BOXI 3.1 or BOE 4.0 SP2 - Selection

[Lala]

Hello all,

Appreciate you reading this. We are currently in BOXI R2 SP5 on windows 2003/ Oracle 10G and are looking to upgrade.

Here comes the dilemma .... on can we bypass 3.1 completely and go straight to 4.0 SP2. With the history of past BO releases , it raises few doubts even though it's fully supported . I understand choice varies on your environment...so here it goes :

1) BOXI R2 SP5 ( Dev + QA + Prod)
2) Windows 2003
3) Oracle 10G
4) Mostly Webi Documents ( about 500 of them )
5) About 30-40 Crystal Reports
6) Universe as a main Data Source (About 30 - RDBMS only , NO OLAP)
7) Xcelsius 2008 with QaaWS and LO ( About 5 dashboards and 40 Qaaws)
8 ) No Deski
9) No Performance Management
10) No Custom SDK application
11) Audit DB , Yes but are okay with loosing it with new 4.0 Audit DB
12) Performance issues with Webi Docs ( refresh on Open / Schedule )
13) Mobile solution with iPad desired (absent currently)
14) Integration with Sharepoint Desired (absent currently)
15) SSO with AD desired (absent currently)
With the environment/specs. above ....could the experts here recommend upgrading to BOE 4.0 SP2 ( in absence of 4.1 / Feature pack 3 ... sometime next year) . I hear recommendation on forum on waiting for 4.1 ... but unfortunately we have to upgrade ASAP , since BOXI R2 is EOL support. Could the expert here suggest/recommend on migraton to BOXI 3.1 OR BOE 4.0 SP2 ( with its existing open/known bugs) for above mentioned specs.

Appreciate the help and thanks again.

Regards,
Lala

[Portal]

Hello Lala,

Of course you can upgrade from XIR2 to BI4.0.
The question is are you prepared to stay without support until then? If not you might migrate to XI3.1 in the meantime. As migration is a project rather than a mere installation of the new software you might also get in contact with SAP Professional Services to see what migration services are on offer.

Kind Regards,
Portal

[Lala]

Hello Portal,

Thanks for the response...appreciate it. Yes, I am aware that we could go directly to BOE 4.0 SP2 per PAM and is officially supported. Since, XIR2 is unsupported, we want to upgrade... to BOE4.0 straight and avoid 3.1 completely as an interim step with BOE4.0 GA'ed on Sep'16th. . I was hoping that given the environment mentioned above , experts here can shed light if there are any specific major "GOTCHAS" or longest pole in the tent that will prevent us going directly to BOE 4.0 SP2 from BOXI R2 SP5 , with known existing bugs. As many of us aware with pains in migrating to old days 5.x and then 6.0 ( which I could never figure out) and then 6.1 a, 6.1b and so forth.

Would it be a definite recommendation to wait for BOE4.1/BOE Feature Pack 3, sometime next year (and go to 3.1 in the interim) OR it should be smooth ( understand not perfect ) transition to BOE 4.0 SP2 without any major cause of concern of being on a bleeding edge.

NOTE : We have provisioned for W2K3 or W2K8 64 bit for BOE4.0 architecture.

Many thanks.
Lala