This is a very interesting post Taking a Look at Panorama and Google Apps. Mark is comparing some quick OLAP solutions with OBIEE.
Mark shows some limitations of those products, however, he also mentions that it’s a big improvement on what’s been available before.
Should Oracle be threatened? I don’t think so. Even though BI is a lucrative market for anyone, the cost of entry is way too high, even for a company like google. Sales reps take years to develop solid client relationships, and even though Google might take a stab at that by poaching Oracle’s talent – I seriously doubt it.
Finally, I don’t think google’s tool is positioned to compete with OBIEE.
I received a complimentary invite to go to the OpenWorld (thank you Oracle!). Unfortunately, it came in sort of late (the conference starts very soon on the Oct 11th) and the location is on the other coast (San Francisco). I am torn – on one side – it’s an excellent opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people in person (Mark, guys from BICG, and others) and engage in learning, on the other side, I like to plan things in advance – and this is a very short notice. Another side is that even with the cost of the conference covered ($2500), I still have significant direct and indirect costs such as plane, accomodation, and lost wages. Cost-benefit analysis can’t be completed easily due to the difficulty of defining metrics. On one hand, I’m not actively seeking clients/new employment; on the other hand – there’re some interesting obiee presentations (by Mark and Deloitte). I have a general feeling that going to the IOUG in DC would be more reachable.
If you’re going to the conference, can you please comment on your reasons for doing so.
It’s Tuesday, and there was a big tragedy in DC that everyone knows about. I ride on Red Line every day – and now I’m starting to think that I’m not riding in front car anymore. However, it’s quite possible that I’d have been riding the same train.
Official info about BI nomination is here – http://www.oracle.com/webapps/dialogue/dlgpage.jsp?p_ext=Y&p_dlg_id=7687732&src=6642150&Act=335
Probably the most interesting category for blog’s readers is this:
Using Oracle BI EE Plus to deliver intelligence and analytics from data spanning multiple sources and applications.
The criteria’s don’t seem too difficult – I suggest you at least forward the link to your manager – supervisor.The only thing that is not clear is whether the award is for 1 person, 10 people total, or 10 teams. Please let me know if you can figure it out.
Summer was slow for many business intelligence blogers – Adrian Ward posted something a humorous albeit interesting story – “Don’t Try This At Home Kids” . John Minkjan came up with some cool scripts, such as Getting All Users and Roles from RPD
Other interesting findings – I found a post about all OBIEE and legacy products versions – http://blogs.oracle.com/bi/2009/06/ships_in_the_night.html by Darryn Hinett.
Something I just learned by an accident - Venkatakrishnan J (one of the most respected Oracle BI experts and an author of authoritative OBIEE blog http://oraclebizint.wordpress.com/) joined Rittman Mead consulting. Congratulations and Best wishes for all parties involved. You can read about it here – http://www.rittmanmead.com/2009/06/22/my-first-post-here-joining-rittman-mead/
Please stay safe
This is a post for fellow OBIEE consultants with an interest in Oracle’s acquisitions. Today, I received a letter where Oracle announced they’re acquiring Primavera. This is a very curious news. According to the letter – Primavera is a recognized leading choice for mission critical PPM solutions and helps more than 5,000 global customers and over 2.5 million users propose, prioritize, select, plan, manage, and control complex projects. The interesting thing is that the Project Portfolio Management solution that they’re offering could be replaced with Oracle’s BI Suite. I think Oracle made this acquisution for customer base, not for the product itself. I preditct that they will support Primavera’s products for a few years, but slowly persuade clients to switch to OBIEE. This might mean more projects for us in the future as well as a broader OBIEE installation base.