Product ReviewJedox Suite 3.3

© BARC 2012

The BARC product description was printed and issued by:

Jedox AGBismarckallee 7a79098 FreiburgGermany

Tel: +49 761 15147 0www.jedox.com

This product description for Jedox Suite 3.3 is part of the BARC research paper “Software Tools for Planning”, which describes and evaluates leading planning solutions for midsize companies and large corporations in Central Europe. This research paper is available online (German language only) at www.barc.de/planung.

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Product Review Jedox Suite 3.3 Authors: Christian Fuchs, Barney Finucane

BARC Institute. Würzburg, Germany. 01/2012

Jedox

Jedox AG was founded in 2002 and has a current staff of 83 employees, 32 of whom are developers. The company serves customers throughout the world directly from its head-quarters in Breisgau, Germany as well as through its network of partners. According to its own sources, the company’s revenue grew by 35% in 2010 and 60% in 2011. Jedox generates 70-75% of its total revenues in its home market of Germany.

Jedox’s core product is the Business Intelligence tool Jedox Suite, which offers capabili-ties for planning, reporting, analysis and dashboarding. The solution, which was launched back in 2004, is available in both open source and premium editions. In the past, both software editions were called Palo. As of version 3.3, however, the premium version is now called Jedox Suite while the open source edition retains the name Palo. This product review focuses on the premium version.

According to company accounts, over 10,000 users (not companies) work with the cur-rent premium version, and the open source version of Jedox has been downloaded roughly 120,000 times to date. In addition, approximately 150 new customers worldwide purchased the premium edition of Jedox in 2011.

Jedox can be categorized as a flexible solution for building custom planning applica-tions. It is generally comprised of the following four components (see Figure 7):

Jedox OLAP Server is a centralized multidimensional database that connects all components in the suite.

Jedox for Excel is a Microsoft Excel add-in, which provides direct access from the spreadsheet to the data in Jedox OLAP Server (see Figure 1).

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Jedox Web offers Web-based access to all Jedox functions in a common user in-terface. This component supports Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (see Figure 2).

Jedox ETL Server provides a Web-based environment for importing data from a range of sources into Jedox OLAP Server.

Jedox Suite is designed to enhance the user’s familiar Excel working environment with specific Business Intelligence functionalities. The Excel add-in interface combines con-ventional spreadsheet capabilities with complementary Jedox functions. With its Web client, users can access the spreadsheet interface from a browser (i.e. Excel on the Web); this front end also offers additional features that are not available in the Excel add-in.

 

Figure 1: Standard user interface of Jedox in Excel 2010 

Usage scenarios

The target users for building Jedox applications are business power users who want to create custom planning applications connected to a multidimensional database from a familiar spreadsheet environment. They can then deliver these applications to a broad group of users, in particular, through the functionality of Jedox Web.

Depending on the complexity of the software implementation and the applications that need to be built, companies can obtain support from external consultants who draw up-

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on best practices. IT support may also be required especially to integrate data into Jedox OLAP Server. Technically oriented business users with special training can later adminis-ter the application and develop it further.

Since Jedox doesn’t focus on specific aspects of planning (e.g. finance, sales, person-nel), it does not provide any standard planning models. Instead, Jedox can be viewed as a generic “construction kit” which can be used to implement a wide range of planning requirements. Jedox places great emphasis on the simplicity and implementation speed of its solution. The company supports customers through its modeling concept (i.e. in-structions), complementary consulting services from Jedox or its partners, and best practices from past projects.

Companies can use Jedox to implement top-down as well decentralized, bottom-up planning scenarios.

 

Figure 2: Standard user interface of Jedox Web in Mozilla Firefox 

Implementation of planning applications

In most cases, the multidimensional planning models in Jedox OLAP Server are initially built with Jedox ETL Server, a fully Web-based tool offering typical ETL functions from a browser (see Figure 3). With this tool, users can flexibly create and model dimensions and hierarchies. Alternatively, they can also edit planning models directly in the Excel add-in or Web client using a component called Modeler. Similar to competitive products, Jedox models tend to use multiple cubes. Instead of combining all planning data into a

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single, large cube, these models generally use several smaller cubes with linked content. Jedox OLAP Server is a multidimensional database in which the cubes are fully loaded and stored in memory. This enables fast response times for analyses and calculations. The database also supports rules to define complex business logic. Rules are formulas that are similar to those in spreadsheets but reference the multidimensional database. A detailed editor offers support in creating rules.

With regards to data integration, Jedox ETL Server supports access to a wide range of different data sources (see section on “Architecture and platform”). Typical ETL functions (Calculate, Join, Group, etc.) can be used to map the data. Jedox also offers a special SAP connector to access SAP systems (ERP and/or BW). Currently, the connector only supports direct read access to SAP BW while batch-input maps enable a write back to SAP ERP. In order to write back data to SAP BW, companies can use Universal Data Connect. With this tool, SAP BW can directly access Jedox data through its ODBO/XMLA provider.

The Jedox ETL Server can fill Jedox OLAP Server cubes, move data between cubes, copy data between relational databases, or export data from cubes in other databases. With this functionality, users can address certain problems such as copying objects from application development systems into productive ones or copying entire cubes and da-tabase backups. Through the tight connection between the front end and ETL compo-nents, users can manually start ETL jobs by pressing a button in the front end interface.

To visualize ETL processes, Jedox uses Flow Graphs, a type of tree diagram that allows users to easily navigate into individual ETL jobs or tasks with a few mouse clicks. Ver-sion 3.3 also has a new administration component called the Task Manager for creating, administering, scheduling, running and stopping tasks such as ETL jobs or batch PDF reports.

Users can perform all modeling activities in Microsoft Excel or the Jedox Web environ-ment. To support this task, the product provides specialized dialog boxes as well as a large number of spreadsheet formulas, for example, which can be used to create dimen-sion members.

Users can build planning templates from the Excel add-in or Jedox Web using the full range of modeling options that Excel offers. Excel-specific functions (e.g. freezing rows and columns or navigating the sheets on the bottom edge of the screen) also work on the Web. In addition, the Web front end offers additional navigation elements such as drop-down menus. Users can then define the contents of this menu in a subset editor. The cells of the planning templates contain Jedox formulas that access the database and enable a write back. Planning templates, including interactive charts, can also be trans-lated from Excel into HTML, published to the Web, and then exported back into Excel. Web-only elements such as drop-down menus, however, will not be exported back into Excel. The Web client provides a freely definable folder structure which can be used to centrally store external documents as well as planning templates, reports, analyses, etc.

One special feature of the Web client is that users can easily transfer conventional Excel spreadsheets to the Web and link cells to the database using Jedox formulas. This is an interesting option to integrate company budgets that were created in pure spreadsheets without any link to the database. With Modeler, users can build hierarchal dimensions in

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Jedox OLAP Server via drag and drop, create links to the data, and generate cubes from the dimensions based on the elements contained in the existing Excel budgets. This pro-cedure is very common in Jedox projects.

Jedox does not provide pre-defined workflow functions to support the planning process. Compared to competitive products, therefore, the workflow capabilities are limited. The software does offer the possibility to control user actions by linking planning templates and saving the individual workflow status into cubes. The system could then send plan-ning contributors e-mail notifications with links directing them to the part of the planning model in which they should enter or change their data. These functions are used in pro-jects to create individual workflows. Advanced workflow functions such as a planning calendar, task assignments, status monitoring or approval processes are not part of the standard functionality but can be added as a custom development. These individual add-ons generally require skilled consultants with experience from previous projects.

 

Figure 3: Standard user interface of Jedox ETL Server 

Planning functionality

In both Jedox for Excel and Jedox Web, users enter their data in their familiar spread-sheet environment. In addition to using the full flexibility of Excel, they can define formu-las to display data from various departments next to each other. Users can format their planning templates with the functions available in Excel. These templates can be defined statically with cell-based views or dynamically with variable row content. Data can be

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checked for plausibility on the fly using Excel validation rules or Jedox Supervision Serv-er. Supervision Server observes, controls and documents all data entries and changes in both the planning templates and Jedox OLAP Server. It can trigger warnings, alerts and corrections as well as initiate workflow or calculation steps. The Supervision Server, however, is more of a technical component and is only suitable for business users to a limited extent.

Jedox is especially popular in companies that work extensively with Excel. Users can copy and paste budget values from Excel into Web-based Jedox planning templates. Nevertheless, Jedox lacks functions that are available in advanced planning products such as specialized dialog boxes for entering specific data (e.g. personnel, investments or loans). This type of functionality, however, can be designed and developed on an indi-vidual basis as part of the modeling process.

Companies can also use the existing data allocation options as well as formulas in Excel or Jedox Web for forecasting. Although the software does not contain functions for so-phisticated, algorithmic forecasting methods, these requirements can be implemented in specific customer projects or with Supervision Server.

Jedox provides good possibilities for allocating data as part of a top-down planning pro-cess both in Excel and through the Web. Budget contributors can choose from special syntax functions such as Copy (copies contents and allocations from one parent member into another one), Like (uses the proportions of the child members to allocate the number preceding the Like function), or additive and percent increases. Users can allocate data by either entering syntax commands or using a special wizard that guides them through the process. An Undo function is also available. In order to use it, however, users must first enter a reference point before Jedox can undo the action.

The current Jedox versions do not support designated offline planning functionalities (e.g. check-out or check-in).

Jedox only supports limited functions for running simulations, for example, by using the Undo function or a personal “scenario” dimension in the planning model. The software, however, does not offer pre-defined functions or simulation wizards.

Jedox OLAP Server allows users to save numbers, text and string elements in the cube. To add comments, users can create dimension members on any desired level of the hi-erarchy and display them as “comment cells” in the planning template. These comments are directly saved in the multidimensional database and not the planning template. There are no limitations with regards to the number of characters. The software does not sup-port formatted comments or file attachments at the present time. With Jedox Web, how-ever, users can save a desired file to the central folder structure and link it to a planning template.

Reporting and analysis

Reporting in Jedox takes place in Excel using the respective spreadsheet capabilities (see Figure 4) or Jedox Web, which offers additional functionalities such as dynamic re-porting or report distribution. Users can create reports on the Web from a spreadsheet

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interface that closely resembles Excel in both its functionality and look and feel. With Jedox Web, users can format cells using menus similar to those in Excel, publish Excel-based reports online, and even interactively transfer charts from Excel. Both clients offer typical Excel charts to visualize information. In addition, the Web client offers its own set of micro charts.

 

Figure 4: Excel‐based dashboard in Jedox’s Excel add‐in 

In Jedox Web, users can also integrate additional content via Widgets, which are varia-bles for external content. With this feature, users can create dashboards as well as inte-grate interactive, animated charts and external applications (e.g. Web services, Google Maps). Widgets can also be used to display waterfall charts or other sophisticated data visualizations that are not available in the software’s standard functionality but can be implemented and integrated using macros. External content, however, can only be trans-ferred from Jedox Web to Excel as static images.

Exports from the Web to Excel or PDF files are standard. In most cases, Jedox users typically know which client will be used to access the report while they are in the process of creating it. Jedox primarily caters to a screen-oriented style of reporting; page-based reporting is not supported.

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With the Report Manager feature, users can schedule briefing books, which are batch PDF reports. In addition to summarizing several reports in a single document, briefing books can also be used to generate individual reports based on defined variables (e.g. time period, recipients) as a batch process for different consumers according to their rights (e.g. product reports for different project managers). Users can administer the tasks for creating briefing bookings with the Task Manager.

In particular, Jedox’s Web client provides various options to build central, Web-based dashboards or cockpits (see Figure 5). These options can be used to create a common entry point for all planners with links for navigating to sub-budgets.

The software also provides different options for mobile access to Jedox content. With Jedox Mobile, the company offers free, native apps that primarily support ad hoc queries on Jedox OLAP cubes for both iOS (e.g. iPhone, iPad) and Android devices (see Figure 6). These native apps, however, do not support all Jedox Web chart types on mobile de-vices. Starting in version 3.3, however, Mobile Skin for Jedox Web can display individual Jedox Web reports without limitations on all mobile browsers. In the future, Jedox will continue to offer both options (i.e. ad hoc query and Jedox Web content) for mobile ac-cess. With the Web browser, however, users can also write back into Jedox OLAP cubes from their choice of mobile devices.

 

Figure 5: Web‐based cockpit with micro charts and conditional formatting 

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Jedox offers good end-user capabilities for ad hoc reporting. Users can distribute these reports in either Excel or on the Web. Jedox provides report templates as Excel style sheets as well as framesets on the Web.

For analysis, the Excel add-in provides a basic navigation with typical OLAP functions (e.g. drill operations, slicing/dicing, pivoting) within the framework of the spreadsheet’s capabilities. Nested dimensions are supported. Users can comfortably set the view of the data model from an editor. The Web front end is especially suited for creating a guided navigation based on linked reports with parameter transfer. Although the software does not provide advanced analysis models, they can be added as custom functionality, for example, using rules.

 

Figure 6: Mobile report in the free iPad app from Jedox 

Architecture and platform

Jedox uses a conventional client-server architecture. All components access the compa-ny’s own multidimensional database for data storage (see Figure 7). The data is centrally stored in memory in Jedox OLAP Server. With Jedox ETL Server, Jedox offers its own Web-based component for data integration to and extraction from Jedox OLAP Server. Jedox ETL Server accesses all commonly used relational databases (e.g. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle), SAP BW (currently read-only), SAP ERP (SAP MaxDB), Web Services and struc-tured text files (e.g. CSV) using JDBC, ODBC or SOAP connectivity. In addition, compa-

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nies can use third-party tools such as Talend or Pentaho Data Integration (Kettle) to load data into a Jedox database.

With Jedox OLAP Accelerator, Jedox provides an interesting, innovative option to in-crease the processing speed of standard in-memory technology especially when dealing with large volumes of data. In a normal in-memory approach, the data in the OLAP cube is compressed in a special way and completely loaded into memory where it is stored for calculations. Jedox OLAP Accelerator uses the same Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) technology that is used in graphics cards. As a result, OLAP cubes can be processed directly in memory and with the GPU processors. Graphics cards have many processors (sometimes more than 1,000) and are available at low prices. Besides hardware costs, the advantage of GPU is the tight connection between the Video Random Access Memory (VRAM) and the processors in the graphics cards. This increases the perfor-mance advantage that standard in-memory technology already has compared to a con-ventional, CPU multicore architecture. As of version 3.3, the GPU technology now sup-ports read access (e.g. for analysis), write back operations (e.g. for data allocations) as well as simple rules. Three pilot customers are currently working with the Jedox OLAP Accelerator.

Companies can use Jedox Excel add-in, an Open Office add-in or the AJAX-based Jedox Web client as front ends. The Excel client only runs on Windows operating systems and supports all Excel versions that are supported by Microsoft. Jedox Web runs on Mi-crosoft Internet Explorer (version 8 and up) as well as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (versions 3 and up). The server components of Jedox Web support Microsoft and Linux platforms in both 32- and 64-bit versions.

 

Figure 7: Architecture of the Jedox Suite. The different blue tones show the functional components of the open source and premium editions. 

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Jedox supports Unicode (UTF-8) and is available in 18 different languages including Eng-lish, German and French. Jedox only maintains these three language versions; the re-maining 15 stem from the open source community.

For authentication, Jedox provides a connection to Microsoft Active Directory Services using LDAP. A single sign-on can be activated.

With respect to authorization, companies can maintain users, groups and roles directly in Jedox. Security is supported down to cell level; functional access rights are also possi-ble.

Sales and pricing

Jedox is available in a free, open source edition and a premium edition.

Companies can purchase the premium version of Jedox Suite through Jedox directly, its global partner network or as an OEM product, for example, in various ERP systems. The software licenses are based on a concurrent user model. In a typical scenario, three us-ers share one concurrent user license. Jedox can create a project proposal based on the number of required functions (e.g. administration, data input, read access) as well as us-ers per function. The premium version of Jedox is also available as Software as a Service (SaaS). Approximately 10% of Jedox’s premium customers use this option, normally in the transitional phase at the start of a project.

Users can download Palo, the open source edition of the software, as well as a 30-day trial version of the premium edition directly from Jedox’s Web site. Jedox justifies the difference between the open source and the premium editions in the software’s scalabil-ity, performance and functionality. Add-on components such as SAP Connector or Jedox OLAP Accelerator (GPU) are only available in the premium edition. Customers can up-grade from the open source to the premium version with zero migration effort. In general, the premium version has a 12-to-15 month development advantage compared to the open source version. In other words, core functional improvements in the premium ver-sion are generally available one year later in the open source version.

Maintenance fees for Jedox are 20% and include maintenance, release updates and ac-cess to support.

Summary

Jedox’s multidimensional database Jedox OLAP Server provides business users with a flexible business intelligence tool for planning, reporting, analysis and dashboarding. Jedox offers interesting options to implement all types of planning projects. Although the product does not supply predefined business content, it delivers a flexible environment for developing custom applications.

Jedox can be categorized as a Commercial Open Source Vendor. Its software is availa-ble as an entry-level version (i.e. Palo) which can be downloaded for free from its Web

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site, and a premium version offering full functionality as well as enhanced scalability and performance. Similar to other open source projects, the software’s further development is primarily driven by the company itself. The community, however, does provide addi-tional language versions and connectors for the software.

Jedox focuses on Excel as its user interface and provides various options for planning, reporting, analysis and dashboarding in the spreadsheet environment. In addition, Jedox Web delivers a similar environment from a Web browser. As well as providing access from multiple locations and computers, this Web-based front end offers additional capa-bilities beyond those available in Excel.

Although Jedox offers many advantages, it also poses many challenges as well. Due to its high level of flexibility, Jedox can be complex to use, especially when implementing the software and initially creating (complex) Jedox applications. Technically oriented business users with special training are required to administer and further develop Jedox applications.

Jedox has traditionally targeted financial controllers looking to optimize their own Excel-based tasks or those of their teams. Through its Web client, however, Jedox is now suit-able for large projects as well. Further developments with regards to enterprise function-ality for larger user groups as well as larger, more complicated models and data volumes are expected in future releases.

This product description for Jedox Suite 3.3 is part of the BARC research paper “Soft-ware Tools for Planning”, which describes and evaluates leading planning solutions for midsize companies and large corporations in Central Europe. This research paper is available online (German language only) at www.barc.de/planung.

Authors: Christian Fuchs, Barney FinucaneBARC Institut, Würzburg, Germany. 01/2012

Product ReviewJedox Suite 3.3

© BARC 2012