Dr. Bjarne Berg Lenoir-Rhyne College

Dr. Bjarne Berg Lenoir-Rhyne College
Access the easy, quality and performance of your SAP BW based reporting activities Dr. Bjarne Berg Lenoir-Rhyne College

What We’ll Cover Overview – BEx, Query designer, WAD, APD, Crystal, Broadcaster & Visual composer How to fix some issues in BW reporting Picking the right methodology for your next BW project Report dispositioning – BW Vs. R/3 and what tool to use Use of standard content Skills needed on your project Wrap up

This Conference Focus on the Presentation tools
The BW Toolset BW is an enterprise-wide comprehensive decision support (DSS) system for analytical needs of an enterprise. BW can also support some degree of operational reporting Therefore it has many presentation tools and options for companies to leverage. This Conference Focus on the Presentation tools

BEx what is it? BEx is the 'umbrella name' for many of the presentation tools in BW. Therefore you will notice the tool names are often pre-fixed with names such as BEx Broadcaster, BEx Query Designer and BEx workbooks etc.

The BEx Query Designer The BEx query designer is a simple tool that you use to develop queries for users. While the Query Designer defined the query, you have many options on how you deploy the queries You can deploy the queries through web templates, broadcasted s, portals, Excel and more.

The BEx Ad-Hoc Query Designer
A simplified version of the BEx query designer is the "ad-hoc query designer". This is a powerful tool that can be used by power users to define their own queries. It can be made available through a BW web template as well as directly in the SAP Enterprise Portal

To use this tool you need BEx/GUI installed on each client machine
BEx - Workbooks 1. BEx Workbooks is Excel 'on steroids'. 2. BW queries can be opened in Excel 3. Queries can be refreshed and standard Excel functions can be used This is a great tool for financial analysts and power users. To use this tool you need BEx/GUI installed on each client machine

BEx web reports The most common way of deploying BW queries are through a standard, or customized web template with built-in navigational features. BW provides a global web template that can be enhanced with logos, colors, fonts and additional features at a low cost of development and ownership.

BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)
BEx Analyzer/ Query Designer BEx Web Application Designer Web Browser WAD is an intuitive tool to build powerful web applications and to interact with portals and custom templates. BW queries can be manipulated in WAD for better display OLAP Processor Web Service Charting Engine HTLM Templates InfoProvider Source: SAP AG

Web Application Designer for custom applications
You do not have to use the SAP Enterprise Portal to use WAD. WAD can also incorporate other non-SAP web items into powerful cockpits and custom report centers. While WAD can be used by developers without extensive HTML and Java scripting knowledge, these skills will be useful on most projects.

Analysis Process Designer
Using the BW analytics toolkit, it is possible to build association data sets that can be fed back into the OLTP engine. The way to approach this by using a new functionality within SAP BW called APD (analysis process designer). This is a visual data processing composition engine that enables organization of data flows and updates into the OLTP database Images: Bhanu Gupta, ASUG 2005 Illinois chapter More on APD on day two at the 3:00 – 4:30 pm session

Crystal Report With BW you get access to Crystal reports. In fact you have 100+ pre-developed reports that comes with SAP-BW. Currently, you can modify, or develop and deploy 10 crystal reports without any additional licensing cost. Crystal is a great tool for batch reporting of "pixel controlled' formatted reports.

Different Needs and Broadcaster Tools
Reporting needs Reporting tools Flat Reporting Formatted Print Form based Static Predictable access OLAP Reporting Drill Down Slice and Dice Analyse Data Mining Search and discover KPI & Scorecard Formatted Simple Easy to view Limited nav Aggregates “Casual” users, non-BW users, traveling users, and executives are all prime candidates for broadcasted reports!

BEx Information Broadcasting
It’s a standard part of SAP BW 3.5 and higher It lets you send “reports”, i.e., BEx Queries Workbooks Web Applications To... addresses, BW users, BW roles SAP Enterprise Portal Knowledge Management folders SAP Enterprise Portal Collaboration Rooms You can define and deploy iViews based on the resulting KM / Collaboration documents, if you wish!

Scheduling the Broadcast
We can schedule the job to run every time the infocube is changed (the process chain has run) We can limit the users to when they can schedule jobs to avoid stress on the system. We can provide multiple pre-defined times when they can schedule the reports. We can also allow the users to create their own scheduling times (Only authorized users see this) More on SAP BEx Broadcasting later today!

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer
Visual Composer is a tool to visualize the data. It is a browser-based intuitive modeling and design tool for rapid application development and prototyping in a code-free development environment. Today Visual Composer supports both JSP and HTMLB; and has plans to also support Web Dynpro metadata as well. SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer You will see a demo of Visual Composer on day three at the 10:15 – 11:45 session

Modelling of BI Applications using Visual Composer
Modelling of BI Applications using the BI Kit of the Visual Composer Allows Business Users to create analytical content for SAP Enterprise Portal Offers the integration with BI InfoProviders (e.g. InfoCubes, BEx Queries and Query Views, BEx Web Applications) via WEB API as well as with heterogeneous data sources (including OLAP and relational data sources) via Java Connectors

Fundamental issues with BW reporting
Issue #1 – Query Performance Degradation Over Time Issue #2 – The Pain Associated with Changing Data Models Issue #3 – Remote Capabilities are very slow Issue #4 – Pre-Modeled Data Relationships Required Issue #5 - Managing Authorizations Issue #6 - Dealing with User Expectations Issue #7 – Data Reconciliation Issue #8 - Dealing with Data Integrity Issue #9 – Integrating Data Together in BW Issue #10 – Upgrades get really complicated Elevator Speech: Workforce planning is the process used to forecast our headcount and to meet our strategic plan. What's Changing? In May 2005, IP will globally implement a standardized, formal process for business groups to forecast their staffing needs. Tomorrow we will examine each of these issues in a focused session and see how you can solve each of them

General Issues with Business Warehouse Web Reporting
The pre-delivered BW’s web template does not always provide the functionality required. Currently lacking functionality includes: Creating favorites/bookmarks that can be accessed from any machine Printing fit to page, report info, data status, basic formatting Ability to search for reports within the end user roles Definitions of characteristics and key figures are not available Current web reports can not show repeat values of characteristics Online user help is not available in the web template No standard tool to target specific users about system status/changes On-line training is missing As a result, most customers enhanced the functionality of the web template using development tools such as HTML and Java Script, ABAP, WAD. Elevator Speech: Workforce planning is the process used to forecast our headcount and to meet our strategic plan. What's Changing? In May 2005, IP will globally implement a standardized, formal process for business groups to forecast their staffing needs.

Portal Integration - Issues
The portal takes “control” of the pages hosted by BW. This prohibits interaction between pages contained within the frameset by changing the document.domain property of the launched page The Solution Must be addressed on the frameset page Place this function in the frameset ONLOAD event Understanding Try/Catch : More on Cross Frame Scripting With IE :

Navigation Users often complain that they can not see all of the query names Creating a scroll feature allows users to increase the size of the role menu, or hide it.

Searching for a report Users are often frustrated when they have to search for a report they are unfamiliar with. The report may be hard to locate in a hierarchy of roles on the launch pad. Adding a search feature so that users can locate a set of similar reports, significantly reduces this frustration. The search feature can be added as a simple extension within a web template. Let's take a look….

Searching for BW queries
A regular windows icon is intuitive and easy to locate. This searches within any string of the report name, and all the folders you have access to. No TREX engine required, only a simple javascript that searches the SAP delivered role menu.

The Web Template and Toolbar
Rule: After the BW query has been launched users should interact with a standard interface that does not change depending on the query executed. This standardization is accomplished through the global BW web template. Hint: Use WAD to customize and enhance yours The web template should always include a toolbar that is customized for your company. In the next sections we will take a look at some standard BW toolbar functionality and how you can extend the web template to add more user features on the toolbar.

Web Print format The web printing feature of a web browser is very limited and users are normally very unhappy with it. In the early days of BW, companies frequently employed Crystal as their formatted reporting tool, even when the formatting was very basic. SAP now provides several ways to format the web reports. Many of these delivered objects can be extended to basic and advanced print formatting using standard web technologies and scripting languages. The next section demonstrates two ways incorporate formatted web printing in a BW web template.

Print format basic Users are generally very unhappy with browser based web printing… Again a simple JavaScript can leverage SAP objects so that basic formatted BW reports can be printed on the web.

Create your own “fit to page”...
Prompt the user for some basic choices Using these choices, construct a new table while inserting page breaks after N number of rows This process requires looping thru the query results, row by row, and copying the contents of that row to a new table. The # of rows generated before a new page is needed is determined by page layout and paper size. Loop with different font sizes until the result set fits the output format

Print format basics – how to get started
Copy of current data provider launched in template containing Data Table, Filter and Text Element web items Customized style sheet for printing Page Break between report and report details accomplished with PAGE-BREAK-BEFORE (CSS2) Page break text hidden print { } (CSS2) NOTE: If your query uses a modified table API class, add the following to your url : &MODIFY_CLASS=THE _NAME_OF_YOUR_CLASS More on CSS for Printing : More on CSS Media Types :

Create advanced print formatting
We will spend more time of fixed format reporting on day 2! A more experienced web programmer can also add advanced web print features that reduces the need for other formatted reporting tools. It also gives user's flexibility and increases the likelihood that the go-live is a success!!

Control the number of rows in the output
The default number of rows from SAP is 100, and this is often not enough for end users. This is not a standard BW feature, but the object you will need to call in a javascript is provided by SAP. NOTE: Train the users appropriately!! If they ask for 100,000 records it will take some time on any system…

Get Access to On-line Definitions
Users often ask what a certain field means or what how it was calculated. Adding on the context menu a link to a dictionary makes many users really happy!!! Characteristic, Key Figure and Query definitions stored on SQL Server table. Aliases used to extend match probability Context menu item added to basic menu Search results open in new window

Create your own BW Alerts Center
BW system messages reach entire user community. We needed to narrow that down to certain users via custom Query/InfoProvider messages

On-line help The user help is a must-have feature.
The development of the company specific help system can be done in tools such as front-page, MS-word, SAP-web application designer etc.. The trick to a good user help system is to present the information so that it is easy to locate. Therefore, you should add indexes, content trees and search features in the help system

A place holder A "place holder" allows users to create a separate window to "hold" a view of the information while exploring the data (standard BW feature). You can add these features to your toolbar. CSV format Workbooks (Excel) New Window

What We’ll Cover Overview – BEx, Query designer, WAD, APD, Crystal, Broadcaster & Visual composer How to fix some issues in BW reporting Picking the right methodology for your next BW project Report dispositioning – BW Vs. R/3 Use of standard content Skills needed on your project Wrap up

Business requirements
One of the first steps is to gather the right requirements. This is done in a variety of ways based on the methodology that the company employs. It is a complex process and involves a period: Discovery and Education, Formal communication, Reviews Final approvals. A BW implementation does not simply involve a series of black-and-white technical decisions; just because something is technically feasible does not mean it is wise or desirable from a business perspective. What user wanted How customer described it How analyst specified it How designer implemented it

What is ASAP? Most traditional methodologies such as ASAP are based on the System development Life Cycle (SDLC) approach. Under this approach, the two key strategic tasks are to: Completely define applications in the context of business requirements Select technology based on compatibility and organizational know-how. Under the ASAP, defining an enterprise's requirements as completely as possible is extremely important, because even modest changes in the applications' functions is assumed to cause dramatically changes to the resulting tactical choices. For ASAP, the longer the project duration, the more important the methodology is to keep the project on-track.

The SAP NetWeaver Workflow - ASAP
Create Functional Query specs Peer Review Complete? Structured walkthrough Approved? Develop queries Unit Testing Integration Testing System Testing No Yes Create Technical

Getting Functional Query and Reporting Specifications
Avoid creating a total inventory of all reports in the organization. The "top-5" (most used) sales, distribution, inventory etc. reports from each department will cover the vast majority of the reporting needs. Create structured interviews with individuals that have a stake in the outcome Avoid attempting to replicate each report based on what you might have in place today. Accept new ways of accessing data.

How can we do this Faster, Better and Simpler?
There are times when other methodologies should be used. What determines the best methodology to use, is the impact of failure and the time to delivery. ASAP and SDLC Methodologies are not the only choices. RAD is very popular as well. This framework illustrates the benefits of each methodology.

Using RAD to deliver your next BI effort faster & better
The RAD core idea: Traditional methodologies are too slow and rigid to meet the business demands of today’s economy. Your RAD teams should consist of about 6 people, including both developers and full-time users of the system plus anyone else who has a stake in the requirements. Developers chosen for RAD teams should be multi-talented "renaissance" people who are analysts, designers and programmers all rolled into one (Walter Maner) Prototypes Source: Dr T.H. Tse & Dr. Bjarne Berg Small integrated teams - focus on small parts of BW i.e. a set of infocubes, web reports or functional area.

How do you start your next BI effort using RAD?
Remember, RAD has an abbreviated blueprinting phase where meetings are executed in short succession to get the requirements. Most of the blueprinting and realization phase of the project are combined. The first meeting: a one or two days meeting with uninterrupted time Who: Power users, casual users, people who today interact with the current system and managers who have a stake in the outcome of the information system development. How many: A rapid pace is kept in these meetings and the number of attendees is kept at a manageable level, with typically no more than twenty people in attendance. Different Needs: The coordinators and business analysts will focus on shared information needs and conduct multiple sessions if needed.

WAD, APD and Visual Composer as RAD tools
The key idea of RAD with NetWeaver is the creation quick reports/queries that users are asked to jointly develop. In the beginning these are simply "mock-ups" with data that can be loaded from spreadsheet in a sandbox environment. As the sessions progresses, tools such as the SAP Query designer and the Web Application Designer is introduced and prototyping is done in each session with the users. Each RAD session is a working session, NOT a presentation session. Therefore, each session should therefore be at least 3-4 hours long (not at someone's cubicle). There should be at least 2-3 sessions each week to keep the work going forward…. Many critics of the ASAP have started to use tool such as the SAP query designer and the SAP web application designer as tools to do interactive prototyping with the users.

What We’ll Cover Overview – BEx, Query designer, WAD, APD, Crystal, Broadcaster & Visual composer Some issues in BW reporting Picking the right methodology for your next BW project Report dispositioning – BW Vs. R/3 and what tool to use Use of standard content Skills needed on your project Wrap up

Report Dispositioning BW Vs. R/3
Not all reports belong in BW. Avoid using BW as a "dumping group". Just because the report is not in BW does not mean it can not be in a portal or on the web. You need to make conscious decisions on what reporting needs you are going to need and how you want to accomplish this. Key questions for report dispositioning Is this really a reporting need or a "want"? Is the data going to be in BW at a frequency that solves the user's request (intraday)? Is the data needed for this report already in our BW scope? Are there already a report available in R/3 ? Does standard BW content exist? Is it less expensive to create in R/3? Are there a significant number of users? Is the reporting need resource intensive? Is BW cost effective in the long-run (ownership)?

Team starts by reviewing documentation tool for
An example on how to decide which reports should be in R/3 or the legacy system ) documentation completeness Review requirements and identify corresponding Data Model (InfoCube/ODS) D1 D1a Is report Yes Is this a true No Communicate to documentation reporting bus. leader complete? need Yes No D2 D2.5 D3 D4 Is this Does data exist Is the report an Intraday No in "in-scope" models No Significant number No system Request additional report? Infocube/ODS of users? resource intensive? No input from Business Team member Yes Yes Yes R/3 is selected as Reporting Tool R/3 is selected as and documented Reporting Tool A2 in doc. tool and documented Total Cost of Responsible Ownership Team member Analysis acquires/documents additional information R/3 is selected as Communicate final Reporting Tool disposition D8 No and documented Is BW cost in doc. tool Yes effective? D5 BW is selected as Does Reporting Tool Communicate final Yes Standard R/3 No and documented Yes disposition content in the documentation tool exist? D9 BW is selected as R/3 Tool D6 D7 reporting tool and Change Selection Does Is it less Communicate final Request is submitted if Process Standard BW No expensive to disposition the scope changed content create in exist? R/3? No Standard Report Yes Yes R/3 Writer BW is selected as R/3 is selected as BW is selected as Communicate final ABAP/ Query Other Reporting Tool and Reporting Tool Reporting Tool and disposition Custom documented in doc. and documented documented in doc. tool in doc. tool tool A3 Sub-Process Report Consolidation & Communicate final Communicate final Communicate final eliminate if appropriate (winnowing) disposition disposition disposition R/3 team make final disposition BW Team to forward completed detailed report specifications based on selected Reporting Tool - BW or R/3 A4 Baseline reports

Deciding which reporting tool is right for you
Workbooks Web reports Fixed format Web Applications Models Vizuali- zation Distrib- ution Query Designer - - - - /  *   Query tools - - - - /  - /  Ad-hoc query designer  - - - - /  - Web Application Designer   Web Tools Visual Composer - - /  - -    - /  - Analysis Process Designer - - -   Broadcaster -wizard - - - - - -  Bex Broadcaster - - - - - - Other tools  Crystal Reports - - - - /  -   * Through embedded Bex Broadcaster

The Blueprinting Phase: Leveraging Standard Content
As a guiding principle we map requirements to standard content before we start customizing. However, we may also have external data sources that require custom ODSs and InfoCubes. Some observations on higher level objects……. An example from a large manufacturing company BW Content available: InfoObjects 11,772 ODS objects 349 InfoCube 605 MultiCubes 121 Roles 861 Queries 3,299 Workbooks 1,979

The Blueprinting Phase: Modeling Your Solution
Storage Storage Requirements + BW InfoCubes Standard content Map functional requirements to the standard content before you make enhancements

Modeling Your Solution
1. Create a model based on pre-delivered BW content 2. Map your data requirements to the delivered content and identify gaps. 3. Identify where the data gaps are going to be sourced from.

4-5 team members and normally 3-6 months duration depending on scope
Example: small BW project for single subject area (i.e. billing, orders, deliveries) These are roles not positions. (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) Basis and functional R/3 support 4-5 team members and normally 3-6 months duration depending on scope

8-10 team members and normally 2-4 months duration depending on scope
Example: mid-sized BW project for single complex subject area (i.e. cost and profitability, internal billing). These are roles not positions. (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) Basis and functional R/3 support 8-10 team members and normally 2-4 months duration depending on scope

Example: large BW project, multiple subject areas (i. e
Example: large BW project, multiple subject areas (i.e. sales, finance and MM) These are roles not positions. (sometimes one team member can fill more than one role) Basis and functional R/3 support 15-25 team members and normally 6-18 months duration depending on scope

On-Boarding and Training
Don’t underestimate the value of in-house, hands-on training in addition to formal SAP training classes.

Tool Access – Who should do what…..
There are many options and decisions to be made on who should be able to access all the different tools. Power users Regular Authors Developers BW Admins Query Designer - - /  - /    Query tools - /  - /  Ad-hoc query designer    - - - Web Application Designer   Web Tools Visual Composer - - /     Analysis Process Designer - - -   Broadcaster -wizard      Bex Broadcaster - Other tools - /  - /    Crystal Reports - - /    

What We’ll Cover Overview – BEx, Query designer, WAD, APD, Crystal, Broadcaster & Visual composer Some issues in BW reporting Picking the right methodology for your next BW project Report dispositioning – BW Vs. R/3 and what tool to use Use of standard content Skills needed on your project Wrap up

7 points to take home Pick the right tools based on what you want to accomplish. “everything in the world is a nail, when you only have a hammer”… The basic web print features are not sufficient The BW tool set has evolved substantially over the last 2 years –have you? There are more than one way to continue BW development – take a serious look at RAD. On-line definitions on the context menu are very popular, but you will have to add this as an enhancement (not SAP standard) Today’s presentation developer is much more than a query developer. More than one skill set is needed. Leveraging standard content will give you access to higher level objects as well.

Resources SAP Project Management 2005 TechEd / ASUG- 2005 - Boston
Pick Your Poison – a look at methodologies for SAP NetWeaver” Bjarne Berg TechEd / ASUG Boston Session ID: IM100 – “Creating a Web Reporting Center at International Paper using SAP Business Information Warehouse” George Brothers and Bjarne Berg SAP.com “How To…Reconcile Data Between SAP Source Systems and SAP NetWeaver BI”, SAP June 2005 Web Template Enhancements: IFRAMES : Expressions: Getting Started with BSP Applications: CSS for Printing : CSS Media Types:

Director of Business Intelligence
Your Turn! Questions? Dr. Bjarne Berg Director of Business Intelligence MyITgroup Ltd.

Front-end Team Members – Role descriptions
Reference only Front-end Team Members – Role descriptions PRESENTATION DEVELOPERS The presentation developer is responsible for designing core reports for the functional area that they support. This includes reviewing business requirements, existing reports, and working with the BW developers to assure that the business requirements are supported in the cube and/or the ODS design, and creating template reports for user acceptance based on requirements. The presentation developer is also an individual who has a specific tool background. The developer may work on 3rd party presentation tools, WAD, Broadcaster and BEx Query designer. The developers must assure data security, user friendly reports, "drill-down" features, as well as a flexible design of data hierarchies and a logical and easy to use Graphical Unit Interface (GUI) for end-users. Finally, the developer must assure that the front-end tool provides all functionalities supported by the logical data model(s) and that the tool takes advantage of the physical database design features. The design work also includes a detailed description of each access point, the navigation of access points, as well as a detailed role description with association to the pertinent reports. The presentation developers also work with the portal developer to integrate roles with the existing roles in the web portal. PORTAL DEVELOPERS The developer in this position is responsible for the design and development of user roles for accessing the SAP BW environment. This includes the creation of security requirements for the user interface, BW role reconciliation, as well and integration of reporting help features, collection of external data for reporting purposes and the integration between BW reports and jump-points to the transactional system. The individual in this role is also responsible for the design and development of standard templates for reports delivered by the development teams, as well as the user acceptance process for these templates. In a SAP Portals environment, the individual is also responsible for the content management section of the portal and the configuration on the navigation bars and initial launch pad. The individual staffed in this technical position should have a strong reporting and design background from SAP BW as well as development knowledge of portals and the integration of standardized reporting environments. Prior industry experience would also be helpful. The individual must also have solid programming experience in HTML, Java and XML.

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