KPI Partners Blog

by Jeremiah Johnson

The health of a business' finances is the strongest determinant of whether the company is thriving or in dire straits. It is for this reason that paying close attention to key finance metrics is an absolute necessity. If business leaders are consistently implementing these metrics and they discover that their business' finances are off track, then they can make adjustments before it is too late do do anything.

Tags: Financial Analytics, Finance, Business Intelligence, Jeremiah Johnson, Blog

by Ron Cruz

Using Admintool.exe To Prepare An OBIEE RPD for Deployment

I know that for many business intelligence implementation teams the extent of preparing an Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) repository for deployment is putting the repository (RPD) out on a network share.  This past week I was reminded how important it is to check and prepare your RPD properly for deployment.  I’ve seen clients that have failed to check/prepare their RPD for deployment fall victim to issues such as:

Tags: OBIEE, Ron Cruz, Business Intelligence, Tutorial, Oracle BI, Blog

by Ravi Hoskote

Chart of Accounts Hierarchy

Chart of Accounts Hierarchy (COA) is a structure that is used to classify and group accounts for financial reporting purposes. All transactions can be done at the Account Level (lowest), and higher levels are for roll-ups for reporting purposes.

The diagram below shows a Chart of Accounts Hierarchy of Company X:

Tags: Data Warehousing, OBIEE, Oracle E-Business Suite, Ravi Hoskote, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Oracle BI, Oracle BI Applications, Blog

by Madan Thota

Social Media Analytics is a new concept within the business intelligence space.  Research has identified that mining through social data helps organizations to improve their customer satisfaction and company revenues.  One in every four people in the world uses social media for communication, interaction, and maintaining relationships with other people.  This valuable information is all passed through internet protocol. 

Tags: Pre-Built Solutions, Endeca, Unstructured Data, Madan Thota, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Video, Data Integration, Oracle BI, Blog

The results are in... here are KPI's Top 12 Business Intelligence Articles of 2013*

JANUARY The Primary Differences Between OBIEE 10g & 11g Security Models

Tags: OBIEE, Mobile BI, Awards, White Paper, Security, Shiva Molabanti, Ashok Das, Ashwin Pujari, Oracle BI Mobile App Designer, Rushendra Prasad, Imtiyaz Basha, EBook, Business Intelligence, Sridhar Kasthuri, Interactive Reporting, infographic, HR Analytics, Oracle BI, Oracle BI Applications, Book, Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), Hyperion, Blog

by Puneet Aggarwal

Many customers have real-time reporting requirements that are analytic in nature. Essentially, they have a real-time report as a starting point for a more detailed real-time analysis which can go a few levels deep. Shown below is a generic example of one such requirement for Account Analysis.

Tags: Data Warehousing, Oracle E-Business Suite, Real-Time BI, Training, Real-Time Supply Chain and Inventory Analytics, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Tutorial, Puneet Aggarwal, Oracle BI, Oracle BI Applications, Real-Time Financial Analytics, Blog

by Imtiyaz Basha

Step-by-Step Upgrade to OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1

Step 1
Download each of patch file for 16556157, 16569379, 17004920, 17220944

Tags: OBIEE, Mobile BI, Oracle BI Mobile App Designer, Imtiyaz Basha, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Tutorial, Oracle BI, Blog

by Imtiyaz Basha

Generic Features of the Oracle BI Mobile Application Designer (MAD)

• Drag and Drop
  The easiest way to create UI is to drag and drop. MAD has beautifully incorporated this feature where one can build the entire BI Mobile Application just by dragging and dropping components and data fields as required.

 

• Interactive 
  MAD is based on the “gestures” principal of touch and swipe. As most mobile apps use this technology for interaction, MAD has followed suit to adapt gesture interactivity for all the components in its libraries.
   
• App Library
  Users can share their new mobile apps across organizations using the publish feature. They can subscribe to these apps and receive updates when changes are being propagated to their subscribed apps.
   
• Security
  As MAD is integrated with Oracle BI Foundation Suite, the BI content has proven enterprise level security and performance capabilities.
   
• It's HTML5
  The complete BI Mobile Application Designer output is generated in HTML5 including the data visualization charts. It can run on any platform device or operating system without any glitches. MAD follows the philosophy of "Build once, distribute anywhere."

Known Issues With The Oracle BI Mobile Application Designer (MAD)

• When Updating App in Apps Library, Cover Image Is Not Updated
  When a new version of a preexisting app in the Apps Library is published and a new cover image for the app is added, the cover image does not get updated. To update, delete the original app from the Apps Library and publish it as a new app.

• Count & Count Distinct Not Supported for Non-Numeric Fields When Applying Stoplight Formatting 
  When stoplight formatting is applied to a component and a measure field is selected that is non-numeric, and Count or Count Distinct Formula is applied to it, you will receive the error "Invalid parameter data type, please contact the system admin." There are no solutions at this time.

• Canceling Apps Creation? Incomplete Draft Apps Remain in the My Folders/Drafts Folder 
  When you cancel the App Creation process from within the Mobile App Creation wizard, a draft app remains in your "My Folders/Drafts" folder. These drafts appear in the recent list on the BI Home page. To address this, manually delete the drafts in the "Drafts" folder.
   
• Apps Library Published Date Reflects Server Time Zone Setting Instead of User Preference Time Zone Setting
  When you view an app in the Apps Library, the published date reflects the server time zone setting and locale rather than the user’s preference setting for time zone and locale. This may cause inconsistencies with the time stamps shown in the catalog for the app. There are no solutions at this time.
   
• Parameter Type Check Box Does Not Allow Select All
  Parameters that display as checkboxes do not allow the "Select All" option. To fix this, manually check all boxes when you want to "Select All."

• Cascading Parameters Not Supported for BI Subject Area Data Sources
  When you define parameters for apps that use a BI Subject Area as a data source, the parameter dialog includes an option to "Refresh other parameters on change.”  This feature is not supported in this release.

More MAD Features

• Supports drill down charts.
• MAD comes with a separate filter component.
• Multiple types of data visualization supported such as; Line, Bar, Area, Bubble, Pie, 3D graphs, Circular and Funnel.
• Simple tables as well as complex pivot tables can be built.
• Images can be added by uploading them, using the URL link, or inserting them from a database field.
• MAD’s greatest strength is its repeater components! (ex: Tile and Accordion.)
• Complex frame sets can be created by including frames for laying out the components to make them aesthetically appealing.
• Choice of many Black and White themes.
• MAD applications can be built using three types of data sources: subject area, data sources, and external excel files.
• Drag and drop feature of the data fields from data source into the visual components.
• Clean layout, perfectly aligned component sets and toolbars help in building complex dashboards using few clicks.

Limitations Of The Oracle BI Mobile Application Designer (MAD)

• Have to build support dashboards for Mobile and Tablet devices.
• Theme change effect is not being applied to all the properties of components (you can see the black text on chart labels in the black theme). These kinds of glitches can also be seen on the tables.
• Backspace does not work. Oracle is trying to appease Apple users!
• Deleting a column from a table is not user friendly.
• Cannot add columns if there is no space. 

 

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Imtiyaz Basha is a Business Intelligence Consultant at KPI Partners and works with the expert team within the KPI Partners Offshore Technology Center. He is an Oracle Certified Professional whose areas of professional focus also include Hadoop, Java, and Data Science. Check out Imtiyaz's blog at KPIPartners.com.

Tags: OBIEE, Mobile BI, Oracle BI Mobile App Designer, Imtiyaz Basha, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Tutorial, Oracle BI

Premier support for Oracle Discoverer is ending in June 2014 and if you're feeling the pressure to migrate to another solution, you're not alone. Moving to Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle BI Applications, Oracle's newest flagship platform for business intelligence and decision support, is a decision facing many Discoverer customers.

Tags: Webinar, OBIEE, Pre-Built Solutions, Oracle Discoverer, Malini Saxena, Migrations, Real-Time Supply Chain and Inventory Analytics, Business Intelligence, Jeremiah Johnson, Events, Oracle BI Applications, Kumar Krishnaswamy, Real-Time Financial Analytics, Blog

by Shiva Molabanti

Prerequisites:

• OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 (If your version of Oracle BI EE is not 11.1.1.7.1, download Patch 16556157: OBIEE BUNDLE PATCH 11.1.1.7.1 from My Oracle Support).
• To support Oracle BI Mobile App Designer with Oracle BI Web Catalog, Apply OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 MLR Patch 17004920.
• Download Oracle BI Mobile App Designer Patch 17220944 from My Oracle Support.

Installation Steps:

1. Stop All OBIEE 11G services (Weblogic Admin Server, Managed Server and OPMN services).
2. Apply OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 MLR Patch 17004920 using OPatch Utility.
3. Apply Oracle BI Mobile App designer Patch 17220944 using OPatch Utility.
4. Deploy the Oracle BI Mobile App Designer (MAD) manually using Weblogic Configuration Assistant as shown below.
5. Open Command prompt window and Navigate to: <MW_HOME>\Oracle_BI1\common\bin
6. Run "config.bat" to start the WebLogic Configuration Assistant Tool.

On welcome screen, select ‘"Extend an existing WebLogic domain" and click "Next."

Tags: OBIEE, Mobile BI, Shiva Molabanti, Oracle BI Mobile App Designer, Oracle, Business Intelligence, Tutorial, Oracle BI, Oracle BI Applications, Blog