Business Objects Reloads Mid-Market Product Line

Business Objects Reloads Mid-Market Product Line

7/23/2008

By Stephen Swoyer

With new releases of two of its signal SME offerings on tap this week, Business Objects -- now an SAP AG company -- hopes to build on its success in the small to mid-size company market. The rules of the mid-market game are changing, but one thing hasn't changed: SME customers -- much like their larger enterprise brethren -- are still wild about reporting. It's the bedrock of BI, after all.

That's why Business Objects -- which spent more than $800 million five years ago to acquire one of the best-known reporting brands on the market -- thinks it has an ace up its sleeve. With the release this week of revamped versions of its Crystal Reports Server and Business Objects Edge products, officials are pulling out all of the stops to burnish the company's mid-market credentials.

Prior to SAP's acquisition, Business Objects fired off several successful mid-market offerings. It released Crystal Reports Server (a version of Crystal Reports that was packaged, tweaked, and configured for SMEs), Business Objects Edge bundle (a mid-market-ready version of its Business Objects enterprise software stack), and launched several initiatives (including its Business Objects Rapid Marts -- basically, out-of-the-box data marts that provide turnkey integration with popular data sources such as SAP). James Thomas, vice-president of business intelligence tools -- and long-time Crystal Reports point-person -- with Business Objects, claims that his company knows SME customers: seven-eighths of its customer base is technically part of the mid-market....... more look at ... Click right click new window

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Decode Function

n Oracle/PLSQL, the decode function has the functionality of an IF-THEN-ELSE statement.

The syntax for the decode function is:

decode( expression , search , result [, search , result]... [, default] )

expression is the value to compare.

search is the value that is compared against expression.

result is the value returned, if expression is equal to search.

default is optional. If no matches are found, the decode will return default. If default is omitted, then the decode statement will return null (if no matches are found).

For example:

You could use the decode function in an SQL statement as follows:

SELECT supplier_name,
decode(supplier_id,	10000,	'IBM',
	10001,	'Microsoft',
	10002,	'Hewlett Packard',
		'Gateway') result
FROM suppliers;

The above decode statement is equivalent to the following IF-THEN-ELSE statement:

IF supplier_id = 10000 THEN
result := 'IBM';

ELSIF supplier_id = 10001 THEN
result := 'Microsoft';

ELSIF supplier_id = 10002 THEN
result := 'Hewlett Packard';

ELSE
result := 'Gateway';

END IF;

The decode function will compare each supplier_id value, one by one.

second Example:

Using date compare two dates

Using the decode function to compare two dates (D1 and D2), where if D1 > D2, the decode function should return D2. Otherwise, the decode function should return D1.

decode((D1 - D2) - abs(D1 - D2), 0, D2, D1)

for more examples .............click to new window

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Differences between OLTP and OLAP databases.

Differences between OLTP and OLAP databases.

Relational Database (OLTP)
Data is atomized
Data is current
Processes many records at a time
Process oriented
Designed for highly structured repetitive processing

Dimensional Database (OLAP)

Data is summarized
Data is historical
Processes one record at a time
Subject oriented
Designed for highly unstructured analytical processing

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Operational data store (ODS)

Operational data store

A subject-oriented system that is optimized for looking up one or two records at a time for decision making. An operational data store is a hybrid form of data warehouse that contains timely, current, integrated information. The data typically is of a higher level granularity than the transaction. You can use an operational data store for clerical, day-to-day decision making. This data can serve as the common source of data for data warehouses.

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Data Mart

What is Data mart?

A subset of data warehouse that is stored in a smaller database and that is oriented toward a specific purpose or data subject rather than for enterprise-wide strategic planning. A data mart can contain operational data, summarized data, spatial data, or metadata. Typically, you use a dimensional data model to build a data mart.

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