{"id":12081,"date":"2009-09-24T15:23:20","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T14:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2009-09-24T15:23:20","modified_gmt":"2009-09-24T14:23:20","slug":"how-to-easily-analyze-your-excel-data-in-the-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/how-to-easily-analyze-your-excel-data-in-the-cloud.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Easily Analyze Your Excel Data in the Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"explorer-in-cloud-banner\"<\/p>\n

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is the first analysis tool that I\u2019ve seen that I can honestly say is intuitive enough to use without any training (see http:\/\/microfinance.sap.com<\/a> to prove it to yourself).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to know more about the product, list of \u201cEverything You Ever Wanted to Know about SAP BusinessObjects Explorer<\/a>\u201d in a previous post.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This post is about the http:\/\/explorer.ondemand.com<\/a> web site that lets you easily upload any Excel spreadsheet and start analyzing, for free, without having to install any software, and the updated version of the Explorer in the Cloud prototype<\/a> that has just been released by the SAP BusinessObjects innovation center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Features<\/h4>\n

The new version uses the latest interface of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer XI 3.1 SP1<\/a>, and adds two key functionalities asked for by early users:<\/p>\n

Analysis bookmarking<\/strong>. Once you\u2019ve discovered something in the data, you can now easily send that view of the data to somebody else. You simply click on the \u201cEmail\u201d button, you\u2019ll be prompted whether the view should be password-protected, and whether you\u2019d like it to be a permanent bookmark. For example, you may want to make a breakdown of product sales permanently available to the marketing team.<\/p>\n

\"image\" \"image\"<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

Replace dataset<\/strong>. The new version lets you replace an existing data set with an updated one without disturbing any existing links or bookmarks.<\/p>\n

And, of course, you can still easily export the analysis as a data set or image:<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

\u201cDrinking our Own Champagne\u201d<\/h4>\n

The solution is not yet available externally on the http:\/\/explorer.ondemand.com<\/a> website, but since we\u2019re big believers in \u201cdrinking our own champagne\u201d, it has already been made available internally to all 48,500+ SAP employees as part of the standard internal portal.<\/p>\n

Feedback has been extremely positive across all communities and geographies, with hundreds of sessions every day. Here\u2019s one feedback, about a typically pragmatic information need (paraphrased and translated from the original):<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a technical team. Each region created a spreadsheet containing information about the skills and levels of their local team members. Using the internal Explorer solution, it was easy to consolidate the different spreadsheets, upload them, analyze the data to spot areas we needed to work on, and get the information into PowerPoint so we could share it with others!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Excel Plug-in and API<\/h4>\n

\"image\" \"image\"<\/p>\n

An Excel 2007 and 2003 Add-in<\/a> is available that lets you send information directly from your spreadsheet environment \u2013 select the data you want to look at and you can start analyzing just two clicks later.<\/p>\n

Finally, an API for Explorer in the Cloud<\/a> is also available \u2013 think about ways you or your organization could ship information directly into the cloud for easy analysis!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to know more about Explorer, here\u2019s a new promotion page that gives you links to the latest resources about Explorer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"sap_bobj_090209\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now it’s even easier than ever to upload and analyze your Excel spreadsheets online, in the cloud, using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in the cloud. Read about the new features of the prototype!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[96,160,198,204,213,254,467,784,904,911,1006],"class_list":["post-12081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bi-20","tag-analysis","tag-bi","tag-business-analytics","tag-business-intelligence","tag-businessobjects","tag-cloud","tag-excel","tag-on-demand","tag-saas","tag-sap","tag-spreadsheet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/explorerincloudcover.jpg?fit=668%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3X9RF-38R","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}