Altek Solutions Business Intelligence Blog

What’s New in Data Services 4.0

Data Services 4.0 is currently in ramp-up with SAP. Just like in the new BusinessObjects version, there are a lot of changes to be seen here. Overall it is much more tightly integrated with the BusinessObjects platform, providing a much more streamlined and consistent user experience. Here’s a taste of what’s new.

Top 5 Misconceptions About Business Objects Universes

I recently published the post 5 Reasons Why You Should Use an SAP BusinessObjects Universe to highlight some of the core benefits you’ll see when implementing the semantic layer for you organization.  The post was derived from speaking with organizations new to the Business Objects world about the benefits of leveraging the semantic layer. Throughout [...]

5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes

In meeting with organizations who are new to SAP BusinessObjects or who are legacy Crystal Reports users, we are often asked the question “Why should I use a Business Objects Universe?”.  To organizations who have worked with universes for a period of time, the advantages and value proposition are clear.  But for organizations who are [...]

Connecting BusinessObjects to SAP

Following SAP’s big acquisition of BusinessObjects, more and more companies running SAP are looking to BusinessObjects as an answer for their reporting needs. The BusinessObjects tools WebIntelligence and Xcelsius are well suited for this role. However, getting SAP data into those tools is not yet as easy as SAP would like. For a variety of reasons, BusinessObjects Data Services is the tool of choice for extracting data from SAP. In this post I will explain how Data Services talks to SAP to extract data.

Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work (part 2): We Need to Massage the Data First

Back in March I posted “Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work In Some Organizations”. In that post, I listed some of the major concerns that I hear from potential clients when the subject of ad hoc reporting is broached. As promised, I will be addressing each of those concerns and showing how they can be overcome. We’ve already addressed “Our people aren’t smart enough to create their own reports.” Now let’s turn our attention to data, and look at “We need to massage the data first.”

Consolidate or Federate?: Managing the Need for Information Access

Integrating data is a constantly evolving strategy, especially as Business Intelligence becomes a more critical application. In order to ensure success, trustworthy data must be built and, to do this, tools need to be used to bring together disparate data and address data quality.

The evolution of Enterprise Information Management (EIM) has brought us to several strategies. Now, there is consolidation, federation, or a combination of the two. Business Objects offers solutions in the form of two products: Data Integrator and Data Federator.