BW and BW Reporting

Introduduction

UNWBW1 – Business Information

Warehouse
NetWeaver Support Consultant Training
 Content

 Introduction
 Reporting
 Business content
 Data loading
 InfoCube Design
 Aggregates
 BW-BPS Business Planning & Simulation
 Monitoring & Technical Risks

 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 2

 SAP NetWeaver in Detail

SAP Mobile Infrastructure

 Tight coupling and alignment
with SAP business solutions SAP NetWeaver™
SAP Enterprise Portal People Integration
Multi-Channel Access
 Business packages
 Collaboration Portal Collaboration

Composite Application Framework

SAP Business Information Warehouse
Information Integration

Life Cycle Management

 Business content
Business Knowledge
 Open architecture (Crystal, Ascential) Intelligence Management

Master Data Management Master Data Management

Process Integration
SAP Exchange Infrastructure Integration Business Process
Broker Management
 Cross-component business processes
 Shared integration knowledge
Application Platform
SAP Web Application Server J2EE ABAP
 Proven, scalable, comprehensive toolsets
DBDBand
andOS
OS Abstraction
Abstraction
 Leverage existing infrastructure/skillsets

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 Information-Based Management

How do we get
from here . . . to here?

Data Information Knowledge Results

Realizing business value from transaction data

 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 4

 Data Warehouse Definitions

 A collection of integrated, subject-oriented databases

designed to support the DSS (Decision Support System)
function, where each unit of data is relevant to some
moment in time.
W. H. Inmon, “Building the Data Warehouse,” 1996, page 371

 A copy of transaction data specifically structured for query

and analysis.
R. Kimball, “The Data Warehouse Toolkit,” 1996, page 310

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 Data Warehouse Objectives

 Standardized structures and representation for all

enterprise information
 Easy-to-use access, single-point of access to all
enterprise information
 Self-service, high quality business reporting and
analysis on all levels
 Fast and cost-effective to deploy
 High performance environment fed from
heterogeneous sources
 Freed-up systems and IT resources in OLTP
environment

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 SAP Business Information Warehouse

 Data Warehouse system with optimized structures for

reporting and analysis
 OLAP engine and tools
 Integrated meta data repository
 Data extraction and data staging
 Preconfigured support for data sources from R/3 Systems
 BAPIs for data sources from non-SAP systems
 Automated Data Warehouse management
 Administrator Workbench for controlling and managing
content
 Only one productive client

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 Business Information Warehouse: Architecture
Business Explorer Web Reporting 3rd Party Tools

client

BAPI

InfoCubes Business
OLAP processor
Administrator Meta Data Information
Workbench Repository ODS Warehouse
Staging Engine Server
InfoObject
BAPI

Data
Sources

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 OLTP versus OLAP

Characteristics OLTP OLAP

Primary Operation Update Analyze

Level of Analysis Low High

Amount of data per transaction Very small Very large

Type of data Detailed Summary

Timeliness of data Must be current Current and historical

Updates to data Frequently Less frequent, new data only

Number of transactions/users Many (100s to 1000s) Few

Response time Quick Reasonable

Database data Normalized Denormalized

Type of processing Well defined Ad hoc

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 Administrator Workbench (RSA1)

Purpose
The Administrator Workbench is the tool for controlling, monitoring, and maintaining all of the processes
connected with data staging and processing in the Business Information Warehouse.

Integration
The data for the SAP Business Information Warehouse that has been staged with the help of the
Administrator Workbench can be evaluated and presented with the Business Explorer reporting tool.

Functions
The Administrator Workbench encompasses the following
functional areas:
 Metadata Repository
 Installing Business Content
 Modeling
 Administration
 Reporting Agent
 Documents
 Translating Texts for BW Objects

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 What is an InfoObject ?

The various OLTP data models are unified for BW

Business objects / table fields become InfoObjects

R/3
OLTP

Table of cost centers

CO
Controlling KOSTL ...

InfoObject
“0COSTCENTER”
Table of employees
HR
Human EMPLO COST_CENTER ...
Resources
InfoObjects are unique across
application components !

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 Types of InfoObjects

 Characteristics: evaluation groups like “Cost Center”,

“Product group”, “Material”
 Have discrete values stored in their master data tables
(e.g. the characteristic “Region” has the values “North”,
“South”, ... )
 Special types of characteristics:
 Time characteristics like “Fiscal period”, “Calendar year”
 Unit characteristics which comprise currencies and units
of measure like “Local currency”
 Key figures: continuously valued numerical fields like
amounts and quantities (e.g.: “Revenue” and “Sales
quantity”)

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 Master Data tables for Characteristics
Information about characteristics is stored in

Master Data Tables:

 Attribute Tables Material Attribute Table
MATERIAL_ID
 Dependent attributes of a characteristic can be
Material Group
stored in an Attribute Table for the Material Type

characteristic.
 Text Tables
Material Text Table

MATERIAL_ID
 Textual descriptions of a characteristic are stored in Material Name
a separate text table.
 External Hierarchy Tables Material Hierarchy

 Hierarchies of characteristics or attributes may be

stored in separate hierarchy tables.

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 InfoCube

 Central data store for reports and evaluations

 Contains two types of data
 Key figures
 Characteristics

 2 fact tables and 16 dimension tables

 3 Dimensions are predefined by SAP
 Time
 Unit
 Packet

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 InfoCube: Example

East

Customer
Region
South

group

Dept. Stores
North

Wholesale
Retail

Glass- Ceramics Plastics Pottery Copper Pewter

ware

Division
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 InfoCube: Multi-dimensional analysis

Characteristics: InfoCube

Product group
Customer group
East
Region

Division
Customer
South

Area
group
DeptStores Company code
North

Wholesale
Retail
Region
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware Period
Division Profit Center
Bus. Area

1 Analysis 2 Analysis 3 Analysis

of Ceramics of Plastics of Plastics division
division division and Southern region
East

East
South East

Region

Region
Customer Customer Customer
Region

South

South
group group group
DeptStores DeptStores DeptStores
North

North

North
Wholesale Wholesale Wholesale
Retail Retail Retail
Glass- Ceramics Plastics Glass- Ceramics Plastics Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware ware ware

Division Division Division

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 Operational Data Store

The BW ODS-Object:

Stores transaction data

Is a denormalized data structure

 Transparent table
 Not a star schema

Can hold data that is available for

reporting
 Not optimized for query
performance

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 InfoProvider

InfoProviders are the objects or

views relevant to reporting. All
BW objects for which queries in
SAP BW can be created or
executed are InfoProviders.

Examples for InfoProviders are:

InfoCubes

ODS Objects

MultiProviders

InfoObjects

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 MultiProvider

MultiProvider = Union of InfoProviders

homogeneous MultiProvider
 same Characteristics and Key Figures in all participating
InfoProviders ("partprov")
 example: MultiProvider with identical InfoCubes
 InfoCube 1: data for EUROPE
 InfoCube 2: data for ASIA
 InfoCube 3: data for AMERICAS
 purpose: partitioning on InfoProvider level

heterogeneous MultiProvider
 only a subset of common Characteristics
 purposes:
 integrating scenarios that share some semantics
 combine differing aggregation levels (e.g. plan – actual scenarios)
 tackle sparse tables

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 MultiProvider Example

MultiProvider

Basic Cube Basic Cube

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 Queries

A query is a collection of characteristics and

key figures (InfoObjects) for the analysis of
the data of an InfoProvider.

A query always refers exactly to one

InfoProvider, whereas you can define as
many queries as you like for each
InfoProvider.

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 Content

 Introduction
 Reporting
 Business content
 Data loading
 InfoCube Design
 Aggregates
 BW-BPS Business Planning & Simulation
 Monitoring & Technical Risks

 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 22

 Business Information Warehouse: Architecture
Business Explorer Web Reporting 3rd Party Tools

client

BAPI

InfoCubes Business
OLAP processor
Administrator Meta Data Information
Workbench Repository Persistent
ODS Warehouse
Staging Engine Server
InfoObject
BAPI

Data
Sources

 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 23

 Query Design

BEx Query Designer

 Ease-of use via drag & drop
 Personalized access
 Comfortable formula editor for
calculations
 One-step web publishing
 Windows-based component
 Web interface for intuitive ad-
hoc analysis on the web

Only Filter and

Column Section in
tabular mode

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 Business Explorer Analyzer

Windows Start menu → Programs → Business Explorer → Analyzer

You may choose a single query or a workbook,
which executes several queries at once.

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 Web Reporting

Queries can be published to the Web using the BEx, accessible then via URL

If the standard web

template does not fit
customer may use the
BEx Web
Application Designer
to change the template

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 Reporting - Integration with Crystal Reports

Reports and documents optimized for printing and

Sharing →
here we go, that’s the main reason for
using crystal

Out of the box presentation-quality reporting

Broad range of pre-defined crystal reports: legal,

financial, etc

SAP and non-SAP data in a single

report

Seamless portal integration

Schedule and view Crystal reports

in managed web environment

Offline reporting and viewing of

reports

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 BI Suite: Business Explorer (BEx) 3.5

Portal Integration

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 Key Functions: Information Broadcasting
Information Broadcasting allows the distribution of BI information

... via different channels ...

() E-Mail (works independently from an EP installation)
() Enterprise Portal

... in different formats ...

() HTML, MHTML
() BEx Analyzer Workbooks
() ZIP Files

… of different sources …
() BI Web Applications - Dashboards, cockpits
() BEx Analyzer Workbooks
() Queries

… in different modes…
() Online & pre-calculated

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 Key Functions: Information Broadcasting
Information Broadcasting supports different business scenarios

() Event based (“Intelligent push”)

 Integration into process chains
 E.g If new data is loaded into the data container (InfoCube)

() Ad hoc
 BEx Broadcasting Wizard for one-step distribution

() Scheduled
 BEx Broadcaster
 Guided scheduling times (for end users / information consumers)
Ensures system performance because of better load balancing
 Scheduling at any time (for power users / administrators)
Create scheduling slots for specific user groups
No time restriction and no target restriction
Create pre-calculations based on the data authorizations of the target
user

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