BICS connectivity

Hi,

I am new to SAP BO. I have certain silly doubts..

I can access BW Infocubes or BEx queries from WebI without defining universe i.e. through defining BICS connectivity.

Does that mean that Universe is going to be obselete ?? If I have to report on BW infocubes or Bex queries is it a good practice to use BICS connectivity without using Universe.

another doubt , Do I have to create connections in IDT for every report I want to create or connections are reusable.

Regards,