Analysis Updates from #ASUG2012 - #SAPZen, Analysis Office & OLAP

[TammyPowlas]

Given that this talks about future plans, the usual disclaimer applies and things are subject to change.

At ASUG Annual Conference, SAP’s eric.schemer and alexander.peter spoke on the Analysis Suite.

Analysis Office – What is Coming?

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Analysis Office 1.3 is to have a planned ramp-up for this summer.  Coming features include the Report to Report Interface, variant support, storing workbooks in the BW repository, as shown in Figure 1.

At conference, Alexander Peter demonstrated using BW Workspaces, where you combined data from BW with local data from Excel using a Workspace.  BW is combined with local data and Analysis Office 1.3 will be the front end.

HANA with Analysis Office does not support hierarchies or prompts; that his planned for 1.3

A popular topic at some sessions was converting BEx Analyzer workbooks.

Planned features for Analysis Office 1.4 are to have mobility features, working with Zen.  This would mean automatic transformation from Analysis Office applications to iPad applications.  The link to the BEx Query Designer will be available.  Interoperability with the Zen will be available.

Analysis OLAP

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the roadmap for Analysis OLAP.    BI4 Feature Pack 3 is in the middle and will be in GA soon.

SAP Zen

First, when discussing SAP Zen, Analysis Edition for Application Design, the premium alternative to BEx Web Application Designer, Eric said there was no pressure to move off the Web Application Designer.  The intent of SAP Zen is for IT users.  Eric said it was developed with a “mobile first” approach.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows the ZEN phases and strategy, side by side with the SAP Dashboarding strategy.

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the key capabilities of the first version of ZEN.  Planned features for upcoming versions of Analysis Office 1.3 and Analysis OLAP 1.4 include interoperability with ZEN.

Actual picture from Analysis session at ASUG Annual Conference showing SAP Zen

For fun, see the same BEx query used in each of the Analysis tools:

Analysis Office (Excel):

Analysis OLAP (Web):

Zen (Mobile):