( Geek2Live.net )

Hi all. Sorry again for the gap since my last post (at least it’s shorter than the last gap!).

Today I wanted to put down my thoughts about the new BO Enterprise XI 3.1, having recently implemented at a few sites, including a Dev/UAT/Prod 3-tier system.

So, what’s changed? And what did I like and dislike?

I do really like the new Web Intelligence Rich Client, and the zero-client Web Intelligence report panel (the Ajax-y one) is really coming along – in the next few releases it will be awesome! I did have some stability issues with the Rich Client during training sessions, however I put this down to slower, older machines. In day-to-day use I’ve found it fairly stable, however saving often doesn’t hurt! =)

I found the BusinessObjects documentation about the new LifeCycle Manager (released with XI 3.1) to be lacking. From the documentation, I could understand the process of creating a new promotion job, or how to version control a universe. What I couldn’t find is best practices – how should I use the promotion tool? All-in-one-go, or a folder of reports and a few universes at a time, or some other method?

I ended up designing and documenting my own best practice, however it still a little unclear as to how best to use it, down at the nitty gritty level.

Being able to track session usage (which was available in XI 3.0 also) is great, however I feel we Administrators really need the ability to kill a session as and when required – especially handy for those running BO Edge.

I also love the Widget and Live Office functionality, which I find great, however be warned – those of you running Vista x64 (like me) will find that Xcelsius visualisations can’t be added as a BI Widget. I currently have a case logged with SAP/BO to sort this out.

Until next time, Josh.