Discover SAP BusinessObjects

SAP Press recently released Discover SAP BusinessObjects by Chris Dinkel, JC Raveneau, and Thierry Audas.  This book is a great addition to your bookshelf, especially if your role is to recommend SAP BusinessObjects solutions to customers or coworkers.  As a technology consultant that lives and breathes this stuff, most of the material was not new.  However, I found the coverage of less-familiar topics like EPM and GRC very helpful.  The book provides a high-level overview of the entire SAP BusinessObjects portfolio, starting with the standard Business Intelligence (BI) suite (SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, Web Intelligence, etc.) and moving through On-Demand solutions, Enterprise Information Management (EIM), Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC).

The book describes the current SAP BusinessObjects product landscape while looking ahead to the future roadmap.  Despite the book’s recent publication, it still reveals SAP’s last-minute internal wrangling over product names.  For example, Web Intelligence 4.0 is referred to as Interactive Analysis (which I predict will be its name in BI 5.0) and “Advanced Analysis” (Pioneer) has been released as simply “Analysis”.  I enjoyed chapter two the most- “Business Objects: A Historical Perspective”, which provides the colorful history of Business Objects from its founding in 1990 by Bernard Liautaud and Denis Payre to its acquisition by SAP to the present.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Dallas Marks

Dallas Marks

I am an analytics and cloud architect, author, and trainer. An AWS certified blogger, SAP Mentor Alumni and co-author of the SAP Press book SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence: The Comprehensive Guide, I prefer piano keyboards over computer keyboards when not blogging or tweeting.

One thought on “Discover SAP BusinessObjects

  1. Hi Dallas,

    Thanks for the review! You’re right, the idea of the book was to cover the entire portfolio at a higher level. The need that was initially expressed by SAP customers interested by this portfolio new to them but I also met quite a few ‘classic’ BusinessObjects professionals & customers who were eager to discover the full extent of the portfolio and the new BI 4.0

    Yes product names were changed as we were writing the book. However we do have an Interactive Analysis product in the SME portfolio still. This being said I may have missed a replacement somewhere but could not find it. If you let me know the page I could check it.

    Regards,
    JC

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