Which reports break if you change this universe object — or this database column? Impact Analysis answers that question in a query, not a week of clicking through documents.
The tool extracts metadata from every universe and Web Intelligence document on your BO platform and lands it in a relational database you control (SQLite out of the box; SQL Server and Oracle supported). From there you can run impact queries with any tool you already have — SQL Server Management Studio, a Webi report, Excel, or an AI assistant pointed at the same database.
What you can ask
- Which reports use the
Customer_IDcolumn? — for any database change in scope. - Which reports use objects in the deprecated “Legacy” folder of the Sales universe? — for any planned cleanup.
- Which reports define a variable named “Net Margin”, and do they all calculate it the same way? — for governance.
- Which reports rely on the universe joins I’m about to retire? — for restructure planning.
- Which reports use a specific Webi function (e.g.
RunningSum)? — for feature audits.
Because the data lives in a regular SQL database, the questions you can ask aren’t limited to the ones we anticipated.
Features
- Bulk metadata extraction: every selected universe and every Webi document on the platform, including objects, joins, contexts, parameters, LOVs, derived tables, plus per-document data providers, variables, and the actual generated SQL.
- Choose your database: SQLite for laptop-scale, SQL Server or Oracle for shared analysis. JDBC drivers for all three are bundled — no separate downloads.
- Stable schema: documented tables, primary keys, and indexes designed for joins between universes and documents. Build your own dashboards on top.
- Refreshable: re-run extraction whenever the source changes; rows are deleted and replaced per universe/document, never duplicated.
- AI-friendly: pair with dbquerymcp to let an AI assistant query the impact-analysis database in plain English.
Case study — Deltek Maconomy field type change
The Deltek Maconomy ERP system integrates with SAP BusinessObjects as its reporting platform. A schema change retyped several fields from integer to character. Three failure modes were in play across the report estate:
- Calculations using the field needed rewriting.
- Filters mixing the field with a number caused comparison errors.
- Object merges based on the field broke silently, distorting layouts and totals.
A typical customer manages up to 1,000 reports; only a handful were actually affected. Identifying which ones, by hand, meant opening every report and inspecting every section.
With Impact Analysis the same job became a single SQL query against the extracted database. End-to-end the upgrade dropped from multiple weeks to two days, and quality went up because nothing was missed.
How it works
- Configure a JDBC connection to the database where you want the metadata to land.
- Apply the bundled schema (
impactanalysis-cli initdb). - Run the extraction (
impactanalysis-cli refresh) — it walks the selected folders, pulls universe and document metadata, writes it into the database in one transaction per artifact. - Query the database with anything: SSMS, a Webi report, your favourite IDE, an AI assistant via dbquerymcp.
Re-run the extraction whenever the source state changes. Rows for the refreshed universe / document are replaced cleanly; everything else is left alone.
Prerequisite
- SAP BusinessObjects 4.x or 2025 Client Tools.
- A target database (SQLite, SQL Server, or Oracle). For SQLite there’s nothing to install.
- A PRO license for full automation; without it the tool runs limited to a small sample for evaluation.
