24 May 2023 Exploring the Latest Features and Enhancements in Oracle Analytics Server 2023
It’s always exciting to see new updates and features in the world of analytics. Oracle Analytics Server (OAS) 2023 offers a range of new capabilities and improvements that can greatly benefit businesses looking to leverage data-driven insights to enhance their decision-making processes.
As we mentioned in our earlier blog post New Features in Oracle Analytics Server 6.4, some of these enhancements were already available in Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC), often a good indicator of what to expect in the on-premise version. You can read more of our blog posts on Oracle and OAC here.
It’s important to note that businesses considering upgrading to the latest version of Oracle Analytics Server should evaluate the new features and enhancements carefully to see whether they align with their specific needs and goals. They should also ensure that their infrastructure can support the new software and that any necessary migrations are carried out to guarantee a smooth transition.
Some of the new features and enhancements in Oracle Analytics Server 2023 include improved data visualisation capabilities, enhanced data modelling and analysis tools, upgraded security and governance features, as well as better integration with other Oracle products and services.
Businesses that wish to upgrade their existing software to the latest release of OAS 2023 can download it from Oracle e-delivery and refer to the installation and configuration documentation at this link.
Features
Oracle has invested heavily in improving the visualisation capabilities of their data analytics tools, as we can see from the number of new features in this area. Some of these features have already been covered in our previous blog posts, so we recommend you take a look and check out the details.
There are also features that have been updated in the subsequent releases, like Conditional Formatting, allowing users to customise data or values in different formats based on specific rules. This feature was introduced in the OAC July ’21 release and then updated in the March ’23 release with a rule blending feature, and OAS 2023 offers the latest version of the feature.
Slider
With the new slider feature, users can filter data by selecting a range of values using a slider, which dynamically updates the visualisation to show how the data changes based on the selected range. This can be particularly useful for exploring data over time, or for identifying trends and patterns in large datasets.
The animated, dynamic nature of the visualisation can make it easier to spot outliers or anomalies in the data, enabling users to gain deeper insights. If you think this feature could help you with your dashboards, check out our blog post that explains it all in more detail.
Overlay Charts
With the new overlay charts feature in Oracle Analytics Server, users can now build multi-layered visuals that combine multiple chart types into a single visualisation. This capability was first introduced in the July ’22 update and enables users to create more complex and insightful visualisations by overlaying different types of charts, such as stacked bar charts with line, area, and category. This can be particularly useful for exploring the relationships between different variables, or for identifying patterns and trends in complex datasets.
Parameters
One of the most important features, unavailable in Oracle Data Visualization until the Mar ’23 release of OAC, is fortunately included in the OAS 2023 release – Parameters, allowing users to create interactive dashboards and reports that can be customised on the fly. Now users can create a set of inputs that can be used to filter, group, and display data in a variety of ways. This was one of the most important updates for many developers working with Data Visualization, because if you needed parameters in your visualisation, you had to previously go with the classic Analyses and Dashboards layout, meaning visualisations that looked pretty basic when compared to those now built into the tool.
Automatic Calculation of Time Durations
In this new release of OAS, we have another feature that helps users automatically calculate time durations such as year, month, and day with semantic recommendations in the dataset editor. This feature compares the value of our date column to the system date and can therefore be very useful in many scenarios, calculating things like age, employee tenure, and time remaining on a contract, to name but a few. We have explained this feature in more detail in the blog for January release of Oracle Analytics Cloud 2023.
Conclusion
One of the advantages of Oracle‘s cloud-based platforms is that they receive updates and enhancements more often than on-premise software. These updates can be quickly adopted by businesses using the cloud platform, providing them with the latest capabilities and improvements.
However, for businesses that prefer to use on-premise software like Oracle Analytics Server, it can be challenging to keep up with the latest updates and features. With the release of Oracle Analytics Server 2023, these businesses can now benefit from the improvements in data analytics and visualisation made to the Oracle Analytics Cloud platform over the last year, helping them to make faster, better-informed decisions, and gain a competitive edge over their industry peers.
Overall, this new release represents a significant step forward for organisations looking to harness the power of data analytics to drive their business forward, regardless of whether they use cloud-based or on-premise software.
If you’d like to know more about what Oracle Analytics can do for you, contact us today! Our team of experts can provide you with effective solutions tailored to your specific needs, and work with you towards achieving your business goals.
