David Menninger's Analyst Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Oracle Analytics Cloud drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Earlier this year we published the Ventana Research Value Index: Analytics and Data 2021, the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts. We then developed three additional Value Indexes on analytics and business intelligence focusing on mobile, embedded and collaborative capabilities. Because each is a critical aspect of modern BI, we developed specific criteria to provide an in-depth look at features geared specifically to mobile, embedded and collaborative use.

In all of our Value Indexes, we utilize a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal and vendor selection process for analytics and business intelligence. We evaluated Oracle and 17 other vendors in seven categories: five relevant to the product – Adaptability, Capability, Manageability, Reliability and Usability – and two related to the vendor – Total Cost of Ownership/Return on Investment and Vendor Validation. To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our Benchmark Research on Analytics and Data.

Oracle provides BI capabilities as one of many offerings in its portfolio of products and services. It was categorized as an Innovative Vendor, ranking fifth overall in this Value Index evaluation. Oracle performed its best and was a Value Index Leader in Product Experience. It performed well in Manageability and Capability, and was first in Usability.

Oracle Analytics Cloud is a completely re-designed, cloud-based product complemented by an on-premises offering. The product includes a broad set of capabilities across many of the evaluation criteria in this assessment. Data can be loaded into the cloud or accessed remotely via the Data Gateway. Oracle Analytics Cloud is one of five vendors in our assessment that includes planning analyses via integration with Oracle Essbase. Oracle also offers one of the best natural language processing capabilities we evaluated.

Oracle would perform better in both Manageability and Reliability with more notification support. Better support for prospects to project costs and benefits would help improve its TCO/ROI rating, and more information about services available specifically for Oracle Analytics would help improve its Validation rating.

Our research shows that nearly four in 10 organizations are using collaboration to support analytics processes, and more than one-half expect to use these capabilities in the future. Oracle Analytics Cloud supports collaboration through sharing and emailing analyses, alerts and notifications, commenting on analyses and posting to discussion groups. Some of these features are provided via integration with other Oracle products. Oracle’s Capability ranking would improve if it supported assigning tasks and tracking them to completion, as well as wall posting and social recognition for contributions.

Organizations recognize the importance of embedded analytics. Nearly three-quarters of participants in our Data and Analytics in the Cloud Benchmark Research said they considered embedded analytics important. Oracle offers developers a JavaScript framework for embedding content in applications and web pages. Developers can also use URL references and iFrames. Oracle provides a plug-in framework for custom visualizations and data actions. Administration can be performed via scripts. Oracle would perform better in Capability with additional financial and spatial functions, additional visualizations and voice capabilities outside of mobile applications.

Today’s line-of-business personnel need rich mobile access to analytics in the normal course of conducting business. Organizations must make choices to provide analytics platforms that can deliver. Oracle Day by Day is available as a native application for iOS and Android. The product has been designed from the ground up as a mobile application companion to Oracle Analytics Cloud. It offers exceptional natural language and voice-based capabilities, including 28 different languages. It includes robust collaboration capabilities and supports native features from the device including camera integration and location awareness. Oracle would perform better in Capability if the mobile product were more closely aligned with the experience in Oracle Analytics Cloud rather than an entirely separate experience.

This assessment was based on Oracle’s analytics products available at end of December in 2020. Since then, Oracle Analytics Cloud has been updated twice. A number of visualization enhancements have been implemented including time series forecasting and graph analytics in data flows. New data sources include Google BigQuery and remote Java database connectivity sources can be accessed via the Data Gateway. New data profiling information is available to provide data quality insights, and the home page has been improved with more personalization.

Organizations should evaluate data and analytics requirements including collaborative, embedded and mobile capabilities to ensure the existing solutions are meeting business needs. If existing solutions are not satisfying those requirements, organizations should consider whether Oracle can help meet those needs.

This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of analytics and BI software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Value Index by clicking here, and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Read the report here.

Regards,

David Menninger