Why Oracle Analytics for Applications (OAX) is the Platform for the New Norm of Today's World

In today’s data-driven world, speed and agility can be the deciding factor for survival in the marketplace and we know that data and analytics are the enablers of agility. No longer can companies afford to maintain data and analytics platforms that can be outdated shortly after they are deployed. Time cannot be spent on time-consuming and expensive upgrades. The modern data and analytics platform needs to be a living, breathing organism that is continuously improved, does not require traditional upgrades and can rapidly respond to changes in analytical needs (the COVID-19 situation of our present day has made that point in a big way). Oracle has built such a platform in the Cloud-based Oracle Analytics for Applications (OAX) suite.

For those that are not aware, OAX is a Cloud-based data and analytics platform developed by Oracle, leveraging Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) and Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC), that is built to work 'hand-in-glove' with Oracle's Cloud SaaS applications like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud, Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud, Supply Chain Management (SCM) Cloud and Customer Experience (CX) Cloud.

OAX consists of a suite of analytics modules for ERP, HCM, SCM and CX Cloud. Each module includes the following:

1. prebuilt data pipeline to extract data from the Oracle Cloud SaaS application
2. prebuilt database data model
3. prebuilt semantic layer for support of analytics and reporting
4. prebuilt metrics and key performance indicators (KPI's)
5. prebuilt reports and dashboards.

Please see the link below for information from Oracle's website:

https://www.oracle.com/business-analytics/analytics-for-applications.html

Important Benefits of Oracle Analytics for Applications (OAX):

1. Extensions and Customizations are Expected in OAX – While Oracle is providing about 50 or so ‘out of the box’ metrics, Oracle does not know exactly how each company looks at their business, calculates financial metrics, analyzes their supply chain, etc. Oracle is therefore providing easy-to-use tools to extend and customize the out of the box data model, semantic layer, metrics and reports.
2. Pre-built Data Pipeline Saves Time and Cost – this is a huge time and cost saver! No need to worry about understanding all the tables and views in Oracle Cloud apps and how to extract data from them. That has been done for you.
3. Pre-built Data Model and Semantic Layer Shifts Focus to Analytics – another huge time saver! Allows you to worry about your metrics and the value your analytics can bring. No need to worry about complex modelling of core ERP, SCM, HCM or CX data.
4. OAX as Enterprise Data and Analytics Platform – OAX can be extended to include non Oracle data sources. Those data sources can be loaded into a different schema in the same data warehouse as Oracle provides with OAX to store the data of Oracle Cloud SaaS apps. Also, those non Oracle data sources can share the same semantic model as Oracle Cloud SaaS apps for reporting and analysis. For companies where a good bit of their enterprise data is running through Oracle Cloud SaaS applications, this makes a lot of sense.
5. Never Perform an Upgrade Again! - OAX is Cloud-based so Oracle can roll out updates and enhancements automatically without requiring customers to perform an upgrade process. You might ask “what if I have made customizations”? Oracle is providing wizards to allow your customizations to be made in a way that will survive upgrades!
6. Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics Built In - OAX already includes machine learning and predictive analytics but because OAX is a Cloud-based platform, Oracle can and will continuously update the analytics modules with additional machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities.

As a Cloud-based data and analytics platform that is purpose-built for integration with Oracle Cloud SaaS apps, OAX allows companies to maximize their Cloud investment while also deploying a data and analytics platform that supports continuous improvement and that can quickly adapt to changes in analytical needs - without an expensive and time-consuming upgrade.

Perficient's Oracle Analytics team has deep expertise in Oracle Analytics, including OAX, and has helped numerous companies define and deploy Oracle Cloud-based data warehouses and analytic systems.