A link to an Infoworld article which discusses which overlapping products from the merger it plans to phase out.
Performance Management tools appears to be a focus.
Support is still going to be continued for the next three years.
A link to an Infoworld article which discusses which overlapping products from the merger it plans to phase out.
Performance Management tools appears to be a focus.
Support is still going to be continued for the next three years.
I stumbled across this article recently which talked of Google partnering with Panorama.
For those that don’t know, Panorama Software produces some great visual software in the area of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Multidimensional Expressions (MDX). In the mid 90’s Microsoft bought Panorama Software’s OLAP server technology, which was subsequently implemented in Microsoft’s SQL Server Analysis/Reporting Services technology.
This is an interesting move. Having sold one of it’s key technologies to Microsoft, and with ProClarity being bought by Microsoft, I was wondering where this left Panorama. It really does produce some great products so it is good to see it is still alive and kicking.
You can actually use this technology now on Google spreadsheets. Here is the link. It’s still early days, but if more of the Panorama technology is implemented, Google spreadsheets could become a big player in the BI market.
In between my client assignments, I’ve been working through the SA410 e-learning course.
To say that I am disappointed with it’s content is a massive understatement. These materials are expensive and I am finding that much of the material in this course is a repetition of the SA210 and SA310 courses. It has left me feeling that something is missing.
I’ve checked through the requirements for the exam, and I feel I have covered all aspects. I can help but feel that I’ve been short changed by the SA410 e-learning course. Perhaps the classroom based course is different?
I’ll soon find out. I’m taking the SA410 exam later this week. I feel prepared, so hopefully I won’t get any surprises.
What often comes as a surprise to many clients is the yearly ongoing cost of Business Objects support. This normally comes in at 20% of the licence cost and provides access to Business Objects support.
Many clients question whether it is worth paying the yearly fee for support, particularly if they haven’t make use of it during the year. A number of clients have stated that they make use of the excellent and independent Business Objects forum, or if the problem is particularly tricky or time critical, call in a consultant as and when a problem arises.
What is often overlooked however, is that the yearly fee entitles you to free upgrades to the latest releases of their software. You can argue the case that your company is perfectly happy on the current release of the software. However, at some stage, Business Objects will stop supporting old versions of their software. There is also a case to be argued that you don’t want to be left behind with the latest features, or give your competitors a reporting advantage.
I personally would prefer it if Business Objects would split the support and maintenance fees and give their customers a choice. Those that want official Business Objects support, can elect to take it and pay the relevant fee. For those that don’t, they are free to choose third party support or use the various forums. With regards to major releases, if the company feels that it gains value from a new release, then it can pay the relevant upgrade fee. This seems a lot fairer to me.
An incredibly useful feature in Business Objects XI is the Calendar object.
In the past, it has been quite difficult to schedule reports on very specific dates, e.g second and last Wednesday of the month, or excluding Bank Holidays, etc. To get around this is in the past, we either had to create some custom code or refresh the report daily and have an automated job delete the reports we don’t want. Very messy.
XI now provides us with calendars. Calendars are customized lists of dates that are created in the CMC. With this feature, we can create a custom calendar object which we can associate with a report when we schedule. Scheduling a report to refresh on the last Wednesday of every month, or excluding all Bank Holidays, is now a breeze and takes minutes instead of hours.
It looks like Business Objects XI 3.0 has finally been released.
For those that have an ESD account, it should now be available for download.
The download is in three parts.
Admin guide is over 900 pages – Happy reading!
I passed SABE310 today! Thats the second of three towards the BOCP certification.
This exam required a lot of preparation on my part, as there was a lot of material to study. The exam consisted of 50 questions in multiple choice format. Slightly more time was allowed than the SABE210 exam.
For this particular exam, I am glad I took the e-learning course. It helped me a lot. Looking over the PDF guides, I think I would have struggled to get all the necessary information.
I’m now preparing for the final exam – SABE410.
A couple of people have asked me how and where they can take the Business Objects exams.
Business Objects exams, which can lead to certification, are delivered by Pearson Vue. Pearson Vue have a number of authorised test centres throughout the world, and there is sure to be one close to you.
To register for an exam, visit their website, and select ‘Information Technology’ from the left hand box. Select ‘Business Objects’ from the right hand box. This will lead you to a section detailing the three certifications currently available from Business Objects. For those that don’t know, these are:
Information on each of the certifications is available by clicking on the relevant link.
To book an exam, you need to register with Pearson Vue. Once registered, you can schedule a test. This is a straightforward process.
After selecting the exam you want to take, specify a location or area you want to take the exam in. A list of the five closest test centres are displayed. Select a test centre. A list of available dates and appointment times for that test centre are listed. Select a date and time, and then pay for the exam. Once done, you will receive a email confirming your exam date and time. It is important to check that the details are correct.
In the UK, the BOCP-BOE exams are all priced the same – £90 + VAT (£105.75 including VAT). There may be variations to this pricing in other parts of the world – I do not know. Perhaps someone can let me know, and I’ll update this post.
Whether you pass or fail the exam, you are given a printout of your score. This is must be embossed by the test centre. Your results can be viewed within a few hours on your account history on the Pearson Vue website.
Note that if you fail an exam, you can retake the exam as many times as you like. It does not affect your overall certification. However, you must wait five working days before retaking an exam.
So thats a brief overview of the how’s, where’s and how much of the Business Objects exams.
Study hard and good luck!
What do you use for release management/version control?
We currently use EQM from NoadBI. This product allows us to migrate reports and universes via the EQM interface and allows us to track version numbers and add comments with changes. It also has a suite of built in ‘audit’ reports.
We’ve also used PVCS in the past.
There is also a product called Version Manager/Enterprise Manager from ebi experts. I haven’t used this, but I’ve heard good comments about it.
What do you use?
In anticipation of the new XI 3.0 release, I’ve been putting together a list of ‘What’s New’.
To date I’ve compiled the following list:
Web Intelligence Rich Client – online and offline version of WebIntelligence that allows your users to interact and manipulate with reports in offline mode. The client also has a very neat new feature called track changes which works similar to say a track changes in MS Word. What happens is that the report will show you what data/information has changed between data refreshes.
They have also included full support for WebIntelligence Extension Points which make it very easy for you to change the look and feel of the WebIntelligence report panel and viewer. In fact it is now style sheet driven and you can customise for you companies own look and feel.
Personal Data Providers in Webi
Finally a feature that we have all loved in Desktop Intelligence since version 4 and now it has arrived in Webi. It will support locally stored data in Excel, CSV and Text files and has a nice query panel which shows you the data from the Excel file, CSV etc.
Federation
If you have multiple CMS deployments you can now keep these in synch with replication via web services.
Publishing
It is really great to see all the major features of BCA Publisher incorporated into 3.0 and they have also added some nice new features. I used to run the BCA team for BOBJ so this one is close to my heart.
Publishing now supports Webi and Crystal as well as DeskI and there is a nice feature that lets you send one PDF with multiple reports inside.
Administration
The CMC administration has a new look and is organised in my opinion much more like the old 6.5 Supervisor.
LiveOffice
Now supports Office 2007 and they have also extended support to include Outlook. If you use Office 2007 then you will have access to the LiveOffice Ribbon bar which is very cool. You can now copy and paste BOBJ LiveOffice content between Office applications also.
Revamped Migration Wizard
Report Comparison and Conversion tools
More details to follow post-XI 3.0 conference on March 12th.
