SAP BUSINESSOBJECTS 4.0 – WHAT’S NEW IN THE LATEST VERSION?
31/08/11 - Wroclaw
When back in 2008 the market learned about takeover of Business Objects by SAP, this in-formation wasn’t unnoticed. It was explicit signal for companies that SAP sees the potential of analytical tools, and will evolve in this area.
Predictions were confirmed. 3 years of investment in Business Intelligence brought succeed-ing versions of the solution. The newest one – SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 – offers many fresh functions. In comparison with SAP BusinessObjects 3.11, version 4.0 is characterized by not only mod-ern, user friendly interface, but also many additional functionalities and improvements. They include among others:
- Full integration with Business Warehouse. It enables inter alia transfer of BW reports to new tool without loss of the primary functionalities (e.g. hierarchical structures), easier implementation of these reports, and faster report operation. Moreover, there is a pos-sibility to open reports made with the aid of WAD technology (Web Application Designer) through BusinessObjects portal.
- Advanced Analysis. New tool – replacing former SAP BusinessObjects Voyager – allows to execute ad hoc OLAP analyses; it’s dedicated especially for business analysts. Furthermore, this solution is based on Microsoft products: Excel and Power Point. The tool’s interface, similar to MS Excel interface, facilitates navigation and allows to use all functions offered by Microsoft application. Thanks to Power Point Add-in, you can e.g. attach all anal-yses or a part to “.ppt” file and refresh it currently. SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis connects with SAP BW (BICS) and Microsoft Analysis Services through optimized connect-ors; as well as with other external OLAP tools via MDX.
- You can choose SAP Crystal Reports 2011 or SAP Crystal Reports Enterprise. These new versions of the solution allow to export reports in “read only” mode, export reports to MS Excel format (better file compression; export of up to 1 million rows), and build custom applications on top of MS Visual Studio. Furthermore, the solution is fully compatible with Crystal Reports 2008.
- New functions in Web Intelligence. One of them is direct connection with BEx Query through BICS that offers full functionality within the confines of structures and hierar-chy. In new version of Web Intelligence, efficiency of query creation, flexibility of filters defini-tion, and integration with tools of Microsoft Office are more improved. You can copy and paste data not as a drawing (as it was until now), but as editable and formatable text.
- SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius. Built-in BICS connector offers more flexibility with reference to use of SAP warehouse data. There is also new panel for query creation, with convenient and fast access to query edition. The tribute to the user is adjustment of the tool to support of local data formats (date, currency, numbers, time), as well as a possibility to make translations.
- SAP BusinessObjects Live Office. The tool for saving reports being created in formats of Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) is also improved. Ac-cess to BI reports is possible also from e-mail messages. You can save files containing anal-ysis to the repository, in Excel format. Data editing, searching and visualization in Excel sheets are substantially improved.
- Easiness of navigation between reports or places in the portal. Additional modules, such as “lately reviewed documents”, “lately edited documents”, “unread messag-es”, “unread alerts”, “my applications”, etc. allow to make the view customized to user needs.
The newest version of SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 certainly offers much better integration with SAP BW, creating complete SAP Business Intelligence solution. Changes were made not only in tools appearance, but first of all in their internal area, i.e. functionality and structure. Many functions that were missing so far or operated in inadequate way are improved; there-fore work with this tool is easier and nicer.
