{"id":13497,"date":"2017-04-25T18:19:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T16:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/?p=13497"},"modified":"2017-05-10T06:22:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T04:22:43","slug":"modern-bi-with-sap-businessobjects-lumira-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/modern-bi-with-sap-businessobjects-lumira-2-0.html","title":{"rendered":"Modern BI With SAP BusinessObjects Lumira 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is part of a series of posts<\/a> by different authors about the launch of SAP BusinessObjects Lumira 2.0, expected to be generally available in July\u00a0of this year.<\/p>\n

Previous posts by\u00a0Ina Felsheim<\/a>,\u00a0Iver van der Zand<\/a>,\u00a0and Sathish Rajagopal<\/a> have already provided a\u00a0great overview of the new functionality available. In this post, I’d like to concentrate on how\u00a0Lumira can help IT departments address the need for “modern BI” analytics self-service.<\/p>\n

Modern BI<\/h3>\n

Traditional BI platforms have long enabling IT departments to provide\u00a0trusted, interactive analytic content for\u00a0business leaders. But the time it can take to model the necessary data structures and semantic layers can lead to frustration for business people clamoring for more agile access to data.<\/p>\n

Lumira was introduced to help extend the power of traditional business intelligence with new\u00a0\u201cmodern BI\u201d capabilities, defined<\/a> by\u00a0Gartner as:<\/p>\n

\u201ca self-contained architecture that enables nontechnical users to autonomously execute full-spectrum analytic workflows from data access, ingestion and preparation to interactive analysis, and the collaborative sharing of insights.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The new Lumira release extends support for three key aspects\u00a0of modern BI:<\/p>\n

From Collect to Connect<\/h3>\n

Given the explosion of new data sources over the last few years, it’s now impractical (if indeed it ever really was) to combine all the data that an organization requires for analytics in a single, centralized data warehouse.<\/p>\n

The future is about more flexible “Data Management Solutions for Analytics” (DMSA<\/a>) that combine multiple different types of traditional, big data, and streaming approaches. Thanks to the rapid growth of in-memory systems such as SAP HANA and open-source platforms such as Hadoop\/Spark (and SAP Vora<\/a>), it’s now easier than ever to bring data together for analysis as and when needed, rather than having to create all the data structures in advance.<\/p>\n

Lumira lets business people access data wherever it is stored — even if it isn’t in company\u00a0systems. The complex reality of corporate data systems means that there\u00a0will always be a role for IT-led data integration and data cleansing initiatives. Lumira 2.0 improves access to such trusted data using existing\u00a0BusinessObjects Universe semantic layers and direct access to data warehouses such as SAP BW. But in addition, it allows business people to mash\u00a0data together from any source they have access to — from third-party cloud data\u00a0to local spreadsheets — without having to contact IT. And the solution includes powerful yet\u00a0easy-to-use features that\u00a0address\u00a0the biggest barrier to such self-service data access: the need to merge data from\u00a0different sources and fix data quality problems on the fly.<\/p>\n

From Power to Empower<\/h3>\n

For many (or even most?) people, nicely-formatted\u00a0interactive reports and dashboards that give just the data they need to make\u00a0decisions is still an\u00a0ideal solution. And\u00a0surveys<\/a> indicate that organizations intend to continue\u00a0increasing their\u00a0IT-led BI investments.<\/p>\n

But modern BI is growing even faster. Unlike most operational applications, which typically have\u00a0relatively long usage cycles before they need to be upgraded, analytics is all about iteration and change.\u00a0New insights are translated into new business approaches, which in turn require new analytics. In the real world, with limited resources, this has meant that IT departments can never quite keep up with the analytic needs of the\u00a0business.<\/p>\n

Self-service analytics has been the mantra of the BI industry since its inception, and one of the primary goals of\u00a0data warehouses and semantic layers was to enable\u00a0business people to access data without having to learn computer languages like SQL. But technology limitations restricted what was possible in terms of\u00a0interactive, user-friendly analysis,\u00a0and this meant that self-service tended to be restricted to power users.<\/p>\n

Lumira was built from scratch to use the power of new in-memory approaches\u00a0that allow business people to\u00a0do analysis interactively, directly on\u00a0charts and other visualizations, at the “speed of thought.” \u00a0This easier, more intuitive approach enables self-service access for a much\u00a0wider group of users.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Screenshots showing Lumira 2.0 planned ease-of-use innovations (note that this is the current state of planning, but may be subject to change).<\/em><\/p>\n

The new Lumira 2.0 represents a big step forward in ease of use. It’s now optimized for less-expert users focusing squarely on the fewest steps needed to get to a useful\u00a0result. For example, the product opens with a tile view of previously-used visualizations, and users can easily create dynamic dashboards by simply dragging and dropping visualizations onto a new integrated canvas view. And the\u00a0reworked bookmarking feature\u00a0makes it easier than ever to share a specific view of the data, while letting recipients\u00a0continue with their own analysis. To see these features in action,\u00a0check out the excellent preview demo<\/a> done by Iver van der Zand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From Control to Trust<\/h3>\n

The fear of many IT organizations is that modern BI tools can\u00a0lead to chaos inside organizations, with business people making bad decisions based on\u00a0inadequate or misunderstood data. Thankfully, there has been no real indication of this happening. But there have been reports of uncontrolled self-service tool proliferation leading to needless duplication and comparison problems\u00a0(for example, two different sales divisions\u00a0might\u00a0create analyses for the same underlying business problem, but with different approaches).\u00a0When combined with multiple\u00a0departments purchasing different incompatible tools, this can lead to high per user costs for modern BI deployments (although this should be contrasted with higher reported business benefits and user satisfaction because of faster development cycles).<\/p>\n

The ideal, of course, is to have the best of both worlds, combining user freedom with effective IT governance. Lumira 2.0 enables this by being an integral part of existing traditional BI management infrastructures, making it both secure and scalable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, IT organizations must take a “trust but verify” approach to analytics. Instead of creating reports themselves and being a gatekeeper, they should\u00a0enable users to do what they want, but keep tabs on what is being done. With Lumira 2.0,\u00a0IT organizations\u00a0can more easily spot duplicated efforts from different groups, and limit the effects of “shiny objects syndrome” — groups using scarce resources to create\u00a0attractive dashboards that don’t actually align with real business needs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lumira 2.0 also supports the BI lifecycle, seamlessly combining end-user empowerment with more IT-led approaches. As new BI needs arise, business people can use Lumira Discovery to grab the data they need and experiment with different forms of visualization and analysis, and immediately collaborate and share with others. Sometimes, this will involve one-off projects that never need any IT support. But in other cases, the analysis proves so useful that it should be made more permanent and shared more widely. Lumira Designer allows the analysis to be upgraded and extended to create real analytic applications, complete with links to concrete actions to be taken. Again, Iver van der Zand has an excellent demo<\/a> to show how it works.<\/p>\n

It’s Time to Invest in Modern BI<\/h3>\n

Gartner has joked that organizations that still use traditional BI solutions are “BI-nosaurs” that haven’t yet realized that the comet has crashed into the planet. Lumira 2.0 represents an ideal opportunity to prove them wrong, and ensure the ongoing survival of the fittest…<\/p>\n

More information:<\/p>\n