Dear aBI: Questions about BusinessObjects and BW Integration

In response to the “Dear aBI” promotion as part of the SAP BusinessObjects Community, here is another set of answers to some of the questions that have been raised.

BOBJ Newbie from Houston asks the following:
I have three questions regarding BOE BI and BW:

1. If we are implementing the latest SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Component and the SAP BusinessObjects BI Package with a SAP ECC 6.0 system would we still
need a SAP NetWeawer BW (BI) system?

2. Is the BOBJ integration with BW just for leveraging ‘legacy BI data’ or are there benefits to implementing NetWeaver BW with BOBJ BI?

3. Can we just implement BOE BI now and add NetWeaver BW later?

Dear BOBJ Newbie,

Question 1. If we are implementing the latest SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Component and the SAP BusinessObjects BI Package with a SAP ECC 6.0 system would we still need a SAP NetWeawer BW (BI) system?

By the latest BusinessObjects Enterprise Component, I assume you mean BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1.  If this is the case, then yes, you can implement BusinessObjects Enterprise 3.1 with ECC without BW using the Crystal Reports solution.  The SAP Integration Kit is easy to install, and the instructions to install Crystal are great too.  See picture below:

Source: SAP

However, the other BusinessObjects 3.1 products do not have a direct connection to ECC like Crystal does.  Web Intelligence options to connect to ECC are as follows:
Source: SAP

 
XCelsius Connections to ECC are even more complicated:

Source: SAP

 
I would encourage you to look at your business user requirements and talk to your account manager to perform a BusinessObjects proof-of-concept as discussed in this Dear aBI blog.

Coming with Enhancement Package 5, Business Innovations, you will be able to use other tools embedded in the ECC suite, such as Transient Providers that are part of the BusinessSuite Innovation 2010.  For more information please see Ingo Hilgefort’s Innovations 2010 and SAP BusinessObjects = Embedded Analytics for SAP BusinessSuite Customers.

Also planned for BI 4.1, the connections to ECC and BW from BusinessObjects are even stronger as discussed in this blog. 

Question 2. Is the BOBJ integration with BW just for leveraging ‘legacy BI data’ or are there benefits to implementing NetWeaver BW with BOBJ BI?

Again, this depends on your business requirements.  I would say there are definite benefits to implementing BW with BOBJ BI – BW works well with large amounts of data, while the BusinessObjects tool set provides increased usability.  A definite feature that you would miss out by not implementing BW is SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis for Office.

Question 3. Can we just implement BOE BI now and add NetWeaver BW later?

Yes, this is possible, and it is quite common to simply implement Crystal Reports BOE BI with just ECC.

Overall I would encourage you to contact your account manager to try performing a BusinessObjects proof of concept. If you are a large size company, also consider looking into the SAP Discovery system V4 BusinessObjects Configuration guide and cookbook.

Also review details located at the BI Integration for SAP page.

I hope the answers to these questions helped and for those that are interested in getting answers to their questions, then take a look “Dear aBI”  gives advice on Business Intelligence and learn more about the Dear BI initiative of the SAP BusinessObjects Community. 

Tammy