We previously notified you that our ongoing support for BusinessObjects 5 would terminate in September 2006. BusinessObjects ceased supporting this version in January 2006 and replaced it with later versions of 6.5 and XI.
We are pleased to announce that GlobalView is now available with BusinessObjects XI. Clients wishing to upgrade from BusinessObjects 5 or 6.5 now have the option of upgrading to either BusinessObjects 6.5 or BusinessObjects XI Release 2. Due to the functional improvements and available benefits, we recommend that clients upgrade to BusinessObjects XI Release 2. When making your decision you may also want to consider the fact that technical support for BusinessObjects 6.5 will cease on June 30, 2008.
When you upgrade to a higher version of BusinessObjects, we also strongly recommend you upgrade to Unidata 7. The GlobalView performance gains available with this version are significant. In our testing, Unidata 7 demonstrated to be on average 10 times faster when utilizing SQL reporting.
Benefits of migrating to BusinessObjects XI Release 2
Existing BusinessObjects 5 and 6 users will benefit from the following:
- Better-than-ever query and analysis with Web Intelligence.
- Support for BusinessObjects full client.
- Enhanced tools for performance management.
- More performance, scalability, and reliability.
- Secure Business Intelligence (BI) within Microsoft Office.
- Support for existing user profiles and reports.
What’s New for Users of BusinessObjects?
BusinessObjects XI represents the consolidation of Crystal Reports and BusinessObjects technology. It is based extensively on the proven Crystal Enterprise v10 architecture which uses modern web standards within an industry-based communication framework that ties all the components and services together.
Enhanced Scheduling Functionality
BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Enhanced
In addition to all of the functionality available in version 6.5 of Web Intelligence, Web Intelligence XI provides:
- An all-DHTML environment optimized for consumption, rather than authoring.
- Technical metadata enhancements and controls.
- A platform that allows users to hold discussion threads around individual Web Intelligence documents.
Web Intelligence XI Release 2 enhancements include:
- Facilitate online queries without the requirement for a full client installation, thus allowing ad-hoc analysis.
- Synchronized multiple data providers.
- Combined queries using the ‘Union,’ ‘Intersect,’ and ‘Minus’ operators.
- Access to OLAP data via universes.
- Sub queries – allowing users to use the results of a query as a filter for a further query.
- Conditional queries based on object-to-object comparison.
- Manual editing of the SQL.
- Enhanced report creation capabilities:
- Ranking of both query results and report content.
- Custom sorting.
- Advanced formula language functions.
Implementation Package for GlobalView
BusinessObjects XI utilizes an updated technical infrastructure and a new client interface. In order to assist in achieving a smooth transition to XI, and to provide an introduction to the exciting new functionality available within it, SunGard is offering a 5-day consultancy package.
In order to understand more about the functionality of XI and how SunGard can help you to implement and understand this new version, please contact your Account Manager in your regional office.
Unidata 7
Introduction of performance enhancements for GlobalView queries
There have been a number of enhancements to Unidata that result in enhanced performance for GlobalView. In our testing, Unidata 7 has demonstrated an average gain of 10 times faster for SQL reporting. For this reason we are strongly recommending that clients schedule an upgrade to Unidata 7, ideally to coincide with an upgrade to BusinessObjects XI.
Enhancement Specifics
- Improved SQL optimization of virtual fields, providing performance gains with certain types of GlobalView queries.
- Unidata 7.1.2 now uses indexed fields to locate queried data.
- Significant performance related to derived fields.
Unidata 7 is compatible with BusinessObjects versions 6.5 and XI.
