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SAP BusinessObjects BI4.

1 SP06
Whats new
Version 1.2
June 2nd, 2015

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Legal Disclaimer

The information in this presentation is confidential and proprietary to SAP and may not be disclosed
without the permission of SAP. This presentation is not subject to your license agreement or any
other service or subscription agreement with SAP. SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of
business outlined in this document or any related presentation, or to develop or release any
functionality mentioned therein. This document, or any related presentation and SAP's strategy and
possible future developments, products and or platforms directions and functionality are all subject
to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. The information
in this document is not a commitment, promise or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or
functionality. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied,
including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose,
or non-infringement. This document is for informational purposes and may not be incorporated into
a contract. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such
damages were caused by SAPs willful misconduct or gross negligence.
All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied
upon in making purchasing decisions.

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Whats New in BI 4.1 SP06 (1)

Web Intelligence

Freehand SQL
Global Input Controls
BI Variant
Multi-Column Selection
Charting
Select NULL Values
Change Source
Cancel Query
Formula Engine

Semantic Layer

Dynamic Default Values for Prompts


SAP HANA input parameters
OLAP Sources

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Whats New in BI 4.1 SP06 (2)

Live Office

UNX support

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

TXT and CSV as Data Source

Dashboard Designer Enhancement for Mobile BI

Performance Enhancements
Prefer Cache for Mobile BI

Analysis for OLAP

Drill Through Support for SSAS (Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services)
Enhancements in Selection Option Variables
Enhancements to Connection Screen
Performance Enhancements

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Whats New in BI 4.1 SP06 (3)

Report Conversion Tool

FHSQL Conversion Enhancements

BI Platform

Security Enhancements
BI Workspace Enhancements
Session Management Improvements

Platform Support

Supported Platform Enhancements


Connectivity Enhancements
CMS and Audit DB Enhancements
Other Enhancements

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Web Intelligence
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in Web Intelligence 4.1 SP06

Freehand SQL
Global Input Controls
BI Variant
Multi-Column Selection
Charting
Select NULL Values
Change Source
Cancel Query
Formula Engine

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

BI 4.1 SP06 - Web Intelligence and SL top enhancements

Free-hand SQL

Create a WebI data provider and type SQL directly

Requires a secured connection (cns)

Convert DeskI doc with FHSQL to WebI with RCT

Global input controls

Now input controls can apply to all the tabs in the document

BI variants

Answer multiple prompts with a single click.

Similar to BW variants, but can be applied to any data source

Multi-column selection with Shift-Click

Shift click to select multiple columns or rows in a WebI table

Dynamic default values in universe prompts

Default values in universe prompts can have dynamic values. For example, default date = todays date

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

BI 4.1 SP06 Free-hand SQL

Free-hand SQL in Web Intelligence

Create a WebI data provider and type SQL directly

Convert DeskI doc with FHSQL to WebI with RCT

Stored procedures are supported too

Launch a stored procedure execution with a free-hand


SQL script

Supported SQL scripts

Support for all SQL syntax compliant with ANSI SQL


89/92/98 (support for SET options, stored procedures,
WITH clauses, etc.)

Support for @variable and @prompt functions in SQL


scripts for Free-Hand SQL

SQL scripts are not executed if they contain DDL


commands (DROP TABLE, ALTER TABLE, etc.)

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BI 4.1 SP06 Global Input Controls

What are input controls

Input controls are a way to filter report data

Several user experience options are available (drop


down, check box etc.)

Before BI 4.1 SP06

Up to BI 4.1 SP05, input controls only apply to one


report

With BI 4.1 SP06

Input controls can apply to one or to all the reports in a


Web Intelligence document

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BI 4.1 SP06 BI variants

What is a BI variant

A BI variant is a set of questions (prompts) and corresponding answers

BW variants are used extensively in BW systems

Workflows

Create a variant (or multiple variants) in WebI.

Select a variant when refreshing that WebI report

Edit, delete a variant

Note: BI variants are stored in the CMS

Benefits

Save time (single click)

Available for any data source (BW included)

Should help reduce proliferation of WebI reports

Initial limitations

Only available for Web Intelligence

Copy of document does not copy variants

Variants cannot be shared between documents or users

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BI 4.1 SP06 Other Web Intelligence and SL


enhancements
Charting

Support for dashed lines (DeskI catch up)

Select NULL values

Allow selection of NULL values in input controls and filters (EMPTY values are already supported)

Change source options

XI 3.1 applies a name-based mapping rule whereas BI 4.x applies an object ID mapping rule

With SP06, users can choose the mapping rule (name or ID)

Cancel query

User gets control back after canceling a query

Both in Java and HTML clients

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Report Conversion Tool


BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Convert Freehand SQL Statements to WebI

With the Full Freehand SQL support in Web Intelligence, Report Conversion
Tool is enhanced to enable the FULL FHSQL conversion as FHSQL instead of
an Universe

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Semantic Layer
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in Semantic Layer 4.1 SP06

Dynamic Default Values for Prompts


SAP HANA input parameters
OLAP Sources

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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BI 4.1 SP06 Other Web Intelligence and SL


enhancements
Dynamic default values in universe prompts

Default values in universe prompts can have dynamic values. For example, default date = todays
date

Formula to define default value is based on WebI formula language

HANA input parameters


Support multi-valued HANA input parameters

OLAP sources
Block OLAP queries without a measure to
avoid OLAP server problems (crashes)

OLAP queries are not blocked if there is a single


dimension and no measure.

Queries are blocked when there are at least


2 dimensions (and no measure).

This does not apply to BW, but to MSAS and Essbase.

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Live Office
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in Live Office 4.1 SP06

Support for UNX Universes

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Live Office support for UNX universes

Problem to solve

There are two types of universes: UNV (the classic version) and UNX (the new version)

Up to BI4.1 SP05, Live Office can only use UNV universes

This is a problem for Live Office customers who want to deploy UNX universes

So the requirement was to support UNX universes in addition to UNV universes

Live Office query panel

With BI 4.1 SP06, the Live Office query panel is available for UNV and UNX universes

Live Office use of WebI report parts

With BI 4.1 SP06, Live Office can import WebI report parts from WebI docs based on UNV or UNX
universes

Restrictions

Only relational UNX universes are supported (not dimensional universes)

To access SAP BW from Excel, the recommendation is to use Analysis Office

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Live Office support for UNX universes

Live Office support the use of UNX based content when adding a new
information set to the sheet.
Direct UNX queries are
supported as well as blocks
out of UNX based
WebI Documents

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Crystal Reports 4 Enterprise


BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.1 SP06

TXT and CSV as Data Source

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Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Support of flat files TXT and CSV Data source.


Flat files from local system drive.
Flat files from Generic http Location.

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Dashboard Designer
Enhancement for Mobile BI
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in Dashboard Designer 4.1 SP06

Performance Enhancements
Prefer Cache for Mobile BI

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Dashboard Designer Performance Enhancements

Dashboards re-published using BI 4.1 SP06 designer will have enhanced performance on mobile

Reduced package size from server


Duplicate Images are removed from the final package
Run time libraries can be removed from server packet & included in
client ( available only for SAP BusinessObjects Mobile SDK customers)
Control PnR logs via registry setting

Static components of the dashboards are displayed


first & in background connection will be established to
pull data & refresh the content

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Whats New for Mobile Dashboards Prefer Cache

An option to enable Prefer Cache for downloaded dashboards. When it is set to


true, application loads the dashboard content from cached content even when app
is in connected mode. This option is available via client settings property on
mobile server feature.dashboards.prefer.cache.enabled=true
Note: This feature is already available in the latest SAP BusinessObjects Mobile client version 6.1

Tap here to enable


prefer cache for dashboard
content

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Mobile Dashboards - Prefer Cache details

This feature works only for the dashboards that are Added to Device on the mobile client
Once Prefer Cache is enabled, all backend responses is cached on device
After the response is cached, SAPBI client uses the cached data whenever user repeats previously
performed operation
This does not improve performance during download or first time open of dashboard, but from
subsequent load onwards it will be quicker since we read from local cache
If the backend data changes and user wants to update the local cache then user can disable Prefer
Cache and the SAPBI will re-download the data
Other ways to clean the cache:
Delete and re-download the dashboard
Update the dashboard on BI platform. Simple way: re-save the Dashboard using dashboard
designer and this triggers update alert on the mobile client to re-download the dashboard
Limitation : This feature works only for DSL based connections. Does not currently work for QAAWS

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Analysis for OLAP


BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New for AOLAP Enhancements 4.1 SP06

Drill Trough support for Microsoft SSAS


Enhancements to Selection Option Variables
Enhancements to Connection Screen
Performance Enhancements

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Whats New for AOLAP Enhancements 4.1 SP06

Drill Trough support for SSAS

Support for Drilling down to transaction table in SSAS (Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services)

Enhancements to Selection Option Variables

Change default Operand for Selection option variable

Support for Manual entry of Multiple Values

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Whats New for AOLAP Enhancements 4.1 SP06

Enhancements to Connection Screen

Change default from Search to Folder

Performance Enhancements

Hierarchy Dimension in Background filters for HANA

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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BI Platform
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

BI Platform Enhancement.

Security Enhancements

Enterprise Authentication Password strength


Allow administrator to force users to use special characters in password policy

SSO Login for Central Management Console.

Secure FTP support for Schedule and Publishing.

SMTP over SSL for mail configuration during Publishing and Scheduling.

BI Workspace Enhancements

BI Workspace support Design Studio document.

Session Management Improvements

BI Launchpad failover support.

Session close on Browser close for

BI Launchpad,

Open Document workflow and

Central Management console

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Platform Support
BI4.1 SP06, Whats New

Whats New in BI 4.1 SP06 Platform Support

Supported Platform Enhancements


Connectivity

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BI Platform Support - Supported Platforms BI4.1 SP06

With BI4.1 SP06 the following Platforms have been added:


Extended support for Cloud Platforms

Microsoft Azure

Extended support for Browsers

Safari 8

Extended support for Java Application Servers

SAP NW Application Server 7.4 SP09


Tomcat 8

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BI Platform Support - Connectivity

With BI4.1 SP06 the following databases have been added

Extended support for Crystal Reports 2013

PeopleSoft 8.54

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BI Platform Support - CMS and Audit DB

With BI4.1 SP06 the following databases have been added for CMS and Audit
support

IBM DB2 Workgroup Edition 10.5

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BI Platform Support - Other

With BI4.1 SP06 the following other technologies have been added as
supported:

Office 365
Adobe Reader 15/16

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Key Links
www.sapbi.com
sap.com/learnbi
sap.com/bivirtualization
sap.com/bisizing
service.sap.com/rkt-bo-bi for technical delta implementation knowledge
service.sap.com/roadmap
How to Select the Right BI Tool for Your Environment
SAPs Release Strategy for Major Releases of SAP BusinessObjects BI

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Latest Whats New for BI4.1 SP06

You can download the latest slides for BI4.1 SP06 via:
<PLACEHOLDER>

Older BI4.1 Whats New Slides can be found via:


BI4.1 SP05 : http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59058
BI4.1 SP04 : http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-58724
BI4.1 SP03 : http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-53298
BI4.1 : https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-40283

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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Thank you

SAP BI GTM

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company.


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Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors.
National product specifications may vary.
These materials are provided by SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind,
and SAP AG or its affiliated companies shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP AG or
SAP affiliate company products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and
services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.
In particular, SAP AG or its affiliated companies have no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related
presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This document, or any related presentation, and SAP AGs or its affiliated
companies strategy and possible future developments, products, and/or platform directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be
changed by SAP AG or its affiliated companies at any time for any reason without notice. The information in this document is not a commitment,
promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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