News of the week plus some of the best bits of 2013

OBIEE News is out!

Read the last edition of 2013!

Featuring posts and blogs from KPI Partners, Siebel Essentials and Art of BI

Also videos such as:

Blogs of the Week

This post is an extension of M and S Consulting’s last blog post about filters and selection steps. In this one, they focus their attention on writing logical SQL statements to help write more flexible ways to limit data writing case statements.

2. Data computing and integration, database parallel processing, alternative to R and Hadoop

This post focuses on:

– external memory computation

– data exchange

– memory sharing

– memory computation

3. Oracle SQL Developer: Potpourri and Random Thoughts

In this post, Jeff Smith answers the Million dollar question “When are you going to start charging for SQL Developer?” and looks back a little on 2013.

4. Types of Cloud Computing

The types of Cloud Computing are explored in more detail by Datawarehouse concepts.

5. OBIEE – Local minima and maxima in graph

Local minima and maxima (extrema) in graphs emphasis the points where the graphs change the trend. This post explores how to acieve it in OBIEE.

6. Is Data Quality The Biggest Threat To Obamacare?

“With the political problems hovering around the launch of The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) now seemingly left behind, the biggest threat to the Affordable Care Act is now a technical one.” This post by KPI Partners explores this in more detail.

7. Cost-Effective Business Intelligence for Mid-Market Companies

Another post by KPI Partners where Jeremiah Johnson says “Business intelligence (BI) provides great insight into how a business is being run, as well as which aspects of the business are succeeding and which are failing. A properly implemented BI system can provide a comprehensive breakdown of sales, and allows managers to react to an ever-shifting market. However, smaller and mid-sized businesses tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to business intelligence, as most of the hardware and software for effective business intelligence was too expensive for smaller organizations.”

Read the full blog post for more.

8. Adventures in OBIEE Upgrade Land: Quirks and Workarounds — Episode I

This is Blog 1 in a series of 3, where Jeremy Harris jots down any lessons learnt during upgrading!

See our blogger database here.

Some of the best blog posts of 2013 (in no particular order!)

1. How to Add Comments in Oracle BI (OBIEE) by The Art of Business Intelligence

“By adding comments in OBIEE users are able to provide their feedback on the decision making system of the enterprise. Commenting on a dashboard or annotating a cell with feedback or other descriptive details can provide a great way to corroborate information or provide persisting perspectives. This commentary can then be viewed by other users who have access to the BI system. Ultimately the goal of adding commentary in OBIEE is to have a system for persisting feedback, creating a call to action, and recognizing the BI System’s most prolific users. This is the basic concept of collective intelligence in Business Intelligence referred to as Collaborative BI.”

This post comprises of:

– Custom Build a Solution for Adding Comments in OBIEE

– What to know and What to ask for in a custom commenting solution

– Oracle APEX as a Solution for Adding Comments in OBIEE

– OBIEE Action Framework as a Solution for Adding Comments in OBIEE

– OBIEE BITeamwork Collaborative BI Solution for Adding Comments in OBIEE

2. My 3 Favorite Features of OBIEE 11.1.1.7

This blog by Corporate Technologies states that Waterfall Graphs, Table Scrollbars and Recommended Visualisation Views are their favourite three features of OBIEE 11.1.1.7!

3. Custom style and skin in OBIEE 11.1.1.7

Christian Berg tells us how to apply a custom detail in this step by step blog.

4. OBIEE 11.1.1.7 Creating a Performance Tile View

In Ravi’s Business Intelligence Blog, he goes through the steps to take in order to create a performance tile view: He provides detailed instructions and screenshots of the steps.

5. Insert an Image in the Narrative View

In this short, yet informative post, Sandeep details step by step how to add images in the narrative view. See the steps plus screenshots here.

6. Steps to Apply OBIEE 11G Patch (Simplyfied)

Another blog from Sandeep, where he tells us how to simply apply the OBIEE 11g patch. It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

7. Action Links in OBIEE 11g

In this blog by ‘All about DataWarehousing and Business Intelligence’, Kashif explores dashboard and columns in analysis methods. He goes through:

1. Dashboard Action Link

2. Analysis Action Link

3. Types of Actions

4. Navigate Action

5. Invoke Action Type

6. Steps to Implement Action Links on Dashboard and

7. Action Links in Analysis

Read his blog post here.

8. Top 10 Costly Mistakes for Business Intelligence / OBIEE Implementation Projects

In Oracle Business Intelligence 911, The Top 10 Costly Mistakes for Business Intelligence / OBIEE Implementation Projects are listed as:

1. Not setting the expectations right with users and senior management.

2. Going for BI Apps and assuming all out of the box reports will be ready and used by business.

3. Not spending enough time on designing repository to enable intuitive ad-hoc reporting.

4. Lack of user involvement during development project.

5. Not testing subject areas for Ad-hoc reporting.

6. Not having BI standards for requirement gathering, development, testing and migrations.

7. Hiring a great data modeller experienced with relational source systems, and letting him lead dimensional model design.

8. Using relational models instead of dimensional model.

9. Not having application level backups or other faster ways for disaster recovery.

10. Having developers or power users write access to non ad-hoc reports in Test, or Production environment.

(He then adds an 11th – Having multiple installations of software within the same organization) Read the full blog for more details.

Oracle OpenWorld 2013

Watch the videos, for example, Mark Hurd “Transforming Businesses with Big Data and Analytics” and download session pdfs

Read about the highlights from Server and Cloud Blog, Arik Hesseldahl, Danny Bryant and Oracle Fusion Middleware

Oracle Team USA – Winners of the 34th cup!

Named as one of the biggest Sporting Comebacks of 2013!!

ORACLE TEAM USA stages massive comeback to win 34th America’s Cup

Champagne spray and hugs all around as ORACLE TEAM USA celebrated victory in the 34th America’s Cup.

This week on LinkedIn

We run a group on LinkedIn for Oracle Business Intelligence consultants, from large consultancies to independents. It is aimed at users and developers of OBI, including Siebel Analytics. Over 7,000 members so far (and growing!), each one vetted to ensure they have a genuine interest in OBI. Sorry no agencies and no general networkers.
The group is used for sharing information on Oracle BI, including events, news and social gatherings.

This week’s highlights:

Rob Burton shared If You Want Innovation, You Have to Invest in People

Ujjal Das posted a link to Free White Paper: Enterprise Backup and Recovery Methodologies for Oracle

Kashinathan K shared Types of Cloud Computing

This week on Twitter