Solutions

What is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence systems are designed to help improve business performance by making it easier for business people to get higher-quality data in a form they can use to make better decisions. Business intelligence systems frequently use multidimensional databases also called online analytical processing (OLAP) databases because they provide faster queries, it easier to create sophisticated calculations and they are easier for business users to understand.

The process of providing the data decision-makers need usually includes several stages. Most data is created by transaction systems: sales order systems, shipping systems, payment systems etc. Most of these transaction systems are built using relational databases, sometimes called online transaction processing ( OLTP ) systems. An individual transaction is usually a small number of data elements but there may be a very large number of transactions. Transaction systems are designed to efficiently handle a large number of small data sets.

Individual transactions are of little value to decision-makers. Decision makers look at the big picture, from the top down. You need to bring a large amount of data together to understand the big picture. Online analytical processing systems are designed to help decision-makers spot trends, understand relationships and make decisions in complex organizations with large data volumes.

Here are some of the features of OLAP systems that support better decision-making:

Speed of Thought Analysis
Query response time doesn’t degrade very much as data volumes get larger, even at very high volumes. Fast query times means business analysts can rapidly answer a series of questions and explore ideas.

Sophisticated Calculations and Logic
OLAP databases support forecasting, simulation and what if analysis more easily because formulas are expressed in terms of business users understand. In addition formulas are global which means they’re fast to implement and they are not very error prone.

Single Version of the Truth
OLAP databases facilitate consolidation of disparate data sources into a single workgroup data source. This data source can be secured and validated so that data is higher-quality and less susceptible to unauthorized access.

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Oracle Essbase

Essbase is an Online Analytical Processing System (OLAP). OLAP systems use multidimensional databases to provide “speed of thought” analysis to business users in order to maximize business performance.

Essbases’s multidimensional architecture provides several important advantages to business users as compared to the most common alternatives such as relational databases and spreadsheets:

Essbase provides your work group with fast, easy, secure access to a common data source which is organized into a logical model of your business. Users can access this model from their spreadsheets or from a wide variety of reporting tools. Report creation is easy because it’s an extension of of “stacked” spreadsheets concept that is already familiar to almost all business users. Essbase queries are extremely fast, usually less than a second even for large amounts of data. The multidimensional structure makes it relatively easy to create sophisticated logic and calculations to capture even the most complex business rules.

Essbase is widely used for profitability analysis, budgeting, forecasting and what-if analysis, and many other analytical applications.

Using Essbase you can empower your business users to make better decisions, improve collaboration, and maintain higher data quality and better security. That adds up to improving business performance.

Oracle Partner

Following Oracle’s 2007 acquisition of Hyperion, MTG’s status as a Hyperion Affiliate Partner was extended via Oracle University, the education and training division of Oracle. Oracle University has been the education division of Oracle Corporation since the corporation began in 1977.

Both MTG and OU are committed to providing every student who attends our public Essbase courses with world-class training and an unbeatable educational experience. Our training is backed up with a 100% Student Satisfaction program. In the event that a student who has completed a class and been present for all of the offering is not, in his/her reasonable opinion, satisfied with the class, Oracle will then permit the student to retake the same version of the same class title.

Microsoft Partner

MTG is a Microsoft Partner and recommends and supports Windows installations. The majority of Essbase installations run on Windows.  In our experience MS operating systems are the easiest to maintain and least troublesome platform for your Essbase installation while offering the best performance.

Other available Microsoft programs including MS SQL Server and Office help fulfill the requirements of your Essbase setup. Be sure to sign up for our webcast Maximizing BI with MS Office and SmartView.

If you have any questions regarding how Microsoft software can be utilized in your future or existing Essbase installation, please contact us.