Best Practices: Converting BW Reporting to Business Objects 4.0

Tom Wolniewicz

Agenda

• Introductions • BW BEx Reporting overview • Choosing the right Reporting Tool • Features and Differences between BEx Reports and WEBI • Business Objects 4.0 – New standard for BI • Crystal Report BW Query Options • WEBI BW Query Options • Dashboards (Xcelsius) Query Options • Business Objects Analyis • Authentication and Security • Lifecycle Management and BW • References • Q&A

Introductions

• Tom Wolniewicz, Senior BI / DW Solutions Architect, BroadstreetData

• 12 Years of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing experience • Designed and Architected BW Reporting Solutions • Enterprise Architecture Design and Deployment in very large user-base (excess

of 6000+ users) environments • SDK Administration automation, audit and customization development in JAVA

and .NET

BW BEx Reporting Overview

• In the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW), BEx (Business Explorer) is the reporting tool used to work with data in the BW database.

• BEx has a Web-based user interface and is made up of two components: • BEx Browser • BEx Analyzer

• BEx Query Designer is a Desktop tool for creating BEx Queries

BW BEx Reporting Overview

Choosing the right Reporting Tool

• Crystal Reports • Web Intelligence • Dashboards (Xcelsius) • BusinessObjects Analysis

Features and Differences between BEx Reports and WEBI

• Standard Reporting Functionality such as the following is

supported by both tools although done in different ways:

– Row totals / Subtotals – Text Variable – Exceptions or Alerting – Multiple tabs – Broadcasting or Scheduling – Drill down – Downloading reports – Applying Filters

Features and Differences between BEx Reports and WEBI

• WEBI offers more advanced Ad-hoc reporting capabilities with

Drag-and-drop capability and a more streamlined user experience

• WEBI is web browser based, BEx advanced features are available on the desktop only

• WEBI has more advanced formula/variable definition capability • WEBI has the ability to link to other reports • WEBI has interactive graphing capabilities and drill-down • WEBI allows for document sharing (send-to-inbox), change

tracking and annotations.

Features and Differences between BEx Reports and WEBI

• BEx has native portal and SAP Web GUI integration • BEx relies only on SAP security • BEx has limited formatting and display capabilities • BEx is not ideal for dashboards or formatted reporting; as well

as Adhoc reports requiring high levels of interactivity.

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

• New Features:

– New user experience and productivity features found in BI Launch Pad (formerly InfoView) and BI Workspace (formerly Dashboard Viewer)

– Reusability of Web Intelligence reports and sharing features – Dimensional data handling capability, navigation and multisource universe

support – Entirely new charting library brings gorgeous visualizations to Web

Intelligence – Interoperability with SBO Analysis allows for fast, online OLAP analysis in

SBO Analysis, and then formatting and ad-hoc query in Web Intelligence – Much better understanding of the data via the new data manager

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

• SAP Business Objects 4.0 features new and improved BW Reporting integration

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

• BICS – Business Intelligence Consumer Services.

• This layer allows for easier connections to SAP’s front-end BI

tools, such as SAP Crystal Reports, Dashboards and Web Intelligence, that replace the BEx front-end tools such as Report Designer.

• About 300% Performance improvement compared to XI 3.1 SAP integration kit – BW reports.

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

• Direct dimensional access to your BEx Queries and BW Cubes

– NO need to create a Universe – Support of hierarchies and dimensional metadata

• Hierarchical query panel – Member selector – Hierarchical navigation – Member functions

• Hierarchical report output – Hierarchical columns – Fold unfold – Level totals – Hierarchical graphics – Multi-data provider synchronization – Hierarchical formulas on report

Business Objects 4.0 New standard for BI

• Information Design Tool (NEW to 4.0) creates UNX (Universes)

allowing multi-connectivity to different sources presently not including BICS

Crystal Report BW Query Options

• Crystal has four ways of connecting to SAP Data Sources

– Using MDX Driver to connect directly to BW Cubes and Queries – Using ODS Driver to connect to your BW Operational Data Store and query ODS

objects – Using the InfoSet driver to query SAP infosets and ABAP queries. – Using classic Universe (UNV) created in Universe Designer tool

• One advantage of these drivers is that they allow business users to

report off predefined views of your SAP data. Tables and fields are first logically grouped by an SAP content expert into queries, InfoSets, and so on. You then make these data sources accessible to users who are designing reports with Crystal Reports.

Web Intelligence BW Query Options

• WEBI uses BICS as a datasource to directly connect to BW Cube or Query • Can also uses a Universe (UNV) created in the Universe Design tool • Can also use a Universe (UNX) created in the Information Design tool

SAP Dashboards BW Query Options

• Can also be pointed directly at BW via BICS

• SAP Dashboards (Xcelsius) also integrates

directly to new Generation of Universes (UNX) and has a new Universe Object Browser component simplifying the Query Panel.

• New Xcelsius Processing Server and Cache server components streamline and optimize dashboard performance

BusinessObjects Analysis BW Query Options

• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis (formerly Voyager) can connect to

BW Cubes for OLAP Analysis (WEB and Excel versions) via BICS

Authentication and Security • SAP Solution Manager integrates with SAP BusienssObjects 4.0 • SAP Security is integrated with BusinessObjects Entrprise

authentication via Aliases • Pass-through security is then utilized for BW Data sources

passing the SAP credentials • Content and functional security for various reporting tools is

maintained within the Central Management Console (CMC)

Lifecycle Management and BW Reporting

• The Change and Transport System (CTS) is a tool that helps you

organize development projects in the ABAP Workbench. It can also be used to customize and transport the changes between the SAP systems and your system landscapes.

• The Command Line option of the Lifecycle Management Console enables you to promote objects through command line input from one SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system to another SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

Lifecycle Management and BW Reporting

• The Lifecycle Management Console tool supports the following job

promotions through the command line option:

• Export an existing Lifecycle Management Console job template • Promote with existing Lifecycle Management Console job template • Promote an existing LCMBIAR • Export single/multiple platform queries • Promote multiple platform queries

References • SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0 Master Guide

http://www.odesia.com/docs/BOXI_r4_new_release_docs/xi4_bip_master_en.pdf

• SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Web Services Administrator's Guide http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_wssdk_admin_en.pdf

• SAP Crystal Reports 2011 Users Guide http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/CR2011/en/xi4_cr_usergde_en.pdf

• SAP BW vs. SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Functionalities (XI 3.1) http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/20526a7e-c629-2d10-828f-d0edbf081dae?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true

Q&A

Thank You!