Moving from BEx Tools to Analysis and Design Studio: ASUG Question & Answer Session

[TammyPowlas]

This is a subset of the question and answer session we had at an ASUG webcast this past June.  We started the Q&A webcast series with migrating to BW in April, and continued in June with Design Studio and Analysis Office.  Please see below:

Question	Response
What BI tools do you recommen to replace BEx Web for interactive user slicing an dicing?	Design Studio in general. There in release 1.5 we delivered the standard app "generic analysis template" that will enalbe you to do the slice and dice analysis in a very convinient way.
Which of the new tools should be use for schedule and broadcasting reports (like BEx?)	WebI, Crystal Reports and Analysis Office so far. Planned for Design Studio, too.
What is the difference between Analysis Scheduling and Bex Broadcasts ?	Analysis uses the scheduling framework of BI platform. You need to store the workbook on BIP.
What Bex workbook features not present in BO Analysis	Almost all BEx scenarios can be covered by Analysis Office. There might be differences in the workflow, though. What is still worked on: central comments ...
What are mobility options and limitations for Analysis?	Analysis Office is an add-on to Excel and Powerpoint. It requires an on-premise installation on a Windows PC ... limitations? not sure what you mean .. ?
Recently we came to know that Analysis for Office and EPM addon will be combined and will be released as single tool to suppot both BP&C and Analytical and Operational Reporting. Can you provide some insight on this?	Discussed a little during the roadmap. If you need more details, let me know ..
Can we use variables in Analysis scheduling ?	Yes, since AO 1.4 SP 10 and BI 4.1 SP5.
We know about the Smart Copy feature from Analysis Office Excel to PowerPoint - is there a way to keep the formatting and calculations from Excel into PowerPoint?	This is part of the roadmap. Still room for improvement .. 😉
We have BW on HANA. To simply the landscape, are there plans to move the BI Platform funtionality to HANA server?	We would need to defer this question to the HANA colleagues.
Are Analysis for Office and Analysis for Excel two different names for the same tool or these are different tools? How are they different from the Analysis edition for OLAP ?	The correct name is SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for MS Office (short: Analysis Office). It has two add-ons: one for Excel, one for PowerPoint. Analysis OLAP is a web-based analysis tool.
With regards to the restricted measures in HANA, will it be specific to a datamart or would the restricted measures be globally defined so that it can be used in datamarts that have the dimensions and measure that the restricted measure is defined for?	No, it is only a local restriction, not a global one.
How would the licencing will work. Right now we have EPM coming with BP&C lincences and Analysis for Office with SAP BI Licences. As the plan is to merge both addons into one, which licencing will cover this?	If you have a BPC license, you can use Analysis Office 2.1 with both plug-ins (Analysis and EPM). If you have a BI license, you can also use AO 2.1 with additional EPM (but only the frontend!).
In EPM, we can store the workbook on Netweaver platform (UJFILE). Will the ability to store the Analysis for Office files on something like Fiori Launchpad be available?	We support the EPM server repository and the AO repositories (NetWeaver, BIP or local).
Any idea when Analysis for Office 2.1 will be available? Also, it still supports scheduling of AO workbooks based upon SAP HANA data sources, right?	ramp-up is already running. Yes, it support scheduling HANA data sources.
What happens to Analysis for OLAP if you recommend Design Studio to slice and dice?	Analysis OLAP is in a maintenance mode, with only little enhancements.
How can you broadcast an Analysis for Office report to users?	Via BIP scheduling, i.e. via email or INbox
How does the Analysis for Office commenting feature different than the BEx commenting feature?	Currently it is only a local commenting solution. We're working on a central solution using BIP.
Can we publish Analysis for Office report on BI Launchpad 4.1 ?	yes
What differences/features will BEx Analyzer users see when moving to Analysis Office?	A complete new user experience, much closer to Excel (similar to pivot table). And a lot of new features, PowerPoint, local data, Table Design ... etc.
Does Analysis view (AAO Excel) support write data back to real time cubes or cube in planning mode? example IP cube	yes, ANalysis Office supports BW-IP planning ..
When does support for BEX Analyzer end?	no end is defined at this point in time. At least until 2020 ..
How is the performance of Analysis for Office Workbooks in BI Platform compare to AO workbooks deployed on Netweaver? Is it same?	the query execution time is the same. But opening from BIP was a little slow - we have already significantly improved and are optimizing further.
How can you customize Analysis workbooks? Can VBA for Excel be used ?	the query execution time is the same. But opening from BIP was a little slow - we have already significantly improved and are optimizing further.
I heard Live Office integration/merge into Analysis for Office? When we can we expect that?	not committed at this point in time, discussions are currently ongoing.

If you are attending SAP TechEd Las Vegas, please consider attending the SAP Design Studio Full Day ASUG pre-conference session - see ASUG.com - SAP TechEd - Monday, October 19th

Join ASUG next week for the following customer webcasts:

• Aug 11: How IPG Leverages SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office, to Deliver Winning Ana...
• August 10 - Tetra Pak's BI Reporting Strategy Using Applications Created by SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio

Our full list of upcoming webcasts can be found here