Waiting for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2

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Timehop is a popular mobile app that bills itself as "a time capsule of you." It allows you to review your historical social media activity from "this exact day in history" and re-share. The app is so popular, Facebook decided to copy the idea into its own "On This Day" feature. Today, September 2, was the last day of ASUG's SAP Analytics and BusinessObjects User Conference, or #SABOUC as we call it on social media. And on this day four years ago in 2011 (see what I just did there?), I wrote a blog entitled "Waiting on SAP BusinessObjects BI4" expressing both excitement and frustration at waiting for the general availability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0. SAP BI 4.0 would go GA just a few short days later on Friday, September 16, 2011.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2, the eagerly awaited update to the BI4 platform, quietly went into beta this week (see related SCN article, "SAP BusinessObjects BI4.2 Announced by Steve Lucas"). But there was barely a word of it breathed during SABOUC conference sessions. And not one word during conference keynotes. With mainstream support for SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 ending on December 31, 2015 (see related SCN article, "New Maintenance Dates for SAP BusinessObjects BI4.1"), all roads lead to the currently available BI 4.1 and its Support Pack 6. SAP will provide BI 4.1 Support Pack 7 near the end of 2015. But customers wishing to meet the deadline (and that's all of you, right?) will most likely use the current release.

Quite simply, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2 will not go GA in 2015 and is therefore not an appropriate upgrade path for organizations still using XI 3.1 or BI 4.0. Sadly, SAP reinforced that logic this week by not dangling any tempting carrots of BI 4.2 goodness in front of eager conference goers. As frustrating as the BI4 installer's “WaitForCMSForTheFirstTime” message can be, no doubt folks at SAP are experiencing a little frustration watching the "WaitForCustomersToUpgradeToBI41" message on their screens.

It's possible that SAP may have more to show and tell at the upcoming TechEd conference next month. Or possibly even the upcoming SAP Insider Reporting & Analytics conference. But it's also entirely possible that we'll be waiting until 2016. Instead of our usual New Year's Eve routine of watching Ryan Seacrest and the ball dropping in Times Square, SAP analytics customers may have to switch channels and watch Steve Lucas, President of SAP Platform Solutions, and a giant XI 3.1 logo dropping in Walldorf.

I will be watching.

Are you eagerly awaiting the arrival of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2? Share your thoughts below.