Background
Adobe Flash has been going through a long, arduous downfall ever since Apple drove the first nail in its coffin by denying flash support on iPhone & iPads. Popular gripes that are driving the demise of flash-based tools and apps, like SAP Dashboards/Xcelsius, include:
- Staggering security concerns
- Poor performance
- Unquenchable thirst for battery life
- Lack of support for mobile gestures
As predicted by Steve Jobs in his 2010 memo about Adobe Flash, major browsers like Google Chrome have already dropped mainstream support of Flash.
Microsoft is also phasing Flash out.
Seeing this as an inevitable outcome for Adobe Flash, SAP decided to bet on a new dashboard application tool built from scratch called SAP Business Objects Design Studio in 2012 (Originally known as Zen, it will soon be known as SAP Lumira Designer). SAP clearly stated their goal: To simplify their portfolio and put “mobility first.”
So, the time for migrating from SAP Dashboards / Xcelsius to SAP Design Studio / SAP Lumira Designer has finally arrived. With the pending general availability of SAP Lumira 2.0 release, let’s take a quick look at the Xcelsius / SAP Dashboards timeline and how enterprises can plan the migration of their legacy dashboard applications to the new Lumira 2.0 Designer.
Migration Options
If you’re looking for a suitable replacement for SAP Dashboards / Xcelsius, there are two options.
Option 1: Look for a replacement outside the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio:
This option also brings the biggest disadvantages that you should try to avoid: New software license and maintenance costs, training and change management efforts, potential inability to reuse already established data sources and many more factors that negatively impact overall TCO.
Option 2: Look at something readily available within the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio:
SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio (a.k.a. SAP Lumira Designer) may already be part of the legacy tool transition. (Note: To learn if your Xcelsius licenses would port over to SAP Lumira Designer, we encourage you to contact your SAP Account Executive)
We believe that the migration from SAP Dashboards/Xcelsius is long overdue and that SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio (SAP Lumira Designer) is its ideal replacement. This is further fortified with SAP’s own recommendation with their roadmap slides and recent blogs on Lumira 2.0 and BW/4 HANA.
Backed by the capability to provide good performance for dashboards and analytic applications, SAP Design Studio / SAP Lumira Designer has numerous Enterprise BI features and functionalities that outperform Xcelsius. Some of these are highlighted below:
Partner Extensions/Add-ons to Accelerate Migration to SAP Lumira Designer / SAP Design Studio
Using SAP Lumira Designer with a powerful partner extension, such as our VBX for Lumira Designer will ensure that you can perform a 1-1 migration of all components available in your Xcelsius dashboard. Some Xcelsius components may not be available in SAP Lumira Designer out-of-the-box, and our extensions can help close the gap. For example, VBX can help perform a hassle-free migration of various charts (e.g. gauges, dials, funnel charts, progress bars), selectors (e.g. multi-select combo box, range sliders), maps (e.g. cartographic maps), Scorecards or even consume Web Intelligence Reports and Instances and much more.
In addition, partner extensions can deliver a lot more features, such as Responsive Mobile UI Container/Designer, Cascading Facet Filter, Hierarchical Tree filter, that weren’t available to you in native SAP Dashboards/Xcelsius.
Choose the one right Partner Extension
There is no shortage of vendors who offer individual extensions that address highly specific needs and select use cases. Our VBX for SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio addresses all your requirements for migration in a single package, covering Charts, Maps, Selectors and Utilities.
References:
Steve Jobs’ Memo https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
2012 SAP Update and Initial Statement of Direction: https://blog-sap.com/analytics/2012/04/17/the-future-of-dashboards-strategy-and-direction/
2013 SAP Update: https://blogs.sap.com/2013/12/18/executing-on-the-statement-of-direction-for-dashboarding/
2014 SAP Update: https://blog-sap.com/analytics/2014/06/25/run-simple-convergence-of-the-sap-businessobjects-bi-product-portfolio/
2016 SAP Update: https://blogs.sap.com/2016/05/20/sap-lumira-and-design-studio-convergence/
2017 SAP Update: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/05/04/lumira-2.0-and-licensing/