Roadmap to success in Enterprise Analytics:
An eBay Story
Shyam Sunder Pariavakkam – BI Finance Manager, eBay Marketplaces
Amit Bhatnagar – BI Tech Lead – HANA & BOBJ, eBay Corporate Business Intelligence
Karan Rawal - BOBJ Architect, eBay Corporate Business Intelligence
Heena Sood – Sr. Director, Business Analytics and Mobility, ZEDVentures
Ravi Boyapally – BOBJ Lead, ZEDVentures
AGENDA
1. Introductions
2. eBay Journey and Technology Landscape Overview
3. Dashboard Design Best Practices and Tool Selection
4. eBay Marketplaces user adoption story
5. Mobility at eBay
Session Objectives
 At the end of this session, you should be able to understand:
o How eBay evolved in the Enterprise Analytics space?
o How eBay selected and implemented the right Dashboard
Development tool based on the requirements of its user base?
o How eBay Marketplaces improved User Adoption in the SAP BI
Enterprise Analytics platform?
o How eBay evaluated mobility options and capabilities available within
the SAP BI suite?
o Key Learnings
About ZED
Recent Business Analytics Projects/Initiatives
Building a gateway infrastructure with SAP to support the HANAOne
Platform on Cloud for SAP Labs
BW on HANA Optimization and Hybrid Model for a leading
Technology Company
Building Reporting Catalog using core SAP NetWeaver platform for a
leading Gaming Technology Company
Creating Mobile platform for Gaming Analytics for a large casino
operator
Microstrategy and Tableau Integration to enable powerful Enterprise
Analytics for a Digital Marketing & Solutions Company
Overall BI Strategy Review and Re-Definition for leading Hi-Tech
Media Company
Non-SAP based BOBJ Deployment and .NET Integration for an
Insurance Technology Company
Design Studio/Xcelsius HTML5 Assessment for Mobile Enablement
of Dashboards for eBay
BEx integration in to MyHR Desktop Portal to enable a consistent
user experience for eBay Managers
Enterprise Analytics: The eBay Journey
HANA
Ent
BW on
HANA
SRM & Bank
Balance
Reporting
Upgrade
to SAP
BO40SP4
HR Reporting
Tech Go-Live
& Legal
CIO
Dashboard
on Ent. HANA
Dashboard
Performance
SAP BOBJ for
Marketplaces
SAP BO40SP2
Fit/Gap of BI
Tools to User
Requirements
User
Adoption
SAP
BW
Platform / Env.
Stability
Self-Service
Reporting
Finance
Transformation
BEx
BOBJ 4.0 SP2
BOBJ 4.0 SP4
4.1 SPx
Enterprise Analytics: eBay Technical Roadmap
Dashboard Design Best Practices
 Factors influencing Dashboard Design
Data Security
Data Latency
Data Sources
Data Volume
Performance
Mobility
Scalability
User Experience
Dashboard Consumption
 Dimensions for Dashboard Optimization
Optimize Data Model/BEx Query
Optimize Dashboard Design
Choose right connection type
(BICS vs BIWS etc)
Choose right visualizations
Provide user centric navigation
and interaction
Performance
Data
Volume
User
Experience
User
Consumption
Provide ‘drill to’ detail
DB’s/reports
Add filters to limit the data
Trigger queries as needed
Mobile usage
Print and Export requirements
Offline consumption
Dashboard Selection Tool
Selection Criteria / Dashboard Tools Dashboards
Dashboards
4.1
4.0 SP5
Flash
Development / Customization
Mobile Support (HTML5)
Preferred tool for BW/HANA
Preferred tool for Non-SAP Data Sources
and multi-source scenarios
Data Connectivity - HANA/BEx/UNX
Data Connectivity – QaaWS/BIWS/XML
etc.
Offline Support
Navigation Panel, Export to Excel/Power
Point, Bookmarking
Interoperability with Advanced Analysis &
Lumira
BW Integrated Planning
Migration to Design Studio
Available
Design Studio
1.1
Design Studio
(1.2 and beyond*)
Yes
No
Excel/Abode Flex
Java Scripts/CSS
Yes (not all components are not
supported/available yet)
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
HANA/BEx only
Yes
Additional connections
planned
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes (DS 1.3)
Yes
Export to Power Point &
Bookmarking – DS 1.3
No
Yes (supports only AAE)
Supports Lumira in DS 1.3
No
No
Yes (DS 1.3)
Limited Migration Support planned beyond
DS 1.3 version.
Yes
N/A
Yes
DS 1.2 - GA in Nov’13
DS 1.3 - GA in Q2’ 14
8
Enterprise Analytics: The eBay Journey
HANA
Ent
BW on
HANA
SRM & Bank
Balance
Reporting
Upgrade
to SAP
BO40SP4
HR Reporting
Tech Go-Live
& Legal
CIO
Dashboard
on Ent. HANA
Dashboard
Performance
SAP BOBJ for
Marketplaces
SAP BO40SP2
Fit/Gap of BI
Tools to User
Requirements
User
Adoption
SAP
BW
Platform / Env.
Stability
Self-Service
Reporting
Finance
Transformation
BEx
BOBJ 4.0 SP2
BOBJ 4.0 SP4
4.1 SPx
Improving User Adoption within eBay
 Delivered Dashboards with Innovative
Design Approaches and enhanced UI/UX.
 Initiated & Adopted Best Practice
Development Guidelines for BW & BOBJ
Integration
 Partnered with IT to improve BOBJ
application and infrastructure stability
 Value-added input on SAP BI roadmap,
tools and strategy
 POC for Mobile enablement of MP data
 Alignment with IT for Technical
Design
 Improved Development quality by
leveraging test system data during
development
 Streamlined the BW and BOBJ
Transport Process
Thought Leadership
Solution
Process
Delivery
People
Executive Sponsorship
 Improved Delivery pace by:
o Effective Prioritization of
Pipeline
o Optimized Resource Allocation
o Following Informal Agile
Processes
 Effective delivery of planned pipeline,
production support & coordination
with HANA project team
 Delivered additional ad-hoc reporting
requests
 Provided Overlap Backfill Resources to
ensure delivery continuity
 Cross-Technology (BOBJ BEx)
Ramp-up of team resources for
scalability of resources
 Realignment of resources to meet
expected delivery pace
 Leveraged Shadow Resources to
provide team balance
Tracking eBay User Adoption of Analytics Tools
The new North America Master P&L is a great solution
for the NA FP&A, especially for NA CFO who uses the
summarized version of the report regularly. This team
has taken an innovative approach to data access, the
report automatically refreshes every two hours so
that I have immediate access to current data in this
very complex, intensive report.
Thank you to the entire team. These dashboards are
awesome!
- SVP, CFO Marketplaces
My team was very impressed with the BOBJ variance
dashboard. I appreciate your effort and focus to get
this dashboard available by the target date. Great
work!
- Director, Finance
This report set eliminates the need to run multiple
BW reports to get the holistic view saving me one or
two days per quarter, and most importantly, I trust
that the numbers are accurate.
I'd like to give a huge shout out to Shyam and the
development team -- they were flexible in terms of
implementing changes and updates. Thanks for your
effort.
- Sr. Manager, Finance
Enterprise Analytics: eBay Mobility Strategy
SAP BI Mobile App

Leverage One SAP BI app for all Enterprise
Analytics
o
o
o
Mobile BI App
HTML5 App
o
Design
Studio
Dashboard
Designer
oData
Services
WEBI
Explorer
HTML5 App

Data Sources
ECC
BW
HANA
Web Intelligence – Reporting tool enabling
Dashboard functionality for certain use cases
Dashboard Designer / Xcelsius – Legacy
Dashboard Tool with HTML5 publishing
Design Studio – SAP recommended
application for HANA and BW based
Dashboards
Explorer/Lumira – Self-Service Dashboarding
and Analysis tool
Leverage HTML5 frameworks to mobilize data
using oData services in certain use cases
based on
o
o
UI/UX requirements
Customization/Integration/Other Technology
considerations
SAP Mobile BI Tools Assessment Summary
(BO 4.0 SP6)

Dashboard Designer/Xcelsius – HTML5
o
o
o

Design Studio
o
o
o

Intuitive WYSIWYG design environment for designers. Functionality extendable via scripting language
Dashboard design is heavily dependent on backend data models.
Front-end data manipulation is implemented via java scripts
WebI based Dashboards
o
o
o

HTML5 Dashboard performance is comparable to Flash Dashboard performance
Minimal change in the dashboard development process
Mobile components are limited and dynamic layout is not supported
Utilizes native iOS/Andriod visualizations and capabilities for mobile rendering & user interaction
Key Webi Features are retained in Mobile App
Best option for scheduled reports and report bursting scenarios
Explorer
o
o
o
Utilizes native iOS/Andriod visualizations and capabilities for mobile rendering & user interaction
Self-Service and guided data exploration/navigation. Provides Google-like search experience
Minimal development effort enabling rapid deployment
TechEd Update
Design Studio recommended by SAP as the key dashboarding application starting DS 1.3 version (GA Q2 2014)
Limited Dashboard Designer/Xcelsius to Design Studio Migration support maybe available beyond DS 1.3 version
SAP Examples
Dashboard Designer/Xcelsius
Design Studio
Web Intelligence
Explorer
SAP BI Mobile Tool Selection
Criteria / Tools
Design Studio
Dashboard Designer
(Xcelsius)
Web
Intelligence/Crystal
Reports
Explorer
Recommended
App. for Mobile BI
Enterprise HANA
Support
Highly
recommended
Not Recommended
Recommended
Recommended for
self-service BI
Design Studio
Flexibility
Very flexible with
the provided
scripting language
Not recommended by
SAP. Provides flexibility
in connection types
Native functionalities
can be leveraged
Very flexible for selfservice BI
Varies based on
requirement
Reusability
Reusable Variables
and style sheets
Limited reusability
Limited reusability
No
Design Studio
Development time
Steep learning curve
for developers
Tried and tested
Tried and tested
Extremely fast
development time
Explorer
Data Latency
Live data
Live data/Staged
Best for scheduled
data
Live data/Scheduled
Varies based on
requirement
Data Volume
Supports huge data
volume
Limited data set
Limited Data set
Supports huge data
volume
Design
Studio/Explorer
Data Push/Pull
Pull
Pull
Push/Pull
Pull
Varies based on
requirement
Mobile
Rendering/Interaction
HTML5
HTML5
Native iOS/Android
Native iOS/Android
WebI/Explorer
ZED’s Mobile Analytics Solution
• Data Source agnostic, Agile Mobile Dashboard
creation, and publishing framework to realize
the value of mobilizing enterprise data
 Integration with multiple SAP and non-SAP
sources
 iOS, Android, and Microsoft platforms are
supported
 Strong collaboration capabilities for enabling
publishing, sharing, and discussion boards
 Enables integration of BEx query to deliver BW
reports via a custom HTML5 frontend
ZED’s Reporting Catalog Solution
Reporting Catalog Framework
Data Serialization Engine
Data Processing Engine
Repository Metadata Engine
Report Categories
Java Stack
oData
Services
Report Favorites
Connector Framework
Reporting Sources



SuccessFactors
HANA
Salesforce
Tableau
BOBJ
Microstrategy
ABAP Query
BEx
Report Painter
Improve user adoption by providing a single stop shop 
for all reporting needs agnostic of reporting tool
Leverage data security of backend applications

Categorize reports based on functional, business
process, and organization views
Report Metadata
Top 10 Reports
Support key functionality such as favorites,
broadcasting, and collaboration
Allow easy access to additional reports available in the
IT Landscape of an organization and request access
ZED’s Cloud Service Offering
On-Premise Solution
Cloud Solution
SAP ERP SD
SAP ERP HCM
SAP ERP PP, PM, CATS
SAP ERP FI/CO
SAP CRM / Salesforce.com
SuccessFactors / Workday
Payroll / ADP
T&E / E-Invoicing
On-Premise Solution
Cloud Solution
SAP MM
SAP Ariba
Material Master
Service Master
Vendor
Outline Agreements
Info Records
Source Lists
Purchasing Requisitions
Purchase Orders
PO Acknowledgement
Advance Shipment Notification
Goods Receipt
Invoice Receipt
Various Data Elements
Items
Service Items
Supplier
Catalog
Catalog
Catalog
Shopping Cart
Purchase Orders
Order Acknowledgment
Advance Shipment Notification
Goods Receipt
Invoice Receipt
Spend Analytics
On-Premise Solution
Cloud Solution
SAP ERP HCM
SuccessFactors BizX
Employee Master
Compensation Data
Evaluation Data
Employee
Compensation Data
Workforce Analytics
Key Learnings

Governance Structure & EA Strategy to focus on Agile execution but also allow for delivery, technology
and solution innovation based on developing trends

Strong Business & IT Partnership along with Executive Sponsorship leads to EA Adoption and
Proliferation.

Nominate Business Champion that understands and propagates the EA Strategy

Super User Engagement & Ownership is critical to the success of EA Delivery

Right Tool for the Right Purpose based on client defined criteria for success and ROI

Adhere to Best Practices & Development Standards for Design & Development of Reports and
Dashboards

Project Management, Risk Management, and Change Management are just as important, if not more
important than a focus on technology

Select your Implementation Partner based on Thought leadership, Broad experience, Skill sets,
Delivery Excellence and Focus within the Enterprise Analytics space
THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING
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