SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis for Office: The future of new BEx Analyzer is very *bright* – “you gotta wear shades”

Just last week, some of us ASUG volunteers received an e-mail from our great SAP Point of Contact to ASUG, Ingo Hilgefort.  He suggested contacting our  account executive regarding some questions we had about software.  I did just as Ingo said, and that afternoon I was contacted by SAP BusinessObjects in Vancouver.  This person  called me and said, “by the way, did you know your company owns licenses to Advanced Analysis for Office?”  Really, no, I did not.

The next day I was downloading the software from Service Marketplace (http://service.sap.com/swdc).  

I followed Chapter 2 of the steps in Ingo Hilgefort’s “Inside SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis” book to install the software.  This is a great book that goes into details of how to set up Advanced Analysis.  

In no time at all, I was up and running on Advanced Analysis.  Being an ASUG volunteer and SAP Mentor Initiative, I had the wonderful opportunity to assist the Ingo for his excellent hands-on sessions at SAP TechED.   First up was an all-day session on Monday, October 18th, on BusinessObjects tools in a day. 

While assisting Ingo during his hands-on sessions at TechEd, attendees had questions  on Crystal (design/preview/formula), WebIntelligence (building the Universe), and XCelsius (binding back to the queries).  However, when they got to the  Advanced Analysis for Office hands-on exercises, there were no questions.    That is how easy this tool is.

He also asked “who in the room here is happy with BEx Analyzer?”  I remember only one person raising their hand.

 
What business problem(s) does Analysis for Office solve?  Some background:

• SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis was previously known as Pioneer.  There are 2 “flavors” of Advanced Analysis: Office and Web.  The Web version, as I  understand it, is the successor to Voyager.

• The Office Edition is positioned as the premium alternative to BEx Analyzer.  Additionally, the Office Edition allows you to query data in MS PowerPoint.   Advanced Analysis is not a standalone product but is part of the BI portfolio.  

The tool has an Advanced Analysis Ribbon in Excel:

The Analysis Design Panel looks a great deal like the Excel Pivot table:

What business problem(s) will Advanced Analysis solve?  As Ingo describes in his book, it puts the power of analysis not only to the Power User (which BEx Analyzer did) but also to the Business User.  It provides full functionality to hierarchical reporting – often used in SAP Funds Management and SAP Cost Center Accounting solutions.  

Do you want more information?  I encourage you to consider buying Ingo’s great book on Inside Advanced Analysis for Office, and also check out my SCN e-learning.  This recording will walk you through the steps of how a BEx Query is a data source to BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis for Office.

Tammy