BW and BW Reporting
Introduduction
UNWBW1 – Business Information
Warehouse
NetWeaver Support Consultant Training
Content
 Introduction
 Reporting
 Business content
 Data loading
 InfoCube Design
 Aggregates
 BW-BPS Business Planning & Simulation
 Monitoring & Technical Risks
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 2
SAP NetWeaver in Detail
SAP Mobile Infrastructure
 Tight coupling and alignment
with SAP business solutions
SAP NetWeaver™
People Integration
SAP Enterprise Portal
 Business content
 Open architecture (Crystal, Ascential)
Master Data Management
SAP Exchange Infrastructure
 Cross-component business processes
 Shared integration knowledge
SAP Web Application Server
 Proven, scalable, comprehensive toolsets
 Leverage existing infrastructure/skillsets
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 3
Portal
Collaboration
Information Integration
Business
Intelligence
Knowledge
Management
Master Data Management
Process Integration
Integration
Broker
Business Process
Management
Application Platform
J2EE
ABAP
andOS
OS Abstraction
Abstraction
DBDBand
Life Cycle Management
SAP Business Information Warehouse
Multi-Channel Access
Composite Application Framework
 Business packages
 Collaboration
Information-Based Management
How do we get
from here . . .
Data
Information
to here?
Knowledge
Results
Realizing business value from transaction data
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 4
Data Warehouse Definitions
 A collection of integrated, subject-oriented databases
designed to support the DSS (Decision Support System)
function, where each unit of data is relevant to some
moment in time.
W. H. Inmon, “Building the Data Warehouse,” 1996, page 371
 A copy of transaction data specifically structured for query
and analysis.
R. Kimball, “The Data Warehouse Toolkit,” 1996, page 310
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 5
Data Warehouse Objectives
 Standardized structures and representation for all
enterprise information
 Easy-to-use access, single-point of access to all
enterprise information
 Self-service, high quality business reporting and
analysis on all levels
 Fast and cost-effective to deploy
 High performance environment fed from
heterogeneous sources
 Freed-up systems and IT resources in OLTP
environment
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 6
SAP Business Information Warehouse
 Data Warehouse system with optimized structures for
reporting and analysis
 OLAP engine and tools
 Integrated meta data repository
 Data extraction and data staging

Preconfigured support for data sources from R/3 Systems

BAPIs for data sources from non-SAP systems
 Automated Data Warehouse management
 Administrator Workbench for controlling and managing
content
 Only one productive client
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 7
Business Information Warehouse: Architecture
Business Explorer
Web Reporting
3rd Party Tools
client
BAPI
OLAP processor
Administrator
Workbench
Meta Data
Repository
InfoCubes
ODS
Staging Engine
InfoObject
BAPI
Data
Sources
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 8
Business
Information
Warehouse
Server
OLTP versus OLAP
Characteristics
OLTP
OLAP
Primary Operation
Update
Analyze
Level of Analysis
Low
High
Amount of data per transaction
Very small
Very large
Type of data
Detailed
Summary
Timeliness of data
Must be current
Current and historical
Updates to data
Frequently
Less frequent, new data only
Number of transactions/users
Many (100s to 1000s)
Few
Response time
Quick
Reasonable
Database data
Normalized
Denormalized
Type of processing
Well defined
Ad hoc
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 9
Administrator Workbench (RSA1)
Purpose
The Administrator Workbench is the tool for controlling, monitoring, and maintaining all of the processes
connected with data staging and processing in the Business Information Warehouse.
Integration
The data for the SAP Business Information Warehouse that has been staged with the help of the
Administrator Workbench can be evaluated and presented with the Business Explorer reporting tool.
Functions
The Administrator Workbench encompasses the following
functional areas:

Metadata Repository

Installing Business Content

Modeling

Administration

Reporting Agent

Documents

Translating Texts for BW Objects
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 10
What is an InfoObject ?
The various OLTP data models are unified for BW
Business objects / table fields become InfoObjects
R/3
OLTP
CO
Controlling
Table of cost centers
KOSTL
...
InfoObject
“0COSTCENTER”
HR
Human
Resources
Table of employees
EMPLO COST_CENTER ...
InfoObjects are unique across
application components !
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 11
Types of InfoObjects
 Characteristics: evaluation groups like “Cost Center”,
“Product group”, “Material”

Have discrete values stored in their master data tables
(e.g. the characteristic “Region” has the values “North”,
“South”, ... )

Special types of characteristics:


Time characteristics like “Fiscal period”, “Calendar year”
Unit characteristics which comprise currencies and units
of measure like “Local currency”
 Key figures: continuously valued numerical fields like
amounts and quantities (e.g.: “Revenue” and “Sales
quantity”)
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 12
Master Data tables for Characteristics
Information about characteristics is stored in
Master Data Tables:
 Attribute Tables

Dependent attributes of a characteristic can be
stored in an Attribute Table for the
characteristic.
 Text Tables

Textual descriptions of a characteristic are stored in
a separate text table.
 External Hierarchy Tables

Hierarchies of characteristics or attributes may be
stored in separate hierarchy tables.
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 13
Material Attribute Table
MATERIAL_ID
Material Group
Material Type
Material Text Table
MATERIAL_ID
Material Name
Material Hierarchy
InfoCube
 Central data store for reports and evaluations
 Contains two types of data
 Key figures
 Characteristics
 2 fact tables and 16 dimension tables
 3 Dimensions are predefined by SAP
 Time
 Unit
 Packet
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 14
South
Customer
group
Dept. Stores
North
Region
East
InfoCube: Example
Wholesale
Retail
Glass- Ceramics Plastics Pottery Copper Pewter
ware
Division
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 15
InfoCube: Multi-dimensional analysis
InfoCube
1 Analysis
2 Analysis
DeptStores
Wholesale
Retail
Region
East
South
Region
DeptStores
Wholesale
Retail
of Plastics division
and Southern region
Customer
group
North
South East
of Plastics
division
Customer
group
North
Region
of Ceramics
division
3 Analysis
East
Division
Customer
group
South
South
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware
DeptStores
Wholesale
Retail
DeptStores
Wholesale
Retail
North
East
Product group
Customer group
Division
Area
Company code
Region
Period
Profit Center
Bus. Area
Customer
group
North
Region
Characteristics:
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware
Division
Division
Division
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 16
Operational Data Store
The BW ODS-Object:
Stores transaction data
Is a denormalized data structure
 Transparent table
 Not a star schema
Can hold data that is available for
reporting
 Not optimized for query
performance
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 17
InfoProvider
InfoProviders are the objects or
views relevant to reporting. All BW
objects for which queries in SAP
BW can be created or executed are
InfoProviders.
Examples for InfoProviders are:
InfoCubes
ODS Objects
MultiProviders
InfoObjects
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 18
MultiProvider
MultiProvider = Union of InfoProviders
homogeneous MultiProvider
 same Characteristics and Key Figures in all participating
InfoProviders ("partprov")
 example: MultiProvider with identical InfoCubes

InfoCube 1: data for EUROPE

InfoCube 2: data for ASIA

InfoCube 3: data for AMERICAS
 purpose: partitioning on InfoProvider level
heterogeneous MultiProvider
 only a subset of common Characteristics
 purposes:

integrating scenarios that share some semantics

combine differing aggregation levels (e.g. plan – actual scenarios)

tackle sparse tables
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 19
MultiProvider Example
MultiProvider
Basic Cube
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 20
Basic Cube
Queries
A query is a collection of characteristics and
key figures (InfoObjects) for the analysis of
the data of an InfoProvider.
A query always refers exactly to one
InfoProvider, whereas you can define as
many queries as you like for each
InfoProvider.
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 21
Content
 Introduction
 Reporting
 Business content
 Data loading
 InfoCube Design
 Aggregates
 BW-BPS Business Planning & Simulation
 Monitoring & Technical Risks
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 22
Business Information Warehouse: Architecture
Business Explorer
Web Reporting
3rd Party Tools
client
BAPI
OLAP processor
Administrator
Workbench
Meta Data
Repository
Persistent
Staging Engine
InfoCubes
ODS
InfoObject
BAPI
Data
Sources
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 23
Business
Information
Warehouse
Server
Query Design
BEx Query Designer
 Ease-of use via drag & drop
 Personalized access
 Comfortable formula editor for
calculations
 One-step web publishing
 Windows-based component
 Web interface for intuitive adhoc analysis on the web
Only Filter and
Column Section in
tabular mode
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 24
Business Explorer Analyzer
Windows Start menu
→ Programs → Business Explorer → Analyzer
You may choose a single query or a workbook,
which executes several queries at once.
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 25
Web Reporting
Queries can be published to the Web using the BEx, accessible then via URL
If the standard web
template does not fit
customer may use the
BEx Web
Application Designer
to change the template
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 26
Reporting - Integration with Crystal Reports
Reports and documents optimized for printing and
→
Sharing
here we go, that’s the main reason for
using crystal
Out of the box presentation-quality reporting
Broad range of pre-defined crystal reports: legal,
financial, etc
SAP and non-SAP data in a single
report
Seamless portal integration
Schedule and view Crystal reports
in managed web environment
Offline reporting and viewing of
reports
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 27
BI Suite: Business Explorer (BEx) 3.5
Portal Integration
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 28
Key Functions: Information Broadcasting
Information Broadcasting allows the distribution of BI information
... via different channels ...
() E-Mail (works independently from an EP installation)
() Enterprise Portal
... in different formats ...
() HTML, MHTML
() BEx Analyzer Workbooks
() ZIP Files
… of different sources …
() BI Web Applications - Dashboards, cockpits
() BEx Analyzer Workbooks
() Queries
… in different modes…
() Online & pre-calculated
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 29
Key Functions: Information Broadcasting
Information Broadcasting supports different business scenarios
() Event based (“Intelligent push”)
 Integration into process chains
 E.g If new data is loaded into the data container (InfoCube)
() Ad hoc
 BEx Broadcasting Wizard for one-step distribution
() Scheduled
 BEx Broadcaster
 Guided scheduling times (for end users / information consumers)
Ensures system performance because of better load balancing
 Scheduling at any time (for power users / administrators)
Create scheduling slots for specific user groups
No time restriction and no target restriction
Create pre-calculations based on the data authorizations of the target
user
 SAP AG 2004, Business Information Warehouse / 30