Author Archives: Ron Keler

Open source BI with Pentaho – how far can it stretch?

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Ron Keler

Open source BI software is a fascinating topic that deserves a lot more discussion. Since the domain of business intelligence is all about information democracy and “liberating” the data that is locked in the company databases, turning it to meaningful … Continue reading →

Posted in Open source BI | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Xcelsius flyout menu

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Ron Keler

One of the most important aspects of dashboard design is navigation. Just like any other application, a dashboard is made out of content, functionality and navigation. The drilling, slicing, dicing, and data exploration are all part of your BI application … Continue reading →

Posted in Xcelsius | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Ad-hoc reporting – a reality or a myth?

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Ron Keler

The light dims. The large screen in front of you is filled with menus filled with familiar data points, organized and neatly categorized. Here’s your geographical hierarchy. And there are your financial measurements, and over there, date perspectives from the … Continue reading →

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Time lapse or high speed your business processes with history preservation techniques

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Ron Keler

High speed and time lapse photography are two techniques that allow us to understand the world around us by slowing down or speeding up processes that we could otherwise not be able to observe. High speed photography allows us to … Continue reading →

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Connect Xcelsius Dashboard to OBIEE

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Ron Keler

Oracle and SAP are two of the three leading BI vendors in the BI marketplace today. With Oracle just released OBIEE 11.g, and SAP is not far behind with BI 4.0 Both platforms are robust, enterprise grade, top of the … Continue reading →

Posted in OBIEE, Xcelsius | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Delay on next post…

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Ron Keler

I have not been able to post any new blog entries for the last week and a half due to a family medical problem i am attending. I will post new content soon, stay tuned, I promise my next post … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Why Isn’t Data Enrichment A Standard Practice In Every Data Warehousing Project?

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Ron Keler

Data enrichment is a terrific way to increase the value proposition of your data warehouse, and yet, it is implemented quite rarely. With data enrichment you can almost overnight provide your sales team with additional mountains of information about the … Continue reading →

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Abusing the date dimension: when does it make sense to NOT use it

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Ron Keler

The date dimension is a dimensional model staple. You will not find a data mart, data warehouse or any kind of a reporting database that does not have one form or another of a date dimension. The benefits of using … Continue reading →

Posted in BI At Large, Data Warehousing | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Connect an Xcelsius dashboard to a public RSS feed using simple jsp proxy – work around cross domain problem

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Ron Keler

Xcelsius has several data connectivity facilities that make it relatively easy for dashboard developers to connect to live data. Web Services and RSS feeds can be used via XML maps, or directly. However, the practical limitation anyone who ever tried … Continue reading →

Posted in BI At Large, Xcelsius | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Google Public Data Explorer

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Ron Keler

These are exciting and busy times for Business Intelligence at large, and data visualization in particular. It’s hard to keep up with all the innovations in the field. From SAP Xcelsius and Explorer, Microsoft Silverlight, QlikView, mobile players like Roambi … Continue reading →

Posted in BI At Large | Tagged , , | 2 Comments