BI & Analytics Business Cases in the Time of COVID-19

ASUG’S Undercover CIO notes in Making the Right IT Investments in Uncertain Times that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a shift in how CIOs determine the course of IT investments, citing the ASUG Pulse Check:

47% of respondents said their organizations were not canceling any planned IT initiatives, while nearly half (45%) shared that they are postponing a few planned initiatives. The top reason respondents provided to explain these cancellations was that these initiatives were not considered “core” projects.

Uncertainty has this effect, and everyone wants to manage more efficiently and still be positioned to hit the ground running when that uncertainty is resolved, which is why streamlining is such a common theme:

...you need to look at automation, as well as doing less with physical assets and more with intelligent assets. Your business case for any project right now should be about streamlining.

In BI & Analytics, as elsewhere, streamlining means doing more with less, while ensuring your organization is ready to meet an uncertain future.

Streamlining through automation is a consistent theme throughout APOS Well Managed BI & Analytics solutions. They let you take control of your deployments, helping you to manage effectively in the present and prepare for what’s next.

APOS at TechEd 2018 Las Vegas

APOS COO Allan Pym gave an interview at TechEd. He discussed the use of APOS solutions with SAP Analytics Cloud, including:      

• APOS Live Data Gateway - live data connectivity for SAP Analytics Cloud, Lumira, and Analysis Office
• APOS Publisher for Cloud - bursting and distribution for SAP Analytics Cloud

Have a look:

Solution Spotlight - APOS Live Data Gateway

Unlock live data with the APOS Live Data Gateway.

The APOS Live Data Gateway is a data connection and data transformation solution that enables live data connectivity for SAP BI solutions and expanded data source options

HANA is the model for SAP BI data connectivity. You know that SAP Lumira, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Analysis for Office connect live to HANA data. If it's a good idea to connect live to HANA, it's probably a good idea for these SAP BI solutions to connect live to other enterprise data sources.

Using the APOS Live Data Gateway for extended, live data connectivity lets you:

• Simplify user experience and data discovery
• Select data with greater flexibility
• Maintain current data in your SAP BI projects, without including the data in your project files, for stronger information governance and security

Find out how the APOS Live Data Gateway unlocks live data for:

• SAP Analytics Cloud
• SAP Lumira
• SAP Analysis for Office

Webinar - More SAP BI Distribution Options

In SAP BI 4.2, SP4, you can experience a broad range of distribution options from within the BI Launchpad interface. There is no need to go outside of the BI Launchpad interface for new destination types, enhanced print controls, greater encryption options, and a wider variety of format types, because they are all available right there, at your fingertips, inside the BI Launchpad interface.

Why do you need enhanced distribution? Let's consider destination types as an example.

Firstly, you need enhanced destination types to be sure that you can push, pull, print or place information to the appropriate destinations in your workflows. Appropriate destinations are the ones that ensure the information is where it is needed, and where it will do the most good.

Secondly, enhanced destination types improve your ability to govern the flow of information, ensuring that your business intelligence does not go where it shouldn't. Using enhanced destination types improves information governance, and contributes to the development of a culture of compliance.

Typically, your distribution options will consist of BI Inbox, Email, FTP Server, File System, or SFTP Server, but with the APOS Distribution Server / BI Launchpad integration, you will see a much greater variety of destination types:

SAP takes great care to promote the SAP Partner Ecosphere, because they know they will be much more agile if they do not try to be all things to all organizations. Instead, they focus on vision (the SAP BI Convergence strategy, for example), and on the core capabilities that enable that vision. If you want to use SAP BusinessObjects in a novel or unique way, well, that's what the SAP Partner Ecosphere is for.

The APOS Distribution Server / BI Launchpad integration is an outstanding example of SAP's commitment to their customers through the SAP Partner Ecosphere, and an outstanding example of the SAP Partner Ecosphere in action.

If you want to see enhanced distribution in action, please tune in for our webinar:

Register for this webinar
When: Wednesday, November 15, 2 pm EST
Enhanced Distribution & Integration
of BI Content into Business Workflows…

In this webinar, Jason Young of Computer Services Inc. (CSI) joins us to describe how CSI used enhanced distribution techniques to integrate SAP BusinessObjects into their core bank processing solution.

Webinar - Making SAP BI Administration Exciting

Well, okay, my title may be overselling BI administration a tiny bit.

In fact, as BI topics go, administration may seem one of the least exciting. But managing administration tasks well is the first step toward enabling the pursuit of all of those other, more exciting BI topics.

Many administrative tasks can be both labor-intensive and time-sensitive, meaning that you need to throw resources at the tasks to ensure timely fulfillment of service level agreements with your information consumers.

The result is a double dose of undesirable: your resource costs go up and you don't have the resources to tackle initiatives with much higher ROI. You're paying more and getting less. You're undermining your ability to deliver progressive BI capabilities to your stakeholders, and as an unintended consequence, you're robbing them of competitive advantage.

Without a progressive approach to your BI platform, your management of administration tasks may just be increasing the technical debt in that platform, and the vicious cycle continues.

Sorry, did I say I was trying to make BI administration exciting? I meant terrifying. The truth is that most BI administration teams would prefer to live in less interesting times.

On November 2, 2017, we hosted a webinar that explores ways to automate and simplify the many time- and labor-intensive SAP BI administrative tasks faced by administrators on an ongoing and recurring basis. We looked at tips and techniques for reducing, preventing and managing the many chaotic activities, events and factors that drain your administrative resources and interfere with your ability to deliver timely BI content to your information consumers.

View this webinar on demand

Administrative difficulties arise from many causes, including the volume and complexity of content, growing user expectations, the proliferation of data sources, greater security, governance and compliance requirements, and the rise of user-driven content. None of these trends will make BI administration easier, but you can use the APOS Administrator solution to automate and simplify the most resource-intensive administrative tasks, and to liberate resources for progressive BI initiatives.

Webinar - SAP Lumira Live Data Connectivity

When: Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 10 am / 2 pm EDTWhy do you need live data connectivity for Lumira?

The convergence of SAP Design Studio and SAP Lumira is big news for SAP BusinessObjects users needing to create and use visualizations to communicate BI's single version of the truth. To achieve this single version, BI practitioners -- from business users to designers -- need to establish the best and most diverse data connectivity possible.

Lumira connects live to HANA. If it's a good idea to connect live to HANA, it's probably a good idea to connect live to other enterprise data sources.

The APOS Live Data Gateway simplifies and extends the data connectivity for SAP Lumira. The Live mode of data connectivity provides:

• Connection to trusted and governed data sources
• A simplified discovery experience, with no need to write SQL
• Flexible data selection
• Data that is always current
• Stronger security -- no data stored on the user's computer
• The ability to use the Lumira Discovery web client -- no install on the client machine

If you missed our recent webinar on the APOS Live Data Gateway solution and live data connectivity for Lumira, you can view it on demand:

View the Webinar on Demand …

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,