components of sap businessobjects4.0 – an...

Components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 –

An Overview

Components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 –

An Overview

Adam Getz

Practice Manager, Business Intelligence

DCS Consulting, Inc.

DCS Consulting is a Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing (BI/DW) professional

services firm.�

� Located in Washington DC Area.

� SAP Business Objects – Extended Business Partner.

� Our customers range from DOD and Federal Civilian clients to Health Care,

Financial Services, Consumer Goods, & Energy.

� Technology Expertise:

• SAP BusinessObjects

• Visual Cue

• DOMO

• CGI Momentum Financials


9048 John Sutherland Lane, Lorton, VA 22079 | P: 703.690.5730 | [email protected] | www.dcsfederal.com Page: 2

Overview of DCS Consulting, Inc.

BI Products: Value vs. Product Complexity


9048 John Sutherland Lane, Lorton, VA 22079 | P: 703.690.5730 | [email protected] | www.dcsfederal.com

Operational

Reports

Ad-hoc

Reports

OLAP &

MobilityDashboards

& Scorecards

Exploration

& Visualization

Organizational Value and Impact

Predictive

Modeling

Traditional BI

Answers Known Questions

Pro

du

ct C

om

ple

xit

y

Advanced BI

Answers Unknown Questions

What’s Included in the SAP BI 4.0 Suite?



Page: 4

BI 4.0 Platform

Crystal Reports Predictive

Web Intelligence

DashboardsLumira

Explorer Mobile

Data Services, Text Analysis

Suite of Business

Intelligence Products

HANA Database

What’s Included in the SAP BI 4.0 Suite?



Page: 5

BI PlatformBI Launch Pad, CMC, Universes

Web

Intelligence

Crystal

Reports

Visual

Intelligence &

PredictiveDashboards &

Mobile BI

Explorer &

OLAP

Data Services, Text Analysis, HANA (Database),

BI Launch Pad 4.0 – End User Portal



� Highly intuitive web environment for end-users

� One point of access to all BI tools and information

� Home Tab contains most relevant content in 5 modules:

� My Recently Viewed Documents

� Unread Messages in My Inbox

� My Recently Run Documents

� Unread Alerts

� My Applications

BI Launch Pad –

Home Tab

BI Launch Pad –

Documents Tab

� Document Tab provides access to all BI content:

� Left Hand Navigation Divided by 4 Drawers

� My Documents

� Folders

� Categories

� Search

� Details Panel (View and Open BI Documents)

Central Management Console (CMC)



� Web-Based Administration Tool

� Configuration and Management of BusinessObjects Environment

� Control of System Elements

� User and Groups

� Folders and Personal Folders

� Settings and Preferences

� Server and Services

� Security, Access Levels, & Authentication

� Objects, Rights, Permissions

� License Keys

� Universes and Data Connections

� Calendars

� Events

� Management of User, Group, and Object-Level Rights

Central Management

Console

Universe: Semantic Middleware Layer / Metadata



� Business representation of a database

� Translates databases into business terms

� Resides between a database and reports/queries

� Provides an interface to create ad-hoc queries

Information Design Tool (IDT)

with .unx Universe

� Legacy versions of BusinessObjects (Prior to BI 4.0)

– Legacy universe format (.unv) − Universe design tool called Designer

� Starting with SAP BI 4.0

– New universe format (.unx) − New universe design tool called Information Design Tool (IDT)

Crystal Reports: Operational Reporting



� Create high-fidelity, pixel-perfect reports

� Advanced development environment

� Ideal tool for developers

� Ideal solution for canned or published reports

� Multiple deployment options:

– Crystal Reports 2011: Provides a incremental update

to Crystal Reports 2008 with some new features.

– Crystal Reports for Enterprise: Newly designed

version of Crystal Reports, with a major redesign of

the Crystal Reports Designer, but with some

limitations.

Crystal Reports 2011

Crystal Reports for

Enterprise

Web Intelligence (WebI):



� Web-Based Query & Analysis

� Business users develop reports / charts / ad-hoc queries

� Generates answers to business questions

� Ideal for business users and analysts

� Drag and drop fields, prompts, and filters to develop

queries and reports within the WebI Designer

� View and format data within the WebI Report Panel

� Uses BOBJ Universe as a source

WebI Designer

WebI Report Panel

SAP BI 4.0 Dashboards



� Formerly Called Xcelsius (prior to SAP BI 4.0)

� Display Interactive Visual Models with charts, drop-down menus, and sliders

� Display Enterprise KPIs

� Visually Stunning Presentations

� Integrated with SAP BI 4.0 Platform

� New Features / Integration

– Direct connections to universes

– New query panel to rapidly generate queries

– Live data preview at design time

– New formatting options

SAP BI 4.0 Dashboard

SAP BI 4.0 Mobile App



SAP BI 4.0 Mobile App

� Business Intelligence on the Go

� For Use on Smart Phone or Tablet Device

� Real-time Access to Data

� Leverages Existing BI Infrastructure

� Download Mobile Apps from the iTunes Store

� Enables personnel to make time-critical decisions even when disconnected from the enterprise network

� Access to Data on 24x7 Basis

SAP BI 4.0 Explorer



� Guided Data Exploration

� Unparalleled Query and Analysis Capacities

� Quickly Explore and Visualize Very Large Data Sets

� Key Word Search Experience Similar to Google, Yahoo, or Bing

� Rapidly Drill Down and Drill Up

� Pervasive Searches with queries directly to data without the need for a predefined report or query

� Utilizes Existing BOBJ Universes

SAP BI 4.0 Explorer

SAP BI 4.0 Analysis, Edition for OLAP



� Analyze multi-dimensional data with an intuitive web interface

� Conduct what-if analysis

� Accessed from the BI Launch Pad portal within a web browser

� Successor product to SAP BusinessObjectsVoyager

� Data sources Include:

� SAP NetWeaver BW version 7.x

� MS SQL Server Analysis Services 2005/2008

SAP BI 4.0 Analysis,

Edition for OLAP

SAP BI 4.0 Analysis, Edition for MS Office



� Analyze multi-dimensional data from an MS Office interface

� Conduct what-if analysis of OLAP data in MS Excel

� Develop MS PowerPoint presentations with embedded, live data

� Alternative to the Excel analyzer tool of the SAP BEx suite (SAP BEx Analyzer).

� Data sources include:

� SAP NetWeaver BW

SAP BI 4.0 Analysis,

Edition for MS Office

SAP BI 4.0 Lumira



SAP BI 4.0 Lumira (Visual Intelligence)

� Formerly called SAP BI Visual Intelligence

� Highly-interactive visualizations of data

� Instant visualization on large volume of data

� Visually conduct data analysis

� Attractive analytics to convey and share knowledge

� View data from many different visual perspectives

� Choose from breadth of visualizations including Geo & Trellis charts

� Chart manipulation with trends, forecast, rank, sort & calculated measures

In the past, Predictive Analysis has been an island.

There is a wide disconnect between the BI and Advanced Analytics world.



But Now, SAP brings BI and Advanced Analytics together.





SAP BI 4.0 Predictive Analysis

� Most Advanced Business Intelligence Capabilities

� True Data Mining Ability

� Exploits useful patterns in data that may have otherwise been difficult to determine

� Leverages statistics, advanced techniques, algorithms, and sophisticated data search capabilities

� Forecasts and projects future results

� Calculates levels of correlation between data elements

SAP BI 4.0 Predictive Analysis




9048 John Sutherland Lane, Lorton, VA 22079

703-966-5831 office

www.dcsfederal.com

Adam Getz

Practice Manager, Business Intelligence

703-863-7202 cell

[email protected]

Check out www.bi-insider.com