Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
What we are giving you in this chapter is a high level look at each new Essbase tool
or component and also a slightly lower level look at the hot new additions to the
Essbase family. Not to detract from any of the other Essbase family members, but
the new Oracle Smart View, for one, is an awesome tool to have in your toolbox.
Essbase Analytic Services (Essbase agent)
The term Essbase analytic services, while commonly thought to refer to the Essbase
suite of applications, actually refers to the common Essbase system structure that is
built around the Essbase analytic database engine technology.
We know this sounds confusing, but here is how it works. In your Essbase toolbox,
you can have many different tools. Some of them are optional and can be added at
an additional expense and some of them must be included from the beginning for
proper system installation. No matter what tools you want to add to your Essbase
toolbox, the Essbase agent or Essbase analytic services must be included and it is
the cornerstone of the Essbase suite of applications.
The Essbase agent is what you install on your server in order to make it an Essbase
analytic server. The Essbase agent is what you use to build, deploy, and maintain
your Essbase databases.
In a nutshell, Essbase analytic services is the heart and soul of your Essbase system.
Essbase Planning
Also known as Hyperion Planning or even Oracle Planning, Essbase Planning is
a centralized Microsoft Excel and web-based planning and forecasting tool that
combines data from various internal business activities such as finance, marketing,
and so on, into one integrated tool. Planning uses the data to provide a closer
look at the company's overall business operations and helps improve the forecast
predictability accuracy.
Planning makes use of Essbase in an ingenious way. The data for each business
activity is stored in its own custom Essbase database or cube. Several business
activities can share the same cube and have their own set of dimensions and
members. Therefore, Essbase must be started and running in the background so
Planning can access the cubes. The various Planning functions are then supported
by Planning's seamless accessing of the data from the Essbase cubes and by using
the stored business rule feature to apply the customer defined business rules to the
data for planning and analysis purposes.
