Re: SAP BW compared to Essbase/SQLServer/Oracle as a Enterprise Data Warehouse & OLAP application

Amanda, Tim,

> You can buy and use Cognos "headstarts" for SAP BW which will give users
all
> the benefits of the Cognos client against SAP's Data Warehouse. However, I
> believe that the user can not perform OLAP disconnected.

Headstart can be used to connect Impromptu against the physical tables of SAP BW. This means just database security, no application security. Powerplay facilitates the OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) interface SAP implements. Unfortunately in the past (BW 2.1 to 3.0A) SAP's ODBO interface experienced slight "improvements" by SAP resulting in 3rd party software (also Powerplay) not working with SAP BW any more. I wouldn't therefore recommend patching BW (and you have to apply many patches) without the 3rd party vendors' assurance that his software runs with the new SAP BW patch.

You wonder why SAP customers are loyal? I assume that they think stucking with the "market leader" is a good thing - SAP products are self running although they are far from optimality. Secondly have you ever tried to image what you would tell your boss if you voted for a software costing your company a fortune and realizing half a year later that you made a mistake?

Regards,

A. Received on Thu Jan 16 2003 - 15:59:00 CST