Two business intelligence software vendors have teamed up to provide an open source application for viewing reports from Oracle Corp.’s E-Business Suite.
JasperSoft4Oracle E-Business Suite, available from San Francisco-based JasperSoft Corp., is designed to let companies create their own reporting tables, charts and crosstabs for Oracle. It uses NoetixViews, a technology developed by Redmond, Wash.-based Noetix Corp., to generate metadata from enterprise applications including Oracle databases.
The pricing scheme depends on the number of processors, number of reviews and the port level, but a typical customer could expect to pay US$40,000 to US$50,000 for a basic installation, said Jose Morales, JasperSoft’s vice-president for business development.
Morales added similar capability from a major BI vendor, such as Cognos or Business Objects, would cost more. He added open source BI products let users make their own modifications.
The ability to make modifications is a major selling point to open source BI, but most users will not buy the software just to save money, said Bill Hostmann, vice-president and distinguished analyst at the Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Group.
Open source is not suitable for all business intelligence applications, Hostmann added – especially for viewing data warehouses, complex performance management analyses or for multiple queries across multiple data sources.
But open source is sometimes suitable for specific applications that require additional front-end reporting software, Hostmann said. Open source BI was originally used for basic reporting and querying, but some applications now support online analytical processing (OLAP) and multidimensional analysis, said Ed Vasser, program vice-president for business analytics with Framingham, Mass.-based IDC, adding BI software from larger BI firms has more features.
“No single source open source offering today would equal the breadth of functionality of the more mature business intelligence suites from larger vendors,” Vasser said, adding the Noetix metadata software works well with Oracle E-Business Suite.
“What Noetix brings to the table is interesting,” Vasser said. “The technology really keeps track of the E-Business Suite data model.” Hostmann said Noetix’s views are very popular among BI users, and this gives JasperSoft an opportunity to sell to the large number of Oracle users. But he added the software is really suited for transaction-based applications rather than data warehouses.
“This is a great set of tools for developers to get their hands on,” he said.
One of the reasons JasperSoft developed this product was the number of user complaining to JasperSoft they were “frustrated” with their Oracle products because they did not have enough reporting capabilities, Morales said. He added developers at Noetix have a good understanding of the Oracle data model and key business terms.
JasperSoft4Oracle E-Business Suite is available from JasperSoft directly, though the vendor plans to offer it through systems integrators. Morales said the company plans to announce reseller agreements later.
It is available for nine modules of E-Business Suite, including Financials (which includes 180 views), Order Management (which includes 1140 views), Purchasing (with more than 50 views), Discrete Manufacturing (which includes more than 120 distinct views for processes including scheduled, sourcing rules, bills, jobs, inventory and cost), Process Manaufacturuing, Projects, HR (which includes views of pay and health benefit information) and Grants.
