Business Objects XI 3.1 SP2 out soon
Judging from the fact that the release notes (S-ID required) have been released, it cannot be long before it’ll be available from the SAP MarketPlace.
I haven’t had time yet to fully read the document. From what I’ve heard about it, it should add some long awaited features to Web Intelligence, like being able to use the result of one query as a condition on another (query on query). The What’s New document should give more insight into that. Personally I hope that with this service pack we’ll see a more stable product, with 3.0 being quite the opposite and 3.1 a step closer to a production quality product. In my opinion XI 3.0 was rushed to the market, because of the acquisition by SAP. This service pack will give us a good idea what future releases will hold in store in terms of stability and what the impact of SAP’s acquisition is in terms of internal processes like release management. Who knows I might even reconsider advising clients not to upgrade to a new release before a second service pack has been released (never stop dreaming).
I’m guessing that the release of SP2 for XI 3.1 is also good news for organisations and individuals using other products in the SAP BusinessObjects stack, like Crystal Reports and Xcelsius, as their service packs will be released around the same time.