SAP's David Stocker Gives Us the Lowdown on SAP Lumira 2.0 / 2.1

In a recent APOS webinar, SAP's David Stocker updated us on the current state of Lumira Discovery and Lumira Designer (formerly Design Studio), including what's new in Lumira 2.0, and on the roadmap for 2.0 and 2.1.

The key to Lumira's success, now and for the future, is the integration of discovery and design within a single solution, and the interoperability of that solution with other components of the SAP BI landscape.

Here's the road map David laid out for us during the webinar:

Note that this road map is subject to the usual SAP disclaimer on forward-looking technology statements.

If you want to see and hear more about the present and future of SAP Lumira:

View the Lumira 2.0 / 2.1 Lumira Update webinar on demand

SAP Lumira is designed to deliver live connectivity to SAP BW, SAP HANA, and the SAP S4HANA Analytic Engine, and connects to universes (UNX) and other third-party relational data sources to allow you to acquire data for discovery and design.

APOS Live Data Gateway - Extended Live Data Connectivity for SAP Lumira

If you would prefer to connect to live data in third-party data sources, such as:

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle
• DB2
• Sybase IQ
• Sybase SQL Anywhere
• Teradata
• IBM Netezza Data Warehouse Appliances

…then you should have a look at the APOS Live Data Gateway solution. If you want to familiarize yourself with this solution,

SAP Convergence Strategy - Data Connectivity

The April 20, 2017, SAPinsider Q&A on the SAP BI Convergence Strategy has provided a nearly endless supply of blogging material, but this will be my last post on the subject. If you want to read the full transcript, go to the APOS On-Demand Webinars page:

View the complete SAPinsider Q&A Transcript

So far, I've focused on the place of individual SAP products within the SAP convergence strategy (the merger of Lumira and Design Studio, what's new in SAP Web Intelligence, BOC), on the newest platform developments (what's new in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 SP4), and on the convergence strategy itself.

Now let's look at a topic that was a little less defined, but ever-present nonetheless: data connectivity.

As convergence reduces the SAP BI toolset, the need for greater connectivity grows, and the pressure is on to supply that connectivity. One of the registrants for the Q&A commented:

Will there be more emphasis on adding new features in the BI reporting/analysis toolset to support non-SAP databases? We see lots of new features and capabilities to better report off of SAP HANA and BW data, but not much related to Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, etc.

Another guest asked about row and cell limitations in Design Studio:

Design Studio has a row and cell limitation. We were hoping this limitation was removed with the convergence of DS and Lumira.

SAP's David Stocker replied:

In BEx and SAP HANA datasources, you can define what the limits are in the backend. For universes, we still have the same hard limit as in 1.6. We've not changed anything in that corner for 2.0. We do plan to revisit this in the future, now that we have the new velocity infrastructure.

Another guest asked about OLAP connectivity:

Hi Team, When would SSAS OLAP based universes or direct non-SAP OLAP connections be supported?

Merlijn Ekkel replied:

We already support various non-SAP OLAP datasources. Please check our Product Availability Matrix 

Another guest asked about BOC connectivity:

Our company is planning to move more to cloud rather than using on-premise, so my detail question is, how is SAP BusinessObjects BI Cloud able to access data on our company (within firewall)? Example, I have Crystal Report access Oracle database in my company, if I want to move that Crystal Report to SAP BusinessObjects BI Cloud, is it possible?

Henry Kam noted:

SAP BusinessObjects Cloud is able to access data within the firewall by utilizing the BOC Cloud Agent to import data into BOC… It is not currently possible to move Crystal Reports to SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.

Another guest:

When will Lumira support SSAS?

Merlijn:

Today we have no direct road map plans to support SSAS (or other OLAP datasources). Today the best option would be the APOS Data Gateway that solves the gap.

We thank Merlijn for his acknowledgement of how the APOS Data Gateway is leading the way with enhanced data connectivity for SAP BusinessObjects. Check out the available connectivity options:

• APOS Data Gateway, Lumira Edition
• APOS Data Gateway, Design Studio Edition
• APOS Data Gateway for SAP BusinessObjects Cloud

What's on your data connectivity wish list?

SAP Convergence Strategy - Merging Lumira & Design Studio

The April 20, 2017, SAPinsider Q&A focused on the SAP BI Convergence Strategy, and nowhere is that convergence more apparent than in the merger of SAP Lumira and SAP Design Studio.

So far, I've published posts on the convergence strategy itself, and on what's new in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 SP4.

The coming release of Lumira 2.0 will unite the Lumira and Design Studio code base in recognition of the fact, as David Stocker put it during the Q&A, that " the use cases of an agile viz tool and a custom app actually overlap in the wild." The merger of these two solutions is meant to simplify the workflow from business users to designers.

The backend convergence will facilitate such workflows, while the maintenance of separate client applications will preserve and improve usability for the business user and the designer. Blair Wheadon described the SAP vision:

Lumira 2.0 has major improvements in usability, data access, and is converged with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio to enable the creation of sophisticated analytic applications… Data access: Key new features include online access to BW from Lumira Discovery 2.0 (the successor to Lumira Desktop) and improved access to Universe data in Lumira Designer 2.0 (the successor to Design Studio desktop 1.x) which removes the row limit for Universe access. This will ensure direct access to governed data and remove the need to create data extracts and ungoverned data silos. In addition to data access, the usability of Lumira Discovery is much improved with a single canvas UX, improved filtering and input controls, new chart features like smoothed lines and improved formatting control. Finally the ability to open a Lumira Discovery visualization with Lumira Designer and turn it into a full blown analytic application is very powerful. This means that any dashboard from the simplest visualization up to full-blown planning applications can be handled by the same tool. As requirements change, you don't need to switch tools.

The combination of Lumira Discovery 2.0 (formerly Lumira Desktop) and Lumira Designer (formerly Design Studio Desktop) will enable seamless collaboration between business users and designers to create custom dashboards and analytic applications from business user visualizations.

You can make this collaboration even more effective by expanding your data connectivity options. The APOS Data Gateway solution is designed to help you do just that. The APOS Data Gateway is a data connection and data transformation solution which provides extended data source and data volume options for SAP Lumira and SAP Design Studio. It also enables enhanced interoperability with BI components across the SAP landscape.

You can find more about the Lumira / Design Studio convergence in the Q&A transcript, which you can access from the APOS On-Demand Webinars page:

View the complete SAPinsider Q&A Transcript

Future posts will look at what's new in Web Intelligence, Analysis for Office, and SAP BusinessObjects Cloud.

SAPinsider SAP BI Convergence Q&A Transcript

The APOS-sponsored SAPinsider Q&A - SAP BI Product Convergence Update transcript is now available for you to view at:

APOS On-Demand Webinars

This SAPinsider Q&A featured many SAP BI luminaries, including Jayne Landry, Merlijn Ekkel, Blair Wheadon and Ty Miller offering insights on the future path of the SAP BI ecosphere.

SAPinsider Q&A Highlights - SAP BI Convergence Update

APOS was proud once again, for the third consecutive year, to provide an opportunity to interact with some of SAP’s leading BI lights on the subject of SAP BI convergence. We don’t yet have an official transcript of yesterday’s SAPinsider Q&A - SAP BI Product Convergence Update: What’s Happening Today, What Is Coming Next, and What Does It Mean for You?, but here are some highlights.

By the way, when the transcript for the Q&A becomes available, we will post a link on our APOS On-Demand Webinars page, where you can also view a large number of past webinars on topics you may be interested in, such as:

• Automated Report Testing
• UNX Universe Adoption Testing
• Semantic Layer Update with SAP’s Pierpaolo Vezzosi
• SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Monitoring

...and much more.

This Q&A session was billed as a chance to:

…interact directly with Jayne Landry, Merlijn Ekkel, Blair Wheadon, Ty Miller, and several other key product leaders from BI product groups at SAP, including SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, SAP BusinessObjects Lumira, SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio, and SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Office. Here's your chance to take a look at the road ahead for SAP’s BI products, assess your opportunities, and seek clarifications to questions

It lived up to this billing quite nicely.

APOS COO Allan Pym started the session off asking Jayne Landry (Global Vice President & General Manager, Business Intelligence, SAP) about the progress of the SAP BI convergence initiative. Jayne responded:

We have made tremendous progress on the convergence front. When we started this journey 3 years ago we had 14 different client tools running on the BI platform! We’ve now got that down to 5, with Crystal, Webi, Analysis Office, Design Studio and Lumira... And we’ve adhered to the convergence principles we laid out from the start – all existing content is safe and all existing BI 4.x clients continue to be supported so that customers can move to the “go to” tools at their own pace.

Jayne continued with a description of upcoming convergence advancements:

The next big advancement is the convergence of Lumira and Design Studio into a single code line with the release of Lumira 2.0, currently in beta and planned for GA late Q2/early Q3. This will enable end-to-end workflows from rapid prototyping by business users through to deployment of production dashboards at scale by developers.

You’ll have to wait for the official transcript for more, but I can tell you that it will contain substantial content on a number of subjects of interest, including:

• The Design Studio / Lumira convergence
• SAP BusinessObjects Cloud
• New Analytics announcements to be made at SAPPHIRE
• Web Intelligence improvements
• New features in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 SP 4

Bookmark the APOS On-Demand Webinars page and check back over the coming days for a link to the official transcript.

What's Happening with SAP's BI Products, and What Does It Mean for You? WIS SAPinsider Q & A

When: May 4, 2015 - 11:30 am ET
Register for this event…

APOS is pleased to present this online live Q & A session in conjunction with SAP and SAPinsider. During this session, SAP product experts will explore how SAP BI 4.2 can enrich the experiences of both users and information consumers.

During planning for this session, the session title went through a few iterations, including:

• Will SAP's BI Tool Convergence and Interoperability Strategy Make Your BI Team Better?
• Platform Progress, Tool Convergence, and Quadrant Qualms….Where are we now??

These titles, and the title we finally settled on, all describe the session accurately, but the last, which was deemed a bit controversial, describes a particular quandary that developed when Gartner published its most recent BI Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms.

Back in February - on Super Bowl Sunday, to be precise -- Mark Richardson published a critique of Gartner's change in direction. His post was called 'Moving the Goalposts': Why #DataViz Often Fails to Reflect Reality. In his post, Mark noted:

GARTNER has moved their focus for this document away from “the long-standing BI requirement for centrally provisioned, highly governed and scalable system-of-record reporting” – and toward “analytical agility and business user autonomy”. That’s their call – but I think it is the wrong one.

There is a danger in reliance on ad hoc reporting and data visualizations to the exclusion of the underlying data, which is why a “system-of-record” reporting engine is so important.

It’s easy to be deceptive with visualizations, even to deceive yourself, but the real problem in such cases is generally inaccurate data, especially when taken cumulatively, in which case simple, seemingly inconsequential variances can distort the picture and lead to poor decision-making.

What is required above all, as Mark Richardson points out, is stability, accuracy, and governance. Can these qualities be said to be characteristics of a platform?

It has been nearly 2 years since Jayne Landry published Run Simple: Convergence of the SAP BI Product Portfolio. Now, with the release of SAP BI 4.2, it's time to review the progress SAP has made on the platform, and check the convergence and interoperability of the BI tool portfolio.

From the conceptual to the technical, this session will let you explore the boundaries and synergies of the SAP BI 4.2 BI tool set, and discover the potential for Lumira, Design Studio, Web Intelligence, Analysis for Office and HANA within your deployment of the SAP BI platform.

Panelists will include:

• Jayne Landry - Global VP & GM, Business Intelligence, SAP
• Ty Miller - Senior Director of Solution Management for Enterprise Business Intelligence, SAP
• Olivier Duvelleroy - Senior Director, Solution Management, Business Intelligence, SAP
• Alexander Peter - Product Manager, SAP
• David Stocker - Senior Product Manager, SAP
• Gregory Botticchio - Product Manager, Web Intelligence, SAP
• Adrian Westmoreland - Product Manager, SAP

Register for this event…