OTBI Vs BI. A question which you’ll face before developing a new report in Oracle Fusion. So let’s talk about it. Well, OTBI reporting is a tool provided by Oracle for easy analysis and reporting. OTBI comes with the underlying plumbing already in place ( data already segregated in business area) and you just have to put a tap to get the water ( just drag drop the columns and do the calculation). Meanwhile BI, kind of gives you the tool to do your own plumbing. Means you’ll have to put more effort but you can design the way you want. Obviously both the tools have their own pros and cons.
How to Pick Between OTBI & BI
But there is one criteria which can tilt the balance in the favor of BI publisher and that is time zone. As you know, dates are stored in UTC time zone in Fusion. Problem with OTBI is that date is shown in UTC time zone. So depending on the time zone your client is in, date on which transaction happened & the date in which it is reported can vary.
For example, if your client is in EST and transaction happened at 7 PM on 10/12, date in UTC will still be 10/12. But if the transaction happened at 8 PM EST on 10/12, Date is 10/13 in UTC. So the user will have slightly tough time in reconciling. To overcome this you’ll have to offset the time zone difference. Another major difference is that BI report are real time but there can be a time lag in case of OTBI report.
You might want to refer to this post to see how to create an OTBI analysis.
By the way here are a few posts which can help you develop a BI Report:
Developing A BI Report In Oracle Fusion
Number Formatting in RTF
Date Formatting in RTF
Looping Finite Number Of Times
Bursting
So let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages from a hands on perspective:
OTBI Reporting
| Pros | Cons |
| No need to have In depth knowledge of the product | Limited flexibility |
| No technical knowledge required as long as you can drag drop the field | Technical knowledge is a must |
| Extremely easy to create | Can test your patience |
| Number of records are restricted to 25K | |
| Enhancements may not be possible | |
| Connecting the different business areas may become complicated and many a times may not produce the desired results. | |
| Output formats are limited. |
BI Reporting
| Pros | Cons |
| Unlimited flexibility | In depth knowledge of the product is required. |
| Can fetch every information available in the database. | Need the knowledge of database & table structure |
| Can produce the output in many formats such as PDF, excel, csv etc | Development is time consuming as compare to OTBI. |
How do I decide Between OTBI & BI ?
I just show my client how to create their own OTBI analysis and let them create it for themselves. if it gets complicated, then convert it into the BI report. But if you are the end user yourself, you’d know if any enhancement will ever be needed to complete your day to day task. So you can take a call depending on that probability. Of course your technical prowess are the key decider in OTBI Vs BI.
By the way, Here ( India) or Here ( Other Geographies) are few UNCONVENTIONAL tricks which I have learnt to improve the performance of BI reports or SQL queries. Try them only when nothing else works.. kind of SOS...
Related Posts
OTBI Report Development
Developing A BI Report In Oracle Fusion
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