Why BI2025 and SAP Business Objects will remain relevant well into the 2030s

SAP Business Objects will continue as a cornerstone of enterprise analytics through the next decade

In enterprise analytics, cloud-first strategies dominate the conversation and many enterprises are accelerating their adoption of tools like SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). SAP BusinessObjects (BOBJ) – 35 years since its founding and almost 20 since its acquisition by SAP – is often portrayed as something to upgrade from, something from the past. Far from it. The role of BOBJ into the 2030s will be one of continuity, hybrid innovation and a scaled yet secure core and it will remain a cornerstone of enterprise reporting strategies well into the next decade.

Compatibility with Enterprise Landscapes

For many organisations, BOBJ is deeply embedded in business processes, operational reporting, and regulatory compliance. Compatibility with universes, Web Intelligence documents, Lumira Designer dashboards, Analysis for Office workbooks, and scheduled reporting jobs ensures BI2025 does not disrupt decades of investment. Enterprises cannot afford a “rip and replace” approach for analytics that underpin financial close, regulatory filings or supply chain visibility. As of 2025, more than 18,000 companies worldwide are still actively using BOBJ, most of them large enterprises with over 1,000 employees and annual revenues above $1 billion (Enlyft). This presence shows that compatibility is not just technical but a critical business requirement.

BI2025 retains compatibility with current BOBJ workloads while providing a roadmap that aligns with SAP’s cloud ambitions. Customers can continue to leverage their existing investments while preparing for hybrid integration with SAC and Datasphere. This dual alignment means BOBJ remains not only compatible but strategically complementary.

Security and on-premise control

The debate between cloud and on-premise often comes down to control. Some industries such as financial services, defence, and healthcare operate in heavily regulated environments where data residency and compliance cannot be compromised. For these organisations, the ability to retain sensitive workloads on-premise is essential.

BI2025 ensures that enterprises can continue to run their reporting in secure, tightly controlled environments. With ongoing updates in patching, encryption, and identity management, the platform is not static and it is not ossified. Instead, it evolves to meet modern security standards while preserving the on-premise deployment model. For CIOs this combination of control and compliance keeps BOBJ an attractive part of the analytics estate.

Continuity of reporting

One of the strongest arguments for retaining BOBJ into the 2030s is the continuity it provides to business users. Millions of Web Intelligence reports, Lumira Designer dashboards, and Analysis for Office workbooks are used every day by analysts and managers. Retraining these users to adopt entirely new tools carries significant cost and risk.

BI2025 gives organisations a way to modernise the platform without disrupting established reporting practices. The user experience of BOBJ’s core tools is familiar and stable yet underpinned by updated infrastructure and improved lifecycle support. This continuity minimises disruption while allowing IT teams to plan for gradual transformation rather than enforced revolution. The biggest change users will experience in moving from BI4.2 is the Fiori UI, introduced in BI4.3.

Usage and market presence

While cloud adoption is accelerating, BOBJ is firmly embedded in the BI landscape and will remain so. Today, the platform holds a significant share of the enterprise BI market, showing that clients continue to trust the platform (Enlyft). SAP has already committed to releasing BI 2025 with extended support to 2031 and has signalled further iterations such as BI 2027 (BARC).

New features for the future

While BI2025 focuses on stability and continuity, it is not simply a holding pattern. SAP has introduced features that improve performance, scheduling, and monitoring. Administrators gain enhanced tools for lifecycle management and monitoring while users benefit from streamlined access and more efficient scheduling.

The emphasis is on evolutionary improvement. New features are designed to make the platform easier to maintain, less resource intensive, and more tightly integrated with cloud services. For example, Web Intelligence offers hugely expanded data management and transformation tools. WebI also provides tighter interoperability with SAC, which enables enterprises to position BOBJ as a secure operational reporting layer while SAC handles advanced planning, predictive and AI driven use cases.

Ease of maintenance

Enterprises are increasingly looking to streamline their on-premise estates. BI2025 responds by offering a scaled down, easier to maintain footprint. This does not mean functionality is lost but rather that it is refined. Unused or legacy components (Lumira Discovery, Analysis for OLAP, UNV universes as examples) are removed while core functions like Web Intelligence, Lumira Designer, Analysis for Office and Crystal Reports are retained and strengthened.

This scaled approach reduces maintenance overhead and infrastructure costs. For IT leaders it means fewer moving parts, simplified patching and greater confidence in platform stability. In many cases BI2025 can be run with reduced infrastructure compared to earlier iterations while still meeting enterprise scale requirements.

The always-excellent Dallas Marks provides a comprehensive overview of new and deprecated features here.

Hybrid working

BI2025 supports hybrid analytics. BOBJ is the operational and regulatory reporting engine, SAC delivers planning, dashboards and predictive analysis, and BDC ensures data integration and governance. For Office users, Analysis for Office provides familiar access, while Web Intelligence and Lumira Designer support reporting and dashboards. SAC adds modern visualisations and BDC keeps data pipelines consistent.

This model balances stability with innovation. BOBJ anchors reporting while SAC and BDC expand cloud capability, creating a resilient and future ready analytics estate.

BOBJ is dead, long live BOBJ

BOBJ isn’t in its dotage yet; it’s spritely and is learning new tricks. It will remain central to enterprise reporting through the 2030s, providing continuity, compliance and control. It complements SAC as SAP’s on-premise suite and works alongside cloud services in hybrid models. For industries where regulation and established practices cannot be compromised, BOBJ will stay essential.

At Capgemini we combine experience with BOBJ, SAC and BDC to help clients modernise at the right pace. We protect investments while enabling cloud innovation. If you are shaping your BI2025 strategy, we can help you balance stability and transformation and give your organisation the confidence to modernise for the long term.