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 - Highlights from the April 20, 2017, SAPinsider Q&A

As usual, this year's SAP Convergence Update event, brought to you by SAPinsider and APOS, covered a wide range of topics. While nominally about convergence, the conversation naturally turned to many of the individual SAP BI solutions, and how they are affected by the SAP Convergence Strategy.

The discussion concerning the SAP Convergence Strategy itself can be found here:

SAPinsider Q&A Highlights - SAP BI Convergence Update

For your convenience, I'll break down some of the more salient topics discussed at the event here on the Well Managed BI blog. Today, I'll focus on the discussion on Service Pack 4 for SAP BusinessObjects.

During the Q&A event, SAP's Merlijn Ekkel told us:

Within SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 SP04, we release the initial version of our fully revamped BI Launchpad and Web Intelligence Viewer, where end users will gain the ability to leverage the new and fresh UI for BI with great experience. Besides these, many smaller enhancements have been added.

He also announced that the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.2 SP04 What's New presentation deck had been published only a couple of hours earlier.

You can view the presentation deck here.

More good news: According to Merlijn, SP4 marks the beginning of a major overhaul of the BI Launchpad, including "a revamp of the scheduling and publications process."

You can access the complete transcript from the APOS On-Demand Webinars page.

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.