Is Lumira a competitor to Design Studio?

SAP's goal and strategy is to reduce and simplify the large number of BI tools. In addition, end users should be able to create reports themselves, without support from IT.

What can Business Objects Design Studio do?

SAP Business Design Studio (DS) in the current version 1.5. creates individual and interactive dashboards that graphically visualize key performance indicators and detailed analyses in a condensed form.

Departments such as controlling and management appreciate this presentation - especially as they can be prepared in real time and in their own look or corporate design using the customer's own CSS formatting.

Extensions in the form of software development kits (SDK) for functionalities, presentation and data sources, such as CSV files or URLs, allow completely customized report forms. An SDK for graphics can be used in Design Studio and Lumira.

In principle, DS develops a professional design for a large number of users who are to use it to make decisions. It is therefore important in the first step to ask who the users are and what information requirements they have.

This allows a developer to create a concept that defines the required functions and the best way to display them. The required data is prepared using the BEx Query Designer and the concept is implemented in the Design Studio. The specialist departments verify the consistency of the data.

If necessary, adjustments are made to the functions or the presentation. Finally, the application can be made available in the SAP NW portal or as an SAP BO Launchpad for department heads and managers, for example.

What can Lumira do?

SAP Lumira is considered a "self-service" tool for end users. In the current version 1.28, data can be explored visually. For example, a controller can quickly visualize a trend or a development and distribute it within his department.

The tool is intended for internal use as a practical departmental solution. Lumira is characterized by simple data import from a wide variety of data sources, such as Excel and other data sources.

Excel and BW can even be combined in one table - which is not possible with DS. The graphical reports can be published in the cloud, on the BI platform or on the desktop directly from the application.

The column-based Sybase IQ database ensures that the tool is performance-oriented - in contrast to DS - and can be used optimally in SAP Hana.

In contrast to Design Studio, Lumira is an application for analyzing data visually and sharing the results with colleagues. The controller from our example would therefore first import data from a data source, such as Excel, text, SQL, SAP Hana or SAP BW, and prepare the data.

They can create their own queries with the required key figures and characteristics. However, it is possible to access data without queries. Various diagram types are available for visualization, as well as maps, heat maps or tag clouds.

In addition, custom reports can be created using SDK extensions. Finally, the data can be analyzed visually. Templates for storyboards with multiple graphics are available for reports - for analysis or static reports.

Developer view

Design Studio has an intuitive development environment (WYSIWYG) that is based on the design of the BEx Web Application Designer. This development environment is based on Eclipse. Developers should have programming skills and IT knowledge.

However, the Content Assistant is a great help when programming. Functions are listed with descriptions and examples. Global script functions ensure reusability. In contrast, Lumira does not require IT.

The application is intuitive, quick and easy to learn and use because the functions and interface are very clearly structured. The tool does not require any programming knowledge; individual dimensions and key figures are dragged and dropped into the corresponding value fields. In addition, several data sources can be connected and combined.

User view

For end users, the well-designed and thus managed dashboards in Design Studio make their work much easier. Dashboards with key performance indicators can be broken down to many levels, right down to the smallest unit level.

DS offers great flexibility in terms of functionality and design. Lumira helps users to make quick decisions when large amounts of data need to be analyzed. As already mentioned, data from several sources can be combined and data from BW can be enriched with Excel.

However, there is no comparison to well-known reporting tools with BEx or SAP-BO functions. Some, but not all functions from the BEx Analyzer can be found. The interoperability of Design Studio and Lumira means that the data view from DS can be exported and reused in Lumira for ad hoc analyses.

Conclusion

The current version 1.28 of Lumira is not yet an optimal solution as a visual analysis tool. The almost monthly release cycle shows that SAP is working hard on improvements, but for users this means many changes, constant updates, missing functions or quality problems with new functions. Functions only become stable and reliable after further releases.

The decision to use Design Studio or Lumira depends crucially on the intended use. Presenting Lumira as an aid for decision-makers, as it enables fast ad-hoc reporting, must be viewed critically.

Experience has shown that departments tend to check data using Excel-based analysis tools such as BEx Analyzer or SAP BO Analysis, rather than graphical tools such as Lumira. If a visualization is required, simple graphics can also be created with Analysis.

At management level, strategic decisions require the sophisticated preparation of data and presentation in interactive dashboards, which only Design Studio makes possible. And for print-optimized reporting, only Crystal Report or Webi reports come into question.

It is clear that Lumira is not currently a competitor to Design Studio. Supporting companies in the selection of BI front-end tools, analysing decision-making processes and information requirements and visualizing data in line with the latest findings is the aim of SAP consultancy Infocient in Mannheim.

The SAP experts provide strategic and technological support to ensure the competitiveness of medium-sized companies and corporations.