Analytics Innovation Community Call Notes: Self-Service BI and SAP – February 17

I listened to part of this webcast yesterday.  Below are some of my notes; some of the slides have been posted on SCN before so I didn’t repeat.  This is also a document so if I missed anything feel free to edit or comment.  Note that the usual disclaimer applies that future things are subject to change.

Figure 1: Source: SAP

One company moved to Self Service BI with BusinessObjects Explorer and went from 10K reports to only 5

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the results of an interactive poll taken during the webcast.

Evolution of Self-Service BI

SAP reviewed the evolution of Self-Service BI.  Most of the slides have been posted on SCN so I won’t repeat.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows a good customer example of moving to Self-Service BI.

Figure 4:

There is a new iteration of Lumira every 6 weeks

In the next few weeks Lumira Server will come out and it is included in BI Suite license

Lumira Server sits on top of HANA platform and uses HANA security model

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows planned Lumira content in BI platform

It will be an add on to BI 4.1 – released in next few weeks

Then something was mentioned regarding Lumira Desktop on Mac OS > it is coming/planned for the future

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows the results of another interactive poll.

Future Direction

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Lumira generates chart as a starting point.  They are looking at enhancing algorithms in data and to help look at outliers and general trends

For consumption they are looking at personal bookmarks

Figure 8 shows a mobile example.

They are looking at monitor / alerts when thresholds are met

Figure 9: Source: SAP

They are looking at supporting all major Hadoop providers in next few months

They plan to support direct BW connectivity by end of Q2

They are planning an automated data refresh from HANA Cloud Integration

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows a sundial for Lumira developed by Wipro

Graphomate is developing an add-on that follows Hichert guidelines

They are looking at binning – make sense

In the next few months they are looking to offer infographics, driven by data where you pick a shape from a library

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows they plan to integrate to KXEN for time series

Question and Answer:

(subset)

Q: Does SAP Lumira only work with HANA?

A: No

Q: Is Design Studio needed?

A: not for Lumira

Q: Is Lumira a substitute for BW?

A: No

Q: Lumira Server – is HANA a requirement to post BI Launchpad?

A: Yes

Using HANA as a Platform/application server

Q: What is the limitation of data when access it from universe?

A: Depends on desktop and memory there – seen as many as 50M cells

Q: What about current integration with BI platform

A: You can publish as an infospace

Q: Is Lumira Cloud hosted by SAP or can it be hosted by vendors or customer

A: Today it is hosted by SAP; Integration – Lumira Server – host in private cloud

Q: Can you report out of BW

A: Yes – BW universe

Soon, direct to BW

Q: Will Lumira integrate to SAP Jam

A: StreamWork integration will be retired some point in future; still working on SAP Jam

Q: Does it work offline

Lumira Cloud supported in MobI (don’t recall answer to this)

Q: Key differences between Lumira and WebI?

A: Do more with data prep on Lumira side

WebI – emphasis in formatting data for large distribution and then share it

Some interactive reporting, and self-service – tool that is less easy – when receive it and can’t explore it

Q: Is Lumira compatible with geospatial?

A: Have geospatial mapping within Lumira/ lat/long – looking at more fine grained integrations with vendors and do custom charts – provide open way with chart extensions

Roadmap – looking to integrate with S3 – geographic capability of HANA platform