At the recent COLLABORATE 09 conference, Oracle introduced Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Applications Release 7.9.6, prebuilt solutions for Oracle and non-Oracle applications that enable organizations to make informed, actionable decisions and drive toward optimized performance across the enterprise.
"This is a major content release for the BI applications," states Erik Lindquist, senior director of business intelligence, product management and strategy, Oracle. Oracle BI Applications Release 7.9.6 introduces two new applications-Project Analytics and Loyalty Analytics, certified support for Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and enhanced capabilities to existing BI applications for the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle's Siebel CRM. This release builds upon a suite of existing Oracle BI Applications that span CRM, ERP, and industry-specific processes.
According to Lindquist, Oracle has identified in this tough recessionary market that there are five key high-impact strategies that companies need to be employing today. "The first one is conserving cash, the second one is driving down costs of goods sold, the third is getting closer to customers, fourth is managing risk and performance and the fifth is increasing productivity and containing HR cost," Lindquist tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We have tied our 7.9.6 release and everything that we are offering in this release to those five high-impact strategies."
Oracle Project Analytics, one of the new applications, tracks financial performance of projects for government agencies, engineering and construction companies, professional services organizations and anyone using Projects capabilities in the Oracle E-Business Suite or PeopleSoft Enterprise. Covering analysis topics such as Budgets, Forecasts, Cost, Revenue, Billing, Profitability, Agreements, Funding, and Project Performance, Oracle Project Analytics helps companies to control project costs and improve project performance and profitability.
Also unveiled as part of this release, Oracle Loyalty Analytics enables organizations to recognize, reward, and retain valuable customers by delivering comprehensive visibility into loyalty programs, including measuring the effectiveness of programs and promotions. With Oracle Loyalty Analytics, marketers using Siebel Loyalty Management can evaluate the success of customer and partner programs and make adjustments to target the most profitable customers.
Oracle BI Applications Release 7.9.6 also offers new capabilities and content across more than 400 pages of existing dashboards. New capabilities in Oracle Human Resources Analytics include dashboards for Talent Management, Learning Management, Recruiting, Leave and Absenteeism to help improve workforce performance, increase managerial effectiveness and drive talent management initiatives at a reduced cost. Enhancements to Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics include a new Spend Analyzer, new Employee Expenses and enhanced Procurement dashboards. This content will help purchasing and procurement organizations gain greater insight into company spend, contract performance, supplier performance and expenses.
The new release of Oracle BI Applications delivers out of-the-box integration with JD Edwards. Oracle Financial Analytics is now integrated with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial Management to help front-line managers improve financial performance with complete information on their department's expenses and revenues. In addition to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle BI Applications are pre-integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite (11i10 and R12), PeopleSoft Enterprise (8.9 and 9.0) and Siebel CRM (8.0 and 8.1.1). Legacy systems are certified through Universal Adapters.
For more information about Oracle Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence, go here. And to download free, evaluation versions of Oracle BI Applications, go here.