OBIEE vs SSRS

  • Hello,

    I got a reporting requirement in my project and OBIEEE was decided to be used as a standard reporting tool as compared to SSRS even though our database exists on SQL Server.

    I was just wondering what were the advantages of using OBIEEE as compared to SSRS?

  • Any ideas on this is appreciated.

    Please let me know if I have posted my question in a wrong forum?

  • Deeps-965988 (4/21/2011)


    I got a reporting requirement in my project and OBIEEE was decided to be used as a standard reporting tool as compared to SSRS even though our database exists on SQL Server.

    I was just wondering what were the advantages of using OBIEEE as compared to SSRS?

    One "E" too many 🙂

    Hard to tell knowing nothing about environment, requirement and expectations.

    Are you familiar with SSRS?

    Have your read about OBIEE?

    Most important, have you asked the question to whoever made the decision?

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.
  • Yes, I did ask them and they said that OBIEEE was a more standard reporting tool as compared to SSRS.

    I am familiar with SSRS, worked on it for a couple of years. That is the reason I was wondering as to how OBIEEE scored over SSRS.

  • If your organisation already has a lot of experience in OBIEE and not much in SSRS, then OBIEE is probably the best choice for you. If your organisation has a lot of experience in SSRS and not much in OBIEE then SSRS is probably best. You need to look at the peoiple who will be tasked in developing the reports in making this decision, not just yourself.

    Hopefully the person making the choice has considered all this, and maybe also run a POC based on the type of reports your organisation needs. If they have picked OBIEE mainly on the basis of reading a few articles they are not being effective stewards of your organisations resources.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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  • Deeps-965988 (4/24/2011)


    Yes, I did ask them and they said that OBIEEE was a more standard reporting tool as compared to SSRS.

    I am familiar with SSRS, worked on it for a couple of years. That is the reason I was wondering as to how OBIEEE scored over SSRS.

    One thing to bear in mind is that many people will see Crescent in SQL Server 2011 as a successor product to SSRS. SSRS could be perceived as old technology - or at least some people will be hesitant to invest in it at the present time before the release of the new version of SQL Server.

  • Thanks for your replies guys

  • As a person currently struggling with a new OBIEE deployment, keep in mind that sans experienced java application administrators, OBIEE is very challenging to work with.

    Quite frankly the cost to implement OBIEE is much higher than SSRS (not counting licensing which I know nothing about) due to the amount of time it's taking our DBAs to get up to speed on administering java application.

    Unfortunately, the consultants our firm hired have no or little experience implementing OBIEE in a Windows Server/SQL Server environment. This is a very complex application to administer.

  • Just to throw in my two cents on the comparison.

    OBIEE consists of several products. The most important are Answers and BI Publisher.

    BI Publisher most closely matches SSRS. It is a pixel-perfect tabular reporting tool based on datasets. It has some interactive drill-through and drill-down, but is better suited for operational reporting.

    Answers is an interactive OLAP analysis tool that allows you to make both reports and dashboards. you can't control the printable formatting quite as well, but it has strong graphics and drill-down capabilities. Answers access data through a metadata repository that hides the physical structure and joins, and also performs calculations, and handles security functions.

    Up until project Crescent (SQL 2012) Microsoft did not have a similar product offering that went against relational data sources (proclarity is similar, but only accesses SSAS cubes.) There was a metadata layer in SSRS, but I was considering this for a project last year, and was surprised to find that several senior DBA's I know had never heard about it! Anyway, there is supposed to be a rewritten version released in 2012 along with Crescent, but I don't have experience in it.

    --

    In terms of skillsets, I would agree that they are very different from SSRS, and that there is a fairly steep learning curve. Also, the administration is, as noted above, tricky in the new version, as it runs inside of the Weblogic Java server, which is a whole skillset in and of itself.

    Good luck with your implementation and keep us posted.

  • Spam - Reported

    _____________________________________
    Pablo (Paul) Berzukov

    Author of Understanding Database Administration available at Amazon and other bookstores.

    Disclaimer: Advice is provided to the best of my knowledge but no implicit or explicit warranties are provided. Since the advisor explicitly encourages testing any and all suggestions on a test non-production environment advisor should not held liable or responsible for any actions taken based on the given advice.
  • Hi Deeps-965988,

    Did you implement OBIEE with SQL Server as back-end successfully? I have a similar requirement.

    Thanks

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