Over the years, Oracle has pushed its analytics package on its customers. But they weren’t moving as fast with the updates on the software that was already deployed.
What’s more, nobody knew where the company was headed, in terms of their plans for their various products. As such, customers saw that the company was not transparent, and Oracle knew that.
But all that is going to change. In June 2019, T.K. Anand, the company’s senior vice president of analytics, spoke at the Oracle Analytics Summit. In front of around 200 partners, analysts, and customers plus at least 6,800 webcast attendees, Anand acknowledged the lack of transparency on their part and promised a new beginning for Oracle Analytics.
According to Anand, Oracle Analytics will be simplified and its pricing will change.
Simplified Product Lineup
From this point forward, Oracle will be offering only three products for its analytics:
- Oracle Analytics Cloud,
- Oracle Analytics Server, and
- Oracle Analytics for Applications.
Oracle Analytics Cloud
If you have been using Oracle for your analytics, then this one should be familiar to you. The Oracle Analytics Cloud has most of the tools you need to analyze data sets without requiring IT to provide it for you. It focuses on data visualization, as well as a wide range of analytics capabilities.
With OAC, you can get data preparation recommendations, natural language queries for the web and mobile, natural language generation, and automated insights. Personalized recommendations are getting ready to roll out.
You can even use OAC’s natural language capabilities to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Amazon Alexa, Skype, Google Assistant, and the company’s own Oracle Digital Assistant.
Oracle Analytics Server
Oracle Analytics Server makes the OAC accessible to your on-premise systems. This is useful if you have a multi-cloud environment. It is also a big deal for those companies in highly regulated industries. You don’t have to put your data on the cloud, you can bring OAC via the OAS.
With OAS, you get self-service data discovery, natural language capabilities, augmented analytics, analytics dashboards, mobile exploration, data connectors, integrated data preparation, collaboration, and publishing skills, governed enterprise analytics, predictive analysis, and enterprise architecture and security.
You can deploy OAS anywhere, and Oracle promises updates that will bring features that people have loved with the OAC.
Oracle Analytics for Applications
If you have cloud applications, then you should check out Oracle Analytics for Applications. OAA will allow you to analyze information from your Oracle apps, such as those in Oracle Fusion ERP. Plans to include apps from Fusion HCM, as well as other Oracle cloud apps and those coming from third parties, are in place.
Oracle Analytics for Applications now has a managed data pipeline, as well as data warehouse instance via the Oracle Autonomous Database. You will also get ready-made semantic models, dashboards, and reports, as well as other content.
Pricing
Licensing is a big issue for users, and it’s not limited to just Oracle. Software licenses can be a bane for IT managers to deal with. One wrong decision can cost them a lot of money. This is the reason why Oracle simplified its pricing for Oracle Analytics Cloud.
The company has made it pretty simple and straightforward: you pay $20 per user every month if you use the Professional Edition. The OAC Professional Edition is perfect for workgroups and entire departments.
If you choose the Enterprise Edition, you will need to pay $2,000 for every Oracle Compute Unit. That may sound a lot, but it allows unlimited users to use the system.
Analytics Roadmap: For trust and transparency
Oracle wants you to trust them, and to do just that, they published their OA roadmap.
The roadmap details the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver
- augmented analytics,
- self-service analytics, and
- governed analytics in one product.
Augmented analytics
Oracle will incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence into your analytics. For instance, when you have a question, intelligent search will be able to understand it. It can process plurals even when they are different, such as mice and mouse. It can differentiate from Georgia, the US state, and Georgia, the country. It also knows that you mean market share, not Microsoft when you say MS in a particular context.
What does this mean? Intelligent search can make it easier for any user to find answers to their questions without having them learn to code or frustrating them by getting the wrong answers because the search didn’t understand what they’ve said.
According to the roadmap, similar improvements are underway for
- smart data discovery,
- smart data preparation,
- natural language capabilities, and
- auto-suggest.
Self-service analytics
Business ideas are sometimes hampered by bottlenecks. If your need insights, you have to go through IT or your data scientists. Sometimes, they’re too busy to work on it. Oracle plans to improve on self-service analytics so that your employees can get the insights they need from data when they need it.
Some of the solutions you can expect from Oracle include using machine learning for better analytics. The business side will be able to create a knowledge fabric, which makes analytics easily accessible for everyone in your company. You can also manage key performance indicators through your analytics package.
What’s more, Oracle is planning to introduce improvements in visualization and dashboard. Further, you don’t have to repeatedly prepare raw data with the use of global transformation policies. You will also be able to get your data analyzed regardless of whether you’re on a computer or phone. Oracle is also working to make collaboration easier when it comes to analytics and business insights.
Governed analytics
Oracle is also working on letting you scale your analytics using an extensible, personalized, and secure platform.
First, the company will be rolling out new ways to connect to data sources and new ways to authenticate users. With the planned action framework, you will be able to streamline processes needed to take action from insights you gain. What’s more, developers and service providers will be able to tap into your analytics systems for even better insights.
You can also expect smart data connectors that will allow you to tap other data sources.
***
Oracle is working to help you get the most out of their analytics and business intelligence. Take advantage now. If you’re not sure how, contact Four Cornerstone at +1 (817) 377-1144. We have a team of Oracle experts who can ease you into the exciting possibilities that only Oracle can provide your business.
Photo courtesy of Oracle.
