I am currently working with a client on a query/reporting and metadata admin tool search. BO is looking like the winner for most user needs - however there is one department that needs to retain the statistical capabilities of SAS, and we’re looking at the possibility of a hybrid solution for them.
My question is, would it be possible to export or otherwise make accessible the definitions/logic that are built in to a universe for use with other tools? Is there something akin to a materialized view that could be created from the Universe in Oracle, and then accessed using SAS?
It looks like it will happen with the merge of Crystal… Eventually the Crystal users will be able to use BO Universes… but for now only BO Tools can access Universes… You can do some researchon the Business Objects Site on their migration path and it will talk about it sometime in 2005…
I’ve been as sites that also had SAS… and we used BO for the DSS/Adhoc tool and reporting and SAS for the Analytical tool… Both pointing to the same database… but nothing could be shared as far as the toolset.
So, the answer to the actual question is , “No”. You won’t be able to use a universe with SAS. You could certainly build something at the database level that mimics it, but the universe itself is proprietary and only useable by BO products.
The BCIP (BO/Crystal Integration Pack) will let you Crystal source a report from a BO universe. It will not be very dynamic, however. It will simply use the universe to create the SQL code. Then it will break the link. If the universe changes, the report will not change.