When I was on the BI and Reporting Tools panel at the UKOUG there was a rather interesting discussion that developed about the suitability of OWB to do anything useful. I recall there was one gent that politely but pointedly articulated what at least a few others in the room were privately thinking: OWB is rubbish, now isn’t it?

A thread, with some fervor, on OTN is not exactly kind to OWB. Some excerpts:

OWB gui looks like some undergraduate student learning JAVA has made this.

Every project which does more than data loading from an file into emp is not suitable for OWB. If time, budget and quality is relevant for an project, OWB is unsuitable for this project.

A very important word for OWB developer here is “workaround”. That’s the W in OWB, not Warehouse.

I’m always surprised at this because I’ve had such success using this tool and think it’s quite capable overall. It’s cheap, effective, efficient, and provides 90% of the functionality of it’s peers at 10% of the cost. I have some beefs with the product as well, but overall it’s a rapid way to respond to the information needs of business users for reporting.

So… in some ways, since the tool is quite powerful when used properly, I think it’s rubbish to say otherwise. OWB is an exceptional VALUE, full stop. I can’t invite everyone to comment, since I’ve closed comments… Let’s discuss on OTN!