Integration key in Oracle release
The company is set to roll out the latest version of its Discover data query and analysis tool, which includes better integration with its other tools.
Discover 3.1 will include better integration with the Redwood Shores, California-based company's other decision support tools--Oracle Reports, a database reporting tool, and Oracle Express, an online analytical processing (OLAP) server tool.
Industry analysts consider the integrated tool a big plus because together the package offers query, reporting, and more advanced multidimensional analysis.
"Oracle will have a strong future with this product," said Bob Moran, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group. Moran said Oracle has figured out that "integration is the way to go now."
Discoverer 3.1 includes open database connectivity (ODBC) links to database servers, batch scheduling, enhanced calculation capabilities, and a gateway to meta data sources.
Moran said Discoverer is an impressive reporting and analysis package that sometimes gets lost in Oracle's vast product lineup. "It often gets overlooked, because [the company] does so many other things so well," he said.
Oracle has not released pricing for Discoverer 3.1. The previous version of the tool sold for $995 per user, while the administrator's version was $1,995.
In related news, Oracle earlier this week debuted its Oracle Warehouse Toolkit for PeopleSoft, a tool for extracting PeopleSoft business application data for inclusion in Oracle data warehouses. Priced at $50,000 per server for Windows NT and Unix systems, the toolkit maps data to a target warehouse and builds a data model, according to the company.