Pivot table: OBIEE 11g Vs Qlikview

Hi,
With the launch of new version of Oracle BI OBIEE 11g, some new features and enhancements got
added.
I installed the new version and started looking at the new features. This is completely a new experience.
The look and feel is very much improved now and is much better.
Here in this post I will discuss only about the new feature introduced in Pivot charts. Now the pivot has the
ability to expand and collapse the levels using the + and - signs as shown below.

For those who have used or worked only on OBIEE before it will be a new way of interacting with a pivot
but even for some niche tools like Qlikview, this is a very basic feature.
If we just compare this new feature of OBIEE11g with Qlikview from end user perspective, it stands
nowhere.
Now lets discuss how we can achieve this in OBIEE11g and then we will compare it with Qlikview:
1. You first need to create a hierarchy in the presentation layer: For example, I have created a
presentation hierarchy named "Products" having 3 levels "LOB" - "Type" - "Prod Name" as shown below.

Now when a report developer or user go to the Answers to create a pivot, we need to select this
Hierarchy in the pivot as shown below.
Now if you run the report you will see the results like this:

Till here it was good but just think a user would just want to have just 2 levels "LOB" and "Prod Name" in
the present pivot. To achieve that, the user needs to ask the developer to create a new presentation
hierarchy with only required two levels or make modification to the existing presentation hierarchy and
remove the "Type" level.
On the similar lines if a user require this pivot to have a column from some other dimension say for
example "Time". If we just add a column from the "Time" dimension lets say "Year", the pivot will look like
this:
This is definitely not what we need. 
So we have seen the limitations and now we will see how easily an end user can create such reports
without any help from developers or IT.
Simply create a Pivot table report and select the dimension columns and fact column. Here in this
example I have selected the 3 columns which has been used to create the pivot in OBIEE11g. This is how
the report will look like:

This is really simple and no hierarchies needs to be created anywhere. Now we will try to add some Time
dimension column in the existing pivot and see how it looks. Simply add the column in the dimensions tab
and arrange by promoting or demoting to see it wherever we want. I have added it to the top and this is
how it will appear:

This is really very simple and effective and the users really find it easy to see how they want to see it.
Going one step ahead lets say I want to have the subtotals of levels to be displayed in the pivot, Qlikview
does it by simply selecting some of the available options. In Properties-Presentation tab there is a check
box which says show Partial sum. You can also choose for the level for which you require the partials
sums above or below. In OBIEE11g, I could not find anything other than the grand total sum. This is how
it finally looks in Qlikview:
This is really useful. Also there is no option of Expand All for the entire pivot or for a selected level. You
can just expand a particular level value that means you needs to click on all the + signs one by one to
expand the pivot whereas in Qlikview you can expand the complete pivot or a particular column or level.

These small small options may not sound that important to some of us but for an end user it makes the
entire experience interactive and helps him feel more independent and brings the feeling of ownership.
Till next time...

Regards
Manohar Rana
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010

Column Selector feature in OBIEE and Qlikview

Hi,
In one of the projects, there was a requirement to have column selector. There should be some fixed
columns in a report and some columns which the user should be able to change by simply selecting the
column from a list and not going to the design mode or ad hoc mode.
Here we will see how we did it in OBIEE using the column selector feature and how we can do it in
Qlikview.

Lets first create a simple request in OBIEE Answers as shown below. I have selected two dimension
column and a fact column here. Click on Add view and from the list select Column Selector.
Now you will see the columns you have selected in column selector mode as shown below.
Select the check box below column 1 and click on the columns from the list of columns available in the
left. Similarly do it for column 2 by clicking on the check box and selecting columns. Uncheck the check
box which says" Automatically refresh when a new column is selected". Click on OK and you will see the
column selector present in your compound layout.

Now you can check by selecting different columns and clicking on Go button to see that the columns in
the reports gets changed.
You can also have some columns fixed and some columns changeable. To do so, create a dummy
column "None" and make it hidden in the column properties as shown below.
Now go to the Column selector view and select the columns you would like to see in the list as shown
below.
Click Ok and come to the compound layout and you will see only one column which is a fixed one. In the
column selector, you will notice that None column is selected. When you select any other column from the
column selector, the new column will get added to the report as shown below. If you again select 'None'
column, it will again hide.

Isn't it a nice feature and very easy to use for end users and equally easy to develop.

Now we will try to implement the same feature in Qlikview and see to what level we succeed.
Create a simple report in Qliview again using 2 dim columns and one fact column.
Now lets create two Groups (Cyclic) and add the columns required in these groups as shown below.
Now, select these two newly created cyclic groups in the report as shown below.

Click Ok to see how it works. Just close to column headers, there will appear cyclic icons. When you click
on this icon, the list of columns will appear and when selected the column will replace the existing column.
This is also very simple. But I did not find anything to make some columns fixed and some columns
changable. I tried creating a dummy column and added that dummy column in cyclic group. But as the
these groups are embedded in the report itself and not a seperate entity as in OBIEE, the dummy column
when selected shown all blank rows as shown below.

This would definitely not be acceptable to the users. So I tried to make a column hidden based on a
condition but that made the cyclic icon hidden alongwith the column hence the user can not select any
other column from that group.
You can hide any column based on certain condition as shown below but it did not served the purpose
here.

I am not sure if there is some way to accomplish this but with out of the box features and not by writing
some macros.
If anyone has any pointers, please do suggest.

Regards
Manohar Rana
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SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2009

Qlikview Personal Edition

Hi,

Qlikview is the emerging name in the Business Intelligence world and becoming very popular among the
user community due to its easy to use interface, fast deployment and very strong visualisation.

Qliktech released its version 9 recently with a new Edition called Qlikview 9Personal Edition having all the
developer features.

Earlier Qlikview use to provide only 15 days of evaluation period for people who want to give it a try which
is really a very small duration to try or evaluate a Business Intelligence Tool. 
This limits the user to use it beyond that period.

Now with version 9, Qliktech allows to download the personal edition from their website for free and use
the product for personal use for an unlimited period of time and does not require any key.

So, that in real sense a very good news for the student community as well as for startup businesses or
small growing businesses to use Qlikview for their personal use.

As small business generally has lot of data in flat files or excel files, Qlikview becomes a very handy
Business Intelligence Software as Qlikview is very easy and effective when you have lot of excel files or
combination of flat files, desktop database and relational databases.

Now you can develop or get developed Business Intelligence applications and do your analysis to know
more about your business. You can export the reports/charts to excel,pdf,gif or png images and email it to
your business partners or other members of your Business. 
You can also copy/send the complete Qlikview document to another machine where Qlikview free
personal edition is installed.

And in future as your business grow and you have the right budget, you can get your personal edition
converted to a licenced version without affecting your Qlikview Business Intelligence Application that you
had created.

But there are some limitations of Qliview personal edition. As your Qlikview is not a licensed one, you
cannot ask for any support from Qliktech which I think is not a big issue. You can manage your
application without any support which generally is required for big deployments.

Another limitation is that you cannot use an application developed in Licensed version in your personal
edition however an application developed in personal edition can be used with a licenced version. 
The application developed in a licenced version when opened in personal edition does not load the data
hence a reload of the Qlikview application with the fresh data is required which effectively means that the
person having the personal edition should have all the data(flat files or excel files) or access to relational
databases to reload the application.

Another limitation is that you cannot publish your dashboards over the web to share it with other users as
the personal edition does not provide the web component which allows the users to access the
application over the web using Internet browsers.
However, you can use utilities like desktop sharing, remote login or web conferences to allow someone to
use that application but in that case you will have to expose your complete application. The person
accessing the application through remote login can delete the application or make any modifications.

These limitations may not be relevant to most of the Students or Business Owners to use Qlikview
personal edition for learning Qlikview or Using for your analysis. 

Replacing scattered excel files with one single source of information will be a great benefit in terms of
managebility, reusability and productivity which will save lot of your time and efforts. 
Top class visualisation in reports and dashboards and ease of perfoming analytic operations like drill
down, Top N analysis, Pivoting,identifying problems etc will be an added advantage.

From Qliktech's perspective, they have made a very strategic move and will give them benefits in the
coming years and will also help them in growing their prospects base and users base. This will definately
make Qliktech's reputation much better in the market and help in developing Brand.
Qliktech's major install base or user base is small business or large business with small deployments and
this move will make its presence more stronger in this area. Also, the buyers risk on investment will be
greatly reduced.

Not many companies provide free unlimited period evaluation versions of their Busniess Intelligence
softwares. I know only one name i.e Oracle. Even SAP Business Objects and IBM Cognos does not
provide more than 30 days evaluation.

I am hopeful that Qliktech very soon will appear in Gartner's Business Intelligence Magic Quadrant and
will give a direct competition to the bigger vendors.

Manohar Rana
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2008

Qlikview - Slider
Hi,

Just take a look at the slider options available in Qlikview.

Here is a sample slider which is linked to a variable and by sliding it you can see the effects in the chart
column "what-if Act Vs Bud".
Now you can link a field to this slider or you can create a variable and assign this slider to this variable.
You can decide a scale for this slider. Here I have mentioned a scale for 0-10. You also have an option to
make this slider single value or multiple value. I have selected a single value slider.
Now you can treat this slider values as percentage and can accordingly derive formulae.

The selected text in Black shows my variable test which I linked to the slider and the formulae column
values will change when I will slide the pointer.
You can make really nice, interactive and useful what-if applications using this and this is very easy to
build and use.
I wish Hyperion Interactive reporting will have such slider features soon.

Manohar Rana
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FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2008

Learn Qlikview
I have posted a tutorial for how to create quick dashboard in Qlikview at
Manohar Rana: Getting Started with Qlikview

You amy also like to read detailed comparison of Qlikview with others tools at

Qlikview Vs Others

You can also refer to the complete tutorial provided by Qliktech at

Qliktech Tutorial
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MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008

Qlikview Vs Others
Hi,

I have worked on Qlikview version 7 and 8 for one year and now presently working on Oracle BIEE(Siebel
Analytics) and Hyperion Essbase system 9. Have done dozens of POC and implementations and
Qlikview has gained the same respect everywhere. Personally I just love this tool.
I have mentioned some of the important areas where Qlikview is lacking and you will notice that in the
coming releases, Qliktech will try to touch all these areas showing some improvements.

I would like to share some pros and cons:

1. The biggest disadvantage is the amount or size of data. If you have data huge data in hundreds of GB,
then qlikview may not be a good choice.Qlikview was having alimit of 2 Billion rows in a table to be loaded
before the release of version 9 but now in version 9 it is not there and the size of data directly depends on
system RAM. But even now I did not see a guide telling the RAM requirements for a specified amount of
data and how does it increase as the amount of data size grows.
still there are some workarounds in certain cases. Design OLAP cubes or Data Marts in your database
and keep the logic simple in Qlikview. Rather than creating a huge application, divide into smaller
applications and use navigation. But if a single Datamart is huge, Qlikview is not for you.

2. Now speaking for small data sizes, I have observed that it is not the not the pill which cures a patient
but it is the diagonosis of a doctor. Dont rapidly start making applications. They may be ready in few days
but to manage them could be very difficult and time consuming. plan your needs, take some time to think
on it and discuss. when plan is clear in your mind, start working on it.
3. For organisations having data growing rapidly, give a thought to create a datawarehouse with marts
designed as per your needs. this will have two advantages. Your qlikview application would be simple and
if tommarrow you plan to implement some other BI tool, this will be of great help.
4. few days back, I just heard about Qlikview providing alert capability. i am not sure if alerts can be sent
to hand held devices and cell phones. Also check if these alerts can be designed by business users using
some wizard or interface. If alerts can be created using API programming, it will really not be useful. I
have seen a wizard based alerts available in Qlikview to define an event and sending the content via
email.

5. Proprietary files -Another major disadvantage with all the tools storing data in their proprietary files like
Qlikview, Essbase and Cognos. Tomorrow if you plan to have another tool for some reporting or if you
plan to have another application talk to these cubes(Qliktech may not like to refer its files as cubes which I
beleive is nothing else), then there could be a seroius problem. Major vendors generally provides
connectors for major Multidimensional sources like Essbase and Cognos but for tools like Qlikview, it
Could be difficult.

some of the features where Qlikview lacks are:

1. Alerts- Capability to create alerts and delivers it to not only Email but blackberries, hand held devices,
mobile phones etc. In version 9, I heard something for this has come. Also Qlikview do not have any
integration with BPEL.
2. Multi user development environment- This feature allows multiple developers work on a single project
and the utility synchronises the peices of project each developer is working with the main project.Qlikview
completely lacks this feature and until version 9, I did not hear anything about this feature coming up.
3. Connect and extract data from multi dimentional objects- I guess for SAP BW, the connector is
available but not for Hyperion Essbase, Cognos Cubes and Microsoft cubes.
4. Export data or metadata to XML- The reports cannot be exported to XML format which is one of the
major disadvantage. We can use the XML reports as a data source with another softwares which
understands XML.
5. XBRL- Qlikview does not support XBRL. Those who do not understand what is XBRL and why it is
required and useful, please read thishttp://www.xbrl.org/WhatIsXBRL/
6. Seperate component for operational reporting or production reporting or Popularly known as Pixel
perfect reporting (for example Printing Salary Cheques) and report bursting like BI publisher(previously
XML publisher) or SQR reporting in Hyperion Essbase. But we can argue here in the sense that Qlikview
is an analytical tool and is not made for such needs but definately it restricts you somewhere and do not
provide you with an option.
7. Integration with Microsoft Office tools- Qlikview just exports the data into an excel file or exports a
report object to a png file or using OCX you can do something to make it work with MS office tools(I never
tried this). It nowhere stands in comparison with Hyperion Add-In or Cognos Add-In. This is one area
which is very important from business users point of view and developing this feature may not be that
easy for Qliktech.
8. Support for advance features like embedded browser(available in hyperion Interactive reporting),
flickers(rolling messeges) etc as an standard options.
9. Metadata Management- There is no concept of Physical model, Business Model and Presentation
Model. There are no subject areas. The End users had access to all the tables loaded to the Qlikview and
the matter becomes difficult when you have large number of tables involved. For end users to create a
report themselves, they need to identify the tables and columns from this long list which can make things
difficult for them. The solution to this could be to create a seperate Qlikview document for every subject
area. This greatly effects managebility and reusability. Those who have worked with Oracle BIEE BI
Administrator or Cognos Framework manager or Business Objects Universe will understand the
importance of subject areas or Packages.
10. Impact Analysis- If you want to make a change in the Qlikview script or datasource and want to know
the impact of this change on report objects beforehand, you could be in problem and may have to check
each and every report manually and document it.
11. Alternate Hirarchies- No concept of Alternate Hirarchies.
12. SQL Generation- If you want to see the SQL generated behind a query, you can not see that in
Qlikview whereas other tools like OBIEE, Cognos, BO and Essbase allows you to see the SQL/MDX
generated for a query. This feature may not be relevant to business users but for developers this helps a
lot in their day to day activities like debugging or data validation.
13. Resolving circular loops and traps: The only way to resolve circular loopes in Qlikview is to create an
alias table wheare as in BO and Cognos you can define contexts which allows you to resolve the circular
loops without creating any alias table. When it come to resolving traps like Chasm and Fan traps,
Qlikview is helpless.
some more issues -
1. Security- Qlikview does not have a graphical interface to create roles, users and privilages assigning to
roles. Also can users be allowed to log in on certain weekdays only. Also can users change their
passwords themselves using some interface. Does the password expires automatically after certain no of
days and user will be asked to change it.
2. I am not sure if Qlikview can use user directory for external authentication like LDAP database or
NTLM. Also can it be used with existing SSO(Single Sign On).
3. Does Qlikview has feature to automatically end the session if it is not being used to avoid any session
hacking.
4. Is there any graphical interface to monitor the sessions in use. Check the queries they have fired,
previous requests, kill any current requests, monitor time etc.

There are some good features in Qlikview as well:

1. The ability to consolidate the data coming from various sources(databases and flat files) which is in a
common format in the data cloud(Qliktech uses this term). this is fantastic. In other OLAP tools
sometimes it becomes difficult to join and RDBMS and a flat file data.

2. Many people criticise Qlikview for its associative logic which says the feild names with same names are
joined automatically but the designer has the liberty to remove or edit those joins. Even Siebel analytics
makes the joins automatically in BI Administrator and Hyperion Essbase sensing same field names.
It helps the designer to see the qualified members for joins and make amendments after verifying them.