| We have seen tremendous consolidation in the high-technology industry in recent years. Mergers and acquisitions strengthen the product offerings of a company, but they also sometimes bring together products that, on the face of it, seem either to duplicate a solution or to present no possibility of working together.
In 2007, Oracle already owned a well-respected, multidimensional solution— Oracle OLAP—when Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion Solutions brought another leading multidimensional product—Essbase—into the Oracle fold. Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase address the same business need: to provide business analysts with the tools they need to analyze and report on shared data in a way that is meaningful to people in the line of business. Both products ensure that all stakeholders are working from the same set of data by pulling the shared data from data sources managed by the IT department. Yet even with this seeming duplication of purpose, Oracle is firmly committed to both products. Why?
For someone with a background in both Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase, the answer to this question is apparent. However, it soon became clear that the answer is not as obvious to those without knowledge of both products, both inside and outside Oracle. An explanation was in order, and we needed people with expert product experience to relay the message. That is the purpose of this book.
We are very pleased to have an expert team leading the writing effort. Michael Schrader has 30 years BI experience, specializing in Oracle BI solutions since 1987. He has an Oracle Essbase and Oracle OLAP background. He is the coauthor of Oracle Data Warehousing with Bonnie O’Neil, and has presented at numerous major conferences, including Collaborate, Oracle OpenWorld, and the Gartner Business Intelligence Summit. |