Inside SAP BusinessObjects Explorer - Amazon S3...3.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Quick Basics ..... 85 3.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BWA — Quick Basics

Ingo Hilgefort

Inside SAP® BusinessObjects Explorer

Bonn � Boston

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 3 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

Contents at a Glance

1 SAP Business Objects Explorer — One Piece of Your Business Intelligence Puzzle ........................................... 19

2 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Installation and Deployment ............................................................................ 39

3 Using SAP Business Objects Explorer ...................................... 85

4 Implementation Relevant Topics ............................................. 125

5 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Usage Scenarios ................ 189

6 Advanced Topics ...................................................................... 247

7 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Outlook ............................. 299


7

Contents

Foreword ................................................................................................... 11Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... 13Preface ....................................................................................................... 15

1 SAP Business Objects Explorer — One Piece of Your Business Intelligence Puzzle ............................................. 19

1.1 A Short History of SAP Business Objects Explorer ......................... 191.1.1 The First Start to More Insight — Intelligent Question .... 201.1.2 Intelligent Search ........................................................... 221.1.3 First Release of Polestar .................................................. 231.1.4 Polestar Becomes SAP Business Objects Explorer ............. 241.1.5 SAP Business Objects Explorer Continues to Evolve ......... 25

1.2 Introduction to SAP Business Objects Explorer ............................. 261.3 Introduction to the SAP Business Objects Business

Intelligence Portfolio ................................................................... 301.3.1 Comparison of Tools and Requirements .......................... 35

1.4 Summary .................................................................................... 37

2 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Installation and Deployment ............................................................................. 39

2.1 Deployment Options for SAP Business Objects Explorer ............... 392.1.1 Deployment Options Without SAP NetWeaver BWA ...... 402.1.2 Deployment Options in Combination with

SAP NetWeaver BWA .................................................... 412.2 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Software Components

and Installation Steps .................................................................. 452.2.1 SAP Business Objects Explorer ......................................... 452.2.2 SAP Business Objects Explorer – Accelerated Version ...... 472.2.3 SAP Business Objects Open Accelerator .......................... 482.2.4 Installation Material, Software Download, and

Important SAP Notes ..................................................... 48


8

Contents

2.3 Data Connectivity Options .......................................................... 542.3.1 Data Connectivity Options Without

SAP NetWeaver BWA ..................................................... 552.3.2 Data Connectivity Options for SAP Business Objects

Explorer Accelerated Version ......................................... 562.4 SAP NetWeaver BWA Configuration Steps .................................. 592.5 SAP NetWeaver BusinessWarehouse (BW) Configuration Steps .... 62

2.5.1 Enabling SAP Business Objects Explorer Accelerated Version ....................................................... 62

2.5.2 Configuring Global Settings in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Index Wizard ......................................... 63

2.6 Business Objects Enterprise Configuration Steps .......................... 642.6.1 Configuring SAP Authentication for SAP

Business Objects Explorer ................................................ 652.6.2 Configuration of SAP Authentication for SAP

Business Objects Explorer ................................................ 702.6.3 Configuring TREX Parameters for SAP

Business Objects Explorer ................................................ 722.6.4 Configuring Business Objects Enterprise

Security Profiles .............................................................. 742.6.5 Information Space Security ............................................. 81

2.7 SAP Business Objects Explorer Accelerated Version — Known Limitations ...................................................................... 82

2.8 Summary .................................................................................... 83

3 Using SAP Business Objects Explorer ....................................... 85

3.1 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Quick Basics ............................. 853.2 SAP Business Objects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BWA —

Quick Basics ............................................................................... 1053.3 Using SAP Business Objects Explorer with

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets ...................................................... 1193.4 Summary .................................................................................... 123

4 Implementation Relevant Topics .............................................. 125

4.1 Support for MultiProvider ........................................................... 1254.2 Support for SAP NetWeaver BW Queries .................................... 143


9

Contents

4.3 Restricted and Calculated Key Figures ......................................... 1514.4 Calculated Measures ................................................................... 1594.5 Facet Groups .............................................................................. 1624.6 Leveraging SAP NetWeaver BW Hierarchies ................................ 1744.7 Data-Level Security and Filtering Information Spaces .................. 179

4.7.1 Using BI Authorizations .................................................. 1794.7.2 Using Data Filtering in SAP Business Objects Explorer ..... 181

4.8 Known Limitations and Possible Workarounds ............................ 1864.9 Summary .................................................................................... 188

5 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Usage Scenarios .................. 189

5.1 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Health Care ........................... 1895.2 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Retail ..................................... 1985.3 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Insurance ............................... 2055.4 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Finance .................................. 2115.5 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Procurement .......................... 2215.6 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Customer Service ................... 2275.7 SAP Business Objects Explorer and Sales ...................................... 2345.8 Summary .................................................................................... 245

6 Advanced Topics ....................................................................... 247

6.1 SAP Business Objects Explorer in the Cloud ................................. 2476.2 SAP Business Objects Explorer “Excel Plug-In” ............................. 2516.3 SAP Business Objects Explorer on the iPhone ............................... 2546.4 Using Index Designer for Open Accelerator ................................. 2706.5 Summary .................................................................................... 295

7 SAP Business Objects Explorer — Outlook ............................... 297

The Author ................................................................................................ 301Index ......................................................................................................... 303


19

With SAP Business Objects Explorer, you can give your users the data with the speed they need to get the information required to make informed business decisions.

SAP Business Objects Explorer1 — One Piece of Your Business Intelligence Puzzle

In this chapter, we will provide you with an overview of SAP Business Objects

Explorer and share the high-level functionality of the tool itself and explain the

typical user audience. In the second part of the chapter, we will show how SAP

Business Objects Explorer complements the other tools in the SAP Business Objects

Business Intelligence (BI) tools portfolio and where you should consider using SAP

Business Objects Explorer and where other tools may be better suited.

A Short History of SAP Business Objects Explorer1.1

SAP Business Objects Explorer provides users with a unique but simple and easy-

to-learn user experience. This tremendous ease of use — for example, any func-

tion can be used with a left mouse click (no right mouse click) — resulted in a

successful product launch and has positioned it for adoption in a large user base.

With SAP Business Objects Explorer, users have a solution that delivers the speed

and ease of use that both companies — SAP and Business Objects — were trying

to deliver for a long time. Before going into more details on SAP Business Objects

Explorer, however, let’s go back several years and see how the tools have evolved

over time to understand the overall goal and strategy behind SAP Business Objects

Explorer.


20

SAP Business Objects Explorer — One Piece of Your Business Intelligence Puzzle1

The First Start to More Insight — Intelligent Question1.1.1

In 2005, Business Objects and Crystal Decisions (purchased by Business Objects in

2003) had offered a combined Business Intelligence portfolio for almost two years.

At this point, business intelligence software had a fundamental problem to solve:

how to reach more users and provide them with the right information. As a cus-

tomer, you could argue that this was simply a problem that the company wanted

to solve so it could sell more software licenses, which is certainly partly true. But

in addition, customer surveys at that time showed that customers made business

decisions without having all of the information, and that, therefore, a majority of

important decisions were made based on a “gut feel.” So, based on this informa-

tion, a new project was started with the goal of providing casual users with the

right information and the right tools to get it.

Early in the project, the idea to use our natural language and common words and

terms to deliver the right data to the user was born, and the idea of a questioncen

tric business intelligence tool was produced, which resulted in the Intelligent Question

product. The main goal of this product was to provide the user with a simple and

easy-to-use user interface (UI) that allowed them to ask questions using commonly

used terms (see Figure 1.1).

Intelligent QuestionFigure 1.1


21

A Short History of SAP Business Objects Explorer 1.1

Intelligent Question focused on the user experience and allowed a user to ask

questions using common business terms and then provide the corresponding data

for further analysis. However, the shortcomings of Intelligent Question were two-

fold. First, all the possible definitions had to be defined by an administrator using

the semantic layer from Business Objects (see Figure 1.2).

Customers

Universe = Call-Center.unvContext = Complaints

Products

Stores Employees

Based onNumber of Calls,Length of Call, orResolution Time?

Show memy top

Complainers

Show memy top

Call Agents

Universes for Intelligent QuestionFigure 1.2

Second, the product had performance problems with large amounts of data. How-

ever, it was only the first attempt to reach out to a larger audience with a business

intelligence that focused on questions being asked on top of a pool of data, rather

than the classic tools that customers were used to.


22


Intelligent Search1.1.2

In parallel to Intelligent Question, a second product evolved, Intelligent Search .

Here, the focus leveraged the existing content of the Business Intelligence land-

scape and provided insight into reports, analytics, and the content of those reports.

Compared to Intelligent Question, the major difference in Intelligent Search was

the option for the user to use any words to search for the data (see Figure 1.3).

Intelligence SearchFigure 1.3

Intelligent Search was the fi rst attempt to combine a freeform natural search term

with Business Intelligence, and to provide a user with the information that is avail-

able in his BI landscape. Not only did Intelligent Search provide the results based

on the existing reports and analytics, it also made suggestions for new reports

based on the searched terms and the metadata in the form of Universes avail-

able in the BI system (see Figure 1.4). These new options became available after

Business Objects acquired the necessary technology to analyze unstructured data

from the company Inxight in 2007.


23


Intelligent Search — Suggested QueriesFigure 1.4

First Release of Polestar1.1.3

In parallel to the search products, the fi rst project became known as Polestar and

kicked off at the end of 2006. Polestar combined the typical search workfl ows

with typical business intelligence technologies, such as data visualization. Market

data and customer feedback showed that there was still a huge untapped user base

that was either just consuming BI without really leveraging or using the informa-

tion, or was not using any BI tools at all. With the fi rst release of Polestar on the

Business Objects XI Release 2 platform at the end of 2007, the combination of a

typical search workfl ow with business intelligence technology was achieved and

the product was successful.

Polestar combined a simple and easy-to-use UI (see Figure 1.5) with the capability

to use search technology on top of available data sources and in that way it could

provide a totally new user experience to a much broader audience of information

consumers. The shortcomings of the initial release were mainly around a tight

integration with the actual Business Objects Enterprise platform and the amount

of data that the product was able to handle. Customers had to install Polestar


24


separately from the Business Objects Enterprise platform and the amount of data

was limited.

Polestar UIFigure 1.5

Polestar Becomes SAP Business Objects Explorer1.1.4

With the offi cial acquisition of Business Objects by SAP in early 2008, the next

release of Polestar became clearly focused on SAP NetWeaver BW as one of the

main data sources for data exploration. With this release, the functionality of Pole-

star evolved around the support of SAP specifi c metadata, but most important,

Polestar was combined with the technology of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator ,

which opened Polestar up to a much larger data volume than ever before. The

combination of Polestar with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator (BWA ) provided the

simplicity and performance customers were looking for.


25


In addition to the combination of Polestar with BWA, the combined teams

improved the integration between these two technologies to leverage topics like

BI authorizations, unit conversions, and support for MultiProviders as part of the

overall deployments. Polestar was renamed to SAP Business Objects Explorer and

became part of Business Objects XI 3.1 at the end of 2008.

SAP Business Objects Explorer Continues to Evolve1.1.5

By the beginning of 2009, the teams had delivered a great integration of BWA with

SAP Business Objects Explorer. Not only did the teams continuously improve the

product, but they also created a version of SAP Business Objects Explorer offered

via cloud computing. SAP Business Objects Explorer as an on-demand offering

made it possible for customers to upload their own data, leverage the functional-

ity of SAP Business Objects Explorer, and explore their own data in just a few sec-

onds. The second great innovation, which was also the Demo Jam Winner at SAP

TechED 2009 in Vienna, Austria, is an SAP Business Objects Explorer version for

the iPhone, where a user can use the simplicity of the iPhone combined with the

great user experience of SAP Business Objects Explorer to receive valuable infor-

mation via a mobile device.

At the end of 2009 and early 2010, the combination of BWA with SAP Business-

Objects Explorer became even more interesting because the toolset of SAP

Business Objects Data Service was added to the architecture. This will allow cus-

tomers to upload any data into BWA and leverage the compelling user experience

of SAP Business Objects Explorer not only in combination with SAP NetWeaver

BW based data, but they can also load any data via SAP Business Objects Data Ser-

vice into BWA and explore the data using SAP Business Objects Explorer.

This brief history of the product development and evolution has provided use-

ful background information about the goals and the ideas behind SAP Business-

Objects Explorer and how it became what it is today. Now let’s continue with a

short overview and some key features.


26


Introduction to SAP Business Objects Explorer1.2

In this section, we will look at some of the basics of SAP Business Objects Explorer

and learn how it can add value to your overall Business Intelligence landscape.

The research in the BI area conducted by BusinessWeek in the year 2007 indicated

that many business decisions were made without all of the necessary information

(see Figure 1.6).

41% 22%

38%

Usuallytoo little

Usuallytoo much

Always just theright amount

Information available forimportant business decisions

Aware of bad decisions madedue to insufficient information

Yes

No

77%33%

All of the time

75% of the time

50% of the time

25% of the time

Never

‘Instinct-Feel’ Decisions

3%

3%

36%

42%

16%

Information is Not Reaching Business Users

© SAP 2009 / Page

2007 BusinessWeek Research Services Base: 675 US andEuropean business executives and managers. Economist,Enterprise Knowledge Workers Study; November, 2007

BusinessWeek Research ResultsFigure 1.6

This is a typical shortcoming of classic Business Intelligence tools. Classic Business

Intelligence tools report the status quo of a certain situation and are not created

to report a relationship inside the data, nor are they designed to uncover a root

cause for a typical situation. Not only do these results show that users are miss-

ing information, but they also show that people are knowingly making decisions

without all the necessary details.


27

Introduction to SAP Business Objects Explorer 1.2

This is exactly the situation that SAP Business Objects Explorer tries to address.

SAP Business Objects Explorer provides the consumer with a large set of data in

a simple-designed UI. The tool combines for the fi rst time the needed speed and

performance with the amount of data that is required to make informed decisions.

SAP Business Objects Explorer provides the user with the simplicity of search (see

Figure 1.7) that allows them to analyze data and relationships in the data in totally

new ways that would not be possible in classic business intelligence tools.

Information SpaceFigure 1.7 — Search

The overall simplicity of SAP Business Objects Explorer is in giving the user the

functionality to see the actual data along with the ability to use data visualization

technology to identify much faster trends , outliers , or contributions so that they

can analyze the data better and faster than ever before (see Figure 1.8).

SAP Business Objects Explorer is leveraged by a large portion of the typical infor-

mation consumer audience. This is one of the main goals of SAP Business Objects

Explorer: to provide every person with the needed information to perform his

everyday tasks and make required decisions, which was another shortfall of clas-

sic business intelligence tools. In the past, only 20%-25% of the users in a com-

pany were able to use business intelligence and receive the necessary information.

This small percentage wasn’t necessarily based on customers not investing in the

required software; it was based on the complexity of the tools, particularly the

classic business intelligence tools, which are too complex for many consumers.


28


SAP Business Objects Explorer UIFigure 1.8

SAP Business Objects Explorer is created for the casual user who requires the

information to reach decisions, especially decisions that cannot wait until the IT

department has reviewed the report specifi cations and created the actual report

and analysis. In those situations SAP Business Objects Explorer provides a viable

alternative to fi ll the gap of self-service reporting and analysis driven by a typical

information consumer (see Figure 1.9).

SAP Business Objects Explorer is a tool designed for the Information Consumer

and for the management and leadership team; it is not a tool for the typical power

user and Business Analyst . The tool does not offer features that a Business Ana-

lyst would look for, such as a typical slice and dice navigation and the capabil-

ity to navigate between different hierarchies; instead, the tool is designed as the

most simple tool to use. For example, the user can perform any function in SAP

Business Objects Explorer with a simple click; the tool does not have any context

menus or right mouse click navigation.


29

Introduction to SAP Business Objects Explorer 1.2

VoyagerBEx

Analyzer(Pioneer)

Web Intelligence

ExplorerCrystal Reports

Limited

Xcelsius

Full Interactive Experience, Responsiveness

ProfessionallyInformed

Executives,Managers

InformationConsumers

BusinessAnalysts

TechnicallyCapable

EXPLORATION OLAPANALYSIS

AD-HOCQRA DASHBOARDS PRODUCTION

REPORTING

© SAP AG 2009. All rights reserved. / Page 3

Mapping The Right Tool to The Right ScenarioSupporting an Enterprise BI Strategy

The Right Tool for the Right JobFigure 1.9

With the combination of SAP Business Objects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BW

Accelerator and the new option to also accelerate non-SAP data sources by using

SAP Business Objects Data Services , the number of opportunities where SAP

Business Objects Explorer can help you provide your users with the right informa-

tion at the right time are now even larger than before.

Value Add Summary

Overall, the added values of SAP Business Objects Explorer combined with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator are:

Easy access to the required information that users need to make decisionsEE

Access to a large amount of data and not just a small snapshotEE

Reduced need for IT involvement for creating reports and analyticsEE

Faster turnaround on critical informationEE

Empowers users by providing access to information on the fl y and allowing them to EE

analyze data and fi nd root causes


30


In this section, you learned about the value that SAP Business Objects Explorer

and SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator can deliver as part of your overall business

intelligence strategy. (In Chapter 3, we will learn how to use SAP Business Objects

Explorer and how to uncover relationships in your data.) In the next section, we

will look at the overall business intelligence portfolio offered by SAP Business-

Objects and see which role SAP Business Objects Explorer plays as part of a BI

suite offering.

Introduction to the SAP Business Objects 1.3 Business Intelligence Portfolio

We just learned about the value you can gain from using SAP Business Objects

Explorer and how SAP Business Objects Explorer can provide more users with

needed information. Now, we will look at the overall SAP Business Objects BI port-

folio and see which types of scenarios SAP Business Objects Explorer is designed

for as part of the overall BI solution offering.

In Figure 1.10, SAP Business Objects Explorer is only one element of your overall

BI solution. In addition to SAP Business Objects Explorer, you have the choice of

Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and in the near future, Pioneer which

is the successor for BusinessExplorer Analzyer. Each of these tools is designed

with specific user types and usage scenarios in mind — none of these tools will

fulfill all of your requirements by themselves, however. This is an important fact

to recognize, because your BI landscape will need to contain more than a single

tool, and the combination of requirements and user audience types will help you

decide which tool you should use to fulfill the need.

Figure 1.11 shows the BI tools parallel to the growing skill set of your audiences.

SAP Business Objects Explorer, on the far left, requires the least amount of skills

and Pioneer, the most sophisticated tool, requires the highest degree of skills from

the user. In Figure 1.12, you can see an overview of the BI tools along a set of

functional capabilities.


31

Introduction to the SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence Portfolio 1.3

SAP NetWeaver Portal

SAP NetWeaverBusiness Warehouse

SAP NetWeaver MDM ERPFinancials

OperationsHuman ResourcesCorporate Services

CRM SCM

SRM PLM

Any Portal, Any Destination

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

CrystalReports

Web Intelligence Xcelsius

SAP NetWeaverBW Accelerator

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services

Data QualityData Integrator

SAP BEx

DataFoundation

InformationAccess

SAP Business Suite3rd-Party Databases and Applications

Explorer

DataQuality

SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence PlatformFigure 1.10

SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer

• Search and explore data• Common “Google” style user experience• Limited analysis functionality

Crystal Reports

• Pre-built report from static to parameterized layouts• Operational reporting

Xcelsius

• Easy to use data visualizations• Compelling interactive dashboarding type of analytics

Web Intelligence

• Online and offline reporting capabilities• Powerful ad- hoc reporting capabilities• Limited advanced analysis capabilities

Pioneer

• Advanced analysis capabilities• Full hierarchy awareness

Information Consumer

Executive/Management

Business Analyst

User Skill Set

SAP Business Objects BI Portfolio by User SkillsFigure 1.11


32


CrystalReports

WebIntelligence

XcelsiusBusiness-ObjectsExplorer

Pioneer

Highly FormattedLayout (print focused)

Parameterized/Dynamic Layout

Self Service/Free Form Layout

HierarchicalAwareness

Dashboarding &Visualization

Interoperability

GuidedNavigation

SAP Business Objects BI Portfolio – Capability MatrixFigure 1.12

Following this capability matrix you can evaluate which tool is best suited for

certain types of requirements. For example, the requirement to deliver an exter-

nal income statement for your company would be fulfilled best by using Crystal

Reports according to the category of highly formatted layout. A requirement to

provide the sales force with weekly and monthly sales revenue numbers based on

a set of dimensions could be fulfilled by several tools. For example, Web Intelli-

gence could be a good fit based on the high degree of self-service reporting, Xcel-

sius could be a good fit based on the dashboarding and visualization capabilities,

and SAP Business Objects Explorer could be a good choice based on good ranking

in both of those categories.

In such a situation, to determine which tool to use, you would consider who your

audience is and what type of requirement they are trying to fulfill. In Figure 1.13,

the BI tools are grouped by their main user audiences.


33


EnterpriseReporting

Ad-HocQuery &Analysis

AdvancedAnalysis

Dashboarding& Data

Visualization

Discovery&

Exploration

InformationConsumers

Executive &Managers

BusinessAnalysts

Pioneer

WebIntelligence

SAPBusinessObjectsExplorer

CrystalReports

Xcelsius

SAP Business Objects BI Portfolio by Target GroupFigure 1.13

When speaking of the main user audience, the tool is designed with these user

types in mind. There is not a single tool that covers the complete bandwidth of

user audiences. This matrix is not only relevant for your selection of the right tool,

but it also provides you with guidance on the future direction of the tools. For

example, Pioneer is designed as a tool for a Business Analyst and will provide typi-

cal OLAP client features and functions like a slice and dice navigation, exchanging

of hierarchies, and currency conversion, whereas, SAP Business Objects Explorer

is designed for the Information Consumer who doesn’t require such features and

functions. The most important message from Figure 1.13, however, is that no sin-

gle tool today provides a complete solution, and no single tool in the near future

will provide a complete solution for all your user types.

Figure 1.14 illustrates a decision tree that provides guidance on how to use the

BI tool selection by simply asking a set of simple questions and, based on the

answers, following the path to the best possible recommendation for your BI


34


tool selection. Of course, such a simplistic decision tree can never replace real

experiences with the tools or real-world experience in delivering a complete BI

landscape, so always consider reaching out to BI consultants from SAP or from

SAP partners.

Is the useranswering a regular

repeatable and structuredbusiness problem

or question? NO

Do youknow all needed

elements to answerthe question?

NO

BusinessObjectsExplorer

Do you requirehierarchicalnavigation?

YES

YES

NO

Web Intelligence Pioneer/BExAnalyzer

Is your audience a Business

Analyst/PowerUser type?

YES NO

Web Intelligence

Is your audience a Business

Analyst/Power User type?

Do you requirea highly formatted or

legally predefinedlayout?

YES

Crystal Reports

YES

Do you requirehierarchicalnavigation?

NO

YES NO

YES

NO

Pioneer/BEx Analyzer

Doyou require

dashboardingfunctionality or strong

data visualiz-ation?

Does theuser require

full flexibility inchanging the

report?

NO

Crystal Reports Web Intelligence

YES YES

Xcelsius

NO

YES

Web Intelligence

NO

Crystal Reports

Does theuser require

full flexibility inchanging the

report?

SAP Business Objects BI portfolio – Decision TreeFigure 1.14

After reviewing Figures 1.11 to 1.14, you should have a better understanding of

where SAP Business Objects Explorer fits into the overall BI landscape and where

other tools might be a better fit. SAP Business Objects Explorer provides self-ser-

vice reporting and data visualization capabilities to a large audience of information

consumers. It is especially able to deliver simple search functionality on top of your

corporate data. In this way, it provides a complete new user experience, by allow-

ing you to start the reporting and analysis workflow with a simple question.


35


Comparison of Tools and Requirements1.3.1

To conclude our overview, let’s review the distinctions between the tools by looking

at some concrete requirements and defining which tool is the best fit for each. The

following is a list of requirements grouped by business area in a typical company.

Financial Reporting and Analysis RequirementsEE

For specific content (like an income statement or a balance sheet) that is EE

being created, the design needs to be layout focused and the actual printing of the report is a very high priority.

The consumer of the reports should be able to call the content with real time EE

and historical data.

Sales Reporting and Analysis RequirementsEE

Users need the capability to change the view of the actual content.EE

E Example: Changing a weekly sales statistics broken down by country into a weekly sales statistics broken down by sales region and quarter.

Users should be able to perform scenario-based analysis, where the user is EE

able to see the data but also can influence certain factors and see the impact on the overall numbers.

Example: “What-if-analysis” in a sales planning workflow.

Human Resource Reporting and Analysis RequirementsEE

The content needs to be presented in a highly textual manner with a strong EE

focus on the layout.

The content needs to leverage data from several different sources (SAP and EE

non-SAP) and present it in a single report.

Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis EE

Requirements

The reports and analytics need to allow for further navigation to either more EE

detailed-oriented reports or for further analysis of the summarized data.

The consumption of the reports and analytics needs to be very simple and EE

easy to use, and critical information needs to be identifiable right away.


36


These are typical requirements in a business intelligence project. Now let’s take

a look at which of these requirements are best suited for SAP Business Objects

Explorer and which other tools may fit the requirements better.

Fulfilled Requirements by SAP Business Objects Explorer

Financial Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

The consumer of the reports should be able to call the content with real time and historical data.

Sales Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

Users need the capability to change the view of the actual content. Example: chang-ing a weekly sales statistics broken down by country into a weekly sales statistics broken down by sales region and quarter.

Human Resource Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

The content needs to leverage data from several different sources (SAP and non-SAP) and present it in a single report.

Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

The consumption of the reports and analytics needs to be very simple and easy to use and critical information needs to be identifiable right away.

Unfulfilled Requirements by SAP Business Objects Explorer

Financial Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

For specific content (like an income statement or a balance sheet) that is being cre-ated, the design needs to be layout focused and the actual printing of the report is a very high priority.

This requirement is best fulfilled by using Crystal Reports.

Sales Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

Users should be able to perform scenario-based analysis in which the user is able to see the data and influence certain factors and see the impact on the overall numbers.

E Example: “What-if-analysis” in a sales planning workflow.

E This requirement is best fulfilled by using Xcelsius because SAP Business Objects Explorer is not able to provide “What-if” scenario capabilities, but Xcelsius allows you to create such capabilities as part of your dashboard.


37

Summary 1.4

Human Resource Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

The content needs to be presented in a highly textual manner with a strong focus on the layout.

This requirement is best fulfilled by using Crystal Reports because Crystal Reports of-fers complete control over the layout and design of your report, and you can create print-focused reports. SAP Business Objects Explorer does not provide such function-ality because it is focused on exploring and searching inside the data.

Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis Requirements EE

The reports and analytics need to allow for further navigation to either more detailed-oriented reports or for further analysis of the summarized data.

SAP Business Objects Explorer offers the option to use the data from SAP Business-Objects Explorer in Web Intelligence but does not allow for an actual contextual navi-gation at this point in time. This requirement can be fulfilled by Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, or Pioneer.

As you can see, based on the requirements that can be fulfilled with SAP Business-

Objects Explorer and those that are better suited for other tools such as Crystal

Reports, Xcelsius, Web Intelligence, or Pioneer, you can use SAP Business Objects

Explorer to provide analytics content to a large audience of information consum-

ers. It is well suited for cases in which users are trying to find the root cause for a

given situation, or where no classic BI tool is sufficient.

Reporting and Analytics with SAP Business Objects

A more detailed distinction based on requirements and user audiences of all tools from the SAP Business Objects BI portfolio is part of the book Reporting and Analytics with SAP BusinessObjects, available from SAP PRESS.

Summary1.4

In this chapter, we reviewed how SAP Business Objects Explorer fits into the over-

all BI portfolio and which use cases are a good fit for SAP Business Objects Explorer

and which requirements may be better served by other tools.

In the next chapter, we will learn about the typical deployment and configura-

tion scenarios of SAP Business Objects Explorer in combination with your SAP

landscape.


303

0BI_ALL, 108, 130

A

Access Levels, 80Activate, 109, 135, 156, 175Add Calculation, 159Add New Filter, 184Add Principals, 75, 78, 79Advanced configuration, 73Applications, 72, 74, 78, 79, 81Application Server, 66Authentication, 64, 65, 71Authentication Mode, 170Authorization, 130Authorization group, 107, 130, 131, 180Authorizations, 107, 141, 147, 179Automatically Import Users, 69

B

BIA Index Parameter, 63BI Authorization, 25, 82, 107, 130, 147, 179, 180, 187Bookmark, 95, 204Business Analyst, 28, 33Business decisions, 20BusinessObjects, 20BusinessObjects Enterprise, 64, 65, 74, 80, 85, 107, 120, 123BusinessObjects Explorer, 19, 196Business terms, 21Business Warehouse Accelerator, 86, 110, 137, 141, 148, 157, 292BW, 62

BWA, 24, 25, 59, 63, 105, 113, 126, 132, 136, 139, 147, 148, 156, 162, 163, 172, 174, 177, 179, 187, 270, 277, 295BW queries, 57, 143BW query, 57, 132, 143, 144, 146, 150, 168

C

Calculated Keyfigure, 108, 151, 153, 156, 157, 159Calculated Measure, 159, 161, 162Calculated Measures, 159Calculation, 159, 236, 241Calculations, 162Capability Matrix, 32Characteristic, 83, 88, 130Characteristics, 129, 138, 143, 158, 167, 172, 187Cloud, 247, 249, 251Cloud computing, 25Comparison, 98, 116, 202, 208, 228Compounded characteristics, 90Configuration, 59, 62, 64Configure, 253Configure Excel File, 120, 182Connection, 169Connectivity, 54Contribution, 260Contributions, 27Conversion, 132, 155Conversions, 82, 108, 131Correlation, 202, 224, 225, 243Crystal Decisions, 20Crystal Reports, 32, 36, 37Currency, 82, 108Customer Service, 227

Index


304

Index

D

Dashboarding, 32Data Connectivity, 54Data Filtering, 181Data Services Designer, 277, 278, 288Data Services Repository, 273Data visualization, 34, 96Decision Tree, 34Deployment, 39, 40, 41, 43, 46Descriptions, 187Designer, 273Dimension, 88, 100, 116, 162, 200, 209Dimensions, 190, 220Display Attributes, 82, 187Drill down, 214, 215, 222, 228, 231, 236, 264DSO, 57

E

Email, 95, 103, 204, 218, 227, 241Entitlement System, 67Excel Spreadsheets, 86Exception aggregation, 82, 187Exclude, 133Exclude PartProvider, 132Explorer, 72, 75, 81Export, 95, 103, 196, 204, 218, 227, 250, 253

F

Facet, 88, 97, 100, 111, 159, 161, 168, 173, 177, 179, 192, 198, 200, 202, 206, 209, 230, 249, 262Facet group, 172Facet Group, 90, 95, 96, 165, 166, 168, 173

Facet Groups, 90, 162, 168, 173Facet navigation, 105Facets, 94, 95, 138, 142, 149, 158, 241, 260, 266Filter, 96, 97, 99, 101, 133, 134, 147, 173, 181, 193, 195, 206, 208, 215, 239, 243, 249, 266, 268Filter Data, 147Filtered value, 97Filtering, 179Filters, 95, 133, 141, 209, 230, 241, 264Filter Selection, 97Finance, 211Find, 205, 206, 230, 241

G

Global settings, 62

H

Healthcare, 189, 197Heatmap, 116, 209, 237Hide, 108, 121Hiearchical view, 178Hierarchies, 109, 132, 173, 174, 176, 179, 187Hierarchy, 168, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178Hierarchy Exploration, 178Hierarchy node authorizations, 187

I

Image, 104Implementation, 125Import, 280Index Designer, 270, 288Index Now, 94, 113, 121, 139, 150, 294InfoArea, 146, 174


305

Index

InfoCube, 110, 126, 132InfoCubes, 57InfoObject, 133, 174InfoProvider, 106, 107, 109, 126, 141, 146InfoProviders, 133, 142Information consumer, 27, 28, 33Information Space, 27, 56, 80, 81, 83, 86, 87, 92, 93, 94, 96, 103, 105, 110, 113, 120, 121, 126, 137, 139, 142, 148, 150, 158, 159, 162, 166, 172, 173, 177, 179, 181, 183, 185, 191, 193, 198, 205, 211, 218, 221, 227, 234, 247, 249, 253, 256, 270, 294Information Spaces, 85, 86, 181, 190, 256InfoSets, 57InfoView, 79Installation, 39, 45, 46, 48, 270Insurance, 205Intelligent Question, 20, 21, 22Intelligent Search, 22iPhone, 25, 254, 270iPod, 254

K

Keydate, 187Key figure, 130, 143Key Figures, 108, 129, 131, 132, 149, 155, 158

L

Label, 121Language, 64, 187Limitations, 82, 186Logon group, 66

M

Manage Spaces, 86, 110, 120, 137, 141, 148, 157, 163, 170, 182, 183Measure, 202, 208, 209, 214, 216, 218, 224, 225, 235Measures, 88, 111, 138, 149, 158, 159, 161, 164, 175, 183, 190, 200, 228, 231Message server, 66Microsoft™ Excel, 40, 56, 119, 120, 123, 247, 252Mobile, 254MultiProvider, 57, 125, 126, 129, 130, 132, 133, 136, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 147, 154, 155, 163MultiProviders, 25, 125

N

Navigational attributes, 147Navigational Attributes, 174Navigation status, 103New Dimension, 286

O

Objects, 87, 88, 110, 138, 142, 148, 157, 164, 175, 183, 294OLAP Universe, 162On-demand, 25Options, 68Other Values, 115Outliers, 27

P

PartProvider, 126, 128, 139, 141, 142, 155


306

Index

Percentage, 99, 103, 116, 117, 209, 243, 260Performance, 56, 134Personalization, 92, 179, 181, 184, 186, 295Pie chart, 117Pioneer, 33, 37Polestar, 23, 247POLESTAR_SYSTEM, 63Process Variables, 156Procurement, 221Properties, 72, 81, 87, 110, 120

Q

Queries, 143Query, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 170Query Snapshot, 187Question, 206, 241

R

Reference Information Space, 184Reliability, 56Repository, 273Requirements, 35, 36, 37Restricted Key Figures, 108, 151, 152, 156, 157, 159Retail, 198Roadmap, 299Role Import, 69RSDDTPS, 63, 105, 126, 139, 146, 154, 174, 180RSDDTREX_ADMIN_MAINTAIN, 62RSECADMIN, 130RSR_QPROV_CHECK, 144

S

Sales, 234SAP Authentication, 65, 68, 70, 81, 107, 130, 136, 141, 148, 156

Options, 68SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator, 44SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator Index Designer, 44, 48, 82, 270, 274, 277SAP BusinessObjects Data Service, 25SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, 29, 44, 48, 270, 273, 277, 292, 295, 298SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 53, 55, 56, 70, 82, 85, 92, 95, 103, 105, 107, 119, 120, 123, 125, 131, 136, 139, 141, 143, 146, 147, 148, 156, 170, 179, 181, 187, 189, 190, 197, 198, 205, 211, 218, 220, 221, 224, 227, 228, 230, 234, 235, 236, 241, 245, 247, 248, 251, 252, 253, 254, 270, 298SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated Version, 56, 57, 62, 63, 64, 70, 80, 82, 292SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ñ Accelerated Version, 39, 41, 47, 53SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP, 43SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP Solutions, 41, 46, 47, 65SAP BusinessObjects Open Accelerator, 44, 48SAP Client ID, 71SAP ERP, 44SAP NetWeaver BusinessWarehouse, 44, 47, 62


307

Index

SAP NetWeaver BW, 24, 66, 81, 90, 119, 174, 179SAP NetWeaver BWA, 85, 119SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, 24, 29, 39, 41, 44, 47, 48, 54, 56, 57, 85, 92, 123, 125, 151, 270, 295, 298SAP System ID, 71Scheduling, 92, 112SE38, 62, 144Search, 256Security, 179Security profiles, 64, 74Self-service reporting, 32, 34Semantic layer, 21Single-Sign-On, 169Snapshot, 125, 128, 136, 139, 141, 142, 146, 147, 150, 155Software components, 45Software Download, 48Sorting, 90, 264Sort order, 112Spreadsheet, 119, 120, 123, 247Spreadsheets, 39, 40, 55, 56, 119, 123Status, 94, 113, 121, 294Structure, 143, 149, 150, 187Summary, 121System number, 66

T

Tag Cloud, 116, 239Time-dependent hierarchy, 187Time-dependent structure, 187Top 10, 114Transient Provider, 56, 57Trend, 115, 192, 195, 216Trends, 27, 220, 236TREXADMIN, 59TREX extension, 59

Trex_host, 73TREX hosts, 72TREX parameters, 64Trex_port, 73

U

Unit, 108Unit Conversions, 132Universe, 56, 80, 83, 85, 87, 90, 92, 162, 168, 170, 181, 183, 247, 277Universe Designer, 168Universes, 22, 39, 40, 55, 86, 123, 181Unstructured, 22Update Target in Repository, 287Upload a spreadsheet to explore, 122User audience, 33User Security, 75User types, 33

V

Variable, 152Variables, 143, 156, 187Version dependent, 187

W

Web Intelligence, 32, 37, 79, 80, 104What-if-analysis, 35, 36

X

Xcelsius, 32, 36, 37


Documents

Inside SAP BusinessObjects Explorer - Amazon S3...3.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Quick Basics ..... 85 3.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BWA — Quick Basics