I watched this SAP APJ webcast hosted by SAP's atul.patel2
The recording is here - you may need to register to watch it. Thanks to corey.adams for reminding me about the recording.
Figure 1: Source: SAP
SAP said their BI solution typically focused historically focused on admins
Now SAP needs to focus on decision makers
Classical BI is like a trustworthy old encyclopedia
Today we are moving to Wikipedia, self service
Gartner says 40% of employees will demand access to Analytics by 2015; this will be 75% by 2017
Therefore there is a need to move towards self-service
Collective insight to contribute to decision making
For agile visualization, SAP BusinessObjects Lumira is the SAP "flagship product"
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Figure 2 shows on an online webcast poll with those attending having a 10-30% adoption of BI
Still have 47% are still having less than 10% adoption of BI projects
Customer Story - BI4.1
The next part of the webcast was the story of BI4.1 customer with John Marelich of Iluka Resources Limited
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Iluka Resources participated in BI4.1 ramp-up – went live July last year
They did an in place upgrade
They are happy with BI4.1, felt BI4 was unstable, had bugs
Figure 4: Source: SAP
When doing an in place upgrade, you overwrite the binaries, biggest benefits of upgrading
They didn’t need to build new servers
They converted UNV universes to UNX
On BI4 needed to reboot in production but now do not need to with BI4.1
They noticed that system is 10-20% faster in B4.1
Promotion management was a big improvement – moving from dev, test to production.
Improvements to Web Intelligence – connectivity to Hyperion works better, SSO works with BW, along with customize color palette, freeze column headers
Create mobile dashboards for the iPad
The upgrade took 10 hours
Figure 5: Source: SAP
62% are on BI4x - don't know the ratio of BI4 vs BI4.1
Christian Blumhoff, SAP COE
Next, Christian Blumhoff presented.
Figure 6: Source: SAP
Information is "the new gold"
No one wants to drive blindly; we need to predict the future
BI is your sight – what is happening, and the ability to predict the future, based on a a foundation of trust and information
As an example, the retailer needs to understand the return information – online, in store and calculate the value of return
Enterprise BI is there to “protect your assets”, unambiguous understanding, with multi-tenancy options
Lumira is becoming the “hub” of the user experience
Advanced analytics is lowering the skills needed for those who need access to the information
BI needs agility – can’t wait 3 months to model information
Cloud – cloud-based deployments to not worry about Capex (capital expenditures)
Figure 7: Source: SAP
With BI4.1, SAP said it is open, “everyone is welcome”
SAP built this with the concept of "Trusted Data Discovery" – look at data source, understand and “derive deeper insight”, to allow people to work creatively with data sources
At 3M they 10K on BI4.1 and their users have "never been happier"
Figure 8: Source: SAP
UK district council never considered mobile, but now have positive feedback from users
They are lowering the cost by giving mobile access using SAP BusinessObjects Mobile
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Over 4K customers made jump to 4.1
Figure 9 is an example of 6 customers – SKODA – 100K reports, consolidation, widen data sources, 4.5K reports
Figure 10: Source: SAP
Figure 10 was the last poll question to the webcast audience.
Question & Answer
Q: I am very much interested in SAP Analytics on Cloud. In this scenario, is SAP BOBJ 4.1 is installed on cloud and is the cloud server provided by SAP...or does the customer has to go through Amazon or other Cloud Services.
A: SAP provides Analytics on the Cloud via SAP HEC which is provided over SAP's own data centers in Japan and Australia and also with partners cloud infrastructure.
Also see SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) for trials
This NEW TRIAL - SAP ERP on SAP HANA includes a BI4.1 box, Lumira Server
Questions to customer:
Q: Microsoft alternative to Live Office?
A: Microsoft Power Query – need to be on BI4.1 SP3 – connect Excel to UNX universe
Q: What was sizing experience for upgrade?
A: Followed SAP recommendation guide on sizing; didn’t need to increase RAM or CPU’s
Q: Any gotchas faced during the upgrade?
A: It depends on version you are upgrading from – no issues, apart from some of the links need to upgrade. Didn’t pick up during testing
Q: Who does upgrade, is it business or SAP?
A: did it in-house
Questions to Christian:
Q: Custom visualization – which tool?
A: Primarily in Lumira, rolling out D3 framework will see it in other parts of the solutions
Q: Demo version of 4.1?
A: Lumira – go and download on desktop; server experience contact SAP
CAL trials at SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) NEW TRIAL - SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on SAP HANA SP07 with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1
Go to sap.com/LearnBI or Official Product Tutorials – SAP BI Suite
Other:
Call for speakers for SAP Inside Track Chicago, July 24 - see SAP Inside Track Chicago 2014 - Community Events - SCN Wiki
Also see Top X not to do when Implementing BI4 - Webcast Summary
June 30 is the last day to buy 1 get 1 free for SAP Analytics BusinessObjects Conference - see http://www.asugonline.com/asug-sap-businessobjects-user-conference/
SAP d-code (formerly SAP TechEd) Update
ASUG Pre-Conference sessions are scheduled to take place on Monday, October 20. More information will be available in the coming weeks.
ASUG will offers than 100 hours of content at SAP d-code Las Vegas (October 20-24). Customers and partners will share their best practices and stories. Registration is now open at Registration | SAP d-code Las Vegas
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