© 2006 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build management cockpits your users will adopt

© 2006 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build

management cockpits your users will adopt

Bjarne BergMyITgroup

Ltd.

Deepu SashideranMyITgroup Ltd.

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What We’ll Cover …Get expert advice for how to evaluate the many options SAP offers for building Web-delivered management cockpits. This session advises you how to choose the right option based on usability considerations.

Determine if, when, and how you should leverage SAP SEM Corporate Performance Monitor (CPM) prebuilt Web templates to accelerate cockpit development and delivery.

Identify the drawbacks of this approach, such as rigid navigation paths, and evaluate whether they could potentially hamper user adoption.

Get expert advice for how to feed your CPM cockpit with disbursed data from multiple sources for more meaningful analytics.

Examine the option of using custom iViews to build cockpits directly in SAP NetWeaver Portal. Find out why this may be the right choice for displaying static information, and why running interactive SAP BW reports and analytics directly from the portal may cause performance problems that frustrate users and decrease adoption of the cockpit.

Discern when it makes sense to build your own management cockpits from scratch with SAP BW Web Application Designer. Obtain guidelines to maximize the usability of your cockpit — e.g., why you should not include more than seven items in one pane, and why drill-down data should never be more than two clicks away. Get a glimpse into how SAP Visual Composer can be used to create management Take home a comprehensive decision matrix for how to choose the right cockpit development method, as well as detailed examples of good and bad management cockpits

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What We’ll Cover …

• Background and terminology

•Tool options – pros and consSEM Corporate Performance Monitor – CPM (old name)Web Application DesignerVisual Composer & demoPublishing to the portalCustom cockpits (JSP/BSP)3rd Party Cockpits

What makes a good cockpit?• Which tool is right for me?• Wrap up

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Web Application Designer

• Web Application Designer can be used for creating web based applications using BW query data.

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BW 3.X Web Application Designer

• BW 3.X based Web Application Designer (WAD) provides drag and drop functionalities for creating BW Web templates.

• WAD can be used for creating BW Web Applications integrating data from multiple BW queries.

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• Standard Web Items are available for creating BW Web Templates with minimal coding. Charts Tables Dropdown boxes Navigation Block Check box

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• To enhance standard functionalities WAD provides ability to write custom JavaScript functions, customer specific style sheets (CSS), ABAP Classes for Table Interface and use of BSP applications.

• JavaScript functions can be written in the template or can be stored in Mime Repository (SE80) and shared within multiple templates.

• For example JavaScript and BSP can be used in BW Web templates to provide functionality for saving BW bookmarks to user favorites.

• External HTML Editor (Dreamweaver, Home Studio etc.) can be used for formatting BW Web templates. WAD provides functionalities for downloading and uploading BW Web Templates.

Great

Feature

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• BW Web Applications can be directly published to Portal Content Catalog from WAD “Publish” menu.

Portal and BI system connection should be set up for direct publishing of BW Web Applications. Please refer appendix for more information on setting up Portal connection

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NW 2004s Web Application Designer

• New tool in BI NW 2004s for designing BI Web Applications.• Reduces the amount of custom coding required with the

help of Command wizards, Auto complete and support for HTML tags.

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• New features includes the following. Web Items - Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (NW 2004s SPS7) Drag and Drop using Analysis item New Chart Types (Heat Map, GANTT & Milestone Trend Analysis) Export BI Web Applications in PDF format Command Wizard for generating Web API Commands Integration with NW 2004s BEx Report Designer for formatted reports.

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• BI Web API commands can be used for carrying out certain actions in BI Web Applications. Export to Excel, PDF etc. OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove Drilldowns.

• Command Wizards guides you through the steps for creating a BI Web API command.

• Commands are grouped together for easy access. Data Provider Web Items Web Templates

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• Command Wizard can be used for generating JavaScript code for the Script Item to use in custom dashboard applications.

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• Provides the options for Personalizing BI query variables. • Ability to Bookmark the navigational state of the BI Web application.• Multidimensional analysis of BI query data.• Ability for user to create Exceptions and Conditions on BI Query data.

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• BI Web Applications can be directly published to Portal Content Catalog using the “Publish” option from Web Application Designer.

Portal and BI system connection should be set up as per OSS note 917950.

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• Information Broadcaster can be used to Broadcast the BI Web Applications to Enterprise Portal KM folders and via Email in various format (PDF,MHTML,HTML etc.).

• Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.X) can be used for pre-calculating BI Web Applications for enhancing performance.

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NW 2004s Visual Composer

•Visual Composer is a Web based modeling tool.•Visual Composer can be used for SAP EP Content development with no coding.•Can be used for integrated view of OLTP and OLAP data sources.

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•No coding required for creating great looking analytical applications.•Pre-built Analytic Business Packages.

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•Delivered as part of NW 2004s EP Usage Type (SPS8 and above).•Different options available for rendering VC output

FlashWebDynpro (HTML)

•Flash provides high-end visualization of Visual Composer Models.

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• Can be used for integrating data from multiple data sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems into one single model. Different options available for data access include. BI KIT RFC Web Services

• BI Kit allows access to the following Data Sources SAP BI NW 2004 (3.5 SP14) and NW 2004s JDBC XMLA

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• BI Queries and Views can be used as data providers for Visual Composer models.

• BI Query functionalities for Exceptions, Variables etc. can be used along with Visual Composer models.

• Visual Composer design time allows access to BI history, favorites and roles.

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• Allows integration with BW Web Application Designer based application using the Portal Eventing Framework.

• For example a filter value can be passed from the BEx Web Application using BW Web API to the Visual Composer and vice-versa.

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• Visual Composer Design time allows direct deployment of Visual Composer Models as iViews to Portal Content Catalog.

• Visual Composer iViews can be then used in Portal Pages, Roles etc.

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3rd Party Cockpits

Some “best-of-breed” cockpit tools incorporate SAP BI as part of being a web item provider, or more commonly through BW queries served up by BAPIs or ODBO in BW.

Some even provides separate MOLAP solutions that is tighly connected to SAP BW (hint: reading RS_ tables inside BW)

MicroSoft Cognos

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3rd Party Cockpits

Other BI and cockpit companies, such as Corda, are activly working on creating cockpits tools for SAP BI.

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•Tool options – pros and consSEM Corporate Performance Monitor – CPM (old name)Web Application DesignerVisual ComposerPublishing to the portalCustom cockpits (JSP/BSP)3rd Party Cockpits


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Tool Comparison

BW 3.X WAD BI NW 2004s WAD Visual Composer SEM

Multidimensional Analysis - -

Portal Integration

Information Broadcaster - -

Formatted Reporting - - -

Automatic Code Generation - -

Direct Support for Non BW Data - - -

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Resources

• SAP Online HelpBW and EP Integration

ohttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/a3/7b583c2439e66fe10000000a114084/content.htm

• SDN BW How to GuidesHow to integrate Visual Composer applications and BEx Web

templates ohttps://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/ad182ac7-0a01-0010-4fb8-8a4d217b19c1

• BW Expert online Create Unparalleled Analytical Applications with SAP NetWeaver BI,

Visual Composer, and Macromedia Flexohttp://www.bwexpertonline.com/archive//what%20is%20this%20_Volume_04_(2006)/Issue_01_(January)/V4I1A4.cfm?session=

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7 Key Points to Take Home

• Is it

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Your Turn!

How to Contact UsBjarne Berg Deepu [email protected] [email protected]

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© 2006 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build management cockpits your users will adopt