Presented by Dan Vlamis

Are you starting a new OBIEE project? Or perhaps you're mired in the muck of an existing project, and things aren't going well. No matter what your experience with OBIEE has been so far, no matter what industry your company is in, this session will provide you with helpful tips and techniques to guide you toward a successful OBIEE implementation.

We'll discuss topics such as:

• Divide and Conquer: The key strengths you need on your OBIEE implementation team.
• Nothing Stops a Train: But a lack of proper training can stop your project in its tracks.
• Why every team member needs training, and the importance of cross-trained teams.
• To Contract, or Not To Contract, That Is the Question: Getting help from someone who's "been there, done that".
• Any Way You Slice It: Why your security model should be one of the first, second, and third things you consider.
• What's In a Name?: Ideas for implementing a standardized naming convention for the objects in your OBIEE schema.
• Who's On First? The first, most important steps when beginning your project.
• You want WHAT? Maintaining a manageable scope of deliverables.
• Tiny Steps, Big Results: Building your OBIEE environment in successive stages for quick Proofs of Concept.
• Stars, Snowflakes, Constellations, and other Unnatural Phenomena: The proper schemas for a clean configuration and ease of maintenance.
• Aggregates, OLAP, and Cache, OH MY: Your three-prong approach to great performance.
• Become a Master Locksmith: The proper use of Keys for fun and profit.
• Users and Other Difficult Concepts: The Pilot User Group and who should be in it.
• Jammin': Using post-implementation jam sessions to enhance your users' knowledge and expertise.

We'll discuss these topics and more, using examples pulled from real projects. If you're interested in avoiding the "gotchas" of an OBIEE implementation, then come along for the ride and learn from our mistakes.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

The new 11g version of Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE) has added many new OLAP features. One of the most significant features includes dynamic mapping of multidimensional data sources. In the past administrators needed to manually map Oracle OLAP and Essbase sources to the BI Server catalog. Then alot of special adjustments had to be made for OBIEE to perform properly. This is no longer the case! Now you can leverage the full power of these OLAP data sources and fully integrate with the new analytic capabilities of OBIEE 11g. This presentation will demonstrate mapping both Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase sources using the new OBIEE 11g Administration tool. Once mapped we will use the new Analysis features of OBIEE 11g to show the data using the a variety of visualization components including the new mapping features.

Presented by Cathye Pendley and Roy Mathews of Anthem Healthcare Intelligence

Financial analysis for multi-entity businesses are complex and typically calls for very customized solutions to meet the various business needs. Understand how Anthem partnering with Vlamis used Oracle technology to deliver best practices in financial analysis under a SaaS model.

Presented by Dan Vlamis and Tim Vlamis

As BI and EPM systems continue to grow in scope and importance throughout corporations and organizations of all sizes, the need for superior data visualization skills and knowledge has never been more urgent. You'll learn when and how to use bar charts, pie charts, line charts, and bubble charts, how and when to incorporate motion into your management dashboards, and how to avoid the ten most common errors of uninformed BI systems designers. We'll cover the latest in Oracle BI tools including OBIEE 10g and 11g, Hyperion Visual Explorer, Excel multi-dimensional front ends for Essbase and Oracle OLAP, and Oracle BI Publisher. Join BI mavens Dan Vlamis and Tim Vlamis for an entertaining session on how to strengthen your BI and EPM presentations, avoid the big mistakes that undermine the acceptance of analytical systems and visualizations, and leverage the tremendous power of Oracle BI and EPM toolsets.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Are you starting a new OBIEE project? Or perhaps you're mired in the muck of an existing project, and things aren't going well. No matter what your experience with OBIEE has been so far, no matter what industry your company is in, this session will provide you with helpful tips and techniques to guide you toward a successful OBIEE implementation.

We'll discuss topics such as:

• Divide and Conquer: The key strengths you need on your OBIEE implementation team.
• Nothing Stops a Train: But a lack of proper training can stop your project in its tracks.
• Why every team member needs training, and the importance of cross-trained teams.
• To Contract, or Not To Contract, That Is the Question: Getting help from someone who's "been there, done that".
• Any Way You Slice It: Why your security model should be one of the first, second, and third things you consider.
• What's In a Name?: Ideas for implementing a standardized naming convention for the objects in your OBIEE schema.
• Who's On First? The first, most important steps when beginning your project.
• You want WHAT? Maintaining a manageable scope of deliverables.
• Tiny Steps, Big Results: Building your OBIEE environment in successive stages for quick Proofs of Concept.
• Stars, Snowflakes, Constellations, and other Unnatural Phenomena: The proper schemas for a clean configuration and ease of maintenance.
• Aggregates, OLAP, and Cache, OH MY: Your three-prong approach to great performance.
• Become a Master Locksmith: The proper use of Keys for fun and profit.
• Users and Other Difficult Concepts: The Pilot User Group and who should be in it.
• Jammin': Using post-implementation jam sessions to enhance your users' knowledge and expertise.

We'll discuss these topics and more, using examples pulled from real projects. If you're interested in avoiding the "gotchas" of an OBIEE implementation, then come along for the ride and learn from our mistakes.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle's Business Intelligence (OBI EE+) is a platform from which to build your BI delivery the way you want it. This presentation discusses the various ways to provide data access to all users inside and outside the organization. Using the open service based architecture users can now access the OBI EE data in JDeveloper to produce custom applications and Apple iPhone users can view reports and receive alerts no matter where they are. Demonstrations of these technologies will illustrate how these new features can allow access to the BI data any way you want to see it.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Oracle Database 11g OLAP provide several new features that can used to enhance performance of Oracle-based data warehouses. In addition, while providing a complete summary management capability, they can add additional calculation capabilities. Views are automatically created that allow standard SQL to access the original data, as well as any additional measures. By placing the calculations in the database, all of your business rules and measures can be securely stored in the database. All of this content can be accessed with any application, including Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle Application Express, Oracle Discoverer, BI Publisher, Oracle SQL Developer, as well as non-Oracle tools.

Presented by Dan Vlamis and Michael Schrader

The term online analytic processing (OLAP) describes a category of business intelligence (BI) software that supports activities ranging from self-service reporting and analysis, to comprehensive planning and budgeting systems. The OLAP category is not monolithic; there are many different types of OLAP products, each of which seek to provide solutions to certain problems and to service certain user communities. With the acquisition of Hyperion Systems in 2007, Oracle finds itself owning the two most capable OLAP products on the market-Essbase and the OLAP Option to the Oracle Database. While both products fall within the OLAP category and have some similar capabilities, they are different in significant ways. This presentation will help the reader understand where these products are similar and where they differ. Most importantly, it will help the reader architect the Oracle OLAP product that is most appropriate for his or her application.

Presented by Dan Vlamis and Michael Schrader

Come join two leading experts for a discussion on dimensional modeling in Oracle's two leading multi-dimensional database offerings: Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase. Oracle OLAP is built into the Oracle database and exposes data through SQL. Oracle Essbase has a rich history with Hyperion and Arbor Software and has a series of applications for multi-dimensional analysis. Both Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase can be used with OBIEE (as well as other tools). Which one is right for your situation? This talk will pick up where the presentation "Oracle Essbase and Oracle OLAP: A Guide to Oracle's Multidimensional Solution" ends.

This roundtable discussion will start with a focus on ways of working with time dimension(s?) in Oracle OLAP and Essbase. We will then use this as a springboard for discussions on topics of interest to the audience. Come armed with your own topics to "Ask the Experts".

Presented by Mark Thompson

Are you starting a new OBIEE project? Or perhaps you're mired in the muck of an existing project, and things aren't going well. No matter what your experience with OBIEE has been so far, no matter what industry your company is in, this session will provide you with helpful tips and techniques to guide you toward a successful OBIEE implementation.

We'll discuss topics such as:

• Divide and Conquer: The key strengths you need on your OBIEE implementation team.
• Nothing Stops a Train: But a lack of proper training can stop your project in its tracks.
• Why every team member needs training, and the importance of cross-trained teams.
• To Contract, or Not To Contract, That Is the Question: Getting help from someone who's "been there, done that".
• Any Way You Slice It: Why your security model should be one of the first, second, and third things you consider.
• What's In a Name?: Ideas for implementing a standardized naming convention for the objects in your OBIEE schema.
• Who's On First? The first, most important steps when beginning your project.
• You want WHAT? Maintaining a manageable scope of deliverables.
• Tiny Steps, Big Results: Building your OBIEE environment in successive stages for quick Proofs of Concept.
• Stars, Snowflakes, Constellations, and other Unnatural Phenomena: The proper schemas for a clean configuration and ease of maintenance.
• Aggregates, OLAP, and Cache, OH MY: Your three-prong approach to great performance.
• Become a Master Locksmith: The proper use of Keys for fun and profit.
• Users and Other Difficult Concepts: The Pilot User Group and who should be in it.
• Jammin': Using post-implementation jam sessions to enhance your users' knowledge and expertise.

We'll discuss these topics and more, using examples pulled from real projects. If you're interested in avoiding the "gotchas" of an OBIEE implementation, then come along for the ride and learn from our mistakes.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle's Business Intelligence (OBI EE+) is a platform from which to build your BI delivery the way you want it. This presentation discusses the various ways to provide data access to all users inside and outside the organization. Using the open service based architecture users can now access the OBI EE data in JDeveloper to produce custom applications and Apple iPhone users can view reports and receive alerts no matter where they are. Demonstrations of these technologies will illustrate how these new features can allow access to the BI data any way you want to see it.

Presented by Dan Vlamis and Tim Vlamis, StrategyScape LLC

Are you involved in generating reports for your business, but want to know which formats are best to use in which situations? Would you like a simple way of understanding when to use pie charts, bar charts, line charts and bubble charts? Want to know when data is presented objectively and when it's not? You'll learn basic design principles for writing reports and generating graphs. You'll see examples of how capabilities built into Excel and Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (formerly Siebel) both help and hurt in presenting and visualizing data in everyday situations. Join BI mavens Dan Vlamis and Tim Vlamis for an entertaining session on how managers typically manipulate, misuse, and abuse reports and analytics to conquer their companies on their way to world domination and what you can do to turn Oracle BI EE into a tool for the good!

Presented by Cathye Pendley and Dan Vlamis

As you may know, Vlamis Software is getting to know Oracle's Essbase offering, bringing our 20 years of experience with Oracle OLAP and Oracle BI in general to the Essbase community. In the presentation, I plan to share our "external fair impressions" of Oracle OLAP and Essbase, and starting to explore how they could be used together. See our blog at www.vlamis.com/blog for other information on our impressions.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

4/14/2008 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Companies with heterogeneous environments need to analyze data from multiple sources, through multiple application servers, in multiple presentation environments. The "hot pluggable" products work well for this need: Oracle Data Integrator, Essbase, Real-time Decisions, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, and BI Applications. But what if these needs are not paramount in your organization? You can use Oracle's traditional products: Oracle Warehouse Builder, the OLAP and Data Mining options to the Oracle Database, Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition, and Daily Business Intelligence. Come and learn which products are appropriate for your situation, how Oracle's acquisition strategy led to this situation and how Oracle's product management structure propagates this situation. The session will especially focus on the differences between Essbase and the Oracle OLAP option--both very capable multi-dimensional databases, but with different goals.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

4/14/2008 at 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Oracle Database 11g OLAP provide several new features that can used to enhance performance of Oracle-based data warehouses. In addition, while providing a complete summary management capability, they can add additional calculation capabilities. Views are automatically created that allow standard SQL to access the original data, as well as any additional measures. By placing the calculations in the database, all of your business rules and measures can be securely stored in the database. All of this content can be accessed with any application, including Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, Oracle Application Express, Oracle Discoverer, BI Publisher, Oracle SQL Developer, as well as non-Oracle tools.

Presented by Mark Thompson

4/15/2008 at 9:45 AM - 12:00 PM

Oracle's integration of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. In this case study, we will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the value that Genco Inc. found in using these two technologies together. In a live demonstration, the presentation will highlight the benefits of using OBIEE against Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspaces (AWs). The demonstration draws on the strength of both products to show how the combination of OBIEE and Oracle OLAP has delivered attractive analysis of business data to Genco's user community.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

4/15/2008 at 3:30 PM - 5:45 PM

Can I move my existing "multi-dimensional cubes" to 11g? Can I really improve my warehouse performance using OLAP? What is the benefit of upgrading to OLAP 11g? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you? This presentation will demonstrate the process of migrating 10g cubes and dimensions to 11g and using Oracle OLAP 11g to create cubes and analyze data. There will be a practical look at the new features of OLAP 11g and what it means to the Warehouse Architect and Users. OLAP 11g adds a lot of new features designed to help the DBA and Architect build multidimensional warehouses rapidly and integrate them seamlessly into the relational model. This presentation will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by SQL and OLAP applications and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse

Presented by Dan Vlamis

4/16/2008 at 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

Oracle's integration of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE) into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. We will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the value of using these two technologies together. In a live demonstration, the presentation will highlight the benefits of using OBIEE against Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspaces (AWs). The demonstration draws on the strength of both products to show how the combination of OBIEE and Oracle OLAP can deliver attractive analysis of business data. We will also show how Oracle OLAP 11g makes this process easier, with built-in views against AWs, materialized view query re-direction, and other new features in Oracle OLAP 11g.

Presented by:
Chris Claterbos
Peeyush Shukla, CFA, FRM, Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc.

4/16/2008 at 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM

Mesirow Financial is a diversified financial services firm headquartered in Chicago decided to step into the future and create a set of integrated tools and dashboards to help there analysts manage and analyze their performance. They had the following challenges:

• Performant solution needed to aggregate complex hierarchies quickly
• Replace existing quantitative statistical application
• Data to be fed from Pervasive database to Oracle
• Scalability of solution as the data volumes and users increase
• Flexibility and speed of rollout essential as multiple different application to be rolled out, using same footprint
• 10 years of historical data, from multiple data sources, to be stored and aggregated in one database
• Support for dynamically changing model

This presentation provide a technical overview of the solution and demonstrate some of the unique solutions that were created to solve their problems using Oracle Database, OLAP, JDev and BI Beans.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Companies with heterogeneous environments need to analyze data from multiple sources, through multiple application servers, in multiple presentation environments. The "hot pluggable" products work well for this need: Oracle Data Integrator, Essbase, Real-time Decisions, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, and BI Applications. But what if these needs are not paramount in your organization? You can use Oracle's traditional products: Oracle Warehouse Builder, the OLAP and Data Mining options to the Oracle Database, Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition, and Daily Business Intelligence. Come and learn which products are appropriate for your situation, how Oracle's acquisition strategy led to this situation and how Oracle's product management structure propagates this situation. The session will especially focus on the differences between Essbase and the Oracle OLAP option--both very capable multi-dimensional databases, but with different goals.

Presented by Dan Vlamis
Prepared by Cathye Pendley

Can I move my existing "multi-dimensional cubes" to 11g? Can I really improve my warehouse performance using OLAP? What is the benefit of upgrading to OLAP 11g? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you? This presentation will demonstrate the process of migrating 10g cubes and dimensions to 11g and using Oracle OLAP 11g to create cubes and analyze data. There will be a practical look at the new features of OLAP 11g and what it means to the Warehouse Architect and Users. OLAP 11g adds a lot of new features designed to help the DBA and Architect build multidimensional warehouses rapidly and integrate them seamlessly into the relational model. This presentation will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by SQL and OLAP applications and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse.

Presented by Tim Vlamis

Are you involved in generating reports for your business, but want to know which formats are best to use in which situations? Would you like a simple way of understanding when to use pie charts, bar charts, line charts and bubble charts? Want to know when data is presented objectively and when it's not? You'll learn basic design principles for writing reports and generating graphs. You'll see examples of how capabilities built into Excel and Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (formerly Siebel) both help and hurt in presenting and visualizing data in everyday situations. Join BI mavens Dan Vlamis and Tim Vlamis for an entertaining session on how managers typically manipulate, misuse, and abuse reports and analytics to conquer their companies on their way to world domination and what you can do to turn Oracle BI EE into a tool for the good!

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Session S301022 Sunday 09/21 08:30 - 10:00 Moscone West Rm 2001

Can I move my existing multidimensional cubes to Oracle 11g? Can I really improve my warehouse performance with OLAP? What is the benefit of upgrading to Oracle OLAP 11g? Do you need those analytic workspace things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? This presentation demonstrates the process of migrating Oracle 10g cubes and dimensions to Oracle 11g and using Oracle OLAP 11g to create cubes and analyze data. It includes a practical look at the new features of OLAP 11g and what it means to warehouse architects and users.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Session S301161 Sunday 09/21 14:30 - 16:00 Moscone West Rm 2008

This session demonstrates how Oracle Essbase Plus can be used as a datasource for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition. It uses a step-by-step approach in presenting the methodology for combining these two technologies.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Session S300029 Monday 09/22 13:00 - 14:00 Moscone South Rm 302

Oracle Database 11g OLAP provides several new features that can be used to enhance the performance of Oracle Database-based data warehouses. In addition, while providing a complete summary management capability, they can add more calculation capabilities. Views are automatically created that enable standard SQL to access the original data and additional measures. With the calculations in the database, you can securely store all of your business rules and measures there, as this presentation illustrates.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Oracle's Business Intelligence (OBI EE+) is a platform from which to build your BI delivery the way you want it. This presentation discusses the various ways to provide data access to all users inside and outside the organization. Using the open service based architecture users can now access the OBI EE data in JDeveloper to produce custom applications and Apple iPhone users can view reports and receive alerts no matter where they are. Demonstrations of these technologies will illustrate how these new features can allow access to the BI data any way you want to see it.

Presented by Tim Vlamis

Hyperion reporting and analysis tools, including Smartview, Hyperion Visual Explorer, and Smartspace give users an easy-to-use interface for manipulating and analyzing multi-dimensional data stored in Essbase cubes. Come gain first-hand knowledge of what is possible with Essbase in this interactive session.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Can I move my existing "multi-dimensional cubes" to 11g? Can I really improve my warehouse performance using OLAP? What is the benefit of upgrading to OLAP 11g? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

In this hands-on session, participants will gain first-hand knowledge of what it's like to build Oracle 11g OLAP cubes and analyze data. There will be a practical look at the new features of OLAP 11g and what it means to the warehouse architect and users. OLAP 11g adds a lot of new features designed to help the DBA and architect build multidimensional warehouses rapidly and integrate them seamlessly into the relational model. This presentation will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by SQL and OLAP applications and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse.

Presented by Peyush Shukla of Mesirow Financial and Chris Claterbos

Mesirow Financial, a diversified financial services firm, created a set of integrated tools and dashboards to help their analysts manage and analyze their performance. They had the following challenges:

• Performant solution needed to aggregate complex hierarchies quickly
• Replace existing quantitative statistical application
• Data to be fed from Pervasive database to Oracle
• Scalability of solution as the data volumes and users increase
• Flexibility and speed of rollout essential for multiple applications with common footprint
• 10 years of historical data, from multiple data sources
• Support for dynamically changing model

This presentation provides a technical overview of the solution and demonstrates some of the unique solutions that were created to solve their problems using Oracle Database, OLAP, JDeveloper and BI Beans, including some complex calculations using the OLAP DML language.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Dan Vlamis, as the BIWA Summit 2008 Conference Chair, gave this opening presentation.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

A brief presentation on Vlamis Software Solutions.

Presented by Derick Cameron and Chris Claterbos

A hands-on demonstration of the capabilities of the BIC2G demonstration environment.

We recently had a chance to "touch and feel" Oracle OLAP 11g beta. Here are screenshots and bullet point lists of features we found most exciting in this new release. For more information about OLAP in Oracle 11g see our blog entry and May newsletter.

This script and presentation were developed for use with the BI Challenge to Go (BIC2G) environment. The BIC2G environment was created by the Oracle Corporation in collaboration with partners like us. The BIC2G project is a self-contained and fully-functional installation of Oracle Business Intelligence that can be used for technical demonstrations, training, and proof of concepts. Further information is available at http://www.bic2g.com and our BIC2G demonstration page.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you? This exercise will demonstrate the process of implementing Oracle OLAP using Analytic Workspaces. By creating cubes themselves in hands-on exercises, participants will gain first-hand knowledge of the process involved. Participants will also be able to analyze the data in their cubes using tools such as Discoverer, BI Beans, and the OLAP BI Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel. Armed withinformation such as "What is an Analytic Workspace", and "what metadata is required?", will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by an OLAP application and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Oracle's integration of Siebel Analytics into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. Siebel users can use the power of Oracle's multidimensional data engine and features, while still retaining the Siebel interface. This presentation will demonstrate the development and use of the OLAP_TABLE object for preparing multidimensional data cubes for use by Oracle BI EE (i.e. Siebel) analytics. We will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the development of the corresponding OLAP_TABLE objects to be referenced by Oracle BI EE.

The presentation will provide a broad overview of the ability to integrate these two portions of the Oracle Business Intelligence product suite.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Using Oracle 10g R2 and Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) Release 2 we can now design, construct, load and view data in a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 10g Released2 and Oracle OLAP and show how to design and construct a Oracle 10g database that can be used for Business Intelligence. Many new features that improve on the ability to build OLAP warehouses taking advantage of the many new features in Oracle 10g will be presented. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. Included in this presentation are Tips and Techniques that have been used over several projects to provide a fully functional Business Intelligence solution using one tool.

Presented by Cathye Pendley

Have you contemplated either you, one of your employees, or a consultant working remotely? This session will go into the benefits of working remotely as well as some of the tools and techniques that can be used to help when working remotely. Topics covered will include:

• Benefits for the employee/consultant
• Time and stressed saved from not traveling
• Balance of personal and professional life
• Benefits for companies
• Cost savings
• Greater productivity
• Hiring and retaining quality consultants
• Tools and Techniques
• Communication
• Software
• Processes

In the two plus years I have worked for Vlamis Software Solutions(VSS), I have worked for the same client, with only two short trips to the VSS office in Kansas City and two trips to my client. Working remotely has proved to be beneficial for me, our client and VSS. Come by this presentation and hear details on how to make working remotely a success for your business.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle's integration of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. We will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the value of using these two technologies together. In a live demonstration, the presentation will highlight the benefits of using OBIEE against Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspaces (AWs). The demonstration draws on the strength of both products to show how the combination of OBIEE and Oracle OLAP can deliver attractive analysis of business data.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle's integration of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. We will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the value of using these two technologies together. In a live demonstration, the presentation will highlight the benefits of using OBIEE against Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspaces (AWs). The demonstration draws on the strength of both products to show how the combination of OBIEE and Oracle OLAP can deliver attractive analysis of business data.

Presented by Mark Thompson

Oracle's integration of Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) into the Oracle product family provides exciting opportunities to extend the use of Oracle's multidimensional OLAP cubes to include Oracle's new customers who have previously adopted the Siebel environment. We will briefly discuss the development of the multidimensional environment using Oracle Analytic Workspace Manager (AWM), then focus on the value of using these two technologies together. In a live demonstration, the presentation will highlight the benefits of using OBIEE against Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspaces (AWs). The demonstration draws on the strength of both products to show how the combination of OBIEE and Oracle OLAP can deliver attractive analysis of business data. We will also show how Oracle OLAP 11g makes this process easier, with built-in views against AWs, materialized view query re-direction, and other new features in Oracle OLAP 11g.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

This session covers how the Oracle Business Intelligence toolset was used to build an application for QDecisions. This Active Server Pages (ASP) application delivers a rich query interface, analysis over 30+ dimensions, and a Flash-based dashboard. It boasts a metadata-driven cube building process for implementations at multiple clients and uses Oracle Database with the OLAP option and Oracle Business Intelligence to analyze bank services' financial performance.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Using Oracle Database 10g Release 2 and Oracle Warehouse Builder Release 2, we can now design, construct, load, and view data in a data warehouse that is fully OLAP-ready. This session introduces Oracle Warehouse Builder 10g Release 2 and Oracle OLAP, shows how to design and construct an Oracle 10g database that can be used for business intelligence, and explores tips and techniques to provide a fully functional business intelligence solution using one tool.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

This exercise will demonstrate the process of implementing Oracle OLAP using Analytic Workspaces. By creating cubes themselves in hands-on exercises, class participants will gain first-hand knowledge of the process involved. Participants will also be able to analyze the data in their cubes using tools such as Discoverer, BI Beans, and the OLAP BI Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel.

Armed with information such as "What is an Analytic Workspace", and "what metadata is required?", will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by an OLAP application and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Do you think building a Business Intelligence applications hard? Think again. Oracle's BI Beans have significantly improved the ability of inexperienced Java developers to create Complex Rich Business Intelligence Applications with minimal effort. This session explains how developers can take advantage the new features in JDeveloper and BI Beans 10g to create extremely powerful interactive business intelligence applications, which can be used for guided analyses by management. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i/10g, Oracle OLAP, JDeveloper 10g and BI Beans to build a powerful forecasting and what-if analysis application. An actual application will be presented. The experiences of the development process will be presented along with tips and techniques.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Using Oracle 10g R2 and Oracle Business Intelligence we can now design, construct, load and view data in a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 10g, Oracle OLAP, Discoverer for OLAP and how to design and construct an Oracle 10g database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The many new features that improve on the ability to build OLAP warehouses taking advantage of the many new features in Oracle 10g will be presented. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. A complete end-to-end demonstration will be presented.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle BI and Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard about how it speeds up calculations, about the lightning-fast response times on queries, about how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department. Or perhaps you are wondering what the value of OLAP really is or need to justify it to your CIO.

This presentation will have a brief overview of Oracle BI and Oracle OLAP, by case studies, and a discussion of some real-world topics encountered and techniques developed as we work on Oracle OLAP implementations, with a focus be on how real businesses are using Oracle OLAP to solve business problems and meet the needs of their managers.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard how it speeds up calculations; the lightning-fast response times; how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department.

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

This presentation will describe the architecture of Oracle OLAP, and the various front-end choices in the Oracle BI suite (including Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Spreadsheet Add-in and Oracle BI Beans) will be shown and compared using the cubes built earlier in the presentation. Finally, Dan will discuss some of the real-world topics that he has encountered while working on several Oracle OLAP implementations.

Presented by Chris Claterbos and Dan Vlamis

In Oracle10g, Oracle has introduced significant new features in the OLAP Engine. These new features increase the possibility of creating many sorts of business intelligence applications, such as collaborative budgeting, collaborative forecasting, predictive analysis, and modeling applications. All of this is now available within the Oracle 10g database. With this new freedom comes new challenges in managing the database. How are cubes built and updated? What is the best storage location for your data? When should the OLAP option be used? What are the major new capabilities in Oracle OLAP 10g and how does this affect the design of a data warehouse? We will discuss what new tools are used to manage OLAP and how easy it is to create comprehensive OLAP databases. We will also present best practices and strategies pulled from a decade of experience with Oracle OLAP technologies.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

In Oracle OLAP, Oracle has separated the physical storage of data warehouse data from the logical analysis of OLAP applications. What's the magic that makes this work? How does this impact performance? What operations are precluded by various design decisions? Why would you want to use Oracle OLAP or BI Beans instead of simply using regular views or relational tables?

This presentation will describe these components in a "behind the scenes" tour of Oracle OLAP. Armed with information such as "What is an Analytic Workspace", and "what metadata is required to support BI Beans?", will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by an OLAP application and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart. Also included will be the metadata structures used ("AW Standard Form") to describe AW data and how this results in AWs being automatically enabled for BI Beans in OLAP 10g.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Prior to the 10g release of Discoverer, companies that wanted to present Oracle OLAP data had to develop their own applications using BI Beans, typically in JDeveloper. With recent releases, there are now several choices for front-ends that display Oracle OLAP data: Discoverer 10g, Custom-built BI Beans, Spreadsheet Add-in for OLAP, OLAP Web Agent, or 3rd party tools.

Discoverer release 10g gets its power from BI Beans to present Oracle OLAP data. How does this strategy give Discoverer users the flexibility to analyze OLAP data? What features does this expose to the users over what has been available previously? Custom applications that use BI Beans have many of the capabilities that are in the Discoverer 10g application. When would you want to use Discoverer and when would you want to code an application directly in BI Beans? This presentation will contrast Discoverer 10g with custom-built BI Beans applications and discuss why you should consider these or other products.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

With the use of the new features found in recently updated Oracle's Warehouse Builder (OWB) and Oracle 9i/10g we can design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 10g and Oracle OLAP and how to design and construct a Oracle 10g database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The many new features that improve on the ability to build OLAP warehouses taking advantage of the many new features in Oracle 10g will be presented. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. A complete end-to-end demonstration will be presented.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

When building business intelligence applications data is important, but the key piece is making the data easily accessible so that the end-user can use it to improve upon the business. Oracle's introduction of the 2nd Generation of BI Beans (10g R2) significantly improved the ability of inexperienced Java developers to create Complex Rich Business Intelligence Applications with minimal effort. This session explains how developers can take advantage the new features in JDeveloper and BI Beans 10g to create extremely powerful interactive business intelligence applications, which can be used for guided analyses by management. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i/10g, Oracle OLAP, JDeveloper 10g and BI Beans to build a powerful forecasting and what-if analysis application. An actual application will be presented. The experiences of the development process will be presented along with tips and techniques.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Prior to the 10g release of Discoverer, companies that wanted to present Oracle OLAP data had to develop their own applications using BI Beans, typically in JDeveloper. With recent releases, there are now several choices for front-ends that display Oracle OLAP data: Discoverer 10g, Custom-built BI Beans, Spreadsheet Add-in for OLAP, OLAP Web Agent, or 3rd party tools.

Discoverer release 10g gets its power from BI Beans to present Oracle OLAP data. How does this strategy give Discoverer users the flexibility to analyze OLAP data? What features does this expose to the users over what has been available previously? Custom applications that use BI Beans have many of the capabilities that are in the Discoverer 10g application. When would you want to use Discoverer and when would you want to code an application directly in BI Beans? This presentation will contrast Discoverer 10g with custom-built BI Beans applications and discuss why you should consider these or other products.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

In Oracle OLAP, Oracle has separated the physical storage of data warehouse data from the logical analysis of OLAP applications. What's the magic that makes this work? How does this impact performance? What operations are precluded by various design decisions? Why would you want to use Oracle OLAP or BI Beans instead of simply using regular views or relational tables?

This presentation will describe these components in a "behind the scenes" tour of Oracle OLAP. Armed with information such as "What is an Analytic Workspace", and "what metadata is required to support BI Beans?", will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by an OLAP application and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart. Also included will be the metadata structures used ("AW Standard Form") to describe AW data and how this results in AWs being automatically enabled for BI Beans in OLAP 10g.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard about how it speeds up calculations, about the lightning-fast response times on queries, about how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department. Or maybe you've already experienced some of this and see the promise in OLAP, but can't seem to get that one little piece working that will make it all worthwhile. It all looked so simple in the demo you saw!

This presentation will start with a brief demo/overview of Oracle OLAP and the cube-building process, followed by case studies and a discussion of some of the real-world topics that we have encountered as we work on Oracle OLAP implementations, including: attribute dimensions, ragged and skip-level hierarchies, loading data at multiple levels of a cube, duplicate keys in a dimension, surrogate keys, accessing source tables on a different instance, compressed composites, sparsity issues, and NA row suppression.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

With the use of the new features found in recently updated Oracle's Warehouse Builder (OWB) and Oracle 9i/10g we can design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 10g and Oracle OLAP and how to design and construct a Oracle 10g database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The many new features that improve on the ability to build OLAP warehouses taking advantage of the many new features in Oracle 10g will be presented. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. A complete end-to-end demonstration will be presented.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard how it speeds up calculations; the lightning-fast response times; how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department.

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

This presentation will describe the architecture of Oracle OLAP and take you through creating a cube from start to finish. Then, the various front-end choices in the Oracle BI suite (including Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Spreadsheet Add-in and Oracle BI Beans) will be shown and compared using the cubes built earlier in the presentation. Finally, Dan will discuss some of the real-world topics that he has encountered while working on several Oracle OLAP implementations.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard how it speeds up calculations; the lightning-fast response times; how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department.

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

This presentation will describe the architecture of Oracle OLAP and take you through creating a cube from start to finish. Then, the various front-end choices in the Oracle BI suite (including Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Spreadsheet Add-in and Oracle BI Beans) will be shown and compared using the cubes built earlier in the presentation. Finally, Dan will discuss some of the real-world topics that he has encountered while working on several Oracle OLAP implementations.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Competitive Business Intelligence (BI) software tools offer varying features and functionality. But, they represent a significant investment for your organization. How do you evaluate them and find the right fit for your organization? How do you maximize their use? What are the pitfalls? We'll review the latest offerings that can help you manage the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing intelligence information.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

So you've heard of Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle OLAP, huh? Maybe you've heard how it speeds up calculations; the lightning-fast response times; how users can customize their own environment and queries without bothering the IT department.

What are those "multi-dimensional cubes" anyway? Do you need those "analytic workspace" things if you're going to use Oracle Business Intelligence? And can Oracle BI really generate more efficient SQL than you?

This presentation will describe the architecture of Oracle OLAP and take you through creating a cube from start to finish. Then, the various front-end choices in the Oracle BI suite (including Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Spreadsheet Add-in and Oracle BI Beans) will be shown and compared using the cubes built earlier in the presentation. Finally, Dan will discuss some of the real-world topics that he has encountered while working on several Oracle OLAP implementations.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Competitive Business Intelligence (BI) software tools offer varying features and functionality. But, they represent a significant investment for your organization. How do you evaluate them and find the right fit for your organization? How do you maximize their use? What are the pitfalls? We'll review the latest offerings that can help you manage the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing intelligence information.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

With the use of the new features found in Oracle's Warehouse Builder(OWB) 9i and Oracle9i we can now design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 9i and Oracle9i OLAP and how to design and construct an Oracle9i database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The new OWB API will also be presented as well as the new OLAP migration wizards. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. A complete End-to-End demonstration will be presented.

Presented by Chris Claterbos and Dan Vlamis

This class will present the technologies that were introduced with Oracle 9i/10g and 9i Internet Developers Suite (9iDS). These include analytical functions in the relational database, OLAP Services, 9i Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB), Java OLAP API, and BI Beans. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i, OLAP Services, 9i OWB, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to build an OLAP aware warehouse and then develop simple and complex applications to view the warehouse data. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed. The attendees will be shown how to start building OLAP warehouses and developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. A sample datamart will be built and an application will be built to access this data during the class. All attendees will have access to the resulting application code.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

When building business intelligence applications data is important, but the key piece is making the data easily accessible so that the end-user can use it to improve upon the business. This session explains how developers can take advantage of their existing J2EE and data warehouse servers as a platform to create extremely powerful interactive business intelligence applications, which can be used for guided analyses by management. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i, OLAP Service, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to build a powerful forecasting and what-if analysis application. An actual application will be presented. The experiences of the development process will be presented along with tips and techniques.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Discoverer release 10g uses BI Beans to present Oracle OLAP data. It gets its power from BI Beans. How does this strategy give Discoverer users the flexibility to analyze OLAP data? What features does this expose to the users over what has been available previously? Custom applications that use BI Beans have many of the capabilities that are in the Discoverer 10g application. When would you want to use Discoverer and when would you want to code an application directly in BI Beans? This presentation will contrast Discoverer 10g with custom-built BI Beans applications and discuss why you should consider these products.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

The Oracle OLAP Spreadsheet Add-In provides access to Oracle OLAP data from within Microsoft Excel. This presentation will demonstrate how this add-in can provide users access to very powerful analytics within an application they are already comfortable using.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

In Oracle9i, Oracle has separated the physical storage of data warehouse data from the logical analysis of OLAP applications. Physically, data can be stored in relational tables, or in Analytic Workspaces (multidimensional storage). Analytic Workspaces make possible all sorts of interesting business intelligence applications, such as collaborative budgeting, collaborative forecasting, predictive analysis, and modeling applications. All of this is now available within the Oracle9i database. With this new freedom comes new challenges in managing these tables and analytic workspaces. How are AWs updated? What is the best storage location for your data? When should the OLAP option be used? What are the major new capabilities in Oracle OLAP 10g and how does this affect the design of a data warehouse? We will discuss exactly that these mysterious Analytic Workspaces are. We will also present best practices and strategies pulled from a decade of experience with these analytic workspaces in their former life, as Express databases as well as multiple projects involving analytic workspaces. Attendees will see how Oracle tools such as Oracle Warehouse Builder, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Analytic Workspace Manager, and OLAP Worksheet can be used to manage the Oracle OLAP environment.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

This presentation will produce an actual, completed, OLAP-ready datamart, with a working BI application. It will address the steps necessary and options in building a Oracle OLAP cubes, including using Oracle Warehouse Builder, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and Analytic Workspace Manager. It will then move into developing simple and complex applications using JDeveloper, and BI Beans. Tips on the development of a commercial BI Application built using JDeveloper and BI Beans will also be presented.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

This presentation will describe the components of Oracle OLAP. Armed with information answering the questions "What is an analytic workspace?" and "What metadata is required to support the Java OLAP API and BI Beans?", a designer will be able to design a data warehouse or data mart for use by a business intelligence application. In addition, a manager will understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart. In a live demonstration, we will show how Discoverer for OLAP or another BI application can use Oracle OLAP to answer real business questions.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Are you considering building a business intelligence/data warehousing solution? Are you experiencing integration pain from a "best of breed" solution or a metadata mess? Who has the latest data? What impact will this change have? How can you turn your queries into reports? How do you take advantage of the latest Oracle Database features?

This presentation will discuss the latest technologies for building business intelligence and data warehousing systems introduced with Oracle 9i/10g, 9i Internet Developers Suite (9iDS), and OracleAS Discoverer 10g. These include:

• 9i Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM)
• Oracle OLAP
• JDeveloper
• BI Beans
• Discoverer for OLAP (new in Discoverer 10g)
• Accessing Oracle OLAP data from Excel

The attendees will be shown how to start building OLAP warehouses and how to develop simple and complex applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. A sample datamart will be built and an application will be shown that accesses this data during the presentation. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed.

It concludes with a review of the advantages of an integrated approach.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Are you considering building a business intelligence/data warehousing solution? Are you experiencing integration pain from a "best of breed" solution or a metadata mess? Who has the latest data? What impact will this change have? How can you turn your queries into reports? How do you take advantage of the latest Oracle Database features?

This presentation will discuss the latest technologies for building business intelligence and data warehousing systems introduced with Oracle 9i/10g, Oracle Developer Suite, and OracleAS Discoverer 10g. These include:

• Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM)
• Oracle OLAP
• JDeveloper
• BI Beans
• Discoverer for OLAP (new in Discoverer 10g)
• Accessing Oracle OLAP data from Excel

It concludes with a review of the advantages of an integrated approach.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Discoverer release 10g uses BI Beans to present Oracle OLAP data. It gets its power from BI Beans. How does this strategy give Discoverer users the flexibility to analyze OLAP data? What features does this expose to the users over what has been available previously? Custom applications that use BI Beans have many of the capabilities that are in the Discoverer 10g application. When would you want to use Discoverer and when would you want to code an application directly in BI Beans? This presentation will contrast Discoverer 10g with custom-built BI Beans applications and discuss why you should consider these products.

Presented through: IOUG

Presented by Chris Claterbos

When building business intelligence applications data is important, but the key piece is making the data easily accessible so that the end-user can use it to improve upon the business. This session explains how developers can take advantage of their existing J2EE and data warehouse servers as a platform to create extremely powerful interactive business intelligence applications, which can be used for guided analyses by management. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i, OLAP Service, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to build a powerful forecasting and what-if analysis application. An actual application will be presented. The experiences of the development process will be presented along with tips and techniques.

Presented through: IOUG

Presented by Cathye Pendley

Are you considering building a business intelligence/data warehousing solution? Are you experiencing integration pain from a "best of breed" solution or a metadata mess? Who has the latest data? What impact will this change have? How can you turn your queries into reports? How do you take advantage of the latest Oracle Database features?

This presentation will discuss the latest technologies for building business intelligence and data warehousing systems introduced with Oracle 9i/10g, Oracle Developer Suite, and OracleAS Discoverer 10g. These include:

• Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM)
• Oracle OLAP
• JDeveloper
• BI Beans
• Discoverer for OLAP (new in Discoverer 10g)
• Accessing Oracle OLAP data from Excel

It concludes with a review of the advantages of an integrated approach

Presented through: ODTUG

Presented by Chris Claterbos

This class will present the new technologies that were introduced with Oracle9i and 9i Internet Developers Suite (9iDS). These include, analytical functions in the relational database, OLAP Services, 9i Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB), Java OLAP API, and BI Beans. Attendees will see how to use Oracle9i, OLAP Services, 9i OWB, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to build an OLAP aware warehouse and then develop simple and complex applications to view the warehouse data. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed. The outline consists of:

1. Technology Overview
2. OLAP using the relational engine - An Intro to 9i OLAP
3. Using OWB 9i to Design and Populate the Warehouse
4. Analytic Workspace or Relational which is best?
5. BI Applications - what are our options?
6. Programming with BI Beans - The Basics
7. Building Custom Applications
8. Debugging and Deploying you application
9. Wrapping it all up - Q&A

The attendees will be shown how to start building OLAP warehouses and developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. A sample datamart will be build and an application will be built to access this data during the class and all attendees will have access to the resulting application code.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

This presentation will detail the processes and the experiences that Vlamis Software had during the process of developing a commercial BI Application built using JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans. Attendees will see how to use Oracle9i, OLAP Service, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to develop simple and complex applications. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed. The attendees will be shown how to start developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. An actual application will be presented. The experiences of the development process will be presented along with tips and techniques.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

With the introduction of Oracle9i and BI Beans, the landscape for development of BI applications has changed. This leaves clients with existing Express-based applications asking "How do we move our applications and data?" and "Do we store our OLAP data in RDBMS tables or analytic workspaces?". This presentation will address the issues involved in converting and migrating these types of applications over to the new technology. Case studies will be presented and used throughout the presentation.

Topics Include:

• Overview of the Oracle9i and BI Beans Architecture
• Data Migration Issues
• What Can and Cannot Be Migrated/Converted
• Conversion vs. New Development - Which is Best or Possible
• Development Process (steps)
• Tips and Techniques
• Design and Implementation Issues

Presented by Chris Claterbos

With the use of the new features found in Oracle's Warehouse Builder(OWB) 9i and Oracle9i we can now design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 9i and Oracle 9iOLAP and how to design and construct an Oracle9i database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The new OWB API will also be presented as well as the new OLAP migration wizards. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP ready datamart. A complete End-to-End demonstration will be presented.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Are you considering building a business intelligence/data warehousing solution? Are you experiencing integration pain from a "best of breed" solution or a metadata mess? Who has the latest data? What impact will this change have? How can you turn your queries into reports? How do you take advantage of the latest Oracle Database features? This technical session will discuss Oracle's business intelligence components (Warehouse Builder, Discoverer, BI Beans, Reports, and Portal). Incorporated in this "survey" of the Oracle BI stack will be demonstrations of some of these products. It concludes with a review of the advantages of an integrated approach. This information has been updated to include the latest information released at OracleWorld in September on future releases such as Oracle Database 10g and OracleAS Discoverer 10g.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

This presentation will produce an actual, completed, OLAP-ready datamart, with a working BI application. It will include the new OWB API and new OLAP migration wizards, with a step-by-step guide addressing implementation and design issues as well as how to use OLAP Service, JDeveloper 9i, and BI Beans to develop simple and complex applications. Tips on the development of a commercial BI Application built using JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans will also be presented.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

This presentation will describe the components of Oracle9i LOAP. Armed with information answering "What is an analytic workspace?" and "What metadata is required to support the Java OLAP API and BI Beans?", a designer will be able to design a data warehouse or data mart for use by a business intelligence application. In addition, a manager will understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart.

Presented by Dan Vlamis and Chris Claterbos

With the use of the new features found in Oracle's Warehouse Builder(OWB) 9i and Oracle 9i we can now design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 9i and Oracle 9i OLAP and how to design and construct an Oracle 9i database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. The new OWB API will also be presented as well as the new OLAP migration wizards. Implementation and design issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being a completed OLAP based datamart. A complete End-to-End demonstration will be presented.

Outline:

1. New Features of OWB
2. Overview of OLAP features of Oracle 9i
3. Designing a Multidimensional Database with OWB
4. Designing the Datamart
5. Updating the 9i Metadata
6. Loading and Viewing Data
7. Managing with OEM and AW Manager
8. Using the OWB 9i API
9. Issues with Design and Implementation
10. Viewing the Data

Presented by David Fuston

Oracle 9iAS Discoverer is a key component of the Oracle 9i Application server (Oracle 9iAS) in integrated business intelligence solution. Discoverer is the ad hoc tool for queries, reporting, analysis and publishing over the web. During this presentation, I will demonstrate how to setup and implement Oracle 9iAS Discoverer environment. This presentation will utilize an already established Oracle 9i database instance and an Oracle 9iAS instance. We will walk through how to create, modify and execute ad hoc queries as a Discoverer Analyst or Report Builder. We will then access these queries as if we were the casual user viewing and navigating our predefined reports and graphs. And last, but not least, we will export a crosstab report to MS Excel.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle 9i presents new possibilities for OLAP applications. Data can be stored in RDBMS tables or in an analytic workspace, which is simply a new term for an Express database. Which is the right storage vehicle for your needs? How do you migrate the data? What information is lost in the transition?

This presentation will focus on strategies for migrating data from Express databases to Oracle 9i, using Oracle Warehouse Builder, and other techniques. Also included will be a comparison of the benefits of migrating the data implications of storing the data in different ways.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

In Oracle 9i, Oracle has separated the physical storage of data warehouse data from the logical analysis of OLAP applications. What's the magic that makes this work? How does this impact performance? What operations are precluded by various design decisions? Why would you want to use Oracle 9i OLAP or BI Beans instead of simply using regular RDBMS tables with Oracle Discoverer?

This presentation will describe these components in a "behind the scenes" tour of Oracle 9i OLAP. Armed with information such as "what is an analytic workspace", and "what metadata is required to support the Java OLAP API and BI Beans?", will help a DBA prepare a database and design schemas for use by an OLAP application and help an application developer understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

With the introduction of Oracle 9i and BI Beans, the landscape for development of BI applications is changing. This leaves clients with existing Express based applications developed in Express Web Agent and Oracle Express Objects (OEO) asking "How do we move our applications?". The direct migration of such applications is not fully supported but there is hope. This presentation will address the issues involved in converting and migrating these types of applications over to the new technology. Example applications will be presented and used throughout the presentation.

Topics Include:

• Overview of the Oracle 9i and BI Beans Architecture
• Data Migration Issues
• What Can and Cannot Be Migrated/Converted
• Conversion vs. New Development - Which is Best or Possible
• Development Process (steps)
• Tips and Techniques
• Design and Implementation Issues

Presented by Chris Claterbos and Elizabeth Reardon

With the use of the new features found in Oracle's Warehouse Builder (OWB) 3i and Oracle 9i we can now design, construct and load a data warehouse that is fully OLAP ready. This presentation will introduce the attendee to OWB 3i and Oracle 9i OLAP and how to design and construct an Oracle 9i database that can be used for OLAP analysis and presentation. Design and implementation issues will also be addressed. A step-by-step guide will be presented with the end result being an OLAP-ready datamart.

Topics Include:

• New Features of OWB 3i
• Overview of OLAP Features of Oracle 9i
• Designing a Multidimensional Database with OWB
• CWM Metadata in 9i
• Designing the Datamart
• Updating the 9i Metadata
• Loading and Viewing Data
• Design and Implementation Issues

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.

Presented by David Fuston

This presentation will cover the DBA tools and techniques used in customizing Oracle Financial Analyzer. The background topics to be covered include OFA architecture, how OFA interacts with Express Server and Personal Express, and OFA Structures and Catalogs. The major portion of the presentation will be a discussion of how to maintain the catalogs behind the scenes in Express 4GL, as well as loading data and structures. Some of the structure differences between using Oracle G/L link and a standalone OFA application will be discussed. We will demonstrate the advantages and limitations of using the three tools (OFA front-end, Express 4GL and Express Administrator) for performing maintenance and customizations.

Particular will place particular emphasis on illustrating best practices in customization and maintenance. Particular emphasis will be placed on DM.CATALOG (dimensions), LC.CATALOG (local code), MD.CATALOG (models), HI.CATALOG (hierarchies), FD.CATALOG (financial data item) and RL.CATALOG (attributes) showing best practices in customization and maintenance. We will demonstrate the process of adding items to the menu and tool bar. Each attendee will receive a technical diagram showing the detailed interrelationships among OFA catalogs.

Each attendee will learn the advantages and limitations of the three tools (OFA front-end, Express 4GL, and Express Administrator) used by a DBA for maintaining and customizing OFA databases. Attendees will gain a detailed understanding of the properties of several catalogs critical to implementing, maintaining, and customizing OFA databases.

Presented by Mike Banasik

We will cover the organizational structures involved in setting up a Multi-Org environment. We will run the Multi-Org Validation Report to identify any problems with the configuration and highlight related profile options, errors, and warnings that may be generated.

This presentation will cover the organizational structures involved in the setup of a Multi-Org environment on a single installation of Oracle Applications. The Multi-Org architecture determines how transactions flow through different organizations and how those organizations interact with each other. Organizations can be sets of books, legal entities, operating units, or inventory organizations. We will discuss the Multi-Org hierarchy, along with considerations for multiple charts of accounts. We will cover the various aspects involved in setting up a Multi-Org environment, including identifying some potential pitfalls. We will highlight the information shared across organizations and discuss information that may be specific to each organization. Finally, we will run the Multi-Org Validation Report to identify any problems with configuration and highlight the related profile option and point out possible errors and warnings that may be generated.

Presented by Mike Banasik and David Fuston

Attendees will learn the advantages and limitations of the three tools (OFA front-end, Express 4GL, and Express Administrator) used by a DBA for design and maintenance of OFA databases. Attendees will gain a detailed understanding of the properties of several catalogs critical to implementing, maintaining, and customizing OFA databases and GL Link.

This presentation will cover the DBA tools and techniques used in customizing Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA). The background topics to be covered include OFA architecture, how OFA interacts with Express Server and Personal Express, GL link procedures and process, and how OFA structures and catalogs work behind the scenes. The major portion of the presentation will be a discussion of how to maintain the catalogs behind the scenes in Express 4GL, as well as loading data and structures via GL Link and custom data loaders. Some of the structure differences between using Oracle G/L link as a data loader and a standalone OFA application will be discussed. A sample custom data loader program will be shown as a take-home example of optional customizations. The advantages and limitations of using the three Oracle Express tools (OFA front-end, Express 4GL and Express Administrator) in conjunction with GL administrator for performing maintenance and customizations will be demonstrated.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the General Ledger setup, including chart of accounts, key and descriptive Flexfields, segment concatenation, rollup groups, parent/child relationships, and summary accounts. We will discuss the GL Link setup limitations, changing structures over time, and GL to OFA mapping. We will review known GL link issues, bugs, and workarounds.

We will discuss best practices in OFA customization and maintenance. Particular emphasis will be placed on DM.CATALOG (dimensions), LC.CATALOG (local code), MD.CATALOG (models), HI.CATALOG (hierarchies), FD.CATALOG (financial data item) and RL.CATALOG (attributes) showing best practices in customization and maintenance. Examples of adding items to the menu and tool bar will be demonstrated. A technical diagram applicable to Express 6.3 and GL 10.7, 11, and 11i showing the detailed interrelationships among OFA catalogs will be given to each attendee.

Presented by David Fuston

9iAS and Discoverer 4i Plus training will be broken down into three segments: 1) Setup and Connectivity for Discoverer 4i Plus, 2) Warehouse and Dimensional Strategy, and 3) Building and Executing a Query. This presentation will use an already established Oracle 9i database instance and an Oracle 9iAS instance.

Setup and Connectivity for Discoverer 4i Plus
This part of the presentation will be almost exclusively hands-on demonstration starting with setting up the user disco4. Then we will run through JInitiator installation, starting OracleDiscover4i service, modifying tnsnames.ora file, registering the collector, preferences, and the session.

Warehouse and Dimensional Design
We will review the terminology and schemas used in data warehousing. Then we will discuss best practices and an assessment of whether your company is ready for a business intelligence solution.

Building and Executing a Query
During this phase of the demonstration we will create a new workbook via the Workbook Wizard from the data warehouse tables, and select certain options for formatting and gridlines. We will then filter our results along with pivoting and changing the worksheet layout. During this discussion, we will address some common problems, including when and how to customize the crosstab reports for your environment.

Presented by Chris Claterbos and David Fuston

This class will present the new technologies that were introduced with Oracle 9i. These include analytical functions in the relational database, OLAP Services, Java OLAP API, and BI Beans. Attendees will see how to use Oracle 9i, OLAP Service, JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans to develop simple and complex applications. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed. The outline consists of:

1. Technology Overview
2. OLAP using the Relational Engine
3. The BI Beans Advantage
4. The Java Development Environment
5. BI Beans Components
6. Programming with BI Beans - The Basics
7. Building Custom Applications
8. Debugging and Deploying your Application
9. Advanced Functions

The attendees will be shown how to start developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. A sample application will be built during the class and all attendees will have access to the resulting application code.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

This presentation details the developing and deploying of a Business Intelligence Portal for the Web using Oracle Portal 9i (9iAS 9i R2), Oracle 9i, JDeveloper 9i, BI Beans and other components of the 9i Developer Suite. An overview of the various architectural components with optional deployment considerations is given. Specific topics include:

• Overview of programming with JDeveloper 9i and BI Beans
• Architectural Review-How everything works together
• Using BI Beans, JDeveloper and Portal over Web
• Templates and dynamically generated HTML
• Using OLAP Beans and JDeveloper
• Integrating with other BI Tools (Reports and Discoverer)
• Do's and Don'ts

Presented by Chris Claterbos

This presentation will present how custom applications can be built using JDeveloper 9i, 9i OLAP and BI Beans. The attendees will be shown how to start developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. We will also address the experiences we had developing our product VSS Business Analyzer and share with the attendees how they can also develop simple and complex applications. A comparison between thick and thin client applications will also be discussed. The outline consists of:

1. Programming with BI Beans - The Basics
2. Building Custom Applications
3. Adding Advanced Functions
4. Our Experiences
5. Tips and Techniques

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle 9i OLAP enables all Oracle data warehouses and data marts to be analyzed with OLAP applications. In Oracle 9i, Oracle has separated the physical storage of data warehouse data from the logical analysis of OLAP applications. This eases the whole process of developing applications. More importantly, it opens up previously inaccessible data to new business applications. How do we now capitalize on these new capabilities?

What's the magic that makes this work? How does this impact performance? What operations are precluded by various design decisions? Why would you want to use Oracle 9i OLAP or BI Beans instead of simply using regular RDBMS tables with Oracle Discoverer?

This presentation will describe the components of Oracle 9i OLAP. Armed with information such as "what is an analytic workspace", and "what metadata is required to support the Java OLAP API and BI Beans?", a designer will be able to design a data warehouse or data mart for use by a business intelligence application. In addition, a manager will understand what options are possible and how to gain maximum value from a data warehouse or data mart.

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.

Presented by Elizabeth Reardon

The presentation covers the Oracle business intelligence tools using an Oracle Portal 3.0 portal to publish and query Web site activities, explore and analyze customer behaviors, analyze trends and forecast. The entire e-business capabilities of advanced analysis (Express), enterprise reporting (Reports) and ad hoc query (Discoverer) are shown on a single integrated and comprehensive Web portal. Oracle Portal improvements over WebDB 2.2 is highlighted along with how to integrate both Oracle (Express, Reports, Discoverer) and non-Oracle applications for personalized content and controlled access. Ease of use is addressed by covering pre-packaged site templates, pre-built components and built-in services along with both Java and PL/SQL access.

Presented by David Fuston

This presentation covers the DBA tools and techniques used in optimizing Oracle 8i relational database for business intelligence users. The background topics covered include star schema, creation and population of data mart, Express cubes design and development, as well as the differences in MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP performance. There is coverage of three different objectives: minimizing space required to build cubes, minimizing cube processing times and getting the best query execution times. Using sample queries, the session then shows examples of performance improvements from two real world data marts. BI optimization tips for both relational and multi-dimensional servers are summarized. Demonstration of both the Express RAA query statistics GUI provided with Express server and the Oracle 8i analyze statistics command are used.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

Each attendee learns the components of an OLAP-ready RDBMS application. Using a broad brush, this session discusses the OLAP-ready relational models, analytically enabled SQL, relational OLAP performance and object-based API utilized by BIBeans. Then, it looks at how one can achieve the goal of "everything in 4GL that can be done declaratively can be manufactured in SQL statements." Samples of windowing functions, ranking functions, lag/lead functions and reporting functions are shown, along with Java class libraries, dimensional cursors, SQL generation and complex calculations. The end result is to show the framework for how one can achieve an integrated OLAP application using the new features supported in 9i and related technologies.

Presented by David Fuston

Oracle8i Release 1 added support for the CUBE and ROLLUP extensions to the SELECT statement's GROUP BY clause. Oracle8i Release 2 introduced a powerful group of SQL functions supporting business intelligence queries. These functions enable ranking, moving and cumulative aggregates, lead and lag and more. Along with the analytic functions, Oracle8i Release 2 also supports efficient multi-dimensional aggregations. These analytic functions and multi-dimensional aggregation features are a foundation for extending Oracle's analytic capabilities. Oracle 9i beta enhances this foundation and expands its functional use to include list partitioning, bitmap join indexes, OLAP server, new families of analytic functions and important extensions for the GROUP BY clause. This session reviews Oracle's SQL analytic functions, multi-dimensional aggregations and partitioning. Business examples are presented along with methods to utilize these potent enhancements.

Presented by Dan Vlamis

Oracle 9i OLAP services represents a radical change in the way OLAP applications are designed and built. No longer is the administration of an Express database separate from the star schema relational data warehouse. Oracle 9i OLAP services allow you to administer your multidimensional data with relational tools --because the data is truly stored in the relational database.

Come learn what Oracle 9i OLAP Services can do and how it compares to the 6.x Express environment. What does the new language look like? What can be done and what can't be done? What happens to legacy Express applications? What concepts carry over to the new environment and what don't? And what totally new design concepts are introduced? Oracle 9i totally changes the way Oracle OLAP applications are built.

Presented by Chris Claterbos

This class presents the new technologies that will be introduced with Oracle 9i. These include analytical functions in the relational database, OLAP services, Java OLAP API, and BI Beans. The course is based upon a book that will be released by Chris Claterbos after the release of 9i. The outline consists of:

1. Technology overview
2. OLAP using the relational engine
3. The BI Beans advantage
4. The Java development environment
5. BI Beans components
6. Programming with BI Beans - the basics
7. Debugging and deploying your application
8. Advanced functions

Attendees are shown how to start developing applications using BI Beans and JDeveloper. A sample application is built during the class and all attendees have access to the resulting application code.

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.

Presented by Karla Loomis

Abstract not available.

Presented by David Fuston

Each attendee will receive a briefing in a proven methodology that assesses your readiness to implement a Business Intelligence Solution. Each attendee will learn the advantages and disadvantages of the products under Oracle's Business Intelligence umbrella. Finally, I will show how these two applications can be used with some of the modules in Oracle's E-Business Suite, including using the GL Link for OFA.

Presented by Michael Banasik

The successful OM and E-Commerce Gateway implementation is filled with many challenges, but few are true technology issues. How you overcome the challenges determines how much of the technology is adopted. Process management affects the final outcomes, and what cultural changes evolve into end user acceptance.

Presented by David Fuston

Oracle 8i Release 1 added support for the CUBE and ROLLUP extensions to the SELECT statement's GROUP BY clause. Oracle8i Release 2 introduced a powerful group of SQL functions supporting business intelligence queries. These functions enable ranking, moving and cumulative aggregates, leads and lags and more. Along with the analytic functions, Oracle 8i Release 2 also supports efficient multi-dimensional aggregations. These analytic functions and multi-dimensional aggregation features are a foundation for extending Oracle's analytic capabilities. Oracle 9i enhances this foundation and expands its functional use to include list partitioning, bitmap join indexes, OLAP server, new families of analytic functions and important extensions for the GROUP BY clause. This session reviews Oracle's SQL analytic functions, multi-dimensional aggregations and partitioning. Also included will be specific code examples of using these enhancements as well as the business requirements behind the examples.

Presented by Michael Banasik

Using a case study, we will start by describing the business and IT environments, look at the business objectives for the Oracle applications technology, and then review the IT strategy taken. Areas covered will include data conversion, upgrade paths, and IT staffing. We will then discuss the bugs discovered, workarounds used, and patch sets required for each client install, and show the results of our initial test scripts. Finally, we will review the outcome of the entire project, including the net effect of the project on the business.

The successful Order Management (OM) and E-Commerce Gateway implementation is filled with many challenges, but few are solely technology issues. How you overcome the challenges determines the extent to which the user community embraces the new technology.

Presented by David Fuston

Abstract not available.