Business Objects Tool: Past, Present and Future

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Business Objects Tool Past, Present and Future

• An overview of the purpose of the Business
  Objects tool, how it relates to AITS new tool,
  and the future of the product.

February, 2005
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Topics

• What types of tools are used for reporting?
• What is the intended use for the Business Objects
  tool set?
• Why is AITS looking for another reporting tool?
• What does the future look like as it relates to
  the Business Objects tool set?
• Questions Answers

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Understanding the Different Types of Tools
Available
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Business Intelligence

• The advantage of this type of reporting tool is
  that it makes it simpler for users.  They are
  able to quickly and easily create reports of
  interest to them for one-time usage or for
  recurring needs.
• Examples         Business Objects, Oracle
  Discoverer
• Advantages     
• No understanding of the physical database
  structures is necessary, only the logical model
  (knowing the data itself)
• High degree of control with the formatting of the
  report
• Disadvantages  
• A friendly view of the data objects must be
  created (e.g. Business Objects Universe)
• SQL generation is automatic and follows simple
  rules inefficient SQL is common
• Not as adept for complex reports since
  programming logic is indirect

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Standard Reporting

• The advantage of this type of reporting tool is
  the high control of formatting while allowing
  more efficient SQL to be used.  This is a nice
  balance between Business Intelligence and
  Programmable Reporting, but requires a greater
  technical understanding than is common among most
  users.
• Examples         Crystal Reports, Oracle Reports
• Advantages 
• Efficient SQL can be used to optimize report
  performance
• High degree of control with the formatting of the
  report
• Disadvantages
• Must understand the physical database structures
  (higher level of technical knowledge required)
• Works best for simple or moderately complex
  reports, limited programming logic available

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Programmable Reporting

• All facets of the report can be controlled to
  any degree of detail.
• Examples         Java, SAS, COBOL, Visual Basic
• Advantages     
• Programming functionality is available to control
  the logic of the report
• Capable of producing complex reports or even
  applications
• Efficient SQL can be generated
• Multiple SQL statements may be used within the
  logic of the program to minimize database
  activity.
• Disadvantages
• Requires technical knowledge of programming and
  database structures
• Formatting must be controlled manually within the
  program
• Requires more time to develop each individual
  report

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Intended Use for Business Objects
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What type of tool did the University need?

• The need for an enterprise reporting tool was
  driven by the Decision Support and UI-Integrate
  initiatives.
• Decision Support was developing the Data
  Warehouse which needed an updated tool set for
  ad hoc query development, reporting and report
  distribution
• UI Integrate was seeking report development and
  distribution capability in a server environment,
  as the Universitys mainframe report distribution
  was phasing out
• Requirements were for a packaged software
  solution for centralized report distribution and
  desktop reporting

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How was Business Objects Chosen?

• RFP issued on May, 2001
• Core Enterprise Reporting Evaluation Team
  (CERTET) Review
• Vendor Onsite Presentations
• Decision Support Staff
• UI2 Designated Staff
• Stakeholder Presentations Formal Feedback
• 112 invitees on three campuses
• Vendor Viability Review
• Finalists
• Business Objects
• Brio
• Cognos
• Oracle
• Recommendation from CERTET were reviewed and
  approved by Decision Support Steering Team, with
  concurrence of the UI-Integrate Operations Team

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Why Business Objects?

• No understanding of the physical database
  structures is necessary, only the logical model
  (knowing the data itself)
• Strong report writer compared to other OLAP tools
• Universes provide semantic layer to enable ease
  of use for novice users
• Easy to use drag and drop graphic interface
• High degree of control with the formatting of the
  report
• Can create charts and graphs based on the data
• Web interface support of reporting tools
• Tools enable simple queries or can be used to
  formulate more complex queries and reports

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AITS ITPC Template for a New Reporting Tool
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Current AITS ITPC Proposal

• Report development has become very complex.
  Some of the reports needed are much more
  complex, sometimes requiring an application
  wrapped around it. The ITPC template states
• In addition to a tool needed for ad hoc usage, we
  need a report tool that exposes a robust API to
  application development that will allow us to
  effectively build enterprise quality reports
  using established standards that can be developed
  (statistically or programmatically) by our
  application developers.
• This effort will focus on reports developed by
  AITS that meet specific user defined
  requirements.
• This focus will not focus on reports that are
  developed by end users. These types of reports
  will continue to leverage the Business
  Objects/EDDIE environment that is maintained by
  Decision Support

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Near Future for the Business Objects Tool Set
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Business Objects Future Direction

• Web Intelligence (Webi) 6.5 has been developed to
  be more like BusinessObjects (a.k.a. 5i), but not
  yet identical
• Anticipate Business Objects to eventually make
  Webi identical in functionality to
  BusinessObjects
• Advantage now to train on and support one report
  editor BusinessObjects
• Anticipate two tools available with
  BusinessObjects 12, WebIntelligence (5i mirror)
  for routine queries and Crystal Reports for
  complex report development

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New Functionality with BO 6.5

• Improved functionality for downloading to Excel
• Tremendously improved Send function
• Ability to create data provider from an XML file
• Compatibility with current versions of
  third-party software
• Compatibility with Windows Service Packs
  (including XP SP2)
• Ability to search on query panel and report view
• Universes, Personal Documents, Inbox, and
  University Documents are refreshed at least once
  per user session
• Improved report categorization enabling faster
  report selection and retrieval
• Ability to load server default settings
• More options for customizing appearance of My
  InfoView

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Planning for the BO 6.5 Upgrade

• 3 phases
• Technical Review Testing
• Standard Reports Testing
• User Generated Reports Testing
• Testing Scenarios include technical and
  functional validation that the upgrade does not
  negatively impact current reports and universes.
• Planning Team has been assembled. They meet once
  a week.
• Project Manager has been assigned and project
  plan created.
• Deployment date will depend on findings of phase
  2.
• New Computer Base Training (CBT) materials are
  being designed to help user community move from
  current version to the upgraded.

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Questions?