Hello All,
I used to work with BO reporting few years back and currently I am back to the same company which still has version 5.1.7. They are looking to see what are the major advantages in upgrading to the newer version of BO. Is there a document or any info available somewhere that can help me understand all the changes? I used to develop universes using designer too and wondering what major changes have been made.
I would appreciate any help
Thanks! 
lbrewer (BOB member since 2002-08-15)
To know the features, please read What’s New product guides from here.
Jansi 
(BOB member since 2008-05-12)
If your employer is looking into upgrade, they should contact their account manager. He or she will be more than happy to come out and do some demo to your IT folks and your executives.
substring 
(BOB member since 2004-01-16)
Please, see Sticky: New features in SAP BI 4.0 Sticky: New features in SAP BI 4.0.
Andreas 
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
The release notes only give a version by version change. The cumulative changes since 5.1.7 are tremendous. The 6.x series had some serious changes over 5 and XI was almost a totally new product. Full client (Deski) was the only usable tool for 5.x and XI 4 is entirely Crystal and Web Intelegence. The latest versions of XI, 3.1 or 4, have a lot of advantages over 5.1.7, but I am not sure that there is a real upgrade path.
It may be better to approach this as a new implementation instead. This would allow using the new features to their full advantage and not propogating old limitations.
Lee Drake (BOB member since 2002-08-15)
I agree with Lee that you should think about building from scratch instead of trying to migrate all across the different versions.
If you have a huge set of reports and universes and can’t rebuild them all at least rebuild the enterprise (security structure) from scratch and migrate the documents. Note that the migration path from 5.x to 4.x does require multiple steps so if you do plan on migrating it is a fairly involved process.
A few things to think about, get rid of all VB code and Desk Intelligence reports. Plan on moving to Web Intelligence and get the users understanding that pending change. It can be a bit of a sticking point for people as they are different tools even if the functionality is very similar.
4.0 just came out and in general you might want to think about sticking to 3.x if you are going to migrate soon. 4.0 is nice, but it is barely in general release and is definitely a higher risk implementation for you.
Good luck on what you end up doing but be sure to ask for help and for advice as you go through this exercise!
edurda (BOB member since 2005-09-08)
Of course I disagree.
If you are looking to migrate anyway, why bet on an old horse?
Sure SAP BI 4.0 is new, but taking into consideration how long it might take you to go through the whole migration project (including getting the funding, etc.) I rather tend to go with the newest release.
If you are also an SAP BW customer the more reason you have to go with SAP BI 4.0, because of the new, direct access capability of SAP BI 4.0 to SAP BEx queries (via BICS ABAB).
Why migrate to XI 3.1 only to migrate soon again to SAP BI 4.0?
Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)
Fair enough, I’m admittedly conservative. I just hate being a beta tester for any software company! In general I like to wait until the first major service pack as a minimum. We already know that 4.1 will have a lot of functionality in it beyond the normal fixes so I worry that 4.0 to 4.1 is practically another upgrade in itself.
Based on his predicament his company doesn’t seem to be early adopters so I’m guessing they have either been burned in the past (I know I have!) or they just don’t have a lot of strong business needs pulling this upgrade along.
I will agree with your comment about the project cycle and if you are not going to roll this out until June of next year then sure, shoot for 4 and you’ll probably have 4.1 installed by the time you go live anyway. If you are doing something right away, I’d wait a bit.
I suppose my point is that you should look at what the different versions offer and factor in the pain of early adoption (based on your actual go live date) and then make your decision. Just don’t decide on 4.0 just because it is newer and therefore better. But do plan on upgrading more often than every 10 years no matter what!
Working in the new technology can be very painful…almost as painful as working in old technology.
edurda (BOB member since 2005-09-08)
We’ve been debating that in my company as well. Currently we are on XI R2 and plan on blowing up our data warehouse (for many reasons) and starting from scratch. Most of think it’ll be better to just go with the latest version, instead of doing double the work. Plus we have a limited budget for this project.
allovertheplace (BOB member since 2011-09-12)