Oracle Corp used the first day of the Data Warehouse World show in New York to announce new versions of its OLAP (on-line analytical processing) applications which it claims will give customers all the tools they need to analyze critical business data without having to develop applications of their own. Oracle Financial Analyzer 6.2 and Sales Analyzer 6.2 are a set of pre- built applications that provide enhanced analytical capabilities, enabling users to access, analyze and distribute information though a variety of methods, including the web. Both applications are designed to analyze data held in Oracle’s multidimensional Express Server OLAP database. The latter effectively acts as an intermediary between the front-end, user application and the centrally held data warehouse, which stores all the data. Oracle Financial Analyzer is a distributed application for financial reporting, analysis, budgeting and planning. New features of the latest version include web access. Now any user with a browser can gain access to reports and graphs published from the Financial Analyzer database, allowing them to rotate, drill down and change data selections. Express Spreadsheet Add-In is a new tool that creates queries and reports that allow normal spreadsheet applications, like Microsoft Excel, to access and analyze information held within the database. The software also integrates with Oracle General Ledger, part of Oracle Financial Applications, which the company says will simplify data acquisition and maintenance, freeing system administrators to focus on other tasks. Similarly, Oracle Sales Analyzer is a distributed application that is designed to help users identify and leverage critical sales and marketing information held within a corporate database or data warehouse. One of its biggest selling points is the expanded web capabilities which not only allow users to view sales and marketing information over the web but also enables them to create, save and adjust new analyses too. Java components allow any authorized user with a web browser to manipulate existing views of data by changing the row/column layout, drilling up or down, toggling between table and graph views and selecting new dimension and measure values. New forecasting wizards also enable users to make future projections based on historical data. Sales Analyzer is integrated with Oracle Express Objects 2.2, a graphical, object-oriented development tool for building custom OLAP applications. Both decision support applications are available immediately for Windows 95 and NT 4.0. The software also supports the HP-UX, AIX and Solaris server platforms, Oracle said.
