MS Word and Powerpoint which automatically gets refreshed if the data changes in the source etc. There is one more component in smart wiew which is Hyperion Visual Explorer(HVE), where again you can view the data in presentable interactive graphs and charts.
Application Layer: It consists of two parts :
Web Tier: It consists of two parts (a) Web server- to send and receives content from the web clients. (b) Application server- it is a J2EE application server.
Web server and application server are connected using an HTTP connector.
The web Tier hosts the web applications like workspace, web analysis, interactive , SQR and financial reporting applications.
2. Services Tier: It contains services and servers that controls the functionality of the web applications and clients. Core services handles repository information, authorization, session information, documents publication.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Siebel Analytics (OBIEE) Vs Hyperion Essbase
In this post I will discuss some of the major differences between OBIEE and Hyperion Essbase.
I have got the opportunity to work on Oracle BIEE formerly known as Siebel Analytics and Hyperion Essbase. Sometimes people come up with a question that which one is the best and what are the differences. I just want to share some views which you may ar may not agree. I would appreciate any comments.
1. From a broader prospective, I felt that Hyperion Essbase is a very comprehensive BI tool with very advance features to cater specific areas of an organisation. Essbase provide options like Block storage and aggregate storage options. Block storage options can be very effective for planning and budgeting applications and it also enablles to write back the data like budget data to essbase and do what-if analysis and save their versions. Even OBIEE allows you to write back but not useful for what-if type analysis.
Organisations keeping most of their planning and analysis data in MS Excel, would find it more useful than Siebel analytics. To load data from text files, load rule files can be created which holds the information about any transformation or cleaning operation done and same load rule file can be used for many loads.
Lets discuss on some more differences-
1. Hyperion Essbase is MOLAP where as OBIEE is ROLAP- MOLAP as we store the cube data, analysis is much faster than ROLAP where data is not stored anywhere and queried directly from the source database. But when you are storing an Essbase cube you can analyse data only upto the time it was created( we call it near real time analysis) where as OBIEE gives you the 100% real time analysis. Now this all depends on the needs of an Organisation.Hyperion Essbase also provides XOLAP or hybrid OLAP where Summary level data resides in Essbase cube but detail data is retreived fom the source database. Also to load the data in the cubes or refresh the cube with fresh data, it takes some time and resource.
2. Hyperion Essbase requires a relational database to store metadata where as OBIEE does not. So you can save a lot on this.
3. Hyperion essbase use Microsoft Excel as analysis tool- This is one feature where Hyperion scores over OBIEE. Its not that OBIEE does not have integration with Excel but the way you do it in Hyperion is amazing. OBIEE only allows you to open the charts you have created in Excel or powerpoint and analyse but Hyperion places the entire cube in front of you in excel and you can drill down, add or remove dimensions, apply filters, pivot data, slice and dice and much more and also the write back capability which makes it the first choice for budgeting and forecasting applications. This is very important from implementation perspective as most of the users are already working on excel and they do not even think twice of acceping the system I mean users adaptibiliy is high and fast as compared to any other system which generally take atleast 15 days to learn and 1 month to understand and atleast 2 months to get fully used to the system and 3 months to accept the system. So a very big factor interms of a project being successful. Also, saves a lot of cost on training.
4. Pre built applications available for OBIEE- Oracle has created pre-built schemas, reports and dashboards for some major ERP's like SAP, Oracle Apps, JD Edwards, peoplesoft etc. Those warehouse pre-built schemas can be used by Hyperion but only to some extent and as the dashboards are created in OBIEE, Hyperion cannot use it. This is the scenario as of now but soon they will be available for Hyperion as well.
5. Very easy for end users to design dashboards in OBIEE. If you need a system only for your BI and reporting needs, OBIEE will be a good value proposition.
6. Advance analytics, what-if's, predictive modelling and very fast infact lightening fast system Hyperion Essbase would be effective.
I have got the opportunity to work on Oracle BIEE formerly known as Siebel Analytics and Hyperion Essbase. Sometimes people come up with a question that which one is the best and what are the differences. I just want to share some views which you may ar may not agree. I would appreciate any comments.
1. From a broader prospective, I felt that Hyperion Essbase is a very comprehensive BI tool with very advance features to cater specific areas of an organisation. Essbase provide options like Block storage and aggregate storage options. Block storage options can be very effective for planning and budgeting applications and it also enablles to write back the data like budget data to essbase and do what-if analysis and save their versions. Even OBIEE allows you to write back but not useful for what-if type analysis.
Organisations keeping most of their planning and analysis data in MS Excel, would find it more useful than Siebel analytics. To load data from text files, load rule files can be created which holds the information about any transformation or cleaning operation done and same load rule file can be used for many loads.
Lets discuss on some more differences-
1. Hyperion Essbase is MOLAP where as OBIEE is ROLAP- MOLAP as we store the cube data, analysis is much faster than ROLAP where data is not stored anywhere and queried directly from the source database. But when you are storing an Essbase cube you can analyse data only upto the time it was created( we call it near real time analysis) where as OBIEE gives you the 100% real time analysis. Now this all depends on the needs of an Organisation.Hyperion Essbase also provides XOLAP or hybrid OLAP where Summary level data resides in Essbase cube but detail data is retreived fom the source database. Also to load the data in the cubes or refresh the cube with fresh data, it takes some time and resource.
2. Hyperion Essbase requires a relational database to store metadata where as OBIEE does not. So you can save a lot on this.
3. Hyperion essbase use Microsoft Excel as analysis tool- This is one feature where Hyperion scores over OBIEE. Its not that OBIEE does not have integration with Excel but the way you do it in Hyperion is amazing. OBIEE only allows you to open the charts you have created in Excel or powerpoint and analyse but Hyperion places the entire cube in front of you in excel and you can drill down, add or remove dimensions, apply filters, pivot data, slice and dice and much more and also the write back capability which makes it the first choice for budgeting and forecasting applications. This is very important from implementation perspective as most of the users are already working on excel and they do not even think twice of acceping the system I mean users adaptibiliy is high and fast as compared to any other system which generally take atleast 15 days to learn and 1 month to understand and atleast 2 months to get fully used to the system and 3 months to accept the system. So a very big factor interms of a project being successful. Also, saves a lot of cost on training.
4. Pre built applications available for OBIEE- Oracle has created pre-built schemas, reports and dashboards for some major ERP's like SAP, Oracle Apps, JD Edwards, peoplesoft etc. Those warehouse pre-built schemas can be used by Hyperion but only to some extent and as the dashboards are created in OBIEE, Hyperion cannot use it. This is the scenario as of now but soon they will be available for Hyperion as well.
5. Very easy for end users to design dashboards in OBIEE. If you need a system only for your BI and reporting needs, OBIEE will be a good value proposition.
6. Advance analytics, what-if's, predictive modelling and very fast infact lightening fast system Hyperion Essbase would be effective.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Learn Qlikview
I have posted a tutorial for how to create quick dashboard in Qlikview at
Manohar Rana: Getting Started with Qlikview
You amy also like to read detailed comparison of Qlikview with others tools at
Qlikview Vs Others
You can also refer to the complete tutorial provided by Qliktech at
Qliktech Tutorial
Manohar Rana: Getting Started with Qlikview
You amy also like to read detailed comparison of Qlikview with others tools at
Qlikview Vs Others
You can also refer to the complete tutorial provided by Qliktech at
Qliktech Tutorial
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Business Intelligence Will Decline
Gartner Says Strong Growth in Business Intelligence Will Decline as Market Flux Continues
Analysts Discuss Shifting Business Intelligence Landscape at Gartner Business Intelligence Summit, 5-7 February 2008
Analysts Discuss Shifting Business Intelligence Landscape at Gartner Business Intelligence Summit, 5-7 February 2008
Egham, UK, January 10, 2008 — The days of strong double-digit growth in the business intelligence (BI) market are over as the industry enters a state of flux following vendor consolidation, increasing maturity and price erosion, said Gartner. However, BI remains mission critical for businesses as it turns information into an asset for deriving insight and making decisions. Gartner advised end users to make BI pervasive to business users by making it user-friendly, collaborative and process-driven.
Speaking ahead of the Gartner BI Summit, held from 5-7 February in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Gartner analysts said worldwide growth rates in 2007 are expected to be slightly lower than the previous year, at 12.5 per cent, and will move into single-digits beyond $7 billion by 2011, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6 per cent.
Following consolidation among BI vendors, Gartner added that value to users can also increase as a result of mergers and acquisitions in the market. “Consolidation activities by SAP, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft should help accelerate the value derived from BI,” said Gartner senior research analyst and presenter at the Gartner BI Summit, Dan Sommer. “Large vendors will drive increased usage, while new BI vendors will emerge introducing innovative technology and products to demonstrate differentiation and fill the gaps in "mega-vendors'" product lines.”
Competitive edge
Mr Sommer added that increased BI innovation also means that query, reporting and online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities have reached parity and no longer deliver competitive edge. Most vendors now include these basic BI capabilities in their product stacks, including Microsoft which added more BI functionalities in SQL Server 2005, Office 2007 and PerformancePoint Server. Remaining pure-play vendors can recruit application vendors (not SAP, Oracle or Microsoft) as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) of their BI platform to provide analytical applications, or leverage relationships with value-added resellers (VARs) for domain-specific solutions.
Successful pure-play BI vendors will incorporate emerging areas in BI such as dashboards, predictive modelling, enterprise search, interactive visualisation techniques and in-memory analytics. Hosted BI through software-as-a-service (SaaS) is one new approach being pioneered by a cluster of vendors including Seatab and LucidEra. They can also continue thriving by specialising by industry or geographic region. In addition, smaller and midsize organisations are becoming an important target market for BI vendors, with a large proportion being new opportunities.
Mega-vendor dominatio
The acquisitions by Oracle (Hyperion), SAP (Business Objects, still pending) and IBM (Cognos, still pending) in 2007 were disrupters for the market, which, if they are finalised, will eliminate all larger publicly traded BI companies. Overall, more than two-thirds of the current BI market is now attributed to the mega-vendors. The remaining BI powerhouse vendors SAS, Microstrategy, Information Builders, and more so, smaller BI vendors, such as Arcplan, Panorama, or Qliktech, will need to increase market push to stay visible above the increased noise from the “big four.”
North America, Western Europe and Japan are the most-significant regions in terms of BI spending and will still account for five-sixths of software revenue by 2011. However, "greenfield" opportunities, together with fast economic and structural developments, will fuel double-digit growth in Asia/Pacific, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.
End users
Gartner advises end users of BI solutions from vendors that have been recently acquired to hold strategic investments until a product roadmap has been clearly presented from the vendor. While there is no doubt that the acquired core products, such as Oracle’s Hyperion Essbase, Business Objects XI, or Cognos 8 will remain highly strategic and supported by extensive research and development funding, overlapping products in a vendor’s portfolio may see some defocus in the mid-term.
For more information on the Gartner BI Summit and to register for the event, please visit europe.gartner.com/bi.
Getting Started with Qlikview
You can download the free 15 days evaluation version from
Give window Title as Country Sales. Select the type of chart. This time let it be bar chart only. Click on Next.
Click on Finish to see the Raw report.
Now there are lot of options available to make it look more relevant and beautiful. But your report is made. With some few more changes it will look like this.
Play with it. Its a wonderful tool and you can make quick reports out of it.
Good Luck.
http://www.qlikview.com/download.htm
Installation is simple is quick without any configration.
Open Qlikview from the start menu.
Go to file – New to create an application. Save it.
This is how the interface will look like.
There are two types of options for relational databases. OLEDB and ODBC.Create a DSN and reference it Here. However you can create the DSN from Here also.
I have already created a DSN ‘SH’ and after selecting provide the username and password. Click on OK. A connection string will automatically appear on the screen.
Now click on Select button.
Select the correct owner. The table and columns available will appear.
Select the table required and columns. To select more than one table use ADD button.
Select table and click ADD. Again select another table and click ADD and so on.
Also check the Preceding load button just above add button.
You can see the script generated on the left pane.
Click on OK once completed.
The scipt will appear like this.
Save the application and click on Debug to see the effects. The fields with the same name will be joined automatically. Lets see the results.
Check limited load and let the rows be 10 only.
Click on Run button.
The script is run and finished. Click close.The fields will appear like this.
Click on OK. And save the application.
Click Ctrl+T. The relations will appear like this.
This relation is perfect hence no need to change any joins. Click on OK.
Now we will reload the application with complete data. Click on Reload button which is next to the edit script button. After reload is complete click on OK and save the application.
Now we Will try to create a sample report of country wise sales.
Right click on the window . Select New sheet object- chart.
Give window Title as Country Sales. Select the type of chart. This time let it be bar chart only. Click on Next.
Select Country Name as the Dimension.
Click on Next
Write this expression as shown.
Click on OK
Click on Finish to see the Raw report.
Now there are lot of options available to make it look more relevant and beautiful. But your report is made. With some few more changes it will look like this.
Play with it. Its a wonderful tool and you can make quick reports out of it.Good Luck.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Qlikview Vs Others
Hi,
I have worked on Qlikview version 7 and 8 for one year and now presently working on Oracle BIEE(Siebel Analytics) and Hyperion Essbase system 9. Have done dozens of POC and implementations and Qlikview has gained the same respect everywhere. Personally I just love this tool.
I have mentioned some of the important areas where Qlikview is lacking and you will notice that in the coming releases, Qliktech will try to touch all these areas showing some improvements.
I would like to share some pros and cons:
1. The biggest disadvantage is the amount or size of data. If you have data huge data in hundreds of GB, then qlikview may not be a good choice.Qlikview was having alimit of 2 Billion rows in a table to be loaded before the release of version 9 but now in version 9 it is not there and the size of data directly depends on system RAM. But even now I did not see a guide telling the RAM requirements for a specified amount of data and how does it increase as the amount of data size grows.
still there are some workarounds in certain cases. Design OLAP cubes or Data Marts in your database and keep the logic simple in Qlikview. Rather than creating a huge application, divide into smaller applications and use navigation. But if a single Datamart is huge, Qlikview is not for you.
2. Now speaking for small data sizes, I have observed that it is not the not the pill which cures a patient but it is the diagonosis of a doctor. Dont rapidly start making applications. They may be ready in few days but to manage them could be very difficult and time consuming. plan your needs, take some time to think on it and discuss. when plan is clear in your mind, start working on it.
3. For organisations having data growing rapidly, give a thought to create a datawarehouse with marts designed as per your needs. this will have two advantages. Your qlikview application would be simple and if tommarrow you plan to implement some other BI tool, this will be of great help.
4. few days back, I just heard about Qlikview providing alert capability. i am not sure if alerts can be sent to hand held devices and cell phones. Also check if these alerts can be designed by business users using some wizard or interface. If alerts can be created using API programming, it will really not be useful. I have seen a wizard based alerts available in Qlikview to define an event and sending the content via email.
5. Proprietary files -Another major disadvantage with all the tools storing data in their proprietary files like Qlikview, Essbase and Cognos. Tomorrow if you plan to have another tool for some reporting or if you plan to have another application talk to these cubes(Qliktech may not like to refer its files as cubes which I beleive is nothing else), then there could be a seroius problem. Major vendors generally provides connectors for major Multidimensional sources like Essbase and Cognos but for tools like Qlikview, it Could be difficult.
some of the features where Qlikview lacks are:
1. Alerts- Capability to create alerts and delivers it to not only Email but blackberries, hand held devices, mobile phones etc. In version 9, I heard something for this has come. Also Qlikview do not have any integration with BPEL.
2. Multi user development environment- This feature allows multiple developers work on a single project and the utility synchronises the peices of project each developer is working with the main project.Qlikview completely lacks this feature and until version 9, I did not hear anything about this feature coming up.
3. Connect and extract data from multi dimentional objects- I guess for SAP BW, the connector is available but not for Hyperion Essbase, Cognos Cubes and Microsoft cubes.
4. Export data or metadata to XML- The reports cannot be exported to XML format which is one of the major disadvantage. We can use the XML reports as a data source with another softwares which understands XML.
5. XBRL- Qlikview does not support XBRL. Those who do not understand what is XBRL and why it is required and useful, please read this http://www.xbrl.org/WhatIsXBRL/
6. Seperate component for operational reporting or production reporting or Popularly known as Pixel perfect reporting (for example Printing Salary Cheques) and report bursting like BI publisher(previously XML publisher) or SQR reporting in Hyperion Essbase. But we can argue here in the sense that Qlikview is an analytical tool and is not made for such needs but definately it restricts you somewhere and do not provide you with an option.
7. Integration with Microsoft Office tools- Qlikview just exports the data into an excel file or exports a report object to a png file or using OCX you can do something to make it work with MS office tools(I never tried this). It nowhere stands in comparison with Hyperion Add-In or Cognos Add-In. This is one area which is very important from business users point of view and developing this feature may not be that easy for Qliktech.
8. Support for advance features like embedded browser(available in hyperion Interactive reporting), flickers(rolling messeges) etc as an standard options.
9. Metadata Management- There is no concept of Physical model, Business Model and Presentation Model. There are no subject areas. The End users had access to all the tables loaded to the Qlikview and the matter becomes difficult when you have large number of tables involved. For end users to create a report themselves, they need to identify the tables and columns from this long list which can make things difficult for them. The solution to this could be to create a seperate Qlikview document for every subject area. This greatly effects managebility and reusability. Those who have worked with Oracle BIEE BI Administrator or Cognos Framework manager or Business Objects Universe will understand the importance of subject areas or Packages.
10. Impact Analysis- If you want to make a change in the Qlikview script or datasource and want to know the impact of this change on report objects beforehand, you could be in problem and may have to check each and every report manually and document it.
11. Alternate Hirarchies- No concept of Alternate Hirarchies.
12. SQL Generation- If you want to see the SQL generated behind a query, you can not see that in Qlikview whereas other tools like OBIEE, Cognos, BO and Essbase allows you to see the SQL/MDX generated for a query. This feature may not be relevant to business users but for developers this helps a lot in their day to day activities like debugging or data validation.
13. Resolving circular loops and traps: The only way to resolve circular loopes in Qlikview is to create an alias table wheare as in BO and Cognos you can define contexts which allows you to resolve the circular loops without creating any alias table. When it come to resolving traps like Chasm and Fan traps, Qlikview is helpless.
some more issues -
1. Security- Qlikview does not have a graphical interface to create roles, users and privilages assigning to roles. Also can users be allowed to log in on certain weekdays only. Also can users change their passwords themselves using some interface. Does the password expires automatically after certain no of days and user will be asked to change it.
2. I am not sure if Qlikview can use user directory for external authentication like LDAP database or NTLM. Also can it be used with existing SSO(Single Sign On).
3. Does Qlikview has feature to automatically end the session if it is not being used to avoid any session hacking.
4. Is there any graphical interface to monitor the sessions in use. Check the queries they have fired, previous requests, kill any current requests, monitor time etc.
There are some good features in Qlikview as well:
1. The ability to consolidate the data coming from various sources(databases and flat files) which is in a common format in the data cloud(Qliktech uses this term). this is fantastic. In other OLAP tools sometimes it becomes difficult to join and RDBMS and a flat file data.
2. Many people criticise Qlikview for its associative logic which says the feild names with same names are joined automatically but the designer has the liberty to remove or edit those joins. Even Siebel analytics makes the joins automatically in BI Administrator and Hyperion Essbase sensing same field names.
It helps the designer to see the qualified members for joins and make amendments after verifying them.
Another post regarding Gartners BI Magic Quadrant 2009.
Any comments on this.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Hyperion Essbase system 9 Blog
Hi,
Feel free to post your queries and comments.I have posted lot of tutorials and information on the blog which help others to understand Hyperion Essbase.
If you want to contribute in some way, please do not hesitate.
If you want to contribute in some way, please do not hesitate.
regards
Manohar Rana
Monday, April 28, 2008
Oracle Business Intelligence
Hi,
I am working as Techno-Functional consultant for Oracle BI and Hyperion Essbase System 9.
I am working as Techno-Functional consultant for Oracle BI and Hyperion Essbase System 9.
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