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.

Press Release: APOS Data Gateway Now SAP-Certified

APOS Systems today announced that its two APOS Data Gateway solutions (Lumira Edition and Design Studio Edition) are now SAP-Certified and available for download at the SAP Analytics Extensions Directory.

The APOS Data Gateway, Lumira Edition, allows SAP Lumira users to connect to Web Intelligence reports, as well as to any relational data sources, and use them as data sources for their Lumira projects. The APOS Data Gateway, Design Studio Edition, allows SAP Design Studio users to connect to Web Intelligence reports as a data source for their Design Studio projects, and to expand data connection options and data volume. By using a Web Intelligence report as a data source, the Lumira or Design Studio project can inherit the report's data connection options, such UNV, HANA, UNX and BEx, as well as inherit the report's Web Intelligence calculation engine, or inherit a Web Intelligence instance's pre-loaded and pre-calculated data.

These two newly certified solutions join a number of other APOS solutions available at the SAP Analytics Extensions Directory. The Directory provides access to the full range of extensions built by SAP partners to help SAP Analytics customers fill any gaps in their SAP Analytics requirements.

Read the Full Press Release

APOS Announces Dashboard Auditor Product

APOS Systems Inc. today at the 2014 SAP Analytics & BusinessObjects Conference (SABOUC) announced the release of its new APOS Dashboard Auditor for SAP BusinessObjects.

Using the Dashboard Auditor, you can:

• Audit Xcelsius and Design Studio dashboards, as well as Xcelsius components streamed into Design Studio using APOS Dashboard Migrator.
• Implement usage auditing - know who is using your dashboards, and where and when.
• Implement functional auditing - know how your dashboards are being used.
• Verify that your investment in dashboards is paying off - that the dashboards are being used by your target audiences, and as you intended.
• Analyze your current Dashboards environment in preparation for migration to Design Studio.

Dashboards are an increasingly important means of delivering business intelligence. Companies are investing substantial sums in dashboard development and want to know how effective they are in delivering that information, and how dashboards can be improved to meet user requirements and expectations.
Visit the APOS team at SABOUC, Booth #105, to learn firsthand how the APOS Dashboard Auditor can help you optimize the dashboard experience of your information consumers.

Read the press release.

Dashboard Design and Full-Spectrum BI

In a recent APOS webinar, SAP's Ian Mayor described SAP BusinessObjects BI 4 as a "full-spectrum" approach to business intelligence. While reporting remains the standard for attaining and maintaining operational excellence, the full spectrum approach to BI complements such reporting with mobility (dashboards and apps) and self-serve BI (agile visualization).

Mobility is one of the key themes in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4. Mobility is often cited by customers as a motivation to migrate. The increased emphasis on mobility and agile visualization are portents of the interactive, proactive and collaborative future of BI. This emphasis recognizes that the vast majority of enterprise employees are now knowledge workers who contribute to the enterprise through their interaction with and analysis of enterprise information.

Nowhere is the bright future of mobile BI more clear than in the increased emphasis on dashboards and Web apps. Mobile BI is no longer just for executives. As the role of the dashboard designer becomes more critical to the evolution of BI within the enterprise, SAP's Design Studio offering unites dashboard and Web app design in a single environment.

Using Design Studio, dashboard designers are building engaging experiences for a wide variety of enterprise users. The trend in dashboards is away from static presentations toward customized and interactive presentations, which not only deliver timely information in an easily digested format, but also allow information consumers to explore the data and find what they need quickly.

The transition to Design Studio is not without challenges, and we recently explored those challenges in an SAP Community Network blog post. You can manage some of those challenges with third-party solutions such as the APOS Dashboard Migrator, which will allow you to leverage your Xcelsius investment within Design Studio.

And, as always, there is help available in the APOS Migration Webinar series, particularly in the upcoming April 24 webinar on Design Studio with SAP's Ian Mayor.

APOS Announces Release of Dashboard Migrator for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

APOS Systems Inc., a leading provider of well managed business intelligence (BI) solutions for SAP BusinessObjects, announces its new Dashboard Migrator for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio. The Dashboard Migrator is a plug-in that lets you leverage your existing SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius) development in the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Design Studio environment. Using the Dashboard Migrator, dashboard developers can embed Xcelsius components and complete dashboards in their Design Studio projects.

Read full press release...