Business users become more and more demanding every day. They want to have all analysis done faster, better, and more accurately. And, by the way, it's nothing one could be surprised with. Nowadays, information itself never is enough. Simultaneously, it has to be spread all over the organization (delivered to each and every user that could consider it helpful), timely (deliver the information before it becomes out of date), and precise (only the most important part is needed). However, it rarely is easy to ensure all these conditions together "manually". Thereupon, more and more complex analytical tools are developed to ensure the IT support. One of such tools is Oracle Essbase.

Oracle Essbase is a server that ensures the whole environment needed for developing separate analytic and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) applications. With the OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) technology, Oracle Essbase seems to be one of the leaders in business scenarios modeling. Once the whole thing can be boiled down to answering to "what if" queries, the Oracle tools helps finding more precise and actual answers faster than its alternatives.

Three for Oracle Essbase

The main argument for Oracle Essbase is its speed. Referred to be "as fast as a thought", the tool not only provides the information, but also helps with understanding it. Thereupon, business scenarios - regardless of how complex or probable - consists of different values which all have their explanation. Everything has its reasonable cause and - therefore - it's easier to analyze and, what also important, understand the models. Well worked out integration with Microsoft Office suite isn't accidental there. As it's the most common office suite, most of business users know it best, thereupon letting them benefit from Oracle Essbase functionality from MS Office maintenance level definitely is a good move.

Even the most complex solution couldn't be good if it didn't work efficiently. To accelerate the processes, Oracle Essbase has been supplied with over 350 different automated functions and algorithms. Thereupon, to do the most common things and perform the most common actions, Oracle Essbase users requires nothing more than just a few clicks. Then, models are automatically implemented within the newly created scenario. The calculation engine which the tool bases on is praised for its outstandingly high performance followed with extremely wide functionality.

The what's most frustrating about business is its unpredictability. Thereupon, even the widest functionality and the largest number of automated procedures can sometimes happen to be not enough. However, that's not the end of Oracle Essbase capabilities. Supplied with a rightful custom analytic environment, the tool allows its users to get out of schemes. Once their requirements change, their models change, too. Consequently, Essbase supports the most differentiated dimensions, metrics, and hierarchies.

Oracle Essbase features and main benefits

• Enables real time analysis that consider the most important indicators and metrics
• Supports cost savings with linking to already implemented systems
• Guarantees thousands of parallel analysis in a few seconds
• Provides easy and fast processes of development, deployment, and maintenance
• Ensures data and information security (due to complex and tight security system)
• Enables trouble free cooperation of hundreds of users who struggle with enormous data sets
• Provides interfaces that are easy and intuitive to use
• Supports dimensional models
• Shortens the time needed for performing calculations
• Quickly discovers and highlights the trends

Oracle Essbase resources

• http://www.oracle.com/us/products/middleware/bus-int/064348.pdf - data sheets usually are the first source of information. However, usually they're the source of information that's not complete and lacks in details (as data sheet's role is not to explain technical questions of the solution). Nevertheless, the data sheet devoted to Oracle Essbase tool can be considered quite a good for the beginning. On four pages of text and illustration, there are the crucial features and befits listed. Moreover, there is a general overview included and its chosen aspects explained. Even though there's no technical details nor - for instance - requirements, the considered data sheet is quite an interesting thing to read before diving into more detailed questions.
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/essbase/overview/index.html - here's what one could call a complete source of information. Overview, demo versions, tutorials, documentation, tips - in a word, everything that one could ever consider useful in case of Oracle Essbase using. If there's anything told about the tool (from the official point of view, though), one can be sure it's included here. However, the ones who want to be told the basis about Oracle Essbase, might feel a bit confused. Once there are lots of information, finding "the general" might be problematical, therefore the official Oracle website is suggested to users who know the bases of Essbase and want to dive into chosen aspects of the solution.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essbase - it's not common that the whole articles in Wikipedia are devoted to separate tools, therefore Oracle Essbase can be considered an exception. Especially because there is a complete article published. One can there read a lot about the history of the tool and the idea of "extended spread sheets" as a whole, and also quite a lot about the engines. Separate "chapter" is devoted to two interfaces (users' and administrator's). Moreover, there is a word about the competitors, however - due to encyclopedic character of Wikipedia - nothing on comparison has got included. Finally, article's author mentions the methods for importing and exporting data from and to Oracle Essbase. Unlike many Wikipedia articles, this one can be considered rightful source of knowledge for people who need a different point of view to make a decision (the ones who Oracle's official website is not enough to).
• Under the Covers of Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase.pdf - the presentation by Rittman Mead specialists and co founder, Mark Rittman, is quite a good supplement. There is a lot of slides devoted to OLAP 11g, and a few to Oracle Essbase itself, thereupon this also should be considered. Especially because there is a rightful comparison included. Much more valuable, though, it would be to listen to the whole lecture, however - for the ones who don't have such a possibility - even the sole presentation can be helpful.