1. BI 4.0 Migration Methodology and Best Practices
Eric Molner
February 3, 2013

2. Who Is Analytics8?
– Founded in 2002
– Offices in
Chicago, Raleigh, Dallas, Sydn
ey, Brisbane, and Melbourne
– 100+ Consultants
– 150+ Customers
– Consulting, Training, Support/
Help Desk, Software
Procurement
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3. What We Do
Entire Data All Levels of
Warehousing “Stack” Customer
Sophistication
Entire Lifecycle: From
Strategy to Implementation
& Testing
Multiple Approaches from Certified Training
Traditional BI, to Data and Mentoring
Visualization, to Hosted BI
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4. Multiple Approaches
Traditional BI Stack Data Visualization Hosted BI
User Interface, • User Interface User Interface,
Dashboards, Dashboards,
Scorecards, Reports Scorecards, Reports
• Chart and Report
Engine
BI Semantic Layer OLAP, Query and
• Analysis Engine Reporting Tools
Data Warehouse / • Integration Data Warehouse
Data Marts Data Marts
Integration Layer (eTL)
Integration Layer (ETL)
Data Extract
Other Other Other
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Data Data Data
QA
Project Management
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5. Advantages of Working With Us
– Not Just Technicians
– Accelerated Time to Value
– End-to-End Expertise
– Single-Source Solution
– Work with the Leading Business Intelligence Vendors
– Industry-Specific Domain Knowledge
– Structured, but Flexible Project Delivery Methodology
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6. Our Customers
Insurance Manufacturing
Financial Services Retail & CPG
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7. Check Out our New Website

8. Eric Molner
– Principal Consultant, based out of Chicago
– Over 8 years of Business Intelligence experience
– Held a variety of roles from lead developer to project
manager
– Effectively worked with clients in the financial, retail,
healthcare, and transportation industries
– Main areas of concentration:
 SAP BusinessObjects Migrations
 Deployment, Installation, and Configuration of SAP
BusinessObjects Enterprise
 Data Visualization/Data Discovery
 Reporting Best Practices
 Business Analysis
 Logical database design for reporting
 Testing/Data Quality Management
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9. Key Improvements in BI 4.0
Integration
• Connect across BI Tools using the same semantic layer
• No longer need separate installs for Lifecycle Manager
Performance
• 64-bit O/S
• Run BI suite with SAP HANA
New Functionality
• Explorer/Exploration Views
• Visual Intelligence
• Information Design Tool
• Crystal Reports for Enterprise
Better Administrative Tools
• New Monitoring Features
Enhancements
• Web Intelligence
• Dashboards (a.k.a. Xcelsius)
• Crystal Reports 2011
Ease of Use
• Common design experience across all BI tools (e.g. Excel vs. PowerPoint)
• Common query panel across all reporting tools
• Better Data Visuals (e.g. Chart Objects)
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10. Migration Methodology
• Analysis and recommendations related to
BI Assessment
organization, process, and technology.
Existing Deployment • Review of environment setup, inventory of reporting
Assessment documents, and review of user activity profile.
• Complete migration roadmap and detailed plans for
Planning
each phase.
Installation & • Buildout of new environments, software
Configuration installation, and customization.
Migration & • Migration of existing content and conversion where
Conversion necessary (i.e. DeskI).
• Testing and validation of security model, targeted
Testing
content validation, and performance testing.
• Comprehensive technical and end user training course
Training
are available.
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11. BI Assessment
Based on a comprehensive analysis of the Current State, the Desired or Target
State, and a Transition Plan or Roadmap to move from the former to the latter.
Current Target Transition
State State Plan
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12. Existing Deployment Assessment
Following the Staged approach, we recommend taking each business
area through the following stages:
Comprehensive • Utilize tools in migration toolkit to get comprehensive list of
Inventory SAP Business Objects documents
Overlay Audit • Analyze usage data tied to inventory and look for opportunities
Usage Data to eliminate or consolidate content
Categorize • Give each document an ultimate disposition (eliminate, archive,
Content consolidate, migrate, etc)
• Ideally, the only content being migrated is that which is regularly
Migrate to 4.0 used by the business or has another well defined and
understood audience and purpose
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13. Analytics8 Migration Toolkit
Existing SAP Business Objects Deployment Assessment – Analytics8 utilizes a
comprehensive set of tools to provide a complete picture of your current environment.
Stakeholder Migration • Environment details (servers, CPU, memory, OS, etc)
Questionnaire • User activity profile (# users, tools used, methods used)
• Comprehensive environment analysis
System Profiler • Impact Analysis
• Data Lineage
• Metadata for non-repository documents
Network Crawler • Includes all versions of DeskI and Crystal
Auditor plugin for • Join SAP BusinessObjects metadata with auditor data
• Provides insights into document usage and user activity
System Profiler trends
Repository Diagnostic • Identify inconsistencies between CMS and FRS
Tool (RDT)
Bulk Report • Compares report datasets pre- and post-migration
Comparison Tool
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14. “House Cleaning” Existing Environment
Elimination
- Stale content
- Duplicate reports
Initial Inventory
240,000 Documents
~ 80,000 Eliminated
Archive
- Existing content
- Eliminate redundancy in “user ~ 60,000 Archived
driven” archives/backups
- Put in place ongoing archival
process
Consolidation expected
Consolidate and to net ~4,000
Refine fewer documents
Distinct Core
Reports
Final Inventory
~ 100,000 Documents
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15. How to Identify Excess or Obsolete Content
This following can help identify content that may no longer be relevant
‒ Last refresh date
‒ List of reports that were run in the last 12 to 24 months
‒ Last login date of a user
Conducting a S.W.O.T. analysis with the business users can yield a
richer result, than analyzing the audit data. By engaging the business,
it could result in indentifying redundant efforts, or establish BI initiatives
that would immediately following the migration
S = Strengths
W = Weaknesses/Limitations
O = Opportunities
T = Threats
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16. Upgrade Paths
Upgrade from the following sources:
 XI 3.x
 XI R2 SP2 (or higher)
 BIAR file generated from XI R2 SP2 (or higher, except BI 4.0 FP3)
Upgrading from a BusinessObjects version prior to XI R2 SP2 will require to go
through a multi-step upgrade path
BOBJ 5/6 XI 3.1 BI 4.0
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17. Planning
Consider the following when putting together a project plan:
•What does my current BOBJ environment look like?
Assessment •What issues (e.g. technical) are we struggling with?
Time and •When can we start the project?
•Are we passed the End of Life (EOL) date on our current
Deadlines version?
Resources •What internal/external resources do we need to be successful?
Impact •Will the upgrade project impact any current developments?
Training •Will our administrators and power users be able support the
new version?
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18. Installation & Configuration
– Build and configure new environment(s)
• Servers are now 64 bits only
– Side-by-Side Deployment: Install 4.0 on the same
machine(s) as the existing environment
• Specify a different cluster name to avoid conflicts
• For 4.0 use ports that are not used by the existing
environment
– Set-up and configure database for auditing
• Auditor schema is new with 4.0 and is not directly
compatible with prior versions of auditor.
• In order to keep historical audit data, a new database
instance will need to be created. Otherwise the existing
audit data will be lost.
– Separate installs for client tools, Explorer, & Live Office
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19. BI 4.0 Migration Prep Checklist
– If the existing environment is XIR2, confirm it is at least at SP2 level
– Review the Product Availability Matrix (PAM) document to ensure
compatibility with other technologies like operating systems, application
servers, and web browsers
– License Keys
– Install Files
• Includes the latest service packs and fix packs
– Server with 64bit operating system installed
• The account used must have Administration privileges
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20. BI 4.0 Migration Prep Checklist Cont…
– Separate database instance for CMS System and Audit data store
• The account used must have privileges to create, modify, and delete tables,
and to create stored procedures
• 32-bit and 64-bit database drivers should be installed on the new BI 4.0
server(s) for both the CMS System, Audit, and reporting databases
– Confirm location of NEW File Repository
– Create a back up of the existing system DB and FRS prior to beginning the
migration
– Back up custom web applications, HTML pages, and scripts in your existing
deployment
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21. BI Platform Component Comparison
Complexity XI R2 / XI 3.1 BI 4.0
* Audit New audit schema
* InfoView BI Launch Pad
** Dashboard Builder BI Workspace
N/A Encyclopedia / End of Life
Discussion
N/A Performance End of Life
Manager
* Universe Designer No Change
* N/A Information Design
Tool
* Minor Effort ** Medium Effort *** Significant Effort
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22. BI Client Comparison
Complexity XI R2 / XI 3.1 BI 4.0
* Crystal Reports CR 2011 and CR for
Enterprise
*** Desktop End of Life
Intelligence
* Xcelsius 2008 Dashboards
** Explorer No .unv support
*** Voyager Analysis, edition for
OLAP
* Web Intelligence Web Intelligence
* Minor Effort ** Medium Effort *** Significant Effort
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23. Desktop Intelligence Conversion
BusinessObjects comes with a Report Conversion Tool to convert DeskI
over to WebI
• OPTION 1: Isolate DeskI reports be either deleted or archived
• OPTION 2: Consolidate with an existing WebI report(s)
• OPTION 3: Convert DeskI using Report Conversion Tool
in XI3.x or in BI 4.0
NOTE: The report conversion tool will provide one of three statuses for
each report after it’s been converted: “Fully Converted”, “Partially
Converted”, or “Not Converted”.
There is an option to capture details about the conversion in a database.
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24. Complete vs. Incremental Upgrades
There are two common approaches to a migration:
1. Complete = migrating all BOBJ content at once
‒ Takes a shorter period of time compared to a incremental approach
‒ Best for smaller, less complex deployments
2. Incremental = migration in batches (i.e. department by department)
‒ Takes a longer period of time compared to the complete approach
because time is spent to eliminate redundancies, and prioritize order of
migration
‒ Best for larger, more complex deployments
NOTE: The Upgrade Management Tool is used for moving content to 4.0.
The tool does not copy server or server cluster settings so a manual
configuration will have to be done in the 4.0 CMC.
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25. Testing
This stage should be conducted in two key areas:
1) After the 4.0 environment is installed and configured:
– Ensure proper performance
– Understand what impact there is to existing SDK code
2) After the migration and conversion
– Performance
• Does it meet current SLAs?
• Can the new environment handle capacity?
– Comparison
• Utilize report comparison tool to automate the process of making sure
the outputs are the same between environments
– Security Model
• Do I have less/to many rights?
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26. Bulk Report Comparison Tool
Key Benefits
BOBJ 3.1 BOBJ 4.0
Server Server – Allows automated comparisons of report
datasets pre- and post-migration
Reports Reports – Saves time and money by mechanizing
report regression testing
Key Features
Automated
Testing – Accesses report datasets through SDK,
DB DB writes output to CSV and database
– Allows for proof that reports produce exact
same content in 3.1 and 4.0:
– Dataset comparison (every column, every
row, every data provider)
– Rowcount comparison
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27. Training – SAP Certified Training Partner
– Most of the existing SAP BusinessObjects
courses have been updated or are in the
process of being updated for 4.0 where
applicable
– Special consideration should be given to
training in the following areas given the
amount of changes made in 4.0
• Web Intelligence – Full upgrade with
dramatically changed interface
• Information Design Tool – New semantic layer
• Dashboards (formerly Xcelsius) – New
connectivity functionality and features including
some changes to the interface
• Crystal Reports Enterprise – For customers
wishing to abandon Crystal Reports 2011 and
move to Enterprise
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28. Migration Best Practices
‒ “House Cleaning” Existing Environment : Example remove
excess and obsolete reports
‒ Conduct S.W.O.T analysis with the business users
‒ Keep the original environment available long enough to compare
to the new environment to ensure that the content was migrated
successfully
‒ Go through a “practice run” of the migration
‒ Development should NOT be done on any 4.0 environment until
the migration is complete
‒ Security = specify the new “owner right” for existing products, and
set rights for new products (IDT, LCM, etc)
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29. Migration Best Practices
‒ Keep existing functionality as part of the migration, and any new
functionality not currently implemented or was not available in a
previous version will be evaluated after the migration
‒ Have a Test Strategy in place to ensure the migration was a
success
‒ Understand what new functionalities are offered in 4.0 to prepare
for next steps after the migration
‒ If architecting a clustered environment, make sure each server
node works properly
‒ A simple way to conduct a performance test is by creating a
publication that schedules the same set of reports in both the old
environment and the 4.0 environment. This can be done during
different times in a day to gauge performance.
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30. Questions?
Thank you!
Eric Molner
Analytics8
500 N. Michigan Ave
Suite 810
Chicago, IL 60611
T: 312 878 6600
F: 773 326 0749
www.Analytics8.com
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