My name is David Taylor and I now live in Roswell, GA. I grew up in Canton, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois where I received a BS degree in Math &  Computer Science. During my time in college I studied abroad in Marburg, Germany.

Over the last 15 years I have focused on the Analytics and Business Intelligence space, helping customers understand the possibilities of taking appropriate action once their data has given insight to the problem.

I work with >$1B accounts, developing an account strategy and demonstrating the undeniable, tangible value of our Analytics software to our customers and prospects. Today I lead a team of 12 Solution Consultants who are helping transform organization through Analytics and Big Data Strategies in the Regulated, Financial and Retail sectors.

Please follow me on Twitter @trustedbi or connect with me on LinkedIn (please do let me if you’ve enjoyed this blog!).

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25 Comments

  1. Hello David.

    I have been working with Xcelsius to try and fulfill the following outlined objectives.

    1. Create a ‘website-like’ layout of dashboards beginning at a macro-perspective and working to micro operations for upper management to make effective business decisions.

    2. Include in this visual interconnection of charts, indicators, etc a series of options that include the ability to easily print just the chart or other analyses visuals such as gauges, etc.

    3. Include the option to jump to the source data being used in the analysis at any given point.

    The service that I have experienced working with your company has been a bit below par. I have emailed your company several times trying to get assistance on these issues, and have had no luck thus far.

    Below are the primary problems I have had when working with your product.

    1. Including an option to easily jump to the source data to view or easily print.

    2. Print just the chart, gauge, or other analyses object being viewed. From what I understand, the only option that Xcelsius offers is to print the screen, as is.

    3. Also, randomly, when I am viewing my canvas, all of my objects will disappear and I will only be able to view them when I preview my dashboard. This is not related the ‘hide’ function in the objects browser.

    4. Dynamically link swf files and navigate between them on the same browser window. So far I have only been able to come close to accomplishing this when I export to a pdf document and then use a URL auto trigger directed at a location on the network (as management across the company will need access to these various swf files).

    Also, security is a must with this. I need to be able to make this information secure so that charts, gauges, or other metrics cannot somehow end up in the hands of anyone that is not authorized to view it.

    Again, I have sent representatives at Xcelsius several emails about items such as this and received no help. I’m sure you can imagine my frustration and reluctance to look for other alternatives.

    Thanks and your prompt response will be greatly appreciated.

    Robin Tanner
    Operations Analyst

    Reply

  2. Hi Robin,

    We do these types of things all the time. We need to get you linked up with the right team. I will contact you directly and link you up with someone from SAP BusinessObjects who can help you.

    –david

    Reply

  3. Hi David,

    Our company has invested enormously in the Business Object’s Dashboard and Performance Managment software, and I have recently been on the approved courses.

    I’ve found the products to be very complicated and awkward to set up, in comparison to getting something up and running and more visual like in Xcelsius.

    Can I ask what your thoughts and experiences of these products are? And how they are to be further developed perhaps in the future? I’ve not heard of any significant improvements in XI r3.

    What would you say there advantages are over Xcelsius? This is currently shelfware for us!

    Also why is the BO hard drive footprint so big!

    Lee

    Reply

  4. Hi David,

    I am looking for a database expert to retrieve historical data from a Datatrac courier system. I believe the data is stored in an ISAM file structure.
    Can you point me to the right person?

    Tony

    Reply

    1. Hi Tony,

      I worked at Datatrac in the past and still have friends over there. They are a great company. You can either query data out of the ISAM files directly by using the Synergex ODBC driver (available from Datatrac), or you can unload your ISAM files to flat files and use an ETL like Data Integrator to load the data into a datamart. Datatrac can provide you additional information.

      –david

      Reply

  5. Hi David,

    Just discovered your blog….must say it is a fantastic destination for all things BusinessObjects. Have specific questions regarding going from 3.1 FP1.3 to FP 2.5. Do I have to install all the FP’s prior to 2.5 or will the exe for FP2.5. I attempted an install of SP2 and it barked saying it couldn’t see FP 1.6, 1.5, etc. Will the FP 2.5 exe simply update my installation without any pre reqs. Any info is greatly appreciated.

    Reply

    1. Patrick – sorry for the huge delay in getting back to you on this. If you want to go from 3.1 FP1.3 to FP2.5, then you need to do the following.
      1. Install XI 3.1 SP2 – this gets you to the base 2 level… now you can install fixpacks on top.
      2. Install XI 3.1 FP2.5 – this will install all the fixes for FP2.1, FP2.2, FP2.3, FP2.4 and FP2.5. All fix packs are cumulative.

      Reply

  6. Hi David,

    First, i wanna say that, you have a perfect blog. I really like it. Secondly, i need some help about integrating busines objects with non sap systems. I dont know how i can do this integration.(not BW or BI)

    Thanks in advance ,

    Ozgur

    Reply

    1. Ozgur… I’m sorry but did you have a question? BW is a data warehousing environment from SAP and BusinessObjects is the BI (Business Intelligence) platform. It allows users to create reports against SAP or any non-SAP data source.

      Reply
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  9. David,

    Great blog! Just thought I would let you know about my new book, “Using Crystal Reports with SAP”, now available through SAP Press. The book is a result of working with the integration of Crystal Reports and SAP BW for over 8 years. It’s packed with lots of detailed information and focuses on those top few skills you need to “get it done” when reporting off of SAP BW.

    Mike Garrett

    Reply
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  10. hi, i am interested with xcelsius n i have question? how about with large data, make filter item data n save in excel more then 2000 record n very slow for save n open the file .swf,how about architecture with xcelsius ? filter data or display, i want implementation in my company,thanks my email wayang_2000@yahoo.com

    Reply
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  12. Good afternoon David,

    Was wondering whether you are still a SBO employee or an independent?

    I have partnered with many of your “Favorites” and would like to know how we could too!

    Thank you for your reply.

    Reply

  13. Am using a BOBJ XI 3.1 Enterprise –

    Our environment has changed and need some integration help

    Let me know if you might be interested

    Thanks

    Jack

    Reply

  14. Hi david

    I would ask you about the problem Service iqsrv15.exe consume almost all physical memory on Windows server 2003. do you have advice about this problem?

    Regards
    hartanto

    Reply

  15. Greetings David,

    I’m wondering if you can answer a question about SAP BO? I’m trying to find out whether BO can use Oracle’s Active Data Guard (read only) database as a source for reporting? From what I’ve been able to find, it appears the BO can store metadata in a separate read/write database, but can the actual reporting data come from a read only database?

    Thank you for your time.

    Reply

  16. Hi David,

    I just read your blog “Lumira 1.29 – Data Blending Comes of Age”. This might help me achieve results on the project I am working on.

    I have data at Fiscal week level. Can I calculate % of change using this methodology.

    i.e. FW 2 billing (28,978,618.20) – FW 1 billing (19,035,439.28)

    % of change would be 52.24% (i.e FW2-Fw1/Fw2)

    Awaiting your positive response!

    Thanks,
    Ganesh

    Reply

  17. Hi David,

    I could easily calculate and compare Fiscal week 2 vs Fiscal week 1 and get the % of the change following the steps mentioned in your blog.

    However found another way of doing this calculation, instead of loading two datasets we can calculate % of change using “Different from” under custom calculations.

    Is there a way to see top 10 variance/% change. Can we write a formula which can show us top 10 positive variance values and top 10 negative variance values?

    Thanks,
    Ganesh

    Reply

  18. Hi David,

    I hope you are well. I read in one of your blogs about CenterPoint Energy and how they optimized their CRM Customer Segmentation by implementing HANA.
    I am working on SAP CRM system where we have migrated to HANA DB from ORACLE DB however we are sill on SAP CRM system. Is there any way by which we can utilize HANA DB capabilities in SAP CRM segmentation for faster segmentation? I know we can create different views in HANA however how I can use them as data source in SAP CRM for performing segmentation? Any pointer related to this will of great help! Thanks

    Nilesh

    Reply

  19. Hi David,

    We have two licenses for SAP BO 3.1. Named User and CPU. Due to some audit issue, we are asked to give up CPU license. Can you please let me know if there is any impact if I simply delete the CPU license after changing all concurrent users to Named users? Thanks.

    Reply
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