- - Update on 13/03/2019 –
It is clear now that BEx is
obsolete. As BEx Analyzer front end tool as per SAP Note 2609031 is being
sun setting and development part – BEx Query Designer is being replaced.
The BEx Analyzer shall be migrated
to Analysis for Office
and BEx Query Designer shall be migrated to Eclipse plugin– BW
Modelling tools.
More info:
2609031 - Sunset
of BW Business Explorer (BEx)
1322923 -
Maintenance strategy / deadlines BW Business Explorer (BEx)
2095909 - BW
Business Explorer (BEx) and dependencies on Microsoft Office, operating
systems, and browsers
1995532 - BI 7.x
tools - HW\SW requirements and Compatibility of Microsoft Operating Systems and
Office Products
2333840 - BI 7.x
tools in 750 - General Information & Limitations
- - Original post -
Might be that you got similar questions from your customers as well. SAP is replacing its BEx portfolio with BusinessObjects. What shall we do? Start to look for new BW front end? Try to still to BEx as long as possible? Can we live without support from its producer? In case we should switch to other tool, what tool to pick up?
In this post I just try to focus on topic of how long SAP is going to maintain BEx releases. In particular we need to distinguish between developing of new BEx version and its maintenance.
In case of 2nd question related to BEx version maintenance we have nice SAP note 1322923 - Maintenance strategy / deadlines BW Business Explorer (BEx) which answers this. SAP is maintaining BEx per different operation systems (OS). For those OSs which are not supported by their vendor; SAP stops maintenance as well. This date is called de-support date. After expiration of OS manufacturer support SAP is checking compatibility of BEx patches for approximately 1 year. This is called post mortem QA procedure. Just to highlight most used OSs:
Windows XP Professional:
De-Support: March 31, 2014
Post mortem QA: until December 31, 2014
Windows 7:
De-Support: January 13, 2015
Post mortem QA: January 14, 2020
In case of 1st question developing of new BEx versions we can refer above mentioned SAP Note as well. It is said in there that within the upcoming versions of SAP GUI (currently under the shipment phase is version 7.3) there will be new versions of BEx as well. We all know how it is with SAP Notes. They all get updated from time to time. I would not be surprised if there will be no such a sentence in future in this note. Therefore we need some other more less “official” SAP sources related to this topic. According SDN’s Bex homepage; quote: “BEx is continuing being delivered within next SAP NW BW and currently there is no is no planned end of life”.
Whatever SAP has ever said days of BEx are not that bright as it would be seen. BusinessObjects portfolio is proffered by SAP. This might be experienced while you would be talked to SAP accounts managers. I have also seen projects where customer was assessing several BI frontend tools and SAP applied only with BusinessObjects and not with BEx. Of course that non SAP BusinessObjects has won.
However you perceive this topic I would say that SAP BEx will be with us for some time and there is no hurry to replace it in midterm perspective.
To see for how long your version of SAP GUI will be supported see following post:
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