OBIEE vs. BI Publisher vs. Polaris Reporting Workbench

I was recently asked - how can you explain to a user about the difference between OBIEE, BI Publisher and Polaris Reporting Workbench to a business user in simple terms. More specifically, how would you assess the business situation of a client and suggest one of the three reporting tools mentioned below.

I asked a few people around about their opinion, did some research (a.k.a. Google Search) and tried to put down some key features which I hope will highlight the key differences between what these products can offer.

Read on ... and I will be happy to hear your feedback via comments:

Feature	OBIEE	BI Publisher	Reporting Workbench
In brief?	Dynamic and interactive ad-hoc reporting capabilities; dashboard type reporting.	Meant for operational reporting, not analytical reporting. Mainly for creation of pixel perfect operational reports (where (say) the space between each line has to be specific, the colors, the fond and layouts among all the fields have to be arranged in specific ways.)	Self Service solution for real-time Operational Intelligence; integrated with EBS and BI Publisher to produce pixel perfect reports
Audience	Upper management and middle management	Line Managers and operational staff	A broad spectrum: From operational staff to upper level management (via dashboards)
Main Features	1. Hierarchy Drilling 2. Graphical Reporting (Charts, Pivots, Gauges, etc) 3. Ad Hoc Analysis 4. Actionable framework	1. Pixel perfect reports (e.g. Payment Summary, Invoice, etc.) 2. Scheduled Report Generation 3. Once the underlying data extraction logic is ready, the output can be produced in a variety of formats - .pdf, excel, word, etc. 4. Document bursting available	1. Deliver real time ad-hoc reports and Business Analytics to users and Executives 2. Comes with 700+ ready-to-use reports across Oracle HCM, Financials and Supply Chain modules 3. Report output in a variety of formats 4. Run right away or schedule for later 5. Advanced Document bursting features allowing users to set up single reports to be automatically sliced and diced, and then emailed to the appropriate users. (For example, notify all supervisors regarding their employees – run a single reports and it will automatically slice the reports and send to their respective supervisors)
User Interactivity	Interactivity underpins OBIEE. Allows users to dynamically change queries on the dashboard as well as interacting with other areas on the dashboard through action links.	There is no concept of real user interactivity	Advanced Data Visualizations, including Dashboards and Drill to Detail
Real-time information	Time-delayed, depending on refresh frequency. Not suited where real-time reports are needed	Real-time (if used as part of EBS)	Real-time
Integration with EBS	Can be designed to pull data from a variety of sources, including EBS	BI Publisher is a part of OBIEE as well as EBS	Out of box
Benefits	1. Once the underlying data model is designed, the rich user interface makes this a very able tool for end users to present data 2. Reduces time to produce reports, enabling more time to analyse the results 3. Provides “Actionable Insight” i.e. it Highlights where action is required 4. Enterprise grade reporting tool, which can consume data from various sources and enable a Single Version of the Truth across the enterprise	Format pixel perfect output in specific ways, provide support for multiple outputs, allows output bursting. However, it does not have the ability to drill down. * * I stand corrected on the ability to drill down. Pankaj Nawghare pointed out that the Oracle Data Sheet specifically mentions that BI Publisher has a drill down ability. Thanks Pankaj!	1. Sits directly on top of Oracle E-business suite requiring no additional hardware. 2. Administrators and end users access the tool and its capabilities directly from Oracle EBS, meaning less training costs and a higher end user adoption rate. 3. Does not require an additional layer of security, leveraging your Oracle security directly from the box.
Technology	The framework for OBIEE comes from the erstwhile best-of-breed Siebel Analytics product.	BI Publisher was originally a different application, which is now part of OBIEE. The best way to put it is, BI Publisher is another technology that has been integrated with OBIEE, so now the two are both parts of Oracle Business Intelligence. BI Publisher is also available in EBS.	Built using OA Framework, so completely compatible with EBS.
Implementation Tips	A full-fledged OBIEE implementation requires careful thought and planning and cross department co-ordination. Unless there is clearly defined reporting outcome, undertaking a full-fledged OBIEE implementation project rarely yields the business benefits to justify the investment. In such cases, an incremental approach is recommended. 1. Run a small POC 2. Identify the benefits to your organisation, but don’t ‘boil the ocean’ – Keep work packages small enough to get regular delivery 3. Use OBIEE experienced Business Analysts 4. Work with the end users in an ‘Agile / RAD’ way In short, OBIEE implementation is a full scale project.	Unlike OBIEE, which imposes a Kimball methodology in modeling its central model, BI Publisher will let you use any old SQL as the basis for a “data model.” In the hands of non-technical users, this is a recipe for disaster in terms of maintenance costs and overall durability of those reports over time.	Plug and Play solution – installs in less than 3 hours with an implementation plan of less than 2 weeks (includes installation, setups and training).

So then the question:  Which component should I use for my work?

	OBIEE	BI Publisher	Reporting Workbench
Q. Send a daily report in a fixed format to senior management, updated with the latest data?		Schedule report and send by email	Schedule report and send by email
Q. Give teams a set of standard reports that highlight issues on KPI’s	Create a standard set of reports (using Answers) and place these on Team dashboards.		Publish a dashboard using a standard set of reports.
Q. Create Pixel perfect documents?		Use BI Publisher (using EBS) to produce reports	XML output allows creation of such reports
Q. Improve Data Quality?	1. Expose as much data as possible in the dashboards. Do not hide ‘odd’ data. 2. Make sure that all senior management reports come from the OBIEE system.(This will also aid user adoption)
Q. Run a daily Invoice run		1. Use BI Publisher on the latest financial data
Q. Store Reports for Audit Purposes		1. Use Delivers to email a copy of a report or dashboard to a storage account 2. Use Briefing Books to store data 3. Save a report in PDF or HTML format and save in a share drive	Define Delivery Channel to schedule report output to be send via email in a variety of formats
Q: Show Trending information		No	No