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Technical

Exploring SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2

BI4.2 beta testing has been very smooth and BI4.2 is now available for all customers to download.
There are numerous performance enhancements to the platform, tools and some very useful features have been implemented. One feature has even been added arising from popular demand via the ‘Idea Place’ portal. 
We have played with the platform and we highly recommend an upgrade. 

Improving performance in SAP BI Dashboards with the parent/child technique

Working at one of our customers I was assigned the task of improving the performance of a Dashboard that was taking approximately 2 minutes to load; those of you who have experience working with end users know that this is unacceptable for a Dashboard, so in order to resolve that, there are several tips and tricks that can be used to improve the performance of a dashboard in SAP BI Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius) – below I will show a few.

How to develop scorecards in SAP Expert Analytics

This application provides an analysis of exploratory type, used to determine which variables in the dataset have a predictive power over the dependent variable (target).

It has been a very popular method in scorecard development – for credit risk within the banking sector, but in the recent years it has received increased attention in other sectors, as well.

Clariba Launches Office of the CFO Division to Focus on the Most Critical Pillar of Any Organization – the Finance Team

Clariba — an independent, analytics consultancy — creates new business unit, Office of the CFO, that builds on Clariba’s considerable strengths in data warehousing, big data, business intelligence and advanced analytics to provide solutions devoted to CFOs and finance teams. Christophe Machinet has joined the company as general manager for the new business unit and will be responsible for the division’s growth.

How to overcome limitations of having 1 data source: Multisource SDK with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio 1.5

As a SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio SDK developer, I always faced the limitation of having only one data source on my components, but now with SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio 1.5 the option of binding a data-source to a property on any component (SDK or out-of-the-box) that limitation no longer exists, and here is how to overcome it.

How to implement dynamic maps in SAP BusinessObjects 4.1 Web Intelligence

As you may know, there are different workarounds to include dynamic maps in SAP BusinessObjects 4.1 Web Intelligence, such as using hyperlinks (i.e. Dashboards) or external API’s (i.e. google maps).  In case that the reports have to be printed as they are, these options do not provide a solution because it’s necessary to embed an image and not a hyperlink in the document.

Our solution consists in using empty cells and insert PNG images of the regions/countries as a background.

Clariba Receives Certification for SAP Recognized Expertise in Business Intelligence within Spain

Building upon its solid SAP certification in the Middle East

Based on Clariba’s specific expertise and successful completion of all requirements of the SAP® Recognized Expertise Program, Clariba in Spain has been granted the SAP Recognized Expertise designation in Business Intelligence.

How to present SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence dashboards in Microsoft PowerPoint?

Recently, we received a request from a customer to have printable dashboards where they could present dashboards as Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentations and circulate around the company for each reporting cycle. Find out how.

SAP BusinessObjects BO Dashboards – How to bypass Microsoft Office prerequisite?

In one of Clariba’s customer projects we had to install SAP BusinessObjects BO Dashboards 4.1 on top of Microsoft Office 64 bit version. Now, the 64 bit version is not supported by the tool based on SAP Product Availability Matrix, so the setup will fail, but there are still ways to install it. Find out how to bypass this issue.

SAP Fiori UX - Why it is a renewed user experience?

I have recently had the great opportunity of being involved in a couple of SAP Fiori UX projects with different customers, and I am going to share some insights about it.

SAP's last movements have undoubtedly been moving towards applying a renewed UX (User Experience) in its products and strategy. The main issue of many of companies nowadays is complexity; it raises costs across organizations, slowing companies growing their businesses. The main message is clear, keep it simple.