Orbit Analytics, Oracle FAW, and Oracle SmartView_ Navigating the differences and understanding their roles in Oracle Fusion Analytics

The global big data analytics market is valued at $348.21 billion

Technology is steering the world towards an exciting future. New tools and possibilities are helping businesses access data insights and use analytics to make crucial decisions. However, not all clouds are created equal and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications stand out with their offerings that optimize businesses, outpace change and help to make faster and better decisions.

Here, we will explore Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence (FDI) whose earlier version was Fusion Analytics Warehouse (FAW), which is a family of prebuilt, cloud analytics applications providing prebuilt insights to improve decision making. 

We will also look at Oracle SmartView which is a comprehensive tool for accessing and integrating Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI) and General Ledger content from Microsoft Office products. Smart View allows for viewing, importing, updating, distributing, and circulating data in Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Finally, we will provide an insight into Orbit Analytics which can seamlessly integrate Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications data and third-party data sources to gain unparalleled insights with prebuilt KPIs and dashboards. 

With accessibility to multiple tools for businesses, here we will simplify how to choose the right analytics tool that will serve you best.  

What is Oracle FDI? 

Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence platform brings together business data, ready-to-use analytics, and prebuilt AI and machine learning (ML) models to deliver deeper insights and provide business users with industry-leading, AI-powered, self-service analytics capabilities to accelerate the decision-making process into actionable results.

Oracle FDI focuses on providing a clear, reliable view of the organization, identifies where improvements are needed, and targets on helping to make high-quality decisions. 

Key Features of Oracle FDI

Oracle FDI is a packaged service that starts with Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, and can be deployed rapidly, and can be personalized, and extended. Users can create and customize dashboards in Oracle Analytics Cloud. 

It consists of a data pipeline, data warehouse, semantic model, and best-practice content such as prebuilt key metrics, workbooks, and visualizations. You can customize the prebuilt content as defined in the Customize Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence section. 

Apart from Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications data, you can load external data from non-Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications sources such as SalesForce or EBusiness Suite into Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse associated with Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence. See About Managing Data Connections.

Reasons to choose FDI

• Intelligent applications

Not just dashboards and reports but also prebuilt applications for insights and AI/ML-driven recommendations.

• Rich analytics content

Analyze objectives and performance with over 2000 best-practice key metrics, dashboards, and reports for ERP, SCM, HCM, and CX.

• 360-degree data models

Use prebuilt, connected 360-degree views of key business entities, combining data from Fusion Cloud Applications and other sources.

• Prescriptive AI/ML models

Custom AI/ML models to predict business outcomes and uncover valuable insights.

• Full extensibility

Create your own content with custom data, analytics, AI/ML, and applications. Use generative AI to boost adding third-party data sources.

• Interactive analytics for all

Explore data visually with natural language, mobile, and AI-driven automatic insights.

However, Oracle FDI comes with certain limitations.

• Prebuilt reports fail when using an external semantic model of an external application
• Verify legacy workbooks after migration
• Issue with failed status for renamed custom dimensions
• Key metrics cannot be translated
• Missing deck-style filters in migrated content
• Unexpected filter context for data action links in migrated content
• Error when custom path included in migrate custom content utility folder name
• Error occurs when promoting the semantic model to production

Oracle FDI is an ideal tool for organizations looking for a ready to use, structured, scalable solution for standardized insights but it may not suit an organization seeking deeper, customized insights to help with decision making. 

What is Oracle Smart View?

Oracle Smart View is a tool that provides common Word, PowerPoint, and Excel interfaces designed specifically for Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management, Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence, and Oracle General Ledger. It enables you to integrate ERP, enterprise performance management (EPM), and business intelligence (BI) data directly from the data source into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook. Using Smart View, you can view, import, manipulate, distribute and share data in Office-based interfaces. You can also create and refresh spreadsheets to use real-time account balances and activity. 

Key Features Of Oracle Smart View 

• Ad hoc and free-form analysis for cloud and on-premises

With an easy-to-use powerful interface, Smart View can access cloud and on-premises Oracle sources and analysis can be saved locally or centrally and reused with a simple one-click refresh.

• Form and flex form interaction

With flex forms, working with predefined forms does not restrict powerful Excel features, as users can still take advantage of sorting, filtering, and other native Excel functionality. Smart View can be used to work in the Excel environment either for a consistent experience or to tie other spreadsheet-based models into your process. 

• Report design

Report design uses the capabilities of Oracle General Ledger data. Once the data is available within Office, users can create reports, documents, and presentations based on a combination of data sources, that can be refreshed periodically as needed.

• Pre-created content access

Whether you are importing in Word, Powerpoint, or Excel, the imported content, such as charts or grids, can be refreshed directly in the Office environment.

Reasons to Choose Smart View

• Perform ad hoc multidimensional pivot analysis with full spreadsheet functionality
• Drill down from any parent value to the next parent or child value
• Drill down from any child value to detail balances, journal lines, and subledger transactions
• Analyze actual, budget, and forecast information
• Increase visibility with charts and graphs
• Apply date effective hierarchies to past, present, or future hierarchies to change the financial data reported in your financial reports. For example, to compare 2014 to 2015 results, realign the data in your 2014 reports by applying the 2015 organization hierarchy.

Limitations of Oracle Smart View

• Smart View has a row limit of 250K currently. 
• Smart View has a column limit of 255. 
• Importing reports into Excel consumes memory.Memory Usage impacts performance. 
• Flickering issues on Office 2013 and Office 2016
• Duplicate Queries in Word Slow to Refresh
• Session timeout in 60 minutes by default. But this parameter can be changed.
• Issues with dynamic data exchange option in Excel

Oracle Smart View excels in spreadsheet-based reporting and is perfect for organizations looking for an Excel-driven interface for basic reporting. However it may not be ideal for organizations needing advanced data analysis or visualizations.

What is Orbit Analytics?

Orbit stands out as a unique platform offering operational, financial, and business intelligence reporting solutions all in one place. Orbit comes with a complete set of self-service features allowing IT to model and govern a seamless single source of truth while empowering users across the enterprise to be self-reliant.

Unique Capabilities of Orbit Analytics

• Unifies Data from Diverse Sources

Orbit Analytics offers a unified data platform with more than 200 integrators and database connectors that allow combining data from any system instantly from across the enterprise.

• Solves Infrastructure Requirements

Orbit Analytics does not require standalone data warehouses with dedicated technical support and services. Orbit is designed to pull data from a range of sources (from across the lifecycle of any enterprise, including supply chain, customer side data sets, and internal processes) and use this unified data to build analytical models. 

• Enhances Data Security

Orbit leverages Oracle Identity and Access Management as well as has its own built-in security management features to ensure data security. Orbit can be accessed either through Orbit Cloud Analytics or Orbit Enterprise, where Orbit is installed within the organization’s existing infrastructure, whether it is on-premise or cloud-based. 

• Tackles the Limitations of Other Tools

Orbit is designed to complement both OTBI and BI Publisher, pushing reporting capabilities beyond what these Oracle reporting options offer. Orbit offers self service options and a wide range of prebuilt reports that can be built without the help of a developer.

• Authentication & Authority

Users can login to Orbit with their Oracle Fusion login details, run reports in Orbit and have a window into data stored in Fusion from within Orbit. With the same Oracle credentials, users have access to all of Orbit’s features.

• Drill Down within Excel

With Orbit GLSense users can build financial statements from real-time data in Oracle Fusion Financials Cloud and also drill down into hundreds of Subledger Data stored on the cloud (Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Purchasing, and more). Orbit allows seamless creation of charts, applying filters and using conditional formatting to view journal activity for any balance. 

FDI vs Smart View vs Orbit Analytics

FDI	Smart View	Orbit Analytics
Prebuilt reports and dashboards for quick insights.	Flexible in Excel and best for basic reporting.	Fully customizable for advanced, unique business needs.
Primarily Oracle Fusion data with pre-defined integrations.	Focuses on Oracle Fusion data within Excel.	Integrates data from Oracle Fusion, on-prem, cloud, and third-party sources.
Provides standard visualizations with limited flexibility.	Excel-based visualizations.	Offers advanced, customizable visualizations.
Best for standardized reporting and scalable deployment.	Best for Excel-based reporting and users comfortable with manual manipulations in Excel.	Best for organizations requiring customization and flexibility.

Choosing the right analytics tools for your needs

In the Oracle Fusion ecosystem, it is crucial to choose the right tool for your unique analytical needs. Each of these tools – Oracle FDI, Oracle Smart View, and Orbit Analytics – have their individual strengths and as data grows more complex, organizations need a reporting and analytics solution that can go beyond standard, prebuilt analytics.

Orbit Analytics fits in seamlessly with its powerful, flexible analytics offering the agility and depth needed to transform complex data into actionable intelligence.Orbit does not compete but complements Oracle’s tools, enhancing and extending Oracle Fusion’s analytics capabilities. Finally, when choosing the right tool, it is important to align your analytics approach with your business goals to drive meaningful growth and informed decision-making. To know more about Orbit Analytics and its capabilities, schedule a demo.