SAP Analytics Cloud is a next-gen cloud-based service offering for all reporting and analytical applications. As promoted by SAP it is the one-stop place for all the BI, Planning and Predictive applications. For years (Decades ????) Business Objects is a premium BI offering from SAP and customers are using it extensively and effectively.  With the new strategic direction of SAP, SAC is going to be a successor for all the reporting and analytical needs. Our customers frequently ask how can we migrate our on-prem BOBJ to SAC? What should be our strategy for cloud migration.

First, let’s see what SAC is and its capabilities are.

SAP analytics cloud is a next-generation all-in-one analytics SaaS solution that combines reporting planning as well as predictive.

Built natively on SAP HANA Cloud Platform (HCP), SAP Analytics Cloud allows data analysts and business decision-makers to visualize, plan and make predictions all from one secure, cloud-based environment. SAP claims this differs from other BI platforms, which often require data to be integrated from various sources and users to jump between different applications when performing tasks, such as creating reports. With all the data sources and analytics functions in one product, Analytics Cloud users can work more efficiently, according to SAP. The key functions are accessed from the same user interface that is designed for ease-of-use for business users.

SAP Business Objects BI suite –

Business Objects is a Premium BI offering from SAP with multiple BI suite of products bundled. This has been a very successful BI tool for most of the SAP customers. Even though SAP announced BI 4.3 and maintenance up to 2027, all new innovations will be added to SAC. The below Image shows the convergence plan for the products.

Let’s look at migration options from BOBJ to SAC. Unfortunately, at this moment there is no direct migration path or tools delivered by SAP. However, they are planning to deliver assessment tools for migration in the future to compare the features supported.  So, how can we start using the latest and greatest cloud offerings while we have thousands of BOBJ reports already deployed.

• Let’s start with an assessment of the bobj system. SAP now changing the licensing model for BOBJ, if you are heavy Web-Intelligence shop and limited other tools, we now have Web-I only licensing so               we start using SAC for visualizations and planning
• Latest BI 4.3 has very tighter integration with SAC which includes easy user onboarding and Web I data model connection
• BOBJ 4.3 will have a new option to deploy Web I report directly to SAP Analytics Hub. This allows end-users transparency in accessing both SAC and BOBJ content
• We already have universe connection available in SAC, so technically all the modeling/ semantics applied at Universe level can be used in SAC
• BI 4.3 will be delivering a new Web I Data model, which essentially enables the user to build SAC stories on On-prem Web I
• SAP Application designer will have all the features and capabilities of Lumira designer and now is the time to start converting (Again, no direct migration tool)

Tek Approach

• Our Rapid Deployment team partners with IT and Business stakeholders and quickly identify the use-cases for On-prem, cloud and hybrid approaches
• Our team will help customer to change the licensing model based on BI product usage for the effective and cost-efficient transition to SAC
• Asses the On-prem BI platform and identify any redundant objects, identify reports which can be easily recreated in SAC
• Configure Live, import connections and Deploy SAP Analytics Hub as reporting gateway for seamless and transparent SAC transition
• Deploy SAC cloud content to Jumpstart the SAP Analytics cloud Journey
• End to end training and enabling the business transition to Guided/Self – service BI using SAC