About Me
My name is David Taylor and I now live in Roswell, GA. I was grew up in Canton, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois where I received a BS degree in Math &
Computer Science. During my time in college I studied abroad in Marburg, Germany. I currently work for SAP as an Executive Sales Engineer.
To see a quick summary of a few things I’ve done while at Business Objects read information from my LinkedIn Profile or you can access my resume.
Hello David.
I have been working with Xcelsius to try and fulfill the following outlined objectives.
1. Create a ‘website-like’ layout of dashboards beginning at a macro-perspective and working to micro operations for upper management to make effective business decisions.
2. Include in this visual interconnection of charts, indicators, etc a series of options that include the ability to easily print just the chart or other analyses visuals such as gauges, etc.
3. Include the option to jump to the source data being used in the analysis at any given point.
The service that I have experienced working with your company has been a bit below par. I have emailed your company several times trying to get assistance on these issues, and have had no luck thus far.
Below are the primary problems I have had when working with your product.
1. Including an option to easily jump to the source data to view or easily print.
2. Print just the chart, gauge, or other analyses object being viewed. From what I understand, the only option that Xcelsius offers is to print the screen, as is.
3. Also, randomly, when I am viewing my canvas, all of my objects will disappear and I will only be able to view them when I preview my dashboard. This is not related the ‘hide’ function in the objects browser.
4. Dynamically link swf files and navigate between them on the same browser window. So far I have only been able to come close to accomplishing this when I export to a pdf document and then use a URL auto trigger directed at a location on the network (as management across the company will need access to these various swf files).
Also, security is a must with this. I need to be able to make this information secure so that charts, gauges, or other metrics cannot somehow end up in the hands of anyone that is not authorized to view it.
Again, I have sent representatives at Xcelsius several emails about items such as this and received no help. I’m sure you can imagine my frustration and reluctance to look for other alternatives.
Thanks and your prompt response will be greatly appreciated.
Robin Tanner
Operations Analyst
Hi Robin,
We do these types of things all the time. We need to get you linked up with the right team. I will contact you directly and link you up with someone from SAP BusinessObjects who can help you.
–david
Hi David,
Our company has invested enormously in the Business Object’s Dashboard and Performance Managment software, and I have recently been on the approved courses.
I’ve found the products to be very complicated and awkward to set up, in comparison to getting something up and running and more visual like in Xcelsius.
Can I ask what your thoughts and experiences of these products are? And how they are to be further developed perhaps in the future? I’ve not heard of any significant improvements in XI r3.
What would you say there advantages are over Xcelsius? This is currently shelfware for us!
Also why is the BO hard drive footprint so big!
Lee
Hi David,
I am looking for a database expert to retrieve historical data from a Datatrac courier system. I believe the data is stored in an ISAM file structure.
Can you point me to the right person?
Tony
Hi Tony,
I worked at Datatrac in the past and still have friends over there. They are a great company. You can either query data out of the ISAM files directly by using the Synergex ODBC driver (available from Datatrac), or you can unload your ISAM files to flat files and use an ETL like Data Integrator to load the data into a datamart. Datatrac can provide you additional information.
–david
Hi David,
Just discovered your blog….must say it is a fantastic destination for all things BusinessObjects. Have specific questions regarding going from 3.1 FP1.3 to FP 2.5. Do I have to install all the FP’s prior to 2.5 or will the exe for FP2.5. I attempted an install of SP2 and it barked saying it couldn’t see FP 1.6, 1.5, etc. Will the FP 2.5 exe simply update my installation without any pre reqs. Any info is greatly appreciated.
Patrick – sorry for the huge delay in getting back to you on this. If you want to go from 3.1 FP1.3 to FP2.5, then you need to do the following.
1. Install XI 3.1 SP2 – this gets you to the base 2 level… now you can install fixpacks on top.
2. Install XI 3.1 FP2.5 – this will install all the fixes for FP2.1, FP2.2, FP2.3, FP2.4 and FP2.5. All fix packs are cumulative.
Hi David,
First, i wanna say that, you have a perfect blog. I really like it. Secondly, i need some help about integrating busines objects with non sap systems. I dont know how i can do this integration.(not BW or BI)
Thanks in advance ,
Ozgur
Ozgur… I’m sorry but did you have a question? BW is a data warehousing environment from SAP and BusinessObjects is the BI (Business Intelligence) platform. It allows users to create reports against SAP or any non-SAP data source.
Guten Tag Herr Taylor,
Danke schoen fuer dein WEB,
Surya
David,
Thanks for your review of SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence book… May we have your permission to post it on that book’s page at http://www.sap-press.com ?
Regards,
Jon Kent
SAP PRESS
Sure Jon, that’s no problem at all.
David,
Great blog! Just thought I would let you know about my new book, “Using Crystal Reports with SAP”, now available through SAP Press. The book is a result of working with the integration of Crystal Reports and SAP BW for over 8 years. It’s packed with lots of detailed information and focuses on those top few skills you need to “get it done” when reporting off of SAP BW.
Mike Garrett
Sounds great. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
hi, i am interested with xcelsius n i have question? how about with large data, make filter item data n save in excel more then 2000 record n very slow for save n open the file .swf,how about architecture with xcelsius ? filter data or display, i want implementation in my company,thanks my email wayang_2000@yahoo.com
so great blog with xcelsius,more question how about connection with BW SAP Because in my company implementation BW SAP?, have tutorial about it
thanks
Good afternoon David,
Was wondering whether you are still a SBO employee or an independent?
I have partnered with many of your “Favorites” and would like to know how we could too!
Thank you for your reply.