Migrating BW-BPS to 2004s

Question

We are planning to upgrade from BW 3.5 to NW 2004s.  Our main concern is with the BW-BPS object migration.  Per my understanding, there are two provisions – BW-BPS and BI-IP - for planning in 2004s (both can run in parallel!!). 
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/44/05829c6ef7025be10000000a1553f7/content.htm
Is there any support strategy for BW-BPS vs BI-IP from SAP; like BI-IP will be supported in future upgrades whereas BW-BPS will be terminated?
Also it looks like if one prefers to go with BI-IP, only certain BW-BPS objects can be migrated to BI-IP and requires new development for other objects.  I have looked at the following link and it is confusing.
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/44/059baf6ef7025be10000000a1553f7/content.htm
My specific questions include:
1. If we decide to stick with BW-BPS in 2004s, then we do not need any new development after the upgrade to continue operating the way we were.  Is this a correct statement?
2. If we choose to go with BI-IP, the link says “Objects that you created in the planning workbench (transaction BPS0) for BW-BPS must be migrated to the new objects in the planning modeler. Once any necessary remodeling is complete, you have to create the objects as new objects in the planning modeler. You can use the old objects as templates.”  Does it mean that all the objects created using BPS0 transaction have to be re-created in the planning modeler of BI-IP?  Why does it say “You can use the old objects as templates.”?  Some one who have migrated from BW-BPS to BI-IP, please comment.
3. Looks like the whole authorization concept has changed, how smooth is the migration of authorizations from BW 3.5 to NW 2004s?
4. We use SEM_BPS_NO_LOCK.  Is this supported in NW 2004s?
5. What’s your take on BW-BPS vs BI-IP in 2004s?  Which one is recommended and how smooth is the transition to BI-IP provided we have 3 basic planning areas and 2 multi-planning areas with 100 planning levels?  Please comment.
All the helpful information will be rewarded.  Please also provide me with the links/documents where I can learn more about the migration from BW-BPS to BI-IP.

Answer 1

Hi Sean,
    Here are some thoughts on your questions below:
A) you should be able to go directly from 3.2 (BW 3.1) directly to 6.0 (NW04s BI).  An intermediate step is not necessary.
b) not sure exactly what you are suggesting with this.  If you mean stop using SEM-BPS and use BW-BPS this can't really be done.  Once you've installed SEM on your BW box it's there forever.  Therefore you'd have to upgrade to SEM 6.0.  I believe the only way you could avoid SEM 6.0 is a fresh install of BW.  (not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly)
c)  This option would allow you to enhance the frontend experience for the end users and allow you to leverage the BW frontend components (queries, structures, variables, etc.) in planning.  The drawbacks are that there isn't currently a migration tool so you'll have to do some rework to get there.  In addition if you're using some of the SEM only functions (allocations, etc.) thost functions don't yet exist in IP so they'd have to still be executed via SEM-BPS or rebuilt in fox.