successfully migrating to sap businessobjects xi 4.1

Successfully migrating toSAP BusinessObjects 4.1

S E E F A R T HER. G O F A S TER. 2502 North Rocky Point Dr. Suite 650 | Tampa, FL 33607 | O: 813.968.3238 | www.ccgBI.com

ContentsEvolution of BI

• Top reasons to upgrade to 4.1 platform • Reasons to convert licensing to BI suite

Upgrade Methodology and Process• Milestones • General Process

Case Studies• Common Challenges• Lessons Learned • Customer success stories

Upgrade Complexity Packages• Rapid vs. Complex • Helpful Resources


Evolution of BITop Reasons to Upgrade to SAP BI 4.1


Top Reasons to Upgrade to SAP BI 4.1

• SAP Business Objects Enterprise 5.x/6.x & CE9.x/10.x = 2009 or before• SAP Business Objects XI R2 = June 2010• SAP Business Objects XI 3.0 = March 2013• SAP Business Objects XI 3.1 (SP7) = December 2015

End of Mainstream Maintenance Dates:

• SAP Business Objects XI 3.0 = March 2015• SAP Business Objects XI 3.1 (SP7) = December 2017

End of Support Dates:


Top Reasons to Update to SAP BI 4.1


Top Reasons to Upgrade to SAP BI 4.1

Enterprise Wide• Trusted data discovery

and self service• Support for corporate

BI journalists and authors

• Improved user adoption

• Mobile access• Embedded analytics in

processes• Visualization

technology

Technically Mature• User activity

monitoring• Cloud ready• 64-bit support and

improved sizing• Big Data ready• System configuration

wizards• Interoperability • Right-to-left language

and display support

Lowering Cost & Risks• Extensive audit trail• Alerting• SAP quality and security

standards• Hot backups• Workflow option for

ensuring governance and compliance


Evolution of BIReasons to Convert to BI Suite


Reasons to Convert to BI SuiteSAP has simplified the latest licensing model HOWEVER…

1. Customers are under no obligation to convert to the latest license model

2. License models are not version specific

3. Customers of any license model can upgrade their software to the latest version of the software as long as they are on the maintenance

Reasons to Convert to BI Suite


Methodology & ProcessUpgrade Milestones


Upgrade Milestones

Milestone 1 M2 M3 M4

Planning

Design and Prep

Implementation

Cutover

Go Live


Upgrade Milestones

PLAN DESIGN & PREP IMPLEMENT CUTOVER GO LIVE

• Assessment

• Architecture &

Sizing

• Migration Strategy

• Cutover Strategy

• Testing

• Training /

Enablement

• Architecture

• Security Model

• CMS and Audit

Creation

• User Account

Creation

• Etc…

• Install

• Configuration

• Migration

• QA

• Communication

• Training

• Deprecation

• QA

• Communication

• Full Deprecation

• Monitoring


General upgrade path & process

BI 4.1BOE XI 3.x

BOE XI R2 SP2+

BOE XI

CE8, CE9, CE10

E5, E6MAIN STEPS:• Setup the new landscape with the new software version• Move the BI content from the existing system to the new one


Incremental Upgrade

• Upgrade content in stages• 2 systems to maintain• Shorter downtime

• Lock down only department folder

• Issues affect only department folder


Complete Upgrade

• Upgrade content all at once• Only 1 system to maintain• Longer downtime

• Lock down the entire system• Issues may affect entire system


Case StudiesCustomer Success Stories


Customer Success Story - #1Customer:Since 1977, PSCU has been a leading provider of traditional and online financial services to creditunions. Today, they represent more than 800 credit unions, making them the nation’s leading CreditUnion Services Organization (CUSO). They offer industry-leading credit, debit and prepaid cardservicing to more than 18 million cardholders and innovative bill payment solutions to over a milliononline bill payment subscribers.

Background:• A mix of internal and external users ~300• Content included webi reports, crystal reports, and dashboards ~8,000 production reports• Development and production environment not co-located• Client planning for an increase in the number of BI users

Key drivers for upgrade - Business Drivers:• Co-locate development and production environments to reduce latency when promoting content

from dev to prod• Scale up the architecture to accommodate for the anticipated increase in the number of users• High availability architecture providing little or no downtime• Elimination of legacy environments ensuring licensing compliance• Standardized on version 4.x for access to the latest features of the BOE platform (monitoring,

auditing, development features, HTML5 dashboard, multi source universes)• A development environment allowing for best practice SDLC processes


Customer Success Story - #1Upgrade strategy used:• Incremental upgrade where content was migrated,

tested, and deprecated from 3.1 for each business unit

Upgrade Challenges:• Dev environment was being used for production

purposes thus making it difficult to identify true production reports to be migrated to new environment

• Migrating all saved instances for historical purposes• Remediation of broken crystal reports• Loosing webi report to universe binding when migrating

Lessons Learned:• Not pushing the environment clean up process leading

up to the migration• Underestimating the probability and remediation of

defects• No real internal reporting governance strategy to ensure

the integrity of the new pristine environment


Customer Success Story - #2Customer Overview:The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) is the agency charged withlicensing and regulating businesses and professionals in the State of Florida, such ascosmetologists, veterinarians, real estate agents and pari-mutuel wagering facilities. Ourmission is to license efficiently, regulate fairly, and we strive to meet this goal in our day-to-dayoperation.

Background:• Diverse user base• Primarily all crystal reports• Large content store

Key drivers for upgrade - Business Drivers:• Current environment resides on old hardware making a 4.1

upgrade to a new server• Improved performance • Convert Excel-based dashboard to universe-based and

leverage current/modern dashboarding application for Executives

• Standardized on version 4.x for access to the latest features of the BOE platform (monitoring, auditing, development features, HTML5 dashboard, multi source universes)


Customer Success Story - #2Upgrade strategy used:• Incremental upgrade to accommodate large content store• Business units begin testing as new newly migrated content becomes available• Considering the size and age of the system, use the RepoScan tool to correct discrepancies

prior to upgrade

Upgrade Challenges:• Large promotions via Promotion Manager are problematic. Incremental promotions via

Promotion Manager are easier to manage.• Smaller, phased migrations eased testing concerns and helped users to focus.• Possible confusion over accessing multiple environments

Lessons Learned:• Leverage the Command Line Interface (CLI) to facilitate large content promotions• In large deployments, carefully evaluate disk space requirements and plan accordingly• Be cognizant of searching/indexing configuration.• Deprecation of unused content prior to migration and running the RepoScan utility can

significantly ease the process.• Firm cut-over dates to new environment are critical


Upgrade PackagesPlan Components & Options


Complexity Package Options

Simple Upgrade 3.1 to 4.x Complex Upgrade 3.1 to 4.x

SIMPLE COMPLEX


Rapid Upgrade 3.1 to 4.x• Installation of 4.x on standalone server• Services configured• Auditing configured• Migration of 3.1 content to 4.1• Authentication configured (AD, LDAP, SSO)

Outcome: This results in having all users accessing and managing content in a new secured 4.x production environment with no dependencies on the 3.1 environment.

Estimated Effort: 2 – 4 weeks

For more information, call 813.265.3239 or email [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Complex Upgrade 3.1 to 4.x• Installation and configuration of dev, test, and production environments• Additional node added to production environment• Services configured on all 3 environments• Auditing configured on production environment• 3.1 Content migrated to respective environment• Authentication configured on all 3 environments

Outcome: This results in having all users accessing and managing content in the new secured scalable 4.x dev, test, and production environment with no dependencies on the 3.1 environment. SDLC best practices can be implemented.

Estimated Effort: 5 – 8 weeks

For more information, call 813.265.3239 or email [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Useful Resources• Upgrade microsite

www.sapbusinessobjectsbi.com

• BI Innovation Value Calculatorwww.sap.com/BIcalculator

• BI Upgrade Value Calculatorwww.sap.com/BIupgradecalc

• Web Intelligence calculation engine changeshttp://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-43479

• BI Platform Features by version matrixhttp://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/02/13/bi-platform-feature-by-version-matrix

http://www.sapbusinessobjectsbi.com/

http://www.sap.com/BIcalculator

http://www.sap.com/BIupgradecalc

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-43479

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/02/13/bi-platform-feature-by-version-matrix


To summarize…

Don’t miss the opportunity….understand the changing nature of BI and take advantage the latest innovations from SAP

Do a migration assessment and have a proper plan ready

Be aware of the technical considerations

Understand the common challenges in migration

Learn how others have done it

Thank you

successfully migrating to sap businessobjects xi 4.1

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