Workshop 2 Ingo2

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010
SAP BusinessObjects BI Tools

- In A Single Day
Ingo Hilgefort
BI Solution Architecture
SAP BusinessObjects (Canada)

What I’ll Cover
Agenda
•Crystal Reports – Hands-On
•Web Intelligence – Hands-On
•Xcelsius – Hands-On
•SAP BusinessObjects Explorer – Hands-On
•BI Widgets – Hands-On
•Common Best Practices

BI Solution : Enterprise Reporting
Product : Crystal Reports
Is the market leading standard in enterprise reporting that

provides connectivity to any type of data and empowers all
end users with a simple and scalable deployment model
The SAP standard enterprise reporting tool for all applications

The Standard in from SAP Business All-in-One to the SAP Business Suite
Reporting Easy access to Crystal Reports skills in the market
Precise object layout and positioning

Report
Complete control over font, layout, pagination
Formatting
High fidelity rendering in all clients and in print
Open Access to both SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP data

Connectivity Access to virtually any data source or back-end system
Sort and filter without querying the database

End User
Embed Flash for powerful visualization and what-if scenarios
Empowerment
Interoperability with other clients like Pioneer
Enterprise Multiple broadcasting and file format options for enterprise-wide deployments
Deployment Consume reports offline with the Crystal Reports viewer

Crystal Reports is the market leading tool for

highly formatted, pixel-perfect enterprise
reporting
Customer Requirements
Highly formatted reports
for forms, compliance, mass-distribution
Operational and tactical applications
with low interaction rate
(view static and parameterized reports)
Professional report layout (one-to-many approach)
Form-based, print-optimized reports
It enables the creation and modification of formatted
reports:
Report off of all sources of information in your
organization
© SAP 2008 / Page 5 Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010


BI Solution : Ad-Hoc query, reporting & analysis
Product : Web Intelligence
Self-service ad hoc analysis and reporting enabling

casual users to ask questions on any data, make decisions,
and share information with others across the organization
Ad-Hoc
Self service reporting designed with the casual user in min
Reporting &
Users can analyze data and answer their questions in a single environment
Analysis
Combine
SAP & Non-SAP Combine data from SAP NetWeaver BW and non-SAP data, including Excel, in a single report
Data
Intuitive, Easy to use BI tool empowering end-users to access and analyze the information they need
Easy to Use Free-form layout with light formatting and printing capabilities
Accessible Web Intelligence reports can be viewed online, offline, on mobile devices, in dashboards,
Anywhere in MS Office, and on the desktop
This presentation and SAP's strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is
provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Web Intelligence – Input Controls
Filter possibilities exposed

as simple widgets
Each widget can control one or
more tables or charts
Authors can chose from Radio
buttons, sliders, selectors, …

Web Intelligence – Fold / Unfold
Folds automatically
adhere to report
structure (sections, Turn on feature as
breaks, tables needed, no pre‐
definition by
author required
Summary measures for
sections, breaks
facilitate identifying
most salient details to
unfold
Enables consumers to progressively explore details

most relevant to their analytical needs online & offline
Web Intelligence – BI Web Services
Take any report, table or
chart with calculations, Publish as
multiple data sources, Web Service
synchronizations, etc.
In addition to the data,
parameters &
metadata available as
part of the WS payload
Enables power users to repurpose complex report content

in any application capable of consuming Web Services
Web Intelligence – Query on Query
Business Problem
Customers have silos of data and need to connect the dots between several sets
of data
Solution
Query on Query enables users to answer questions like:
• Among customers with more than $1m purchases (from Sales data source), which were in the
top box score from the customer satisfaction survey?
• What is the breakdown of managers who’ve visited premier customers last quarter?
• Which of the customers from my Excel file responded to the customer satisfaction survey?
© SAP 2008 / Page 11, Holly Simmons Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010
BI Solution : Ad-Hoc query, reporting & analysis
Product : Web Intelligence
OLAP universe (MDX) Relational Universe (SQL)
Data Federator
SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW
BEx Query
BI Client
BEx Query
Classic InfoSet
Multi
InfoSets InfoCube
Provider
Transient DSO
Provider

Web Intelligence –
SAP NetWeaver BW connectivity


BI metadata feature SAP OLAP BAPI support level
Characteristics (incl. Time and Unit) InfoCube/BI Query
Hierarchies InfoCube/BI Query
Basic Key Figures InfoCube/BI Query
Navigational Attributes BI Query only
Display Attributes InfoCube/BI Query
Calculated Key Figures / Formulas BI Query only
Restricted Key Figures BI Query only
Custom Structures BI Query only
Variables BI Query only

SAP BI element Universe object
Dimension Class
Characteristic Subclass with dimension and detail objects
BI Query:
Subclass containing dimension and detail objects for each hierarchy level
in the currently defined hierarchy
Characteristic with hierarchy
BI InfoProvider:
Subclasses containing dimension and detail objects for each hierarchy level
for all hierarchies defined for the characteristic
Structure based on Characteristics (BEx Class with single dimension object for the structure
Queries only)
Navigational attribute Subclass with dimension and detail objects (identical to characteristic)
Display Attribute Detail object for the dimension
Measure object in the class for the Key Figure structure with dimension
Key Figure objects for units/currency, numeric value and formatted value (based on
User preferences)
Calculated Key Figure (BEx Queries only) Measure and dimension objects (same as Key Figure)
Restricted Key Figure (BEx Queries only) Measure and dimension objects (same as Key Figure)
Pre‐defined Filter in the Universe
Variables (BEx Queries only) In the class for the dimension to which the variable applies, two dimension
objects supporting the list of values, one for caption, one for description.
Key date variable (BEx Queries only) Universe parameters defining key date variable in the universe
Data Federator Universe or OLAP Universe?
BW Server Feature MDX SQL

BW Hierarchies

Restricted and Calculated Key Figures (calculated)
BEx Queries
BW Variables
Currency and Unit Conversion
Exceptions, Conditions
Security
AVG, COUNT, SUM, MIN, MAX Aggregations
Navigational Attributes
Mass Data Enabled
Ad-hoc Reporting
Federation (e.g. BW – RDBMS)
= fully supported
© SAP 2009 / Page 17
= limited support / workaround Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010
Data Federator Universe or OLAP Universe?
BW Server Feature Workaround
Calculated Key Figures, Formulas Define calculated measures in Universes / WebI
Define @prompt in Universes or WebI Query Panel; does not

BW Variables
work for exit variables or variables filled through authorizations
Currency and Unit Conversion Simulate via joins in Data Federator
SQL standard aggregations (AVG, COUNT DISTINCT) available

Exception Aggregations
via Data Federator processing
Define joins (in DF) from InfoProvider to master data
Display Attributes
InfoProvider tables
Conditions Use filters on measures
BW Hierarchies No workaround
Non-Cumulative Key Figures No workaround
© SAP 2009 / Page 18 Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

BI Solution : Dashboarding / Visualization
Product : Xcelsius Enterprise
Provides rapid development of highly interactive

dashboards and data visualization through a flexible
and easy to use interface
Highly customizable visualizations and dashboards through easy-to-use, drag and drop interface
Easy-to-Use
Build Dashboards within weeks not months,
Leverage Flex to develop custom components and controls

Flexible
Free-form layering of visual controls
Deploy to a variety of formats including Portals, Business User desktop applications and
development IDE frameworks
Rapid Dashboards and Visualizations are compiled into flash format which is highly portable and widely
Development supported
Deploy within minutes
Leverage investment in SAP BusinessObjects and SAP NetWeaver with specific data connectivity
options
SAP & Non-SAP Open connectivity options through web service and XML connectors
Data Sources Enable real-time dashboard updates through leveraging of Adobe Live cycle Data Services
connectivity
Extensible connectors
•New visual components

o Spark lines, bullet chart,
scorecard, canvas container
•New features
o Data range slider
o Chart data labels
o Dynamically set color
o Load default scenarios
o List Builder default selection
o Trend Analyzer forecasting
o Multi indicator gauges
o Show/hide series
o Data Range selection



Direct connector to SAP NetWeaver BEx

queries
SAP NetWeaver Portal
o Consume BEx Queries and Views
Xcelsius
o Support of all variable type (incl. personalization)
o No limitations in query features used
o BW authorization enforced
o Free characteristics list of values for filtering
BI Consumer Services
NetWeaver platform integration BEx Queries and Views
o Dashboard authorization
o Transport capability (integrated into DW workbench)
o Translation of texts
o Access through NW Portal iView
o Does not require BOE
o Enable low TCO with simple architecture

Xcelsius
Live Office
Crystal Reports Web Intelligence Query as a Web Service
SAP Table,
SAP InfoSet Cluster and ODS BW MDX Data Federator OLAP Universe
Function
SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW
BEx Query
BI Client
InfoProvider
BEx Query
Table
Classic SAP ABAP InfoSet
and
InfoSets Queries Functions
Cluster
Multi
Transient InfoCube DSO
Provider
Provider

BI Solution: Data Search and Exploration
Product : SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer brings together the high performance in-
memory capabilities of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator with an intuitive front-
end interface for search and exploration.
Designed for high data volumes (retail, utilities, banking etc.)
Leveraging SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator
Performance
Scalable blade server platform
Highly consistent and predictable response time
Combined with SAP BusinessObjects Open Accelerator allows exploration of SAP and non-SAP
SAP & Non-SAP datasources
Environments Enables cross data source search of all corporate data
Users are able to upload Excel spreadsheets to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in the cloud or on
Time for premise to start the data exploration
Development SAP BusinessObjects Explorer leverages existing infrastructure from SAP BusinessObjects
Enterprise and SAP NetWeaver BWA
Bring BI to more business users with SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

New Get new insight into your business
Business Instant answers to “on-the-fly” questions without annoying time delays
Scenarios Intuitive interfaces with familiar ‘common language’ workflows
Users can search and explore large volumes of enterprise data to discover relationships and
uncover root cause
What Is Explorer? It’s Search Against BI…
Use familiar key-word search to

find business information
Answers “on-the-fly” and
investigative questions
Searches directly on
pre-indexed data
No previous reports or metrics
need exist
Provides fast search and
exploration
Searches across all data sources

Any universe accessible source
Any Accelerator accessible source

…and Then It’s Exploration Of the Results
Intuitively explore on data

No data model or data knowledge
required Web or Mobile
Automated relevancy of results

Most relevant information is
displayed first Best chart type
auto generated
Share insights with others

Export to CSV or image Save it
locally as a browser bookmark
One-click send to email

Search
Search Explore
Explore
Visualize
Visualize Share
Share

SBO Explorer (blade) 2.0

SUSE Linux blades running the user application
SAP BW Accelerator 7.20

SUSE Linux blades running the back-end data engine
SBO Data Services

SUSE Linux blades loading any data into the accelerator


SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
Relational Universe
OLAP Universe
(SQL)
Data Federator
SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW SAP NetWeaver BWA
BEx Query
BI Client
InfoProvider
BEx Query
Classic
InfoSets InfoSet
Multi BW Accelerator
InfoCube DSO
Transient Provider
Provider

Multi-provider indexing and exploration:

o Natively index common MultiProviders
▫ Index once for Explorer and BW use cases
▫ Delta-loading capability
o Snapshot indexing of complex MultiProviders
▫ Such as those that refer to DataStore Objects and InfoObjects
▫ Support for MultiProviders with compounded characteristics across
InfoCubes (compound father in one InfoCube, child in another)
Query indexing and exploration
o Explorer can now be used to explore existing (or new) Queries
▫ Quickly index your existing Queries for Explorer and have your users
exploring them almost immediately
o Snapshot indexing of Queries
▫ Ability to leverage query features such as complex unit conversions

Business Intelligence Green Fields
Common Risks
No common terminology, will only know No prior experience with BI tools

SAP terms • Hard to get beyond operational/regulatory
What is the meaning of “report”, “BI”, reporting
“dashboards” • Lots of customer education required, lack of
Dimension vs. Characteristic product knowledge
Measure vs. Key Figure • Clarification of key business intelligence concepts
are likely to be necessary
• Tendency to put the data source central, rather
than the end user report
Expectation that Web Intelligence Assumption we just connect up to

should replace BEx Analyzer existing BEx Queries
• Lack of product knowledge • Product may not support all elements of the
• Misunderstanding of product portfolio and existing BEx queries well
roadmap • Violates the BI principle of working backwards
• SAP doesn’t dictate moving all your analysts off from report requirements
BEx Analyzer at all • BEx queries need to be purpose-built, tuned, and
• Web Intelligence is not an OLAP interface potentially aggregation added
• Confusion of intended audience

The “Business Intelligence” Approach
The concrete example is for OLAP Universes, but the practice is equivalent for other
tools. Only difference with relational RDBMS is BEx/InfoCube instead of database
structure
Reports BEx Queries Reports
Universes BEx Queries InfoCube
Dashboards Universes Dashboards
• requirements • identify subject • Identify data • If data for a • Develop the • Develop
gathering areas elements query is not yet BEx query required
• end User • define required needed for in the cube, • Test the BEx reports
interviews data elements universe in BEx change the query • Develop
• Purpose-build cube to support required
• vision, strategy • evaluate ad- • Generate the
the BEx query, the required dashboards
and purpose hoc OLAP universe
bearing in mind query, universe
• visual layout requirements • Hide • Test reports
BOE supported and reports
• mockups • Prioritize ease- inappropriate • Test
product • Consider
of-use/ objects dashboards
• navigation features whether going
maintenance or • Test universe
• folder structure • Consider directly against
performance
adding an InfoCube or
• Access rights
aggregation MultiProvider is
desirable
• Tune the query

SAP NetWeaver EhP1 as THE foundation for all new BI Solutions
The first shown integration Improvements between SAP and SAP

BusinessObjects Products are realized with the release of NetWeaver EhP1 and
further.
NetWeaver EhP1 is the prerequisite for the following SAP BI Solutions:
Better Support for Web Intelligence via OLAP Universes,

Improved MDX Interface,
Direct Access to BW 7.01 via SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator
BPC based on NetWeaver 7.0 EhP1,
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer version 1.0 and 2.0,
Native access of SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius via BICS

OLAP Universe and BEx Query Design
Hierarchies Key Figures

• Hierarchy support in Web Intelligence for BW is • A large number of Key Figures in the BEx query
limited will incur a significant performance penalty when
• Use of hierarchy variable is recommended running queries, regardless of whether the Key
Figures are included in the Universe or used in the
• The Use Query Drill option in WebI significantly
Webi query.
improves drill down performance
• For large sets of key figures, use option - “Use
Selection of Structure Members”
Restricted and Calculated Key Figures Navigational Attributes and Key Dates
• Restricted and Calculated Key figures should be • A large number of navigational attributes defined
built as part of the underlying BEx query to use the in the underlying InfoProvider negatively impacts
BW back-end processing for better performance overall performance
• Queries with a larger set of such Key Figures • A single universe can only support a single Key
should use the “Use Selection of Structure Date variable
Members” option in the Query Monitor (transaction
RSRT) to leverage the OLAP engine

Meta-data mapping in OLAP Universes
Overall recommendation
¾ BI Queries are recommended as data sources for generating universes for the
following reasons:
¾ BI Queries offer a flexible extension to the data modeling environment and
require less effort to change than InfoCubes
¾ BI Queries offer significant functionality to create customized data sources that
meet end-user requirements, such as Calculated & Restricted Key figures and
SAP Variables.
¾ You do not need a BI Query for every report and you do not need a universe for
every BI Query.
¾ Focus the implementation strategy on limiting the number of BI Queries and
universes that share common elements
¾ DO NOT build one query per InfoProvider because elements can add
processing time even though you not using them into the Web Intelligence
report
¾ Build a small set of queries focusing on sharing common elements in a small
number of universes
Meta-data mapping in OLAP Universes
Consider splitting up the large Queries & Universes into

smaller ones
Depending on # of objects (Dimensions & Measures) utilized per report, it
might make sense to find common groupings of objects to service particular
Web Intelligence Reports
Grouped by Commonality
Group A Group B = WebI
Report
Measures
Group C Group D
Dimensions Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

SAP Variables and Web Intelligence filter
SAP Variables in Web Intelligence
¾Mandatory variables will always load a list of values (try to leverage more optional
variables)
¾Leverage the Delegated Search feature for List of values
Web Intelligence filters

¾Prefer the inclusive filter over the exclusive member to increase the performance
¾Ensure the reference objects are indexed to avoid unnecessary steps to resolve
the value to the member unique name
¾Ensure the user can only select values from the actual LOV (List of values)

SAP Variables and Web Intelligence filter
Delegated search for List of Values (LOV)
¾ Navigate to the tab “Properties” in the Universe Designer of the LOV items
¾ Activate the “Delegate Search”
¾ No values will be loaded automatically
¾ User is “forced” to leverage search to receive members
¾ Search is being delegated to the SAP BI system

“Use Selection of Structure Elements” Query
Property in RSRT
This simple property
change helps improve
performance in
situations where there
are a lot of Restricted
Key Figures and other
calculations in the
Query Definition
If you analyze
performance of the
query and find very
high EVENTID 3200
times, and/or the
FEMS number is very
high try enabling this
property and check
performance
This ensures that
structure elements are
sent to the database
for processing

Recommendations for BEx Query
Design
¾ Check the Query Technical Information via transaction RSRT to review the
statistics on the design
BEFORE AFTER

Xcelcius best practices
Design considerations Xcelcius w/ BICS

Start from the business needs. What decision Consider if all data reside in BW
should this support? What KPIs should it display? Business needs highly visual and interactive
What visual components best represent the data? dashboard interface
How will the user interact with the data? Other reporting tools are used, integration with
Keep it simple! other SAP BusinessObjects products is not
needed
Performances and Interactivity

Use Live Office based on scheduled Crystal
Reports where live data is not needed
Limit result sets to 2,000 rows maximum
Highly aggregated data
Execute cascaded prompts and queries
Reduce # of key figures in the universe
Avoid aggregating in flash, aggregate in BW

Questions
How to contact me…
Ingo Hilgefort
SAP BusinessObjects (Canada)
eMail: Ingo.Hilgefort@sap.com


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Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

SAP BusinessObjects BI Tools

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Is the market leading standard in enterprise reporting that

 The SAP standard enterprise reporting tool for all applications

 Precise object layout and positioning

Open  Access to both SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP data

 Sort and filter without querying the database

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Crystal Reports is the market leading tool for

© SAP 2008 / Page 5 Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Self-service ad hoc analysis and reporting enabling

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Filter possibilities exposed

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Enables consumers to progressively explore details

Enables power users to repurpose complex report content

OLAP universe (MDX) Relational Universe (SQL)

SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

BW Server Feature MDX SQL

Currency and Unit Conversion  

BW Server Feature Workaround

Calculated Key Figures, Formulas Define calculated measures in Universes / WebI

Define @prompt in Universes or WebI Query Panel; does not

Currency and Unit Conversion Simulate via joins in Data Federator

SQL standard aggregations (AVG, COUNT DISTINCT) available

Conditions Use filters on measures

Non-Cumulative Key Figures No workaround

© SAP 2009 / Page 18 Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Provides rapid development of highly interactive

 Leverage Flex to develop custom components and controls

•New visual components

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

 Direct connector to SAP NetWeaver BEx

 NetWeaver platform integration BEx Queries and Views

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Crystal Reports Web Intelligence Query as a Web Service

SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

 Bring BI to more business users with SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Use familiar key-word search to

Searches across all data sources

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Intuitively explore on data

Automated relevancy of results

Share insights with others

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

SBO Explorer (blade) 2.0

SAP BW Accelerator 7.20

SBO Data Services

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

Mastering SAP BusinessObjects 2010

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP ERP SAP NetWeaver BW SAP NetWeaver BWA

The SAP standard enterprise reporting tool for all applications

Precise object layout and positioning

Open Access to both SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP data

Sort and filter without querying the database

Currency and Unit Conversion

Leverage Flex to develop custom components and controls

Direct connector to SAP NetWeaver BEx

NetWeaver platform integration BEx Queries and Views

Bring BI to more business users with SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Multi-provider indexing and exploration:

The first shown integration Improvements between SAP and SAP

Better Support for Web Intelligence via OLAP Universes,

Consider splitting up the large Queries & Universes into