BusinessObjects Board

Identifying if SAP is going to discard .unv in future

general discussion
#1

Hi Experts,

I need help in understanding if SAP is going to discard .unv universes like deski reports in near future anytime? and also I am working on a report which requires reasons that why should we migrate from BOXIR3 to BO 4, are there some strong reasons would you like to add. I understand that yes to utilize the full functionality of BO Suite (Including dashboards) it is mandatory. any other thoughts are most welcome.

Thanks in advance
Kriti

Kitts (BOB member since 2010-01-08)

#2

Hi,

No official information regarding this has been revealed. So everything that you have heard and will hear are just guesses.

Marek Chladny :slovakia: (BOB member since 2003-11-27)

#3

Why upgrade to SAPBI4? Well, here you go:

  • End of maintenance is on the doorstep for previous version XI 3.x

  • 4.x is a 64-bit platform now, that means no imposed 2GB RAM limit for processing servers

  • Webi 4.1 has loads of new features (global input controls, etc.), and new formulas and charts (waterfall, etc.). This also makes it easier to convert Deski reports to Webi by the way, and includes efficient conversion of Freehand SQL (FHSQL) Deski to FHSQL Webi.

  • unX now can do optional prompts as universe filters

  • 4.x now provides hot backup, previously only cold/offline backups where supported

  • More features for SAP BI mobile

  • If you’re an SAP shop then kiss goodbye to old, slow, cumbersome OLAP universes and embrace Webi’s direct access to SAP BEx queries (via BICS), that is no universe needed anymore. IMHO this is a huge benefit if you are using SAP BW or SAP R/3.

…etc.

See also his sticky New features in SAP BI 4.0

Andreas :de: (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

#4

Thanks a lot, this information certainly helps :slight_smile:

Kitts (BOB member since 2010-01-08)

#5

Nope. I would suugest that would be financial suicide, or how to upset your customer base the most :mrgreen: .
Look how long it has taken to (almost) get rid of Deski ;).

Mak 1 :uk: (BOB member since 2005-01-06)

#6

Can Not agree More :slight_smile: Thanks !!!

Kitts (BOB member since 2010-01-08)

#7

I was told by SAP that they will support UNV universes until at least 2019. So, there’s no rush to convert UNV universes to UNX universes, unless you need the new functionality of it.

However, as Andreas mentioned, the new 64 bit architecture offers improvements. I think those improvements are enough to make the upgrade well worth it.

MichaelWelter :vatican_city: (BOB member since 2002-08-08)

#8

It’s clear that SAP are focussing on supporting unx universes first (look at the new Lumira Server) so it’s the better platform to use, but they haven’t provided all the tools necessary to migrate to this new platform.

They’ve provided a way to create a unx from a unv, but all your existing client documents Webi,Crystal etc. continue to point to the old unv universe.

I don’t think they will tempt existing customers to move until they provide a way to migrate client documents to unx.

Currently it’s a manual operation to edit a WebI document that points to a unv and repoint it to the unx equivalent. Fine for one document, unmanageable for 50,000+ documents.

I’ve put forward an SAP Idea requesting an automated change workflow here:

SAP Idea: Automate document migration in BI client from UNV to UNX

A few extra votes might help :slight_smile:

Hayden_Gill :australia: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

#9

Hayden, that’s a great idea. I just gave it another vote. 8)

If you call SAP on this, they send you to a 3rd party vendor. :roll_eyes: I know of two companies that make tools to automate this process, but nothing from SAP. :wah:

MichaelWelter :vatican_city: (BOB member since 2002-08-08)

#10

Yes, same story here. I was asked if I would be “going live” with Lumira Server, and I said I can’t migrate to UNX so it’s not much use to me yet… so they sent me details of a third party solution. That solution doesn’t work for our environment, as we have rich client documents out on users hard drives - hence why I think the migration tool should be the WebI client.

I’m not sure why they seem so determined to make a rod for their own back.

My thoughts: Provide an easy way for existing customers to migrate and they’ll come with you, otherwise you’ll just end up having angry customers and two code bases to support with every new product. The more code you have to support, the more chances for bugs to come in…

Hayden_Gill :australia: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

#11

The .unv is the biggest competitive advantage that the BO stack has.

If SAP want to discard it, then we need to form a startup to take up the old Supervisor/Designer/Reporter stack and make it a separate venture.

#12

For us, the biggest change has been the licensing model. On BI4.x, it’s prohibitively expensive and we’re now looking at migration paths to Microsoft.

Debbie

Debbie :uk: (BOB member since 2005-03-01)

#13

Has the Edge licensing increased significantly?

#14

No idea as we don’t use Edge. But I know we had to move from a use-whatever-you-like licence to a named user/concurrent user licensing model so we ended up with significantly less product for more money. And now that my ability to deploy “free” SWF dashboards will disappear, the cost of having every dashboard viewer on a license prices us out of the market.

Debbie

Debbie :uk: (BOB member since 2005-03-01)