How does Xcelsius Jive with SAP’s Mobile First Strategy

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

At the tail end of last week there was a bit of dooms-day chatter on Twitter around Xcelsius, and this week I saw two posts from Steve Lucas on Flash Demise and Mobile-First. This activity sparked a lot of buzz and debate on the web. So how could I resist chiming in?

In the next few years, customers will have more choices than ever for how they will approach dashboards and visualization, but they will have to prioritize based on needs and budget. Once again, it will come down to choosing the right tools for the job..

1. Xcelsius with some kind of HTML5 ported option yet to be announced, which we have to assume will be a subset of Xcelsius functionality.

2. SAP mobile enabled solutions like Explorer / Exploration views and BI Mobile (webi mobilized)

3. Xcelsius coupled with a third party offering like Antivia XWIS Anywhere and Exxova MyBI Mobile,

4. Third party mobile visualization products like Roambi.

This list will be prioritized based on the following questions that every customer will need to ask themselves for an entire BI initiative and for specific projects:

  • Is the end users primarily a mobile user or desktop user?
  • How important is mobility for the dashboard? Must have, should have, nice to have?
  • Will the technology(s) in question provide the results required by the end users?

I will likely do a full write-up to compare and contrast these approaches once BI4 release pack 3 hits the market this quarter.

So what about Xcelsius?

The reality is that Xcelsius, like any other technology, will have to evolve or be replaced. The “Xcelsius” as we know it, which is a Flash and Excel powered technology wrapped up in an desktop development environment, has a shelf life. SAP is NOT killing off a product, because it is hardly a move that we would expect for a highly successful and profitable technology. The SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards prooduct has a large customer base, thriving community, and a great ecosystem of partners who are continuously innovating platform. What ever the fate of Xcelsius is, SAP’s “Mobile First” is a clear strategy shift that will not happen over night.

Is the future clear or cloudy?

While SAP has sat on Xcelsius, the company’s focus has shifted towards growth opportunities like Big Data, Cloud, Social, and Mobility…it is baked into our brains as SAP customers and partners. There is a common thread here that is critical to the success to all of these initiatives: “End user experiences.”. Most of these strategic growth areas for SAP, have integration back to the core Business Analytics product lines. So the question we all have is what exactly will SAP’s next-generation “mobile first” dashboard solution look like? Will SAP truly innovate in this area? Or will the huge ecosystem of software vendors beat them to the punch?

Let me know what you guys think.

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Posted in BI4, Dashboards, Xcelsius | 4 Comments

My Xcelsius Enhancement Wish List

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

I have long waited for some basic Xcelsius enhancements to produce more useful dashboard applications. Understanding that Xcelsius enhancements to existing components is limited, I wanted to pick out a few that I believe are low hanging fruit to make a large volume of developers a little happier.

Will these enhancements help SAP sell more software? absolutely not..

Will it help new customers who are left to execute after they purchase? YES!

These are very minor tweaks that would alter how people build Xcelsius dashboards for the better. I chose these as my top 3 because they are super simple, and do not make sense as third party solutions.

  1. Enable the “selected item” property for all table components (spreadsheet, scorecard, and table view). If I could get one pick, scorecard would be at the top of the list. If I have to tell one more customer that you can’t dynamically chose an item from a table… I may start pulling my hair out!  I would say that 60% of the dashboards I have built could benefit from this.
  2. Bullet charts labels- Bullet charts are great for demos but useless in production. “Performance Value” “Comparative” and “Scale Value” are tooltips that you are stuck with, and the reality is that few if any customers find these usable. The solution? Let me change it in the property sheet.
  3. Provide a “Selected Tab” property so we can start making use of the tabbed container. This is a great component, but most dashboard developers need to know what tab a user is interfacing with.

Some other areas that could use some TLC, but could require some more work for the Xcelsius dev team..

  • Bindable “Selected Item” property is needed within charts.
  • Multi-Selection feature for List View, Combo box, Table components
  • Advanced tool tips for all charts- All of the charts lack an ability
  • Direct Binding for Alerts for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards for BI4- We can auto-bind values and selectors, but not in alerts.

What do you guys think?

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Posted in Xcelsius | 6 Comments

Adobe Abandons Flash for Mobile… What does it mean?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

“Flash is the NOT the future of the web”. I agree with this statement because today’s “web experience” is designed with iPad in mind. However, Flash/Flex is by no means dead with today’s announcement that Adobe will no longer develop the mobile Flash player.

So while we know that Flash is not the future of the web, I believe that for specialized applications, dashboard visualization, and web animation, Flash has a significantly longer shelf life. We are in an awkward transition period right now because HTML5 does not translate well to sophisticated dashboards and data visualization / discovery… It is just not that simple.

Is HTML5 ready for prime time yet? 

Technologies like Javascript, SVG, and HTML5 combined create a powerful alternative to Flash for creating rich web user experiences.  However, when it comes to enterprise applications, HTML5 presents a problem in the short term. “Develop once deploy everywhere” right now is nearly impossible with so much fragmentation, specifically if you are wanting to use HTML5.

To prove this point, 70% of you reading this article are NOT using a browser that supports HTML5.. That is a stat that I pulled directly from my Google Analytics page. The adoption and growth of HTML5 will be highly dependent how fast consumers are forced to update/upgrade their desktop browsers, which is a rigid process in the enterprise. For example, 32% of you reading this article are using IE 7 and IE8 which are limited in their support of HTML5 features.

What about Xcelsius?

For Xcelsius, today’s Adobe announcement changes nothing unless you buy into the media storm that declares Apple a winner and Adobe a loser. I have yet to see anything in the marketplace that produces the user experience, design flexibility, and power of Xcelsius specifically designed for SAP BusinessObjects. If mobile is an absolute requirement for your organization, I would not wait around for “Mobile Xcelsius”, but instead evaluate some of the new mobile technologies from SAP and partners.

Today, Xcelsius (SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards) and SAP Explorer are both browser-based, Flash tools. They were never built with mobile in-mind, which is why SAP re-built the Explorer experience as a native iOS app. This process is not as simple for Xcelsius because the user experience for every dashboard application is completely different. Even if I could wave a magic wand and make Xcelsius work on an iPad, it would require some fundamental changes to allow for mobile security, a user experience overhaul for gestures, and somehow re-authoring the Excel engine in another technology.

I have absolutely not counted out Xcelsius, as new partners, community members, and experts continue to join and push the ecosystem forward. As long as I know there is forward development at SAP on this technology, I am still optimistic of its future.

Are there alternatives?

I think Antivia is onto something with their Flexwis which takes advantage of  the Flex platform to deploy to Flash on the desktop, and to native iPad / Android apps. Adobe has made incredible strides with their Flex development platform for mobile which looks very promising for this Flexwis platform. For pure mobile reporting/dashboards out the box, Roambi is at the absolute top of my list without any exception. Finally, SAP does have a few brand new mobile reporting/dashboard solutions that I haven’t had time to put through their paces, but look very promising if they deliver as advertised. I will be reporting on them very soon with some good feedback to the community.

What are your thoughts?

I would love to hear your opinions, concerns and questions about today’s announcements, my experiences with building HTML5 apps vs Flash, etc.

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Posted in Mobile visualization, Xcelsius | 3 Comments

Merging Xcelsius Projects

Posted on September 26, 2011 by
export

You put blood sweat and tears into a dashboard design element and want to re-use it in another project. This question often arises, so if you are not aware, you can copy and paste components between 2 instances of Xcelsius.

There are a few best practices to accomplish this successfully, ensuring the copy and paste will not only hold your bindings, but also not crash or corrupt your project.

STEP 1: Match up your XLF files

Excel

There needs to be some consistency between your Xcelsius project files before you copy and paste. The most important is Excel ranges and tabs. The tab names where your components are linked need to be identical. In other words, if you have a chart that is bound to a range called ‘Sheet1′!$D$2:$D$5 your new XLF project will also need to have a range available called ‘Sheet1′!$D$2:$D$5. Otherwise your bindings will be lost.

If you are pasting into a project that already has tab names established, you can always go back to your original XLF and change the Excel tab names. If you do this, make sure you save your XLF as a new version before copying anything over.

Xcelsius Skin

If your old XLF project uses a different skin than the new one, all of your custom color configuration and styling could be lost. Make sure the skin for your new XLF is the same as the old.

Step 2: Copy over data

If you want to use data from your old XLF inside of the new project, you will need to copy data from Excel sheets. Unfortunately in many cases it is not quite as simple as it should be. My recommendation is to go into your old XLF, click on the Data menu, and then Export Data. Open the Excel sheet and paste from Excel into your new XLF.  Once again you need to make sure that if you are copying formulas, you paste into the exact same range and that your XLF contains the correct tab names.

 

Step 3: Copy your Components

This is the easy part! Select the components that you would like to copy from your canvas or the Xcelsius Object Browser. Press Ctrl & “C” to copy the components. Inside your new XLF, press “Ctrl” & “V” to paste your components. With your new components inserted, you will want to close your old XLF and save your new XLF. I have seen odd behavior over the years with Excel and Xcelsius when you have more than one Xcelsius project open.

Let me know if you run into any problems or nuances. I have avoided several of them using the process described above.

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Posted in Component Best Practices, Creative Workarounds, Dashboards, Xcelsius | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

SAP and Google Maps.. its official!

Posted on July 27, 2011 by

I have been chatting with customers and colleagues today over the big announcement that SAP is integrating Google Maps throughout their stack (click here). For me personally, it is a feather in my cap knowing that thought leadership at SAP shares my setiment that Google is a great strategic partner for integrating and delivering first class enterprise mapping. For Centigon Solutions, this announcement has created lots of buzz around what we are doing, so if you are interested to learn how and why Google Maps powered analysis is such a big deal, join me for this webinar next week:

Google Maps Powered BI for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
Wed, Aug 10, 2011 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT

CLICK TO SIGN UP

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Posted in Location Intelligence, Xcelsius | 1 Comment

A new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards version with many names

Posted on July 24, 2011 by

“The latest version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Design / Xcelsius that comes with SAP BusinessObjects 4 release.”

This is how I now describe the latest version of the product previously known as Xcelsius, now known as SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards or SAP Crystal Dashboard Design 2011 depending who I am talking to..

Other names or surnames I am hearing in the field?
none of the following names are official 

  • BI 4 Dashboards
  • SBOD 4
  • Xcelsius or SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards version 6 (the actual product version number)
  • SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 2011
  • Xcelsius 2011

As a community member, it can be frustrating because it causes confusion for new customers who are looking for information. As an independant software vendor it is even more frustrating because customers can’t figure out what versions we support.

So what do we do?

SAP is trying to create consistency for product names and versions. It is good to pull the band-aid now to ensure moving forward we are all on the same page.. For now it will be somewhat chaotic as legacy enterprise and channel customers research and upgrade to new versions.

All I can suggest is you be aware that the version of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards or Crystal Dashboard Design that you are talking about could be referred as any of the terms above; All of which mean the same thing… I wont start in on “editions” which is covered in detail at hackingsap.com.

What other ways are you hearing people refer to the latest

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Posted in Xcelsius | Tagged , | 36 Comments

Current time in Xcelsis using Yahoo time service

Posted on July 9, 2011 by

If you need the current time in a dashboard, the Excel formula is NOW() is useful for many scenarios. If the local PC time is not adequate I found a slick Yahoo web service that will provide me with a single XML node with current time:

http://developer.yahoo.com/util/timeservice/V1/getTime.html

1. First I used XML Maps in Excel and Xcelsius to import the current time from the yahoo service.

2. The next problem is that the data is a UNIX timestamp, so I found a formula to fix this:
=C5/(60*60*24)+1/1/1970 WHERE C5 is the time retuned from the Yahoo service.

3. The results are in GMT so you may need to make adjustments.. In my requirement for PST, I took the resulting time and subtracted “7:00:00 AM” which is how you subtract 7 hours in Excel.

4. I took it one final step to subtract the expiration date from current time and then format it as “dd:hh:mm” This tells end users not the current time, but rather the difference from current time the expiration.

Hopefully this time I spent figuring this out will save you a little time of your own building dashboards.

CLICK HERE for excel source file. The Yahoo web service is not included because I couldn’t add it without giving up my ID:

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Creative Workarounds, Dashboards, Excel Logic, Xcelsius | 4 Comments

Dashboard Sizing Best Practices

Posted on April 8, 2011 by

A long time ago, I created a top 10 design best practices and one of them was designing to 100% scale. This means when you build an SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard ( Xcelsius ) SWF the browser shouldn’t have to re-scale it. In doing so you ensure that the output always looks the same. If you are curious how to modify your dimensions go to File>Document Properties

I recently received a question about optimal canvas sizing, and in my presentation I stated that 900×600 is a good starting size. What I didn’t do was fully explain why… Here is the reason:

The reason I start at 900×600 is 600 pixel hieght will fit in most browsers at 1024×768 even with the many toolbars that people use (yahoo, msft, virus scanner, et). The good news is most browsers are getting toned down in header size, which means you can make SWFs taller. A lot of my dashboards now are at 650 pixels in hight, which will also work if there is no other content on the page. For the dashboard width you can go all the way to 1000 pixels, but I find that if I start with 900 I can always get bigger. If I start all the way around 1000 I find that I always need an extra 50 or so pixels.

What you do not want to do, is rely on your computer resolution to drive the dashboard size. I have seen many 1200×1080 dashboards which does impact the SWF size slightly and forces Flash player to do more work scaling the dashboard down into a much smaller resolution. The performance impact is not game changing but some of the undesirable. For example, I know text sizing and cutt off is probably the most visible result of scaling gone wrong.

Let me know what you do for sizing or issues you experience with scaling.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Xcelsius | 2 Comments

Salesforce.com Integration for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards and Xcelsius

Posted on April 1, 2011 by

Last year, I was fortunate to join the DashConn beta program . Now generally available, IdeaCrop’s DashConn solution provides an extremely powerful salesforce.com integration for Xcelsius and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
DashConn is a true plug and play solution allowing you to quickly integrate data directly from salesforce.com. Leveraging Salesforce CRM reports to do the heavy lifting and data mapping, DashConn provides the easiest possible process for building salesforce.com dashboards within Xcelsius, using skills you already have. If you can create a Salesforce CRM report, DashConn will automatically consume the metadata and expose it through a data connection or DataGrid component.

REAL WORLD USE
The first production ready dashboard I built with DashConn was for software support. Because we use Salesfoce.com for customer portal and software support, I had found the standard Salesforce CRM web page cumbersome. A few basic Xcelsius components with DashConn connectivity now provides my entire support chain with an at-glance view of all cases. The resulting dashboard took me 4 hours from start to finish and is illustrated below:

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE OF WHAT’S POSSIBLE
I am often asked why I don’t use out-of-the box Salesforce CRM dashboards. In many cases these dashboards show only one slice of the entire story that I’m trying to study. For example, when we capture trial download leads and closed/won opportunities, there is no way within Salesforce CRM to visualize the various conversion rates. With DashConn and Xcelsius I can create a dashboard that allows us to view and quickly analyze these conversion rates in aggregate or one-by-one.

If you use SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards or Xcelsius and Salesforce CRM and are looking to provide your organization with deeper analysis and insights of your sales data, DashConn is exactly what you have been looking for.

WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION
More information about DashConn is available on the IdeaCrop website. If you have any questions about my experience feel free to post them here.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Connectivity, Xcelsius, Xcelsius Add-Ons | Leave a Comment

Webinar Alert: SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Jumpstart

Posted on March 20, 2011 by

This week, I will be delivering an introductory webinar for SAP SCN and Ecohub, showcasing the latest release of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. Entitled “SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards Jumpstart,” I will share the latest techniques for developing connected dashboards. Since I started using the latest version of Xcelsius for quality assurance and testing, I have had a pleasurable experience. I look forward to those of you who can join us this Wednsday at 10am PST.

SIGN UP NOW

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

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Posted in Connectivity, Xcelsius | 2 Comments
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