Mobilizing Your Dashboards: ASUG Webcast

[TammyPowlas]

Last week I attended an ASUG Business Intelligence Community Mobile Dashboard Webcast with Francois Imberton, SAP.

Please note: The usual disclaimer applies that things listed below are subject to change by SAP at any time.

Agenda:

Dashboard Mobile Market

Partner Solutions

Upcoming SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Mobile Release, planned Q4

Demo

Future

Overview

Figure 1: Source: SAP

Figure 1 shows the hype and uptake in the mobile market.

Francois said there is interest across the board, across lines of business.

The third most mobile application is BI, after e-mail and calendar applications.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Who are the dashboard users? Who are the mobile users?

The first audience for dashboards is executives

The same type of goal is to increase access to BI for casual users who do not need training around BI with an easy to use interface

Customers want a mix of online and offline data

Partner Solutions

Figure 3: Source: SAP

Figure 3 shows partner iPad applications into a remote viewer to connect to dashboards

Innovista and Reboard provide more features that are not available in dashboards

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Future release is BI4 SP05 is the next support package and will have the feature of dashboard for mobile. You will also need Mobile BI 4.4 iPad application.  Mobile BI has a quarterly release. 4 corresponds to Q4 release, probably in December.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Providing Mobile BI application that offers Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports and now also able to access Dashboards, using the existing Dashboard Designer

It is not only publishing Flash but also to HTML5

The key is you will need the BI Platform; the reason is that SAP relies on SAP BI Mobile infrastructure which is tied to BI Platform

Leverage existing features and tried to focus on most used features but not all features will be available.  Will Dashboards be able to migrate?  Francois says that is hard to say, because some of the features will not be there.

Some situations you will be able to update Dashboards; some it might be better to start from scratch

It is about features, screen size, interactivity – this is something that might make it awkward to update

Key element is connectivity you need to use the Query panel using BI4 as it enables it to access universes, universes on relational universes, SAP Hana – no Live Office support in SP05

Prompt components will not be available.

Figure 6: Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows the available components for the Dashboards for Mobile solution

Figure 7: Source: SAP

Figure 7 shows gaps, including no support for add-ons including hierarchies, themes

Some fonts are not available on iPad

You will need BI Platform and Mobile BI

Figure 8: Source: SAP

Figure 8 shows how Dashboards work today when publishing to the Desktop

Figure 9: Source: SAP

Figure 9 shows how it works on Mobile – you will publish as mobile to the BI Platform

Figure 10: Source: SAP

Figure 10 shows the features of Dashboard on Mobile BI iPad application including annotation, sharing via StreamWork,  Sybase Afaria deployment, and SUP.

Figure 11: Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows the platform; this was not reviewed during the webcast.

Figure 12: Source: SAP

Figure 12 shows the technical prerequisites

Edge and Crystal Server will have this planned in 2013

Demo of Dashboards for iPad

Figure 13: Source: SAP

Figure 13 shows the demo version of Dashboards for Mobile

Notice in the upper left the “Mobile Compatibility” – a panel that lists the features that are not components supported on Mobile

Figure 14: Source: SAP

The combo box in the list of components is new in SP05

It allows you to filter the only Mobile available components

This helps you build a chart with only Mobile available components

Figure 15: Source: SAP

Figure 15 shows a Mobile Preview feature, showing you what you see on your laptop without publishing to the BI platform

Figure 16: Source: SAP

Figure 16 shows the new publishing to BI platform features

Figure 17: Source: SAP

Figure 17 shows a mobile dashboard on the iPad built by the SAP IT Group (#SAPRunsSAP)

Figure 18: Source: SAP

Figure 18 shows possible features for future releases to cover the gaps, including partner add-ons, more data connectivity, themes (likely not all themes), visualization (micro charts)

Francois is interested in iPhone feedback

Question & Answer

Q: Is Dashboard supported by both iOS and Android?

A: No it is part of the future. Only iPad right now. Others part of the future.

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Q: Do you need Sybase to make the mobility for iPad work?

A: No you do not

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Q: Is dashboard for mobile also for Android tablets?

A: First version will be iPad; what see in market is Android for phones, not tablets.  iPad is dominant

Q: Does publishing mobile dashboards to default "Public Folders" supported?

A: Can publish to any folder and the folder security will be applied

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Q: If prompts and the query panel is not available in the first release, can a user still filter data on the dashboard, for instance by time period or region?

A: Query panel support will be available so yes it is possible to have prompts in query with exisitng selectors - possible to do query filtering; second option is to do filter ing using spreadsheet logic

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Q: What is the license solution for pushing Mobile DASHBOARDS to generic "public" users (eg. Government agency posting stats for PUBLIC consumption)...?

A: Require BI platform - need Mobile User License & BI Platform engine license, depends on your license agreement - not a disconnected flash - not available as integrated with BI platform ; mobile, BI engine server + dashboard user licenses

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Q: Are there any specific guidelines to develop dashboards for iPad?

A: Yes, there will be documentation available and the approaches; also have best practice document on SCN that will be updated.

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Q: How can security be handled if dashbaord is made available to mobile?

A: Security between device and platform is encrypted - main issue is offline; for that have different levels of encryption at app level.

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Q: Can I hear more about how offline works, where is the data stored, how does it get saved to the device

A: Local cache, data is stored in local XML format - if familiar with mobile BI app - offline/online - online to BI platform, offline will access only the content - dashboard definition data on device which is encrypted

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Q: So basically, you would have to have two versions of a dashboard. One for the PC, another for the iPad or other mobile devices? Correct?

A: Not necessarily. You can publish the dashboard both for mobile and pc dashboard consumption.

I thank Francois Imberton for this webcast for ASUG.

If you missed this or are not an ASUG Member, SAP has a Dashboard Product Roadmap webcast on October 25 with Francois - see here for more information or register here (SMP login is required)

Also, open to everyone (no SMP this time) is How to Select the Right BI Tool with SAP's Ingo Hilgefort on October 2nd - register here