SAP BusinessObjects Migration SWOT Analysis

SAP BusinessObjects migration planning can benefit from SWOT analysis — the more such investigation and planning that goes on upstream, the fewer surprises you'll encounter downstream in your migration project management. But SWOT analysis is even more critical in migration pre-planning efforts — the stage at which you are gathering internal approvals and executive sponsorships.

The business case for SAP BusinessObjects migration is a strong one, but it needs to be examined in light of the particular environment, circumstances, and business needs within your enterprise. Without the business case, there is no project.

As a platform manager seeking buy-in, you need to translate generic benefits into line-of-business-specific selling points to make the case for migration. One way to nail down those selling points while committing to due diligence is to perform formal SWOT analysis. 

APOS Insight Lite - BusinessObjects System Metrics

Are you an SAP BusinessObjects platform manager or administrator being asked to do more with less? Do you need a clear inventory of the objects, schedules and instances in your deployment? Do you want to know which objects in your deployment are most frequently used? Most rarely used? Would the ability to analyze and compare report processing windows help you optimize your system?

APOS Insight Lite can help you deal with these questions and more.

APOS Insight Lite is a subset of the services found in the APOS Insight Advanced Solution, a full-featured system metrics, performance analytics, and system planning solution for SAP Business Objects.

Find out more about APOS Insight Lite BusinessObjects system metrics.

An SAP BusinessObjects Backup/Restore Alternative

Jonathan Haun (@jdh2n) of Decision First Technologies has published a great piece on backing up and restoring SAP BusinessObjects on his All Things BOBJ BI blog.

The essence of his post is that SAP BusinessObjects administrators don't generally give too much thought to backing up their deployment. Usually, they simply give a list of requirements to someone in IT and assume the job has been done to those specifications.

However, restoring an SAP BusinessObjects deployment may not be so straightforward, nor particularly timely. Should some object be accidentally deleted or become corrupted, your options are limited to:

• Full restore - replacing the entire deployment with the last known good backup.
• Temporary restore - restoring to a new location and using an import wizard to restore missing or corrupted objects to the production deployment.
• BIAR file restore - use Business Intelligence Archive files (BIARs) to archive and restore portions of the CMS db system and input/output FRS.

Jonathan rightly notes that all of these methods have issues, and the BIAR file method, which had become an easy-to-use favorite of administrators using XI 3.1, has become significantly less than friendly in early BI 4.0 deployments. Jonathan floats the Upgrade Management Tool as a limited workaround for BI 4.0 issues.

There is no replacement for performing regular backups of your SAP BusinessObjects deployment, but that's the easy part. When it comes to maintaining easily accessible archives, all of the methods listed by Jonathan are time-consuming and error-prone, and they look at archive, backup and restore as simply operational issues. What if you have regulatory concerns? What if you are migrating and need to archive instances that you are not migrating in an easily accessible and secure way?

APOS Storage Center offers a solution that complements an incremental SAP BusinessObjects backup strategy. It allows you to back up objects securely and selectively restore them in one simple operation. You can also archive instances in formats not dependent on data connections (e.g., PDF) to server as documents of record for compliance purposes.

Download the APOS Storage Center white paper, or watch the APOS Storage Center recorded webinar.

BusinessObjects Migration Challenges & Best Practices

APOS solution consultants have been working with BI 4.0, SAP BusinessObjects XI, and their many precursors for over 15 years. They've been through many migrations and upgrades. In fact, many of our solutions began their lives as migration support applications.

Some of those solution consultants delivered a standing-room-only presentation on BI 4.0 migration challenges at the 2012 ASUG BusinessObjects User Conference in September, and partially reprised their presentation in an October webinar. (Download or view the recorded webinar on SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 migration challenges.)

We've collected some of their planning and preparation best practices for your convenience on our website.

Webinar Recording: Well Managed Migration

In case you missed it last week, you can find the recorded Well Managed Migration webinar on our website.

Product Update: APOS Publisher and Xcelsius Bursting

APOS Publisher now includes the ability to burst Xcelsius in the form of a static image (PNG). This new feature lets you export from Xcelsius to a PNG file, and embed the image within PDFs and Excel files, which you can then distribute to multiple destinations, or to print.

This new functionality is in addition to the existing ability to export Xcelsius to SWF files.

Webinar Reminder: Well Managed Migration

When: Oct. 24, 2012, at 10am and 4pm EDT
Migration to SAP BI 4.0 from an earlier version of SAP Businessobjects has been a popular topic at the business intelligence events we've attended this year. If you missed our "Well Managed Migration" presentation at this year's ASUG BusinessObjects User Conference in Orlando, then here's your chance to catch up.
This webinar will help you establish some of the administrative and platform management best practices you will need to plan and manage the migration process. We will show how APOS solutions can help you before, during and after your migration. Our solutions complement and enhance SAP'S administrative and platform management capabilities, so you can migrate from a clean environment to a clean environment.
APOS has almost 20 years experience improving BI administration, performance and ROI. We know from that experience that our solutions can help you before, during and after the migration process, saving you both money and headaches.
Agenda:

• Before Migration – Clean up and back up before you move
• During Migration – Test, evaluate and tweak
• After Migration – Maintain your well managed BI

You should plan on attending this webinar if you are considering migrating or are currently planning to migrate your system to SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0.