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S-Reproduced with permission rom the JannFebnMar 2010 issue o SAPinsider with permission rom its publisher, WIS | sapinsider.wispubs.com

When SAP acquired Business Objects two years ago, cus-

tomers initially had questions about how to incorporate

SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence (BI) and inor-

mation management (IM) solutions into their SAP environ-

ments. That space is now well understood. 1 I am, however,

still hearing lots o questions about the product roadmapor BI and IM, and many customers arent ully aware o

how much has happened since the acquisition.

In this article, Ill share a summary o the key IM and BI

best practices, integrations, and optimizations that SAP has

delivered in various product releases and service packs

over the last 20+ months and preview whats to come.

Th SAP BsinssObjcts IM Portolio: WhatsNw and Most Rlvant or SAP Cstomrs?Some o the most notable new eatures o the SAP

BusinessObjects IM portolio (see Figure on the next page)include unctionality that makes it easier to get data into

SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW),

access the data in more exible ways, and keep tabs on the

downstream consequences o any source changes:

Now that SAP BusinessObjects Metadata Management

supports SAP NetWeaver BW, data lineage and impact

analysis or SAP NetWeaver BW are available to customers

or the frst time. Data lineageanswers important ques-

tions like: Where has the data come rom? What has it

been through? And impact analysisshould be part o any

IT survival kit; it lets IT proessionals understand the

impact o data source changes on end-user reports and

other downstream data consumption. Reputation assur-

ance might be an even better name or impact analysis

it avoids the classic case o a user asking: Why doesnt

my report work anymore? What have you changed?

SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator, which makes SAP

NetWeaver BW data available with high perormance,

Pleaseseemyar ticleWhichBusinessInte lligenceToolsShouldYouUse?inthe

January-March2009issueofSAPinsider(sapinsider.wispubs.com).

now supports Data Store Objects (or low-level, detailed

inormation), MultiProviders (as a union between Ino-

Providers), and InoCubes (or aggregated inormation).

This approach scales very well and is ully compatible

with InoCubes accelerated by SAP NetWeaver Business

Warehouse Accelerator (SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator).Unlike other ederation products that support SAP

NetWeaver BW via public BAPI access, SAP BusinessObjects

Data Federator accesses the data in SAP NetWeaver BW

directly and at the lowest level (right above the InoPro-

viders) while leveraging metadata in SAP NetWeaver BW.

Customers using this connectivity or large operational

reports have experienced excellent perormance results.

Whats Nw with SAP BsinssObjcts BI Tools?There are also new optimizations and eatures on the

SAP BusinessObjects BI tools side (reer again to Figure 1),including:

Usability improvements (such as old/unold capabilities

or complex reports) to better consume SAP NetWeaver

BW hierarchies in SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

Franz Aman

Vice President

Business Intelligence and

Enterprise Information

Management Product

Marketing

SAP BusinessObjects

Division, SAP

The Road to BI Success in SAP Environments:

Are You On It?

Inside This Special Report

S-3 | SAP Americas: Openness at SAP The Key to a Successful BI andInformation Management StrategyS- 5 | PBS Software GmbH: Optimize Your SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Data

S-7 | Fujitsu: Uncover the Hidden Treasures of Your Business WarehouseS-8 | Idhasoft, Inc.: Make the Most of Your SAP Data Now: Deploy Prebuilt,

Production-Ready Reports

S-9 | Lodestone Management Consultants: 4 Steps to Ensure Your BI StrategyIs Actually Strategic
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Reproduced with permission rom the JannFebnMar 2010 issue o SAPinsider with permission rom its publisher, WIS | sapinsider.wispubs.com

A dramatic performance boost (nearly 90%) by taking

out layers and optimizing MDX queries

Better lifecycle management for OLAP universes on SAP

NetWeaver BW; changes in SAP NetWeaver BW are now

automatically promoted and reected in OLAP universes

Implemented in Xcelsius, new BI Consumer Services (BICS)

connectivity provides direct access to SAP Business

Explorer (SAP BEx) queries and views in SAP NetWeaver

BW; with this new connectivity, customers can not only

get aster and more direct access to SAP NetWeaver BW,

but also leverage their existing SAP BEx views andqueries to get best-o-breed, interactive dashboards or

SAP NetWeaver BW data while minimizing additional

license and implementation costs

Article continues on page S-10

FIguRe 1u Ky w

ifomatio

maagmt (IM)

a busiss

itlligc (BI)

iovatios a

itgatios avail-abl toay i SAP

lascaps

SAP NetWeaver Portal

SAP BExSAP

Business-Objects

Explorer

CrystalReports Web Intelligence Xcelsius

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

SAPBusinessObjectsMetadataManag

ement

DataFoundation

Inform

ationAccess

Any Portal, Any Destination

Third-Party Databases and Applications SAP Business Suite

SAP NetWeaverBW Accelerator

SAP NetWeaverBusiness Warehouse

SAP BusinessObjectsData Services

(Data Integrator andData Quality Management)

SAP NetWeaverMDM

ERPFinancialsOperations

Human ResourcesCorporate ServicesSAP NetWeaverInformation Lifecycle

Management

CRM

SRM

SCM

PLM

SAP BusinessObjectsData Federator

2

3

4 56

1

1 2 3 4 5 6 78

9

10

New Information Management (IM) Innovations1 SAP NetWeaver MDM:

Deeper integration with SAP BusinessObjects Data Services

and SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

Support or standard SAP NetWeaver administration and

liecycle management tools

2 SAP BusinessObjects Metadata Management: Support or

SAP NetWeaver BW, including data lineage and impact analysis

3 SAP BusinessObjects Rapid Marts: 11 Rapid Marts or SAP

Business Suite, plus support or the latest SAP BusinessObjects

Data Services and BI releases

4 SAP BusinessObjects Data Services:Improved integration

with SAP NetWeaver BW to extract, cleanse, and integrate data

rom SAP and third-party sources

5 SAP BusinessObjects Data Quality Management:Support or

the latest SAP releases (SAP CRM 7.0, SAP ERP 6.0, SAP NetWeaver

MDM 7.1) and other third-party applications, including Siebel CRM

and UCM 8.x, and Inormatica PowerCenter 8.6

6 SAP BusinessObjects Data Federator:Prebuilt integration into

SAP NetWeaver BW, enabling data warehouses consisting o SAP

data and third-party sources

New Business Intelligence (BI) Innovations1 Access in-memory data from all data sources:Intuitive sel-

service data exploration against SAP NetWeaver BW, non-SAP,

and combined data

2 Fold/unfold viewing control:Complex reports, especially o

hierarchical structures, can be navigated easily

3 Better performance against SAP NetWeaver BW:Up to 87%

query perormance improvement

4 Report publishing via Web services:Publish any part o a

report easily via standard Web services

5 Removal of million cell limit:Unlike some third-party tools,SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions get all the data

6 Query on query fi ltering:You can now query on report results to

leverage existing reports and queries to get more specifc results

7 Easy-to-use filtering widgets: Wizard-based creation o input

controls or eicient end-user navigation

8 Reuse of SAP BEx assets: BI Consumer Services (BICS) enables

direct access to SAP BEx queries and views

9 OLAP universe refresh:OLAP universes or SAP NetWeaver BW

stay in synch with changes to SAP NetWeaver BW

10SharePoint integration: Microsot SharePoint support across all

BI content; cross-repository content search
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Your marketing department likely relies on a certain applica-

tion to run its part o the business, just as your fnance

department relies on another. And your HR department

probably has a specifc inormation management system it

preers to use. These systems and applications may or may

not be rom SAP and they probably sit in dierent IT land-scapes on a multitude o databases and application servers.

Businesses are challenged by these silos o inormation.

Achieving a 360-degree view o data across numerous inor-

mation systems is a goal every organization strives or yet

seldom attains. It is an age-old problem that is ully recog-

nized at SAP and its what led SAP to ocus on an open and

agnostic inormation access strategy or its solutions.

Inormation or evryon: A Dmocratizd,Opn Approach

The concept o openness is a key priority or SAP. It hasplayed a leading role in the development o our inormation

management (IM) and data warehousing solutions, as well

as our newly evolved business intelligence (BI) layer.

Although long embraced at SAP, openness is an approach

that has evolved slowly over time. In the early days, SAP

solutions were oten perceived as proprietary and challeng-

ing or organizations to incorporate with non-SAP applica-

tions. However, as data volumes grew and business

applications prolierated, SAP jumped into action and not

only strengthened many core technologies, but also started

oering new BI solutions rom the SAP BusinessObjects

portolio to give customers access to a broad range o both

SAP and non-SAP environments.

Now, by implementing a standard open strategy orinormation access and management (see Key Concept box),

SAP sets the stage or organizations to meet and over-

come todays challenges o rationalizing and consolidat-

ing inormation and business processes.

Th 3 Pillars o SAPs Opnnss StratyLets explore the key technical areas in which SAP strives to

achieve openness or customers.

1. Unk Dr D wh on D ingrn

Data integration helps bring together cleansed data (seesidebar) rom a companys various and varied applications

and databases. SAP provides the technology, tools, and

packaged applications required to rapidly and successully

integrate data rom a range o non-SAP enterprise applica-

tions with its own and other systems. Real-time and batch

data integration is designed to simpliy and speed data

movement and sharing across applications. This allows

users to easily explore, extract, transorm, and deliver data,

regardless o where or how the data is stored.

Openness at SAP: The Key to a Successful BI and

Information Management StrategyDan Kearnan

Director

SAP Business Intelligence

Solution Marketing

SAP Americas

Key Concept: Open AccessSAP has evolved its BI and IM strategies or greater

ocus on enabling open access unlocking and

accessing all corporate inormation, structured

and unstructured, regardless o ormat, shape,

size, or location. Broader data access ultimately

means that users within an organization can make

decisions more confdently because SAP delivers

a consistent user experience, no matter what the

data sources are.

Data Quality: A Prerequisite to OpennessProviding trusted, accurate inormation is a critical

step in developing a solid oundation or open inor-

mation access. Using SAPs inormation management

solutions, organizations can centralize the discovery,

correction, and prevention o data quality issues

through a native interace. This interace embeds

data quality capabilities within many dierent appli-

cations, whether SAP-based or not.

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a agostic

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2. enb Br Dn Mkng wh on

D a

Every organization likely has multiple underlying databases

and data stores rom several vendors its a reality that

SAP understands well. While data integration eorts ocus

on extracting, transorming, and loading data into a data-

base or data warehouse, SAPs business intelligence solu-

tions provide direct connectivity to both SAP and non-SAP

applications while maintaining support or single sign-on,

authentication, and security.

Native driver support or non-SAP databases and data

warehouses is essential or achieving true openness.

Whether the inormation you need resides in a relational

or OLAP database, a mainrame system, or a packagedapplication, SAPs business intelligence solutions can easily

access and exploit this inormation through native or

ODBC connectivity.

The overriding beneft o having access to both SAP and

non-SAP data is organizations ability to now turn to

SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions or comprehensive BI

unctionality that can empower users to make eective,

inormed decisions based on solid data and analysis.

3. prvd cndd Vw f a D wh on

D WrhungA data warehouse stores standardized, consistent, clean,

and integrated data sourced rom various operational

systems in use within the organization. Combined with a BI

solution, data warehouses deliver an easy way or compa-

nies to conduct in-depth analyses o their data to leverage

important trends.

SAP achieves openness in three ways related to data

warehousing. First, through its own data warehousing solu-

tion, SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver

BW), SAP provides reliable and open data acquisition by

tightly integrating data across all SAP applications and

business processes and enriching accessibility o heteroge-

neous data sources and data quality.

The second data warehousing area showcasing SAPs

spirit o openness comes by way o new strategic partner-

ships with Teradata and HP. SAP NetWeaver BW is now opti-

mized to run on Teradata and HP Neoview databases,

expanding the ootprint o databases already supported:

Oracle, Microsot SQL Server, and IBM DB2.

SAP BusinessObjects IM and BI solutions complete the

picture or openness with end-to-end data warehousing

and analysis. SAPs close partnerships with key industry

vendors ensure that all customers, regardless o which data

warehouse theyre using, can take advantage o SAPspowerul enterprise reporting, query and analysis, and

perormance management solutions.

Rconiz th Bnfts o an OpnInormation StratyFaced with a plethora o dierent data sources, platorms,

and legacy systems, business users want to get the

inormation they need by leveraging their current technol-

ogy investments.

SAP meets the needs o a truly heterogeneous system

and business environment by:

Oering organizations the ability to integrate and

consolidate data rom any application and data source

Providing broad and exible support or standard

industry applications and solutions

The result: companies get instant insight across all cor-

porate data or a 360-degree view into the entire business.

This is the essence o SAPs openness strategy. With a

commitment to heterogeneous and agnostic solutions,

SAP is uniquely positioned to provide its customers with

complete inormation access to meet any BI and IM needs.

And as the number o enterprise data sources and volumes

continues to grow rapidly, organizations that can manage

and harness their data hold a distinct competitive advan-

tage over other companies.

To learn more about SAPs open approach to business

intelligence and enterprise inormation access, visit www.

sap.com/usa/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/index.epx . n

Open Information Access ThroughEnterprise Portals

SAP provides its customers with the ability to orga-

nize and display business intelligence (BI) inorma-

tion within your existing enterprise portals, SAP

or otherwise, allowing you to view and edit BI

content, schedule reports, and integrate BI content

into existing workows.

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Companies that are looking to keep their data in an acces-

sible place without bogging down their SAP NetWeaver

Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) systems need

to embrace the principles o inormation liecycle manage-

ment (ILM). They must employ proven ILM strategies to

control unlimited database growth and stop their databasecosts rom exploding.

To achieve this goal, many companies manage their data

by moving it to an archive or an external nearline storage

system and deleting it rom the SAP NetWeaver BW system.

To move data to a nearline storage system, companies can

use a fle-based archiving process which is likely amiliar

to those that work with SAP ERP. Or, as o SAP NetWeaver

BW 7.0, they can move their data to a nearline storage

system via SAPs nearline storage interace.

These nearline storage solutions have grown in popularity

because they allow users to run queries more easily onarchived or nearlined data. In addition, nearline solutions

oer high data compression and ast query access combined

with low hardware requirements.

By consistently moving data to a nearline solution,

companies can signifcantly reduce the load on an SAP

NetWeaver BW database. To fnd a nearline solution that fts

your companys needs, you should turn to an established

third-party vendor like PBS.

PBSs Innovativ Narlin Soltions Hlp Yo

Optimiz Yor Systm PrormancPBS Sotware is a dedicated solution provider with 18 years

o experience working with the SAP archiving environment.

Our company has over 1,000 customers all over the world

and currently oers products all o which are certifed or

SAP NetWeaver BW 3.x and 7.x to support an organiza-

tions ILM initiatives.

Our product line includes two solutions or the new

SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse nearline interace. As

we mentioned, these solutions are available or SAP

NetWeaver BW releases 7.0 and up. However, our solutions

can also be downgraded to support SAP NetWeaver BW 3.x.

These solutions are:

PBS CBW NLS ADK. This solution is completely fle based

and is built on SAPs Archive Development Kit (ADK) tech-

nology. PBS CBW NLS ADK is a pure sotware solution

written in ABAP that requires no additional database,

making it easy to implement. To drill down to archived

InoCubes or Data Store Object (DSO) tables, the solution

operates with special archive indexes and archive aggre-

gates that are generated in compressed fles outside o the

SAP NetWeaver BW database. This solution can be seam-

lessly integrated into existing archive inrastructures.

PBS CBW NLS IQ. This solution uses column-based data-

base technology rom Sybase the Sybase IQ Analytics

Server. In contrast to the fle-based approach, leveraging

column-based technology requires no archive fles,

archive indexes, or archive aggregates. This is what makes

this technology so unique. With column-based technol-

ogy, nothing else is needed to compress data. This means

that PBS CBW NLS IQ enables extremely quick ad hoc

query response times, even when there are high levels o

nearline data compression. Please note that one prereq-

uisite to using PBS CBW NLS IQ is this: A companys

SAP NetWeaver BW data must be properly archived using

SAPs purely nearline-based data archiving process, which

works without fle archives. The archive data is then gen-

erated directly in Sybase IQ. Note that youll also need

additional server hardware to run Sybase IQ.

No matter which o PBSs nearline storage solutions you

choose, your company will gain quick query access and be

able to optimize system perormance because both solu-

tions store data in highly compressed orm on low-cost

hardware (see sidebar on the next page). It is important to

note, however, that all solutions rom PBS are based on the

premise that the SAP data archiving process has already

taken place.

Optimize Your SAP NetWeaver Business

Warehouse DataPBS Offers Powerful Nearline Storage Solutions

Prof. Detlev Steinbinder

Member of Management

PBS Software GmbH

nali solutios

off high ata

compssio a

fast quy accsscombi with

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Additional Fatrs and Bnfts oPBSs Narlin SoltionsBoth PBS CBW NLS ADK and PBS CBW NLS IQ have addi-

tional compelling eatures. For example:

When used in conjunction with SAPs data archiving

processes, users can archive InoCubes or DSO data into

PBSs solutions.

In many SAP NetWeaver BW installations, signifcant disk

space is occupied by data rom the persistent staging

area (PSA). For that reason, PBSs solutions provide a

PSA component that makes it possible to archive PSA

tables in a fle archive or directly in the Sybase IQ nearline

server. This in turn allows companies to retain these

tables because PBSs solutions compress them to less

than 10% o their original size at a 90% compression

rate. Ater the archiving process, the PSAs can be deleted

rom the SAP NetWeaver BW database.

Archived PSA data can be included in new SAP NetWeaver

BW data transer processes to set up new DSO or Ino-

Cube data. The PSA unctionality allows users to reduce

the size o the SAP NetWeaver BW database very quickly

and efciently. In customer systems, this unctionality

has been used to reduce the size o the BW database by

40% in only a couple o days.

Both solutions have a built-in PBS Data Export Interace.

This interace allows users to extract tax-relevant data

rom SAP NetWeaver BW tables or auditing purposes.

The data extracts are then saved as sequential fles

in ASCII ormat and can be evaluated directly with tax

audit tools. Supported data sources or these extracts

include InoCubes, DSOs, master data, text fles, or any

transparent tables.

PBS also supports displaying archived data through

MultiProvider queries. I no MultiProviders are available,they can be generated in the PBS CBW Cockpit. This

technology is also quite helpul or archiving data

beore upgrading to SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0. In these

cases, the archive data that is generated in SAP

NetWeaver BW 3.x will then become available or query

retrieval in SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0.

Larn MorIn summary, a major advantage that PBSs solutions oer

is their ability to combine both archiving and nearlining

unctionality. This combination helps customers achieve an

ILM implementation that fts their specifc requirements.

In addition, PBS solutions eature a wide variety o unc-

tions that extend well beyond the requirements o the SAP

standard nearline interace including MultiProvider

support or all SAP NetWeaver BW releases, PSA archiving,

and audit extracts.

I youre interested in learning more about the benefts

o nearline storage and about PBSs array o nearline solu-

tions, I strongly encourage you to visit www.PBS-Software.

com/PBSSAPBW.html . n

Optimize Your Query Run Times

Its important to keep in mind that archiving only helps reduce costs i large DSO tables or InoCubes are also

archived. But many business users worry that archiving these items will increase their query run times. They want to

know: How ast can queries run against archived data?

Query run times really depend on the archiving method used. I InoCubes are archived on the Sybase IQ Analytics

Server, ast query perormance can be achieved without modeling any aggregates or indexes. The column-based

technology provides shorter query response times than queries against normal databases.

For queries against very large InoCubes, with hundreds o millions o records, PBS recommends the CBW NLS IQ

solution. Here, the ast-loading capability and column technology truly oer signifcant advantages especially as

more and more users access their nearline data in parallel mode.

Customers who use the CBW NLS ADK solution can tune their query perormance by setting up the PBS archive

aggregates or indexes in the right way. Here, greater knowledge o the SAP NetWeaver BW data model is quite useul.

A well-defned archive aggregate can also lead to query run times in the range o several seconds.

A majo avatag

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thi ability to

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spcific s.


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Data stored in a business warehouse is a lot like buried

treasure: It can only be retrieved by the owner o a treasure

map the skilled and patient inormation worker who can

create complex queries and tactully dig through a tangled

mass o inormation.

But what i that inormation worker could retrieve datamuch aster and with more straightorward techniques?

What i other users unamiliar with the business warehouse

could also quickly and intuitively locate the inormation

they need? This could increase the beneft o the data ware-

house enormously.

With SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, SAP hands a treasure

map to anyone within an organization that leverages SAP

NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW).1

Users can directly and intuitively access data by using key-

word search unctionality within SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer. The secret is the combination o the high peror-mance o SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator and the user-

riendly SAP BusinessObjects unctionality.

Fjits enhancs th us o SAP NtWavr BWAcclrator and SAP BsinssObjcts explorrHowever, widely opening the data warehouse to all relevant

users requires more than just an excellent solution. It also

requires a strong oundation including an optimized plat-

orm, easy implementation, excellent integration, and reli-

able support. Heres where Fujitsu comes in: We oer

expertise gained by working on more than 7,000 SAP inte-

gration and implementation projects worldwide.

Fujitsus solutions and service oerings give organiza-

tions end-to-end project coverage or both SAP NetWeaver

BW Accelerator and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Fujitsu

provides:

BW Accelerator Infrastructure, a preinstalled and vali-

dated inrastructure environment consisting o powerul

ForanoverviewofSAPBusinessObjectsExplorer,seetheSAPspecialreporton

page3ofthisissueofSAPinsider(sapinsider.wispubs.com).

PRIMERGY blade servers, reliable storage technology,

Linux OS, and the SAP sotware stack

Implementation services specifc to SAP NetWeaver BW

Accelerator and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to guide

the customer through successul implementation

Maintenance services or BW Accelerator Inrastructure

Across all o these services, the mature Fujitsu implemen-

tation methodology allows users to jumpstart their treasure

hunt by enabling them to quickly use SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer. And because the customer-specifc SAP Business-

Objects Explorer solution comes preinstalled, the imple-

mentation phase is signifcantly shorter. This is not only an

enormous advantage or the IT department, but it also

allows users in dierent operating departments to rapidly

beneft rom the solution. In addition, Fujitsus integration

services, which are based on best-practice templates, mini-mize customers integration eorts. These services include

perormance checks and the evaluation and design o

complete architectures and processes.

Maintenance and support services are also available

rom Fujitsu. Our SolutionContract oering ensures opti-

mal saeguarding or your data search and retrieval.

SolutionContract provides a single point o contact or all

inrastructure-specifc topics related to SAP NetWeaver BW

Accelerator or SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Fujitsu oers

reactive, as well as proactive, services based on a remote

service connection, thus urther reducing operating eorts

(note that SAP provides the SAP sotware maintenance).

St Yorsl up or a Sccssl expditionPlanning your SAP BusinessObjects Explorer roadmap is

a bit like planning a promising treasure hunt. To ensure

that your data search will hit the jackpot, you need the

proper equipment and saeguarding on hand the

oerings rom SAP, as well as the strong oundation and

services rom Fujitsu. To learn more, please visit http://

ts.fujitsu.com/bwa. n

Uncover the Hidden Treasures of Your

Business WarehouseWith an IT Infrastructure Solution from Fujitsu

Thomas Bechtel

SAP Portfolio Manager

BW Accelerator

Infrastructure and

Discovery System

Fujitsu

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8/10

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special RepoRt

Bun ingn |


I your company runs SAP ERP, youre already achieving

operational efciency and excellence. But, how do you har-

ness all the valuable data youre capturing in SAP ERP to

drive your business orward?

You would be hard pressed to fnd an organization that

doesnt want to use corporate data to drive more eectivebusiness decisions. When you are making critical decisions

or example, when you are defning a new market

opportunity to increase revenue, altering product alloca-

tions to your distribution outlets to increase proftability,

or spotting trends within customer behavior patterns to

defne and drive new targeted sales and marketing

programs you need timely, accurate, ocused, and action-

able inormation.

Start with SAP BsinssObjcts BI Soltions

Through its acquisition o Business Objects in 2008, SAPoers an enterprise-wide business intelligence (BI) plat-

orm that SAP customers can use to raise the level o stra-

tegic analysis and reporting within their organizations. The

platorm helps ensure that the right data reaches the right

people in the breadth, depth, and ormat they require

at precisely the time they need it to make critical business

decisions and proactively execute business strategies.

The question is: How can SAP customers quickly get

started using SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions against their

existing SAP ERP application data?

extnd SAPs Fnctionality with IdhasotsPackad Analytics SoltionCombining its SAP ERP knowledge with its SAP Business-

Objects solution expertise, Idhasot has developed an out-

o-the-box solution called Packaged Analytics (see sidebar).

This solution leverages the ull suite o SAP BusinessObjects

components to quickly provide real-time, executive-level

views o your sales, fnance, and operational key peror-

mance indicators (KPIs). Should a concern be agged,

Idhasots integrated approach allows the user to explore

the inormation more deeply in search o root causes and

logical next business actions.

The solution delivers prebuilt dashboards based on

industry-specifc KPIs, drill-down analysis reports, and clas-

sical production reports that are quickly deployable on top

o your existing SAP ERP implementation (see Figure ).

Moreover, the solution is readily extensible by customers

using traditional SAP BusinessObjects tools.

To learn more about Idhasot Packaged Analytics, as well

as numerous other products and services in our SAP porto-

lio, call +1 877 454-4727 or visit www.idhasoft.com. n

Make the Most of Your SAP Data Now

Deploy Prebuilt, Production-Ready Reports with IdhasoftPhilippe De Smedt

Executive Vice President

Idhasoft, Inc.

Packaged Analytics: Solution at a Glance

Idhasots Packaged Analytics solution provides prebuilt content or SAP

ERP customers, enabling them to read the transactional inormation within

SAP ERP in real time. This solution comes packaged with IdhasotsSAP Business All-in-One implementation service, but is also available as

a standalone solution that bolts on to an existing SAP ERP environment

and can be easily extended to create additional content or aging and

cash ow, or example, or or comparing operational plans versus actuals.

Whats more, you can deploy the entire solution in days, not weeks.

FIguRe 1p Ihasofts Packag Aalytics ashboa


9/10

special RepoRt

| Bun ingn


Putting together a business intelligence (BI) strategy is an

important milestone or companies that want to get the

most out o their BI investments. But its not easy most

organizations need guidance on how to drat a strategy that

will successully align and coordinate all BI activities across

the enterprise. Based on our past project experience, we atLodestone Management Consultants have developed a BI

Initiatives approach that enables our clients to do just that.

Lodstons 4-Stp ApproachLodestones BI Initiatives approach is designed to help

companies make sure their BI strategy meets the reporting

and analysis needs o the whole enterprise and that any

BI tools they select will enhance their BI environment. The

approach comprises our stages (see Figure ).

sg #1: srgy chkOur consultants can assist you with an important, yet oten

neglected, step: determining i your BI strategy supports

your overall enterprise and reporting strategy. For example,

i your corporate strategy ocuses on cost leadership, your

BI strategy should include detailed cost-o-goods fgures.

sg #2: a Bi pr, cuur, R,

nd arhur

Next, well assess your current BI structure to determine

what processes and roles are already in place. With this

assessment, our consultants can determine the best places

to implement industry benchmarks, best practices, and the

latest available technical options.

sg #3: Dfn Fuur objv fr Bi

Anticipating uture requirements and objectives is key to

a successul BI initiative. Our consultants will help you

collect, coordinate, and align eedback rom your stake-

holders including the business and IT sides o the enter-

prise to develop a vision o the long-term goals or your

BI initiative.

sg #4: Dfn Bi srgy nd Rdm

Finally, our consultants will help you develop a comprehensive

BI strategy and roadmap that outlines specifc tasks and

responsibilities. This includes a high-level design and architec-

ture, as well as recommendations or which BI tools and

components will best support your strategy. This roadmapwill also defne specifc BI initiatives and a mid-term project

schedule that includes milestones and resource assignments.

On top o this, well work with your company to develop

specifc KPIs to measure the success o your BI program so

that youll be able to easily demonstrate project progress

and meet the expectations o your project sponsors.

Larn MorLodestone Management Consultants is a global management

consultancy committed to designing and delivering solutions

that enable global companies to thrive in todays complexbusiness environment. We are experts in designing and

implementing large-scale SAP ERP and BI sotware architec-

tures that leverage your existing investments and know-how.

For more inormation, please visit www.lodestonemc.com

or contact [email protected]

Timo Schulte

Director

Lodestone Management

Consultants

4 Steps to Ensure Your BI Strategy Is Actually Strategic

An Exciting Time for BIWith the integration o new SAP BusinessObjects solutions into the existing

SAP landscape, customers are benefting rom a sustainable and even more

user-oriented BI architecture. Lodestones our-step approach to defning a

BI roadmap will help SAP customers optimally plan their BI landscape to

get the most value rom their SAP investments.

Strategycheck

Define BI strategy and roadmap

Assess BIprocesses,

culture, roles,and architecture

Define futureobjectives

for BI

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fou stags of

Lostos BI

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appoach

Lostos

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10/10

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Customers today are adopting SAP BusinessObjects BI

tools because they fnd them easy to use, more visually

appealing than their SAP BEx tools, and ull o capabilities

that arent available in the SAP BEx toolset. Organizations

are already realizing the benefts, including increased sel-

service and greater end-user adoption o BI. Most enter-

prises are also seeing expanded SAP NetWeaver BW use,

which is leading to better ROI rom SAP NetWeaver BW.

I strongly recommend that SAP customers adopt SAP

BusinessObjects BI tools or all their reporting, ad hoc anal-

ysis, and dashboarding needs. For multidimensional (OLAP)

analysis, customers should continue to use the SAP BEx

analyzer tool until the next-generation OLAP analysis tool

(codenamed Pioneer) is available.

Whats Nxt? Th SAP BsinssObjcts RoadmapSAPs public BI roadmap (available via the SAP Developer

Network at www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/vste ) already unveils

key capabilities and eatures o the next major release o

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, version XI 4.0:

At the heart o the new release will be a revamped

semantic layer with ull support or hierarchical datastructures in OLAP sources like SAP NetWeaver BW.

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence will give users ull

access to data hierarchies or fltering and sorting.

The inclusion o a data ederation capability will enable

multisource universes and simpliy analysis across

multiple data sources and types.

Additionally, SAP BusinessObjects universes will include

newly designed and optimized connectivity to SAP

NetWeaver BW, and SAP NetWeaver BW customers will be

able to leverage their existing SAP BEx queries and viewsvia BICS access in Crystal Reports (or enterprise reporting)

and Web Intelligence (or interactive analysis), in addition

to Xcelsius. Customers gain the best o both worlds: the

seamless reuse o existing SAP BEx investments andproven

BI sel-service capabilities based on a semantic layer that

abstracts the data complexities away rom the end user.

Whats more, the next-generation OLAP analysis tool

Pioneer (which is based on the SAP BEx analyzer engine)

will be able to open existing SAP BEx analyzer workbooks.

Pioneer uses the charting and interactive visualization

known rom tools like SAP BusinessObjects Explorer andSAP BusinessObjects Voyager so the entire user experi-

ence is designed or ease o use and includes additional

innovations to help analysts with complex, advanced analy-

sis tasks. Again, existing SAP NetWeaver BW users will get

to maximize their existing investment and gain access to a

next-generation, easy-to-use analysis tool.

Rcommndations: Ar Yo Makin th Most o BI?SAP customers now have access to market-leading BI

capabilities that have been optimized to support end-to-

end BI or SAP environments and non-SAP data sources and

applications. I encourage customers to start implementing

new SAP BusinessObjects BI and IM tools today and build

out a roadmap or adopting the next-generation release o

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, version XI 4.0.

The most critical success actor or a BI program is to have

a proper plan and strategy. An architectural diagram is not a

BI strategy. A BI strategy needs to start with an understand-

ing o the business pains that BI can solve (see sidebar).

To learn more about the SAP BusinessObjects portolio,

visit www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects . n

Article continued from page S-2

Successful BI Needs a Proper Strategy: SAP Helps You Build One

As part o our Road to BI success with SAP program which includes a

complete ramework, content, and tools to help customers implement BI

SAP worked with Gartner Consulting to develop a BI strategy workshop

(see fgure below) consisting o our sections called playbooks:

Playbook 1 includes lists o the most common business pain points

sorted by line o business (LOB) that BI can solve. These lists are used

to determine the degree o each pain point and the impact it could have

on the company i addressed eectively through BI. The result is a pri-

oritization visualized in a matrix.

Playbook 2 provides the scope and components o a BI strategy, best

practices, and an assessment o progress and results to date.

Playbooks 3 and 4 are all about analyzing the results o playbooks 1 and 2

and translating them into solution recommendations and business benefts.

I encourage customers to use this or a similar methodology to create and

articulate a BI strategy, as well as key perormance indicators (KPIs) or the BI

program. This is as critical as choosing the right technology to ensure success.

To learn more about the workshop, best practices, and how to build a BI

strategy, please visit www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/bi-best-practices.

p A fou-phas appoach to vlopig a BI statgy

Current BIneeds baseline

analysis

BI strategyand execution

baseline

Gapanalysis

BI strategyfoundation

Playbook 1 Playbook 2 Playbook 3 Playbook 4

Documents

v11n1_BI_whole.pdf