SAP Community – Published 2 April 2025
Data Mode and the other new features in BI 2025 aren’t merely features. They are a sign of SAP’s renewed commitment to the SAP BusinessObjects platform. Analytics leaders need to look honestly at some of the poorly designed, poorly performing deliverables that have been created on their watch with the “latest and greatest” tools. And reconsider the total cost of ownership and return on investment in choosing a familiar yet thoroughly modern solution that they are often tempted to overlook.
In a previous article, I answered the question “Is BusinessObjects Still Relevant in 2025?” with a resounding yes, giving a number of reasons why the platform still matters. In this article, I wish to focus on just the top three.
Rich Semantic Layer
The first reason SAP BusinessObjects still matters in 2025 is its rich semantic layers. Whether we are talking about a classic BusinessObjects universe or the semantic layers provided by BW, HANA, or Datasphere, they enable self-service analytics. These semantic layers need to be redesigned or fudged when building analytics with a non-SAP toolset. Competing semantic layers often lack the flexibility and power already provided by SAP BusinessObjects. The time and effort involved in reinventing the semantic layer should be carefully estimated before reaching for another analytics tool. And in the case of the universe, it provides a layer of isolation between the data model and the user. This isolation is why organizations can move their enterprise data warehouse from an on-premise platform to a cloud platform, carefully update the existing universe with zero disruption to the user community.
Scheduling and Publishing
The second reason SAP BusinessObjects still matters in 2025 is its scheduling and publishing capabilities. Information distribution is often an immature feature in “modern” analytics tools, whose vendors are quietly introducing “new” features like- wait for it- tables for users who prefer a “classic” BI experience. Of course, third parties are bringing extensions to fill these gaps. But getting the data into a table is only part of the solution – being able to burst the information in an efficient and personalized way is equally important.
Data Mode
The third reason SAP BusinessObjects still matters in 2025 is its new Data Mode. Introduced in BI 4.3 and enhanced in BI 2025, Data Mode brings self-service data cleansing and data blending to Web Intelligence users without introducing a separate product or vendor for that purpose. And Data Mode isn’t simply a feature. It’s a sign of SAP’s renewed commitment to the SAP BusinessObjects platform. As witnessed in last month’s release of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 2025, SAP has done far more than just slap a new About Box on an aging product. From Fiori to UI5 charting to Data Mode to cloud database support, the SAP BusinessObjects platform has been thoroughly modernized where it really counts.
Conclusion
It’s not wrong to desire to pick the best tool for the job, or to have multiple tools to choose from. But analytics leaders need to look honestly at some of the poorly designed, poorly performing deliverables that have been created on their watch with the “latest and greatest” tools. And reconsider the total cost of ownership and return on investment in choosing a familiar yet thoroughly modern solution that they are often tempted to overlook.
The Third Reason?
I wanted to follow Steve Jobs’ “rule of threes” in writing this article. But what to choose for number three? Should it be the fact that SAP released BI 2025 this month with thoroughly modern enhancements, built-in data preparation, and support dates that extend well into the future? Should it be the cost increases that the “in-vogue” analytics vendors are bringing to “nearly free” analytics tools? Is it platform support for the latest cloud-based databases like Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS Redshift, Starburst, and Trino?
References
SAP KB 1644732 – Unable to create report on a UNX Universe in Crystal Reports
SAP KB 2914654 – Script to delete deprecated content from BI platform repository after update to BI 4.3 or BI 4.2 SP09 and above
SAP KB 3109523 – Deprecation of Crystal Reports 2020 services on Linux and Unix
SAP KB 3291488 – BI 4.x: Information on Migrating from unv to unx Universes
SAP KB 3350459 – Support of Universe Design Tool : UNV is dead, long live UNX
SAP KB 3362867 – Crystal Reports 2020 services on Windows deleted after upgrade on Linux/Unix in distributed environment
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