Integrating Relational Databases with Essbase Studio

Integrating Relational Databases with Essbase Studio

Because relational databases can store several terabytes of data, they offer nearly unlimited scalability. Multidimensional databases, generally smaller than relational databases, offer sophisticated analytic capabilities. By integrating a relational database with an Essbase database, you leverage the scalability of the relational database with the conceptual power of the multidimensional database.

By default, when Essbase Studio creates an Essbase outline, it loads all member levels specified in the metaoutline into a multidimensional database. You can, however, set Essbase Studio to build to a specified member level (Hybrid Analysis) or build only to the dimension level (Advanced Relational Access). Building down to a specified level produces a smaller multidimensional database and a smaller Essbase outline.

A source relational database can be integrated with an Essbase database by using XOLAP (extended online analytic processing). This is a variation on the role of OLAP in business intelligence. Specifically, XOLAP is an Essbase multidimensional database that stores only the outline metadata and retrieves data from a relational database at query time. XOLAP thus integrates with an Essbase database, leveraging the scalability of the relational database with the more sophisticated analytic capabilities of a multidimensional database.

Essbase Studio - Model Development Workflow

Some XOLAP Specifics

• XOLAP (extended online analytic processing) is a variation on the role of OLAP in business intelligence. Specifically, XOLAP is an Essbase multidimensional database that stores only the outline metadata and retrieves data from a relational database at query time. XOLAP thus integrates a source relational database with an Essbase database, leveraging the scalability of the relational database with the more sophisticated analytic capabilities of a multidimensional database.


• OLAP and XOLAP store the metadata outline and the underlying data in different locations:


• 
  
  
  
  • In OLAP, the metadata is located in the Essbase database, and the underlying data is also located in the Essbase database.
  
  
  • In XOLAP, the metadata is located in the Essbase database while the underlying data remains in your source relational database.
  
  
  
  

• The differences in the locations of the metadata and data are key to understanding how XOLAP can be of benefit because these differences affect the functionality of OLAP and XOLAP.


• OLAP lends itself to traditional relational data storage and data analysis. XOLAP lends itself to operations supported in mixed or "hybrid" environments such as Hybrid Analysis and Advanced Relational Access (familiar to users of Essbase and Essbase Studio). Many of the basic concepts of Hybrid Analysis and Advanced Relational Access have been folded into the functionality of XOLAP cubes in Oracle Essbase Studio.

XOLAP Workflow

The workflow of data retrieval in an XOLAP environment is much like that of a non-XOLAP environment:

1. The model is designated as XOLAP-enabled in Essbase Studio.


2. The cube is deployed in Essbase Studio; however, no data is loaded at that time.


3. The Essbase database is queried, using Smart View, Oracle Essbase Visual Explorer, or another reporting tool which can access an Essbase database.


4. Essbase dynamically generates the required SQL to retrieve the data from the source relational database.

Integrating XOLAP with Traditional OLAP Sources

XOLAP has the following restrictions:

1. No editing of an XOLAP cube is allowed. If you wish to modify an outline, you must, instead, create a new outline in Oracle Essbase Studio. XOLAP operations will not automatically incorporate any changes in the structures and the contents of the dimension tables after an outline is created.


2. When derived text measures are used in cube schemas to build an Essbase model, XOLAP is not available for the model.


3. XOLAP can be used only with Aggregate Storage. The database is automatically duplicate-member enabled.


4. XOLAP supports dimensions that do not have a corresponding schema-mapping in the catalog; however, in such dimensions, only one member can be a stored member.

Usages Not Supported in XOLAP

XOLAP does not support use of the following:

• Flat files


• Ragged hierarchies


• Alternate hierarchies


• Recursive hierarchies


• Calendar hierarchies


• Filters


• Typed measures


• User defined members at the leaf level


• Multiple relational data sources

Hybrid Analysis

Hybrid Analysis eliminates the need to load and store lower-level members and their data within the Essbase database. This feature gives Essbase the ability to operate with almost no practical limitation on outline size and provides for rapid transfer of data between Essbase databases and relational databases.


Hybrid Analysis integrates a relational database with an Essbase multidimensional database so that applications and reporting tools can retrieve data directly from both databases.

Data Flow for Hybrid Analysis

• The initial step in setting up XOLAP or Hybrid Analysis is to define the relational database as a XOLAP or Hybrid Analysis relational source.

1. You define the XOLAP or Hybrid Analysis relational source in Essbase Studio. Through Essbase Studio, you first specify the relational data source for the OLAP model. The OLAP model is a schema that you create from tables and columns in the relational database. To build the model, Essbase Studio accesses the star schema of the relational database. Using the model, you define hierarchies and tag levels whose members are to be enabled for Hybrid Analysis. You then build the metaoutline, a template containing the structure and rules for creating the Essbase outline, down to the desired Hybrid Analysis level. The information enabling Hybrid Analysis is stored in the OLAP Metadata Catalog, which describes the nature, source, location, and type of data in the Hybrid Analysis relational source.


2. Next, you perform a member load, which adds dimensions and members to the Essbase outline. At this point XOLAP databases are complete and can queried by a multitude of reporting tolls.


3. For Hybrid Analysis databases, when the member load is complete, you must run a data load to populate the Essbase database with data.

• Applications and reporting tools, such as spreadsheets and Report Writer interfaces, can retrieve data directly from both databases using the dimension and member structure defined in the outline, Essbase determines the location of a member and then retrieves data from either the Essbase database or the Hybrid Analysis relational source if a Hybrid Analysis database and from the relational data source when a XOLAP model is specified.
  
  
  
  
  
  • If the data resides in the Hybrid Analysis relational source, Essbase retrieves it through SQL commands.
  
  
  • XOLAP also leverages transactional SQL to access data from the fact table at the time the query is initiated by the end user.
    
    
  
  
  
  


• To modify the outline in Hybrid Analysis, you can use Outline Editor in Administration Services to enable or disable dimensions for Hybrid Analysis on an as-needed basis. Changes to metadata in XOLAP require a complete drop and rebuild of the Application and database through Essbase Studio

Comparison of Aggregate and Block Storage

Since XOLAP only supports the Aggregate Storage Kernel, it is pertinent to highlight the differences in ASO and BSO.

Essbase provides an aggregate storage kernel as a persistence mechanism for multidimensional databases. Aggregate storage databases enable dramatic improvements in both database aggregation time and dimensional scalability. The aggregate storage (ASO) kernel is an alternative to the block storage (BSO) kernel. Aggregate storage databases typically address read-only, "rack and stack" applications that have large dimensionality, such as the following applications:

• Customer analysis. Data is analyzed from any dimension, and there are potentially millions of customers.


• Procurement analysis. Many products are tracked across many vendors.


• Logistics analysis. Near real-time updates of product shipments are provided.

Aggregate storage applications, which differ from block storage applications in concept and design, have limitations that do not apply to block storage applications.

Inherent Differences between ASO and BSO

Inherent Differences	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Storage Kernel	Architecture that supports rapid aggregation, optimized to support high dimensionality and sparse data	Multiple blocks defined by dense and sparse dimensions and their members, optimized for financial applications
Physical Data Storage	Through the Application Properties window, Tablespaces tab in Administration Services	Through the Database Properties window, Storage tab in Administration Services
Databases supported per application	One	Several (one recommended)

Outline Differences with ASO and BSO

Outline Functionality	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Multiple hierarchies enabled, dynamic hierarchy, or stored hierarchy designation	Relevant	Irrelevant
Accounts dimensions and members on dynamic hierarchies	Support with the following exceptions: • No two-pass calculation • No association of attribute dimensions with the dimension tagged Accounts • Additional restrictions for shared members.	Full support
Members on stored hierarchies	Support with the following exceptions: • Support for the ~ (no consolidation) operator (underneath label-only members only) and the + (addition) operator • Cannot have formulas • Restrictions on label only members • No Dynamic Time Series members • Stored hierarchy dimensions cannot have shared members. Stored hierarchies within a multiple hierarchies dimension can have shared members.	Full support
Member storage types	Support with the following exceptions: • Dynamic Calc and Store not relevant • On stored hierarchies, two limitations if a member is label only: o All dimension members at the same level as the member must be label only o The parents of the member must be label only.	Support for all member storage types in all types of dimensions except attribute dimensions

Calculation Differences between ASO and BSO

Calculation Functionality	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Database calculation	Aggregation of the database, which can be predefined by defining aggregate views	Calculation script or outline consolidation
Formulas	Allowed with the following restrictions: Must be valid numeric value expressions written in MDX No support for Essbase calculation functions On dynamic hierarchy members, formulas are allowed without further restrictions	Support for Essbase calculation functions
Calculation scripts	Not supported	Supported
Attribute calculations dimension	Support for Sum	Support for Sum, Count, Min, Max, and Average
Calculation order	Member formula calculation order can be defined by the user using the solve order member property	Defined by the user in the outline consolidation order or in a calculation script

Partitioning Differences between ASO and BSO

Partitioning Functionality	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Partitioning	Supported with the following restrictions: No Outline Synchronization	Fully supported

Data Load Differences between ASO and BSO

Data Load Functionality	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Cells loaded through data loads	Only level 0 cells whose values do not depend on formulas in the outline are loaded	Cells at all levels can be loaded (except Dynamic Calc members)
Update of database values	At the end of a data load, if an aggregation exists, the values in the aggregation are recalculated	No automatic update of values. To update data values, you must execute all necessary calculation scripts.
Data load buffers	The loading of multiple data sources into aggregate storage databases is managed through temporary data load buffers.	Not supported
Atomic replacement of the contents of a database	When loading data into an aggregate storage database, you can replace the contents of the database or the contents of all incremental data slices in the database.	Not supported
Data slices	Aggregate storage databases can contain multiple slices of data. Data slices can be merged.	Not supported
Dimension build for shared members	Full support for parent-child build method. Duplicate generation (DUPGEN) build method limited to building alternate hierarchies up to generation 2 (DUPGEN2).	Support for all build methods
Loading data mapped to dates	In a date-time dimension, you can load data into level-0 members using supported date-format strings instead of member names.	Date-time dimension type is not supported.

Query Differences between ASO and BSO

Query Functionality	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Report Writer	Supported, except for commands related to sparsity and density of data	Fully supported
Spreadsheet Add-in	Supported, with limited ability to change data (write-back)	Fully supported
API	Supported	Supported
Export	Support with the following restrictions: • Export of level 0 data only (no upper-level export) • No columnar export	Supported
MDX queries	Supported	Supported
Queries on attribute members that are associated with non-level 0 members	Returns values for descendants of the non-level 0 member.	Returns missing for descendants of the non-level 0 member
Queries on attribute members and shared members	A shared member automatically shares the attribute associations of its nonshared member	A shared member does not share the attribute associations of its nonshared member
Query logging	Not Supported	Supported
Query performance	Considerations when querying data from a dimension that has multiple hierarchies.	Hierarchies not relevant

Feature Differences between ASO and BSO

Featues	Aggregate Storage	Block Storage
Aliases	Supported	Supported
Currency Conversion	Not Supported	Supported
Data Mining	Not Supported	Supported
Hybrid Analysis	Support with the following restriction: queries that contain a relational member and an Essbase member with a formula in the same query are not supported.	Supported
Incremental Data Load	Supported	Supported
LROs	Not Supported	Supported
Time Balance Reporting	Support with the following restrictions: • Skip Zeros is not supported • Time dimension must contain at least one stored hierarchy • Shared members must be at level zero	Supported
Triggers	After-update triggers supported	On-update triggers and after-update triggers supported
Unicode	Supported	Supported
Variance Reporting	Not Supported	Supported
Date-time dimension type and linked attribute dimensions	Supported	Not Supported
User ability to change data (write-back)	Transparent partition technique used to enable limited write-back	Fully Supported

Links to Blogs written by BICG on XOLAP

Part 1 of the XOLAP blog


http://oraclebiblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/xolap-virtual-cubes-against-data.html

Part 2 of the XOLAP blog


http://oraclebiblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/xolap-virtual-cubes-against-data_15.html

OBIEE 11g Certification Available

Oracle tends to work hard to ensure that best practices are adhered to when working with their products. They even go as far to offer certifications which acknowledge one's ability to demonstrate product knowledge and acuity for implementing, developing, etc. with Oracle products. The release of OBIEE 11g is no exception, and Oracle has recently released the OBI 11g Certification Exam for those so inclined and ready to be stamped as an OBI 11g guru.

This certification holds some similar exam topics to that of its predecessor certification exam for the 10.1.3.x OBI version. But clearly with OBI 11g there are many new areas on which to be tested. Reading over the OBI 11g Exam certification topics one can get a good feel for what Oracle thinks are "must have" areas within the new application to focus on. Even if not taking the exam, learning these topics should provide an administrator, developer, or super-user with keen insight to working with and implementing OBI 11g.

The OB 11g Oracle certification is currently only available for Oracle partners. However, whether you gearing up for the OBI 11g exam or just needing to get educated on OBI 11g, BI Consulting Group has already released several OBI 11g training courses via their BICG University education center on the following topics:

# OBIEE 11-301: Dashboard/Report Application Development
# OBIEE 11-401: Repository/Metadata App Dev
# OBIEE 11-402: Server Architecture

In conclusion, I have always been a fan of official certifications as they show that one took the initiative to learn the information, was grilled on that information via examination, and knew the material well enough to achieve certification status. To me, this is only one or two steps below taking the time to write a book on the topic in question - guru status.

Do you think Oracle certifications are worthwhile?
How has an Oracle certification the helped you in the past?
Should Oracle offer a public OBI 11g certification?

Real World Analogies in OBIEE

As OBIEE emerges as a cornerstone part of Oracle’s Web 2.0 Fusion offering, it is a good time to discuss a real world analogy that has been apparent to me for many years now and has generated excitement during planning sessions of the more innovative implementation teams I’ve been on. OBIEE is an excellent web tool, for its dashboards and navigations, and it is important to look at User Groups as a cohort of individuals with shared goals who need to use OBIEE as a communications tool and as an effective analytic tool. A tool that has been useful in the real world for doing this is the fantasy sports league application, and it gives us many valuable insights for achieving uptake in our OBIEE implementations.

Although it is ironic that an application with the word “fantasy” in its title would be a useful analogy to solve our business problems, it is still true. Fantasy sports leagues have been very successful in the real world as an analytic tool that has had mass uptake. The application needs to be effective in helping groups to complete their assigned work, and to make better decisions, which are both key goals of our OBIEE implementations. Fantasy leagues are used as a communication vehicle for real world business groups that are looking for ways to interact, such as a college cohort looking to stay in touch after graduation, or a company contest. The value of contests as a business tool for generating ideas is well documented. Google’s programming contest, which started in 2002 has generated tens of thousands of applications, is responsible for important real-world systems like Google Local and Professor-Verifier [The Google Way, Chapter 7: Look for Ideas Where They Are, Bernard Girard, No Starch Press 2009].

The history of the fantasy leagues, more than thirty million strong today, is curiously analogous to what we want to achieve with OBIEE. From 1960 to 1980 it was a tool used by the intellectual elite, like Harvard Sociology Professor William Gamson’s “Baseball Seminar”. Rotisserie leagues started getting media attention in 1980, and special notice was given to the fact that data was used in real time, statistics from the current season. The business of statistical analysis matured in the fantasy sports field after its popularity created a demand for optimized predictions of specified Key Performance Indicators that scored points in the leagues.

Fantasy sports as a web application online is currently used by over 30 million people, creating competition for the best analytic dashboards to attract the most users.

So what do analytic dashboards used by these fantasy leagues look like, and how can we do that in OBIEE dashboards? While graphs may be important, note that for the masses these graphs are not extremely useful. Tabular lists dominate fantasy sport websites. The lists must default to the most useful Top-N and be re-sort-able by column. This is a common feature of tabular reporting in OBIEE, but it is important to understand that in the real world, other more graphic features do not undermine the importance of putting our data in this fashion on dashboards. The ability to quickly navigate from one presentation of data to another presentation of data with the same visual representation, a tabular, re-sortable presentation, is the dominant feature. Visual keys, surprisingly, are most useful when they simply give us more information on that representation. For example, ESPN has a Top-N page of multiple major categories, and the graphic is simply a photograph of the face of the top person in that category. In OBIEE, it might be useful to expose more photos of our business individuals, such as the business owner responsible for the dashboard. If it were a KPI were measured by team performance, a team logo might be useful. More sophisticated analytic tools are for a different audience, and follow the needs of the statistical analysts who are part of smaller decision teams, so they do not get exposed on the dashboards used by most of the people who consume the application. This might be an equivalent of a text alert on the screen that aggregates the number of Monte-Carlo simulations that were done, but exposing details of the thousands of simulations would not be possible.

BI Applications in 7.9.6 already have done some good work in providing a user experience. We just have to pay careful attention about how to implement the system. For example, built into the out-of-the-box experience are two sets of dashboards. The set of dashboards that is used by most people has the common presentations similar to fantasy leagues, such as the Top-N type of presentation. When you see demos of the tool, they default to the graphics, but there is a view selector that allows tabular lists of the data, and I would suggest considering in most cases whether the default presentation when coming on-screen should be tabular to reduce clicks and increase usability. The other set of dashboards spans multiple subject areas. These are pre-built statistical analyses available for when decisions need to be made upon the data, and include scatter charts, regressions and tools common to a smaller audience, the more sophisticated decision analysts.

Another question I have been asked in OBIEE implementation discussions is whether a contest for who uses the dashboards the most is possible. This would be analogous to the fantasy sports league itself. The answer is that it is very possible, in fact we do monitor usage in the OBIEE implementations, and more sophisticated applications are already developed. BIConsultingGroup’s product IMPACT gets more sophisticated reporting out of the usage of the end users. A dashboard could be designed and written with the specific intent of making a usage contest out of the usage analysis information, with the key business interactions as the key performance indicators. For a more comprehensive analytic application, the design could integrate an application similar to a fantasy league draft, where draft results for units in the sales pipeline could provide interesting information about predictions about which sales in the pipeline have the best chance of success.

What are design teams responsible for? Blogger Jeff McQuigg writes, “A BI system is a well thought out, planned and coordinated collection of efforts designed to produce a system that is so well organized it allows your user community to ask sophisticated questions of it and get those answers quickly and with a high degree of accuracy.” Fantasy leagues provide us with a successful real world analogy that we can use for building great OBIEE dashboards.

Open Source Business Intelligence

We all love Open Source software, right? Apache, Java, Linux, Eclipse... What would our profession be without it?

But with the growing maturity of Open Source Business Intelligence solutions, perhaps the right question we should be asking is: What will our profession be WITH it?

Several factors are pointing to the potential near-term growth of Open Source BI solutions in the marketplace.

First is a wider acceptance of Open Source solutions in general among the business community. The Open Source Peace Prize for this effort should go to Linux. Every year more businesses are finding that Linux-based servers are proving their nettle in terms of stability and performance quality. Furthermore, as a legitimizing move for Open Source BI in particular, Gartner this year for the first time decided to invite two of the biggest names in Open Source BI - Jaspersoft and Pentaho, which Gartner considers "viable players in the BI platform market" - to participate in their Magic Quadrant study of BI vendors. And, judging from the fact that traditional BI vendor MicroStrategy is marketing a free limited-use version of its ReportingSuite software in obvious response to Open Source alternatives (try Googling "Open Source Business Intelligence" and note the resulting Sponsored Link), the Open Source "threat" has also clearly affected marketing strategies of traditional vendors.

But before we go any further, let's be clear about the specific definition of Open Source. A common misperception outside of the developer community is that "Open Source" simply means "free." This is not necessarily the case. The more important distinction is that the underlying source code of the application is not only visible to the community but is also readily modifiable, so that members of the community can contribute their own changes in the form of improvements or bug fixes to that code. Hence "Open" (visible & modifiable) "Source" (source code). There are legal nuances to the different kinds of licensing reserved by authors of Open Source intellectual property but we can save that for a different discussion.

In the Linux case, while it is true that some variations of Linux are in fact "free," wise corporations who invest in Linux will almost always opt for the "Redhat" flavor that requires a paid subscription fee whose real value is access to tech support and upgrades - not to mention supportability by certain vendors of software that are hosted on Linux operating systems.

The Open Source paradigm - not just software but the concept of community-supported development - presents both threats and opportunities to the Oracle Business Intelligence community. I'd like to share some that have come to my mind.

Threats

* Slashed software budgets - With less software spending power, the lower acquisition cost of Open Source options will entice tech-savvy organizations, particularly SMBs, to evaluate Open Source solutions alongside traditionally licensed options. The sales strategy of traditional solutions will need to consider this challenger more seriously.

* Given the reality that any Open Source technology matures with every implementation, the result is a mathematical effect - perhaps OS may not be a viable solution for certain sectors now, but in one year, who knows? Within two years we will almost certainly see greater acceptance.

Opportunities

* Slashed IT staffing budgets improves the attractiveness of pre-built & supported solutions like Oracle's BI Apps against Open Source options, which by their always-in-development nature will require more internal staff support.

* The demonstrated success of Open Source subscription-based business models together with wider acceptance of "Cloud computing" for the Enterprise portends the viability and popularity of BI solutions provided under a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

* Oracle's acquisition of Sun - With MySQL officially within its corporate portfolio, Oracle may need to deal with this hugely popular Open Source database one way or the other. Either Oracle will maintain a kind of status quo and frame MySQL as a fringe product best used for scrappy startups, or it will recognize MySQL's value as a kind of "gateway drug" that provides an easy path to Oracle's standard licensed database products. In that scenario we could see MySQL cultivated and eventually supported as a target warehouse provider.

* Open Source methodologies can be applied to the development of ancillary components for traditional BI solutions. In the case of Oracle BI, there's no reason why we can't host a library of Open-Source helper apps, like Java applets or JSP pages or JavaScript routines that can perform a variety of functions when invoked within the OBIEE platform, or even XML renderings of OBIEE reports themselves that demonstrate clever tricks of the technology.

This latest opportunity excites me the most, as I believe it could serve to unify our community and provide tangible means for us to build our credibility. The biggest barrier to this effort will be a natural bias against giving away valuable intellectual property, especially when that IP serves as differentiator among BI consultancies. On the other hand, in an Open Source ecosystem, the contributions of a company or individual to the Oracle BI Open Source collective will serve to demonstrate and therefore legitimize their technical abilities far more powerfully than any marketing material, sales pitch or dare I say even a series of intelligent and insightful blog posts :-). As this effort is more focused on the community overall, it makes sense to see the community take on this initiative. (Hear that, UGOBI?)

In the spirit of "Open Sourcing" my thought processes, I remain eager to hear your feedback. What threats or opportunities do you see?

Here are some interesting articles on the topic for further reading:

Commercial Open Source BI Redux
http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/commercial-open-source-bi-redux.aspx
Penned by founders of OpenBI, this article reviews the current state and future opportunities of Open Source BI. A quote: "We wouldn't be surprised if Cloud vendors Amazon and Google started offering OSBI platform capabilities for free to customers contracting for their servers and storage."

Who Is Using Open Source Business Intelligence, and Why
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/who-is-using-open-source-business-intelligence-and-why/?cs=35889
Interview with Mark Madsen, founder and president of BI consultancy firm Third Nature and author of a recent study of open source adoption in the business intelligence and data warehousing markets.

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms
http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/sas/vol5/article8/article8.html
Gartner's opinion of the main software vendors that should be considered by organizations seeking to develop business intelligence (BI) applications. "This year Gartner gave serious consideration to including open-source BI suppliers in the Magic Quadrant, and even altered the inclusion criteria to allow for this eventuality. As yet, though, no open-source BI platform supplier generates enough revenue to be included in the Magic Quadrant [$20m in revenue]. However, while they don't meet the revenue requirement, Jaspersoft and Pentaho have emerged as viable players in the BI platform market and as such we invited these firms to take part in the Magic Quadrant user survey."

Sites

BeyeNetwork - Specifically the Open Source "Channel"
http://www.b-eye-network.com/channels/1405

Vendors

Jaspersoft
http://jaspersoft.com/

Pentaho
http://www.pentaho.com/

Microstrategy
(again, not truly Open Source, but offers free limited licensing of proprietary ReportingSuite)
http://www.microstrategy.com/freereportingsoftware/index.asp?gclid=cnhim4p3q50cfsreagodzw3-ja

How to Stay Fresh

After 30 years in the business someone asked me... "How do you stay fresh?".

I had to stop and think about it for a minute and then the answer came to me.

A day or two ago someone pointed me to the samples directory that is included with OBIEE's Paint demo - the basic software that you get from Oracle - to review the entry for a basic time dimension. I opened it up and reviewed it end-to-end. Why? Because I found it to be very interesting and I realized that it is the passion that I have for the details that keeps me going. Maybe you feel the same way? It's that "can't get enough of this" and "I love what I do" that keeps me current.

Working at software companies requires a certain "How are we going to do that?" attitude so it forces you to constantly reach out and learn the tools-of-the-trade that are required to build software - C, C++, Java (Assembler in the old days).... Well for the most part anyway these tools are used to build the software itself.

Applications are built using software so the same passion is required to 'stay fresh' whether you are building software itself or building applications. When building OBIEE Apps you must simply learn to use the tools that Oracle provides and combine that with your business skills.

So now Oracle introduces what I consider to be a third level. First is the software itself. Next are the applications you build using the software. And now third, we have pre-built OBIEE applications that require customization of the application - not the software. This takes the "How to stay fresh" question to a new higher level.

When you look at customizing pre-built applications you must dive into the meta-layer and determine what the application developers where thinking when they built it to spec. Where did the spec come from? How was it established? Does it make sense for my client? Does it need to be customized?

And then there is the GAP (GAAP for financials) Analysis for the loads.... Where does it come from? How does it get there? What adapters so I need? How do I use them? What is the Universal Adapter?

So you have a whole new level of 'customization' consulting that really did not exist up until the combination of the tools that Oracle combined - Informatica, DAC and OBIEE Answers and such.

Staying current or staying fresh in this environment requires a whole new level of passion and experience. You must get into the heads of the application designers and the software developers - both - to stay fresh in this arena.

So let's just say that Oracle has raised the bar on the basic passion and competencies required to "Stay Fresh" in this arena.

If someone walks in and tells you they have "Three Years experience with Oracle's Project Management Analytic App" or "You don't need to use the Informatica piece.." or "The DAC is worthless.." - please kindly ask them to step aside and keep asking questions until you find someone who has the passion to "Stay Fresh !"