Maps are a hot button when it comes to Web Intelligence, which is one of the most requested features as long as I can remember. BI4.2 delivers a double whammy for BI administrators to deliver amazing geographic visualization and analysis features.
GeoMaps
New out of the box geomaps are long over-due but finally here for basic map requirements. GeoMaps transform report tables into interactive maps using common geographies. The components are the same found in Explorer and Lumira. Here is a fantastic article on SCN that explains how to use new 4.2 GeoMaps
Custom Elements
New to BI4.2 is custom elements, which allows BI administrators to enable a new wave of visualization options for Web Intelligence. Naturally, we immediately plugged in our CMaps Analytics JS API (which inherits Google Maps for Work), and with a few hours of experimenting we had a new custom element working.
It is an exciting time as SAP modernizes it's best of breed reporting solution to take advantage of innovate "visualization as a service" offerings for BI4.2. If you want to see the above examples in action or how we built our custom element, live feel free to send me a message here or on social media and I am happy to share online.
We have just scratched the surface of what's possible, allowing customers to display multiple layers of information like custom regions, drive distance and radius bands, ESRI ArcGIS, and others to be officially announced shortly from CMaps Analytics.