SAP BusinessObjects Demos on YouTube…

I’m amazed at how easy it is to find information these days.  Today I decided to do a follow-up post based on my most recent WebIntelligence demo post.  After a little searching around and I found a number of demos that had been posted by David Collins Dixon onto Youtube.  David has written a number of books about the SAP Business Information Warehouse (or BW for short).

SAP Integration Demos

Here are the list of demos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidcollinsdixon

Crystal Reports Demo leveraging SAP Hierarchies (No AUDIO)

David does an especially nice job with the Crystal Reports demo and shows you how to use the Hierarchy Node so Crystal Reports can properly leverage your SAP Hierarchy definition.

Xcelsius Demos

There are also a couple of demos from the guys at Everything Xcelsius:
http://www.youtube.com/user/XcelsiusGurus

If you find any SAP BusinessObjects videos that you think others would benefit from, just add links to them in a posted comment.

«Good BI»

WebIntelligence Integration with SAP

After attempting to move my blog off wordpress.com on Friday, I decided it was going to be more involved and I had a bit more testing to do before I was willing to make the final switch… but that’s another story.

So what do I have for you this week?  Well, I ran across a great demo by Ingo Hilgefort.  Ingo is a great resource.  He was one of the original folks that helped Crystal Decisions develop the SAP Integration Kit way back in the day and you can read more about him on his blog.  He’s what you would call the resident expert.  Last week a saw a demo that Ingo put together and I really liked it and wanted to share it here.

Watch the Demonstration

Excellent Overview of SAP BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence Integration:

You’ll see that he demonstrates some of the latest fold/unfold capabilities that come with BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP2. Do recognize that is is NOT a replacement for the upcoming Pioneer release. I recently spoke with a customer who didn’t like the fact that the WebIntelligence document had to be in a specific layout/format in order to leverage fold/unfold. REMEMBER! WebIntelligence is an adhoc reporting solution that allows you to easily create formatted reports. It’s not targeted for power analysts. Pioneer is coming… in the meantime you’ll still need to use BEx Web Analyzer for that that power analyst group.

SAP BusinessObjects Roadmap for WebIntelligence

NOTE: for the latest roadmap updates on the SAP BusinessObjects Product Integration go to http://sdn.sap.com

Download the PPT

Here is a download of his powerpoint presentation in PDF format:
http://trustedbi.com/files/sapwebi_webinar.pdf

Note the slides that explain how the items for the BEx Query panel are translated to objects within the Universe.  It’s important to understand what objects will be exposed to the adhoc user as the build the report and which objects, e.g. characteristic restrictions, won’t be.

Make sure as well you get your hands on the SAP BusinessObjects Best Practices Guide as well.

«Good BI»

BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Features

I haven’t seen a lot of information available that talks about what’s new in the release of the latest version, BusinessObjects XI 3.1, so I thought I would point out some of the highlights I’ve come across.  You may also want read the complete What’s New in BusinessObjects XI 3.1 guide from the website.

Release Highlights

BusinessObjects XI 3.1 is a release that is focused on bringing parity to our platform support for both Java and .NET.  In BusinessObjects XI 3.0 we did not provide a .NET version of our standard BI portal, InfoView.  In BusinessObjects XI 3.1 we have released a native .NET portal which has near parity with the Java version.  I say near parity, because there are a few things missing, namely:

• Encyclopedia
• Dashboard Builder
• Voyager
• BI Mobile
• Polestar

For companies who find comfort in an all Microsoft World, this release will be welcomed.  BusinessObjects XI 3.1 has added support for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Sharepoint Portal Server 2007.  (There is also Microsoft Active Directory Forest Support as well!)  If you are using the SAP Integration Kit, this is also now available on the .NET platform.

Web Application Container Service

One of the way in which BusinessObjects has been able to balance both rich feature sets and cross platform compatibility is through the introduction of a new server to the BusinessObjects Platform.  This service is called the WACS, Web Application Container Service, and is a java container.  What this allows BusinessObjects to do is to run existing java applications through the BusinessObjects framework.

Let me explain how this will work in practice.  The BusinessObjects Administration Console, the CMC, is written in Java.  Instead of rewritting this application in .NET, BusinessObjects simply added the WACS to the BusinessObjects service bus and will execute application via this service.  The beauty of this solution is that the .NET administrator never has to worry about it.  BusinessObjects manages everything.

What other Applications can use the WACS?

Besides the CMC, there are a number of other applications that could within the WACS.  This includes:

• Interactive DHTML Viewer for WebIntelligence
• Query as a Web Service (for supporting Xcelsius)
• LiveOffice

There is an important document that covers what is supported and what is not supported within the WACS framework.  In theory all native java-based aspects of the BusinessObjects application suite could be run through the WACS but the question is whether or not it is officially supported.  This document is called:  Web Application Container Server (WACS): Supported and Unsupported Features for BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1and it explains the details.  You can download it here.

Additional Platform Enhancements

BusinessObjects XI 3.1 supports IPv6 100% across the product suite (except for Desktop Intelligence).  They have also added their first native 64-bit architecture.  Since BusinessObjects XIr2 SP3, the platform has been able to run on 64-bit operating systems however the platform still runs as a 32-bit application.  The first native 64-bit release is an the HP-UX IA-64 Itanium hardware.

Life Cycle Manager

Life Cycle Manager, LCM for short, s a web-based utility that allows the administrator to:

• Promote BI content from one system to another (without affecting the dependencies of the content)
• Manage dependencies of BI content
• Manage different versions of BI content
• Roll back (yahoo!) promoted BI content

This tool does not install with the platform, but is a separate install.

“So isn’t that what the Import Wizard is for?”, you may be asking?  Well, certainly the import wizard has been used to provide this type of functionality in the past – especially with the introduction of BIAR files in BusinessObjects XI; however I think you’ll see from the list of features in LCM, it is better to have a specialized tool for the LCM process.

Life Cycle Manager provides a number of features over the Import Wizard (besides rollback) including:

• Granular control over the objects selected (yes, we trust you)
• Scheduling Promotions Jobs (a job is a collection of BI content or InfoObjects to be precise)
• Integrated Version Control (via Subversion)
• Database connection overrides and mapping (Tired of changing database connection strings?)
• Auditing
• The ability to “preview” to changes before committing them
• Rollback, Did I mention rollback?

There is a new LCM Job server which has been added to the platform to manage the promotion process.

Have you ever created a BIAR file and realized you missed a file?  Now with LCM you can save your Promotion job and use it to generate a BIAR file.  If you find that something is missing, you can simply open up the promotion job , select the missing objects and regenerate the BIAR file.

BIAR ≠ BIAR

When is a BIAR file not a BIAR file?  Well, with the LCM tool, the BIAR files which are generated by the LCM tool are LCMBIAR files.  As the name indicates, the LCMBIAR files are NOT compatible with the BIAR files used with the Import Wizard.  Bummer.

Voyager

Voyager was the other biggie.  A lot of work was put into providing interface enhancements and increased performance.  This is probably the last release before the eagerly anticipated release of “Pioneer” in 2009, which will combine Voyager’s intuitive user interface with the powerful OLAP capabilities of the BEx OLAP tools.

Voyager now has a number of new visualizations including Box-Plot, Scatter, Bubble and Radar charts.    There are also a number of features that were in OLAP Intelligence, which were missing in earlier versions of Voyager, namely, Exception highlighting, URL Linking to other BI Content and Favorite Groups.

Have you ever made a mistake when building a Voyager workspace?  Well, now you have full undo/redo capabilities.  After being so used to the undo/redo capabilities in WebIntelligence, I always found the missing feature extremely annoying and I’m sure other did to.

Fly Over Of Additional Features

Rather than talk about additional features in detail, I thought I would briefly mention some of them here and perhaps in the future I can blog about them in detail if there is interest.

Semantic Layer -Support for BEGIN_SQL, Prompt support for codes AND descriptions.

Crystal Reports – Dual Monitor support, flash printing to PDF.

WebIntelligence -Support for Extension Points, Auto-Save, RelativeValue(), Multi-Pass Bursting

SAP Integration – SNC for BusinessObjects Universes (Prior to XI 3.1, this was only available for Crystal Reports), Improve Prompt Support for Hierarchy and Hierarchy Node dependencies.

Dashboard Builder – Printing, Interportlet Communication

Summary

There are some good things that have come out in this latest release.  This release is also the latest ‘reset point’ for BusinessObjects XI 3.X maintenance, so you can expect fix packs for XI 3.0 to no longer be released.

Hope you found this information useful.  I’ve tried to keep it short and sweet.

«Good BI»

Multipass SQL 2.0 (Updated 2/23/2009)

So what is Multipass SQL?

Multipass SQL. To calculate comparisons or to correctly calculate non-additive measures in report break rows, the query tool must break the report down into a number of simple queries that are processed separately by the DBMS. The query tool then automatically combines the results of the separate queries in an intelligent way. Breaking a single complex request into several small requests is called multipass SQL. Multipass SQL also allows drilling across several conformed data marts in different databases, in which the processing of a single galactic SQL statement would otherwise be impossible. Finally, multipass SQL gives the aggregate navigator a chance to speed up the report, because each atomic SQL request is simple and easily analyzed by the aggregate navigator. (from Ralph Kimball)

Welcome Multipass 2.0 with BusinessObjects!

Okay – it’s not new, but I dubbed it 2.0 because in my opinion BusinessObjects takes a superior approach to the Multipass SQL problem.

BusinessObjects employs a number of techniques to solve traditional multipass problems in a unique way.  Users of BusinessObjects can get the power of Multipass SQL without the traditional contraints and overheads of inserting records into temporary tables and requiring the report creator to engage in a number of complex steps to get the desired results.  (Anyone ever run out of temp space?)

Highlighted here are some of the most common scenarios in which BusinessObjects employs Multipass 2.0 techniques.

Single dimension across multiple fact tables – The IT organization can configure the Universe (BusinessObjects Semantic Layer) to generate multiple SQL statements when measures exist in from multiple fact tables.

Using the grains of measurement in the same query -  Sometimes you want to be able to do create a query that shows Previous YTD, YTD, QTD, MTD for the same measure, e.g. Revenue.

Requiring the end results to be used in a calculation – Displaying values such as % contribution, ratios (revenue per employee), etc.

Semi-additive measures – My personal favorite.  These measures are traditionally measures that aggregate over all dimensions EXCEPT time.  Some examples are stock level, account balance.  The stock level in the database display the number that are on-hand as of the end of the day.  The account balance displays how much money is in my account and the end of the day.  If I look at these figures across geographies, then they need to be summed up; however if I want to look at the values for the current month, I should only use the value as of today.

Analyzing a subset of data – Sometimes I want to be able to analyze a subset of data to another subset of data.  For example, get all the latest customer transactions and compare them to the historical transactions.

In every single one of these cases, BusinessObjects delivers the results that the user needs without creating temporary tables and inserting thousands of records.  Instead BusinessObjects uses a number of techniques including:

• Derived Tables
• Multi-SQL Universe Options
• Universe Contexts
• Query-Drill
• Report Variables

How To Whitepaper Available

If I’ve whet your appetite for more information, then you will want to download the whitepaper from the SAP SDN site.  This whitepaper explains in detail exactly how to accomplish each of these scenarios using BusinessObjects.  I’ve had some problems with these documents from time to time, so I’ve also made them available from my blog directly.  You can download the whitepaper here and the powerpoint here.

The bottom line is that modern high performance databases are experts at handling extremely complex SQL.  Their optimization engines mean that it is no longer necessary to break queries down into managable pieces and perform multiple passes in the traditional sense.

What Do You Think?

If  you have a complex query scenario that can’t be solved by one of the techniques used in this whitepaper, I’d love to hear from you.

Enjoy.

«Good BI»

Common Questions about Connectivity with SAP

Now that SAP has clearly and unambiguously stated that BusinessObjects is the new face of BI for SAP, we have many customers who want more information about connectivity with SAP and are surprised when we recommend that they connect to an existing BW Query instead of to the entire Infocube.

Why is connecting to SAP BI/BW Queries a best practice?

There are several reasons for connecting via SAP BW Queries:

• Performance – The BW OLAP Engine performs its processing against the query cube. In the event, you connect an external analysis tool directly to an InfoCube, a query cube consisting of all the characteristics and key figures in that InfoCube is generated on the fly in order to handle the request processing. This process adds significantly to the processing time of the request made by the end-user when compared to reporting against a pre-defined BW Query.
• Capabilities – There are several capabilities exposed via the interface to BW Queries that are not exposed when connecting directly to the cube such as calculated and restricted key figures to name a few.
• Flexibility – The BW Query Designer offers an extension to the data modeling environment in which changes are relatively easy to make as compared to the effort required to change an InfoCube.

Is this required across all the reporting tools? (WebI, Voyager, Crystal Reports)

Its mostly applicable to WebI and Voyager. There’s more flexibility with Crystal since it has more connectivity interfaces to SAP and it is not designed to be an ad-hoc reporting and analysis tool. Xcelsius will typically be built against scheduled content since most dashboard data is usually only updated every 24 hours.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this different approaches to SAP Connectivity?

Advantages of BW Query – The BW Query can take advantage of Query capabilities such as CKF and RKF. The BI Team can also provide better control over how much data user can request.

Advantages of InfoCube – The BI Team can expose entire dataset to user without additional work from BI team

Disadvantages of BW Query – Using BW Queries requires additional work from BI team to setup queries specifically around areas of the business, e.g. marketing, sales, etc. It limits amount of information available to user for a given query. That being said, the adhoc report designer can combine multiple queries within a single report. In addition a well defined BW Query can serve as the data sources for multiple reports. (whereas traditionally in SAP BW, we saw 1 query = 1 report)

Disadvantages of InfoCube -Users can get lost in the large amount of data available to them. There is a lack of CKF and RKF, which will lead to users creating more filters and calculations at the report level. These efforts will likely be duplicated across multiple reports. Duplication leads to duplicate work and the potential for different answers based on different formulas (i.e., no “single source of the truth” for those formulas)

Performance of BW Query – Better. Because of the constraint on information available to the end-user, the query design can test a subset of data and guarantee a certain level of performance.

Performance of InfoCube – Vulnerable. Because the entire cube is visible, there is no what to know what combinations of information the user might pick. Without specific controls over the type and amount of data returned, it is impossible to determine who long the query might run.

Flexibility of BW Query – The BW Query is more flexibility in regards to exposing “processed” data (CKF and RKF). It also provides flexibility when it comes to making changes to underlying data because not every change to the InfoCube will impact a BW Query.

Flexibility of InfoCube – The Infocube is the most flexible with regards to the data exposed.

What data structures in SAP are supported within BusinessObjects?

WebIntelligence/Voyager supports: Standard and Transactional InfoCubes, Remote InfoCube (not recommended due to performance), MultiCube, MultiProvider.

Crystal Reports supports: Standard and Transactional InfoCubes, Remote InfoCube (not recommended due to performance), MultiCube, MultiProvider, ODS, R/3 Infosets, ABAP Queries, ABAP Functions. ABAP Data Clusters, Transparent Tables, Pool Tables, Cluster Tables, zTables, InfoViews

Conclusion

It’s been exciting to see how quickly SAP customers have been able to unlock the data that they have in their Business Warehouse to a whole new groups of users.  Users can now create their own reports from scratch using the WebIntelligence interface.  Executive users and front-line contributors can have their personalized data delivered directly to the desktop.

I can’t wait to see what will unfold within our next generation of tools.