Business Objects Resource Requirements

[Former Member]

I have a Business Objects Deployment questions. We are on SAP BI 7.0 & ECC6.0.

We have a specific business need where users want to have a adhoc reporting tool where they can do OLAP reporting on data from BW, SAP ECC/R3 and their local Excel/database files.

In order to cater that we are planning to use BO for our adhoc reporting needs and BO proposed their Web intelligence product for adhoc reporting.

I need to verify the no of additional resources(for budgeting purposes) needed to maintain BO?

BO told us that we don't need any as once the deployment is done and universes have been setup(for that we will hire a consulting company) we don't need any resources. We think they are over simplifying it. I want to know what are the daily maintenance/operation tasks, Enhancements, SAP Basis tasks required in BO. Will it possible for a single resources to handle BW & BO, giving 50% of his time to each or 75-25% respectively?

I know the requirement is quite vague but your opinion or any additional info/links will be appreciated.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Mark,

Let me first say that it is difficult to answer without knowing the size of the deployment and the tools that you are planning to use. I'll give you an answer based on some assumptions.

I am assuming that it is a new deployment and the work load will slowly increase. In which case, one good Business Objects resource who knows the Administration, Architecture, and Development, can handle this. With time when you have more Report development work, you can either hire additional contractors/employees to handle it.

The SAP BASIS tasks are only involved initially when you connect BOBJ with SAP. i'd say it is 2 day worth of effort for the BASIS guys at the most.

Kashif

Edited by: Kashif Saeed on Sep 29, 2008 7:41 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Kashif, Yes it will be a new deployment. We plan to hire a consulting company to deploy it. I believe once its deployed all the universes (for all the functional area that we report on)& the semantic layer will be setup. Also the user setup will be one time, Once that is done. I expect low maintenance? Also our BW deleopment is low and once BO will be in place, the BW front-end development will also get reduced. Therefore do you think in that scenario one resource can fulfil both the tasks(BO & BW).

Can you name a few tasks that normally a typical BO analyst have to do?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Also BO told us that once the universes have been setup & BO is fully deployed we don't need any additional resources. The users will be able to use Webi & crystal reports to create their own reports. I think they over simplified the work. My concern is that I take care of the BW and would like to know if I still be able to support BO(after training) along with my BW(I expect reduced my BW work by 40%) or will I need additional resource? Here I assume any additional request for universes will be handled by outside resources.

Any BW folks in similar role where they support both?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Mark,

Based on my data warehouse experience, Business Objects environment continues to evolve. So, you may want to consider one full time resource for long term. You can also have one of your full time resources trained by the consultants you bring in. Just my two cents.

In medium to big deployments there are different Business Obejcts roles.

Business Objects Architect --> Sizing, Strategy, licensing etc.

Business Objects Administrator --> general admin, troubleshooting, security infrastructure and maintenance etc.

Business Objects developer(s) --> universe design, report design etc.

Since your deployment is not that big, I can see that initially one person can handle it. If you like, you can handle it all yourself. Of course it will be slow in the beginning, but keep in mind that data warehouse environments tend to grow and before you know you'll be occupied. After all it is about ad-hoc reporting and not canned reporting.

I hope this helps.

kashif

Edited by: Kashif Saeed on Sep 29, 2008 10:16 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I'll just add a little to Kashif's post:

In a smaller deployment (which I presume yours is), an Administrator should be able to handle the sizing, content management plan, licensing and so on.

Also, while the BO training will walk you through everything you need to know, it is not a substitute for real experience.

My suggestion would be that you temporarily at least have a consultant on site to help with Administrative tasks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Also, based on the size of your enterprise and the number of potential users, you can have a feeling of how much your deployment can grow.

As far as the training goes, it all depends on how much you want to get out of training. The trainings in general are good, but no training can be a substitute of real world experience.

Kashif

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Kashif & Srinivas! Excellent thoughts. I plan to use a consulting company that will bring their team and deploy the BO for us and then moving forward I plan to see if I can reduce my BW work & handle BO simultaneously. And for any further new universe creations or development we can hire a consultant.

Also in reference to training what BO course shall I begin with based on my BW experience.

Thanks Guys. I have awarded the points to both!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Mark -

It sounds like you are on about the same spot of the BOBJ Enterprise deployment timeline as I am. We've just licensed it and I'm trying to get a handle on the training requirments, support, relationship of all the products, e.g. B.O. Dashboard Builder vs Xcelsius, when to deploy something on WebI vs Crystal. Given all the servers/services, and assuming we would use them all, I too, am somewhat skeptical about support effort claims.

We're BI 7.0 and upgrading ERP to 6.0 at end of Oct.

Perhaps we can share info and experience as we travel down this road. My e-mail is on my business card if you would be interested in contacting me offline.

Pizzaman

[Former Member]

BO told us that we don't need any as once the deployment is done and universes have been setup(for that we will hire a consulting company) we don't need any resources. We think they are over simplifying it. I want to know what are the daily maintenance/operation tasks,

This, I believe is unrealistic.

As Kashif mentioned, a BO resource with Administration and development experience should be able to mange your deployment. You will need an administrator to ensure that BO remains stable, reports don't fail, reschedule failed reports, manage users, add additional users, tune for performance, install patches etc. A developer will be needed to maintain universes, create reports, gather requirements etc. One resource will be able to manage everything provided the development work is not burdensome.