Answering business questions never is easy and - sometimes - can be compared to discovering new lands which no one has ever heard about before. Unfortunately, business has much more in common with sailing to the unknown than it seems. At first, nothings actually is predictable. One can suppose, however he never is sure. One can set goals and align the strategy, however he never can be sure where he finally manages to sail to. Business - like only few lands, though - remains undiscovered. And even though we know more and more about it, we still couldn't tell we know enough.

The name of Oracle Business Intelligence tool - Discoverer - isn't accidental, then. Once it's designed to support business users with answering questions that are meaningful to them and their business, the Discoverer tool provides wide and complex capabilities which all users, regardless of their IT advancement, can benefit from. In a very few words, Oracle BI Discoverer is a set of query, reporting, analysis, and publishing tools operated from within a single Web based interface which no one could have difficulties with.

Oracle BI Discoverer in practice

In practice, it means better, faster, and more accurate decision making that can be based on solid portions of appropriate information. What needs to be noticed is the fact that - with Oracle BI Discoverer - even the basic Web browser is enough to access data originated from different sources (databases, data warehouses, data marts, legacy systems, etc.).

In a very few words, it means also:

• Quickly finding required data. Simplified interface (a little bit similar to spreadsheets commonly known from MS Office Excel, for instance) helps with immediate getting to the point. Without superfluous information nor collateral things that - otherwise - would have had to be done. Oracle BI Discoverer truly is an intuitive tool which allows its users to focus on what is important to them.
• Immediate access to the specific data. Formerly, the time needed for searching the whole databases was unacceptably long. With Oracle BI Discoverer, this problem no longer exists as one can gather everything he needs in just a few seconds. One click, a few seconds, all needed information.
• Multiple methods for data visualization. Some people prefer numbers, and some want charts. Thereupon, Oracle BI Discoverer enables multiple ways one can have the information displayed. It, obviously, impacts the efficiency (experimenting is suggested).
• Different analysis methods. The same as visualizing data, its analyzing methods also play important role. Some things, though, are visible from the very beginning, while some require a deep dive into details to be discovered. Thereupon, Oracle BI Discoverer supports its users with numerous drill up and down, drag and drop, and sorting capabilities. Thank to this, one can highlight only data that meets his specific requirements. Moreover, data analysis consider the conditions, as well. In practice, it means that one can display only "values above 3000000" or "values from 100 to 150", for instance. Conditions and ranges - these often are helpful.
• Simplified reporting, easily modifiable and updateable. Title simplicity means that no special knowledge nor IT experience is needed to prepare even the most advanced reports.
• Easy sharing. Today's organizations consist of tens of people who have an influence on decision making process. Thereupon, the reports, even if addressed to specific persons only, should also be accessible for all other interested people. To ensure the highest level of comfort, Oracle BI Discoverer provides many data and report sharing capabilities. One can, then, send them via e-mails or - if needed - save as a MS Office Excel's spreadsheet, for instance.

The Oracle BI Discover - in point of fact - is a set of tools that support three main processes - data gathering, analysis, and report sharing. Even though each and every its component - more or less - is designed for slightly different purposes, they all make a unity. A complex tool that provides even the beginning users with one of the widest sets of capabilities in the market. The capabilities that are necessary in today's Business Intelligence bases: queries and answering to business questions.

Oracle BI Discoverer resources

• http://download.oracle.com/docs/html/B13915_04/intro_to_disc.htm#BJFFGFDA - nothing more than just a short description or introduction to Oracle BI Discoverer. Even though it's not a rightful source of information, the website contains all basic information about the tool, divided into a few parts. The first describes the tool as a whole (useful to the ones who don't know the Oracle Business Intelligence Suite yet). The second focuses on the tool's advantages, and the next ones apply to chosen aspects of working with the Discoverer. Also, there are the components of the tool set pointed and explained and, - additionally - a few words have been devoted to "the Discoverer manager" person and role in business. Here are the bases, nonetheless - if devote a while of free - one can dive into much more detailed and more useful data.
• http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/pfrd.htm - if there was a thing Oracle was better than any other company in the market, it would be documentation aspect. Here is a complete documentation about Oracle BI Discoverer tool. What some vendors don't manage to write about all their solutions together, here is devoted to a single tool. Here is everything what one could require from the technical point of view - complete guides, frequently asked questions, descriptions and instructions to every Discoverer component, and quite a lot about the role of the Oracle BI Discoverer tool in Business Intelligence as a whole. This website is, by all means, devoted to the ones who already have their own license for the Discoverer and want to know the details about how to use it to the maximum.
• http://www.ascbi.com/ - here is a website of e-learning and consulting company that distinguishes itself with the most advanced Oracle BI Discoverer courses. Even though the courses themselves aren't the cheapest in the market, they certainly are worth considering. There are only few devoted strictly to Discoverer. Moreover, if dive into the resources, one can find there a lot of useful literature about the tool, from basic guides to the most complex and advanced instructions. All well explained and illustrated - such a source of knowledge from a differen point of view.