SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Office 2.1 – GA Last Week

Last week SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office 2.1 was generally available.  Some key links follow:

One key item to feature from the Product Availability Matrix is the add-on to the BI platform – you need to be in BI4.1 SP5 or higher:

Source: SAP

Also changed is what was previously called “free-form” calculation is now called “advanced calculation” – see below:

From here you are taken to a formula editor:

You can access the Formula Editor from the Context Menu, the Display panel, or the Ribbon

The above shows accessing the advanced calculation / formula editor from the Display Panel

The above shows accessing the advanced calculation / formula editor from the Ribbon.

The % Contribution Balance column shows the result of a “dynamic” calculation for percentage share of budget.  The last column shows a ratio/result of the “advanced calculation” of actuals divided by budget.

There are many more features of the advanced calculation editor; it will be interesting to see more use.

What I also noticed is the context menu shows an entry for Live Office;

One issue I experienced during ramp-up was I kept getting launcher errors when trying to launch Analysis Office inside ECC.  This was quickly fixed by upgrading to the latest SAP Gui 7.40 patch.

Somewhat related to Analysis Office, I just watched the Wayne Eckerson visualization webcast and now I will also be paying more attention to how I put together Analysis Office workbooks.  Below are some examples:

The above shows number of tickets over time; Mr. Eckerson’s webcast mentioned following the IBCS standards and in starting to read those I should be using a column chart showing time on the horizontal axis.  I also show data labels.

Reference:

SAP Help: http://help.sap.com/boao

Product Availability Matrix: https://support.sap.com/content/dam/library/ssp/infopages/pam-essentials/TIP/AO_PAM_Add_Info.pdf

What’s New: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/AMS21/en/21_1_aaoffice_whatsnew_en.pdf

Subhash has an overview of the key features here Whats New In Analysis Office 2.1

I wrote about an early version from ramp-up SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Office 2.1 – a First Look

Coming up at SAP TechEd Las Vegas, there are hands-on sessions for Analysis Office.  ASUG has a webcast on October 8th to re-launch the ASUG Analysis Influence Council; this is easily one of the best benefits of ASUG.

I also hope you will consider joining ASUG at TechEd on October 19th for an all-day hands-on session for Design Studio – register here.