SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2482784 - Best Practices in Analysis for Office

Symptom

This document contains best practices and additional information for SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office.

Environment

SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office

Resolution

The topics below can help with installation, configuration, and usage of the tool. It also contains some tips which can help to get a better and faster support when working with SAP in Analysis Office (AO) incidents.

1 – Documentation

As a starting point to use the tool, it is very important to check the Administrator Guide, which includes details regarding the installation, the settings, and the supported scenarios.
It is also recommended to check the User Guide which contains information related to the usage of the tool and its functionalities. Both guides are available in the SAP Help Portal.

2 - Product Availability Matrix

The supported environments can be found in Product Availability Matrix (PAM) and search for Analysis Office product. Direct page for Analysis Office 2.8 in PAM, access here.

The PAM contains information regarding supported operating system, MS Excel/Powerpoint versions, backend platforms and other requisites. It also contains information about the mainstream maintenance.

PAM 28.png

3 – Community

The SAP Community of Analysis Office can be accessed here.

In the community, it is possible to start discussions or search for specific topics that were already discussed. This is the proper channel for questions related to installation and configuration process, or related to user experience and how-to questions.

4 - Other add-ins in Excel

Check the SAP Note 2671567 for more information about the compatibility of AO with other add-ins in Excel.

Also refer to chapter Parallel installation of Analysis and other SAP Add-Ins in Administrator Guide.

When encountering an issue in Analysis Office, check if it is not related to a conflict with other add-ins. This can be done by manually disabling the other add-ins or by using the parameter "AOOnly" when launching Analysis for Office. Refer to SAP Note 2140349 and the chapter Configuring the Analysis Add-In Launcher in Administrator Guide.

5 – Use the latest version of Analysis Office

In general, SAP recommends to always use the latest Support Package.

Corrections on SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office, will only be provided based on the latest Support Package available. So even if an error is located on a lower patch, the solution cannot be provided for that patch.

In contradiction to ABAP correction, AO correction cannot be provided as code-snippets, thus the complete AO patch needs to be installed. Even if emergency hotfix patch is released, the solution will be a complete update of the AO patch.

Generally, multiple errors are corrected with each AO patch. Important errors are documented in SAP notes, but not all.

More information and how to download the latest version of Analysis Office can be found in Support Content page Analysis Office Installation and Update.

Refer to SAP Note 1518359 for more information about the release schedule.

6 - Read the important SAP notes and links below:

7 – Getting better and faster support when working with SAP

When opening incidents related to Analysis for Office product, there are some pre-analysis that can be done in customer’s side to speed up the investigation and resolution process:

  • Test in the latest version 
    Because of topic #5 above, SAP engineers will always have to check whether the issue occurs in the latest version of the tool. This test can be done in one test machine. Refer to topic #4 in Analysis Office Installation and Update to understand the importance of this test.

  • Provide the Analysis Office trace 
    A trace of the issue can be recorded in Analysis for Office by following the instructions of SAP Note 2129389.

  • Provide a document with screenshots showing the issue and the step-by-step 
    A document with screenshots is helpful for a better understanding of the issue. Also, the screenshots may contain details that will help SAP engineers to provide additional guidance and recommendations. 
  • Provide the remote access 
    To investigate issues related to Analysis for Office, SAP engineers need specific connections depending on the scenario. Having only the R/3 connection is not sufficient in most of the cases. Refer to KBA 2568585 for the necessary connections that SAP engineers need to investigate issues related to Analysis for Office.

  • Provide the user and password 
    Make sure that the credentials to access the system are stored in Logon Depot as described in KBA 1773689.

Keywords

guidance, consulting, best practices, how to, questions, question, user assistance, administrator, maintenance , KBA , epm plugin epmplugin epm plug-in , BI-RA-AO-XLA , Excel Addin , BI-RA-AO-PPA , Please use component BI-RA-AO-XLA , BI-RA-AO-BIP , AO Precalculation, Scheduling and AO InfoOb... , How To

Product

SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office all versions