Looker Block for Oracle EBS

This page describes the insights you can get from the Cortex Looker Block for Oracle EBS (E-Business Suite) data. Using this Looker Block for Oracle EBS, you can jumpstart your Order-to-Cash (O2C or OTC) operational reports journey on BigQuery in a rapid and cost-effective manner. Use or customize this Looker Block to:

  • Identify trends and patterns in your data.
  • Spot potential problems early on.
  • Make better decisions faster.

Available insights

The Looker Block for Oracle EBS in Cortex Framework offers the following predefined dashboards:

  • Order status: Overview of order-related metrics, including order volume, a breakdown of the order flow status from booking to billing, and an analysis of order status.
  • Sales performance: Insights into top sales performers including items, categories, customers, business units, and order sources.
  • Order fulfillment: Tracks fulfillment performance over time, highlighting items with the longest average order cycle time and those experiencing fulfillment challenges.
  • Order line details: View details of a subset of sales orders satisfying a set of filter criteria. For example, see details of all blocked orders in a given timeframe.
  • Billing and invoicing: Overview of invoice volume and amounts including monthly trends. Also highlights customers with highest discounts.
  • Accounts receivables: Analyzes current and overdue receivables, identifying customers with highest outstanding amounts and duration of overdue payments.
  • Invoice line details: View details of a subset of invoices satisfying a set of filter criteria. For example, see details of all open invoices in a given timeframe.

Repository

To access the Cortex Looker Block for Oracle EBS, visit its official GitHub repository: block-cortex-oracle-ebs. This repository contains essential views, Explores, and dashboards that enable you to seamlessly integrate Oracle EBS data into your Looker environment. This repository provides a solid foundation for creating custom reports, visualizations, and dashboards tailored to your specific needs.

Deployment

For instructions about how to deploy the Cortex Looker Block for Oracle EBS, see Deploy Looker blocks for Cortex Framework.

For instructions about how to deploy the Cortex Looker Block for SAP, see Deploy Looker blocks for Cortex Framework. After completing these instructions, see Additional specifications for deployment in the following section.

Additional specifications for deployment

Depending the data source, some Looker Blocks need some specifications to work properly. This section describes special settings for the Cortex Looker Block for Oracle EBS.

Persistent Derived Tables required

The BigQuery connection used for this block must have Persistent Derived Tables enabled. For more information, see Enabling PDTs on a Connection.

Required user attributes

Some dashboards require several Looker user attributes to work properly. User attributes provide a customized experience for each Looker user. A Looker administrator defines a user attribute and then applies a user attribute value to a user group or to individual users. For more information, see Admin settings - User attributes.

For this Looker Block for Oracle EBS, a Looker Admin should create the following user attributes and set the values exactly as follows:

Required User Attribute Name Label Data Type User Access Hide Value Default Value
cortex_oracle_ebs_category_set_name Cortex Oracle EBS: Category Set Name String Edit No Primary Category Set Name used in your EBS system. If using Cortex Test data default value equals BE_INV_ITEM_CATEGORY_SET. For more information, see the Test data section.
cortex_oracle_ebs_default_language Cortex Oracle EBS: Default Language String Edit No US (or primary language code used in your EBS system). If using Cortex Test data, the available values are US (English) and ES (Spanish). For more information, see the Test data section.
cortex_oracle_ebs_default_currency Cortex Oracle EBS: Default Target Currency String Edit No USD or chosen currency like EUR, CAD or JPY.
cortex_oracle_ebs_use_test_data Cortex Oracle EBS: Use Test Data (Yes or No) String Edit No Enter Yes if using Cortex Framework Test data. Otherwise, enter No. For more information, see the Test data section.

Each dashboard user can personalize the values of the editable user attributes by following the instructions in Personalizing user account settings.

Test data

When utilizing the optional Test data with this block, consider the following key points:

  • Timeframe: The test data covers Sales Orders from January 1, 2021 to April 4, 2024 and Invoices & Payments from January 2, 2021 to March 31, 2024.
  • Date Adjustment: When using test data (user attribute cortex_oracle_ebs_use_test_data is set to Yes), the current date is replaced with March 31, 2024 for calculations. This ensures accurate calculations for dimensions like age of receivables.
  • Category Set: The only available Category Set ID/Category Set Name is 1100000425/BE_INV_ITEM_CATEGORY_SET. The user attribute cortex_oracle_ebs_category_set_name should be set to BE_INV_ITEM_CATEGORY_SET.
  • Business Unit: Test data includes only one Business Unit named BE1 operating unit.
  • Tax amount: In Sales Invoices and Sales Invoices Daily Agg, the tax amount is 0 for all records.
  • Intercompany: For all records Is_Intercompany is set to No.

  • Multiple languages and currencies: To demonstrate different languages and currencies in the test data, during the deployment of the Cortex Framework for Oracle EBS, include USD and EUR as currency conversion targets, and US and ES as languages. The following is a sample snippet from the config.json file used in a deployment:

    "OracleEBS": {
      "itemCategorySetIds": [1100000425],
        "currencyConversionType": "Corporate",
        "currencyConversionTargets": ["USD","EUR"],
        "languages": ["US","ES"],
        "datasets": {
            "cdc": "CORTEX_ORACLE_EBS_CDC",
            "reporting": "CORTEX_ORACLE_EBS_REPORTING"
        }
    }

Other Considerations

For optimizing the performance and functionality of your Looker Block for Oracle EBS consider the following:

  • BI Engine Optimization: Some calculations perform better with BI Engine Optimization enabled in BigQuery.
  • Liquid Templating Language: Some constants, views, Explores and dashboards use liquid templating language. For more information, see Looker's Liquid Variable Reference documentation.
  • Unhide additional dimensions and measures: Many dimensions and measures are hidden for simplicity. If you find anything valuable missing, set field's hidden parameter value to No in the relevant views.