The BI and Reporting Layer

In talking about the Business Intelligence & Reporting layer of the future state architecture, it's important to keep in mind that we're dealing with another component of Fusion Middleware. Although the E-Business Suite now comes out of the box with a limited version of XML Publisher, we talking here about a wider scope. That scope includes both driving both business intelligence and reporting with the data contained in the Data Repository layer of this architecture. In my shop, that means BI Publisher will be used to work with data sources that include the various Oracle and non-Oracle "data stovepipes" throughout JPL.

Moving from Oracle Reports (as well as our own custom reports) is not a trivial migration effort for my shop. I understand that Oracle has a tool in the works to help with that migration. Can't wait to see it.

The variety in technology stacks for those same data stovepipes also push my shop toward the more database-agnostic Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition product over Oracle Standard. In implementing OBI EE, we'll also have to consider how to best leverage Oracle Discoverer with Oracle Answers (one over the other v. using both). In our case, I suspect we'll eventually go exclusively with Oracle Answers. However, your stituation and your final answer could be different.

Finally, there is the impact of Web Center on the BI layer. As we provide user dashboards and similar products, I expect Web Center to improve the user experience through Web 2.0 features. So Web Center becomes a driver in this layer of the architecture as well as in some others.

NEXT UP: Unified Data Access