The new SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform release BI 4.0 ushered in a new era by providing multi-source universes. In earlier versions developers attempted joined up data through ‘linked’ universes and synchronised data providers within Web Intelligence, and the now deprecated, Desktop Intelligence.
BI 4.0 universes are now integrated with Data Federator connectivity. This connectivity then exploits further powerful integration between Data Federator and SAP Netweaver. This means that in a single SQL based universe relational SQL data can be joined with SAP Netweaver data and is no longer being forced to use the MDX Engine and an OLAP based source.
The original Data Federator product was acquired by BusinessObjects a few years ago at the time that Russell Beech was employed with BusinessObjects UK. Consequently he has had an interest in and knowledge of Data Federator for several years.
BI System Builders have now established a Data Federator system and are currently developing multi-source universes to support their live customer demos.
