What Are The Differences Between Siebel Analytics And OBIEE?

Siebel Analytics and OBIEE are both tools that are widely used in the business world. Corporate sand business organizations use these tools for the effective analysis of business data at various levels. These tools help in making better business decisions.

World renowned software giant Oracle has acquired Siebel Analytics and renamed it as Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). There have been rising debates regarding the differences, if any, between the two tools.

In terms of similarities, both the tools are essentially the same at their core, but have a few minute differences. Certain features that are absent in Siebel Analytics can be found in OBIEE. Thus those willing to opt for Siebel Analytics certification will find this info helpful.

Additional Interactivity with MS Office

Static versions of reports can now be downloaded directly to Microsoft PowerPoint using the Download menu found in the “Report Links” menu. Add-on software is not required for this feature to work. Reports can be directly pasted to Microsoft PowerPoint as well. Adding a copy link to any report will enable you to use this feature. However, the Oracle Business Intelligence Office add-in needs to be installed for it to work. The pasted report can subsequently be refreshed in PowerPoint with live data whenever required.

Multi-Select Dashboard Prompts

Siebel Analytics training, the tool was a bit tricky to use especially if there were a lot of values in the multi-select dashboard prompt. However, OBIEE makes data analysis in such situations much easier thanks to the inclusion of a brand new search feature. Four matching schemes can be used to search through all available values; ‘begins with’, ‘contains’, ‘ends with’ and ‘is like’. Characters such as ‘%’ are accepted as part of the search as well. The paging mechanism too, has been made more sophisticated. Using the Shift key to select multiple values and value copy pasting are two new features in this regard as well.

Oracle Catalog Import

OBIEE, through the OBI admin tool, gives administrators the freedom of importing database objects using an Oracle OCI connection. This native Oracle OCI connection can even be re-used for queries. The requirement of setting up ODBC connections to Oracle Databases is mitigated thanks to this feature. In the Siebel Analytics tool, this connection had to be set up in order to import metadata objects.

Time Series Functions

Previously, the Siebel Analytics framework consisted of a Time Series Wizard. This wizard has been revamped in the OBIEE, and it is now known as the Time Series Functions.

Embedded Database Functions

Administrators and users can now use OBIEE to call Database functions by using Logical columns in the Logical Table source, or from Oracle BI Answers. The Evaluate function is a great example of the new Embedded Database Functions features.

Presentation Variable

A user’s dynamic values in Oracle BI Answers can now be accepted thanks to the Presentation Variable, a new inclusion in OBIEE. The name and value of the presentation variable have to be user determined. With the help of the Set Variable field, there must be a dashboard prompt declaration of the variable.

Metadata Dictionary

Oracle BI Answers based analysis of metadata repository statistics has been enabled thanks to this feature. Rep contained metrics and rep object attributes are described thanks to the metadata dictionary, which is generated by the OBIEE server. Report construction is guided thanks to this metadata information, which can be accessed from the selection pane in BI Answers. Enabling this feature will display an icon next to Columns, Subject Areas and Table Names, which can be used to display particular information and links.

Other improvements in OBIEE from Siebel Analytics include better performance, support for 64-bit and Linux systems and easier User Interface.