For a business with operations spanning 50 global offices and 300+ channel partners, software upgrades are a serious endeavor. A global leader in telecommunications and fiber optic networks had complex enterprise reporting needs that were becoming increasingly difficult to service on legacy Oracle Brio/Hyperion interactive reporting. The structure of Hyperion IR reports with each having a separate data model limited the ability to share standard reports across users and division, leading to many reporting silos, redundancies, and proliferation of reports. Besides, with Hyperion Brio product support sunset on the horizon, it became essential to convert the #1 business in Test and Measurement, Wireless and Avionics, Banknote authentication, and 3D sensing to a newer platform.

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 12C On-Premise was selected as the target platform to convert from Hyperion/Brio due to its ability to serve complex business requirements. Built on an architecture that simplifies access to multiple data sources on a shareable enterprise data model, OBIEE 12C simplified enterprise-level reporting. It’s interactive dashboards, and an extensive range of options for charting provided rich visualizations. OLAP style interaction, combined with its actionable collaboration and innovative search capabilities, were required to transform the end-user experience. OBIEE 12C’s high availability, superior scalability, security features, lifecycle configuration, and management ability simplified the system management efforts and upgrade management.

The Technical Challenge
The biggest technical challenge during transition was anticipated to be dashboards and formatting reports. With a need to complete the transition in a tight timeline, the effort to convert the sections or views in the Hyperion BQY files to Answers, as well as query request models and reporting information in BQY files to business and presentation models for an OBIEE 12C RPD file (metadata), was deemed to be complicated and time-consuming.

DataTerrain was chosen to lead this complex transition effort due to its innovative automated transition solution and proven track record for completing such complex transition projects on time and within budget.

DataTerrain’s automated transition methodology

DataTerrain leveraged its structured methodology, developed and refined over numerous successful transitions. The significant phases and outcomes are summarized below:

1.)    Inventory: As a first step, subject matter experts(SMEs) from DataTerrain created a list of the current repository in Hyperion and mapped it to the business functional areas and their requirements. Standard reports across function areas and redundancies were identified during this exercise. The DataTerrain team also helped the clients to prioritize the 2000 reports across 40 functions based on their business criticality.

2.)    Rationalize: Using the enterprise data model capable of OBIEE 12C, the reports were structured as parent-child reports in OBIEE 12C, and the 2000 reports were rationalized down to 250 parent level reports.

3.)    Automate transition: The proprietary automated transition utility of DataTerrain was configured to convert from Hyperion to OBIEE 12C. This utility analyzed native functions and complex logic embedded in BRIO reports to generate their equivalents in the OBIEE 12C platform. The transition preserved years of legacy effort to perfect report look and feel of critical reports while migrating them to OBIEE 12C. Some of the significant effort savings were in:

a.    Generation of OBIEE 12C physical layer – tables, columns, etc.
b.    Extending OBIEE 12C layer from accumulated BQY DM dimensions – stars and snowflakes
c.    Tuning schemas and performance tuning during transition
d.    Regeneration of BI repository supporting BQY reports
e.    Generation of OBIEE 12C EUI objects like pivots, charts, prompts, filters, and validating results

4.)    Testing and validation: The converted files and objects were tested using a combination of automated and manual testing by following the DataTerrain quality assurance process. This was followed by user validation and acceptance of the reports and dashboards.

5.)    Deployment: The process of approving, packaging, and promoting to production is simplified by the automated transition tool to eliminate cutover risks.

The DataTerrain Difference

In addition to its unique methodology and proprietary automation utility, here are the critical differentiators brought by DataTerrain to ensure the success of this project:

1.)    Robust Project management:- Experienced project managers from DataTerrain ensured comprehensive planning and tight execution of this fast-paced project

2.)    Subject Matter Experts:- The team from DataTerrain brought its several hundred years of subject matter expertise to identify transition risks and issues early and address them seamlessly.

3.)    Global Delivery:- DataTerrain completed the entire project in a compressed schedule of 6 months by using a Follow the Sun approach. Members of the distributed team from DataTerrain worked across global centers, and activities were handed off and completed round the clock.

Client Benefits

The rationalization and reports and performance tuning during transition enabled and implemented by DataTerrain has provided the following additional benefits to the customer:

1.)    A scalable and secure enterprise-level BI solution expanding quickly with the organization
2.)    Standardization and lower effort for maintaining reports
3.)    Faster outputs and reports distribution with lower resource utilization
4.)    The existing reports look & feel was preserved for seamless user experience
5.)    Rich, interactive dashboards, and enhanced user self-service