ibi WebFOCUS vs. Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)

I would less recommend it because it looks like IBI is receding a bit from the European market. I would not be certain for future support. Knowledge in the market in western Europe is limited Functional wise the application suits almost all situations. I would for sure recommend it purely based on its capabilities

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Discoverer is well suited as a reporting tool where data integration doesn't play a major role. Discoverer suits very well situations where a user has to run a query every day. Discoverer reports can be scheduled and the user can just view the data instead of running the query manually. Also, Discoverer takes away the pain of managing the database credentials. Discoverer is not well suited to situations where the whole enterprise wants to view the same dashboard. Discoverer is more of a departmental BI tool. Discoverer doesn't offer many options to integrate data unless one has to create and handle integration using PL/SQL.

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• One thing that has always been good at WebFOCUS is how they interact with the customer on items. They take suggestions and implement them. In addition technical support is timely and very detailed.
• I think they keep up with and lead in implementing new technologies in the BI space. One case of this are the ability for user to create their own easy dashboard using the green plus buttons. Also the ability to link d3 into and have the ability to implement new types of graphs is nice.
• I have been to a spoke at one of their user conferences and they are worth going to. In addition to all of the great seminars the interaction you get with vendors and other users is key in the growth of your knowledge. I've learned so much for my time at these conferences.

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• SQL friendly which allows for fast adoption for those users who know how to write in SQL. This makes integration with other programs much easier.
• Accessing data is very fast even with larger data sets.
• The layout is clean and organized similar to a spreadsheet which allows for easier viewing and analyzing of the data.

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• The newest versions of WebFOCUS have an unnecessarily complicated security layout that makes configuration difficult to accomplish without bringing in the vendor for installs.
• This software tries to cover too many bases allowing you to switch from writing code manually to creating reports using only GUI tools. This sometimes complicates screens and functionality where the two methods don't always work well together. -though its nice to have the choice.
• The sales force is not as top notch as many software companies

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• There is always room for more scalability and optimization of performance.
• Oracle BI changes a lot from version to version. A smoother transition into a new version would be very helpful.
• Oracle BI's reporting tool is a little hard to use at first. The UI/UX of the tool can use improvement.

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This software is deeply engrained with my organization and has become a tool that would not easily be replaced without spending more money and resources to get the same results. License cost is comparable to other report writing tools and the capabilities are greater than the competition without having to buy multiple apps to do the same thing.

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Best BI tool/product I have used. The others don't compare overall. Some can look fancier, but when you actually use them with large data and data from numerous systems/sources that is where most of the competition falls away. I also don't like downtime. I have basically none for a large user base with WebFocus. Even SAP Crystal Reports went down for 4 days once - 4 days because the admin password got locked out due to a glitch and we had zero reports for 4 days. WebFocus has never had more than a few minutes of downtime. It's like a tank that just keeps rolling. There is no other choice for reliable BI.

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Tracking availability formally for almost two years and we are at 99.8%

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They have extremely knowledgeable techs that I have worked with over the years. Some have actually become really good friends of mine. I see them often at local user groups and when we show them how we are using their tools to save millions of dollars throughout the company

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It's hit and miss, the last class was overcrowded and people were having trouble connecting which took up much of the time. Instructors vary

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Plan ahead on what data will be accessible and the type of security required on the database and if you will want to use security that is built into the software. It is worth consulting with the vendor on what your plan is and how they recommend you proceed in order to get results you are happy with.

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Webfocus handles the side of our business that is involved with our catalogs. Our catalogs is a huge revenue driver for us and this tool has been extremely useful with planning feature catalogs. Tableau is used more for marketing and merchandising purchases since we can filter data based on website sales.

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Discoverer was already in place when I joined the company so I was not involved in the selection process. However, I have been involved in the review of Discoverer as compared to alternatives including Business Objects, OBIEE, and SSRS. On a cost benefit analysis Discoverer always came out on top. Changing to another tool never provided enough additional functionality to overcome the cost of conversion and ongoing maintenance.

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• We are not yet a success story. Though we've been implementing WebFOCUS for over a year, we have very few products in our Production portal. Of course, this is not all the responsibility of Information Builders, but we were ill-advised by our 'training coordinator' in our training of staff and coming up to speed with the tools has been very slow.
• Once skilled analysts and professional IT staff achieve a grasp of the products, they are able to very quickly create polished and well-received products.
• The DW/BI project has helped us to establish standards and protocols of communication that will allow us to more quickly meet knowledge transfer requirements

• We have used Discoverer to respond to state sales and use tax audits and saved the company more than the cost of the product. Discoverer has thus assisted in our objective of managing costs.
• Discoverer is used to provide reports for EEOC reporting assisting our goal of complying with all government requirements.

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Independently Invited by TrustRadius

A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info