SAP Business Objects BI Suite is a very successful and scalable enterprise reporting solution that has been widely adopted across industries. The recent release of SAP Business Objects BI 4.3 will be known as hybrid solution of SAP Analytics.

Linking SAP Business Objects BI 4.3 to SAP Goals

SAP Business Objects BI 4.3 improvements can be connected to the following SAP goals.

  • Streamlining of analytics portfolio
  • Reduction in overall cost with the introduction of new BI License Model (New Webi –Only Edition, SAP Business Objects Enterprise and SAP Business Objects Enterprise, Edge Edition)
  • Further progress envisioned by SAP in terms of improving Hybrid capability as well Interoperability between that of On-Premise and Cloud version.

Unveiling SAP BusinessObjects Version (4.3)

The design of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3 is intended to support optimization of extremely important on-premise use cases and to make the most of its documents, universes, and assets along with BI capabilities as well as predictive use case modernizations offered by SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Business Objects BI 4.3 is promoted as Hybrid Release – Hybrid stressing the tighter integration that can be achieved between SAP Analytics Cloud and on-premise SAP BusinessObjects. With this, enterprises can harmonize user experience and gain enterprise readiness in terms of supporting ease of deployment and latest industry standards.

Focus Areas of SAP Business Objects 4.3

Improved Hybrid capabilities 

  • Enabling tighter integration between SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BusinessObjects BI.
  • Establishing better live connectivity among SAP Business Objects BI universes, SAP Analytics Cloud, and that of SAP BO Web Intelligence documents
  • Consuming SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence data models along with SAP Analytics Cloud
  • Reusing SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence documents for building novel reports and assets

User Experience:

  • Modernized user experience facilitated by new BI launch-pad promoting 100% functionality as well as compatibility with that of current authorizations and content
  • Revitalized user experience enabled by HTML5 SAP Business Objects Web-Intelligence client that is single & touch-ready to be used with desktop and Web, also eliminating need for Java
  • Reusing prevailing Web Intelligence documents by leveraging modernized SAP BusinessObjects Web-Intelligence data model for building new reports, creating as well as sharing business semantics, and that of associated results sets
  • Leveraging analytics on the go feature facilitated by modernized SAP BO Web Intelligence 4.3 mobile-experience promoting consumption of every Web Intelligence document from anywhere by using a responsive user interface working on all devices

Enterprise Readiness

  • Overhauled administrator tools including BI admin cockpit, promotion management, monitoring and auditing functionalities
  • A single application resulting from the merger of tools comprising BI Admin cockpit, visual difference and monitoring
  • Modernized installer, deployment scenarios, cache removal among others
  • New versions of applications, data sources as well as OS support
  • Enhanced security features such as simplified SAML configuration & setup, SAML 3.0, and improved credential mapping
  • Modernized publishing and scheduling functionalities carrying new enhancements

What’s not available in SAP Business Objects 4.3?

Adobe support for distributing flash player will cease to exist from December 2020. This in turn triggers the non-availability of SAP BO Dashboard, Widgets as well as SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.

Closer look at SAP Analytics Cloud

The advantage of leveraging SaaS and the discontinuation of support for Adobe Flash Player have combined to stress the significance of SAP Analytics Cloud as the strategic analytics solution. SAP Analytics Cloud, in short, is a single cloud platform for making the most of Business Intelligence, self-service reporting and predictive analytics.

Why make the move to SAC?

  • SAP Cloud Analytics uses the SAP HANA Platform. The Platform (SAC) raises as one technological platform for achieving end-to-end activities encompassing modelling & analysis as well as planning and collaboration.
  • Allows to do away with different technologies and platforms for using the solution. Facilitates integration with third party applications as that of Google Drive and Excel.
  • Carries smart features such as the Smart Insights (Predictive Analytics) as well as Smart Discovery allowing businesses to leverage SAC in terms of Planning and Forecasting
  • Being Cloud based, it helps eliminate the need for infrastructure setup, do away with big projects and teams for initiating 360-degree insight projects and complexities of implementing upgrades & new versions, as it also promotes high performance enabled by in-memory computing
  • Good Interoperability ensured by SAP Business Objects 4.3 with SAP Analytics Cloud wherein SAP Analytics Cloud allows direct connectivity with SAP Business Objects Universe elements including UNX & UNV, which in turn enables viewing of the latest data without having to replicate or even schedule data import
  • Self-service reporting is tightly integrated into SAC encompassing tools like Dashboard Design, Explorer and Lumira while support for WEBI and Crystal reports will continue in SAP BO versions

Common Concerns – SAP Business Objects & SAP Analytics Cloud

How to preserve existing investments while adopting SAP Analytics Cloud?

Considering the use of present investment in reports as well as universes while enterprises move critical use cases to that of SAP Analytics Cloud, the first alternative is to create a hybrid scenario using SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP BI Suite. Leveraging BI 4.3 is about making the improved interoperability work in terms of synchronizing users and using SAP BO web intelligence data and live universes while building cloud stories.

What use cases to be considered for using SAP BusinessObjects BI vs SAP Analytics Cloud?

SAP Business Objects BI is considered ideal for enterprises that are not prepared to make the transition to cloud. Also, in a situation where enterprise reporting involves scheduling and publishing of numerous reports to be consumed by large user groups, SAP Business Objects BI becomes the ideal fit to meet the situation.

Will the future witness functional parity between SAC and SAP BO Web Intelligence?

There is no emphasis on functional parity where the focus falls on common reporting scenarios and not on rebuilding every feature. SAP Analytics Cloud lays emphasis on facilitating self-service data exploration and generating automated insights. SAC also focuses on adding reporting functionalities from Crystal Reports as well as SAP BO Web Intelligence to encompass diversified analytic scenarios. When it comes to complex reporting scenarios necessitating access to multiple databases on-premise, enterprises stand to gain by using Crystal Reports or SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence.