Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW1 Integrating 3 rd Party Tools with SAP Business Information

Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW 1

Integrating 3Integrating 3rdrd Party Party Tools withTools withSAP Business SAP Business Information WarehouseInformation Warehouse

Naeem HashmiChief Technology OfficerInformation Frameworks

Tel: 603-432-4550Cell: 603-661-6820

Email: [email protected]://infoframeworks.com

SAP GO-Live Call

April 11, 2002


Agenda

• Anatomy of BI Tools• Data Access Interfaces in SAP BW (Pro

and Cons)• 3rd Party Reporting Tools and SAP BW• Challenges in integrating 3rd Party tools

with BW• What SAP or 3rd party vendors can do to

address SAP BW Integration Issues• Q&A


Basic Components of 3rd Party BI Tools

• Tools provide several Data Management layers • Each layer impacts overall performance

Data Storage

DataAccess Interface


A Typical Data Access, Query/ Reporting and ETL Tool

DistributionDistributionEngineEngine


PresentationPresentationPresentationPresentation

MetadataMetadataMetadataMetadata

StructuredStructuredDataData


Un-StructuredUn-StructuredDataData


QueryQueryReportingReporting

OLAPOLAPMiningMiningEngineEngine



MostlyDatabaseOriented (SQL)

ETLETLEngineEngine

ETLETLEngineEngine


SAP BW Interfaces

SAP Portal

Source: SAP

SAP certifies 3rd Party

tools for individual

Interface/Version OleDB for OLAP

XML

OLAP BAPI

RRI InterfaceRFC,BAPISBAPI, TBAPI

ALE/TRFC

DB Connect


SAP R/3 & BW 3rd Party BI Tools - Interfaces

Data Storage



A Typical Data Access, Query and Reporting Tool



PresentationPresentationPresentationPresentation

MetadataMetadataMetadataMetadata









Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP” by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000

• Remote Function Calls (RFC)

• Business API ( BAPI)

No OLEDB for OLAP BAPIs for SAP R/3

• Database Level Access - ODBC, SQL*NET, etc.


Accessing SAP BW - ODBO/BAPI Interface

NOTE: Understand that in BW you never access the physical database when accessing through these APIs.

Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP” by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000

InfoCube

OLAP ENGINE

ODS ObjectMOLAP Cube

3rd Party Client Application

DATABASE SERVER

ODBO

Application Server

MDX

Dataset

Query Cubes


Comparing Data Access Performance

Source: Business Information Warehouse for SAP, Naeem Hashmi, Prima 2000

3rd Party OleDB for OLAP Certified Tool -- BEX -- InfoSet Query


3rd Party BI Vendors/Tools BW

• Arcplan• Brio Technologies• Business Objects• Cognos• Crystal Decisions • Information Builders • PolyVista


3rd Party BI products and their Usage

BWR/3

ArcPlan

Vendor Product

BrioBusiness ObjectsCognos

dynaSightBrio.Report, BrioQueryBusQuery, WebIntell.PowerPlay, Visualizer

BW

XX

X

XXX

Comshare Decision XCrystal Decisions

Enterprise, Analysis

R/3Vendor Product

IBI WebFOCUSMIS Alea,

OnVisionSAS Enterprise GuideViador E-Portal Suite

ESRI Connect XXXXX

X X PolyVistaPolyVista

Product and Intended Audience

MANAGEMENT

ArcPlan dynaSight Cognos Visualizer

Comshare DecisionPolyVista

MANAGEMENT

ArcPlan dynaSight Cognos Visualizer

Comshare DecisionPolyVista

ANALYST

Business ObjectsBusinessQuery

Cognos PowerPlayCrystal Analysis

PolyVista

ANALYST

Business ObjectsBusinessQuery

Cognos PowerPlayCrystal Analysis

PolyVista

POWER USERS

Crystal Enterprise IBI WebFOCUS

MIS Alea, SAS Enterprise Guide

PolyVista

POWER USERS

Crystal Enterprise IBI WebFOCUS

MIS Alea, SAS Enterprise Guide

PolyVista

INDIVIDUAL

Brio.ReportCrystal Enterprise

IBI

INDIVIDUAL

Brio.ReportCrystal Enterprise

IBI

PRODUCTION

Crystal EnterpriseIBI

PRODUCTION

Crystal EnterpriseIBI

Vendors and Products


Reporting Tool Profile: ArcPlan

• Company:– Langenfeld, Germany-based company known for its EIS and custom development

environment

• Products:– dynaSight, inSight

• Certification:– BW-ODB 1.2 – inSight 2.35– BW-ODB 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0– BW-OBI 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0

• Strengths:– Custom application development for building specialized views of information– Multiple integration points with SAP R/3 BAPIs and SAP BW ODBO– Application integration with SAP SEM for write-back and SAP R/3 via RFC (NC*)

• Weaknesses:– No production reporting or out-of-the-box tool for business users– Small company size and low visibility in North America

* NC = Not Certified

BW20.SCM


Reporting Tool Profile: Brio Technology

• Company:– Santa Clara, California-based company known for providing easy-to-use tools

for reporting on RDBMS

• Products:– BrioQuery, Brio.QuickView, Brio.Insight, Brio.Report, Brio.Portal, Brio.Impact

• Certification:– R/3 4.0, 3.1 – Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0, BAPIs for Brio.Report– BW-ODB 1.2 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW– BW-ODB 2.0 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW

• Strengths:– Good SAP R/3 operational reporting and pixel-level formatting– Usability of Brio.Enterprise for manipulation and formatting

• Weaknesses:– Separate products, architecture, and user interfaces for SAP R/3 and SAP BW– Limited BW support for embedding hierarchies to drill, pivot, and perform

ranking and top/bottom analysis


Reporting Tool Profile: Business Objects

• Company:– Paris, France-based company known for its metadata product

BusinessObjects Universe and an integrated user interface for reporting and analysis

• Products:– BusinessObjects 5i, WebIntelligence, BusinessQuery, InfoView, InfoView

Mobile, SetAnalyzer, Application Foundation

• Certification:– BW-ODB 1.2 – BusinessObjects– BW-ODB 2.0 – BusinessObjects BW Connect 5.1.1

• Strengths:– Integrated reporting and analysis product for BW via ODBO– Specialized query interface, BusinessQuery, for supporting BW– Good reporting and publishing of information to many users

• Weaknesses:– Outdated rapid deployment templates (RDT) to R/3 RDBMS via metadata– Separate BusinessQuery product cost on top of base product– No support for SAP R/3 reporting


Reporting Tool Profile: Cognos

• Company:– Ottawa-based (Ontario, Canada) company known for its best-of-breed tools

Impromptu and PowerPlay

• Products:– Impromptu, PowerPlay, Visualizer, Upfront, 4Thought, DecisionStream,

e-Applications for SAP, HeadStart for SAP – OLTP (NC*) & BW

• Certification:– BW-ODB 1.2 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0– BW-ODB 2.0 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0

• Strengths:– Established breadth of functionality from ETL, models, reporting & analysis, and

applications– Strong analysis and mobile capabilities via PowerPlay– Good visualization and customization capabilities via Visualizer

• Weaknesses:– Limited reporting functionality via PowerPlay– Must build external marts or catalogs via HeadStart for Impromptu– Direct Database Access Against SAP R/3 and BW

* NC = Not Certified


Reporting Tool Profile: Crystal Decisions

• Company:– Vancouver-based (British Columbia, Canada) company known for its Crystal

Reports and easy report creation and distribution• Products:

– Crystal Analysis, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Holos Analytic System, Balanced Scorecard, Customer Profiling, Budgeting, Report Alerts

– Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0 – InfoSet Driver, ABAP Query Driver (Release 3.x and above), Open SQL Driver (Release 3.x and above), WP-WAI via MiniApps

• Certification:– WP-WAI 2.1 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0– BW-ODB 2.0 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0– BW-ODB 1.2 – Seagate Holos 7.0, Info 7.0, Worksheet 7.0, Crystal Reports

7.0• Strengths:

– Good integration with mySAP Workplace, SAP R/3, and BW for operational and enterprise reporting and ad-hoc analysis

– Strong operational and BW reporting, Strong Partner with PeopleSoft’s EPM• Weaknesses:

– Minimal direct sales and consulting presence for implementations– Limited interactive analysis for BW – coming in Crystal Analysis


Reporting Tool Profile: Information Builders

• Company:– New York City-based company known for its data integration and

reporting technology for automating large and complex deployments

• Products:– WebFOCUS, Business Intelligence Dashboard, Maintain,

ReportCaster, Two-Way Email, Reporting Agent, Power Reporter, Managed Reporter, i-vision for Financial Analysis, i-vision for HR Analysis, i-vision for Sales and Distribution Analysis

• Certification:– BW-ODB 2.0 – WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3

• Strengths:– Operational and enterprise reporting for SAP R/3 and SAP BW– i-vision reporting solutions for SAP R/3 and BW– Performance and scalability for broad production/enterprise

reporting

• Weaknesses:– Limited ad-hoc reporting and analysis – Lack of usability for interactive report analysis


Vendor/Tool Profile: PolyVista

• Company:– Houston -based company a new kid on the block with amazing

next generation of Integrated OLAM, OLAP and Visualization tool to quickly analyze huge data volumes.

• Products:– PolyVista 1.2

• Certification:– None

• Strengths:– Strategic data analysis – data mining– OLAM, OLAP, and Visualization– Performance and scalability to handle vary large data volumes

• Weaknesses:– Limited to Microsoft OLAP environment– Not a data access and query tool– No SAP BW API certification


Reporting Tools – Strengths & Weaknesses

ArcPlan

Cognos

Vendors Strengths

Brio Technology

Business Objects

Crystal Decisions

Information Builders

Weaknesses• Custom application development• Integration with BAPI and ODBO• Integration with SEM for write-back

• Operational reporting for SAP R/3• Usability of Brio.Enterprise for

manipulation and formatting

• Integrated reporting and analysis• Specialized query interface• Publishing information to users

• Complete ETL, mart, tools• Strong analysis and mobile abilities• Good visualization and customization

• Integration – Workplace, BW, R/3• Operational and BW reporting

• Operational and BW reporting• i-vision solutions for R/3 and BW• Scalability and performance

• Limited reporting and ad-hoc analysis• Low visibility and small company size

in North America

• Separate product for SAP R/3 and BW• Limited interactive analysis for BW

• Outdated Rapid deployment template for SAP• Additional cost for BusinessQuery• No SAP R/3 reporting

• Limited reporting via PowerPlay• External marts/catalogs needed for reporting• External marts needed for applications

• Minimal direct sales and consulting presence

• Limited interactive analysis for BW

• Limited ad-hoc reporting• Lack of usability for interactive report

analysis

PolyVista • Very Strategic and Analytic• Scalability and performance• Dynamic Visualization

• Limited to Microsoft OLAP Platform• Limited Ad-hoc or production

reporting


SAP Certification and Validation for Integration

• The certification and validation process is critical to ensuring the ability of third-party products to perform SAP R/3 reporting

• SAP provides certification and validation at integration points:– Interface Certification: Development and testing of third-party

software vendors’ interfaces. Available for BW-ODB and WP-WAI*.– Interface Validation: Where certification is not available, special

business and technical validation of third-party software vendors’ interfaces. Available for RFC/BAPI.

• Leveraging SAP documents to further investigate third-party integration points and certification and validation:

– OLAP BAPI for BW 2.0B – April 2000– OLAP ODBO for BW 2.0B – 2000– OLAP ODBO for BW 1.2B – 1998– Business Object Repository Programming Interface 3.0D & 4.0B –

1998– Workplace Certification 2.1 – 2000

* Workplace - Web Application Integration (WP-WAI)


Vendor Certification by SAP System and Interface

SAP Business

Information Warehouse

BW-ODB

BW-OBI*

ArcPlan

Cognos

InterfaceCertification Vendors Products/Interface Name

dynaSight 3.0

Brio Technology

Business Objects

Comshare

Crystal Decisions

ESRI

Information Builders

ArcPlan

MIS

SAS

Viador

Crystal Decisions

Brio Technology

SAP

Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW

BW Connect 5.1.1

PPDS ODBO for BW Release 1.0

Decision 2.5.1

Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0

ESRI Connect Release 1.0

WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3

OnVision & Alea 3.7 – 1.2

Enterprise Guide Release 1.2

E-Portal Suite 6.0

dynaSight

Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0

Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0

RFC/BAPI

WP-WAIWorkplace

SAP R/3

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

1.2

2.0

2.0

2.0

2.0

1.2

2.0

4.0/3.1

2.1

SAP = Latest certification interface testedInformation as of 8/15/01

3.6-4.6

* Business Information Warehouse - OLAP BAPIs (BW-OBI)


Crystal Decisions – Business Content

Start_demo.exeCrystal Reports & BW 3.0x

Source: SAP


PolyVista

Active Visualization

OLAPOLAM

Schema


3rd Party Tools Integration Issues

• Product Architecture and IT Culture– 3rd Party BI Tools are designed keeping SQL Interfaces

in mind and not API centric. This is a big problem.– IT Environment: Companies have established BI

standards based on tools and solution and can’t think beyond DBMS tables.

• Immature ODBO Standard– Primarily based on MS OLAP Server. No future

enhancement committee on ODBO specs.

• Performance– 3rd Party Tools have their own Data Management

Layers to manage entire BI environment – while BW has its own - no pass through capability.


3rd Party Tools Integration Issues

• Vendors: Can’t justify ROI for improving BW Integration issues – BW user community is not large enough that warrants investment

• Vendors not interested in doing more than certifying their products against BW due to present SAP and BI tools OEM relationships

• SAP Data Access Strategy: API only – No direct database access


So what we do now?

• Forcing SAP to allow BW DBMS level access is not going to work

• Integrating 3rd Party Tools with BW has to do with your Information Delivery Architecture rather to force fit a tool with BW

• If BW is in your long term strategy, define a balanced Information Delivery strategy– Balance Traditional DW and BW usage– Exploit Hub and Spoke Services (BW3.0B) to build

traditional DBMS data marts for 3rd Party tools data access

• Work with SAP to enhance Hub& Spoke services to address 3rd Party data access issues, for example, flattening of hierarchies.


SAP BW - 3rd Party BI Tools:An Integrated approach

• Integrate 3rd Party tools and BW at the Portal Level through the use of iViews

• Exploit SAP Portal’s unification and aggregation services to provide a Tool agnostic information access environment


Q&A

• Which 3rd Party BI products are you using?

• What are the major issues that you are facing when using these tools against BW?

• Who are the end-users?

• What do you expect from SAP on 3rd Party BI tools Integration?

• More?

Documents

Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW1 Integrating 3 rd Party Tools with SAP Business Information