NoetixViews™ and Oracle Discoverer 3.0: Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who are Noetix Corp., and what are their products?
   
   Noetix Corp., based in Portland, Oregon, market at sell a suite of business views for Oracle Applications. These views hide the complexity of the applications database from end-users and query tools such as Oracle Discoverer 3.0, and enable easy access to the applications data. The product includes a generator, which custom-builds views based on the customer’s setup (including id and descriptive flexfields).
   
2. What is the availability of Noetix products?
   
   Noetix have production views available for the Accounts Payable (AP), Purchasing (PO), Inventory (INV), Order Entry (OE), General Ledger (GL), and Accounts Receivable (AR) modules of Oracle Applications, Release 9 or later. Additionally, views for Fixed Assets (FA), Project Costing (PC), Project Billing (PB), Work In Process (WIP), Bill of Materials (BOM), Cost Management (CST), and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) are in Beta status and will be production before end of year 1996.
   
3. What sort of views do Noetix provide?
   
   Noetix provide business-oriented views in three categories: Basic, Value-Added, and Cross-Functional. Basic views show data that appears in the corresponding data entry window. Value-Added views represent complex data searches and merging that would otherwise require accessing multiple reports or screens. Cross-Functional views pull information from multiple Oracle Applications modules into a single view.
   
4. What is Oracle’s relationship with Noetix?
   
   Oracle and Noetix announced a joint marketing and development agreement on April 23, 1996. As part of this agreement, Noetix will develop an End User Layer ™ Generator complementary to the NoetixViews Generator. The EUL Generator will automatically populate the Oracle Discoverer 3.0 End User Layer with meta-data pertaining to the views. This metadata will include: Business Areas, Objects, Items, Joins between Objects, List of Values for appropriate Items, default format masks, sample drill definitions (both chain drills and hierarchy drills), and sample queries. The metadata generator will create EUL information for all Noetix views licensed by the customer (Noetix views may be licensed by applications module).
   
5. Where can I get a copy of the press release covering the Oracle/Noetix marketing agreement?
   
   The press release is available in the CR. Select "Alliances" and "Product Focus Applications" as search criteria.
   
6. When will the Noetix Oracle Discoverer 3.0 EUL generator be available?
   
   The Noetix EUL generator for Oracle Discoverer 3.0 will be available, free of charge to Noetix customers, by end of calendar year 1996.
   
7. How can my customers use Noetix views and Oracle Discoverer/2000 today to provide an applications DSS environment for their users?
   
   Today, customers can install NoetixViews and use them to quickly build up a Oracle Discoverer/2000 EUL for accessing Oracle Applications data. They can load the view definitions into the EUL from the Oracle data dictionary via the Data Query Administration utility. Then, they can create joins between the resulting objects if desired, and define default format masks, lists of values, and drills as they would normally. The NoetixViews will allow the users to build simple queries to retrieve valuable information from their applications database, which otherwise would have required extensive knowledge of the database structures and significant programming effort.
   
8. How will my customers benefit from the Noetix Oracle Discoverer 3.0 EUL generator?
   
   When the Noetix Oracle Discoverer 3.0 EUL Generator is available, customers will be able to "plug and play" with Oracle Discoverer 3.0 and Oracle Applications. That is, end users will be able to perform ad-hoc queries and analyses of applications data without technical understanding of the applications data structures, and without requiring system administrative effort to set up business views or an End User Layer. They will be able to develop queries on multiple views at a time without knowing how they are joined, and will not have to redefine format masks, such as for currency and data values. Finally, they will have pre-defined hierarchies set up so they can drill from summary to detail information, and sample queries to get them started in their analysis.
   
9. How can I get more specific product information on NoetixViews?
   
   Noetix produces a "demo" diskette, including a brief tutorial explaining the components of the NoetixViews products. This tutorial covers the structure of the views themselves and the format of the on-line help. Additionally, the demo diskette includes a sample of the on-line help for a full set of production views. This allows the user to navigate through the help to realize the benefits of full business descriptions for all views and columns, clearly designated indexed columns, and real-world business examples of queries and reports using the views.
   
   To obtain the NoetixViews demo diskette, contact Yvonne Ostrom at Noetix Corp., at 503-643-5085 or via email at yvonne@noetix.com.
   
10. How can I get a demo of Oracle Discoverer/2000 working with NoetixViews?
    
    Both Oracle Discoverer/2000 and NoetixViews are installed on the Prod11 applications demo produced by Applications Development Services, which is rolled out to the field offices. Please refer to the demo script for more information on how to demo these products working together.
    
11. How can my customer evaluate NoetixViews on their own production installation?
    
    Noetix makes the NoetixViews products available to customers who are evaluating them for purchase. For more information about evaluation licenses, contact Yvonne Ostrom at Noetix Corp., at 503-643-5085 or via email at yvonne@noetix.com.
    
12. How are Noetix products marketed and sold internationally?
    
    Currently, NoetixViews are marketed via distribution of the demo diskette and via evaluation license of the software. Additionally, Noetix are working to establish international resellers and distributors for their products who will work cooperatively with the local Oracle office.
    
13. Who should I contact at Noetix for more information about their product?
    
    For more information about Noetix Corp. or NoetixViews, please contact Yvonne Ostrom at 503-643-5085, or via email at yvonne@noetix.com.