Oracle BI: From Data Analysis To Future Predictions

Oracle BI – Thoughts (9) – Cadran publishes a series of articles on the vision behind Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle JD Edwards. In these articles, we share insights to help you make the right choices in implementing and using these systems. The previous article covered the development cycle, steps to maturity, and reporting capabilities in JD Edwards. This article goes a step further: we explore how to use these tools to predict the future.

Oracle BIEE applications

Oracle Business Intelligence helps organizations significantly improve data quality (both master data and transaction data) and process efficiency. Through analyses, charts, and KPIs, Oracle BI provides operational, tactical, and strategic insights to optimize organizational, administrative, and process management.

We’ve previously seen that a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a powerful tool for signaling when corrective action is needed. By attaching assessments or targets to facts and metrics, Oracle BI can capture these signals. For example, absenteeism at 4% is simply a statistic, but if this percentage is marked as “too high,” Oracle BI can pick it up and aid in corrective actions.

Oracle BI also makes it possible to look forward based on existing data. By setting up trends in dashboards and analyses smartly, you can make projections. An example of this is analyzing the sales of the top 50 customers: based on last year’s sales, you can predict whether a customer is likely to purchase more or less this year. A simple linear trend can already provide an estimate, but the formula can be as complex as desired.

Using Sales Forecasting in JD Edwards opens up even more possibilities for forward-looking insights. The better the data setup in this module, the faster and clearer Oracle BI can present a view of the future through visualizations.

Proactive Alerts

With Oracle BI, you can set proactive alerts through Agents. These are scheduled tasks that run automatically. Based on KPIs and set criteria, these Agents can send alerts via email or SMS and display notifications on your main internet or intranet page. Users or teams can subscribe to specific alerts, keeping them instantly updated on key developments, similar to news feeds.

KPI Watch Lists & Scorecards

Users are also offered the possibility to compile so-called KPI Watch Lists (not to be confused with Watch Lists in Oracle JD Edwards), so that a bundling of separate KPIs arises that give an overall assessment of the performance of a particular (sub) process in the organization. An example of this is the monitoring of the warehouse process, which is done based on KPIs such as turnover rate, number of backorders, number of backlogs or short-comings in stock, order picking speed, and so on. Only when all individual meters are green, the above overall KPI will turn green. These Watch Lists are then connected to departments, creating an even higher level. For example, a process such as Sales Order Management can be provided with several of these watch lists and linked to the responsible departments, such as Customer Service, Logistics and Accounts Receivable, which are involved in this total process. This functionality is known in Oracle BI under the name Scorecards. This functionality can then be lifted to an organization-wide level. This allows targets to be set, such as a target margin for the current year. All components, departments and processes that influence this can be monitored and controlled at the highest level in this way. Only when all the underlying elements meet, is it clear that this goal has been realized. Using tools such as budgets, goals, forecasts and trends, the management becomes increasingly intelligent.

Conditional Dashboarding & Actionable Intelligence

A powerful concept in Oracle BI is Conditional Dashboarding, where certain dashboards or sections only appear when relevant. For example, a section on customers with poor payment records is displayed only when specific thresholds are exceeded. This is known as Actionable Intelligence. Links to detailed analyses or drilldowns appear only when there is something that needs attention, following the principles of Management by Exception. This way, you focus only on areas that genuinely require attention.

Performance Management
In addition to Oracle BI, Oracle also offers Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). These tools, originally from Hyperion, build on Oracle BI and provide dynamic capabilities to monitor and adjust organizational performance.

With forward-looking analyses, you can answer key questions, such as:

• Which customer will generate the most profit this year?
• Which product will no longer be purchased?
• What happens if demand falls short of expectations?

This shifts the focus to what-if analyses and scenarios. Based on historical data, scenarios can be created for questions like:

• What if more staff work in the warehouse?
• What if we launch a new product line?
• What if a new distribution center is opened?

These analyses enable mid-term forecasts for the coming years. Various parameters can be adjusted to model different outcomes. The results can be saved and later compared with reality, providing insight into how specific choices have developed in practice.

The main applications that can be found in these applications are:

• Planning & Budgeting
• Financial Management
• Financial (Project) Planning
• Capital Asset Planning
• Workforce Planning
• EssBase Analytics
• Real Time Decisions

Big Data.

The term Big Data is everywhere these days. In the next article, we’ll take a closer look at what it really means, the techniques behind it, and how to practically engage with it.je er praktisch mee aan de slag kunt.