Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Cloud: Intro BI Capabilities Webcast Recap

This was an SAP webcast today.  These are my notes as I understood the call.  What is always interesting to me is the question and answer, which is below.

Source: SAP

Now have BusinessObjects Cloud, can purchase per user per month

Built on HANA Cloud Platform

Source: SAP

Bring applications all together

Had option to “raise” BOE to cloud; but it is completely rewritten

Over 350 developers working on this application

It is SaaS, never have to patch

Drag and drop data; figure out on its own how it looks

Offers auto-suggest for visualizations

5 layers on GeoMaps

Drag and drop pages

History of transforms in modeling

Question & Answer

Q: For live data, if data is updated in the Source does BOC show the updated values for Sources other than HANA?

A: Right now live update is specific to HANA

Looking to do this with other data sources in the future

Q: row limit to imported spreadsheets or csv?

A: Used to be 40MB – updating

Q: Is this the developer task to create stories? Or is it the user who will do it?

A: Depends on your organization; built to be as easy as possible

Q: is API something planned for BOC ? Like the possibility to develop custom extensions.

A: extension support is planned

More information late Q3 likely Q4

Q:  Can you add hyperlinks to add drill capability between pages?

A: Yes; see below

Q: Whats the difference between Live and SAP HANA connection?

A: Either – live or not

Q: version control for stories kept?

A: Not have version control yet on the stories

Q: Can you add variables to your data sets?

A: Yes

Q:  Is there a desktop client tool to go along with the web tool that one would need that has more functionality than the web tool?

A: No everything is on web

Q: migration from on premise to cloud

A: can connect to data on premise

Convert Lumira story – not a capability yet

Q: geo dataset with name instead lat/long

A: showcased name instead of lat/long – showcased at SAPPHIRENOW, don’t know when it will be available

Q: predictive looks at how much past?

A: ideally 3 years

Q: import / export stories

A: Yes; when logged in as an Admin

Can save as PDF file

Q: Can you add drop down filters, ie year or quarter that filters down the entire page based upon selection?

A: Yes

Q: why we can not embedded a chart in a  website

A: on the roadmap

Q: If external hyperlink goes offline, what is shown?

A: 404 error

Q: Can we create reports using BOC?

A: creating reports, but call them “stories”

Q:  will not show cache image if offline

A: should show image if offline

Q: is there security setup?

A: user groups, dimensions

Q: About some API to let partners create new viz, any date?

A: Coming in Q4

Q: multi lingual support?   latin as well as japanese/chinese?

A: yes

Q: May be a loaded question, but it seems like the prior communcation was that if you are on Prem, stay with BusinessObjects on prem. and add Lumira. Is this still generally the stance?

A: agility for the cloud; some stay on premise- complementary solution

Q: Able to format for mobile devices?

A: working on that; have mobile app based on collaboration

Q: How’s the performance with really big Data Sources?

A: uses HCP to handle big data