Xcelsius vs. Design Studio
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This document compares SAP BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) and SAP Design Studio. It provides an overview of the components, functionality, integration capabilities, performance, and development experience of each. Design Studio offers a more robust set of visual components, integration options, and mobile support compared to Xcelsius. However, Xcelsius may be more familiar for those with Excel skills. The document also provides tips for optimizing Design Studio dashboard performance.
Xcelsius vs. Design Studio
- 1. info@skywind.com + (972) 775-621927 www.skywind.com SAP BO DASHBOARDS (XCELSIUS) VS. SAP DESIGN STUDIO
- 2. CONTENT • INTRO • COMPONENTS OVERVIEW • FUNCTIONALITY OVERVIEW • INTEGRATION AND MOBILE • PERFORMANCE • CONCLUSION • EXAMPLES OF DESIGN STUDIO
- 3. INTRO DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS Native HTML5 with CSSAdobe Flash with HTML5 supportVisualization Engine Sufficient library of visual components and selectors (getting richer with each new release) Rich library of visual components and selectors Visual Components and Selectors Several basic themes. Customizing requires advanced CSS knowledge. Approach: scripting Multiple built-in themes, easy to customize via GUI. Approach: GUI Design and color schemes Scripting skills (JAVA alike), CSS scripting, data source understanding (advanced) Excel knowledge , data source understanding (simple) Skills required for dashboards development Advanced flexibility based on programmatic approach and interactive components Moderate flexibility mostly based on Excel-spreadsheets and non programmable components Flexibility
- 4. DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS 34 Charts of 12 types *22 Charts of 16 typesChart Types 10 Selectors of 10 types18 Selectors of 16 typesSelectors ** 5 Containers of 5 types7 Containers of 3 typesContainers No What – If components6 What If componentsWhat – If Components No Maps ***Basic (non drillable) for 100 countries and regions Maps Available as input fieldAvailable as a tableCalendar Same functionality (and much more) achieved via scripting Local Scenario, Trend Icon, History, Panel Set, Source Data, Print and Reset buttons, Grid Other Components Full Drilling and Filtering capabilities No Filter PanelFilter Panel Full Filtering capabilities for chosen dimension No Dimension FilterDimension Filter COMPONENTS OVERVIEW * As of current Design Studio version (1.4 SP2), Gauge is available only as Development Kit Add On. ** Selectors are various components (e.g. radio buttons, drop down boxes etc.), by which, user can manipulate data in a dashboard/report. *** Available as part of Development Kit. Can be integrated nicely with Google Maps.
- 5. DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS AdvancedBasicFiltering AdvancedBasicParameterization Yes*NoDrag and Drop Yes*NoReport to Report Interface FullFullBex Utilization AdvancedBasicHierarchies Utilization Only via BI IP functionalityYesWhat – If Scenarios Yes*NoContext Menu in Crosstab YesNoPlanning (BI IP) Support NoYesOffline Analysis Yes*NoReuse of Dash. Fragments Only ExcelYesExport to PDF and Excel FUNCTIONALITY OVERVIEW * As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015
- 6. DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS BW/BO/HANABW/BOPlatform deployment BW/HANA/FIORI/BO UniversesBW/BO Universes/XML …Data Source Connectivity Available with Mobile App and browsers. HTML5 + CSS: more than 95% of functionality is supported Available with BO Mobile App only. Flash exported to HTML5: many desktop components and properties are not supported. Only QAAS and Flash Variables are mobile compatible Mobile Capabilities JavaScript-based SDKFlex-based SDKSDK Integrates with the new Business Suite on HANA (FIORI) and SAP Lumira. Supports crosstab on Mobile. Can consume WEBI and Crystal through Live Office, WS etc. Complex Bex structures not supported on Mobile Other Sources Integration INTEGRATION AND MOBILE SUPPORT * As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015
- 7. DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS HTML5Adobe Flex EngineCompilation Engine No specific limitationsExcel with more than 500 records can cause serious performance deterioration as well as multiple Excel tabs and complex calculations Data Set Limitations Yes *NoParallel Query Processing YesYesBackground Processing Data Source preparation + Flash loading /Initialization + Web Service + Flash processing Total Runtime > 20 = Performance problem>10 = Performance problemNumber of Data Sources PERFORMANCE * As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015
- 8. DESIGN STUDIOXCELSIUS SufficientRichPool of Components RichSufficientFunctionality GoodSufficientIntegration GoodModerateMobile Support GoodSufficientPerformance ModerateGoodDevelopment Friendliness GoodModerateDevelopment Flexibility Good and achieved with CSSGood and achieved with GUIDesign Flexibility GoodModerateEnterprise Scalability CONCLUSION
- 9. PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION TIPS > We use Fiddler or similar tools to locate bottlenecks > We optimize data sources themselves, e.g. add BW aggregates, avoiding complex structures inside BEx queries. Yet it’s better to add 2-3 Key Figures to a query instead of building one more with same characteristics. Be balanced > We keep the amount of data sources minimal, reusing same data alias for KPI block, crosstab, chart, list-box whenever it is possible > For several pages, we use “On Background Processing” property for data aliases linked to all pages, except for the 1st page. While an analysts examines the initial tab, additional data will be loaded > We use “Load in Script” property for data aliases. If 90% of users do not need extra chart/tab – load it on demand instead on loading one more data source by default > We use image sprites + CSS reference instead of numerous separate icons > We use “assignDataSource” to switch between queries for an application component. Initial reassignment may take some time, but when all the data is loaded to browser cache, it runs very quickly
- 10. RUN YOUR ANALYTICS BETTER WITH SKYWIND Design Studio Roadmap
Editor's Notes
- #4: SAP product line has at least 4-5 main tools for analysis, reporting and dashboard building plus a number of minor auxiliary instruments. Main tools for developing classical dashboards are BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) and Design Studio. Business Objects (with Xcelsius on board) was acquired by SAP back in 2007 while Design Studio emerged only a few years ago and is about to replace the predecessor in the future. Generally one can build an interactive analytical dashboard against various data source with each of the tools, but the devil is in the details. For example, Xcelsius is based on an older Flash technology, while Design Studio is based on modern approach, utilizing HTML5 and CSS. Many companies have to make their decisions whether to support and develop Xcelsius-based dashboards or to start working with Design Studio. Let's figure out the highlights and differences of both instruments.
- #6: Both tools feature sets of components for building analytical dashboards, including charts, tables, stand-alone blocks, selection elements etc. While the chart library is more or less compatible, BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) has a wider choice of built-in selection and stand-alone components. BO Dashboards can boast an Excel-like development interface, convenient for many users, while Design Studio is more about programmatic approach with Eclipse-based interface and JavaScript-similar coding. Both tools are integrated with SAP BO platform and various data sources. BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) provides great-looking out-of-the box design themes and doesn't require too much scripting to build an app. On the other hand, it is less flexible and performance is much worse than that of Design Studio.
- #7: Both tools are integrated in the SAP ecosystem, provide access to various data sources and have export capabilities. BO Dashboards is preferable when you obtain data from less common source like Web Services or plain XML and export it to various formats, while Design Studio can be deployed in HANA environment and competes much better against BEx, natively mapping most of its analytical capabilities.
- #8: Performance is a critical issue for any analytical app. It is the point where Design Studio definitely outclasses Xcelsius. BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) is based on an outdated Flash engine. Moreover, for most cases it requires that the data should be exported to Excel spreadsheet for further processing. Inevitably, it slows down the dashboard. Design Studio application with all its scripts and components adds only 1-2% to the loading time of the data source. E.g. if your BEx query loads in 2 sec, a DS application will load in 2.02 sec. Design Studio applications with multiple data sources will take more time, but some of them can be loaded on background. Parallel query processing is planned for the upcoming releases (2015). If your client suffers from a slow running Xcelsius dashboard – you should migrate to Design Studio. If you have no corporate dashboards at all … you should start with Design Studio instead of Xcelsius
- #9: Both Design Studio and BO Dashboards (Xcelsius) do their job creating analytical applications. Xcelsius is preferable for building non-IT dashboards and some special cases, like XML data sources or offline analysis. For the most popular corporate cases, however, Design Studio should be recommended thanks to its advantages: tight integration with SAP BW data sources, better performance and flexibility. It's also important to keep in mind that SAP positions Design Studio as a major tool for building dashboards and analysis, replacing Xcelsius and BEx WAD. SAP invests in development of their new tool. According to the product roadmap, SAP is going to increase Design Studio functionality in the nearest years: new components, offline mode, further development of existing features and more. At the moment companies have already started their migration, replacing WAD reports and Xcelsius dashboards with Design Studio applications.