Antivia Web Intelligence Suite Press Release

As mentioned last week, it appears that Antivia has published their first press release regarding their famous ‘Web Intelligence Suite’. Below are the key capabilities of the Web Intelligence Suite (from the press release):

1. Drillable data grids that work directly with Business Objects Universe drill paths
2. The ability to bind Web Intelligence data directly with all other Xcelsius components
3. The Slice & Dice Panel allows users to decide whether they wish to view information in a cross-tab or tabular view, both fully drillable on any of the dimensions they select
4. Live collaboration to Xcelsius dashboards through Instant Messenger like discussions

Having an alternative to Live Office #4 is great! Instant Messenger like discussions in BO? Social networking meets BI!

Click the link below OR cut and paste in your browser to view:
http://www.antivia.com/press-xwis-a.stm

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New Web Intelligence Suite..Live Office Alternative?

We are always hunting for new and exciting tools that will help you extend the capabilities of your Xcelsius 2008 Dashboards. With the new Xcelsius SDK, companies like Antivia and Centigon Solutions are making it easier to leverage your Xcelsius 2008 dashboards.

If you attended the conference in Dallas you may have heard about this…. a UK based company named Antivia (BOBJ technology partner) is about to release what they are calling ‘The Web Intelligence Suite’.

The Web Intelligence Suite allows users to access their data and leverage the drill down capabilities of their Web Intelligence reports directly in their Xcelsius 2008 dashboards. Kiss Live Office goodbye! Not only is the tool more scalable, but utilizing features such as the ‘Slice and Dice Panel’ makes it easy to access and set up your Webi Data in Xcelsius 2008.

This product is not currently available on the Antivia website (as we told you this is brand new), but for more information please contact Antivia at info@antivia.com.

If your not familiar with Antivia we recommend checking out the links below:

1. Antivia Desktop (The first BOBJ social networking add on)
2. Contact Antivia
   

We will provide more information on this product in a later post.

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Webinar Alert: Xcelsius Gurus – Top 10 Excel Tips for Success on 12/17 @10am PST

We’ve done a few Xcelsius Webinar Alerts before, but this one is SPECIAL! We would be delighted if you attended. Why you ask?

On December 17th, 2008 at 10am PST two Xcelsius Gurus are getting together to discuss 2 very important topics:

1. How to Set up your Excel Sheet for Xcelsius Consumption
   
2. How to manage your Xcelsius components

It will be presented by 2 Xcelsius Gurus:

1. Mico Yuk (EverythingXcelsius.com Blog Co-Founder)
2. Ryan Goodman (Owner Centigon Solutions, Blog: http://ryangoodman.net/blog)

Your next steps:

1. Click here to Register!
2. Mark on your Outlook Calendars
3. Attend webinar with your questions …
   
4. Bookmark the SAP Webinar Page for future updates!
   

We look forward to meeting some of you.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

To our Dedicated Readers: Enjoy your Turkey!

BOBJ Releases first ever Xcelsius Commercials!

No we’re not kidding! Professional actors?? 3D Rendered Dashboards?? Not bad at all. We can only smile.
Check them out for yourself and let us know what you think (click link below):
http://www.businessobjects.com/jump/crystalxcelsius/land/g_oneminute.asp

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News: BOBJ Labs Releases Xcelsius Publishing Plugin!

Looks like someone has been working overtime! We got some news today that BOBJ labs has released a new Xcelsius 2008 Publishing Plugin for BOE Xi 3.0 which will allow users to create snapshots of their dashboards and distribute to other users on the go! For those of you who are not familiar with the BOBJ Labs here is an excerp from how they describe themselves on their website:

“Business Objects labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren’t quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Labs.”

 

 

 

 

As you recall they also produced the very popular ‘TAWS’ (Take Action as a Web Service) software which basically does the opposite of ‘QAWS’ (Query as a Web Service). It’s quite a handy tool… look out for more on that in later posts.

Getting back to the new Xcelsius Publishing Plugin. In a nutshell, its a tool that allows organizations to post only the MOST relevant information to their intended recipients. Here is how its use is described on the BOBJ Labs website:

For example, a retail enterprise could create an Xcelsius dashboard that highlights the sales for a retail location. Using the plugin, the dashboard could be populated with the data for a specific retail location and then distributed to each location manager, personalized for that manager. Typically, this would be completed according to a schedule, for example daily, weekly or monthly. Xcelsius dashboards created through this process have the displayed data contained within them; when viewed, the dashboard would not connect to a server to obtain updated. This solution is only intended for less complex dashboards which require less data due to the best practices around static data in the Xcelsius swf file.

 

 

 

 

Notice that we highlighted the last line. The idea is that the dashboard being distributed will serve as a snapshot in a self-contained model (data resides in static form in Excel). Instead of having to open Xcelsius, generate an Excel snapshot, re-import the snapshot back into the Xcelsius model, export in .swf, .ppt or .pdf format, and then send out to the intended recipients via email, you can now use this NEW Xcelsius 2008 plugin in BOE Xi 3.0 to do this in 4 simple steps!

NOTE: While you will need the necessary licenses for BOE Xi 3.0 and Xcelsius 2008 to run this plugin, the plugin itself is FREE. All the BOBJ labs ask in return is for your feedback…deal!

Some important links:

1. Xcelsius Publishing Plugin 2008 Homepage
   
2. Download Plugin!

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Blog Update – Thanks to our Readers!

Hi Everyone,

While you’ve may have noticed a slight decline in the frequency of our recent posts, we want to assure you that we are working very hard backstage to better serve you in 2009.

We are working feverishly in the background to upgrade the blog for 2009 to provide better content (video interviews, podcasts, find out who we are etc.), a better blog design, better ways for users to interact on the blog with us and other readers and much more! We will continue to post relevant news and tips as 2008 comes to an end, but we are very excited about 2009. Look out for hints of some of these new elements in future postings.

Hang in there. We promise it will be worth your wait!
The feedback that we get from our readers is very valuable to us. The blog continues to grow in visits and readership exponentially since its inception in July 2008, and we couldn’t do it without you! We now have readers from over 75+ countries. We really appreciate all of your support and emails and we hope that you are equally excited about what we have planned for 2009 (more to come in future posts).

May everyone have a happy Thanksgiving!

Remember, our goal is to foster and embrace an ever growing community of Xcelsius users by providing a central location for the most important news, tips and updates. We plan to be #1! Therefore, if you have questions, topic suggestions or updates feel free to contact us at anytime.

Alert! Webinar: Extreme MakeOver (Xcelsius Edition) Nov 12th @ 10am PST

Mark your calendars! Yesterday we got a whiff that Ryan Goodman, owner of Centigon Solutions is doing a Webinar for Business Objects entitled ‘Extreme Makeover – Xcelsius Edition’, scheduled for November 12th, 2008 at 10am PST / 1pm EST.

So we called Ryan to confirm, and learned that he is about to deliver YET another miracle to the Xcelsius community, but this time especially to the design challenged Xcelsius developers using his Background Builder Xcelsius 2008 Ad-on component! Put an end to ugly Xcelsius 2008 dashboards!

If you recall last week we spoke to you about how easy it was to use Centigon Solution’s Background Builder (click here to read the original article). Well if you liked what we did…. you can’t miss what Ryan is about to show you. The best part? You get to ask Ryan questions at the end of the Webinar!

So what should you do next?

1. Click here to Register for the Event
2. Mark it on your Calendar!
3. To prepare download the Background Free Trial and Try it!
   
4. Use the EverythingXcelsius.com exclusive coupon to save $15 on the Component Bundle Package!

Again, we just love Ryan. For those of you who got to meet him at the recent BOBJ User Conference, I am sure you have learned that outside of the Xcelsius PH.D. that he currently holds he is just a great guy. Hey Ryan, BTW, how can we get one of those?

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Xcelsius 2008 SP1 Fix Pack 1 Link Fixed!

Hi Everyone,

If you recall we reported to you yesterday that Business Objects an SAP company finally released their first Fix Pack for Xcelsius 2008 SP1. Well apparently the link to download FP1 was broken. We fixed it…sorry about that.

Below are shortcut links to ensure you are never left behind when any future HotFixes / Service Packs are released!

1. Download Xcelsius 2008 SP1 FixPack 1 here
2. Bookmark SAP Download Site (must cut/paste in browser to acess) - https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/bobj_download/main.htm

Note: You must have Xcelsius 2008 SP1 installed before installing the FixPack 1 on top.

Happy voting today!

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News: Xcelsius 2008 SP1 Fix Pack 1 Available!

(11/3 Update – FP1 Link now works..Sorry) Our sources in Business Objects an SAP Company has just informed us of 2 major updates that will affect all Xcelsius 2008 users starting this week:

Great news for ALL Xcelsius 2008 Users!

1. Xcelsius 2008 SP1 Fix Pack 1 (click to download) is now Available! (Read the list of fixes here)
2. Mark your calendar – SAP plans to provide Fix Packs every 2 months!

Many major issues have been fixed so PLEASE read through the FP1 Issues Fixed PDF by downloading here. We are VERY impressed…it’s clear that SAP has been hard at work!

If you recall in July 2008 we reported that SAP released Xcelsius 2008 SP1. So now you may be asking yourself, hmm…what is the difference between a Fix Pack and a Service Pack?

1. Fix Pack - Addresses a small number of bugs
2. Service Pack – Also addresses a small number of bugs BUT it also introduces new features into the software

Is your issue missing from this list?? Please send an email to mailto:Gurus@EverythingXcelsius.com?subject=Xcelsius%202008%20Bug and we will forward it to our SAP sources. While we cannot guarantee that it will appear in the next Fix Pack, we can tell you that SAP is listening. Is there someone that you think may be interested in this article? Feel free to share (click below).