BusinessObjects to SAC: What Migrates Cleanly, What Doesn’t

This post gives you a practical way to sort them.

First, the uncomfortable truth: there is no one-click migration

Web Intelligence reports, Crystal reports and dashboards are built on different engines from SAC stories. As far as we are aware, SAP does not offer a general converter that turns report logic into SAC content. Plan on rebuilding, not converting, and use any tooling mainly for inventory and analysis. (Check SAP’s current documentation, as tooling changes.)

That is not entirely bad news. A rebuild is your chance to drop what nobody uses and fix what has always been awkward.

What migrates cleanly

These are the reports that tend to move to SAC with little pain:

• Simple tabular and crosstab reports. One data source, a handful of filters, no report-level variables.
• KPI summaries and trend charts. SAC’s charting and visual formatting are usually an upgrade.
• Reports on SAP-native sources. If the data comes from BW queries or S/4HANA views, SAC’s live connections can be a cleaner path than going through a universe.
• Self-service analysis. Where users mainly slice and drill, SAC’s interactive stories suit the job.
• Reports that are really presentations. Monthly packs that someone screenshots into slides are good candidates for stories.

What doesn’t migrate cleanly

These are the usual trouble spots:

• Complex Web Intelligence reports. Sections, breaks, nested blocks and calculation contexts (the ForEach, ForAll and In family) do not have a like-for-like equivalent. The logic needs redesigning, often upstream in the data model.
• Merged dimensions across several data providers. SAC models work differently, so the join logic has to be rethought.
• Pixel-perfect formatted output. Invoices, statutory forms and regulatory documents are not what SAC is built for. Do not force them in.
• Legacy dashboards. Flash-era Xcelsius (BusinessObjects Dashboards) content and heavily scripted Lumira or Design Studio applications need to be rebuilt.
• Scheduling and bursting. SAC publications cover many distribution needs, but personalised bursting, formats and volumes should be tested report by report, not assumed.
• Hidden dependencies. Cascading prompts, linked documents, Excel-based consumption (such as Live Office) and security rules buried in universes are easy to miss in an inventory.

If you are staying on BusinessObjects and upgrading to BI 2025, check the removed components too. Public commentary reports that BI 2025 drops items including UNV universes, multi-source universes, Live Office, Analysis for OLAP and Crystal Reports for Enterprise. Confirm the details against SAP’s Product Availability Matrix and release notes before you commit to a plan.

Decision checklist by report type

For each report, land on one of four outcomes: Retire, Keep in BusinessObjects, Move to SAC, or Redesign first

Web Intelligence (Webi) reports

1. Is anyone using it? Check the audit data for the last 6 to 12 months. If nobody has opened it, retire it.
2. Does it use one data source, one block and simple filters? If yes, move to SAC. It is a straightforward rebuild.
3. Is the source BW or S/4HANA? If yes, consider a live connection in SAC instead of rebuilding the universe layer.
4. Does it rely on sections, breaks, variables or merged dimensions? Redesign first. Push the logic into the data model or accept that it stays in BusinessObjects for now.
5. Do users take it into Excel and reformat it? Find out why. The answer often changes the design, or the tool.
6. Is it scheduled and sent to many people? Test SAC publications against your real distribution list before committing.

Crystal Reports

1. Does it need pixel-perfect layout? If it is an invoice, statutory form or controlled document, keep it in Crystal or move it to a proper document output tool. Do not move it to SAC.
2. Is it really an analytical summary in disguise? Some Crystal reports are just formatted tables. These can move to SAC.
3. Which Crystal edition and runtime does it use? Check against the BI 2025 component changes above before planning an upgrade.
4. Is it embedded in another application? Treat the embedding as a dependency that needs its own plan.

Dashboards (Xcelsius, Lumira, Design Studio)

1. Is it Flash-era Xcelsius content? This is your highest priority. Rebuild it.
2. Is it a Lumira Discovery story? Usually a straightforward move to an SAC story.
3. Is it a Lumira Designer or Design Studio application with scripting? Decide whether the interactivity is genuinely needed. If yes, consider SAC’s scripting-capable analytic applications. If no, simplify to a story.
4. Is the data live or a snapshot? This shapes the SAC connection and model design.
5. Who uses it, and how often? Executive dashboards that are opened weekly deserve more care than ones last opened in 2022.

A practical sequence

1. Inventory. List every report, who uses it, how often, what data it touches and how it is delivered.
2. Classify. Mark each one Retire, Keep, Move or Redesign first.
3. Pilot. Rebuild five representative reports in SAC, including one awkward one, before estimating the rest.
4. Fix the foundation. If your logic lives in report-level variables, move it into governed models so you stop rebuilding it every time.
5. Run both. BusinessObjects and SAC can coexist. A phased move beats a deadline-driven scramble.

A word of caution

The most common mistake is a 1:1 rebuild. You end up paying to reproduce reports nobody needed in a new tool, with the same logic problems. Use the move to simplify.

An illustrative example. The numbers below are hypothetical, included to show how the sorting works in practice.

Imagine an organisation with 300 Web Intelligence reports, 12 Crystal reports and 8 dashboards. A usage audit of the last 12 months might sort the Web Intelligence reports like this:

• About 100 retired. Nobody opened them.
• About 120 moved to SAC. Simple tables and trends on SAP-native data.
• About 50 redesigned first. Heavy variables, sections or merged dimensions.
• About 30 kept in BusinessObjects. Complex or tightly scheduled, so they stay for now.

All 12 Crystal reports are statutory documents, so they stay in Crystal. Two of the 8 dashboards are Flash-era, so they become the first rebuilds.

The lesson in this scenario: the inventory removed a third of the work before anyone opened SAC. That is the point of sorting first.

Where to start

If you are unsure what is in your BusinessObjects estate, start with the inventory. It is the cheapest step and the one that shapes everything else.

Cloud Intelytics offers a fixed-scope BusinessObjects landscape assessment that classifies your reports and gives you a migration roadmap. Contact us to discuss.

Dates and product details in this post were checked in October 2026 against SAP’s published maintenance information (including KBA 3763590 and SAP’s BI maintenance strategy announcement). SAP updates these from time to time, so confirm the current position with SAP before making decisions.