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SAP BO DASHBOARDS
(XCELSIUS)
VS.
SAP DESIGN STUDIO

CONTENT

INTRO
COMPONENTS OVERVIEW
FUNCTIONALITY OVERVIEW
INTEGRATION AND MOBILE
PERFORMANCE
CONCLUSION
EXAMPLES OF DESIGN STUDIO

INTRO
DESIGN STUDIO

XCELSIUS

Native HTML5 with CSS

Adobe Flash with HTML5

support

Visualization
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 Excelspreadsheets and non
programmable components

Flexibility

COMPONENTS OVERVIEW
DESIGN STUDIO
34 Charts of 12 types *

XCELSIUS
22 Charts of 16 types

Chart Types

10 Selectors of 10 types

18 Selectors of 16 types

Selectors **

5 Containers of 5 types

7 Containers of 3 types

Containers

No What If components

6 What If components

What If
Components

No Maps ***

Basic (non drillable) for 100

countries and regions

Maps

Available as input field

Available as a table

Calendar

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 Panel

Filter Panel

Full Filtering capabilities for

chosen dimension

No Dimension Filter

Dimension Filter

* 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.

FUNCTIONALITY OVERVIEW
DESIGN STUDIO

XCELSIUS

Advanced

Basic

Filtering

Advanced

Basic

Parameterization

Yes*

No

Drag and Drop

Yes*

No

Report to Report
Interface

Full

Full

Bex Utilization

Advanced

Basic

Hierarchies
Utilization

Only via BI IP functionality

Yes

What If Scenarios

Yes*

No

Context Menu in
Crosstab

Yes

No

Planning (BI IP)

Support

No

Yes

Offline Analysis

Yes*

No

Reuse of Dash.
Fragments

* As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015

Only Excel

Yes

Export to PDF and

Excel

INTEGRATION AND MOBILE

SUPPORT
DESIGN STUDIO

XCELSIUS

BW/BO/HANA

BW/BO

BW/HANA/FIORI/BO
Universes

BW/BO Universes/XML

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 SDK

Flex-based SDK

SDK

Integrates with the new

Can consume WEBI and
Business Suite on HANA
Crystal through Live Office,
* As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015
(FIORI) and SAP Lumira.
WS etc.
Supports crosstab on
Complex Bex structures not
Mobile.
supported on Mobile

Platform
deployment
Data Source
Connectivity

Other Sources
Integration

PERFORMANCE
DESIGN STUDIO

XCELSIUS

HTML5

Adobe Flex Engine

Compilation Engine

No specific limitations

Excel with more than 500

records can cause serious
performance deterioration
as well as multiple Excel
tabs and complex
calculations

Data Set
Limitations

Yes *

No

Parallel Query
Processing

Yes

Yes

Background
Processing

Data Source preparation +

Total Runtime
Flash loading /Initialization +
Web Service + Flash
processing
> 20 = Performance
>10 = Performance problem
*problem
As of Design Studio version 1.5. GA on May 2015

Number of Data
Sources

CONCLUSION
DESIGN STUDIO

XCELSIUS

Sufficient

Rich

Pool of Components

Rich

Sufficient

Functionality

Good

Sufficient

Integration

Good

Moderate

Mobile Support

Good

Sufficient

Performance

Moderate

Good

Development
Friendliness

Good

Moderate

Development
Flexibility

Good and achieved with CSS Good and achieved with GUI

Design Flexibility

Good

Enterprise
Scalability

Moderate

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 its 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

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