Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:001

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition forMicrosoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysisfor MS Office

Posted by Taygan Rifat Apr 19, 2014

Summary• BEx Analyzer widely used as the MS Office integration tool to analyse multidimensional data from

SAP BW.• SAP have clearly positioned Analysis, edition for Office (AfO) as the "premium alternative" and

eventual replacement to BEx Analyzer.

Purpose• Understand if there are any gaps in functionality.• Understand what benefits could be gained by adopting now.

Note: At point of comparison, the following versions of the tools were evaluated.• Analysis, edition for Office 1.4 SP6 (14.6.2960)• BEx Analyzer 7.30 SP3 Revision 1906

Findings

Intuitive UI (larger buttons, contextual information, visual cues).

Current feature set is comprehensive and provides good coverage for typical BEx Analyzer users.

There are some features from BEx that are still lacking from Analysis. Those identified are planned for

future releases (e.g. variable personalisation, variable history).

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:002

In addition to the improved UI, there are many features that are only available in Analysis that could enable

faster and smarter ways of working.

Comparison: Select a Data Source

Recently used queries are immediately visible.

Ability to leverage OLAP connections defined in SAP BO (e.g. HANA)

Interoperability across BI platform via Analysis Views.

Support for multiple data sources.

Comparison: Prompts

Toggle display of all optional prompts at once via [Display] button.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:003

Toggle display of specific optional prompts via pins.

Variable Personalization.

Variable History.

Comparison: BEx Text Elements (Information)

Not constrained where/how information displayed.

Drag and drop dynamic text elements directly into worksheet.

Info Field can be used for quick access to common elements.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:004

Comparison: Filters

Improved UI enables users to identify filters at a glance.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:005

Comparison: Navigational State

Improved UI facilitates faster workflows (no need to right click and access "query properties").

Quick access to attributes by expanding [+] sign.

Analysis pane visible by default and can be toggled via a single click.

Intuitive Columns, Rows & Background consistent with Analysis, edition for OLAP.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:006

Comparison: Undo/Redo

Multi-step undo/redo.

No longer need to undo one navigation step at a time, able to jump to a particular state.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:007

Other Benefits

Toggle automatic refresh.

Schedule (broadcast) via BI platform.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:008

PowerPoint publishing.

Conditional Formatting.

Save workbooks to BI platform.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:009

Unified "Design Mode" - no need to switch between consumption and design.

Support for multiple data source (e.g. multiple BEx queries in a single worksheet, combination of BW &

HANA, etc)

Interoperability with Design Studio (e.g. prototype a web application).

Conclusion• Existing users who are familiar with BEx Analyzer will find the transition to Analysis relatively smooth.

With a familiar MS Office UI, comprehensive feature set and overall improved design, unlocking valueout of your enterprise DWH should be made even easier.

• Analysis specific features such as interoperability with Analysis Views, interactions with the BI

platform and access to more data sources will further support our ability to leverage existinginvestments (BW, HANA, BO) and promote cross collaboration across the wider BI community.

• The intuitive design will attract new users who may have required BEx in the past but were

intimidated by the non friendly UI, ultimately driving broader adoption.

• Analysis is inline with SAP’s strategic focus and will be the target for future innovations.

The tool appears to be sufficiently mature (1.4 SP6) to start being used today as thereplacement for BEx Analyzer.

10500 Views Tags: bi, bi4, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), bw, analysis, business_intelligence,businessobjects_analysis_office, office, analysis_office, ao, analysis_office_14, analysis_edition_for_microsoft,sap_businessobjects_analysis_edition_for_microsoft_office

Aby AbyMar 16, 2015 9:32 AM

Good comparison,

thanks for that...

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:0010

Now i am working with both Analyser and Analysis.

We are planing to replace analyser with analysis,but i found some limitations which blocks us from this

replacement.

1.I cannot drill down a report,which contains more than 65000 rows.Is there any solution for this?

2.I cannot find a star(*) option in the variable selection.

Your suggestions will be valuable...

rgds,

aby

Torsten Wirth in response to Alan Berkey on page 10Sep 17, 2014 8:17 AM

Hi Alan,

I don't think that any changes are planned in the next time for the old Query Designer. The Idea is to use AO

agains the queries. There are some rumors about a new version of Query Designer in Eclipse (which makes

sense in combination with HANA). But I have seen nothing official concerning this topic.

Blog concerning this topic:

http://scn.sap.com/community/business-explorer/blog/2013/09/27/future-of-bex-query-designer

You will find the eclipse version mentioned in the roadmap for Q3/2014

Regards,

Torsten

Alan BerkeySep 16, 2014 6:44 PM

Good comparison, thanks.

We also have BW 7.3 and are using BO on a limited basis. Users are starting to adopt Analysis for Office for

the exact reasons stated. We have many legacy BEx queries in use.

Do you know the roadmap for the Query Designer now that an Analyzer successor has been addressed?

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:0011

Thank you,

Alan

Torsten Wirth in response to Harish Allachervu on page 11Sep 12, 2014 2:39 PM

Yes, you can. But you have to talk to SAP in this topic.

Regards,

Torsten

Harish AllachervuSep 11, 2014 8:29 AM

handy info

at present in our project we are using BEx analyzer as major reporting tool.

you are correct as BI consultant i am seeing so many bottlenecks in the analyzer when i randomly searching in

SCN i come across this forum and even your blog as well.

so after reading some docs & blogs i thought to propose this tool for our client as replacement for analyzer

before that i need few inputs.

we have BW 7.3 system and all our reports are designed in Bex query designer and please note we don't have

BOBJ in our landscape.

so can we get licence only for AO tool without having BI/BOBJ systems...?

anticipating positive inputs!!!

Thanks & Regards,

Harish

Taygan Rifat in response to Miguel Varela on page 12Apr 26, 2014 4:45 AM

Hi Miguel,

Analysis Views is one of the key mechanisms in which Analysis for Office can work along side other tools

within the BI suite.

Analysis Views (which are simply a saved navigation state of an analysis) can be exported from Analysis for

Office (as well as Analysis for OLAP) and saved within the BI platform. Once exported, tools such as Crystal

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office: BEx Analyzer vs. Analysis for MS Office

Generated by Jive on 2015-06-13+02:0012

Reports for Enterprise and Web Intelligence can consume Analysis Views as a data source. See interactive

tutorials below for more details.

Web Intelligence: Connect to an Analysis View

Crystal Reports for Enterprise: Connect to an Analysis View

Miguel VarelaApr 25, 2014 4:30 PM

Great comparison and info for those coming from BW/BEx.

Do you have more examples or "use cases" of connecting Analysis for Office with other BI Tools?.

This "Interoperability with Design Studio (e.g. prototype a web application)." is especially interesting.

Best regards.