SAP Business Objects 4.0 is the next major release of the SAP Business Objects product suite, following the SAP Business Objects Xi releases. One can say that it is actually the first real "SAP" release of Business Objects as integration to date between SAP Business Warehouse and SAP Business Objects has become available in a lot of individual point releases of Business Objects XI and was largely based on the pre-acquisition integration that Business Objects already offered in the past.
SAP Business Objects 4.0 will be released in 2011, with a an SAP-style ramp-up in late 2010. During the release, also some modules will change names. Xi will be dropped from the Business Objects name to avoid the confusion with other naming conventions for Xi in the SAP Portfolio.
- "SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Premium will become "SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite.
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Crystal Reports becomes SAP Crystal Reports.
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SAP Business Objects Xcelsius Enterprise is now SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.
- SAP BusinessObjects Voyager (aka Advanced Analysis Web, Pioneer) becomes SAP BusinessObjects Analysis. That finally "Analysis" was retained instead of the earlier announced
"Advanced Analysis is a good thing. It better fits the OLAP functionality the module offers and is not related to Predictive Analytics what the original name was suggesting. The solution exists in 2 versions :- SAP Business Objects Analysis, Edition for OLAP, the web-based version
and logical evolution of Voyage - SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office, the successor to the BEx Analyzer tool
- SAP Business Objects Analysis, Edition for OLAP, the web-based version
- SAP BusinessObjects Explorer remains the same.
element61 is early adopter of the new version of of SAP Business Objects 4.0 and can help you assess where and when it makes sense to integrate this in your own Performance Management & Business Intelligence roadmap, especially when you are an existing SAP Business Warehouse customer.
You can read a complete review of the new SAP BO 4.0 release in our Insight SAP Business Objects 4: Delivering on the promise of integration without alienating the existing customer base ?