SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office Release 2.7 and Road Map #ASUG Webcast Recap
This was an ASUG webcast earlier today
Source: SAP
As usual the legal disclaimer applies that anything in the future is subject to change. Please see the replay here. Please join us Monday for BI: ASUG Analysis Influence Council Relaunch
Source: SAP
Value add compared to Bex Analyzer
Usability in general
PowerPoint integrations
Rich API for workbook development
Flexible end user features:
Table design: add new lines and Excel formulas as calculations
Add new restricted measures
Conditional formatting/filter by measure
Upload local data and combine with BW models
Native HANA access
BIP support, interop, Co-existence with EPM, BPC support etc….
Source: SAP
Features such as new lines, axis sharing to group cross tabs
Breaking Hierarchies
Source: SAP
Comments are new for BW/4HANA
See the SAP Help here
BW/4HANA comments joined in OLAP engine; not just for performance but OLAP knows the right context
Source: SAP
This is an updated slide for deployment options, including BW/4HANA
Source: SAP
Coming this week, new version – just created for sake of SAP Analytics Cloud customers who only have SAP Analytics Cloud – the option to work on Excel
Source: SAP
This is a comparison for those with SAP Analysis Office vs the Edition for SAP Analytics Cloud
Source: SAP
Comments are in BW/4HANA FP8 only
New search is in BW/4HANA FP8 only
UX has 2 ribbon tabs and GetData enhancements
Source: SAP
Recent innovations are in 2.7 (should be GA soon)
Question and Answer (subset)
| Question | Response |
| We noticed there is a restriction of 255 characters when using comments. | no restriction |
| For Comments, what does ‘Reusable across queries’ mean? | BI platform case, comments are bound with links to the workbook; – BW/4HANA – bound to infoprovider |
| Would you be able to share more about the report scheduling and distribution functionality in 2.7? We need to schedule large sets of reports and distribute them to users email and/or shared locations on our network. How easily can this be handled? | He is covering that later in the slides… |
| If the user adds a manual column in between 2 measures & then refreshes the workbook. Presently the custom column gets vanished after REFRESH. So is this feature enabled. Most of the end users want this feature | Yes there is functionality “New Lines” to add a column between measure columns in the structure that will remain in the structure on refresh. |
| Is the Analysis plug-in available for Linux platforms? | please check the PAM for this – support.sap.com/PAM |
| Does this function work also for characteristics ? | Yes it does |
| When will the SBOP Anlalysis Office 2.7 be available for us to download | this week |
| Is a Connection from Analysis direct to BW without BI Platform still in the strategy. Previously it was said that only with BI platform development would be done. | You can connect directly using the SAP Gui to BW or HANA as a direct connection |
| HANA view Hierarchy variable does not work properly in Analysis for Office 2.6 version. Any improvements in 2.7? | not that he is aware; if not working you may want to submit a support ticket |
| Where custom hierarchy gets stored? | they are stored in BW as a hierarchy; deleted when leave the session to avoid trash in backend |
| Adding Restricted measure, is this only available on BW4/HANA ? | Available on other versions of BW such as 750 |
| So now it’s still ok if we use the direct Connection with SAP Gui, no Problem with future roadmap? | That is what I use today myself 🙂 |
| Can comments be added with a native HANA EDW scenario? | no |
| Is the comments only applicable on BW4HANA ?. We are currently using BW 7.5 SP 11 on HANA | Comments are also available on the BI Platform |
| can u print out the comments w the report? | Native Excel option |
| Regarding the SAP FORMULA, is there still the issue that the formulas break #NV once you open a locally saved report (not connected to the BI Platform) with a different version of Excel ? | open an incident at SAP support at support.sap.com |
| which BOBI version is supported with AOffice2.7 | he is covering that now – BI4.2 SP5 |
| How about Office 365 integration ? Will there be a AO solution in the close future ? | use on-premise version with this license model; browser Excel online? Checking what this means; the API browser is not as rich as on-premise version. |
| According to our tests there is a restriction of 255 characters. Everything above is truncated. | could be dependent on BW version |
| Will logon/logoff button be foreseen at some point? | It is there now; go to Components / context menu |
| Is it planed to have the same functionalities as BW4/Hana for comment with BW on Hana? | no |
| can we customize the user interface? | yes – you can create custom ribbons; please read the the SAP help |
What did we miss? We had 57 questions during this one hour webcast.
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for all the work you do in putting up all this information!
Is there a link for the slides?
Thanks,
Regards,
Mel Calucin
Hi Mel - slides are posted at https://discuss.asug.com/docs/DOC-49847 (ASUG logon required)
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for the information! The continued support for saving on platform is great news.
Just to clarify - does that include support for saving in existing ABAP roles migrated from BW4HANA?
I saw that migration of workbooks to BW4HANA is planned - does that mean that currently when migrating to BW4HANA Analysis workbooks are not migrated from Netweaver to the HANA platform?
Both of these questions are important in deciding the direction for implementing Analysis, as previously it was understood that the future strategy was to use the Businessobjects platform, but if migrating from Netweaver to BW4HANA becomes an option then using Netweaver before moving to BW4HANA becomes a legitimate route.
Regarding the future option to avoid overlapping crosstabs: will that also include non-analysis excel content, that is allow to overwrite or move cell content when expanding the result set?
Thanks,
Shai Greenberg
Hello Shai - I am not using BW/4HANA so I recommend opening this as a new separate question
Are there any plans to harmonize the comment function in BO ? So that we are able to create a comment in Lumira or Webi and consume it in AO ?
Hi Marc - in an ASUG webcast this week, SAP said that 2.8 won't be released until 2019.
Until then, please join the askSAP call next month - register here and ask SAP this question on the webcast.
Hi,
I am unable to connect the EPM creation of my SAP BPC Model in AO 2.7 SP03.
Please suggest me.
Thanks
Vinod
Hi Vinod - I recommend opening a new question/thread at answers.sap.com - I am not running EPM so I am sorry I cannot help
Sure
Thanks Tammy Powlas.
Hi Tammy,
Can i know the differences between Analysis for office 2.7 SP3 and SP7.
Thanks,
Priyanka.
Hi - thank you for reading and commenting; I recommend checking the official SAP Help because I don't know those details