Enterprise BI Publisher 11.1.1.9.5 - Create Report - Upload Spreadsheet

I've been asked to look at an issue when using BI Publisher and attempting to upload an Excel file (97-2003 format with an xls suffix as an example) when creating a report. At the frontend the file is found including the name of the worksheet in the file at the point of upload but when attempting the "Next"  (when Guide me is selected) the message "Failed to save draft data model" occurs. The tail of the bi_publisher.log is shown from when the report creation and file upload was attempted

#11.1.1] User (0192900) with session id: ki0npvspilm7u32efn28n735j15j1p0v3u8vhmhfb7b715bv is looking for object in biee path: /users/XXXXX/Drafts/Draft - Sep 7 2017 5-55-50 PM.xdo/_report.xdo[[