Migrating Analysis for Office workbooks from BW to BI Platform

Posted by Xavier Hacking

We are in process of moving a lot of Analysis for Office (AfO) workbooks from a SAP BW environment to the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform. Besides storing the workbooks on BI Platform, we of course want to use the OLAP connection on the BI Platform to connect to BW, instead of using the direct – locally defined – connection from AfO to BW.

AfO has a nice feature to quickly swap source systems, but it is a bit hidden. We are using Analysis for Office 2.3 by the way.

1. Open the workbook you want to migrate. Make sure your workbook is not connected to the BW system. Display the Design Panel, go to the Components tab and select your workbook. Right-click to Log Off.afo_switch_1

2. If you click on a data source you can see the System Alias.afo_switch_2

3. Now right-click the workbook again. Select Replace System.afo_switch_3

4. By the way, you can also find this option in the AfO Settings, via File | Analysis | Settings | Platform | Replace System.afo_switch_4

5. You now see the Replace System menu, where you can select a new system.afo_switch_5

6. Initially this only shows the SAP systems that are defined in your SAP Logon. Click the button in the left bottom corner to login to the BI Platform.
afo_switch_6

7. Now the OLAP connections from the BI Platform are also selectable. Choose the connection you want to use.afo_switch_7

8. A message is given about workbooks that contain planning functions.afo_switch_8

9. If you now select the data source again in the Components tab you’ll see the new System Alias.afo_switch_9

10. Now you can Refresh the workbook and/or Save it to the BI Platform.

HackingSAP.com - Oct 8, 2016 | Analysis for Office, Knowledge sharing
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16 comments

  1. David Z
    March 10, 2017

    Thanks Xavier!

    You saved the day.

    Reply
    • Vishal Bagherwal
      July 20, 2017

      Hello David, thanks for sharing the information, we are in the process of implmenting AO. Im collecting data to decide which platform to use SAP BW (BW on HANA) or BI Platform(BOBJ 4.2 SP3). can you please help me why should I choose one and not other. except for scheduling feature which is BI Platform

      Reply
      • Vishal Bagherwal
        July 20, 2017

        Sorry about the name Typo, Thanks Xavier, the question is for you 🙂

        Reply
      • Xavier Hacking
        July 22, 2017

        Hi Vishal,

        We chose to use the BI Platform instead of BW to host the Analysis Office Workbooks for the following reasons:
        – Licensing (can use the BI Platform concurrent license, which was cheaper for us, but depends on your contract);
        – Reporting centralization (all our reporting documents are hosted on BI Platform, so this is also the logical place to have Analysis Office Workbooks);
        – Easy opening Analysis Office Workbooks from BI Platform, without having to manually connect and login in Analysis Office;
        – Scheduling.

        Cheers,
        Xavier

        Reply
  2. Fiona Lunt
    August 23, 2017

    Hi,

    I am trying to convert from BEX 3.0 to analysis first then I will need to move across to BO. I have added my workbook to a BW platform using the Analysis tab “Save Workbook”, I logged onto a development platform and saved it into my favourites, which I can open using the “Open Workbook Tab”

    However when I select “Convert Bex Workbook” there is nothing under my favourites after connecting to the correct system. We are using BW 750 & Analysis 2.3

    Any ideas

    Cheers
    Fiona

    Reply
    • Fiona Lunt
      August 23, 2017

      Not to worry found a work round.

      Reply
  3. Sarthak Srivastava
    September 8, 2017

    Hi,
    I am able to replace the system, but how to save it on BI platform, where does it get saved??

    Reply
    • Xavier Hacking
      September 9, 2017

      Hi,

      You have to go to the Analysis menu under File. Here you’ll find the options to save the workbook to the BI Platform. You can save it in your favorites folder, or in one of the Public Folders (if you have sufficient rights of course).

      Cheers,
      Xavier

      Reply
      • Clemens
        November 7, 2017

        Hi Xavier, thank you for the answer. Unfortunately, the option “Save to BI platform” is not available if you open the workbook from Netweaver platform. Only the “Save to Netweaver platform” option is displayed. Any suggestion?
        BR
        Clemens

        Reply
        • Xavier Hacking
          November 7, 2017

          Hi Clemens,

          Then you are probably still connected to the BW Netweaver platform. So first make sure you migrate the workbook to a BI Platform connection, and then save it to the BI Platform.

          Cheers,
          Xavier

          Reply
          • Clemens
            November 7, 2017

            Hi Xavier,
            I have replaced the system from Netweaver to OLAP BI connection and still no luck 🙁

          • Xavier Hacking
            November 7, 2017

            Really strange. But you are able to refresh the data via the BI Platform?

            Maybe there are multiple data sources in your workbook, and not all of them have been migrated?

            What happens if you create a new workbook, is this option then also not available?

            Regards,
            Xavier

  4. Amir
    May 15, 2018

    Hi Xavier,
    I use AO v2.6 but I have same problem as Clemens, there is no option “Save to BI platform”, maybe you did something else more in options of AO?

    Reply
  5. Claus Eriksen
    May 24, 2018

    Great article. Just what I was looking for

    Reply
  6. Claus Eriksen
    May 24, 2018

    Great article. Just what I was looking for.

    Reply
  7. Peter van den Bemt
    July 31, 2020

    Great Article 🙂
    I used it for creating work instructions

    Reply

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