Link: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/14966

A new Service Pack of Xcelsius 2008 is scheduled to be released at end-of Q3 / early Q4 2009. This release will include integration of Xcelsius 2008 with NetWeaver 7.0 meant to leverage BW data through Xcelsius BI Dashboards.

What functions will the integration provide?

• A new Xcelsius direct connector to BEx queries & views
• Support SAP transport mechanism for lifecycle
• Support for text translation
• Xcelsius Dashboards accessed via NW Portal BEx iView using standard SAP credentials
• The solution does not require Business Objects Enterprise

When should this solution be considered?

When BI data resides in SAP NetWeaver Business Wharehouse.

When the business requirements are about highly visual interface with intuitive guided navigation for casual BI users: executives, managers and operational staff. Xcelsius dashboards are not desgined for Olap style analysis. Currently it does not provide visualization for hierarchical data.

If business requirements includes Web Intelligence ad hoc reporting, Infoview or Dashboard Builder BI portal delivery. Recommendation is to use Xcelsius hosted by Business Objects Enterprise enabling dashboard delivery via Infoview, Dashboard Builder. In a Business Objects Enterprise deployment, recommended Xcelsius data connector for BW remains Live Office.

What software will be required?

Dashboard authors:

• BI 7.X AddOn SP901 or higher
• Xcelsius Designer 2008 SP2 (release scheduled for end-of July 24th 2009) or higher
• SAP GUI 7.10

Dashboard consumers:

• Flash Player 9 or Flash Player 10

Server side NetWeaver Platform:

• SAP EHP1 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP5 ABAP and Java (scheduled for October 2009)

I can't await this release and hope that this new (native) connector will be really fast!