Download Mention relevant customers using Oracle DB for OLTP and DW.

“CLOSE THE DEAL” OBJECTION HANDLING
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
This guide can be used to prepare for a customer meeting regarding Business Intelligence
solutions. Not all of these objections may apply to every customer.
OBJECTION #1: Oracle is not a Business Intelligence (BI) leader.
RESPONSE: I agree that leadership is important in selecting a BI provider. How do you define
leadership in BI? Who do you consider as BI leaders? Oracle is the only vendor that is a leader
in every part of the BI stack: reporting/analysis; data warehousing; ETL; and packaged
applications. You can address your current BI needs with functionality that is recognized by IDC
as the BI leader in their recent “Worldwide Business Analysis Software Market” study. Our
comprehensive BI offering allows you to expand your BI solution with capabilities that were
architected to work together as well as leverage your existing environment, both Oracle and
non-Oracle.
[When applicable: Mention relevant BI customers.]
OBJECTION #2: We already use SAP/Business Objects (IBM/Cognos).
RESPONSE: Thank you for telling me. Most of their customers access information managed by
Oracle. How do you use Business Objects? Which departments use it? How many users?
Gartner ranks Oracle’s BI solution high on its Magic Quadrant. Leveraging Oracle’s BI tools with
your Oracle database and other products can give you a single point of support for your entire
BI solution. Oracle BI can provide great value for your current project while working alongside
your existing Business Objects users if/when you choose to migrate them over. Oracle’s
comprehensive BI solution also includes advanced analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and
packaged applications.
[Mention at least one customer moving to Oracle BI from Business Objects (Cognos).]
OBJECTION #3: Oracle BI tools only work with other Oracle products.
RESPONSE: I agree that it is important for your BI Tools to work well with all your other products,
both Oracle and non-Oracle. What products would you want your BI Tools to work with? You
are correct that Oracle BI Tools work extremely well with other Oracle products. However, they
also work extremely well with non-Oracle products, including those you mentioned. In fact, most
of our BI customers have an environment of products from many vendors and are having great
success. You can deploy the Oracle BI capabilities you need today without concerns of
compatibility with the rest of your environment. Of course we would love for you to consider
adding more Oracle products when the time and business justification are right. Many
customers evolve into our comprehensive BI solution of reporting/analysis, data warehousing,
ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant BI customers with heterogeneous environments.]
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OBJECTION #4: We’re concerned this BI solution will be difficult and expensive to
implement (with Oracle Consulting).
RESPONSE: Thank you for letting me know of these important concerns. What aspects concern
you the most? Would you be willing to address the concerns (with Oracle Consulting)? Do you
have a preferred Oracle partner you often work with? Would you be willing to train your team to
take on more tasks? Can we discuss some cost options? What ideas do you have? Would you
like to consider any of our packaged offerings? Can we propose the training courses?
[Mention relevant BI customers having used Oracle Consulting Services and/or partners.]
OBJECTION #5: I don’t think I can justify this BI cost without a detailed return on
investment plan.
RESPONSE: I agree that cost justification is important to get buy in from your executives. How
would you like us to help? What degree of detail do you need to provide? Who do you need to
present this to? Would you be willing to work with us to produce this? What information can you
give us to help you complete this? Would you like us to include some of the optional products
we discussed?
[Mention relevant BI customers who have ROI quotes/testimonials.]
OBJECTION #6: We use Excel to report and analyze information.
RESPONSE: I understand that Excel is a very popular product and is used to some extent by
almost every organization. How does you use it for reporting and analysis? What do you like
most about it? What are some of the limitations or concerns? Oracle’s BI solution allows your
Excel users to benefit from easy access to information that may span multiple heterogeneous
sources, while being shielded from the underlying complexity of the data. You can immediately
make your Excel users more productive and solve the biggest issue associated with
spreadsheet usage – confidence in accessing accurate, secure information. The Excel users
could also take advantage of Oracle’s comprehensive BI suite as needed, including
reporting/analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant customers using Excel with Oracle BI.]
OBJECTION #7: We don’t believe that Oracle data warehouse can scale to tens of
terabytes or above.
RESPONSE: I agree that a data warehouse’s ability to handle your current and future size
requirements is critically important. Can you tell me how large you anticipate your data
warehouse being now and in the future? Oracle has many customers with data warehouses in
the tens of terabytes and above. Some now contain raw data and indexes of over 100 terabytes.
This means you can deploy an Oracle Data Warehouse (DW) with confidence. It can more than
meet your current and future scaling needs. In addition to data warehousing, you might want to
consider other capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/
analysis, ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention large Oracle DW customers.]
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OBJECTION #8: We want to buy an appliance solution to simplify deployment.
RESPONSE: We understand your desire to simplify deployment and that an appliance solution is
one way to accomplish that. What specific concerns do you have about deployment? How do
you believe an appliance solution will address these? Oracle’s Optimized Warehouse Initiative
is a partnership with leading hardware vendors and includes reference configurations for sizing.
Pretested Optimized Warehouse configurations are also included. This allows you to get the
simplified deployment benefits of an appliance solution while using the same proven Oracle
database that you use for your other database needs. The HP Oracle Database Machine,
featuring Exadata storage hardware and software, provides balanced hardware ideal for large
numbers of concurrent queries while also speeding individual queries.
In addition to data warehousing, you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s
comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant Oracle Warehouse Initiative customers.]
OBJECTION #9: Oracle data warehouses are more expensive to manage than competitors.
RESPONSE: We know how important it is to minimize costs. What data warehouse management
cost areas are of major concern to you? Improvements in the Oracle database, particularly
since Oracle database 10g, have made the database increasingly self-tuning and selfmanaging. These features significantly reduce the staff needed to manage the data warehouse.
Oracle’s automated capabilities should be leveraged through Enterprise Manager and Grid
Control to best take advantage of these features.
[Mention relevant customers with large DW requiring minimal staff to manage.]
OBJECTION #10: Isn’t Oracle is a general purpose database, more appropriate for OLTP?
RESPONSE: That is a fair question. What are your concerns about Oracle’s ability to handle both
OLTP and data warehouse requirements? As data warehouses are increasingly deployed with
near real-time updates, the trickle feeds provide updates that are similar to OLTP workloads.
Oracle’s proven scalability for extremely large OLTP is actually a major advantage. This allows
you to employ the same database for both OLTP and data warehouse, so you can begin the
project by leveraging the Oracle skills that you already have.
[Mention relevant customers using Oracle DB for OLTP and DW.]
OBJECTION #11: Oracle does not have data models/business solutions.
RESPONSE: I agree that data models and business solutions can be an important part of a
BI/DW solution. Why are they important to you? What role would they play in your BI/DW
strategy? Oracle has business intelligence and financial performance data models that are sold
as applications. These reduce costs and greatly speed up deployment, while reducing risk. In
addition to prebuilt data models and data models, Oracle’s comprehensive BI solution also
includes reporting, ad-hoc and advanced analysis, data warehousing, and ETL.
[Mention relevant customers for Oracle BI packaged applications.]
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OBJECTION #12: We use SAS for data mining.
RESPONSE: Thanks for telling me. I understand that many companies use SAS for data mining.
How do you use SAS for data mining? What business problems are addressed? What do you
like best about it? Which areas might you like to see improved? SAS has a built-in data latency
caused by the need to move data. With Oracle, the data mining is done with the data where it
resides – the Oracle database. If you wish to remain tied to your existing SAS, you can leave it
in place and make a decision on future direction when your SAS lease renewal date
approaches. SAS software is leased, not purchased, resulting in expensive renewals. Oracle’s
licensing options are much more cost effective. Oracle offers BI applications that could be an
excellent fit for your project requirements. In addition to data mining, you might want to consider
other capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data
warehousing, ETL and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant Oracle data mining customers]
OBJECTION #13: We don’t have any data mining expertise.
RESPONSE: I can appreciate why that is a concern for you. Traditionally, data mining has
required a great deal of specialized knowledge. What is your organization doing with data
mining today? How are you doing it? What business problems would you target with data
mining? Oracle Data Mining is easy to use, especially since you are leveraging in-house Oracle
skills. Also, we have Oracle Consultants to help you. Oracle Data Mining simplifies and
automates the data mining process so that end users don't have to be data mining experts.
This means that you can begin applying Oracle Data Mining to the business problems you just
mentioned. In addition to data mining, you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s
comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and
packaged applications.
[Mention relevant Oracle data mining customers, ideally focusing on the business problems
mentioned by the customer.]
OBJECTION #14: Oracle Data Integrator (Oracle Warehouse Builder) does not seem to be
the only tool with E-LT architecture.
RESPONSE: You are right. Other tools have also come up with ways to push SQL to the RDBMS
for faster execution. What are the main advantages and benefits you see in E-LT? ODI (OWB)
is the tool that executes the entire process on RDBMS engines. None of the other tools have
removed the dedicated proprietary engine from the picture so only a small subset of the process
can be executed on the RDBMS. This means you can get the fastest execution for your projects
by deploying ODI (OWB). In addition to ODI (OWB), you might want to consider other
capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data
warehousing, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant ODI (OWB) customers.]
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OBJECTION #15: ETL code generators have limitations.
RESPONSE: You are right, code generators are known for having limitations. What are the
limitations that you are aware of and concerned with? How could they impact your organization?
For ODI , the issues with the "code generators" were mostly the deployment of the generated
runtime. There is no deployment issue with ODI; the SQL code (or scripts) generated by ODI
are sent directly to the servers and databases by the agent, independently of the environment.
OWB is designed to exploit the high level of features and functionality that have been growing
within the Oracle database. Databases have come a long way in the last 15 years and OWB
takes full advantage of this. This means you can get the fastest execution for your projects by
deploying ODI (OWB). In addition to ODI (OWB), you might want to consider other capabilities
in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, and
packaged applications.
[Mention relevant ODI (OWB) customers.]
OBJECTION #16: Different data latencies require different approaches and that requires
different tools, not just ODI.
RESPONSE: Yes, they do require different approaches but not different tools. What different
latencies and approaches do you have in mind? With ODI, all integration processes are
consolidated in a single environment, with shared metadata, a common development and
administration platform, etc. Reuse is highly promoted across the projects. Specificities of the
different project types are, however, preserved. A massive batch process is handled differently
than a data service. This means you can use ODI for all of your projects regardless of data
latency. In addition to ODI, you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s
comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, and
packaged applications.
[Mention relevant ODI customers.]
OBJECTION #17: The source systems are too diverse to establish master data.
RESPONSE: I agree that the source systems can be a major concern. How diverse are your
source systems? Would you mind explaining? Most Master Data Management projects are put
in place precisely because of the variety of systems present and difficulty in gaining a common
understanding of the data. This means your project will benefit from deploying Oracle’s Master
Data Management. In addition to Master Data management you might want to consider other
capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data
warehousing, ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant MDM customers.]
OBJECTION #18: Master Data Management projects are too expensive and complex with
no immediate return on investment.
RESPONSE: I agree that MDM projects can be quite expensive and complex while being difficult
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to identify ROI. Which potential MDM projects do you have in mind? Would you mind describing
them? Master Data Management projects are often undertaken as part of business intelligence
projects where return on investment can be tracked during incremental deployment. Data quality
solutions are often proposed during such projects. These data quality solutions can help drive
down the cost of the project while reducing resources and risk. Benefits can be realized earlier
since the project can be completed sooner. This means your business intelligence project may
benefit significantly from deploying Oracle’s Master Data Management. In addition to Master
Data management you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive
BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and packaged
applications.
[Mention relevant MDM customers.]
OBJECTION #19: The source systems are too diverse to establish master data.
RESPONSE: I agree that the source systems can be a major concern. How diverse are your
source systems? Would you mind explaining? Most Master Data Management projects are put
in place precisely because of the variety of systems present and difficulty in gaining a common
understanding of the data. This means your project will benefit from deploying Oracle’s Master
Data Management. In addition to Master Data management, you might want to consider other
capabilities in Oracle’s comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data
warehousing, ETL, and packaged applications.
[Mention relevant MDM customers.]
OBJECTION #20: The data warehouse, not master data management, is defined to be the
single version of the truth.
RESPONSE: I agree that the DW is the single version of truth for data that is not real-time.
What real-time data do your users need? How is it provided now? Reporting is often required
from OLTP systems since those are the systems where real-time data exists. The data
warehouse is typically loaded after some time delay caused by the ETL process. A Master Data
Management solution can help resolve data differences across these systems and enable all to
be used where they are best suited while providing a common business understanding. Master
Data Management can help your users access the real-time data you mentioned. In addition to
Master Data Management, you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s
comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and
packaged applications.
[Mention relevant MDM customers.]
OBJECTION #21: Master Data Management solutions are immature and rarely deployed.
RESPONSE: I agree that immature and rarely deployed solutions of MDM or any other area
would be a major red flag. What have you heard or experienced about MDM that has given you
this understanding? Oracle’s Master Data Management solutions are widely deployed and are
available for customer, product, and financial and analytic solutions. Oracle continues to
develop its roadmap of strategic Master Data Management products while supporting all
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previous offerings used where they are best suited while providing a common business
understanding. Master Data Management has proven value for projects like yours. In addition
to Master Data management, you might want to consider other capabilities in Oracle’s
comprehensive BI/DW solution, including reporting/analysis, data warehousing, ETL, and
packaged applications.
[Mention relevant MDM customers.]
OBJECTION #22: Oracle requires multiple applications to provide what vendors like
OutlookSoft and Longview provide in a single product. It seems like your modules could
be complex to administer.
RESPONSE: I agree that ease of administration is an important consideration. What are your
specific administration concerns? Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management System Fusion
Edition includes a variety of Financial Performance Management applications that can work
independently, or as an integrated solution. When used as an integrated solution, we offer a
single point of maintenance for user provisioning, metadata management, and other
administrative tasks across modules. This provides you with the best of both worlds – best of
breed functionality and a single point of maintenance for a high return on investment and low
cost of ownership. All-in-one solutions, while offering a single point of maintenance, often cause
customers to face trade-offs in functionality and flexibility and are limited in the breadth of FPM
functions supported. You can begin with the functionality you need today. You can incorporate
the additional modules as you need them.
[Mention relevant EPM Fusion Edition customers.]
OBJECTION #23: Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management System Fusion Edition
seems like a big investment to make – what’s the expected ROI on this type of solution?
RESPONSE: I agree that getting the return on your investment is extremely important. What are
your ROI requirements? While thinking holistically about your company’s Enterprise
Performance Management strategy is important, Oracle recommends that customers implement
Enterprise Performance Management solutions in a modular fashion – starting where the need
is greatest and adding capabilities over time. This approach enables customers to achieve a
fast time to benefit, and ROI. By adopting a suite of PM and BI applications that leverage a
common set of platform services and end-user tools, companies can achieve a higher ROI and
lower cost of ownership versus integrating applications and tools from different vendors. You
can begin with the functionality you need today. You can incorporate the additional modules as
you need them.
[Mention relevant EPM Fusion Edition customers.]
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