rd
3
Integrating
Party
Tools with
SAP Business
Information Warehouse
Naeem Hashmi
SAP GO-Live Call
April 11, 2002
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Chief Technology Officer
Information Frameworks
Tel: 603-432-4550
Cell: 603-661-6820
Email: nhashmi@infoframeworks.com
http://infoframeworks.com
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
1
Agenda
• Anatomy of BI Tools
• Data Access Interfaces in SAP BW (Pro and
Cons)
• 3rd Party Reporting Tools and SAP BW
• Challenges in integrating 3rd Party tools with
BW
• What SAP or 3rd party vendors can do to
address SAP BW Integration Issues
• Q&A
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
2
Basic Components of 3rd Party BI Tools
A Typical Data Access, Query/ Reporting
and ETL Tool
Metadata
Mostly
Database
Oriented
(SQL)
Data
Access
Interface
Query
Reporting
OLAP
Mining
Engine
Structured
Data
Un-Structured
Data
Distribution
Engine
Presentation
ETL
Engine
Data Storage
• Tools provide several Data Management layers
• Each layer impacts overall performance
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
3
SAP BW Interfaces
SAP Portal
SAP certifies 3rd Party
tools for individual
Interface/Version
OleDB
for OLAP
OLAP BAPI
XML
RRI Interface
RFC,BAPI
SBAPI, TBAPI
DB Connect
ALE/TRFC
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Source: SAP
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
4
SAP R/3 & BW 3rd Party BI Tools - Interfaces
• Remote Function Calls (RFC)
• Business API ( BAPI)
 No OLEDB for OLAP BAPIs for SAP R/3
A Typical Data Access, Query
and Reporting Tool
Metadata
Query
Reporting
Data
Structured
Distribution Presentation
OLAP
Access
Data
Engine
Mining
Interface
Un-Structured Engine
Data
Data Storage
• Database Level Access
- ODBC, SQL*NET, etc.
Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP”
by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
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Accessing SAP BW - ODBO/BAPI Interface
3rd Party Client Application
MDX
Dataset
OLAP
ENGINE
ODBO
Application Server
InfoCube
Query Cubes
MOLAP Cube
ODS Object
DATABASE SERVER
Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP” by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000
NOTE: Understand that in BW you never access the physical database when
accessing through these APIs.
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
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Comparing Data Access Performance
3rd Party OleDB for OLAP Certified Tool -- BEX -- InfoSet Query
Source: Business Information Warehouse for SAP, Naeem Hashmi, Prima 2000
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
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3rd Party BI Vendors/Tools BW
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arcplan
Brio Technologies
Business Objects
Cognos
Crystal Decisions
Information Builders
PolyVista
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
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3rd Party BI products and their Usage
Vendors and Products
Vendor
Product
ArcPlan
Brio
Business Objects
Cognos
Comshare
Crystal Decisions
dynaSight
Brio.Report, BrioQuery
BusQuery, WebIntell.
PowerPlay, Visualizer
Decision
Enterprise, Analysis
R/3 BW Vendor
X
X
X
Product
X ESRI
X IBI
X MIS
X SAS
X Viador
X PolyVista
Connect
WebFOCUS
Alea, OnVision
Enterprise Guide
E-Portal Suite
R/3 BW
X
X
X
X
X
PolyVista
Product and Intended Audience
MANAGEMENT
ArcPlan dynaSight
Cognos Visualizer
Comshare Decision
PolyVista
ANALYST
Business Objects
BusinessQuery
Cognos PowerPlay
Crystal Analysis
PolyVista
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
POWER USERS
Crystal Enterprise
IBI WebFOCUS
MIS Alea,
SAS Enterprise Guide
PolyVista
INDIVIDUAL
PRODUCTION
Brio.Report
Crystal Enterprise
IBI
Crystal Enterprise
IBI
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
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Reporting Tool Profile: ArcPlan
•
Company:
–
•
Products:
–
•
BW-ODB 1.2 – inSight 2.35
BW-ODB 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0
BW-OBI 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0
Strengths:
–
–
–
•
dynaSight, inSight
Certification:
–
–
–
•
BW20.SCM
Langenfeld, Germany-based company known for its EIS and custom development
environment
Custom application development for building specialized views of information
Multiple integration points with SAP R/3 BAPIs and SAP BW ODBO
Application integration with SAP SEM for write-back and SAP R/3 via RFC (NC*)
Weaknesses:
–
–
No production reporting or out-of-the-box tool for business users
Small company size and low visibility in North America
* NC = Not Certified
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
10
Reporting Tool Profile: Brio Technology
•
Company:
–
•
Products:
–
•
R/3 4.0, 3.1 – Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0, BAPIs for Brio.Report
BW-ODB 1.2 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW
BW-ODB 2.0 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW
Strengths:
–
–
•
BrioQuery, Brio.QuickView, Brio.Insight, Brio.Report, Brio.Portal, Brio.Impact
Certification:
–
–
–
•
Santa Clara, California-based company known for providing easy-to-use tools
for reporting on RDBMS
Good SAP R/3 operational reporting and pixel-level formatting
Usability of Brio.Enterprise for manipulation and formatting
Weaknesses:
–
–
Separate products, architecture, and user interfaces for SAP R/3 and SAP BW
Limited BW support for embedding hierarchies to drill, pivot, and perform
ranking and top/bottom analysis
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
11
Reporting Tool Profile: Business Objects
•
Company:
–
•
Products:
–
•
BW-ODB 1.2 – BusinessObjects
BW-ODB 2.0 – BusinessObjects BW Connect 5.1.1
Strengths:
–
–
–
•
BusinessObjects 5i, WebIntelligence, BusinessQuery, InfoView, InfoView Mobile,
SetAnalyzer, Application Foundation
Certification:
–
–
•
Paris, France-based company known for its metadata product BusinessObjects
Universe and an integrated user interface for reporting and analysis
Integrated reporting and analysis product for BW via ODBO
Specialized query interface, BusinessQuery, for supporting BW
Good reporting and publishing of information to many users
Weaknesses:
–
–
–
Outdated rapid deployment templates (RDT) to R/3 RDBMS via metadata
Separate BusinessQuery product cost on top of base product
No support for SAP R/3 reporting
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
12
Reporting Tool Profile: Cognos
•
Company:
–
•
Products:
–
•
BW-ODB 1.2 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0
BW-ODB 2.0 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0
Strengths:
–
–
–
•
Impromptu, PowerPlay, Visualizer, Upfront, 4Thought, DecisionStream,
e-Applications for SAP, HeadStart for SAP – OLTP (NC*) & BW
Certification:
–
–
•
Ottawa-based (Ontario, Canada) company known for its best-of-breed tools
Impromptu and PowerPlay
Established breadth of functionality from ETL, models, reporting & analysis,
and applications
Strong analysis and mobile capabilities via PowerPlay
Good visualization and customization capabilities via Visualizer
Weaknesses:
–
–
–
Limited reporting functionality via PowerPlay
Must build external marts or catalogs via HeadStart for Impromptu
Direct Database Access Against SAP R/3 and BW
* NC = Not Certified
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
13
Reporting Tool Profile: Crystal Decisions
•
Company:
–
•
Products:
–
–
•
WP-WAI 2.1 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0
BW-ODB 2.0 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0
BW-ODB 1.2 – Seagate Holos 7.0, Info 7.0, Worksheet 7.0, Crystal Reports 7.0
Strengths:
–
–
•
Crystal Analysis, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Holos Analytic System,
Balanced Scorecard, Customer Profiling, Budgeting, Report Alerts
Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0 – InfoSet Driver, ABAP
Query Driver (Release 3.x and above), Open SQL Driver (Release 3.x and above),
WP-WAI via MiniApps
Certification:
–
–
–
•
Vancouver-based (British Columbia, Canada) company known for its Crystal Reports
and easy report creation and distribution
Good integration with mySAP Workplace, SAP R/3, and BW for operational and
enterprise reporting and ad-hoc analysis
Strong operational and BW reporting, Strong Partner with PeopleSoft’s EPM
Weaknesses:
–
–
Minimal direct sales and consulting presence for implementations
Limited interactive analysis for BW – coming in Crystal Analysis
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
14
Reporting Tool Profile: Information Builders
• Company:
– New York City-based company known for its data integration and reporting
technology for automating large and complex deployments
• Products:
– WebFOCUS, Business Intelligence Dashboard, Maintain, ReportCaster,
Two-Way Email, Reporting Agent, Power Reporter, Managed Reporter, ivision for Financial Analysis, i-vision for HR Analysis, i-vision for Sales and
Distribution Analysis
• Certification:
– BW-ODB 2.0 – WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3
• Strengths:
– Operational and enterprise reporting for SAP R/3 and SAP BW
– i-vision reporting solutions for SAP R/3 and BW
– Performance and scalability for broad production/enterprise reporting
• Weaknesses:
– Limited ad-hoc reporting and analysis
– Lack of usability for interactive report analysis
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
15
Vendor/Tool Profile: PolyVista
• Company:
– Houston -based company a new kid on the block with amazing next
generation of Integrated OLAM, OLAP and Visualization tool to quickly
analyze huge data volumes.
• Products:
– PolyVista 1.2
• Certification:
– None
• Strengths:
– Strategic data analysis – data mining
– OLAM, OLAP, and Visualization
– Performance and scalability to handle vary large data volumes
• Weaknesses:
– Limited to Microsoft OLAP environment
– Not a data access and query tool
– No SAP BW API certification
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
16
Reporting Tools – Strengths & Weaknesses
Vendors
Strengths
Weaknesses
ArcPlan
• Custom application development
• Integration with BAPI and ODBO
• Integration with SEM for write-back
• Limited reporting and ad-hoc analysis
• Low visibility and small company size
in North America
Brio
Technology
• Operational reporting for SAP R/3
• Usability of Brio.Enterprise for
manipulation and formatting
• Separate product for SAP R/3 and BW
• Limited interactive analysis for BW
Business
Objects
• Integrated reporting and analysis
• Specialized query interface
• Publishing information to users
• Outdated Rapid deployment template for SAP
• Additional cost for BusinessQuery
• No SAP R/3 reporting
Cognos
• Complete ETL, mart, tools
• Strong analysis and mobile abilities
• Good visualization and customization
• Limited reporting via PowerPlay
• External marts/catalogs needed for reporting
• External marts needed for applications
Crystal
Decisions
• Integration – Workplace, BW, R/3
• Operational and BW reporting
• Minimal direct sales and consulting
presence
• Limited interactive analysis for BW
Information
Builders
• Operational and BW reporting
• i-vision solutions for R/3 and BW
• Scalability and performance
• Limited ad-hoc reporting
• Lack of usability for interactive report
analysis
PolyVista
• Very Strategic and Analytic
• Scalability and performance
• Dynamic Visualization
• Limited to Microsoft OLAP Platform
• Limited Ad-hoc or production
reporting
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
17
SAP Certification and Validation for Integration
• The certification and validation process is critical to ensuring the ability
of third-party products to perform SAP R/3 reporting
• SAP provides certification and validation at integration points:
– Interface Certification: Development and testing of third-party software
vendors’ interfaces. Available for BW-ODB and WP-WAI*.
– Interface Validation: Where certification is not available, special business
and technical validation of third-party software vendors’ interfaces.
Available for RFC/BAPI.
• Leveraging SAP documents to further investigate third-party
integration points and certification and validation:
–
–
–
–
–
OLAP BAPI for BW 2.0B – April 2000
OLAP ODBO for BW 2.0B – 2000
OLAP ODBO for BW 1.2B – 1998
Business Object Repository Programming Interface 3.0D & 4.0B – 1998
Workplace Certification 2.1 – 2000 * Workplace - Web Application Integration (WP-WAI)
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
18
Vendor Certification by SAP System and Interface
Certification
Interface
BW-ODB
SAP
Business
Information
Warehouse
BW-OBI*
SAP R/3
RFC/BAPI
Workplace
WP-WAI
Vendors
SAP
ArcPlan
dynaSight 3.0
2.0
Brio Technology
Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW
2.0
Business Objects
BW Connect 5.1.1
2.0
Cognos
PPDS ODBO for BW Release 1.0
2.0
Comshare
Decision 2.5.1
1.2
Crystal Decisions
Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0
2.0
Information Builders
WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3
2.0
MIS
OnVision & Alea 3.7 – 1.2
2.0
SAS
Enterprise Guide Release 1.2
2.0
Viador
E-Portal Suite 6.0
1.2
ArcPlan
dynaSight
2.0
ESRI
ESRI Connect Release 1.0
3.6-4.6
Brio Technology
Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0
4.0/3.1
Crystal Decisions
Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0
2.1
* Business Information Warehouse - OLAP BAPIs
(BW-OBI)
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Products/Interface Name
Naeem Hashmi
SAP = Latest certification interface tested
Information as of 8/15/01
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
19
Crystal Decisions – Business Content
Crystal Reports & BW 3.0x
Start_demo.exe
Source: SAP
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
20
PolyVista
Active
Visualization
Schema
OLAM
OLAP
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
21
3rd Party Tools Integration Issues
• Product Architecture and IT Culture
– 3rd Party BI Tools are designed keeping SQL
Interfaces in mind and not API centric. This is a big
problem.
– IT Environment: Companies have established BI
standards based on tools and solution and can’t
think beyond DBMS tables.
• Immature ODBO Standard
– Primarily based on MS OLAP Server. No future
enhancement committee on ODBO specs.
• Performance
– 3rd Party Tools have their own Data Management
Layers to manage entire BI environment – while
BW has its own - no pass through capability.
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
22
3rd Party Tools Integration Issues
• Vendors: Can’t justify ROI for improving BW
Integration issues – BW user community is not
large enough that warrants investment
• Vendors not interested in doing more than
certifying their products against BW due to
present SAP and BI tools OEM relationships
• SAP Data Access Strategy: API only – No
direct database access
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
23
So what we do now?
• Forcing SAP to allow BW DBMS level access is not
going to work
• Integrating 3rd Party Tools with BW has to do with
your Information Delivery Architecture rather to force
fit a tool with BW
• If BW is in your long term strategy, define a balanced
Information Delivery strategy
– Balance Traditional DW and BW usage
– Exploit Hub and Spoke Services (BW3.0B) to build
traditional DBMS data marts for 3rd Party tools data access
• Work with SAP to enhance Hub& Spoke services to
address 3rd Party data access issues, for example,
flattening of hierarchies.
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
24
SAP BW - 3rd Party BI Tools:
An Integrated approach
• Integrate 3rd Party tools and BW at the Portal
Level through the use of iViews
• Exploit SAP Portal’s unification and
aggregation services to provide a Tool
agnostic information access environment
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
25
Q&A
• Which 3rd Party BI products are you using?
• What are the major issues that you are facing
when using these tools against BW?
• Who are the end-users?
• What do you expect from SAP on 3rd Party BI
tools Integration?
• More?
Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks.
Naeem Hashmi
Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW
26