Alexander Peter, Product Owner for Analysis Office, provided this webcast to ASUG yesterday.

Since the discussion covers future versions, this is subject to change.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows that BEx tools are in maintenance mode.  There is not an immediate need to go off BEx clients but no new innovation.

Innovation comes with the Analysis clients.

Content with BEx Analyzer – conversion support exists today in Analysis Office.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Analysis 1.4 release is smaller than 1.3 as SAP focused on improving performance.  SAP launched a performance project to review performance challenges from end to end. 

Alex said there are two collective notes to help you identify things on backend to streamline communication between server and client.

Main feature was broadcasting on BI Platform, another gap for BEx Analyzer– for legal reasons can’t release GA .  SAP chose the BI platform to use the scheduling features.  Broadcasting is planned for Q3.

GA for 1.4 is planned for May.

SAP has enchanced interoperability with Design Studio – in 1.3 you could copy a data source and insert it in Design Studio.  Now it is extended to be an automatic transformation to Design Studio – crosstab, chart, and components into an iPad application.  The scenario is to have a prototyping tool in Analysis Office and can use it to prototype a dashboard.

Strengthen BI platform support – if you store it in Launchpad ad start it from the Launchpad – before only Excel opens.  It didn’t know about Analysis Office workbook.  SSO wasn’t honored.  Now solved in with Analysis Office 1.4 and BI4.1 platform

Waterfall charts not available in native Excel so they have added them to the toolbar in Analysis Office 1.4.

With the ASUG Influence Council, SAP prioritized features.  After broadcasting query designer was a the top. 

You can open the Query Designer from Analysis Office 1.4 .  You can reset data source to query designer

With the read mode feature you can change from reading from the cube or the master data.

Time-dependent hierarchy at the given key date is now available in 1.4.

Data refresh – before 1.4, when press refresh, render cross tabs but not show the latest data – re-rendered data – had to leave Excel and open it again.  With 1.4 have a real data refresh.

They have added a member selector for mass data

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 was not covered during the webcast, but it gives you an overall direction.  Today is version 1.3, planned innovation is Analysis Office 1.4.

Subset of Q&A:

________________________________________________________________

Q: Will AA 1.4 allow us to create or design Queries in BW?

A: The Query Designer remains the tool to create queries in BW.‑

________________________________________________________________

Q: Will AA 1.4 finally have LogOn / LogOff button?

A: No plan for a logoff button... but I am aware that AA can hold onto connections for an extended period so this issue is being investigated.‑

________________________________________________________________

Q: is it possible to connect to Essbase cubes directly?

A: Not from Analysis Office‑

A: ... but Yes with Analysis OLAP‑

Q: is AA 1.4 compatible with BOBJ 4 SP5?

A: It is platform independent‑

________________________________________________________________

Q: What is the comparability of AA 1.4? We are on BI 7.0 and BOBJ XI3.1 sp 3.

A: It is platform independent - there are some features dependent on BW version but overall it is platform independent.‑

________________________________

ASUG Annual Conference

Alex is presenting at ASUG Annual Conference regarding the ASUG Influence Council.  Below is a list of other ASUG Analysis-related sessions for the conference:

When should I move from BEx Analyzer to Analysis?  These are questions frequently asked at conferences. 

I attended this Analysis webcast last Thursday provided by Nick Wall, SAP.  He shared some suggestions about why/how you should adopt BusinessObjects Analysis.

On the agenda:

• What is BusinessObjects Analysis?
• Why you should adopt SAP BusinessObjects Analysis
• How you can adopt SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

What is it?  Why should you consider adopting?  How adopt?

Figure 1: Source  SAP

What is Analysis? Analysis OLAP allows you to query OLAP data, develop analytical applications, develop additional capabilities and it has 3 clients:

1. Analysis Edition for MS Office – add in to Office that allows you to do analytical multi-dimensional analysis – can be used standalone…premium alternative to BEX Analyzer
2. Analysis Edition for OLAP – web-based – business analysts can run their own analysis private or share via BI platform – successor to Voyager
3. Design Studio – coming Q4 – premium alternative to BEx Web Application Designer – power users to create OLAP dashboards – enabled for mobile support –deploy on desktop or mobile devices

Analysis MS Office offers a familiar environment, add-in to Excel, and extends your Analysis with Excel. It has API calls.  You can create Excel formulas in Excel and extend via API calls.

You can combine datasources via BW or HANA to build analysis and it offers user interface customization via ribbons and menus.  You can also take Analysis in Excel and export into PowerPoint, and it is a live image, or go via BEx query into PowerPoint.  It is a live object;  you are not cutting and pasting.

Nick suggested using Microsoft Analysis for PowerPoint to build a board report

Why should you consider adopting?  How adopt?  That is what Nick covered in this webcast.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows that Analysis OLAP is the successor to Voyager

Analysis OLAP has the common look and feel of products across BI Suite

It connects to BW, HANA, EPM solutions, MSAS

It calls those information sources into a single view so you can share with others

It offers interoperability with other tools using Analysis Views with multidimensional analysis, save that result view as Analysis view, connect to BI platform and share that with other tools – share with wide user community such as Crystal Reports for Enterprise or Web Intelligence users.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows  how you can use Analysis to use new BI tools without disrupting current environment

It has a direct connection to BEx queries; there is no need to edit or migrate them

It supports 3.5 BEx queries and 7.x

BEx Query Designer will remain in place for the future; will continue to use

It offers automated migration of simple workbooks (1.3 version)

You can also run Analysis MS Edition for Office and BEx Analyzer Side by side.  You can deploy it without changing the infrastructure.  You can install Analysis for Office without uninstalling the BEx Analyzer but only one add-in can be active at a time.

Simpler, more intuitive to use, common interfaces across suite of products, which may allow increasing user autonomy, says Nick.  You can combine multiple data sources.

Nick said you can “extend the reach of your BW deployment”, reduce dependency on IT, minimize user training & support costs with Analysis.

How can you can Adopt Analysis

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Nick discussed best of breed tools, the right tool for the right job.  Register for the October 2nd How to Select the Right BI Tool for Your Environment to learn more.  This webcast is open to all.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows a high level mapping, a recommendation from SAP.  Today SAP recommends using Xcelsius for those using BEx Web Application Designer but in Q4 they recommend Design Studio (see Figure 5).

I asked Nick "where is Visual Intelligence" and he said it is part of the "Explorer" family.  Nick said the BEx suite has a “blank”  for Ad hoc Reporting

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows suggestions from SAP on how to transition from BEx to Analysis

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows a recommended phased  adoption of BI solutions for Classic BW Customers.  The slide suggests starting with Analysis for Office, then adding Analysis OLAP, Crystal Reports, and Explorer.  Lastly add Web Intelligence, the “best of breed”.

Hopefully many of you have seen this information before, but Figure 7 is the first time I’ve seen a recommended order of adopting BusinessObjects tools for SAP customers. 

If you are attending SAP TechEd, the following lists Analysis sessions for you to consider:

World Premiere of SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Latest Innovations in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Office and OLAP

Implementation of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis at Colgate-Palmolive

Road Map for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

ASUG Influence Council – SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Update

Road Maps for SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

Better Reporting with SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office

Last week SAP provided an ASUG webcast on Analysis Office 1.3 which is now in ramp-up.  Below I am focusing only on converting BEx Workbooks to Analysis Office and I am also including the webcast’s question & answer to share with everyone.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

In this webcast, SAP said the workbook conversion is not a tool for mass migration

It takes into account the filter and navigation state of data sources

It is not an item-centric approach; some components not converted such as navigation pane/block as Analysis has the Design panel

There is a detailed log created if you enable it – what is converted/not

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows what is a convertible object and what is not convertible.

Buttons are not converted due to Ribbon concept in Analysis Office.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows the conversion options and possible settings

Recommendation is to show the log in an invisible sheet so you get an idea what is happening.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows an actual conversion of a BEx Workbook to Analysis Office.  You can see on the bottom of Figure 4 that the navigation pane is not convertible.

Related posts:

BusinessObjects Analysis Office 1.3 Your First Steps and New Features

BusinessObjects Analysis Office 1.3 – Does it have Report to Report Interface

Below is the Q&A from last week’s webcast.

Question & Answer from ASUG Webcast on Analysis Office 1.3

Q: Is there a size limit on the file that can be uploaded (reference to BW workspaces)

A: Have not specified a size limit; validate with customer scenarios

________________________________________________________________

Q: Are there any performance/functionality differences between accessing HANA via JDBC and ODBC

A: There is detail information on the connections at http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_data_acs_en.pdf

________________________________________________________________

Q: I want to schedule the analysis workbook

A: it is planned ... most probably in a 2013 release

________________________________________________________________

Q: any updates on Dynamic Parameter from Web Intelligence or Crystal  to Analysis workbook

A: Have RRI support as sender. The next release should also cover the receiver side.

________________________________________________________________

Q: Is there a variable to choose which hierarchy to be used?

A: sure, you can use hierarchy variables.

________________________________________________________________

Q: Is it possible to apply a OSS note and get this functionality of Saving workbooks on SAP Netweaver system instead of upgrading the whole system to SP11....?

A: unfortunately not

________________________________________________________________

Q: Can we refresh individual worksheets instead of the complete workbook?

A: sure, you can refresh individual data sources. Context menu -> Refresh

________________________________________________________________

Q: Can BEx workbook be converted to Analysis for Office document if BEx workbook have multiple queries on multiple tabs?

A: yes, conversion also works with several data sources

________________________________________________________________

Q: Have you seen these workspace upload features used to deploy a planning/budgeting solution, where users upload updates to their budget numbers periodically?

A: no, planning is typically more than just entering new values … it is about planning functions etc. … we’re currently discussing extending that functionality to planning some time, but that is not yet confirmed yet …

________________________________________________________________

Q: Is it possible to refresh the workbook which is transported to another system

A: Yes

________________________________________________________________

Q: Can we use "Calculation" functionality for Analysis for Office on top of HANA?

A: yes, some calculations are supported ...

________________________________________________________________

Q: Will BEx conversion to Analysis for Office document support BEx structures?

A: Sure, they are part of the query/data source, not of the workbook

________________________________________________________________

Q: Any body know if there is a way of integrating an analysis in MS Word. Is it possible to embed a presentation containing an analysis? Is Live office the only alternative? ( but seems there are some limitations currently if report is using BICS connection)

A: no Word integration at this point in time … planned, but currently not with highest priority.

My thanks to SAP's Alexander Peter and Tobias Kaufmann for this webcast.

BusinessObjects Analysis Office 1.3 is now in ramp-up.  I installed it recently and it gives you these features at installation:

Figure 1

As Figure 1 shows you have the option to go back to 1.2 or earlier version.  Analysis Office can be installed on 32 bit or 64 bit software systems.

Figure 2

Notice in this screen what is new - Variants, which are saved selection criteria are now included in Analysis Office 1.3.  These can be global or user-specific.

So now you can use variants with your Analysis Office workbooks.

Figure 3

Notice in Figure 3 you can now save your workbook to SAP Netweaver (your BW system) and open the workbook from Netweaver.  Additionally you can now convert the BEx Workbooks.

You can still save your workbook to the BI platform, which you may want to consider doing to take advantage of Analysis Views where Analysis can be used as a data source to Crystal Reports for Enterprise or Web Intelligence.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows saving the Analysis Workbook to the BW platform

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows the user settings.  You could say your preferred platform is the BI platform or BW.

Converting a simple BEx workbook:

Figure 6

Figure 6 shows a BEx Analyzer Workbook

Figure 7

Click the Convert BEx Workbook button in Figure 7 to start converting the BEx workbook

Figure 8

Figure 8 is the BEx Workbook to convert.

Figure 9

Figure 9 shows the BEx workbook in Analysis Office.

I will write more as I learn about it.

In previous demos we've seen SAP show clickable images of a laptop and then show relevant information to the laptop.  This week, I decided to try that for myself.

It is easy to do - simply create your images, copy them over to the repository, create an image in BusinessObjects Design Studio and create an event.  I will demonstrate below.

Figure 1

In Figure 1,  I am in design time of BusinessObjects Design Studio.   I have a crosstab, a chart and 3 images representing the SAP modules where support tickets have been issued.  My data source is a BEx query.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the "on event" for the script editor for the PM image.  When the user clicks on the PM Plant Maintenance image only select the data with PM tickets.

I did not code this, I used the CTRL-SPACE script wizard provided by BusinessObjects Design Studio.

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows the Desktop runtime version

Figure 4

In Figure 4, the user clicks on the PM image, so only PM related tickets show up in the line chart and the crosstab.

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows that BusinessObjects Design Studio takes advantage of the BEx hierarchy features as I am drilling down into the PM hierarchy tickets.  I figured out too that by double clicking I can expand the column width (run time).

Figure 6

Figure 6 shows how the application looks deployed in the iPad.  It is simply one click to deploy the application to the iPad.

So in this example, I used images so the user can click on the images to analyze the tickets and also used BW hierarchies and then deployed the application to the iPad.

I still haven't had to code yet in SAP Zen, aka "BusinessObjects Design Studio".

We were supplied some sample iPad templates to use with Zen.  What a help and difference it makes! 

The first template for the iPad contained a sample filter bar with pages.  Then, all you needed to do is to assign a data source and change the text. 

Figure 1: iPad Template for Zen

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the outline of the body of the “pagebook”.  The Zen help “You use the pagebook component to enable the user to switch between different views of an application. Therefore you group the components and contents of a view on one page and the components and contents of another view on an further page etc. E.g. you want to show different data on different pages or you want to show the data differently (in a chart on one page and in the crosstab on another page). The pagebook shows only one page at time.”

It is key to right click and “Create Child” to add a chart or cross tab to each of the pages.

So for fun, this is what I did on each of the pages, and it all worked – in less than 15-20 minutes. The templates help!  See iPad pages below:

Figure 3

Figure 3 shows page one runtime from the iPad, which down below I am calling “Incident Report”

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows a chart

Figure 5

Figure 5 shows a stacked chart

Figure 6

Figure 6 shows the last page and it is a bar chart

I used the on event setFilterExt as I mentioned in this last Zen blog so the filter works in each page of the pagebook.

At run time on the iPad, you use the "swipe" gesture to move between pages.  Using the iPad template, Zen was very simple to use and quickly to deploy to the iPad;  no programming required!

Given that this talks about future plans, the usual disclaimer applies and things are subject to change.

At ASUG Annual Conference, SAP’s Eric Schemer and Alexander Peter spoke on the Analysis Suite.

Analysis Office – What is Coming?

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Analysis Office 1.3 is to have a planned ramp-up for this summer.  Coming features include the Report to Report Interface, variant support, storing workbooks in the BW repository, as shown in Figure 1.

At conference, Alexander Peter demonstrated using BW Workspaces, where you combined data from BW with local data from Excel using a Workspace.  BW is combined with local data and Analysis Office 1.3 will be the front end.

HANA with Analysis Office does not support hierarchies or prompts; that his planned for 1.3

A popular topic at some sessions was converting BEx Analyzer workbooks.

Planned features for Analysis Office 1.4 are to have mobility features, working with Zen.  This would mean automatic transformation from Analysis Office applications to iPad applications.  The link to the BEx Query Designer will be available.  Interoperability with the Zen will be available.

Analysis OLAP

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the roadmap for Analysis OLAP.    BI4 Feature Pack 3 is in the middle and will be in GA soon.

SAP Zen

First, when discussing SAP Zen, Analysis Edition for Application Design, the premium alternative to BEx Web Application Designer, Eric said there was no pressure to move off the Web Application Designer.  The intent of SAP Zen is for IT users.  Eric said it was developed with a “mobile first” approach.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows the ZEN phases and strategy, side by side with the SAP Dashboarding strategy.

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the key capabilities of the first version of ZEN.  Planned features for upcoming versions of Analysis Office 1.3 and Analysis OLAP 1.4 include interoperability with ZEN.

Actual picture from Analysis session at ASUG Annual Conference showing SAP Zen

For fun, see the same BEx query used in each of the Analysis tools:

Analysis Office (Excel):

Analysis OLAP (Web):

Zen (Mobile):