Migrate from SAP BO to Power BI, Automatically, Fixed price!

 

Migrate from SAP BO  to  Power BI , Automatically,  Fixed price

Ellipsys supported the ADEO/Leroy Merlin Group in the massive simplification of its SAP BO platform then in the migration of useful assets to Power BI (and Looker) by automating the process, on a fixed price basis. We share the main aspects with you.

SAP BO: an uncertain roadmap

SAP Business Objet holds more than 5% market share in the BI market with almost 30,000 customers worldwide (6Sense). However, the platform is navigating in a certain vagueness: Version 4.2 will reach the end of “priority 1” support at the end of 2024. Version 4.3 is expected to be supported until the end of 2027, with standard maintenance ending at the end of 2025.  SAP plans to release the first version of SAP Business Objects BI 2025 in the fourth quarter of 2024. The outlines are not very well known. But what is clarified is that certain components will not be included in the BI 2025 version, including Universe Design Tool (for the construction of UNVs), multi-sourced universes, etc.   Generally speaking, we can consider that SAP's stated desire is to see its customers move to SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC). However, this ambition does not seem to be completely shared.  For what ? :  “Self BI” is popular with business teams, but also with IT, which, willingly or by force, lets the business down. And SAP BO is precisely not a “self BI” oriented solution. This is a very good solution, but perceived as "dated".

Power BI, an undeniable success

Power BI, for its part, is doing well, taking advantage of the firepower of Microsoft, the synergies in Azure and the functional proximity with Excel. The number of users would be 80,000 companies worldwide, with a market share of 15% and insolent growth (6sense)

Migrate from SAP BO to Power BI?

For our part, we perceive a fairly significant and specific movement of switching from SAP BO to Power BI. But for those who want to get rid of SAP BO, a monumental project is looming: some companies we work with have tens of thousands of BO dashboards in production. If the project must be conducted “paper and pencil”, the bill can be steep. With a more than uncertain result.

Automate!

With this in mind, Ellipsys has created an automated migration solution between SAP BO and Power BI which is based on its  {openAudit} software . This functionality was implemented on behalf of the ADEO Leroy Merlin Group to reduce the SAP platform, which had more than 100,000 dashboards, to 8,000, then to migrate it to Power BI (and Looker).   Below, the 6 salient points  of our methodology within the framework of this type of project. We drive them on a fixed price basis.

1.  Migrate what really needs to be migrated

Why migrate tens of thousands of SAP BO dashboards, when in reality a tiny minority is actually used? Often more than 90% of the SAP BO platform in source has no or no longer use.   {openAudit}, our software, makes it possible to significantly reduce the scope of SAP BO dashboards to be migrated, by allowing massive archives prior to migration. SAP BO dashboards that are obsolete or contain errors are detected. {openAudit} allows them to be archived via the creation of unit BIARs (BO archive format). They may eventually be permanently deleted later. However, we historicize the intelligence of BO (on its different versions). So nothing is lost.

2.  A complete “reverse engineering” of the BO platform to be migrated

SAP BO dashboards are often extremely complex given the very long history of the platform. This complexity must be understood, at the level of the intelligence of the dashboard but also at the level of the sources. The idea will be to collect everything that can be collected with our probes and parsers to capture all the intelligence underlying the SAP BO platform.

3.  A migration of the "semantic layer" only.

The semantic layer is an abstraction layer which makes it possible to connect to technical considerations of a database of "business" terms, to allow teams to build dashboards in complete autonomy.    BO is a proven and robust technology which - with its (very) long experience of its semantic layer - has been able to organize information in companies.  The idea is therefore to allow teams to quickly start from an optimized semantic layer in the target technology, to be able to independently build the data visualization layer of tomorrow: to be able to move towards "self BI".   There isn't really a semantic layer in Power BI. Also, to transcribe the semantic layer from SAP BO to Power BI, {openAudit} reconstructs the data models in the Power BI Datasets.   We can think of Datasets as the first layer of data exposure for Power BI users. This layer offers a simple organization of business information by ignoring physical data, like the BO Universes. Another possibility is to organize "cubes" directly in Azure SQL and/or MSSQL, to offer a more in-depth organization of the company's information.

4.  Or an automated “As Is” migration.

This is a context that we encounter when there is some form of urgency to migrate: end of the license contract for example. This will involve reproducing the useful SAP BO dashboards, almost identically in the Power BI target.    {openAudit} will convert the objects in the Power BI data model tables of each dashboard and organize the “data preparation” to reproduce the intelligence of the BO dashboards, ideally in simple SQL.   {openAudit} will convert the layout of SAP BO dashboards directly into Power BI.

5.  Lighten the target platform

SAP BO dashboards have accumulated more and more complexity over time.  This proliferation can have real repercussions on the target platform, because there are as many refreshes as there are users. {openAudit} can potentially "move" complex queries into tables and views of the source database or into Power BI dashboards, in simple SQL and partially in SQL / DAX & PowerQuery.   These complex queries will thus potentially only be played once to reduce costs, facilitate maintenance and speed up consultations.

6.  Validate non-regression

{openAudit} will run BO dashboards and Power BI dashboards (after technical migration) with analog prompt values, which will allow mass comparisons with statistical tools.

Conclusion   The decommissioning of SAP is becoming a major challenge for many companies these days: the tool is perceived as being at the end of its life, poorly suited to Cloud use and the growing desire to move towards “self BI” .   Except that these migrations are not easy to implement as these platforms have lasted: they have therefore accumulated complexity. The {openAudit} migration engine makes it possible to automate the transcription from SAP BO to Power BI by focusing on analyzing all the subtleties of the source to be able to faithfully reproduce it in the target. An interesting option is to start only from the semantic layer to create the conditions for a turnkey “self BI”.    {openAudit}'s ability to optimize the BO platform and then factor the intelligence into the target platform allows for a considerable increase in intelligibility and performance. The massification of non-regression tests is valuable to arrive very quickly at an optimum, to make this migration a real success for IT and the business. This ambitious project was carried out on a lump sum basis for the entire ADEO/Leroy Merlin Group with extremely convincing results.