qlikview sap
TRANSCRIPT
STRATEGY PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 2005
Chasa Ursa Major
CH-7550 Scuol
Switzerland
QlikView for SAP-Users
Whitepaper - Version E 1.0
November 2005
Helmuth Gümbel - Managing Partner
Strategy Partners International
Chasa Ursa Major
CH-7550 Scuol
Text and Illustrations were compiled with utmost of care. However, the author will not take responsibility or be held liable for any possible remaining incorrect information and the resulting consequences thereof.
This piece of work is protected through copyright. All rights concerning the translation, reprinting, the use of illustrations, radio broadcasting, the reproduction through photgraphic or any other means, as well the storage in dataprocessing facilities, even if only excerpts are utilized, are therefore reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP and NetWeaver are brands and trademarks of SAP. QlikView and QlikTech are brands of QlikTech International AB.
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Table of Contents
Goal of this White Paper ............................................................................1
Management Summary .............................................................................2
The Special Situation of SAP-Customers ..............................................3
What does an SAP-User want?..................................................................5
QlikView – a Solution................................................................................6
How Compatible is QlikView with the SAP-Architecture?...................11
When is QlikView interesting for the SAP-User? ..................................11
When is QlikView a less sensible choice? ..............................................12
Bottom Line ..............................................................................................13
Index of Illustrations.................................................................................14
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Goal of this White Paper
We want to help CIOs making investment decisions for complimentary
software in an SAP environment by supplying important background
information. In particular, readers will receive information on when to select
QlikView and how to position such an investment in the light of SAP’s
NetWeaver strategy, as NetWeaver contains business analytics in addition to a
broad range of middleware functions.
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Management Summary
In a time where information needs are constantly changing, where there is an
abundance of data, yet a lack of information, interest in analytical tools is
growing day by day. Unfortunately it is difficult, complicated and expensive
to get to quick and easy to understand information. Data compiled often
originates from very different systems and even if a company has standardized
on a single applications vendor such as SAP the environment can be very
heterogeneous due to different software release levels.
Part of SAP’s product line is a business intelligence product. Users found the
product to be quite useful in a number of analytical roles and well suited for
the construction of complex data warehouses, but they also were quick to
recognize that is requires lengthy and expensive preparations.. QlikView is an
attractive alternative, when quick data analysis without the building a complex
Data Warehouse or Data Mart is called for. As one user put it: “Using
QlickView it took us a day and a half to fulfill 80% of requirements that we
had not been able to satisfy in year and a half using SAP BW “.
QlikView uses patented technology, which is able to process large amounts of
data at a very high speed.
Apart from offering important Cost-of-Ownership advantages QlickView also
gives you more architectural flexibility:
• QlikView neither forces you to follow SAP’s proposed migration
strategy to NetWeaver
• nor does QlikView constitute an obstacle when implementing
NetWeaver.
• Choosing QlikView does not constitute a predisposition towards
any middleware stack.
Choosing QlikView can free your business analytics decisions from strategic
ballast as low cost allows for quick amortization. Hence, we recommend
using QlikView whenever only analytics are required, data warehousing is not
(yet) an issue and high performance as well as flexibility are desired. Of
course, QlikView can be used in a Data Warehouse environment.
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The Special Situation of SAP-Customers
At the Sapphire 2005 in Boston SAPs CEO America, Bill McDermott
declared: "Clients have made their choice. Best of breed is gone." This
statement, though referring to CRM competitor Siebel, bought recently by
Oracle, is meant to say that SAP believes it can handle all requirements with
its broad set of applications.
In reality, it is very difficult to find SAP installations using exclusively SAP
software even in functional areas, where SAP excels. At this time, SAP has
only about 50% functional penetration in its customer base. The rest is a
whole plethora of other applications.
Though there are many reasons for this, they all point in the same direction:
users always choose the solution that, after having deliberated all the criteria,
is the most suitable for them at that moment.
SAP Versions Installed 5/2005
5%
6%
7%
8%
58%
14%2%
3.1i4.0B4.5B4.6B4.6C4.7 CoremySAP ERP
Source: Strategy Partners International
On the other hand, SAP has sold mySAP-software-suites to a great number of
customers. Even though over 50% of the SAP customers have such licenses
the overwhelming majority of them still use older versions. SAP wants to
leverage the termination of regular maintenance at the end of 2006 to make
Figure 1: Old SAP versions prevail
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customers migrate but many customers will continue to first look at their own
business before evaluating software vendor proposals for migration.
Over 80% of SAP’s customers are expected to continue having heterogeneous
software environments. SAP customers running several installations often use
different versions that cannot be upgraded easily and cost effectively. Old
applications are still in use due to practical and financial reasons, and though
they still function adequately, they do not meet the need for a uniform
technological concept, as postulated by SAP. Corporate mergers and
acquisitions and the increasingly important cross-enterprise collaborations
continue to add new elements into the application portfolio.
Users want to establish a uniform view on their corporate data quickly and
without hassles. Migrating the applications to a uniform platform, however, is
difficult, risky, time consuming, and expensive.
A migration like that would also increase the dependency on one vendor, his
weight and the speed of his technology development.. This is a discomforting
prospect for many users.
The ever increasing demand for fast data analysis is accompanied with the
growing inability to consolidate all data into one system..
What are the requirements SAP users have for a modern business analytics??
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What does an SAP-User want?
Most SAP-Installations already have a wide spectrum of analytical tools, such
as Microsoft Excel, where the basics are easily learnt, but whose boundaries
are quickly reached when more complicated demands arise. In addition, the
once praised freedom of choice has often turned into a hard to control chaos.
Today, many companies are unable to say how the data that they “only” use
for decision support was created and what tools were used.
Most users want:
• a tool, that is easy to learn and that will produce results within a few days. Simple and user-friendly, it should allow an intuitive way of working without requiring data modeling knowledge
• short implementation times allowing them to experience success quickly
• a solution, that does not require waiting for the outcome of a multi year SAP migration and upgrade plan
• the flexibility to choose freely from a plethora of data sources, including older SAP versions Without having to worry about unexpected or hidden costs
• to be able to introduce SAP BW at a later stage without having to re-architect the system or the need to buy a different business analysis tool
• a high speed of analysis that is sustainable even in the light of rapidly growing data
• a solution with low infrastructure requirements that is database independent.
• business analytics that can be implemented quickly and easily without lengthy preparations
• transparent analysis with reproducible results. The majority of analysis is used for decision making. There is a general trend towards improved trackability on all levels of the decision making process (either enforced by law as in the case of Sarbanes-Oxley or mandated by quality assurance standards as in the cases of Six Sigma and ISO), and users increasingly want transparent analysis processes.
• independence from a vendor’s technology stack (NetWeaver, WebSphere, .NET…)
• a vendor focusing totally on business analysis rather than using BI as a tool to make users buy additional applications.
• a solution that is affordable, has low costs of operation, and can be budgeted predictably today and for the foreseeable future.
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QlikView – a Solution
Most companies have heterogeneous data and a plethora of applications.
Notwithstanding all attempts to consolidate, we view this state of
heterogeneity as permanent. By definition heterogeneity is not constant and it
is very hard to predict how it will evolve in detail. This makes business
analysis tools that are data and application independent very attractive. They
do not require uniform environments at all. SAP, as an applications
manufacturer, has a great interest to migrate customers to newer versions. To
keep migration pressure high, newer SAP solutions have very limited
backwards compatibility and it is difficult or even impossible to integrate
them with older SAP software versions.
That problem doesn’t exist for an independent manufacturer like QlikTech.
All data systems and applications are the same for them – and they support
what is needed by the customer. The QlikTech product QlikView will adapt
itself – it has integrated data extraction tools, which can not only access SAP
systems, but will also allow access to SAP’s Business Warehouse. In addition,
many other application systems are supported and, of course, extracts can be
made from data of custom made applications.
How does QlikView meet the demands detailed above?
Quick learning. QlikView has a three level user- and role concept. General
users, called “analyzers” by QlikView need only a few minutes to become
familiar with QlikView. Professional users building analysis need about two
days’ training. The IT expert, covering all technical aspects, is called
Enterprise User, needs to have an understanding of the underlying data model
as a prerequisite. Two days of training are sufficient to cover all aspects of his
role. Easy to learn, QlikView is also very easy to use: analytical displays,
called “Sheets”, allow for more profound analysis (“drill-down“) at any time.
Changing the view on the data, slicing and dicing it differently, can be done
any time without starting the analytical process from its beginning. Users can
fully concentrate on the analysis without being sidetracked by procedural
aspects (such as pre-defined drill down paths).
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Short implementation times: the highway to quick success. Typically,
QlikView is implemented and fully operational within a few days. Users are
delighted to see results quickly. They can almost instantaneously start learning
from their results and refine their analysis.
Independence of SAP migration and upgrade plans. There is no
dependence on migration or upgrade planning as QlikView is not tied to the
SAP infrastructure. For instance , you do not have to wait until a Business
Warehouse has been implemented or for a mySAP ERP introduction. On the
other hand, QlikView does not get into the way with such plans. Thus, a lot of
pressure is taken out of the planning.
Free choice of data sources. QlikView is essentially suitable for any kind of
data source. Most all data types and databases can be retrieved via ODBC or
OLE DB connections. QlikView can also get to data from any other structured
source such text-, Excel- or XML-files. Data from various ERP applications
from vendors such as SAP, Intentia/Lawson, Oracle or Microsoft can be
integrated. QlikView doesn’t have any hidden costs or unpleasant surprises
either, because there are no data volume dependent fees nor are there any
vendor audits. Unlike with SAP’s BW, where you need an expensive
OpenHub when exchanging data with other systems, there are no such
restrictions with QlikView. Using QlikView’s salient openness and data
integration capabilities is free from additional license costs.
No architectural restrictions. QlikView can directly access SAP data
through using an interface that is also used by many ABAP programs.
Alternatively, an ODBC driver may be used. Installations using SAP BW
now, or that are planning to do so in the future, can use QlikView as well.
BW can be used as a data source by QlikView, too. Thus, a BW-strategy
remains always an option - organizations do not have to give up such plans.
High speed of analysis. QlikView uses patented technology employing main
memory instead of a database. This technology offers not only extreme
speed, but also allows for quasi associative data access resulting in unique
flexibility when designing and changing analysis. Users can construct their
data views without being restricted by a schema – in fact, they do not even
have to know such schemata. Data is extremely compressed when loaded into
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memory. As shown in a practical case, 200 million records from a 15TB Data
Warehouse took only 4 GB of main memory. This high performance
technology allows sustainable advantages even for large and rapidly growing
data. In some situations, this technology has proven to be the only alternative
to get to analysis results within an acceptable time frame.
Low infrastructure requirements. QlikView is very modest in its
infrastructure requirements. Depending on what product is used (QlikView,
QlikView Server or Publisher) all that is required is a well equipped PC and a
large amount of memory, which is not very expensive anymore. There is no
need for a database as QlikView does all its analysis in main memory. If many
users access the same data sources one or several QlikView server can be
configured reducing requirements for clients further. There are no
administration- and backup costs nor are there any costs for upgrading the
database software as QlikView does not use a database system for its analysis.
You only have to buy enough main memory and then you can safely forget
about administration or maintenance.
No lengthy preparations. QlikView needs hardly any infrastructure at all and
the necessary know how is quickly acquired. You license what you need.
Different from other systems that limit the number of information users to a
low percentage of the total user population, QlikView does not impose such
restrictions. Applications can be developed quickly as the user interface is
easy to understand. Using Multidimensional functions does not require
knowledge of the original data structures. Due to the patented in-memory
technology of QlikView, there is no need to know data warehouse structures
as all data appears “structureless”. QlikView can also use Visual Basic or Java
macros and thus can leverage widely spread programming knowledge if extra
functionality is required.
Trackable, transparent, and reproducible analysis. QlikView supports the
concept of ‘bookmarks’ concept to make analysis transparent and
reproducible. These bookmarks can also be shared by several different users.
The ‘bookmark’ concept is also instrumental to generate reports allowing for
the generation of routine reports with a standard layout using a recurring
process.
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Independence from technology stack vendors (NetWeaver, WebSphere,
.NET…). A struggle for market shares has evolved between the larger
manufacturers of these stacks. With no end in sight, this fight is anything but
productive for users. For the users, flexibility and independence are key as
they want to configure any way they need it. QlikView can be used to collect
data, from and in all of these environments.
Key focus on business intelligence as a core business. Applications vendors
try to make their applications more attractive by offering business intelligence
functions as a part of their portfolio. Sometimes, BI is even offered, free of
charge, as an integrated part of the application package. However, the vendor
can change his price model any time even for already installed software and
he also will attempt to keep users within the bounds of his application
portfolio. On the other hand, a “pure play“ BI-vendor like QlikTech will
always concentrate on his core competency. The more different applications
and data sources of all kinds are integrated, the more it is possible for a “pure
play” vendor to show the convincing power of his integration concept. Lock-
in into a certain applications portfolio is not even in a “pure play“ vendor’s
interest. This makes his intentions and his business model transparent and free
from hidden agendas.
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Data Warehousing can be quite expensive. Around two thirds of the costs of
an SAP BW come from implementation, upgrades and end user support. Even
experienced SAP partners, who have already completed a number of
successful BW implementations, estimate the costs of an analysis ‘cube’ at
around 50,000 Euros. Based on our five years’ comprehensive cost of
ownership model, a 100 user SAP BW configuration can be expected to cost
around 1000 US-$ per user and month. Most data warehouses are
implemented for business analytics only. QlikView can fulfill this task for
much lower cost on all levels, be it licenses, implementation, maintenance or
ongoing operation.
You can start reasonable QlikView projects with budgets as low as 25000 US-
$ whereas a typical initial budget for a SAP BW project is beyond the 500000
US-$ mark. One or two weeks after starting QlikView users can enjoy the
benefits of their first key applications. Installing the SAP-connector takes
about half a day.
• Figure 2: Cost structure over a five year period based on the SPI cost model (average of 10 SAP BW customers, source: SPI)
DWH Cost Structure
Hardware and Communications
13%
DWH-Software13%
Other Software0%
Implementation and ongoing upgrades
28%
End-User Costs35%
Rest2%Operation/Administration
9%
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How Compatible is QlikView with the SAP-Architecture?
QlikView can be used with multiple various connector solutions available on
the commercial market, many of which SAP customers may already have, or
it uses QlikView’s own QlikView SAP Connector, which is based on an RFC
and transfers SAP Data with ODBC to QlikView. No data is written back to
the SAP database.
These are the only two interfaces QlikView uses to interact with the SAP
software. No part of NetWeaver is required.
Nor is SAP BW, a NetWeaver component, a QlikView prerequisite. At the
same time, BW does not present any obstacles – QlikView can be added to a
BW environment at anytime.
QlikView is compatible with the SAP R/3 environment as well as with the
mySAP ERP or the mySAP Business Suite. If SAP should be forced to
change their data model, QlikView would be affected – but no more so than
hundreds of thousands of SAP applications.
When is QlikView interesting for the SAP-User?
QlikView is ideally suited for SAP users that need fast, uncomplicated,
affordable business analytics. As QlikView can work with all SAP releases on
the market from version 4.6C on due to its low interface requirements,
QlikView implementation is in no way contingent on the sometimes quite
complicated and tricky plans SAP users have for their application roadmap.
QlikView lets you leave your options open regarding future SAP BW
deployment and you preserve the freedom to select your middleware stack of
choice. QlikView neither necessitates nor does it preclude implementation of
NetWeaver.
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When is QlikView a less sensible choice?
There are also situations, where using QlikView might be less indicated.
These fall into three basic categories.
1. Analytical results have to be written back into the ERP database. If the
application requires that the results of a business analysis have to be used
as input for an application then QlikView is not suitable. Of course,
reports made with QlikView can be distributed via portals. The SAP
portal also suitable for this purpose.
2. An Enterprise Data Warehouse or Data Mart is to be constructed.
QlikView is not suitable for such an application, as data ware houses
require the usage of a database system. QlikView does entirely without
database management software. Instead it uses patented in-memory
technology for its analysis making it fast and easy to use. You can,
however, use QlikView on top of the SAP Business Warehouse and, if a
Data Warehouse is absolutely required, users do not have to give up the
advantages of QlikView.
3. The application or the application vendor mandate a different product. It’s
obvious that, for instance, SAP will always gear analytical functions to
their own products, because SAP has a vested business interest to spread
its own products. Applications that were written for a specific analytical
target environment will only function in such a configuration. QlikView
has been optimized for the analytical end user requiring a fundamentally
different design.
But even in this situation one doesn’t have to sacrifice QlikView, because
QlikView can be used in parallel or on top of SAP BW.
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Bottom Line
QlikView should be as considered an attractive alternative any time users are
looking for fast, uncomplicated, and affordable analytics and when easy (and,
in the long run, cheaper) handling is of tantamount importance. The
independence from the SAP strategy is an advantage. It has only two
interfaces with SAP giving users the option to become independent of the
migration pressures of the application vendor. The option to run QlikView in
an SAP BW environment is reassuring. You can use BW but you do not have
to. Such flexibility is a rare asset these days.
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Index of Illustrations
Figure 1: Old SAP versions prevail...................................................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2: Cost structure over a five year period based on the SPI cost model (average of 10 SAP BW customers,
source: SPI) ........................................................................................................................................................... 10