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Dec 16, 2025

Extending Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse with OCI Data Integration, Excel, and APEX

Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse (NSAW) delivers a powerful, prebuilt analytics foundation for NetSuite ERP. However, in real-world enterprise scenarios, NetSuite is rarely the only source of analytical data. Organizations often need to combine NetSuite data with Excel-based datasets and custom applications, such as Oracle APEX running on Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW).

This blog explains how to extend an existing NSAW implementation to support analytics across NetSuite, Excel files, and a custom APEX application, while preserving governance, scalability, and Oracle supportability.

The Core Design Principle
The most important rule when extending NSAW is simple:
  • Never modify Oracle-delivered NSAW objects.
  • Always extend NSAW using customer-owned schemas and pipelines.

NSAW is Oracle-managed and continuously enhanced. Direct customization risks breaking upgrades and support. Instead, Oracle provides the ideal extension points through ADW, OCI Data Integration, and Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC).

Target Architecture Overview

At a high level, the architecture looks like this:

  • NetSuite ERP -  Oracle-managed NSAW ingestion
  • Excel files       
    • OCI Object Storage + OCI Data Integration + ADW
    • OAC Data Flow + ADW
  • APEX application  
    • ADW tables +OCI Data Integration/ODI Market Place
  • Oracle Analytics Cloud
    • Unified semantic model and dashboards ( Data from NSAW + Files + APEX based app)
ADW becomes the central analytics hub, while NSAW remains pristine and fully supported.

NetSuite Data: Managed by NSAW



NetSuite data is extracted using Oracle-managed pipelines built on:

  • Suite Analytics
  • Internal NetSuite analytics APIs

Key characteristics:

  • Incremental, period-aware extraction
  • Multi-subsidiary and multi-currency handling
  • No customer-built ETL
  • Curated facts and dimensions in ADW

This data lands in Oracle-delivered NSAW schemas, which should always be treated as read-only.

Extending NSAW with Custom Schemas in ADW

To integrate additional sources, create separate customer-owned schemas in the same ADW instance. A common and recommended pattern is:

CUSTOM_STG – Staging Layer

  • Raw Excel data
  • Raw extracts from APEX tables
  • Minimal or no transformation
  • Used for validation and auditability

CUSTOM_CORE – Curated Layer

  • Business-aligned facts and dimensions
  • Surrogate keys
  • Slowly changing logic (where required)
  • Cross-reference (XREF) tables to align with NetSuite entities

CUSTOM_PRES – Presentation Layer (optional , we can use Curated Layer too)

  • Reporting views
  • Stable interfaces for OAC
  • Simplified joins and naming conventions

This mirrors enterprise data warehouse best practices while coexisting cleanly with NSAW.

Excel Data Ingestion Using OCI Data Integration

Excel files are one of the most common external data sources, especially for planning, targets, forecasts, and adjustments.

Recommended Excel Ingestion Flow

  1. Business users upload Excel or CSV files
  2. Files land in OCI Object Storage , once OCI Data Integration (OCI DI) pipeline is triggered , files are read and staged into CUST_STG, or we can leverage OAC data flows to read files and load into CUST_STG.
  3. Transformations and validations are applied
  4. Data is merged into curated tables in CUST_CORE


Integrating a Custom APEX Application on ADW

Since APEX tables already reside in ADW, no data movement is required. OCI DI reads directly from APEX schemas, transformations align APEX data with NSAW dimensions

By loading APEX data into CUSTOM_CORE, it becomes analytics-ready and consistent with NetSuite reporting.


Conforming Data Across NetSuite, Excel, and APEX

The real value of this architecture comes from conformed dimensions. Common conformed dimensions include:

  • Customer
  • Item / Product
  • Time
  • Subsidiary / Business Unit
  • Currency

This is achieved using cross-reference (XREF) tables in CUST_CORE, which map Excel and APEX identifiers to NetSuite master data.

As a result:

  • KPIs are consistent across sources
  • Dashboards can blend data seamlessly
  • Finance and operations see a single version of the truth

Oracle Analytics Cloud: Unified Semantic Layer


Oracle Analytics Cloud sits on top of ADW and provides:

  • A unified semantic model across NSAW and custom data
  • Business-friendly metrics and hierarchies
  • Role-based and row-level security
  • Dashboards, KPIs, and ad-hoc analysis

This approach delivers several key benefits:

  • NSAW remains pristine and upgrade-safe
  • Excel and APEX data are fully governed
  • ADW becomes the enterprise analytics backbone
  • OCI Data Integration handles scalable ingestion
  • OAC provides a single, trusted analytics layer

Need help with OIC / ADW? Contact Bizinsight Cosulting Inc at 
Eamil us : inquiry@bizinsightinc.com
https://www.bizinsightinc.com/