HANA...

My first question when I into the diagram below is will HANA be able to replace the SAP BI (backend)? In my opinion, after going though some articles by Thomas Zurek , I do have the impression that the future data modelling and transformation can take place in the database-level modelling tool .In one of  the talk on HANA by Daniel Rutschmann, he answered the question by saying that BW will not be replaced as there is a need of having a datawarehouse system for harmonization and consolidation purposes, eg. to consolidate data from more than one ERP system in a company (But bear in mind, any multinational company out there will surely put aside a big budget to cut down cost of operation and to standardize the process through convergence of all the ERP systems into one single instance). John Appleby says 'No', with one of the reason being the business content (But it won't be a surprise that SAP is starting to look at building HANA around the business suites).

This is an interesting forum that discuss some of the confusion and in this clip, you can see how well SAP BO integrate directly with SAP HANA. This is also an interesting technical step by step document that demonstrate how a variable is applied in HANA modelling.

SAP HANA Overview and Roadmap 

 

Big Changes in SAP BI with the new acquisitions

We have all heard of SAP acquisition of BO,Outlooksoft and HANA. For BO,the impact hits directly on the SAP Bex frontend tools as it will replace Bex query and WAD as the frontend reporting tool. But there is still a lot to work on the integration part between BI7 backend and BO in which we are still seeing Bex query as a much needed component to integrate the customer exit and authorization portion with the BI7 backend engine. Universe is still build on Bex query, and it is required for Webi and Xcelsius via QAAWS to read the dataset.But in BO4, the universe layer is eliminated, as in the Bex query integrate directly with Webi and Xcelsius. Before BO acquisition, SAP never has a true dashboard tool and this position Xcelsius as the strategic dashboard tool for SAP.

As for acquisition of Outlooksoft, SAP has already build a strong integration of the new BPC tool with the netweaver platform. BPC will be a poweful budgeting and consolidation tool that leverage on excel and netweaver platform. But a lot of customers on BI-IP and SEM-BCS are quite reluctant to transition their existing budgeting and consolidation tool as that would merely means a whole new setup and deployment in the wide organization. There is not any direct linkage between BI-IP, SEM-BCS and BPC. They are completely different tools altogether, meaning there isn't any real transition, it means replacement.

It took quite a while for HANA to evolve when SAP bought over Transactions In Memory. But ever since BO acquisition and cost of hardware storage become more affordable,the future of SAP BI is starting to piece all the new products acquisition into picture as we are now seeing HANA to tap into huge volumes of detailed information directly to access real time data. HANA is expected to include BICS,SQL and MDX interfaces, meaning that it can be easily dropped into BO environments to dramatically improve performance. Some BO analyses, whether in the BO web client interface or in Advanced Analysis can achieve optimized reporting capability through HANA.

Many BW consultants are in pressure to move into BOBJ and HANA platform so to catch up with the desired skillsets in the future job demand. Some of the info in the links below provide some clarity on the whole transition from SAP Bex to BO as well as the positioning of HANA and the BW backend.

Business Objects vs. BEX
Is upgrading to SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 right for you?
SAP BI roadmap one year later: How's Business Objects working out for SAP BI customers?
Customers express hopes for, concerns about SAP BusinessObjects 4.0
What to do with BEx tools in a BOBJ world?
SAP: Don't rush from SAP BEx tools to SAP BusinessObjects
HANA and BW 7.30
SAP HANA Overview & Roadmap
Will HANA eliminate the need for BW? 
Why SAP HANA should start replacing SAP BW?

When it comes to in memory data modelling, this is the part I am a bit confuse. How is SAP going to integrate and maximize the features of SAP BODS and Hana Studio.

We have also heard of  Rapid Application Development. The objective of such tool is to enable customer to deliver something fast within the company's budget. The tool is bundled into most of the stuffs the user can use out of the box with some configuration on the master data and authorization being the biggest chunk of work there is. A good example is the SRM BI module called Spend Performance Management. The dashboards and reports are made available in the package and data is retrive directly from the ERP via Data Integrator. Now, that put SAP BW closer to the space of legacy tools.

SAP BI-BO-BPC-Xcelsius Integration

Recently I came across a reporting requirement to develop an Xcelsius dashboard that contain data  from BPC reporting.The first thing that came across my mind is the integration point and the single version of truth in terms of the final results and formulas applied in BPC.We can connect Xcelsius to the BPC Applications via the universe using QAAWS or we can opt for the EPM connector that leverage on the Extended Analytics.For the later approach, be careful that the Extended Analytics and the EPM connector wil only work in Xcelsius if the Service Pack level for the ODBO driver is the same as the Extended Analytics. Else you may encounter issue using 'getreportdefinition' command in the Extended Analytics or connecting to the BPC server via EPM connector.

Another thing to consider is the SSO, if your BPC has domain login and BO server has SAP logon, there is no way you can skip the BPC domain logon prompt when you refresh the data from Extended Analytics.Using the Extended Analytics and EPM approach,we can use the Custom Member feature to apply the MDX formula to derive any calculated field.

Another thing that came across my mind is the single client tool that the organization has to strategically deploy across for all reporting users. For example if consolidation and budgeting is build on the BPC platform, it is just logical that the reporting on group console and budgeting reports are done from Extended Analytics which enable user to read the BPC data structure rather than start building Webi or Bex reports out of BPC applications due to the differences in BW and BPC structure. Furthermore  BPC v10 client can read both BPC and BW structures.

In regards of Xcelsius, finance dashboard can be build from the EPM connector interface and other reports such as PTP or OTC reporting via the universe from QAAS. In BO4, universe layer is not required anymore to read from Bex query. Instead there is Advanced Analysis (embedded in Excel engine) that has direct connectivity to SAP BW backend system and Bex query.Xcelsius can consume data displayed in Advanced Analysis via BICS (BI Consumer Services). Just take note that Advaced Analysis (as well as Explorer) does not come in BO Starter Package licence.