Migration from SAP Dashboards to SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio – Part 3

In the first two parts (Part 1, Part 2) we looked at some of the major differences between SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio and SAP Dashboards (former Xcelsius).

I hope that I was able to provide already enough reasons for you to consider the migration from SAP Dashboards to SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio.

Now – how do we want to start such a migration ?

Above are the 5 key steps for your migration.

Step 1: “System Inventory”

Before starting the actual migration work you want to make sure that your landscape has all the important elements.

• Did you already install the SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio on client and Server ?
• Are there updates required for your SAP BusinessObjects platform based on dependencies ?
• Did you consider SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio when you sized the SAP BusinessObjects Platform ? If not – for sure you will have to make adjustments on the sizing part.

Step 2: “Dashboard Inventory”

As next step you really want to do an inventory on all the dashboards that exist created with SAP Dashboards.

• Which data sources are used on those dashboards ?
• Are all data sources covered by SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio ?
• Which are the components that are used ?
• Are all components available in core SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio ?
• Will you require Partner Extensions to cover the gaps ?
• Did you use any extensions for SAP Dashboards ? do those exist for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio ?

Step 3: “(Re)Design Phase”

This is an important step because you have to create the SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio dashboards anyway and you should use this as an opportunity to also re-evaluate the design of your dashboards. Requirements might have changed and for sure technology has move on.

Remember – SAP Dashboards was always designing for a specific screen resolution, which is not needed for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio.

Also keep in mind that the need for mobile dashboards as increased a lot since SAP Dashboards and that will have an impact on your dashboard design.

Step 4: “Deployment”

On purpose I didn’t include a phase called “Design” in here as I thought it is a given that we will have to create the dashboards in SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio. So after that you want to do your standard testing cycle in move the dashboards from Dev to QA to PROD.

Step 5: “Skill set”

One important item not to forget in all of this is the required skillset. Do not forget to train your team, your colleagues on topics such as Design Studio itself as well as topics such as stylesheets and Java Script and the topic of data visualization and dashboard design in general.

This is not the training for the business user that consumes the dashboard but for the people that are creating the dashboards and applications with Design Studio.