SAP Lumira Brightens Business Intelligence & Analytics

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May 132013
 

SAP Visual Intelligence has been renamed to SAP Lumira.

What is nice to know is that there was a purpose to the change. SAP’s BI guru Tim Elliot explains the purpose of the change in a blog post and captures what everyone is thinking, SAP Lumira: Why Did We Change Yet Another Perfectly Good BI Product Name?

What could have been missed in the re-branding announcement is that SAP Visual Intelligence (now SAP Lumiar) is now in the cloud, SAP Lumira Cloud.

Here is more information about SAP Lumira:

 

 

SAP Launches New Solution for Data Discovery: Welcome to SAP Visual Intelligence

 Analytics, Newsbyte  Comments Off
May 212012
 
On the third day of SapphireNOW in Orlando, SAP executive board member Vishal Sikka announced the general availability of a new solution for data discovery called SAP Visual Intelligence. Read more details here. This new data discovery tool complements the existing SAP BusinessObjects Explorer product by providing a new way for business analysts to access (more...)

Mobile BI Minute for March Madness Bracketology

 Analytics, Innovation, Mobility, Newsbyte  Comments Off
Mar 122012
 
Are you working on your NCAA Basketball picks for March Madness? SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for the iPad and iPhone, together with SAP BusinessObjects BI On-Demand (SAP’s cloud BI solution), create a killer combo that will not only help you analyze your business but also your basketball data and come up with interesting insights that could (more...)

Run Faster and Smarter with Real-Time Analytics

 Newsbyte  Comments Off
Feb 072012
 

As data volumes continue to increase and businesses shift into the next generation of data storage, analytics capabilities will be the front-end visualization technology that consumes this BIG data in real-time. To tackle this BIG data challenge SAP provides analytics capabilities that capture the power of in-memory computing technology (SAP HANA) and deliver information in meaningful ways to drive business value.

SAP customers are already beginning to take their data to Level 11 (thank you Spinal Tap). Here are a few extreme analytics examples:

Get Extreme on the Web -Try SAP Hana yourself

Try it yourself

 

Get Extreme on the Go

Try it yourself

 

Search and Analyze BIG data

 

Immerse to the Max Visually

 

Experience Extreme Voice

What opportunities do you see for real-time analytics within your organization?

Learn more about SAP HANA, and try it for yourself.

Also check out the latest on mobility for BIG data at www.sap.com/analytics_on_the_go.

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SAP and NetBase – new partnership for social insight and analysis

 Analytics, Newsbyte  Comments Off
Dec 132011
 

 

SAP and NetBase recently announced a new partnership for social insight and analysis. With this partnership, SAP is hoping to push the NetBase product to far more than the usual suspects in the marketing department. “Sales people can use it to fine-tune pricing strategies and get closer to customers, while consumer product development groups can improve their planning processes.  What trends in fashion are going to be relevant next spring? If you’re going to be doing offshore production, you need to know now,”  said Byron Banks, SAP.

The SAP® Social Media Analytics application by NetBase is an on-demand, subscription-based solution that your organization can use to gauge net sentiment – the net result of analytics related to any topic mentioned on social media sites. Enter a topic in the application to quickly see a summary of that topic’s net sentiment. The application’s sophisticated, natural-language processing engine also extracts the following insights from postings of social media users:

  • Likes/dislikes
  • Behaviors (buy, want, return)
  • Emotions (love, hate)
  • Intensity of emotions (like/love)

 

Learn more by watching this overview video:

Here are few interesting quotes in response to the recent news.

“The real value in social media analytics, of course, comes in using it to understand the business, says Zach Hofer-Shall, an analyst with Forrester Research. SAP’s plans to allow customers to use SAP Social Media Analytics by NetBase, as the application will be called, to leverage unstructured data with the structured data in their enterprise systems could be extremely valuable for its customers.”     Zach Hofer-Shall, Forrester

“The new SAP Social Media Analytics service aims to bring more consumer-centric smarts to SAP customers by pairing NetBase semantic search and analytics with SAP’s own business intelligence expertise.”       Barb Darrow, GigaOm

“Just as the SuccessFactors deal is meant to help SAP go after Salesforce.com in the cloud, the NetBase partnership will help SAP respond to–and, it hopes, outflank–the Salesforce social enterprise strategy, which was advanced this year through that company’s acquisition of Radian6.”       Doug Henschen, InformationWeek

Read more about news about the new partnership here:

SAP Gets Into the Social Analytics Game With NetBase Partnership, by Chris Kanaracus, IDG News

SAP Taps NetBase for Deep Social Media Analytics, by Barb Darrow, GigaOm

SAP Tries To Leapfrog Salesforce.com On Social Analysis, by Doug Henschen, InformationWeek

SAP BusinessObjects BI Release Plan Update

 Analytics, Newsbyte  Comments Off
Oct 072011
 

The following information is related to recent updates to the SAP BusinessObjects BI release plan.

What’s new in the BI release plan?
With the recent GA of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0, we are updating our BI release plan. Instead of releasing both BI 4.0 SP3 and BI 4.1, we will now deliver one release consisting of:

  • BI 4.0 SP3 customer fixes
  • The new product features that were to be included in the original BI 4.1 release


What will we call this release?
It will be called SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3.


Why was this change made?
The change was made to ease the deployment of these new features. Customers can deploy these features on their existing BI 4.0 deployment without waiting for the availability of a separate minor release. Installation of the new product features will be a straightforward install that does not require a major upgrade.


What new product features are included with BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3?
There are many new product features in BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3. The highlights include the following new features:

  • Next generation of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, which empowers end users to easily organize and share exploration views with web and mobile users
  • Enhanced capabilities for SAP BusinessObjects Mobile BI, with expanded platform support and Sybase Unwired Platform integration
  • SAP StreamWork integration for BI enabled collaborative decision making
  • Insight to Action framework, which enables closed loop BI in the context of your business processes


Are feature packs part of the traditional SAP release process?
No, the usual support packs only typically contain customer fixes or improvements to existing releases – no new features. We needed a deliverable that communicated all the new features – hence the feature pack. This is an exception to our traditional SAP release process. From time to time we make such process modifications in order to benefit customers.


Should I wait for BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 to release before upgrading to BI 4.0?
No. The best path forward is to deploy BI 4.0 today to get the system ready for production. Then install the BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 as soon as it becomes available. BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 will be released with an update installer. The content of BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 can simply be added on top of your existing deployment.


How can customers deploy BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3?
We will be delivering both a new installer and an update installer. New customers will be able to install BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 using the new installer without requiring a pre-deployment of the BI 4.0 GA build. Existing customers will be able to upgrade from BI 4.0 SP2 by applying the BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 update installer.


Can customers implement new customer fixes without using the new product features in BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3?
Yes. The majority of the new features are additive to existing workflows. Many are configurable by administrators. Others are available in the environment but the users have to explicitly select to use them. There are no features that will create major disruption to customers’ existing workflows.


Will there be fixes on BI 4.0 SP2 prior to the release of BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3?
Yes. We will continue to deliver patches on the BI 4.0 SP2 line (e.g., patch 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, etc.) to support customers currently rolling out BI 4.0. Learn more about the standard SAP support process.


Will BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 include a ramp-up process?
Yes. Since the feature pack includes new features, this release will have its own ramp-up.


How can I get involved in the ramp-up?
Please contact your account manager. We are excited about the BI 4.0 Feature Pack ramp-up and will start accepting pre-nominations in a few weeks with official nominations beginning early January, 2012.

 

For additional questions to these changes to the release plan, please contact your account representative or feel free to add a comment, question to this blog post.

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 Available Today

 Analytics, Newsbyte  Comments Off
Sep 162011
 

Today, SAP announced the general availability of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0, allowing organization to know their business, decide with confidence and act boldly. The BI and EIM 4.0 release represents the future of analytics with real-time, mobile and social capabilities, read the BI and EIM 4.0 RTC (release to customer) press release. Organizations such as Lionsgate and Hilti use business analytics from SAP to run better.

What’s New with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0?
This release includes the latest versions for Web Intelligence, Dashboards, Crystal Reports, Explorer,  the Business Intelligence Platform, Edge BI and Information Steward and completes the BI 4.0 development cycle with the Analysis, and Data Services solutions already being GA.

Unified on a common infrastructure and with a user experience that boasts the friendly usability of social networking tools, the new Business Intelligence and Enterprise Information Management releases manifest the broad range of technology innovations that are shaping the future of analytics – in real time, with in-memory computing; instant powerful BI in users’ hands, with more mobile devices supported than ever before; across business and social data with certainty, combining structured and unstructured information and providing the tools to govern the information; and providing the best fit, right now in any deployment model, whether on-premise, on-demand, embedded in business operations, or in a “hybrid” manner.  Learn more about what’s new in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0.

 Watch this demonstration of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0


Demo of SAP BusinessObjects 4.0

Watch the live keynote of SAP BusinessObjects BI and EIM 4.0

New innovations for Mobile BI
Along with new BI and EIM suite enhancements in 4.0, there are new capabilities for mobile BI available in 4.0 including the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile app for iPad. The existing SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for iPad/iPhone continues to be one of the top downloaded apps for business with over 200,000 downloads from the Apple Apps Store. This fully supported app now includes new enhancements for location-based analytics and integration with Google maps. Download these mobile apps from iTunes today.



Analytics for SME and LOBs
SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 is not just about analytics for the large enterprise, SAP recently announced analytics for SME and lines of business. With this latest releases of SAP Crystal Server and SAP BusinessObjects Edge, organizations can gain better insight into business opportunities for a broader range of users.

Analytics and BIG data with SAP HANA
SAP also recently announced the generally available for SAP HANA, the in-memory computing appliance for real-time analytics on BIG data, SAP HANA provides the in-memory foundation for the next generation of analytics to be realized.  SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and SAP HANA are part of a broader portfolio of solutions for Business Analytics at SAP. Learn more about Business Analytics from SAP and listen to Steve Lucas (EVP of Business Analytics and Technology) talk about the complete business analytics portfolio and how that aligns with SAP’s core business suite and enterprise mobility strategy.

Resources and Education
A major focus of the SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 release was making the products easier to use. To help customers learn how the BI products work a complete collection of eLearning tutorials for the entire BI suite is included with this release. These tutorials are available on the SAP Community Network and are directly integrated into the products with the 4.0 release. Watch and learn more about building Crystal Reports, designing dashboards, or using the new information design tool to build a universe.

How do I Access and Download SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0?
Customers can access SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 by visiting the SAP software download center on service marketplace today.

 Stay Connected with Business Analytics from SAP

 

Update on SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 General Availability

 Newsbyte  Comments Off
Aug 312011
 

Update: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 is now available - http://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2011/09/16/sap-businessobjects-bi-4-0-generally-available/

Together, SAP and a select group of customers are in the final phase of Ramp-Up for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0.  Based on efforts over the last several weeks, BI 4.0 is targeted to become generally available starting September 16, 2011. The SAP Ramp-Up process ensures that our customers and partners receive the best in software quality and performance as this is the largest release of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence software in company history.

In its current product release phase, any customer currently on SAP BusinessObjects BI maintenance can access BI 4.0 for use in production with full support from SAP. Customers can download 4.0 from the SAP Service Marketplace today by following the steps on our 4.0 Ramp-Up page. To date there have been over 4,000 downloads of the RTC (release to customer) version.

For customers and partners currently using BI 4.0, new eLearning tutorials are now available on the SAP Community Network. Check out the latest tutorials and take advantage of the new capabilities BI 4.0 has to offer.

Stay connected with the Business Analytics Blog for future updates on 4.0 and Business Analytics from SAP.

Explore Data with the BlackBerry Playbook

 Newsbyte  Comments Off
Aug 172011
 

Here’s a preview of Exploration Views, a new feature planned for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (version 4.1) on the new BlackBerry Playbook. Learn more about SAP’s vision for mobile analytics and integration with mobility solutions with Sybase.


Follow the word on Twitter and Facebook 

Demystifying Standard SAP Support for Major Releases of SAP BusinessObjects BI

 Newsbyte  Comments Off
Jul 272011
 

Lately, we’ve gotten a few inquiries on what the standard SAP support process is for major product releases. Is it 7 years of standard support or 2 years of support? Here is some information that will hopefully shed some light on how the support process works.

The Release Family: Major and Minor Releases

A major release and the minor releases that follow it are referred to as a release family. For example: SAP BusinessObjects XI3.1 was the final release in the XI3.x line. Enhancements may be delivered in both major or minor product releases. Major releases contain new functionality and architectural platform changes are possible. Minor releases include new and improved business functions that can be implemented and adopted quickly. The interfaces remain stable between major and minor releases.

Maintenance for the Release Family

The following maintenance durations apply for every release family of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform:
• Seven years of mainstream maintenance
• Two years of priority-one support

7 + 2 support

Mainstream maintenance begins with the release-to-customer (RTC) date for the major release and covers any subsequent minor releases in the release family that might be shipped. Each release in a release family has a maintenance period of at least two years after the start of restricted shipment for that release. As soon as a new release enters unrestricted shipment, the previous release is maintained for at least one more year. At the end of the seven years of mainstream maintenance, priority-one support begins for the last shipped release within a release family. The last release closes the nine-year maintenance cycle for this release family.

What about the 4.x Release Family?

The BI 4 release family will follow this same process. Inside the BI 4 release family there will be several minor releases with the final release in the family closing the nine-year maintenance cycle for the release family. While we continue to develop BI 4 and new minor releases such as 4.1, 4.2, etc. each of these minor releases are supported for 2 years from the date of RTC.

Delivery Vehicles and Frequency

Patches (0-9 years)
  • Frequency: Every 2 weeks
  • Lifetime: Until the next patch is released
Support Packs (0-7 years)
  • Frequency: Every 4 months for first 4 years; Every 6 months for years 5-7
  • Lifetime: Minimum 1 year support
Minor Releases (0-5 years)
  • Frequency: Every year for first 5 years
  • Lifetime: Minimum 2 years support with 1 year overlap with the next minor version

Definitions

Patch:

Urgent customer corrections. When a customer finds a bug in an SAP BusinessObjects product and reports it to SAP support, SAP develops a correction for the bug. For SAP BusinessObjects this correction is then delivered in the form of a patch. Patches are cumulative. For example, BI 4.0 SP02 Patch 02 will contain all of the corrections in Patch 01.

 

Support Pack:

In addition to all of the above, support packs also address:

  • Priority 2 Customer issues
  • New Platforms Support
  • Exceptionally small customer Enhancements
Minor Release:

In addition to all of the above, minor releases also address:

  • Priority 3 Customer issues
  • Complex Customer issues
  • New Language Packs and New platforms
  • Feature Enhancements

More Information

See pages 39-45 of SAP’s Release Strategy for Large Enterprises for an even more thorough explanation of SAP’s 7+2 support model in general and the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.0 PAM for specific dates.

See SAP’s Maintenance Strategy site for an even more thorough explanation of SAP’s 7+2 support model in general and the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.0 PAM for specific dates.

 

Legal Disclaimer

SAP’s strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This information is provided without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

 

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