BI Expert at a hospitality company with 501-1,000 employees
Dashboards, semantic modeling are great. But needs improvement with visualizations and mobile.
What is most valuable?
Dashboards, semantic modeling
What needs improvement?
Slow to market with visualizations, mobile functionality
Ad-hoc analysis is tedious and lacks advanced capabilities
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Regional Director at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Integrates well into applications, reliable, and easy deployment
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is it's designed for Oracle. It works well in the Oracle environment and can sit on top of any application."
- "Oracle OBIEE could improve by having better integration and compatibility with other vendors."
What is our primary use case?
My clients are using Oracle OBIEE to extract data from their applications and present it graphically to make decisions.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Oracle OBIEE is it's designed for Oracle. It works well in the Oracle environment and can sit on top of any application.
What needs improvement?
Oracle OBIEE could improve by having better integration and compatibility with other vendors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Oracle OBIEE for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle OBIEE is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Oracle OBIEE needed some improvement in scalability. Up until now, it wasn't very scalable, but this is something that they are working on by moving to Cloud BI.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Oracle OBIEE can be painful because Oracle manages its support around the globe. There are times you need to repeat yourself for the agent to understand.
I rate the support from Oracle OBIEE a two out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions, such as Power BI.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Oracle OBIEE is easy.
I rate the initial setup of Oracle OBIEE a five out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Power BI is less expensive than Oracle OBIEE. A benefit to Power BI is having the option to work with concurrent licensing.
I rate the price of Oracle OBIEE a one out of five.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Oracle OBIEE an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner / Integrator
Buyer's Guide
Oracle OBIEE
November 2024
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Presidente at EDR
Good technical support, dashboard, and analysis
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboard and analysis are the most valuable features of this solution."
- "I would like to see Machine Learning included in this solution."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution as an adjudicator for an insurance company.
We are a development enterprise, and we sell the solutions we have to our customers. We have several customers that use our solutions in Oracle OBIEE. We are resellers.
What is most valuable?
The dashboard and analysis are the most valuable features of this solution.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see Machine Learning included in this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Oracle OBIEE for almost ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Oracle OBIEE is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Oracle OBIEE is good.
If you combine all of your customers there are almost 150 users.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is fine.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also experienced using Tableau. We have the same application ruling in both technologies.
Tableau is deployed on the cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is an area that could be improved.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Oracle OBIEE a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
User-friendly, intuitively designed, and easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "The main features of this solution are that it is easy to use, intuitive, and user-friendly. When I retrieve the data from the database it is in a very raw form, then when I use the Oracle Report Builder it has advanced intelligence features to allow me to view and make changes to the data easily."
- "The main features of this solution are that it is easy to use, intuitive, and user-friendly. When I retrieve the data from the database it is in a very raw form, then when I use the Oracle Report Builder it has advanced intelligence features to allow me to view and make changes to the data easily."
- "There could be better integration with other solutions, such as Microsoft Office."
What is our primary use case?
I use this BI solution for ad-hoc and complex reports for finance and HR.
What is most valuable?
The main features of this solution are that it is easy to use, intuitive, and user-friendly. When I retrieve the data from the database it is in a very raw form, then when I use the Oracle Report Builder it has advanced intelligence features to allow me to view and make changes to the data easily.
What needs improvement?
There could be better integration with other solutions, such as Microsoft Office.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for approximately six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is 100% reliable and stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. I have extended many areas in the reports and in other areas of the tool. My colleague was doing a project report in which he had to make some divisions and multiplications, similar to analytical functions. However, he was not able to do it in the SQL language. He gave me to try it in this BI tool solution and we achieved accurate results.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not found any issue to contact the support about.
How was the initial setup?
The solution was easy to deploy and install. However, I have used the solution for a very long time and I am familiar with the technology, this could be why it was extremely easy for me to install and configure but might not be for others.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution.
I rate Oracle OBIEE a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Senior BI/DWH Developer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
It has a three-layer repository. I can organize multiple data sources into a common business model.
What is most valuable?
There are many valuable features. For example:
- Multiple data sources: I can easily combine multiple data sources and organize them into a common business model.
- Three-layer repository: With the three-layer repository, the development and interpretation are very simple. The three layers are divided from each other well both in logical and physical meaning. The physical layer is used for importing data, creating aliases, building physical joins, setting up connection pools, managing cache and hints for tables. The business model and mapping layer is used for creating logical columns, fact and dimension tables, hierarchies, measures, using fragmentations and filters, applying business logic. The presentation layer is used to prepare, group and organize the data for users to view.
- Security management: Security management is very detailed, complex and well defined in OBIEE. I can set up everything that I want; user security, object security, row-level security, etc. For example: I can easily connect users with application roles, different application roles with different privileges or set up data filters, other restrictions for users / application roles or manage subject areas/tables/columns access for users / application roles, etc.
- Smart cache management: I can easily manage cache and cache settings. I can use it for common tables only, I can purge it in a scheduled way, etc
- Interactive dashboards and analyses: Lots of rich visualization (dashboards, analyses, graphs, maps, etc); user interactions: drilling, pivoting, filtering, prompting, sorting, navigation and more.
- Spatial integration: Lots of rich map visualizations, many supported map suppliers and a wide range of possibilities to use map data.
- Individual customization using CSS and JavaScript.
How has it helped my organization?
I have worked for National Public Health and Medical Officer Service on the Child Birth Notification BI project. It was a very successful project both for us and the medical experts as well.
For example, with our analyses, the medical experts could improve healthcare and services at the regions where the child mortality was high.
What needs improvement?
Of course, there is some room for improvement, because a perfect BI platform does not exist in IT.
The following things would be welcomed:
- Detailed editing of dashboard prompts: By this, I mean the appearance and localization. If I create a dashboard prompt, I cannot edit freely the columns and texts on the user interface of dashboard prompts. For example, I cannot insert individual text fields that are independent from columns; I cannot use CSS to emphasize my texts of columns and the localization is quite limited as well.
- Smarter BI navigation using hierarchical columns: By this, I mean the navigation from a measure is quite difficult when I use hierarchical columns. When I use a hierarchical column in an analysis and expand the levels and click on a measure on the second level, for example, the BI does not know the appropriate level using navigation and it will result in wrong amounts. This is a known issue, according to the BI documentation, and there are other solutions, alternative ways to use navigation. Nonetheless, for hierarchical columns, it could be smarter.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not encountered any stability issues with BI, but I did encounter stability issues with WebLogic.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered any scalability issues. It has worked well.
How are customer service and technical support?
I can't rate technical support, because I don't ask for help from OTN. Whenever I find any errors or have any issues, I read solutions or best practices from forums or BI channels.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used only open-source solutions before OBIEE, but the functionality of these tools is not even close to OBIEE.
How was the initial setup?
I think the install of OBIEE is not so complex; it's quite straightforward. Of course, the configuration can be complex, if we would like to use completely different settings from the default.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Unfortunately, this is the most difficult point with OBIEE. The license is very expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When I first encountered OBIEE, I had no choice to use other options, because this platform was preferred at that company. That was five years ago and since that time, I have been using OBIEE and I can recommend using it to everyone.
On the other hand, if our customers would like to use an open-source BI platform, I can recommend using SpagoBI, for example.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend using OBIEE because of its wide functionality (multiple data sources, interactive dashboards and analysis, spatial integration, delivers and alerts, mobiles, etc.).
In my opinion, it is one of the best BI platforms. It provides a full range of capabilities (from development to user experience).
I have worked on a lot of interesting and special projects, and I haven't been assigned any task that I could not do with it.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is an Oracle Gold Partner.
Manager Of Capital Improvement Program at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The portfolio managers and schedulers pull data in and report out.
What is most valuable?
I like the solution's ability to query all of the data and pull it into a very user-friendly interface. We are using this as part of the Oracle Primavera suite.
How has it helped my organization?
I like the ability of the portfolio managers and schedulers to pull data in very easily and report out. This is the critical feature that we needed. This was the reason why we purchased it. You can configure what you need and make it look the way you want it to. The screens are set up in an excellent way. This solution has had a huge impact agency wide.
To reference the initial project setup structure for Oracle Projects and Oracle Portfolios- We need the ability to create layers and structure for projects. For example, Program Number, Project Number and Sub Project Number in a hierarchical structure that rolls up summary budgets for Programs and Projects for financial reporting. Also, each Program, Project and Sub Project may have a different name associated with it for tracking employee time entry. Portfolios are tracked by Sponsor’s name.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a little more flexibility in the configuration.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since June, 2016.
How are customer service and technical support?
Oracle support was helpful when we needed them for installation and configuration. They provided excellent support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have been using Oracle for many years. We just needed to expand what we already had in Oracle. We have a solid database with Oracle.
How was the initial setup?
The instructions and information that Oracle provided were very detailed. The challenge was that we didn’t have any prior experience with the installation and configuration. Oracle support has been great and helped us with the process.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at third-party software, but we prefer to stick with Oracle. With Oracle, it’s easy to integrate with each of the suites and modules that we already had. We didn’t want the cost of integrating with third-party apps. This was an easy decision for us.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to document what your current environment is and plan your installation and configuration ahead of time. It will then go smoother and faster. Plan your existing environment in detail and document it. This is critical.
When I look for a product, I focus on security, reliability, and ease of use.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
OBIEE Technical Lead at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Implementation has changed the way we create and consume information.
What is most valuable?
- Dashboards - Thousands of users get the exact information that is relevant to them.
- Agents - The system automatically sends information when you need it.
- Answers - Power Users (aka Data Scientists) investigate the data.
- Integration - Analyse any data and present it in any format.
How has it helped my organization?
Implementation has led to a complete change in the way we create and consume information. People no longer spend hours creating spreadsheets; they now make informed decisions.
What needs improvement?
Right now, there's no ability to add comments to the dashboards. We'd like to be able to do that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for 16 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
It's very easy to install.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The 12c version is much more stable than previous versions. We've had no real issues with instability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The system will scale out easily to thousands of concurrent users. We've had no issues with the inability to scale.
How are customer service and technical support?
Oracle provides good support, but the community is the place to go. Online experts, bloggers, conferences and the ACE program all contribute to a huge knowledge pool.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Microsoft Office products are great, but they don't scale to billions of rows.
How was the initial setup?
You can go from download to fully-installed in just a couple of hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Negotiate hard! These products are not cheap.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I also looked at Power BI and Cognos.
What other advice do I have?
Bring in an expert -- someone with real experience and who's independent.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: I am an independent Business Intelligence specialist, but have specialized in the Oracle BI recently because of the product, and have written a book on it.
Business Intelligence Developer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
It has allowed us to provide our external users the ability to create custom reports while adding a complex object security framework not found when dealing with internal users.
Valuable Features
It provides our customers the ability to build simple or complex reports effortlessly. The existence of the Business Model and Mapping (BMM) layer is critical in providing numerous ways to model our data to fit a given project/set of requirements.
Improvements to My Organization
It has allowed us to provide our external users the ability to create custom reports while adding a complex object security framework not found when dealing with internal users.
Cross-dimensional reporting was a must and although this tool does not easily implement this, it still allowed us to model our data as necessary in order to deliver this requirement.
Room for Improvement
The UI needs to be updated. We had some people reference it as “1995” in ways of looks. The application itself does not work well with cross-dimensional reporting out of the box (there are no official documentation on how this can be implemented but unofficial online user blogs have provided us with some work-around solutions).
Use of Solution
I've used it for three and a half years.
Deployment Issues
There were no significant issues.
Stability Issues
No issues encountered.
Scalability Issues
We had some issues with not being compatible with some “compatible” servers.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Customer Service:
8/10.
Technical Support:8/10.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
There are some cheaper options in the market. We are currently planning on using another platform outside our US market due to cost. However, some platform options are not as robust as OBIEE.
Careful consideration has to be given when evaluating cost over features/performance just like any other ROI project.
Other Solutions Considered
if your project involves a lot of cross-dimensional reporting, you will encounter some pain points along the way setting up the RPD but solutions are available online.
If you are looking for a quick visualization solution, then look for Tableau, but if you want a deep, proven reporting tool (with relatively weak visualization features), OBIEE is actually pretty good.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle OBIEE Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
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A major disadvantage of this tool is that it requires more technical support and maintenance, which is a very time consuming activity.