BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2 Upgrade Update

I wanted to write a quick follow-up post to the one I posted earlier about the BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2 install.  Now that I’ve done several I wanted to give you some additional heads up on some things.  This is what I’ve learned:

Be Careful of Language Packs

The install can take a long time even with the silent install – If you decided to just install all the language packs what you will find is that each language packs adds just under 30 minutes to the install time per language.  In other words, if you installed English, German, and French your installation will take almost a full extra hour.  The installation daisy chains the installations together.  First it will all the SP2 updates and the english language pack.  Next, it will install French and then German.

Comprende?

Is My Install Done Yet?

When running a silent install you can include the options /qn+ to have the setup.exe program inform you when the installation is done…

setup.exe /qn+ -r <responsefilepath>\<filename>.ini

there’s only one surprise.  The installer will information you that the installation is complete.  What it doesn’t tell you is that it will install the language packs next.  Yep that’s right… It’s done but not REALLY done.  But because it’s running a silent install you won’t know it.  This is related to the previous issue.  After the main installation completed, it tells you the installation is complete.  It THEN begins to install each of the languages packs.  If you look in the task manager you will see that msiexec.exe is still running.  Be very careful and make sure those language packs have completed before you start trying to clean up the install files.

Good Luck

The issue of the installation of the BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2 was a main topic of our recent GABOUG meeting.  There was a strong recommendation from customers to make sure and install the SP2 hotfix that came out just after the release of SP2.  I haven’t read through the technical notes, but apparently there were problems with some SAP universes getting corrupted.  This hotfix will solve that problem.

«Good BI»

Walking Through SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Today I attended the GABOUG quarterly meeting and saw a really nice presentation of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer by Rob Fiorillo of RFP Consulting.  He showed multiple demos.

During the first demo, he wanted to show how to use Explorer with data from Excel, so he used Live Office to take the data out of the EDW.  He then imported the data into SAP BusinessObjects Explorer using the new plug-in from labs called, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer with Excel Navigation Prototype.

There are currently two versions of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.  There is:

• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated
• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated – The Accelerated version provides unlimited scalability of in memory processing for data regardless of size and is really the way to go.  It requires the use of SAP’s Netweaver BW 7, BWA Blades and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Blades.

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (non-Accelerated) – Organizations can use the non-accelerated version, but there are limitations to the amount of data SAP BusinessObjects Explorer non-Accelerated can handle.  In 2010, SAP BusinessObjects will be bringing a “BWA Blades for non-SAP data” to the market, which will overcome the existing limitations.

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer breaks new ground with the way it brings together:

• Fast Performance
• Unlimited Data
• Intuitive User Experience

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Demo Site

A great example of the solution is represented my the http://microfinance.sap.com/ demo site.  Click below and take it for a test run.

Incredible Data Volumes

The microfinance website does a great job of showing you the intuitive user interface while and the same time demonstrating the large data volumes that can be processes.  This demo site is running a relatively small data sample of 27 million records, but look at the response time!

That’s fast!  0.016s to return a result set of 1,123,000 records.  Also what I love about SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is that I am able to see the desired metric broken down by every  dimension member.  In the screenshot above you can see that of the selected sample, 498 are Existing Clients, 375 are New Clients and 250 are Former Clients.

I am fascinated by the growth of in memory solutions within the BI Marketplace.  Qliktech’s QlikView is probably one of the better know solutions in the space.  With Explorer, SAP BusinessObjects answers the call of the industry to provide in-memory solutions for organizations who have standardized on their platform.  The good news is that you no longer have to deploy niche solutions to get the type of in-memory performance many of your end-users would love.

«Good BI»

SAP BusinessObjects Demos on YouTube…

I’m amazed at how easy it is to find information these days.  Today I decided to do a follow-up post based on my most recent WebIntelligence demo post.  After a little searching around and I found a number of demos that had been posted by David Collins Dixon onto Youtube.  David has written a number of books about the SAP Business Information Warehouse (or BW for short).

SAP Integration Demos

Here are the list of demos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidcollinsdixon

Crystal Reports Demo leveraging SAP Hierarchies (No AUDIO)

David does an especially nice job with the Crystal Reports demo and shows you how to use the Hierarchy Node so Crystal Reports can properly leverage your SAP Hierarchy definition.

Xcelsius Demos

There are also a couple of demos from the guys at Everything Xcelsius:
http://www.youtube.com/user/XcelsiusGurus

If you find any SAP BusinessObjects videos that you think others would benefit from, just add links to them in a posted comment.

«Good BI»

WebIntelligence Integration with SAP

After attempting to move my blog off wordpress.com on Friday, I decided it was going to be more involved and I had a bit more testing to do before I was willing to make the final switch… but that’s another story.

So what do I have for you this week?  Well, I ran across a great demo by Ingo Hilgefort.  Ingo is a great resource.  He was one of the original folks that helped Crystal Decisions develop the SAP Integration Kit way back in the day and you can read more about him on his blog.  He’s what you would call the resident expert.  Last week a saw a demo that Ingo put together and I really liked it and wanted to share it here.

Watch the Demonstration

Excellent Overview of SAP BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence Integration:

You’ll see that he demonstrates some of the latest fold/unfold capabilities that come with BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2. Do recognize that is is NOT a replacement for the upcoming Pioneer release. I recently spoke with a customer who didn’t like the fact that the WebIntelligence document had to be in a specific layout/format in order to leverage fold/unfold. REMEMBER! WebIntelligence is an adhoc reporting solution that allows you to easily create formatted reports. It’s not targeted for power analysts. Pioneer is coming… in the meantime you’ll still need to use BEx Web Analyzer for that that power analyst group.

SAP BusinessObjects Roadmap for WebIntelligence

NOTE: for the latest roadmap updates on the SAP BusinessObjects Product Integration go to http://sdn.sap.com

Download the PPT

Here is a download of his powerpoint presentation in PDF format:
http://trustedbi.com/files/sapwebi_webinar.pdf

Note the slides that explain how the items for the BEx Query panel are translated to objects within the Universe.  It’s important to understand what objects will be exposed to the adhoc user as the build the report and which objects, e.g. characteristic restrictions, won’t be.

Make sure as well you get your hands on the SAP BusinessObjects Best Practices Guide as well.

«Good BI»

Coming Soon!

Putting this blog together and sharing it has been a ton of fun.  I’m soon going to be moving my blog to a new domain and relaunching it.  I’m hoping you’ll like the new layout. I am also planning to do at least one post/week in the new format and I’ll try and be better about mixing it up among the different products.

Thanks for all your support!!

–david