Dashboard Data Overload Should Not Exist

Posted on January 17, 2012 by

Last week, I met with Scott Wallask from WISPubs for a webcast focused on data overload. In this short discussion, we focused our attention on common causes for data overload, how business users contribute to the problem, and ways to identify when you have reached data overload. What we didn’t discuss is real technology solutions for addressing data overload. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

The reality is that end user expectations for what a dashboard should do has evolved, and end users now expect dashboard platforms to include a level of data analysis and exploration above and beyond basic visualization. While this podcast focused heavily on process and user expectations, at some  point the discussion needs to transition to technology.  Demands for data drill-down, filtering, and pivoting which were once considered ”reporting” or “ad-hoc” features, have made their way into many dashboard platforms. Xcelsius has always allowed developers to create this functionality but with varied success (based on technical skill level). The reality is that as dashboards become more data intensive, executing becomes increasingly difficult.

That is one reason why I have always been such a big fan and ambassador of solutions like Antivia XWIS Advantage. When Xcelsius and XWIS are combined, I still believe the two solutions together elevate Xcelsius back to the top of the list as the best dashboard solution in the market. The flexibility of Xcelsius’ form-design coupled with real data analysis firepower of XWIS is second to none.

In my upcoming presentation in Las Vegas, I will provide techniques and best practices to extend Xcelsius to its absolute limits, and then I will show developers how to take it 3 or 4 steps further with technologies like XWIS to paint a complete picture of what is possible to meet today’s dashboard requirements. LEARN MORE ABOUT MY SESSION

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How does Xcelsius Jive with SAP’s Mobile First Strategy

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

At the tail end of last week there was a bit of dooms-day chatter on Twitter around Xcelsius, and this week I saw two posts from Steve Lucas on Flash Demise and Mobile-First. This activity sparked a lot of buzz and debate on the web. So how could I resist chiming in?

In the next few years, customers will have more choices than ever for how they will approach dashboards and visualization, but they will have to prioritize based on needs and budget. Once again, it will come down to choosing the right tools for the job..

1. Xcelsius with some kind of HTML5 ported option yet to be announced, which we have to assume will be a subset of Xcelsius functionality.

2. SAP mobile enabled solutions like Explorer / Exploration views and BI Mobile (webi mobilized)

3. Xcelsius coupled with a third party offering like Antivia XWIS Anywhere and Exxova MyBI Mobile,

4. Third party mobile visualization products like Roambi.

This list will be prioritized based on the following questions that every customer will need to ask themselves for an entire BI initiative and for specific projects:

  • Is the end users primarily a mobile user or desktop user?
  • How important is mobility for the dashboard? Must have, should have, nice to have?
  • Will the technology(s) in question provide the results required by the end users?

I will likely do a full write-up to compare and contrast these approaches once BI4 release pack 3 hits the market this quarter.

So what about Xcelsius?

The reality is that Xcelsius, like any other technology, will have to evolve or be replaced. The “Xcelsius” as we know it, which is a Flash and Excel powered technology wrapped up in an desktop development environment, has a shelf life. SAP is NOT killing off a product, because it is hardly a move that we would expect for a highly successful and profitable technology. The SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards prooduct has a large customer base, thriving community, and a great ecosystem of partners who are continuously innovating platform. What ever the fate of Xcelsius is, SAP’s “Mobile First” is a clear strategy shift that will not happen over night.

Is the future clear or cloudy?

While SAP has sat on Xcelsius, the company’s focus has shifted towards growth opportunities like Big Data, Cloud, Social, and Mobility…it is baked into our brains as SAP customers and partners. There is a common thread here that is critical to the success to all of these initiatives: “End user experiences.”. Most of these strategic growth areas for SAP, have integration back to the core Business Analytics product lines. So the question we all have is what exactly will SAP’s next-generation “mobile first” dashboard solution look like? Will SAP truly innovate in this area? Or will the huge ecosystem of software vendors beat them to the punch?

Let me know what you guys think.

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Posted in BI4, Dashboards, Xcelsius | 4 Comments

2011 Year End Review

Posted on December 28, 2011 by

2011 was a fast and furious year in technology. Here are the most important trends that I observed and personally experienced…

Flash Fallout was a huge pain in the neck

The iPad’s original “lack of Flash support” messaging was turned on its head to the point where Adobe announced the end of future development of mobile Flash. It seems Flash moving forward will be optimized as a desktop browser-based technology with innovations around high end 3D graphics processing, video, etc…

Enterprise Mobility was all about iOS

Regardless how many Android devices were activated this year, the iPad was king. I have talked to few customers with corporate supplied devices that were not iPad. Vendors like MeLLmo who went after iOS were spot-on as RIM shares tumbled, Microsoft still can’t get off the ground and Google nips at the heels of Apple. I will have a separate article just on mobility next week to review my 2010 predictions and where I think things are going in 2012.

Location Intelligence gained a lot of steam

An area that I am heavily vested in, both personally and professionally, gained a ton of steam in the enterprise. In 2009-2010, it was a lot of work to convince enterprise customers that Google Maps was capable as an enterprise location intelligence technology; today, it is assumed. Announcements from vendors like Microstrategy, SAP, and others of Google Maps integration instantly validated what I have believed for a long time:

1 . Traditional GIS tools are overkill in many business intelligence requirements.

2. Google Maps is more than suitable as a cloud framework and user experience for presenting location based data

As a result, our GMaps Plugin solution was a smashing success among Xcelsius customers. At the same time, I spent most of my 2010 executing on my mobile location intelligence vision, which you will get to see the results very soon! (http://gmapsmobile.com).

Social Media is everywhere

Linked-In and Pandora were two high profile IPOs, who’s value is primarily derived by activity of large user bases. Facebook reached 800M users and withstood Google + which was once dubbed a “Facebook” killer. Social media this year helped change the world, from overthrowing governments, to organizing on Wall Street. From my perspective, people who are avoiding social media all together are equivalent to those people who held onto rotary phones when touch-tone was introduced.

Enterprise organizations in 2011 took social media and customer activities seriously. For example, when I griped about how much I hate my bank on twitter, I had a customer service person direct messaging me within an hour…impressive.   The demand for social media tracking and integration, along with adoption of social media principles behind the firewall are two emerging trends that will continue to heat up going into 2012.

Big Data generated a lot of buzz

Organizations are storing an increasing volume of data at an increasing rate, so the demand for processing and serving this data is a real challenge that enterprise vendors are taking head on. There is tremendous opportunity in this space for hardware and software makers; SAP is all in on their in-memory HANA solution to Big Data.

“The Cloud” went main stream

The “Cloud” also seemed to pick up steam as all of the major enterprise software vendors bolstered “software as a service” offerings. A cautionary event also occurred in 2011 when Amazon’s cloud had a temporary outage paralyzing some vendors. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Apple to name a few are vested in cloud technology as a critical part of their product portfolio.

Steve Jobs Passing

You cannot talk about major technology happenings of 2011 without mentioning Steve Jobs unfortunate death. My second personal computer was a Mac Plus, and I can say that from the day I put a mouse in my hand, I knew it was my future. Steve Jobs was one person and he obviously had an amazing team around him to execute and support his vision. With that said, his passing is a terrible tragedy, because no single figure in recent memory has had such a positive and unique impact on the world as he did. He will certainly be missed…

Stay tuned for 2012

Now that 2012 is upon us, I am excited to see how things progress on all of these fronts. I see continued growth, intense competition, and some bubbles brewing next year. I personally will get to work in all of these areas next year with my own company so I will be reporting back on my real world experiences, disappointments, and victories!!

Happy New Year!

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My Xcelsius Enhancement Wish List

Posted on November 30, 2011 by

I have long waited for some basic Xcelsius enhancements to produce more useful dashboard applications. Understanding that Xcelsius enhancements to existing components is limited, I wanted to pick out a few that I believe are low hanging fruit to make a large volume of developers a little happier.

Will these enhancements help SAP sell more software? absolutely not..

Will it help new customers who are left to execute after they purchase? YES!

These are very minor tweaks that would alter how people build Xcelsius dashboards for the better. I chose these as my top 3 because they are super simple, and do not make sense as third party solutions.

  1. Enable the “selected item” property for all table components (spreadsheet, scorecard, and table view). If I could get one pick, scorecard would be at the top of the list. If I have to tell one more customer that you can’t dynamically chose an item from a table… I may start pulling my hair out!  I would say that 60% of the dashboards I have built could benefit from this.
  2. Bullet charts labels- Bullet charts are great for demos but useless in production. “Performance Value” “Comparative” and “Scale Value” are tooltips that you are stuck with, and the reality is that few if any customers find these usable. The solution? Let me change it in the property sheet.
  3. Provide a “Selected Tab” property so we can start making use of the tabbed container. This is a great component, but most dashboard developers need to know what tab a user is interfacing with.

Some other areas that could use some TLC, but could require some more work for the Xcelsius dev team..

  • Bindable “Selected Item” property is needed within charts.
  • Multi-Selection feature for List View, Combo box, Table components
  • Advanced tool tips for all charts- All of the charts lack an ability
  • Direct Binding for Alerts for SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards for BI4- We can auto-bind values and selectors, but not in alerts.

What do you guys think?

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Posted in Xcelsius | 6 Comments

Adobe Abandons Flash for Mobile… What does it mean?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by

“Flash is the NOT the future of the web”. I agree with this statement because today’s “web experience” is designed with iPad in mind. However, Flash/Flex is by no means dead with today’s announcement that Adobe will no longer develop the mobile Flash player.

So while we know that Flash is not the future of the web, I believe that for specialized applications, dashboard visualization, and web animation, Flash has a significantly longer shelf life. We are in an awkward transition period right now because HTML5 does not translate well to sophisticated dashboards and data visualization / discovery… It is just not that simple.

Is HTML5 ready for prime time yet? 

Technologies like Javascript, SVG, and HTML5 combined create a powerful alternative to Flash for creating rich web user experiences.  However, when it comes to enterprise applications, HTML5 presents a problem in the short term. “Develop once deploy everywhere” right now is nearly impossible with so much fragmentation, specifically if you are wanting to use HTML5.

To prove this point, 70% of you reading this article are NOT using a browser that supports HTML5.. That is a stat that I pulled directly from my Google Analytics page. The adoption and growth of HTML5 will be highly dependent how fast consumers are forced to update/upgrade their desktop browsers, which is a rigid process in the enterprise. For example, 32% of you reading this article are using IE 7 and IE8 which are limited in their support of HTML5 features.

What about Xcelsius?

For Xcelsius, today’s Adobe announcement changes nothing unless you buy into the media storm that declares Apple a winner and Adobe a loser. I have yet to see anything in the marketplace that produces the user experience, design flexibility, and power of Xcelsius specifically designed for SAP BusinessObjects. If mobile is an absolute requirement for your organization, I would not wait around for “Mobile Xcelsius”, but instead evaluate some of the new mobile technologies from SAP and partners.

Today, Xcelsius (SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards) and SAP Explorer are both browser-based, Flash tools. They were never built with mobile in-mind, which is why SAP re-built the Explorer experience as a native iOS app. This process is not as simple for Xcelsius because the user experience for every dashboard application is completely different. Even if I could wave a magic wand and make Xcelsius work on an iPad, it would require some fundamental changes to allow for mobile security, a user experience overhaul for gestures, and somehow re-authoring the Excel engine in another technology.

I have absolutely not counted out Xcelsius, as new partners, community members, and experts continue to join and push the ecosystem forward. As long as I know there is forward development at SAP on this technology, I am still optimistic of its future.

Are there alternatives?

I think Antivia is onto something with their Flexwis which takes advantage of  the Flex platform to deploy to Flash on the desktop, and to native iPad / Android apps. Adobe has made incredible strides with their Flex development platform for mobile which looks very promising for this Flexwis platform. For pure mobile reporting/dashboards out the box, Roambi is at the absolute top of my list without any exception. Finally, SAP does have a few brand new mobile reporting/dashboard solutions that I haven’t had time to put through their paces, but look very promising if they deliver as advertised. I will be reporting on them very soon with some good feedback to the community.

What are your thoughts?

I would love to hear your opinions, concerns and questions about today’s announcements, my experiences with building HTML5 apps vs Flash, etc.

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Posted in Mobile visualization, Xcelsius | 5 Comments

Shared Discussion about Xcelsius and Mobility

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

A few days ago I was chatting with a small group on Facebook about Xcelsius, WebI, and mobility and wanted to share my comments with my readership to take this to a larger audience:

” BI vendors are rated on their ability to deliver dashboards, reports, interactive visualization/discovery, ad-hoc, and other information delivery and analysis capabilities under a unified platform. All of the industry analysts break them out into distinct features for a BI stack. SAP has taken a stance in delivering the “right tool for the job” rather than one tool that fills many jobs, so that is what we have come to expect. I do agree that it is a mistake that SAP has not moved faster to mature their visualization and user interaction capabilities across reporting and dashboard tools. WebI could benefit from some enhanced visualization and user experience controls to make them more dashboard-like, and Xcelsius could benefit for a more robust data modeling, adhoc, and drill down controller. Today, SAP has two fronts they have to go after for mobile…

1. Those who have made large investments in WebI / Xcelsius / Explorer and want them to work on the iPad and iPhone…

2. Then you have customers who want the next generation of technology that will enhance mobile access to business intelligence.

Which brings us back to the original post… SAP will show shiny cool technology that we can plan for the future because that is what customers, analysts, shareholders, etc have come to expect at a conference like Sapphire.

Only customers who are well vested in Xcelsius would be excited about an announcement of mobile capabilities for an existing tool. Personally, I think that SAP should be able to deliver both to market at the same time. What do you guys think?”

Then later in the thread, I responded to a statement about Webi maturing over the last 5 years and Xcelsius not moving forward far from where it started as a BusinessObjects acquired technology.

“… you guys are spot on for what has happened (or not happened) the last 5-7 years… At this point, it would be significantly easier to make Webi a mobile designer than Xcelsius primarily because it does not rely on Flash. I think the problem is many customers and SAP use Xcelsius as an army swiss knife when Webi / CR does not provide the user experience requested by customers, and that army swiss knife is built on a platform that will not work on iPad. To compound that, I think that everyone on thread has frustration that nothing seems to be getting done to make it better for us out in the field trying to guide customers what to do..”

As a side note, when I say that Xcelsius will not work on an iPad, I mean that the output SWF will not run out of the box on an iPad. And as of today, Adobe announced that they will no longer work on mobile Flash Player.

Our friends at Antivia were showcasing their iPad solution at ASUG last month and our friends at LaunchWorks actually announced their mobility solution yesterday so there is an approach to make Xcelsius work on iPad but out of the box rendering of SWFs on mobile will be out of the question.

I would love to hear your feedback and comments and those of you who are in Madrid at Sapphire I am sorry I couldn’t be there!

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What Kind of Documentation do you Use?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

I am curious if people actually read the pretty PDF documents that comes with software if there is an online alternative. My goal is to abandon the PDF but wanted to get feedback from the community before I do so.

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Translation Enabled on my Interactive Data Visualization Blog.. Thanks Google

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

Today, I was on a localization roll enabling Google translator for Centigon Solutions News, Centigon Solutions Blog, and now my personal blog. My goal for the blog is to expand my readership beyond English-only. There is still some work to be done where I will need to tag CODE snippets but one of the great things about Google translate is you can hover over text to see the original English text.

If you use the translator, let me know what you think.

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What I am Excited about BI4

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

With BI4 finally generally available there are several cool things that have been introduced. As I mentioned in my video interview, Event Insight is a very interesting module that opens the doors for some of the real time exception tracking that customers have long asked for.

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Bags Packed for ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference

Posted on October 7, 2011 by

More preparation went in this year than ever for the 2011 ASUG BusinessObjects User Conference. It will be a very busy 3 days with a few presentations, lots of meetings, a few parties, and a new product announcement.

I will be wearing multiple hats (CEO and BusinesObjects User/Developer/Expert) as usual and that is reflected in the presentations I am giving:

The first, Location Intelligence and Dashboards is focused on the area of focus and expertise that I have gained over the last few years. I will share my experiences and perspectives on how geographic data visualization and discovery will become increasingly important.

The second presentation, SAP BusinessObjects (Xcelsius) Gurus Dashboard Methodology 101 , will be co-presented with Mico Yuk founder of EverythingXcelsius.com is going to be lots of fun and will be a huge draw. We will talk about how to avoid common pitfalls in designing enterprise dashboards with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. We did this session at Sapphire to small crowd who seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves.

The third presentation you will have to wake up early for, but I promise it is worth it! This session Pervasive Location Analytics and A Billion Dollar Opportunity, will take a look at how we utilize location based visualization and how that translates in the enterprise.

If you are at the conference, stop by the Centigon Solutions booth and say hi. I would love to hear any feedback, ideas, thoughts, and anything else you want to share.

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