Got an idea to improve BusinessObjects?

general discussion
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Some of you know that we can submit ideas to SAP by starting at the following link (SAP login required)…

In the decade I have been working with BusinessObjects I have submitted around 25 ideas. Most have been rejected (“Not Planned”), some are being reviewed, and a few have been implemented. I think for an idea to be considered it needs to have at least 5 votes from unique companies (i.e., getting my co-workers to vote for my idea will not help it reach the threshold).

I wanted to drop links to a few of my recent ideas so you can vote on them if you think they would be useful to you…

Allow Retention of Context Choices When Purging Data
Expose Document Metadata Within Document
Display Object Source in Query Panel
Search Variable Formula
Require Value For Group of Optional Prompts

I also want to encourage you to submit your own ideas. Be prepared to wait a bit though. Conditionally hiding tabs in a WebI report? That was an idea I submitted in May 2013. It was delivered in 4.3 SP2 in December 2021 which my company is in the process of testing and installing.

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sorry, but I do not submit nice-to-have-features anymore, because of the slow release-time of 1 year between service-packs :frowning:
within this year-range there is only a lot of bug-fixing.
although SAP continues to „invest“ in BO, I guess there are less than 10 developers working on the software :laughing:

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I think the volumes of posting on here compared to 10-15 years ago shows how badly they have managed the product. Market share has plummeted, jobs are few and far between and the enthusiasm outside of core SAP deployments is minimal because you know you’ll never have enough influence to change the product any more. The best idea for them to improve the product is to build a time machine, rewind 16 years and decide not to buy it in the first place.

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SAP has released an updated SAP Analytics Business Intelligence Statement of Direction in July 2025, which includes the first public acknowledgement of BI 2029, which will extend mainstream maintenance through December 2031.

Take a moment to read the announcement on the SAP Community site and click to add a “kudo” (like). Now more than ever, simple things like page views and likes are just as important as paid-up maintenance contracts.

With BI 2027 and BI 2029 both in the early planning stages, now is a good time to review the SAP Customer Influence portal to vote on existing ideas and submit new ones. There are two influence sessions - one for Web Intelligence and another for SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform.

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