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»

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.

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»

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.

The SAP BusinessObjects Product team is looking for your input!  In less than two months, SAP BusinessObjects Users from around the world will be decending on Dallas Texas for the annual SAP BusinessObjects User Conference.  This year, the SAP BusinessObjects is introducing the concept of a product council, where you can provide feedback into the product.  You will get a chance to see how other companies are leveraging SAP BusinessObjects products.  Now is your opportunity to tell them what you love and what you hate…  knowing that feedback will make it’s way back to the product team.

This is a Start

Personally I think this is a great start, but I wish that SAP would send all the product managers and program managers to the conference so that they can speak face-to-face with customers.  Back in the 90’s when I was working with Lotus products, they had a huge annual conference in Orlando and their entire product development team was onsite and had lots of informal one-on-one time with customers.  As an end-user, I loved that.  Even if they weren’t able to address my problems at least I felt I had been heard.

Influence Sessions

SAP is taking a slightly different tact.  They are creating a “council” that will work to gather all the feedback that SAP BusinessObjects users give.  They will consolidate and prioritize the issues and work with the SAP BusinessObjects Product Development team to improve future product releases.  The Influence sessions will include:

Business Objects Enterprise Council – to discuss administration, security, platform features and versioning/change management within the Business Objects Enterprise solution.

Xcelsius Council – to discuss  issues surrounding the new integration with Excel, document areas for improvement, identify issues that are occurring with the system.

WebI Council -was formed last year and will be presenting an update of their work and where their recommendations fit into future SAP BusinessObjects product releases. A portion of the presentation will also include a discussion of migration from Deski to WebI.

Designer Council -  with no major changes in Designer since 1999 (yep, that’s 10 years!), the semanic layer is an area of upcoming innovation and redesign.  Make sure your voice is heard!

Data Management Council – will provide customers with the means for constructive dialog with SAP BusinessObjects regarding their use and implementation of the Data Services product. The Influence Council will provide SAP BusinessObjects with feedback from its users about proposed changes, integrations, or new features in future Data Services releases.

So Let Your Voice Be Heard

Plato said:  Necessity is the mother of invention.  I can tell you through my many years of experience that the best product features and innovations come from solving real-world customer problems. Therefore I strongly encourage you to attend the 2009 SAP BusinessObjects user conference and take full advantage of these Influence Council sessions.  You may be the reason behind the next major innovation at SAP BusinessObjects!

Click here for more information…

«Good BI»

Potential Future of Sets

Since the EOL announcement of BusinessObjects Performance Manager and two of the three analytic engines, Process Analysis and Predictive Analysis, there has been an ongoing question on the future of Set Analysis.  I have long been an advocate of the incredible power and importants of sets to help customers get a better understand of how data is changing under the covers.  If you have 100 more customers, that’s great… but how many did you lose and how many did you gain?  You may have lost 50 and actually added 150.  What about my “Gold” Customers?  How many new Gold Customers do I have?  Where did they go?  Did they become Silver members?

We have many customers who have successfully implemented Set Analysis; however the solution had not had significant R&D investment for some time and was tied to the legacy metrics engine of Performance Manager.  How could this technology be integrated into the new XI 3.X platform?

Sets and the Semantic Layer – I’m in Heaven

The Innovation Center has delivered a prototype which show Sets integrated directly into the Semantic Layer.  This prototype is a plug-in to the universe that allows you to create these “sets” , static or dynamic – all in the query panel.  Semantic layer sets lets customers leverage the complexity of  sets natively within that environment.  This is a huge step forward.

Check out the 15 minute video on the SDN website

You can see that this implementation can support all the classic calendar sets which will support of joiners, leavers, stayers, which are at the core of Set Analysis.  In this labs implementation there is support for both Visual Data and Visual Sets; however I hope this is expanded in the future to support Freehand SQL and an imported list.

I think this is a fantastic new innovation and needs to be added to the core product ASAP.  If you think so too, let your voice be heard:  http://sets.uservoice.com

I’ll keep you up-to-date with additional innovations around sets and may provide some additional posts on this topic if there’s interest.  Let me know.

«Good BI»

I continue to be amazed by the dashboards being developed by our customers and partners to meet on going business needs.  Across every industry and every organization, regardless of size, companies are able to consolidate information into a single, interactive dashboard view.  Customers constantly ask me for examples of what other organizations have done, so I decided it was time to assemble a list of the best Xcelsius websites with samples.

Some of my Favorites

1. My absolute favorite site is Inverra.  They are constantly updating their site with unique KPI centric examples.
   http://www.inverra.com/Dashboards/demos.htm
2. Analysis Factory.  Very professional graphics.  Their supply chain example is tops.
   http://www.analysisfactory.com/gallery.html
3. MyXcelsius Showcase.
   http://myxcelsius.com/showcase/
4. Everything Xcelsius
   http://everythingxcelsius.com/showcase
5. SAP SDN Xcelsius Samples. These samples are either from SAP or have been uploaded from customers.
   https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/xcelsius-samples
   

Dashboarding Ideas

Need to keep you finger on the pulse of the dashboarding scene?  Looking for great ideas around dashboards in general?  There is one website above all others that has great information about creating dashboards with both Xcelsius and non-Xcelsius based technologies.  The website is Dashboard Spy and I highly recommend you give it a look.
http://dashboardspy.com/

They also have a great list of dashboard screenshots that’s worth a look:
http://dashboardspy.com/screenshots.html

«Good BI»

After attending a local Memorial Day Rememberance and Celebration, I spent some time cleaning my office and I came across an excellent article which I wanted to pass along.  So often when I talk to organizations about Business Intelligence, I ask them about their business requirements so that I can understand their current business pain.  All to often what follows is feature function laundry list of capabilities they are sure they can’t live without.  Time after time, the BI requirements given to software vendors are not tied to a specific business problem. This is a recipe for disaster.

The following article is an article from DM Review entitled, Business Requirements for BI and the BI Portfolio: How to Get it Right:
http://www.b-eye-network.com/print/6887

This article does a great job at pointing out the weaknesses of generic BI requirements and why functional requirements are not enough.  If you have BI requirements and are evaluating BI tools, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read this article.

«Good BI»

Can’t be Activated in Aggravating

When opening powerpoint, I would see the following Windows error:

Some Controls on the Presentation can't be activated. They might not be registered on this computer.

I was left wondering if this was a problem with the new Powerpoint 2007, so an incompatibility between Xcelsius 4.5 and 2008.  After some research and an excellent article from the Xcelsius Journal, I was relieved to find out it was neither.  It was all about the flash viewer within Powerpoint.

Solving This Devilish Problem

Although I had long since upgraded my flash player within my Firefox browser, Powerpoint continued to hold on to the old flash version.  Although I upgraded my flash player within Internet Explorer, Powerpoint didn’t seem to see it.  Instead it was still using an old flash player and therefore I continued to get the message:  Some controls on this presentation can’t be activated.  They might not be registered on this computer.   It was so frustrating.  Eventually I was forced to manually perform a flash uninstall and a fresh reinstall.

Uninstalling Your Flash Player

For additional details about uninstalling your flash player, I recommend you refer to this article: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html

As a shortcut to the files referred to in this article, I have provided references to the Windows Uninstall programs here:
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/uninstall_flash_player.exe

Next, you will need to launch Internet Explorer and go to the adobe website.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

In some cases, you may want to manually download the installer for use offline.   Consider going to this site and downloading the flash player installer for manual installations.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

Back Flashy Presentations

Now that you’ve upgraded the flash player referenced by Powerpoint, you can get back to viewing those flashy Xcelsius presentations.  In the future I would expect Microsoft and Adobe to fix this problem.  I hope I never have to see this message again:  Some controls on this presentation can’t be activated.  They might not be registered on this computer.

«Good BI»

Service Oriented Architectures are amazing.  Now more than ever companies are leveraging freely available web services to add value to their internal data.  One of the most common ways on combining data today is via Google Maps. A great example of this is housingmaps.com.  Housingmaps combines the power of Google Maps and CraigsList to allow you to view available housing in your area together with the power of Google Map navigation.

Today, all tools from SAP BusinessObjects can consume web services.  The most popular reporting tool in the BusinessObjects platform is Crystal Reports.  With the report creation wizard, we can be consuming a web service is seconds.  Let’s walk through it step by step.  We will connect to a web service that will provide us driving directions from Point A to Point B.

Step by Step

1. Launch Crystal Reports 2008
2. From the Start Page, choose Report wizard, this will launch the Standard Report Creation
3. Next expand Create New Connection, and scroll down to XML and Web Services and expand the folder.
4. The XML and Web Services data source  dialog box will appear.  Choose Use Web Service Data Source and choose Next>.
5. In our case, we are going to use an HTTP Web Service, so choose Use HTTP(S) WSDL and type in:  http://www.ecubicle.net/driving.asmx?WSDL and choose Next>.
6. This Web Service does not require a UserID/Password, so choose Next>.
7. After a moment or two, the Web Service, Port and Method screen should appear.  You should see: driving, drivingSoap and GetDirections in the Service, Port and Method drop downs respectively.  (If this does not work, there may be a firewall issue at your location.  Check with your local IT.)  Choose Finish.
8. After choosing Finish, you will see a ResultSet box under the http://www.ecubicle.net/ data source.  (You may need to expand it).  Move the box over to the Selected Tables side by choosing the [>] button.   When you do, you will be prompted to enter some parameters.  So far so good.
9. There are four input parameters to this:
   fromAddress – the starting address, e.g. 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard Memphis, TN 38186
   toAddress – the destination address, e.g. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500
   distanceUnit – miles or km, default: miles
   expresswayEnabled – true or false, default:true
10. After entering the values choose OK.
11. Complete the Wizard by either choosing Finished or by walking through the remaining screens.
12. Once the fields are added to the report, you should the directs Elvis would need to take to drive to the White House.

Here is your finished report:

Leveraging Web Services from within SAP BusinessObjects couldn’t be easier.  If you are interested in seeing the same types of capabilities from within other BusinessObjects tools drop me a line and I’ll add it to the list.  Enjoy.

«Good BI»

I was at Sapphire 2009 last week and enjoyed getting a chance to talk with customers about their priorities in the new economic climate.  Everyone is hoping that things will turn around soon but in the meantime, there was a lot of interest around Business Intelligence and the best way to get all the information necessary to make the best business decisions.  Each day organizations are being forced to make hard choices and those choices need to be based on ALL the available  information available – not just hunches and best guesses.  More organizations have the information they need but they haven’t fully plugged into the power of Business Intelligence.

Market research shows two important two facts (previous reported by BusinessWeek):
• 43% of users say they’re not sure if internal information is accurate information
• 77% said bad decisions had been made because of lack of information

Now it the wrong time to make decisions on based gut feel, with inadequate information. Companies are looking to Business Intelligence tools to not only show them how to cut costs, but also how to model data for the future.  Regardless of what Business Intelligence platform you use, now is the time to leverage it to the fullest.

Here is a great follow-up article from BusinessWeek:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009032_101762.htm

«Good BI»