Answers is a part of the system that enables the creation of analysis objects. These are the queries and requests for information that return rows of data from a data source (such as an Oracle database). The resulting set of records can be presented by the analysis in a variety of layouts, for example, in a table of columns or as a chart. The important point to note is that the request for information is saved in the catalog, not in the data. Each time the request is run, it fetches the data in the source system at that time. You can save the results by downloading them as an Excel file, as a PDF, or even as a web page, but OBIEE does not store the result in an analysis. Analyses are saved for later reuse by opening them directly or by placing them on a dashboard. They can also be used by the Actionable Intelligence tool (refer to the Actionable Intelligence section in this chapter). Analyses are normally created by more advanced users of the system, but you do not need to have highly technical IT skills it's mainly click, drag, and drop.

We will cover in more detail how to create analysis objects in Chapter 8, Creating Dashboards and Analyses.

A dashboard is used to present information to users in a way that is simple to use and that can be conveyed to each user. Dashboards consist of one or more dashboard pages (also known as tabs), and can contain multiple pieces of analysis, embedded websites, URLs, text, actions, and folders.

Dashboards can be used by thousands of users, with each user seeing a view customized to them. They can be highly interactive, and provide end users the ability to drill into the data and investigate the results in a personalized way.

There is a chapter dedicated to the building of dashboards, as this is the core feature of most OBIEE implementations (refer to Chapter 8 , Creating Dashboards and Analyses).

Published Reporting consists of highly formatted reports that are normally available for printing. You could use reports for invoices, statements, pick lists, and so on, as well as formatted reports on company performance. These are created using BI Publisher, a formerly standalone product that is now well integrated into OBIEE.

For more information, refer to Chapter 10 , Developing Reports Using BI Publisher, later in this book.

One of the great uses of OBIEE is to set up a report and have it delivered to your e-mail inbox every day. Better still, have the report e-mailed to you only if you need to take some action, for example, order new stock or chase debtors! The term for delivering triggered content to users is agents. Agents are scheduled jobs that decide who to send the content to, as well as when and where, based on criteria the creator sets. For example, you can create a schedule that checks the stock levels in the database for various stores. If a certain level is reached in one store, an e-mail is sent to the controllers, showing them where and how old the stock is.

You can take this idea one step further, which enables you to take action directly from a dashboard. An action may be to navigate to another part of the system or to invoke a web service, or even some JavaScript. In our example, the action available to the user could be the use of a web service that makes an order in the distribution system to move the stock from one warehouse to the store.

Chapter 9 , Agents and Action Framework, is dedicated to the creation of Actionable Intelligence.

The BI system is mainly used for reporting on company performance. Performance is measured in terms of financial activity, sales, HR, and other specific business drivers, such as churn rates. Certain measures that we report upon are fundamental to the success of the organization, for example, the profit margin on products sold or the acquisition of new customers each month.

These measures are known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The concept of presenting all KPIs together on one page is called a balanced scorecard. These scorecards were designed in the early 1990s and have been widely adopted throughout the world, in businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations.

Oracle has integrated the reporting on KPIs and the creation of scorecards into the Presentation Server and Presentation Catalog. The creation of these is out of the scope of this book, but there are some examples available in the sample application you can install (available at https://www.oracle.com/index.html).

One of the early uses of OBIEE (when it was owned by Siebel) was in the Siebel Marketing tool. The concept is simple finding lists of people to send marketing information to. In marketing terms, this is known as Segmentation.

The idea is that OBIEE can identify customers with certain attributes that are desirable for our marketing department. For example, they want a list of all males over 50 living in London. This initial list can then be further reduced to those who have already had a letter sent to them in the previous month. Once the target list has been created, it is imported into the marketing system for the fulfillment process (sending out literature by mail or e-mail).

Siebel Email Marketing is still available from Oracle today, as part of the Siebel Enterprise Marketing Suite. You can also purchase Marketing Analytics.

MapViewer is also integrated into OBIEE 12c. End users can incorporate Map mviews into their dashboards without using complex coding and without any extra licenses. Typically, the data involved is address-related, for example, postal address, but you can also include custom areas to show on a map. Address-type information is normally subjected to geocoding, to make it usable by OBIEE. Mapping data is managed from the administration screen and the definitions are held in the catalog.

To use MapViewer, we have a type of analysis view, called, unsurprisingly, the Map mview. The Map mview normally contains a map of a location, and this is overlaid with colored shapes or pins. These overlays denote items or measures. For example, sales by state could be three-colored to denote low, medium, and high levels. Map mviews allow further analysis by allowing users to drill into the data points, or even to use actions.

MapViewer is also available directly with your installation of Oracle BI 12c. Try http://[server]:<port>/mapviewer on your environment.

The common interface and use of a single catalog for reports, analysis, alerts, and lists requires an administration tool for the creation of these objects, as well as for the catalog itself. The web-based administration area is used to control who can access which feature and what settings to use in Mapping mdata and BI publisher. The administration area also provides access to the current logged-in users and the queries they are running.

You can search for any object thanks to a common search tool. It is accessible from the common toolbar or from links on the home page. The search system can use wildcards, and can be limited by the type of object.

The home screen itself has a whole section dedicated to all the information you need. The common toolbar also has a link to internal help, and links to the Oracle documentation. The help is contextual, and it decides which help page you need based on the page you are on at the time.

OBIEE 12c is great for presenting information and enabling further analysis. Most deployments can be managed by using online data. Sometimes, users need to have their analysis in Excel or PowerPoint, and this release makes that easier than ever. Exporting into Office, PDF, HTML, and XML is quick and easy. You can also use Excel to connect directly to the OBIEE Presentation service.