SAP BW 7.

0 Overview of the SAP BI System

SAP BI OVERVIEW

Information-Based Management

Business Information Warehouse Architecture.

SAP BW enables Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) for staging information from large amounts of operative and historical data. OLAP technology permits multidimensional analyses according to various business perspectives (slice and dice).

SAP BI Architecture SAP BW includes three layers:

the Business Explorer used for reporting purposes, the BW Server (Data Warehouse) which houses the different types of data used for reporting, and the Source System Layer, which is the SAP system used daily for entering, changing, and saving data.

A data warehouse system serves primarily to stage information from various data sources. The information is staged in various forms including personalized reports, freely definable queries, and predefined reports.

What is an InfoObject
InfoObjects are the smallest information units in BW. InfoObjects are divided into Characteristics and Key Figures

INFOOBJECTS

Characteristics
Sold to Party Cost Center Cost Element Plant Storage Location Telephone Number

Key Figures
Sales Revenue Costs Quantities Profit margins Incoming Orders

What is an InfoProvider
An InfoProvider is an object for which queries can be created or executed in Bex. They are arranged in hierarchical InfoAreas on the Administrator Workbench. InfoProviders that physical contain data, are also called data targets. They include: InfoCubes ODS Objects InfoObjects Other InfrProviders are MultiProviders InfoSets

InfoCubes
The central data containers that form the basis for reports and analyses in SAP BW. They contain key figures (sales volumes, incoming orders, actual costs, and so on) and a link to the characteristics (that is, to the master data of the SAP BW system [cost centers, customers, materials, and so on]).

MultiProviders
Multiproviders combine data from of all types of InfoProviders (InfoCubes, ODS Objects, InfoObjects and InfoSets. They do not store the data, but access the data from the underlying InfoProviders.

Different types of Users

Users

Query Developers: Develops and generate queries in the BW Development environment, which will eventually get transported to Production to be shared by a group of users. Experienced (Power) Users: These users have the ability to generate their own queries for adhoc reporting in BW production. End Users: Most of our users will be using the Bex-Web. They can only use queries that are assigned to a role they are assigned to.

Role Functionality

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Business Information Warehouse Architecture.

SAP BW enables Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) for staging information from large amounts of operative and historical data.

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The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know. Michel Legrand

Andrea Robinson

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