Xcelsius
SAP BI product name shake-up: the 2017 edition
Another year, another set of product names for our beloved SAP BI tools. Seemingly out of nowhere a list of new names were presented last week at the SAPPHIRENOW event in Orlando FL. Even after all the name changes we had in the past 10 years (‘member Xcelsius?), this still came a bit as a surprise for me.
When @SAP acknowledged name-changes across #businessintelligence & #analytics, I didn't realize it was quite this extensive! @SAPPHIRENOW pic.twitter.com/Fa5W5fjdGh
— Doug Henschen (@DHenschen) May 18, 2017
So let’s have a look at what happened here. First it seems like the whole BI portfolio is now recognized as SAP Analytics. Apparently it was named SAP BusinessObjects Analytics before (I always thought it was ‘SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence’, but that could be because I’m mostly focussing on the BI part of the tools), but this makes sense. The old BI terminology is probably seen as too limited, as the current and future analytics will go way beyond only internal data and usage scenarios. Of course the bigger change is that SAP continues to ditch the BusinessObjects brand: SAP BusinessObjects Cloud becomes SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP BusinessObjects Lumira will be SAP Lumira and SAP BusinessObjects Roambi just SAP Roambi.
Meanwhile, some of the more classic BusinessObjects tools keep their BusinessObjects brand: SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. Analysis for Office loses the ‘for Office’ specification: SAP BusinessObjects Analysis. Following the conversion strategy this makes sense, as Analysis OLAP hasn’t been improved for a while and should be replaced by the Design Studio generic analysis template. Talking about Design Studio, which is not in the above photo, it is now labeled as SAP Analytics Design Studio (!!!) on SAP.com. Which, is a pretty insane name change at this point in time as the upcoming edition of the tool (only weeks away) will merge into Lumira 2.0 anyway. Talking about insane stuff, when I was browsing SAP.com I also saw that SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius) is still actively advertised. Madness.
Anyway, what I don’t understand is why SAP is keeping this BusinessObjects brand alive at all. Does it still have a value if all your major (new) tools are not using it? Maybe it’s for the non-SAPBW/HANA legacy customer base? But come on, it has been 10 years now since the acquisition and this is again (or still) a mess. Some tools have SAP Analytics in the name, some SAP BusinessObjects and some only SAP. I can’t wait for next year’s edition!
Posted in: Featured, SAP, SAP BusinessObjects, SAP LumiraSAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook Sample Chapter
We uploaded a free sample of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook containing the first chapter of the book. It will give you a good idea of how the step-by-step cookbook/recipe structure, supported with lots of screenshots works and looks like.
Check it at PacktPub.com or just browse through the Slideshare below.
Posted in: Cookbook, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusSAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook now available
I’m very happy to announce the release of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook. The book is available right now in both eBook and paperback editions and can be ordered by most major online book vendors. It will also be available on several online book libraries.
As I blogged last month co-author David Lai and I decided to go for another run to update and improve the original SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook to make this the ultimate resource for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius). We worked on this second edition for the past 10 months and are very content with the final result. With about 100 recipes and over 450 pages of content (100 pages more than the first edition) this is thé ultimate and definite guide for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 developers!
In this updated version of the cookbook we broadened the scope a bit for the beginning SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developer as well for the more experienced user. We now provide some more introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards tool itself before diving into the practical step-by-step recipes right from the start. For the more seasoned users we added chapters about dashboard performance tuning and development productivity, plus a bunch of new tips & tricks throughout the book.
The original cookbook was released almost five years ago and covered version 4.0 of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The second edition is updated up to the latest version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1. Together with a team of technical reviewers, existing of some world class SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developers, we checked the existing content from the first cookbook on its relevance, correctness and completeness. Most recipes have been updated, some a bit more than others, and we decided to keep a few of them out of the new book.
Of course we also added a lot of new recipes to feature the new 4.1 features and include more tips & tricks. We discuss all the new components, the new mobile dashboards concept and the new connectivity options, complemented with new chapters on performance tuning and development productivity. At the end of the book the other dashboarding solution by SAP (Design Studio) is introduced.
For more information on the book you can check this page on my site. You can also go to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook page at Packt Publishing, where you can also download a sample and buy the book.
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook, by Xavier Hacking and David Lai, Packt Publishing, ISBN 9781784391959, 452 pages.
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com (paperback)
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com (Kindle)
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Goodreads
Posted in: Books, Cookbook, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusSAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook (2nd edition) coming this spring
We are currently in the very final stages of editing the second edition of the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook. We expect the book to be available in an eBook and paper edition in just a few weeks from now (April 2015).
For this updated version of the cookbook we broadened the scope a bit for the beginning SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developer as well for the more experienced user. We will for example provide some more introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards tool itself before diving into the practical step-by-step recipes right from the start. For the more seasoned users we added chapters about dashboard performance tuning and development productivity, plus a bunch of new tips & tricks throughout the book.
The original cookbook was released almost five years ago and covered version 4.0 of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The second edition is updated up to the latest version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1. Together with a team of technical reviewers, existing of some world class SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards developers, we checked the existing content from the first cookbook on its relevance, correctness and completeness. Most recipes have been updated, some a bit more than others, and we decided to keep a few of them out of the new book.
Of course we also added a lot of new recipes to feature the new 4.1 features and include more tips & tricks. We discuss all the new components, the new mobile dashboards concept and the new connectivity options, complemented with new chapters on performance tuning and development productivity. At the end of the book the other dashboarding solution by SAP (Design Studio) is introduced.
With 100 recipes and 470 pages of content (almost 150 pages more than the first edition) this will be thé ultimate and definite guide for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 developers!
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook, by Xavier Hacking and David Lai, Packt Publishing, ISBN 9781784391959, 472 pages.
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.1 Cookbook on Amazon.com
Posted in: Books, Cookbook, Featured, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, XcelsiusArticle for BusinessObjects Expert on add-ons for Dashboards
I wrote an article for the BusinessObjects Expert platform about add-ons for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. These add-ons are third-party plugins that extend the functionality of the standard toolset of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and they can consist of additional components or connectivity options. Examples are add-ons that let you load data from CSV-files or offer some specific charting types.
In the article I discuss eight of the coolest add-ons available right now. If you have a BusinessObjects Expert subscription you can check it here.
Posted in: SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, Xcelsius