Selecting the Right SAP Business Objects BI Client Product for Your SAP Landscape

How to Select the Right BI Tool for Your Environment

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP BusinessObjects (Canada) (SAP Mentor)

October 2011

© 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

This presentation and SAP‟s strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is provided

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Disclaimer

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your license agreement or any other agreement with SAP. SAP has no

obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this presentation or

to develop or release any functionality mentioned in this presentation. This

presentation and SAP's strategy and possible future developments are

subject to change and may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason

without notice. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind,

either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties

of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. SAP

assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if

such damages were caused by SAP intentionally or grossly negligent.




Agenda

Why are we doing this session ?

SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Portfolio

Selecting the Right Tool for Your Requirements o Using the Data Source as a Criteria

o Using Hierarchical Reporting Capabilities as Criteria

o Using Online, Offline, and Mobile Reporting Capabilities as Criteria

o Using Business Requirements as Criteria

Conclusion

Why are we here ?




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product

… one part of your overall BI Strategy

Companies With a Higher Availability of Insights Have

Higher Operating Margins

Best Practice:

“BI system has ability to support historic, current and predictive analysis”

1 = Organization has not adopted this practice

5 = Best practice is fully adopted

Source: ASUG BI Benchmark Report, April 2007






Type Metric Strategy High

Avg. Q1

Com

pany

Perf

orm

anc

e

Revenue per Employee („000s) 532 776

Operating Margin (in %) 12.6 18.4

Revenue Growth (in %) 6.1 13.5

Eff

ectiveness

% of Strategic KPIs Tracked Using BI Software 26 62

Implementation Time for a New KPI (in days) 18 2

Drilldown Levels 5 10

% of Employees with Visibility into Strategic KPIs 14 33

Usage of BI/ Analytics to Manage Business Processes1 2.6 3.9

Availability of Real-time/ Predictive Insights into Business Processes2 2.8 3.1

Relative Time Spent on Analyzing Data 29 51

% of Employees Receiving Analytical Information 28 57

% of Employees Executing Simple Queries 20 40

% of Employees Analyzing Information 17 48

% of Employees Building Reports 4 13

% of External Stakeholders Receiving Analytical Information 2 10

% of External Stakeholders Executing Simple Queries 1 5

% of External Stakeholders Analyzing Information 2 7

% of External Stakeholders Building Reports 0 0

Source: ASUG BI Benchmark Report, April 2007






BI leaders have higher percentage of

active reports created by business

Adoption of best practices leads to

higher BI performance

Best Practice:

“BI system provides easy to use self service

analysis, reporting and visualization tools for

anyone with access to the tools without needing

technical expertise”

1 = Organization has not adopted this practice

5 = Best practice is fully adopted Source: ASUG BI Benchmark Report, April 2007






WHY is the RIGHT tool so important ?

.. It helps to address the business needs and requirements

.. It can help to increase the adoption of your overall BI implementation

.. It can help to increase overall business self service

… and the WRONG tool ?

.. will lead to user dissatisfaction

.. will lead to the “usual behavior” (exporting data, Excel files, untrusted information)

.. will slow down the overall adoption of your BI Strategy

SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Portfolio




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Portfolio

SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions provide business users with access to unified

information through a broad suite of BI tools for confident decision making and

alignment across people and teams on a single, scalable BI platform

Dashboards and

Visualization

How do I visualize

data for better

decision making?

How do I answer ad

hoc questions and

interact with

information?

Interactive

Analysis

Data Exploration

How do I find

immediate answers

to business

questions?

How do I determine

trends from complex

historical data and

possibly make better

forecasts?

Analysis

How do I access

and transform

corporate data into

highly formatted

reports for greater

insight?

Reporting




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Crystal Reports

The de facto standard for reporting

Proven world standard for report design

Ubiquitous reporting assets and expertise for fast implementation

Chosen reporting solution by over 500 major independent

software vendors

Deploy a common framework for all enterprise

reporting needs

Build any kind of report – such as business, financial, legal, and

regulatory reports

Sophisticated report formatting: create multi-page, multi-query,

pixel-perfect reports

Templates and wizards to speed up

report creation

Secure, large-scale distribution of reports

over the Web

Connectivity to any data source




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Web Intelligence

Empower business users with powerful,

yet easy to use analysis

Intuitive, Web-based interface with offline capabilities

Start from a blank slate or use an existing analysis or report

Multi-source access

Interactivity with filtering, ranking, sorting, calculations, etc.

Data lineage

Lighten IT workload

Self-service analysis and reporting

Controlled and secure access with tight BI platform integration

Intuitive, business-centric view of information with universes

New screen shot

needed




Consume attractive, personalized dashboards

online or offline

Access to personalized, Flash-based dashboards

Secure visualizations anywhere – portal, reports, PDF, MS Office documents

Empower business users with interactive

information

Powerful “what-if” analysis with sliders and other controls

Ability to drill-down into details

Pre-built components, skins, maps, charts, gauges, and selectors

Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards




Bring BI to all business users

Simplicity and speed of search

Intuitive data exploration and visualization

Fast response across mountains of data anywhere in the organization

Accelerated version with in-memory technologies

Help IT to be successful

Easy and efficient to manage and scale

More reactive to business with faster delivery

Support for heterogeneous data sources

Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product SAP BusinessObjects Explorer




Empower analysts to consume and explore

multi-dimensional data sets

Comprehensive OLAP data access

Multiple OLAP cubes in the same work space

Available for Web based and Microsoft Office focused deployments

Quickly find patterns, exceptions,

and other areas of interest

Comprehensive range of business and time calculations

Stunning visualization options (e.g., scatter plot, bubble plot, radar chart, etc.)

Exception highlighting

Ability to drill-down into details – Web Intelligence or Crystal Reports

Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product SAP BusinessObjects Analysis





What tool does SAP recommend for developing Analytic and Planning

Applications on SAP NetWeaver BW?

Short-term: SAP BEx Web Application Designer & SAP BusinessObjects Analysis,

OLAP Edition

Advanced OLAP Application Design and web-based planning applications

Less complex OLAP scenarios via pre-defined SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, OLAP Edition

Mid-term: SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for application design

Eclipse-based OLAP & Planning application development environment

Integration with SAP BusinessObjects





Business

Explorer (BEx) /

Analysis

Web

Intelligence

SAP Business

Objects

Explorer

Crystal

Reports

Limited

Xcelsius

Exploration

OLAP Analysis

Ad Hoc Query & Analysis

Dashboards

Production Reporting

Interactive Experience, Responsiveness Full

Professionally

Informed

Technically

Capable

Information

Consumers

Executives,

Managers

Business

Analysts





Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product SAP BusinessObjects BI Matrix for SAP NetWeaver BW customers

BI Requirement SAP BusinessExplorer (BEx)

Usage

SAP BusinessObjects BI Usage

Enterprise Reporting SAP BEx Report Designer Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Multidimensional Analysis inside

Microsoft Office

SAP BEx Analyzer SAP BusinessObjects Analysis,

edition for Microsoft Office

Web-based multidimensional

Analysis

SAP BEx Web Analyzer SAP BusinessObjects Analysis,

OLAP edition

Web-based self service reporting SAP BusinessObjects Web

Intelligence

Data visualization and executive

dashboards

BEx Web Application Designer SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

Development of Analytical &

Planning applications

BEx Web Application Designer SAP BusinessObjects Analysis,

edition for application design

(future roadmap)

Data search and exploration SAP BusinessObjects Explorer




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Capabilities Matrix

Crystal Reports

for EnterpriseWeb Intelligence

SAP

BusinessObjects

Dashboards

SAP

BusinessObjects

Explorer

SAP

BusinessObjects

Analysis, edition

for Microsoft

Office

SAP

BusinessObjects

Analysis, edition

for OLAP

Highly formatted layout

(print focused)

Parameterized / dynamic

layout

Self Service /

Free form Layout

Hierarchical awareness

Dashboarding &

visualization

Interoperability

Guided Navigation

Mobile Support




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Capabilities Matrix

Crystal

Reports for

Enterprise

Web

Intelligence

Analysis,

edition for

Microsoft Office

Analysis, edition

for OLAP

SAP

BusinessObjects

Dashboards

SAP

BusinessObjects

Explorer

Information

Consumers

Business Analysts

Middle Mgmt /

LoB Mgmt

“C” Level

Management




SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

• Search and explore data

• Common “Google” style user experience

• Limited analysis functionality

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

• Pre-built report from static to parameterized layouts

• Operational reporting

SAP BusinessObjects

Dashboards

• 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

SAP BusinessObjects

Analysis

• Advanced analytical capabilities

• Full hierarchy awareness

• Integration with planning

Required Skills for the Consumer





Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Using the Data Source as Criteria

Crystal

Reports

2011

Crystal

Reports for

Enterprise

4.0

Web

Intelligence

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Dashboard

s

Analysis,

Edition for

Microsoft

Office

Analysis,

OLAP

Edition

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Explorer

SAP ECC (directly)

SAP ECC

(via Transient Provider ECC

6 - EhP05)

SAP NetWeaver BW

(BI Consumer Services)

SAP NetWeaver BW

(MDX)

SAP NetWeaver BW

(Relational)

SAP NetWeaver BWA (via

SAP BW)

SAP NetWeaver BWA

(directly)

SAP HANA

Non-SAP Sources




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Using Hierarchical Reporting Capabilities as Criteria

Crystal

Reports

2011

Crystal

Reports

for

Enterprise

4.0

Web

Intelligenc

e

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Dashboard

s

Analysis,

Edition for

Microsoft

Office

Analysis,

OLAP

Edition

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Explorer

Hierarchical member

selection

Hierarchical parameters (1)

Hierarchical Charting

Hierarchies in crosstab

Level Based Member

Selection

Selection based on Nodes

and Leafs

Ad-Hoc Exchange of

Hierarchies

Hierarchical Report Design

(1) – Using the direct BICS connectivity, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards can leverage the prompting via BEx Web

Runtime




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Using Hierarchical Reporting Capabilities as Criteria

Crystal

Reports

2011

Crystal

Reports

for

Enterprise

4.0

Web

Intelligenc

e

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Dashboard

s

Analysis,

Edition for

Microsoft

Office

Analysis,

OLAP

Edition

SAP

BusinessO

bjects

Explorer

Online Viewing

Offline Viewing (!)

Mobile Viewing

(native)

Mobile Viewing

(browser) (!)


Using Business Requirements as Criteria




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Financial Pain Points and Possible Solutions

Crystal Reports via Live Office *

Crystal Reports is able to provide the data via Live Office in the Microsoft Office

environment but only limited navigation capabilities possible

Web Intelligence via Live Office *

Web Intelligence is able to provide the data via Live Office in the Microsoft Office

environment but only limited navigation capabilities possible

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office *

Analysis, OLAP Edition *

Combining both Analysis versions allows to surface the data in the browser and

in the Microsoft Office environment


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (!)

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is able to surface the data in a Microsoft Excel

file but the direct BI Consumer Services connection requires hosting in SAP BW

Financial Pain Points

Users are unable to view the information

in a browser and Microsoft Office

Users are unable to create calculations

as part of the resultset

Users can only make limited use of

hierarchies

Users are unable to leverage pre-

existing structures from SAP NetWeaver

BW

Users need to option to drill down to

detailed information

Users need data from several sources in

a single report

(*) – Means the product is capable to fulfill the requirement

(!) – Means the product is not fully capable to fulfill the requirement





Crystal Reports *

Crystal Reports does not allow to create calculations as part of the pure

viewing experience

Web Intelligence * *

Web Intelligence allows the user to create new formulas

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office and OLAP Edition allow the users to

create their own calculations

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer *

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards does not allow the consumer to create

calculations on the fly







hierarchies



BW




a single report







Crystal Reports *

Crystal Reports allows for hierarchical reporting and charting but no exchange of

hierarchies on the fly


Web Intelligence allows for hierarchical reporting and charting but no exchange of

hierarchies on the fly

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office and OLAP Edition allow for full usage of

hierarchies


SAP BusinessObjects Explorer can leverage hierarchies in combination with

BWA, but not hierarchical navigation


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards does not offer any hierarchical visualizations







hierarchies



BW




a single report







Crystal Reports * *

Web Intelligence * * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * * * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * * * *


SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is not able to leverage structures from a

BEx Query

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards *







hierarchies



BW




a single report







Crystal Reports * * *

Web Intelligence * * * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * * * * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * * * * *

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer * *

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards * *







hierarchies



BW




a single report



Drill Down in this context refers to the workflow of drilling down

from aggregated information to more detailed information in the

report itself (it does not refer to technology like the Report

Report Interface)






Crystal Reports allows to combine different source, but it needs to be part of the

original design and is not something the consumer can configure

Web Intelligence * * * * *

Web Intelligence allows the user to leverage “merge dimensions” to combine data

from multiple sources

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * * * * * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * * * * * *

Both version of Analysis provide the capabilities to have multiple sources in a

single worksheet



SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards allows to combine different source, but it

needs to be part of the original design and is not something the consumer can

configure







hierarchies



BW




a single report







Summary

Based on the combination of requirements from the

Finance Department the recommendation would be

to use

– Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office

– Analysis, OLAP Edition

For less hierarchical driven reports and a more

consumer (less power user) type of audience Web

Intelligence can be an alternative







hierarchies



BW




a single report




Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Sales Management Pain Points and Possible Solutions

Crystal Reports *

Crystal Reports is offering online viewing and an offline viewer

Web Intelligence *

Web Intelligence is offering online viewing and an offline viewer

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office

Analysis, OLAP Edition



SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is able to provide offline access to a

dashboard but the direct BI Consumer Services connection requires

hosting in SAP BW

Sales Management Pain Points

Users require the information

available online and offline


available on mobile devices


available as a distributed eMail

Users need to be able to change the

“view” (monthly, weekly, by product,

by region)

Users need the capability to leverage

What – if - Scenarios







Crystal Reports * *






Only on mobile devices allowing Flash










by region)










Web Intelligence * * *





There is no out-of-the-box solution for scheduling and distributing an SAP

BusinessObjects Dashboards object. Partner Solutions are available










by region)










The consumer of a Crystal Report report can not change the structure of

the report

Web Intelligence * * * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office *

Analysis, OLAP Edition *



Unless this is pre-designed as part of the dashboard the consumer can not

perform those actions










by region)









Crystal Reports * * * * *

Web Intelligence * * * * *

Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office * *

Analysis, OLAP Edition * *


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards * * *










by region)


What – if - Scenarios (*) – Means the product is capable to fulfill the requirement






Summary


Sales Management team the recommendation would

be to use

– Web Intelligence

– Interactive Analysis Desktop

– BI Mobile

What – if Scenarios will be created using SAP

BusinessObjects Dashboards










by region)






Selecting the Right SAP BusinessObjects BI Client Product Leadership / Management Team Pain Points and Possible Solutions

Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports is not suitable for this audience type

Web Intelligence

Web Intelligence is not suitable for this audience type



Both flavor of Analysis would be “too much” for this audience


Explorer does fit the audience but would show for this requirement already

too much information

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards *

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is the right tool to surface aggregated

information and allow drill down and navigation to the other tools

Leadership / Management Team

Pain Points

User needs to able to start on a

highly aggregated view and drill into

details

Information needs to be presented in

a highly aggregated and highly visual

way

Information needs to be presented

with a very fast response time

Information needs to be presented on

mobile devices

Information needs to allow for free

form search and navigation







Crystal Reports

Crystal Reports is not suitable for this audience type

Web Intelligence

Web Intelligence is not suitable for this audience type



Both flavor of Analysis would be “too much” for this audience


Explorer does fit the audience but would show for this requirement

perhaps already too much information


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is the right tool to surface aggregated

information in a highly visual manner


Pain Points



details



way




mobile devices









Fast response time does not necessary rely on the

tool type but is a much more important

requirements for the data warehouse

In addition performance is also a topic where

customers should consider technologies like SAP

HANA and SAP NetWeaver BWA


Pain Points



details



way




mobile devices









Crystal Reports *

Web Intelligence *




SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards * * (!)

Only on devices with Flash


Pain Points



details



way




mobile devices









Crystal Reports *

Web Intelligence *

Web Intelligence does allow free form placement but is not suitable for this

audience type




Explorer does fit the audience and allows for search and free form

navigation



Pain Points



details



way




mobile devices









Summary


Leadership / Management team the recommendation

would be to use



SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for mobile devices

In addition consider SAP NetWeaver BWA or SAP

HANA for performance improvements


Pain Points



details



way




mobile devices






Conclusions

Focus on the BUSINESS pain points (not the technical pains)

Focus on a “line of business” approach (not all requirements are the same)

Focus on a scalable and stable BI landscape

……but not as Step 1

Understand you “customer” and how they will use the information

Let them describe their workflows and “follow them”

Pain Points

Audience

IT

Define your requirements and you current “status”

Define what you want to achieve ? What is the desired outcome ? BI Strategy

Step 1… is your BI Strategy and not your DWH Strategy

Thank You!

Contact information:

Ingo Hilgefort, SAP Canada

[email protected]

Twitter: ihilgefort

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Selecting the Right SAP Business Objects BI Client Product for Your SAP Landscape