University of Edinburgh
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stage: Initiation Project Proposal 2006/7 Business Objects Upgrade
INF
General
Project Sponsor: Author (Business): Author (MIS):
Simon Marsden Mark Ritchie Mark Ritchie
Date: 06/01/2006
___________________________________________________________________________________ Project Proposal Template - Revised December 2005
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
Contents
1 PROJECT DETAILS ............................................................................................. 3
1.1 Summary .......................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Business Objectives ......................................................................................... 3 1.3 Deliverables and Limits .................................................................................. 3 1.4 Timing and Multi Year Projects .................................................................... 4 1.4.1 Timing ..................................................................................................................... 4 1.4.2 Multi-Year ............................................................................................................... 4 1.5 2 2.1 2.2 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 Risks.................................................................................................................. 4 PROJECT CATEGORY AND JUSTIFICATION ................................................... 5 Category ........................................................................................................... 5 Justification ...................................................................................................... 5 PROJECT BENEFITS AND COSTS..................................................................... 6 Five Year Benefits ........................................................................................... 6 Other Funding and Staff Resources to be secured ....................................... 6 Detailed Benefits and Costs Worksheet ........................................................ 8
Page 2 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
1 Project Details 1.1 Summary
Currently MIS deploy the following version of the Business Objects software: Web Intelligence 2.7.3 Business Objects 5.0.4 Due to technology obsolescence this software now requires to be upgraded. Web Intelligence 2.7.3 In accordance with Microsoft's January 2001 Settlement Agreement with Sun Microsystems, Inc., as of September 30, 2004,Microsoft will no longer be authorized to make any changes to the Microsoft® Virtual Machine (MS VM, including security fixes. As a result, Microsoft will no longer distribute MS VM in any new Windows releases or service packs, nor will MS VM be available to download from the Microsoft web site. Microsoft recommends that their customers have a plan for disabling the MS VM on machines in their environment prior to September 30th, 2004 and consider alternative options. Business Objects products require the Java Run-time Environment (JRE) for the WebIntelligence Java report panel. In Web Intelligence 2.7.3 and previous releases Business Objects relied only on the MS VM to provide this functionality within Internet Explorer. Business Objects therefore recommend that all customers upgrade Web Intelligence installations to version 2.7.4 or later by October 1 st 2004. Business Objects 5.0.4 This version of Business Objects client software is now more than four years old and is at end of life. Business Objects recommend that the software be upgraded to version Business Objects XI Release 2 or later.
Information above taken from Business Objects Technical Support web site at: http://www.techsupport.businessobjects.com/ This project will upgrade all Business Objects software to the latest supported version.
1.2 Business Objectives
Objective Number Objective Description
1. 2. 3.
4.
5.
To upgrade the Business Objects software to XI Release 2 or later. To upgrade the Business Objects Web Intelligence software to XI Release 2 or later. To migrate as many applications and users as possible from Business Objects client delivery to Business Objects Web Intelligence to enhance customer service and reduce support overheads. To investigate configuration options available in Busienss Objects to deliver an improved “look and feel” / corporate branding for the service. To investigate the possibility of reduced sign-on and delivery through the MyEd portal.
1.3 Deliverables and Limits
Page 3 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
Assumption or Constraint 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Description Deliverable – Business Objects and Business Objects Web Intelligence Software Upgrade Deliverable – Production Business Objects applications migrated to new software Deliverable – Production Business Objects applications migrated to new software Deliverable – Business Objects customers migrated, where possible, to Web Intelligence platform Deliverable - Technical and customer orientated service documentation. Deliverable - Technical assessment of configuration of “look and feel” in Web Intelligence and reduced sign-on/portal integration. Deliverable – MIS and customer sign off for project Limit - We have assumed that the latest version of the Business Objects software can be obtained from Business Objects under the existing University contract. Limit – We have assumed that no functional changes to Business Objects applications will be undertaken as part of the project. Limit – We have assumed that the current and replacement versions of the Business Objects Web Intelligence and Client software can co-exist allowing a phased migration of applications and customers to the upgraded environment. Limit – We have assumed that no new hardware is required for this project.
9. 10.
11.
1.4 Timing and Multi Year Projects 1.4.1 Timing
The upgrade must be completed asap – Business Objects have formally de-supported our st client server version and the WEBI version will be de-supported ion 1 April 2006 and we have been advised to upgrade the software immediately. The risk to the current service due to the dependency on effectively obsolescent software is now reaching an unacceptable level.
1.4.2 Multi-Year
n/a
1.5 Risks
Risk 1. Description This project was carried over from 2005/6 due to resource considerations. There remains a small risk that the current Business Objects software will fail ahead of the completion of this project which would necessitate an immediate upgrade being undertaken. Once initiated the project should run through normally to completion with all Business Objects applications upgraded. This will require close co-ordination with customers to ensure that the project can be completed without undue impact on business processes. If this is not done there is a risk that the project will be elongated with subsequent risk that functional changes will need to be undertaken on the obsolete software. Understandably this should be avoided. Potential BO licensing issues were highlighted during the consultancy review carried out in 2005/6. If these cannot be satisfactorily resolved it may be necessary to
2.
3.
Page 4 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
consider alternate opens source BI solutions. An intitial survey has been carried out by Neil Grant in Development Team resulting in the following shortlist of possible contenders should this scenario come to pass: 1. The BIRT Project - Business Intelligence Reporting Tools BIRT is an open source, Eclipse-based reporting system that integrates with your application to produce compelling reports for both web and PDF. BIRT provides core reporting features such as report layout, data access and scripting. The current released version is 1.0.1. Please try BIRT and tell us what you think by filling bugs reports & enhancement requests through Bugzilla as explained on the community page. http://www.eclipse.org/birt/ 2. SpagoBI The Business Intelligence Free Platform SpagoBI is a Business Intelligence Free Platform: a complete Free/Open Source solution for the development of Business Intelligence projects. SpagoBI is a complete suite for the development of Business Intelligence projects in an integrated environment. The new platform has the potential of covering the full range of analytical aspects, such as the data and metadata organization, static reporting and dimensional analysis, hidden information discovering by means of data mining techniques, the building of a structured and dynamic control suite with dashboard components. SpagoBI, enriched by a demo environment, offers an infrastructure supporting the analytical documents management, in term of activities to handle their approval process, release management, parametric activation and publishing in a portal environment with the visibility based on end-user's roles. SpagoBI uses both most interesting and available free/open source software solutions and new software components in order to offer to the market a really integrated platform giving a standard vision of the different analytical areas, while keeping their peculiarities, through a cross and independent management of control and navigation variables on data http://spagobi.objectweb.org/ 3. The Pentaho Project The Pentaho BI Project provides enterprise-class reporting, analysis, dashboard, data mining and workflow capabilities that help organizations operate more efficiently and effectively. The software offers flexible deployment options that enable use as embeddable components, customized BI application solutions, and as a complete out-of-the-box, integrated BI platform. http://www.pentaho.org/ A short 2 day review of these alternatives has been included in the intial project resource estimate.
2 PROJECT CATEGORY and JUSTIFICATION 2.1 Category
Essential This project is “Essential” as it is driven by technology obsolescence.
2.2 Justification
University Goals And Operational Priorities Details of these goals and operation priorities can be found in the UoE strategic plan.
Page 5 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
Excellence in Education Excellence in Research Excellence in knowledge transfer and commercialisation Quality infrastructure Quality services Quality knowledge management Promoting opportunity and diversity Developing leadership and management Advancing Internationalisation Engaging with the wider community Building effective partnerships and collaborations Effective governance and ensuring sustainability KMS Milestone OTHER
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A
N/A This project is driven by technology obsolescence.
3 PROJECT BENEFITS and COSTS 3.1 Five Year Benefits
Tangible Benefits Benefit N/A Assumptions
Intangible Benefits Benefit
Assumptions
N/A - There are less tangible benefits however including the prospect of a better services to customers through improved performance and reliability (the latter derived from better compatibility with newer desktop operating systems and web browsers). The migration away from client based Business Objects to Web Intelligence also offers the option of portal integration with reduced sign on.
3.2 Other Funding and Staff Resources to be secured
Page 6 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
Additional Funding / Resources Requirements N/A – all costs included in detailed worksheet.
Secured? YES /NO
Page 7 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
3.3 Detailed Benefits and Costs Worksheet
5 Year Summary IT Services Benefits Costs £39,960 £9,200 Cost/Benefit Ratio BENEFITS IT Services Support Groups Colleges Total COSTS IT Services MIS Total MIS BSG MIS DSG - Dev MIS DSG - TS MIS DSG - SS MIS CSG EUCS External Consultancy Hardware Software Support Groups Colleges Year 1: Detailed Resource Estimate by Stage (in DAYS) Days 152 24 35 74 19 5 Year 1 Cost £34,960 £5,520 £8,050 £17,020 £4,370 £5,000 Days Year 2 Cost Days Year 3 Cost Days Year 4 Cost Days Year 5 Cost Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total £49,160 Support Groups Colleges Total MIS day rate External day rate EUCS day rate Business Area day rate £230 £1,000 £230 £230
40
£9,200
IT Services MIS BSG MIS DSG (Dev) MIS DSG (TS) 2 2 10 15 2 2 2 35 MIS DSG (SS) 20 10 15 20 2 5 2 74 MIS CSG 1 2 5 5 2 2 2 19 EUCS External Consult.
Support Groups Business Partner 5 5 5 5 20 5 5 40 Other
Colleges All
Planning 2 Business Analysis System Analysis & Design 5 Build / Configure 15 Integration 2 Acceptance Deployment Benefits Review Total Resource 24 Area below here can be used for any detailed benefits costings
Page 8 of 9
Initiate: Project Proposal
[Business Objects Upgrade]
Page 9 of 9