Sunday, June 24, 2018

Power BI and Essbase

The popularity of Power BI has skyrocketed in the past couple of years. Many companies are now mandating PBI as their corporate data analytics standard. It’s ability to connect to any data source (web service, relational database, analytics platform, flat file, even Excel files) has made it easy for companies to pull all their data into one place for analysis. However, Essbase users have been left out, until now.
At Casabase Software, we are now offering the ability to report directly on live Essbase data from Power BI. The key word here is “live”. As Essbase developers, we all know the different ways to get data out of Hyperion: calc scripts using dataexport, report scripts, mdx queries, exports, etc. The problem with automated processes using these methods though is that users often end up seeing stale data – i.e. the data in the cube has changed since the latest export. Even the slightest possibility of this occurring is unacceptable in today’s world of instantly available updates.
In order to make retrieving data accessible for even novice users, we’ve made it possible to do so without any knowledge of MDX. You can still use MDX if you’re comfortable doing so, and it also allows for more powerful reporting, but you’re no longer stuck if you don’t know the intricacies of crossjoin.
Please contact us if you’re interested in learning more.