Insights

SAP BusinessObjects BI4.0 – Should we Just Do It?

16 May 2011 Business Intelligence (BI), Business Objects, Dashboard and Presentation Design (Xcelsius), Mobile, Consumer Business

As I was thinking of this blog on when its right to adopt BI4.0, the Nike strapline, "Just Do It" sprang to mind.

It stuck me, the shape of the Nike swoosh resembles Gartner's Hype Cycle. Gartner suggest the Hype Cycle is of most relevance to vendors who use R&D and adoption of emerging technologies as a means of market differentiation or those who wish to be recognised as thought leaders in their markets. Is this true of SAP? I believe so.  Additionally, for organisations across the world the Hype Cycle can be influential on longer term strategic decisions, especially for an enterprise deciding to adopt new technology sooner or later.  We can ask where are we now on the Hype Cycle?  My opinion is we are about to drive through the trough of disillusionment into enlightenment.

 

It is hoped that an announcement will be made at SAPPHIRE NOW this week as to the general availability date of SAP BusinessObjects BI4.0, but sometime in early June has been suggested if you are to believe the twitter rumours. So the inevitable questions for both new and existing SAP customers will be around when to invest in adopting the latest version and what the real business value that can be articulated in a business case to gain funding is.

It is commonplace for software vendors to believe that simply adding new features - let's call them bells and whistles - will ensure commercial success.  It could be said they are often added simply because the can be rather than they are actually needed.  Unfortunately, this can create confusion and be a blocker to user adoption as the new features change existing menu structures of an application so that even experienced users have to search around for the new location.  A case in point is the "Sum" button moving from one mouse click to multiple in BI4.0 Web Intelligence.

However, I have seen five areas where BI4.0 really appears to make sense

64bit architecture

BI4.0 is a complete application code rewrite based on 64bit architecture, and the first release of an integrated BI suite exploiting BusinessObjects usability and SAP data warehouse robustness. I suggest you ask any Windows server guy why 64bit makes so much sense.

Exposing BW hierarchies in WebI

It has been citied in many blogs and conversations that the inability to interact with BW hierarchies in WebI was a showstopper for users.  This is no longer the case in BI4.0.

BICS for direct connectivity from a WebI document to a BW query

At last we can stop the steps around creating universes over multiple BEx queries to expose BW data to users.  A real step forward in reducing effort and integrating the BEx and BusinessObjects user communities.

Multisource universes

Federating (or joining) data in the report presentation tier never made sense to me, as a premise you should always move complexity as close to the data tier as possible.  The ability to join OLAP and Relational data sources performantly will be a plus for organisations.

BI4.0 mobile

A little spoken about facet of the BI4.0 platform is the new BI4.0 Mobile suite.  Imagine interacting with a WebI document on different types of mobile device from an iPad through to a blackberry through a device specific application.  If Mobile BI is a strategy for your organisation this could be the tipping point for adoption.

So what's my thinking today for customers of SAP BusinessObjects?

XIr2 users

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XIR2 arrived at its product end-of-life (EOL) on June 30, 2010. SAP BusinessObjects agreed to provide best effort support for all customers until June 30, 2011. During this time, customers may still need to access full XIR2 builds, fix packs and service packs. So next month any users of XIr2 have to make a decision, become out of support or move to a supported product.  It's certainly best practice to keep up with supported versions of SAP BusinessObjects and I see no reason not to jump directly from XIr2 to BI4.0 upon general availability.

XIr3 users

I see most often today 'well-oiled' and entrenched Xir3 environments.  The decision to upgrade to BI4.0 is certainly toughest for this community.  There is a school of thought that says if it ain't broke don't fix it, which makes a lot of sense.  However, where there is an opportunity to re-platform to 64bit windows environment from Unix it makes a lot of sense for on-going support costs.  Additionally, if Mobile BI is in your BI strategy this year or federating data is causing pain then serious consideration should be given to migrating to BI4.0.

New adopters

It makes great sense when implementing new software to adopt the latest and greatest. John Appleby, Bluefin's Head of Business Analytics & Technology, wrote a blog titled 'Why are we so afraid of new technology?' where he talks about the Competitive advantage to be gained in using new technology. All companies implementing SAP BusinessObjects for the first time whether over SAP or Non SAP data should embrace BI4.0.

Finally, the latest rumour I have heard is that the general available release will not be just BI4.0. it will be either BI4.1 or BI4.0 sp1.  This will certainly address the requirements of companies with a "N-1" policy and don't forget BI4.0 went into ramp up at the end of 2010 so there is 6 months of real world implementation experience out there already.  So don't be afraid to adopt SAP BusinessObjects BI4.0, "Just Do It" but with the caveat of when it makes sense and delivers real business value.