Session ID: Expert 114
BOBJ on HANA
Dr. Bjarne Berg
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
Dashboards can be built using the
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
tool (formerly known as Xcelsius)
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards
was launched in March 2010, and is
the flagship product for data
visualization and dashboards
2
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards – Mobile Example
•
Dashboards are
most useful when
compared to
something
•
This dashboard is
relative to a
business plan
•
Notice that all
graphs can be
displayed many
ways and that
color coding is
consistent across
dashboards
Make sure layout, buttons, and colors are
consistently used and that the location of the
objects aligns perfectly with each other.
SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard — Display and Colors
•
This dashboard
groups six different
categories and
over 30 lines into
an easily readable
table using a few
lines and mostly
colors
•
Too many lines
and incorrect use
of “bold” makes
dashboards very
hard to read
Don't cram too much into single dashboards. Plan
on multiple dashboards for each business area.
Formatted Number based Dashboard Example
• Dashboards
can
also be highly
formatted and
static with little
user interactive
• In
this dashboard
we included
some KPIs and
only the balance
sheet for an
organization,
instead of using
Crystal reports
for this sort of
work.
Not all dashboards have a high degree of navigation and
imaged. For finance dashboards, presenting the numbers
in a meaningful way may be more important.
Linked to Web Services
•
Dashboards are
most useful when
shared with others
•
Power users can
create great
departmental
dashboards that
can be shared
inside smaller
organizational units
In this dashboard, the data is merged with Google maps and external news
feeds. This makes the dashboard much more interactive and interesting.
6
BI Workspaces and Modules
BI Workspaces allows you to link many SAP BI tools in the same area, without
the need to jump between them. In this workspace, we have 3 Dashboards, 1
WebI report, 1 Analysis report and 1 Crystal report running at the same time.
7
SAP HANA — Sources and Target Interfaces
A great benefit is the real-time loading of SAP HANA from
ERP. This can provide real-time analytics to end-users.
SAP BusinessObjects 4.0
SQL (JDBC / ODBC)
HANA Appliance
ERP
BICS
Real-time
Database
SQL (JDBC / ODBC)
In
DBSQL
Sybase
Replication
Server
Memory
Others
Computing
Engine
SQL (JDBC / ODBC)
BusinessObjects Data Services
SAP BW
MDX (ODBO)
3rd Party
Currently, HANA currently does not use the complete
MDX set, it supports EXCEL 2010 standard MDX
Live SAP BI 4.0 Demo with SAP HANA
9
BI Workspaces and Modules
We can also link the objects in a
workspace together and pass variables
and navigation between some of them
This
alleviates
some of the
task of
opening and
running the
workspace
every day.
10
Modules
We can also use Modules
to make the objects more
interesting by adding
comments to them.
There are two types of
Modules
• Text modules
• Compound modules
You can access Modules from
the ‘my application area.
The Text Module
Using the Text Module
we can add our
comments and update
them whenever we like.
There are two
options:
• Regular text
• HTML
(this allows you
to use HTML
tags to format
you text
The Compound Module with a Text Module
Using the Compound Module we
display many modules together, this
include text, dashboards, WebI reports,
Crystal reports, and Analysis for OLAP.
Creating a
compound
modules are so
simple, that
anyone with
Microsoft Word
or PowerPoint
skills can learn
it in less than 5
minutes!!
What Tool to Select
•
All SAP tools have strength and weaknesses
 This is a subjective summary of each of the major tools
Target User
Development
Capabilities
Tool
End
User
Power ExecuUser
tives
End
User
Power
IT
External
User Author Developer Graphing Navigation
data
Web Application
Designer
-
-
-
Dashboard
Designer
(Xcelsius)
-
-
-
Visual Composer
External
web
services Simplicity
OLAP
-
-
-
-
-
-
Analysis Edition
for OLAP (web)
-
-
Analysis MS
edition
-
-
Crystal Reports
-
BO Explorer
-
Limited Support
-
-
-
Interactive
Analysis
ad-hoc (WebI)
Ad-Hoc
querying
Longterm
Strategy
-
-
Some Support
Good Support
-
-
-
-
14
Join me at the free SAP HANA Event
in San Fransisco on November 14th
Questions and Answers
Dr. Berg
Bberg@Comerit.com