A Comprehensive Guide to SAP BusinessObjects BI

SAP BusinessObjects BI or SAP BO, formally known as BOBJ, is an enterprise software solution that specializes in reporting and analytical business intelligence (BI). It comprises various reporting applications that help users to find data, conduct analytics, and generate reports.

SAP BusinessObjects also offers other services such as consulting and education. It aims to simplify the process of reporting and analytics allowing SAP customers to deploy business intelligence projects and perform predictive analytics without any support from data analysts.

Furthermore, the SAP BO BI apps make use of the drag-and-drop functionality so that the users can discover and analyze data from various sources. SAP BO is a front-end-based BI platform that integrates data from different back-end sources instead of storing it at the application level.

Different Types of SAP BusinessObjects BI Applications

SAP BusinessObjects BI comprises of a number of useful reporting and analytics-based applications that help to streamline various functions. Let’s have a look at the important applications-

Main Applications and Products of SAP BusinessObjects BI

Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports is a reporting and data analytics application that can benefit small and medium business enterprises as well as individual customers. It helps in the creation of dynamic reports using a plethora of data sources, offering the same to various formats. One can access it from applications, web portals, or mobile devices that report both offline and online.

Web Intelligence and Webi

Another important application is Web Intelligence or Webi, a web-based browser that conducts analysis, generates formatted reports, and hands out reports on SAP BO. It can also send them to PDF or Excel.

Query as a Web Service

The Query as a Web Service (QaaWS) is a useful application tool that helps users in developing and publishing web services. You can use the web service in Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards apart from other software applications.

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is an application tool that helps in data visualization, allowing users to develop customized dashboards using the reports. It may include gauges, interactive charts, and widgets.

SAP Lumira

SAP Lumira is another essential application tool that helps users discover business data and develop custom-built interactive dashboards and analytics applications. You need to find and visualize the data on your own.

SAP BO Explorer

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is similar to SAP Lumira as it also helps users to discover a large amount of data from different sources. It is also a self-service data searching tool that lets you create data visualizations and share them across various channels.

SAP BO Universe

Before we dig more into the advantages, let’s have a brief discussion on what SAP BO Universe is. It is known as the core aspect of SAP BO containing the different layers of metadata integrating the server-side data with the client-side application layer.

You can get in touch with the data without having knowledge of its source or origin. You also don’t need to know about database structure or data storage. It is because the universe does not store data on its own but it offers information on objects, which in turn creates SQL queries retrieving the real data.

The Important Benefits of BusinessObjects BI

Though SAP BusinessObjects is more than a decade old, it still holds its relevance even today. It is a great tool that offers business intelligence and reporting with the help of viable applications. It also allows SAP to generate a comprehensive Extract-Transform Load along with data services.
Now, let’s check out why a business organization should look to choose SAP Objects BI.

Offers the Best Analytics Reporting Tool

SAP BO has a Web Intelligence application that makes it one of the leading query and the best analytics reporting tools. What does it mean to be a business enterprise? It means that they can cater to numerous rows in a singular report. It also means that they can develop documents using various universes and data sources.

You can even create highly customizable reports, advanced analytics documents, and hybrid dashboards using more than 150 available functions.

Highly Scalable Architecture

SAP BO offers the benefit of scalable architecture allowing SAP experts to adjust users easily with the help of server clustering and cloning.

Connection With SAP HANA

SAP BO also allows users to take leverage in its in-memory database or SAP HANA movement. You can access big data to predict the future rapidly.

Robust Security and System Administration

SAP BO allows you to manage security in the Central Management Console (CMC, which secures the BI data solutions more comprehensively. The CMC also maintains and manages the servers.

The Benefits of the BO Universe

The BO Universe is a key part of SAP Business Objects, a layer of metadata providing access to any data source. It offers a set of features and functionalities that make it the best data source for reporting.

Offers Tools for Each Case

As discussed earlier, SAP BusinessObjects offers a wide range of tools and applications that users can use to carry out various tasks. For instance, SAP Design Studio provides detailed analytics and impressive OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) applications and dashboards with iPad and HTML-5 UI support.

Similarly, SAP Predictive Analysis helps in the visualization of future scenarios and leverages the advantage of SAP HANA. There are also some more important tools such as Web Intelligence, SAP Lumira, and SAP Crystal Reports.

SAP Data Servies

As the name implies, it helps to manage all information appropriately, You can also carry out all ETL-based tasks easily.

Launchpad with Enterprise BI

It helps the users in gaining access to their reports, storyboards, dashboards, and analytics documents using a browser. This browser is also called BI Launchpad.

Mobile BI

SAP BusinessObjects also offers the benefit of mobile BI, which allows users to view their reports and insights on their smartphone devices and tablets. The SAP BO Mobile Server for BI 4.1 gets synchronized with the SAP BO platform.

Some Other Advanced Features

SAP BusinessObjects also offers some other advanced features besides the above-mentioned advantages. They include-

• Provides SAP HANA native support to the applications.
• It offers better data connection with the support of more than 140 data sources and connectivity to MongoDB, NoSQL DBMS, and so on.
• Implementing the 64-bit technology for gaining the advance of advanced hardware and memory.
• Offers a native SAP Business Warehouse support
• Extended BI Suite with Software Development Kit (SDK) and mobile BI software with an aim to develop customized mobile apps and deployment.

Role of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in SAP BO

• It offers cloud-based BI deployment options and comprehensive support for SAP BI clients on a single platform.
• It also provides real-time embedded monitoring with parallel patching.
• An innovative auditing tool that tells you how people use the product.

Essential Components of SAP BusinessObjects BI

The major components of SAP BO BI are as follows-

• Reporting
• Data Discovery and Visualization
• Application and Dashboard Building
• Deployment and Administration

It must be noted that different SAP BO applications contribute their part in supporting these components. For instance, for reporting, you can use SAP Crystal Records and SAP BO Web Intelligence. Similarly, if you want to build SAP applications and dashboards, you need SAP BO Design Studio and SAP Dashboards.

Major Operating Systems Supporting SAP BO

The SAP BusinessObjects BI suite can easily run on all major operating systems such as Linux, Windows, and Unix platforms. You also need to obtain a valid license for SAP BO BI such as SAP Lumira, Mobile BI, SAP Lumira Server, and a license for SAP HANA running Lumira server.

On an Ending Note

SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions provide leading and user-friendly applications that manage enterprise reporting and analytics requirements. It also helps in the creation of interactive applications and dashboards as well as data visualization benefits. If you want to improve your productivity and make data-centric decisions, you can contact experienced SAP Consultants today!