https://websmp210.sap-ag.de/~sapdownload/011000358700000503952010E/bobj_deski_eol.pdf
Looks like DeskI is being killed off after XI3.1
joepeters 
(BOB member since 2002-08-29)
Godsh - do you suppose their announcements that they are not enhancing the product MIGHT have caused the reduced demand and use??? DUH!!! 
Charles Killam (BOB member since 2003-04-24)
My thoughts exactly. Oh, and Xcelsius is no longer Xcelsius. I never could get the hang of typing that correctly, anyway.
joepeters (BOB member since 2002-08-29)
Am I the only one who thinks that annoucing this on April 1 is not going to
help with communicating a clear message to customers ?
Hayden_Gill 
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
or maybe thatâs a subtle hint that this is a joke and DeskI will be around for much longer. Right? Right?
joepeters (BOB member since 2002-08-29)
Agreed⌠Threaten people long enough and they will âsurrender.â
We can only hope that by then they have included functionality that is currently in DeskI but missing in WebI.
3.x has many improvements but there are still a couple important (to me) things missing. IMHO.
REB01 (BOB member since 2004-11-29)
Hi Reb01,
What you think the important things that are missing?
ThanksâŚ
JohnJustus (BOB member since 2007-06-25)
About time that Desk is retired for good, people know how I feel about this legacy product 
Now, I need to ask SAP Marketing what were they thinking renaming Xcelsius to Crystal blah⌠what 
What does Crystal have to do with Xcelsius or dashboarding? 
Now, roll Crystal and Webi into one product (letâs call it Deski 
) and we have done a big step towards consolidation of too many tools.
Andreas 
(BOB member since 2002-06-20)
Ridiculous.
Nick Daniels 
(BOB member since 2002-08-15)
According to an update in the blog today, Xcelsius Enterprise is being renamed to âSAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Designâ.
Still not clear to me whatâs going to happen with Dashboard Manager once Performance Management goes away. Since DM is part of PM, what will DD content be published to?
joepeters (BOB member since 2002-08-29)
Keep in mind that we are still testing 3.x (in preparation for an upgrade) and I am still uncovering things but so far we appear to be missing a few simple things. But they are things that sometimes make our lives âeasierâ
- Grouping (can be done with a work around like a large âifâ statement)
- Data Cube is not available, or at least I have not found it.
- Verticle Fold/Unfold
- Export as XML
There may be others, but this is what I have found so far.
Nothing major by any means, but a sticking point none the less.
My 2 bitsâŚ
REB01 (BOB member since 2004-11-29)
Thanks Reb for sharing. This is regular Webi 3.1 SP2 correct not the Rich Client.
JohnJustus (BOB member since 2007-06-25)
Correct, we have not yet installed Rich Client so I have not tested or reviewed itâŚ
REB01 (BOB member since 2004-11-29)
Rich Client to me seems to be the same thing as a 3 tiered ZABO!!! WellâŚwhat the h⌠were they thinking there??? Or does it share more code with WebI so it is easier to maintain - sure not nearly the tool DeskI is/was/whatever!!!
Charles Killam (BOB member since 2003-04-24)
I personally still canât understand why they promote Crystal Reports are their desktop reporting application and completely ignore Desktop Intelligence.
In the days prior to XI, Iâve build several Deski reports for print/publishing and they worked very well - headers, page numbering, proper page layouts etc. Iâve always been annoyed that suddenly Crystal is being put forth as THE desktop publishing / reporting solution and Deski/Webi suddenly only being good for âadhoc analysisâ?
But thatâs probably because I absolutely hate working with Crystal Reports.
ErikR 
(BOB member since 2007-01-10)
Aside from the fact that it takes several times the effort to get the same results from Crystal??? Why would that bother us?? 
lol: 
Charles Killam (BOB member since 2003-04-24)
VBA Macros
Chris Pohl (BOB member since 2002-06-18)
It will be available in XI 4.0, thanks to the ASUGâs WebI Influence Council last year. 
substring (BOB member since 2004-01-16)
Having the ability to âEvaluate the formula in its contextâ when defining a variable. Itâs such a useful tool for ensuring that your syntax is correct.
anorak (BOB member since 2002-09-13)
Taken from the EOL document
âMost SAP BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence functionality will be directly available in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence.â
HmmmâŚ
Never understood why BO couldnât have continued with it as a product. The simple deployment approach never washed with me especially with virtualisation technology being a viable option for a lot of companies. And I donât see Microsoft creating a thin client version of their Office suite.
jakeh1969 (BOB member since 2004-08-20)