As you readers know well by now (and judging by having been posting to this blog for over half a decade), I certainly seem to enjoy all things Essbase (and ODI, and Java, and mobile, and more…). In addition to writing my own software for making Essbase even better, one thing I’d like to do more of is review and offer some thoughts on other software that works with or otherwise enhances Essbase.

To that end, I am pleased to do this review of cubus outperform EV Analytics. This review will occur in three parts:

• Background (this posting)
• Using cubus EV
• Position in the Enterprise

For short I’ll just refer to this software as EV or cubus EV. So, just what is EV? Think of it as a front-end to Essbase. I think you really just have to use EV to get an appreciation for how it works and what it can do, but I’m going to do my best to describe it.

What is it?

Most or all of you reading this should be familiar with how the Excel add-in and Smart View works. Consider the typical ad hoc experience in Smart View and Excel. Now imagine that you want to recreate the ad hoc experience and completely polish and refine every aspect of it, including the user interface, user experience, and just for good measure, add in some really slick features. Now you have EV. Think of EV as trading in some of the freeform nature of Excel in exchange for a more fluid user experience.

This might not seem like a big deal, but to someone such as myself that likes to approach software with an artisan and craftsmanship mentality, it really resonates.

Chart and data shown at the same time (the ‘Both’ option)

Personal History with EV

I first got introduced to EV – then called Executive Viewer – back in 2005 while working for the then smallest subsidiary of best grocer on the planet. As luck would have it, my controller/CFO had fallen in love with the product at his previous company, and one of our other divisions happened to have a spare license to EV just sitting around – so we transferred it over and got up and running. At the time, EV was owned and marketed by a company called Temtec.

Now, I’m a little fuzzy on all this, but my first experience with EV was that it was sold by and supported by Temtec. There seemed to be  a sequence of acquisitions and Temtec was gobbled up by Applix, which was gobbled up by Cognos, and then IBM. IBM didn’t seem to otherwise have any major plans for this curious spoil of corporate war, but along came cubus to buy it out and resurrect it. All of this leads us up to now: In the United States, EV is sold through Decision Systems. Elsewhere, it is available through cubus.

Please check back tomorrow for Part 2: Using cubus EV