As
SAP Business Objects Dashboards approaches End of Life on December 31st, 2020, the alternative for users becomes the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). Users can learn more
here about the SAP Analytics Strategy and SAC's value as an alternative for users of Dashboards. This post focuses on how I updated some reporting dashboards from SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards to SAP Analytics Cloud for a
Healthcare Industry use case by exporting the data and rebuilding it in SAC. This will also go over the features and functionalities in SAC that can add value to users when rebuilding their dashboards in SAC.
Some prerequisites for this change include the following:
- SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius) and SWF files
- SAP Analytics Cloud Data Discovery
- SAP Analytics Cloud Analytics Designer
- Microsoft Excel
Extracting Data from Dashboards (aka Xcelsius):
- To start the process, users can export SWF files from SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. SWF files are the source files of BusinessObjects Dashboard that contains the data.
- Once users have the SWF file for the report(s) they want to convert, the data can then be extracted and converted to an excel format (xlsx) either via Dashboards preview mode or directly from the SWF file.
- Once this file is extracted and converted to an excel file, they could import it into SAC as a datasource.
- Users could then use then create a model from which they can begin to rebuild their report in SAP Analytics Cloud!
- Please refer to the Guided Playlists here on how to create SAP Analytics stories.
Below are some SAC features that can add value to the healthcare use case beyond existing features in SAP Dashboards.
- Linked Analysis: Linked analysis allows users and teams to create dynamic relationships between visualizations and charts within a story. For example, as you filter or drill down on a hospital or a department within the use case, the actions would also occur in one or more related charts. This is great for focusing on a specific part of an organization and seeing how other charts are affected. You can learn more about Creating a Linked Analysis here.
- Smart Predict: This is an Augmented Analytics feature in SAP Analytics Cloud that a Business Analyst could use to generate predictions about future events, values, and trends based on the questions/problem the Business Analyst or other users would want to address. Learn more about how to Get Started with Smart Predict Here.
- Analytics Designer: The Analytics Designer is a functionality of SAP Analytics Cloud that allows users to create analytics application with its own dedicated design environment. While a story is created in SAC are self-service oriented to create great BI and predictive reporting for business users and have configured functionality, an analytic application is far more flexible to implement custom behavior and is expressed with scripts. By creating dashboards with Analytic Designer, users receive an overview of highly aggregated data and use of interactive tiles to drill into details. Learn more about Analytics Designer here.
You can find more information about the Healthcare use case created
here.
