OBIEE Oracle Business Intelligence integration with Salesforce.com CRM and database.com via ODBC

After working on several POCs last month for integration between Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE) and Informatica PowerCenter to Salesforce.com, we have seen a surge in interest for this solution.  Support for ODBC and JDBC connectivity to the Salesforce CRM business application (and database.com) has blown the integration options wide open from OBIEE!  Below is a tutorial on how to create a repository (RPD) to Salesforce.com using ODBC.

Option 1: OBIEE to Salesforce via Data Warehouse

The majority of prospects selecting this option to date are running Informatica, and using our flexible Salesforce CRM integration with Informatica PowerCenter.  For Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) integration, Salesforce.com is not a supported business application - SAP R/3, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle E-business.  However, DataDirect Connect XE series ODBC and JDBC drivers provide a fully supported source and target to Salesforce.com as a standard non-Oracle database.  Read my step by step tutorial on setting up the Oracle Database Gateway for Salesforce.

Or choose any third party data integration tool that supports ODBC.

Option 2: Real Time Connection from OBIEE to Salesforce

The option to model and access real time operational data in Salesforce is exclusive to ODBC connectivity using the OBI Admin Tools.  Since Salesforce CRM is a cloud, you can go to town on accessing this operational source for BI through your enterprise SFDC subscription!!  To build a repository, you can perform the following steps:

• Create a New Repository to Salesforce via ODBC DSN

• Select Metadata Types

• Select Metadata Objects

• Yep, that is the physical model for Salesforce.com data!!

• Here is a snowflake schema example built live against Salesforce.com in OBI Admin Tool version 11.1.1.5

Now you can build your star schema directly against Salesforce without the requirement for an intermediate database and ETL job!!

For reference, a general tutorial is available from Oracle on Creating a Repository Using the Oracle BI 11g Administration Tool.

And for real time access to Salesforce from BI Publisher, use the Connect XE for JDBC Salesforce driver. Tutorial on configuring the JDBC driver is available from Oracle.

Option 3: Use both options above with the single point of ODBC integration

Quoted from the ORACLE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOUNDATION SUITE Technical Overview, January 2011

"Combining Transactional Data with Data Warehouse Information: Finally, the Common Enterprise Information Model allows users to combine data from a data warehouse with information from transaction processing systems in a single calculation to get the most up-to-date value of a metric"

How to get started today?

1. Download free 15 day trial of the DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC or JDBC Salesforce drivers to integrate an unlimited number of BI applications with Salesforce.

2. Or call 1-800-876-3101 to speak with a live Solutions Consultant to learn how other organizations are making progress with DataDirect Connect Salesforce integration.