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

Getting a Little Help

Happy Friday!  Hope you’ve had a great week…

A Little Help from My Friends

Ever feel like you need a little help?  I do all the time… and I really appreciate all my other friends out in the blogosphere who help me along the way.  When it comes to working with SAP BusinessObjects, there are two things that I always have trouble finding from time to time.  Where do I find the SAP BusinessObjects Software and the Documentation?  There are lots of links to choose from within the SAP Service Marketplace and so you don’t accidentally get lost, I recommend you add two shortcuts to your browser..

All SAP BusinessObjects Software

For access to all releases of the SAP BusinessObjects Product Suite including all the EPM, GRC and Information Management solutions, go to:
http://service.sap.com/bosap-downloads

All SAP BusinessObjects Documentation

For access to all the documentation of all the current and past releases including release notes, user guides, administration guides, glossaries, reference guides, go to:
http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/

If you have some favorite SAP BusinessObjects links that you think others should know about, feel free to post them here as a reply to this post.

«Good BI»

Harbor Tour Demonstration

If your like me sometimes you want to skip all the marketing hype and just see a demo.  Here is a nice demonstration of the core features of the SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.0 product suite.  If you do not use BusinessObjects today or are evaluating Business Intelligence solutions, you can use this demonstration as a way of helping you set your expectations of what is available from Business Intelligence solutions today.

Having a Look Around

This Harbor Tour (or Harbour Tour for an Canadian friends) is a quick way to get familiar with SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.0.  If you are already using BusinessObjects XIr2 and want to see the new features in XI 3.0, these new features can be accessed in the section, What’s New in BusinessObjects XI 3.0.  You can also download a PDF of new features here.  Let me know your thoughts about the demo.

BusinessObjects XI 3.0 Overview Demo

Highlights

Here are some of the quick highlights of the BusinessObjects XI 3.0 platform that you might not already be familiar with.

• New look and feel user interface that supports copy & paste
• Single Platform for all reporting
• Integration between Xcelsius and Crystal Reports
• Improved Crystal Reports Viewer
• Online and Offline Adhoc Analysis
• Full Lifecycle Management

Evaluating Business Intelligence Solutions

When evaluating BI Solutions, you need to determine what the true business needs are and how you will be using Business Intelligence to solve true business issues.  Can the solution deliver results?  If you are part of IT, your tendency might be to shield the vendors from your business users.  If you do, you are making a mistake.  Check out my previous post about treating your BI Vendor as a Strategic Partner.  Does your Business Intelligence vendor want to partner with you or sell you on the coolest gadget?

«Good BI»

http://bit.ly/16S8Hn

SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2 – Before You Install…

I came across a recently technical support article that I felt was so important,  I wanted to pass it on to anyone and everyone who might be upgrading their SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 environment to SP2.  If you try the installation, BEWARE!  Without following the advice below you might find that it takes several hours!  Below are the instructions I gleaned for a recently published technical article.

SP2 Is Slow to Install

Installing XI 3.1 Service Pack 2 on a Windows environment may take a long time (several hours) to complete and here’s why.

• The problem is with the process of the MSP (Microsoft Patch) installer that we are using for the SP2 install on Windows platform.
• The install/validate check routine in this process takes approximately around 80% of the install time.
• When using this installer the process to find and replace a large amount of files takes a long time.

Workaround

As the main bottleneck in the Install process is a MSFT Install/Validate check routine, the workaround is to skip the check by performing a Silent Install
There is a significant reduction in the total time taken.   NOTE:  We can skip the check only on MSI 3.x., the silent install does not help on MSI 4.x.  Please refer to the installation guide for xi31_sp2_install_en.pdf and refer to page 21.

Regarding how to run in Silent mode:

1. We need to  generate an ini file firstly with the command line: setup.exe -w <response filepath>\<filename>.ini
2. Next,  run the silent install with the command line: setup.exe -r <response filepath>\<filename>.ini where <response filepath> is the path to the .ini file you created created in step 1.
3. You then need to run the silent install with the commandline:  setup.exe /qn+

This runs the installer with all default options and automatically redeploys the war files to the BOBJ-installed Tomcat

Caution:
Note that because the Install/Validate check routine is skipped in order to improve performance, there is a potential scenario where the machine may run out of resources e.g. lack of disk space, partway through the installation. In such a scenario, the system should be rolled back to where it was before originally, and the appropriate logs will be made (assuming logging was enabled).

Limitation of workaround

There were changes between MSI 3.x and MSI 4.x, such that the MSFT Install/Validate check routine is also always executed in machines with MSI 4.x, regardless of whether it is a GUI or Silent installation. Accordingly, the silent install does not help if the MSI 4.x has been installed on the Windows.  Regarding how to know the version of MSI installed on the computer currently, we may right click the file C:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe, choose “Properties”, check tab “Version”, or you can run, from the commandlilne, “msiexec /?” and hit enter. There is no way to downgrade the MSI from 4.x to 3.x except re-installing Windows.

SAP Note 1356691 for the XI 3.1 Service Pack 2 Install and Deployment Guide PDF. The section for Silent Install begins on page 21.