BusinessObjects (BO) to Power BI Migration: Free Assessment

Is BusinessObjects holding back your business intelligence evolution? Take the first step toward a modern, scalable analytics solution with Power BI in our free 3-week migration assessment. As organizations look to unlock faster insights, flexible data modeling, and real-time analytics, Power BI stands out as the modern replacement for legacy platforms like SAP BusinessObjects (BO). In just 3 weeks, we will help you understand what it takes to migrate from BO to Power BI—and how the shift can transform your decision-making. At MAQ Software, we specialize in complex BI migrations. During this free 3-week assessment, our Power BI and SAP BO experts will analyze your current BO landscape, identify challenges and redundancies, and create a tailored roadmap for transitioning to a modern Microsoft Power BI environment. We will leverage Microsoft funding available to us through the Microsoft Managed Partner Program (subject to availability) to deliver this BusinessObjects to Power BI migration assessment free of charge.

Target customers
Our workshop is ideal for:

• Digital transformation & innovation leaders
• IT executives (CIO/CTO/CSO)
• BI/Analytics Team
• SAP BusinessObjects Admins
• Project/Program Managers

Agenda:

Week 1: Discovery and Analysis

• Kick-off Meeting: Confirm scope, introduce teams, align expectations, and plan communication.
• BO Environment Deep Dive: Assess current BO deployment, including number of universes, WebI reports, scheduled reports, data sources, and usage metrics.
• Universe and Data Source Review: Evaluate universe designs (UNV/UNX), custom calculations, security filters, and data connection types (e.g., SAP BW, Oracle, SQL Server).
• Stakeholder Interviews: Understand current report usage, gaps, business pain points, and future expectations.
• Power BI Overview: Introduce Power BI features that directly map to or improve upon existing BO capabilities.

Week 2: Power BI Evaluation and Planning

• Power BI Feature Demonstrations: Showcase how Power BI handles data modeling, DAX logic, row-level security, scheduling, and interactivity using sample data.
• Migration Strategy Definition: Evaluate migration models (lift-and-shift vs. rearchitecting), consider dependencies on universes, and define a phased or targeted rollout.
• Preliminary Architecture Planning: Recommend data layer setup (e.g., Power BI datasets vs. semantic layer in Fabric), workspace and dataset governance, and report security strategies.
• Report Rationalization with our SaaS accelerator MigrateFAST

Week 3: Roadmap and Recommendations

• Refined Migration Roadmap: Provide a phase-wise migration plan with key activities, responsible roles, dependencies, and timelines.
• Cost Analysis (Preliminary): Outline expected licensing costs for Power BI (Pro, PPU, Premium Capacity) and projected implementation costs.
• Risk Mitigation Strategies: Identify key migration challenges (e.g., loss of BO scheduling features or universe logic) and recommend modern workarounds.
• Governance and Adoption Best Practices: Share guidelines for Power BI governance, workspace security, dataflows, and end-user enablement.
• Final Presentation and Q&A: Present full findings, roadmap, estimates, and answer business and technical questions.

Deliverables:

By the end of the workshop, you will receive:

• Documentation of your current BO environment, migration feasibility, pain point
• Visual timeline of proposed migration phases with milestones
• Diagram showing recommended Power BI setup, semantic layer replacement, and workspace strategy.
• Rough order-of-magnitude effort required to migrate universes, reports, and dashboards.
• Suggested licensing models based on report usage, capacity needs, and distribution strategy.

Benefits:

Join our assessment and enjoy these benefits:

• Gain clarity on the feasibility and estimated effort for full BO to Power BI migration.
• Identify outdated or redundant BO reports and consolidate reporting needs.
• Discover how Power BI can simplify your analytics strategy while improving user experience.
• Understand architectural changes required to move from BO universes to Power BI datasets.
• Get a tailored roadmap, effort estimate, and licensing guidance for a full migration.

Why choose MAQ Software

MAQ Software brings years of experience modernizing BI platforms across industries. We specialize in migrating legacy BO environments—universes, WebI, Crystal Reports—to modern Microsoft ecosystems. Our in-house tools like MigrateFAST accelerate report mapping and reduce effort.

Unlock the future of analytics with a migration from BusinessObjects to Power BI. Contact CustomerSuccess@MAQSoftware.com to schedule your free 3-week assessment and learn how Power BI can modernize your data strategy.