What makes a Dashboard: WAD, Xcelsius
and VC
]
Pravin Gupta,TLI Inc.
Business Leader & BI Principal Consultant
Tim Ronan, NIBCO Inc.
Manager BI and Portal, SAP Center of Excellence
[ ANUP MAHESHWARI
ASUG ASSOCIATE MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 2008
[ SHERRYANNE MEYER
[ AJAY VONKAREY
ASUG ASSOCIATE MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 1996
ASUG INSTALLATION MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 2000
[ Learning Points
 Compare the design capabilities of BEx Dashboarding Tools
with new Xcelsius offering
 Assess the suitability of tools for your organization in terms of
End User Use, easy of building and flexibility of the tool
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Scope of Presentation
 Focused on comparing the usage of tools – XCelsius and SAP
BEx Suite: Web-application designer (WAD)
 Reference material
 TechEd08 presentation by Eric Schemer on “Product
Management Advanced Analytics & Embedded BI”
 TechEd08 -SAP/BO product management “Hands on
XCelsius”
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[Join Roadmap for BI tools - Dashboards
Interactive
Dashboards and
Data Visualization
Business Objects
SAP
Dashboards
BASE
PREMIUM
2008
2009
2010
Xcelsius
Xcelsius+
Xcelsius+
Web Application Designer
Web Application Designer
Web Application Designer
Key Points
 Xcelsius+, a future release of Xcelsius, will become the flagship product for data visualization and dash-boarding.
 BEx Web Application Designer will not be enhanced further beyond Release NW 7.0.1 in 2008.
 Composition Environment including Visual Composer continues to be the go-to product for creating composite
applications.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[What is Xcelsius?
 Xcelsius is a tool for rapid development of Visualizations and highly interactive BI
Dashboards through a flexible and easy to use point and click interface. Xcelsius
supports deployment to a variety of destinations including Web, Desktop and
Visual Composer Applications
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Intuitive & Easy Dashboard Design
Xcelsius enables creating Dashboards and Visualizations by…
Select from Extensive
List of UI Elements
Free-form Canvas
Layout
 Free-form
layering a variety of
visualizations on a canvas
 Customizing visualizations
 Setting
fine grained control over
eventing between visualizations and
defining data bindings
 Compiling solution into flash format
makes deploying to various
environments easy
Eventing and Data
Modeling Layer
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
Customize Visual
Properties
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[ How it works
Development
Time
Step 1: Data Source Tier
Identify your compliant data source(s). Universes, Crystal Reports,
Web Intelligence documents, or any XML-compliant data source.
Step 2: Connectivity Tier
Identify and develop your connectivity methods. Xcelsius
Enterprise can connect to business reports via Live Office; the
Business Objects platform via Query as a Web Service; real-time
pushed data from Adobe LiveCycle Data Services; or any SOAPbased web services and XML script.
Step 3: Visualization Tier
Use Xcelsius point and click methodology to create visual models.
Step 4: Visual Model
Deploy SWF(Flash) file to InfoView, website, PowerPoint, PDF or
other publishing options.
Run
Time
RUNTIME:
You have now created a stand-alone model
that connects directly to your database
without passing through Xcelsius, or other
application!
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[Roadmap - Xcelsius
 The tool of choice for BI dashboards with enhanced visualization
capabilities will be Xcelsius.
 Xcelsius will be extended to encompass functionality of BEx Web
Application Designer, in particular data binding functionality with SAP
NW BI.
 Xcelsius is available today as a premium offering to SAP NW BI.
Connectivity works through “query as a service” , based on the
Business Objects Universe.
 Beyond NW release 7.0 EhP1 only very limited enhancements of BEx
Web Application Designer are planned. BEx WAD will remain in the
NW offering as a base solution

Xcelsius will be integrated with Pioneer and it will be possible to
build Xcelsius dashboards seamlessly on Pioneer analyses.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Xcelsius for SAP NW BI Customers
Where can Xcelsius add value to SAP NW BI Customers?
 In the area of data visualization & BI dashboards
 Intuitive design environment, enabling you to easily create professional-looking
models quickly using skins, maps, charts, gauges, and selectors.
Customer Requirements




Fast to deploy dashboards on SAP NW BI Data
Simplify BI information with innovative & intuitive visuals
Great End-User Experience, geared towards the casual, information consumer
Empower Power Users who are not savvy using analysis tools to build dashboards
Out of scope
 Composite application modeling, data analysis & reporting
 Complex Web Application Design
SAP NW BI Connectivity
 Via Live Office Crystal Reports can be connected to Xcelsius
 Via Query as a Web Service (QaaWS) which leverages Business Objects Universes
 Direct Access on BEx Queries/Query Views planned for 2009
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Xcelsius – Modeling
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
Demo – 1
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[ Xcelsius – Modeling Demo - 2
 The template “Income Statement”(under category: Finance)
which is delivered with the Xcelcius is used to explain the
capability of the product
 This template can be adapted to display data from your BI
system
 Steps to adapt BI query – explained in the next slide
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Xcelsius – Modeling Demo - 3
Possible option:
Configure this in
Xcelcius datasheet
Possible option:QUERY1
Define Query-FISCALYR in BW
to output this in Xcelcius
datasheet. Create cell
reference/vlookup to populate
the range in template
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
Possible option:QUERY2
Define a query – which outputs the income
statement in Xcelcius datasheet. Categorize
for display in Xcelcius
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[ Xcelsius – Modeling Demo - 4
Possible option:Query3
Define Query- in BW to output
“Plan” in Xcelcius datasheet.
Create cell reference/vlookup to
populate the range in template
Possible option:Query5
Query to display FISCYEAR
or use Excel formula
Possible option:Query6
Define a query – which outputs the
“Actuals”
Possible option:Query7
Query to display last Fiscal
month
Possible option:
Excel formula to retrieve
“Current Date”
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Web Application Designer 7.0 Dashboard
WAD-dashboard - click to connect
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ WAD Design - 1
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ WAD design - II
The Key Web-applicationdesigner functionality that
made the dashboard
development easier was the
“Ability” to SWITCH the
“BW Query” that supplies
the data (DP in WAD term)
dynamically, based on user
selection
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ WAD Design - III - Canvas
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ WAD
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
 Model-driven BI application building
 Integrate SAP NetWeaver BI
InfoProviders (InfoCubes, BEx queries
and query views)
 Integrate third-party data via Java
connectors (XMLA, ODBO, JDBC …)
 State-of-the-art User Interfaces and
controls (charts, tables, navigation
controls)
 Extendable from BI-data-only models
to composite application models
 For enhanced analytical capabilities or
formatting needs, seamless drillthrough from WD to BEx-runtime
(BEx Web Analyzer, enterprise reports,
Web applications) is supported
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[ Selection of Web Items in WAD
 Button Group
 Display a group of Buttons where each button can execute one or more
commands (e.g. Filter by region)
 Tab Pages Item
 Each tab page is assigned exactly one web item
 If you want to group multiple Web items on a tab page, use the Container
or Container Layout Web item and assign it to the tab page
 Container
 Collection of your own HTML code or an assortment of Web items
 E.g. within a tab page you may want to organize your HTML for each tab
 Report Item
 Embed reports created with the new BEx Report Designer directly in
your web application
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[
Comparison of tools – @ DESIGN TIME
Functionality
Xcelsius
WAD
Binding of BI Queries (i.e
assignment of
Dataproviders)
Not possible without using
Standard
QaaWS + BO. Binding occurs
using BO universe + Query-As-aWeb-Service (QaaWS)
Navigation Block & other
BW specific features
Design within Xcelcius, binding
not possible
Standard
Combining data from
Standard
Excel sheet/other sources
with BW data
Not supported. XMLA source
in portal possible.
Visualization option
State of the Art
BW specific
Offline reporting
Standard (xls or local
datasource)
Not supported
Ease of use
Intuitive. End user can use off-line BW developer /IT
data easily
Charting engine
Internal
IGS, on the Application server
Tabs, switching views
Standard
Standard
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Comparison of tools – @ RUN TIME
Functionality
Xcelcius
WAD
Embed as a flash file into PDF, ppt..etc – Live
application
Standard
Not supported.
Option to use VC
Information broadcasting
Not supported
Standard
Light OLAP features – drill down/across, texts,
UOM display (eg USD, EUR)
Not supported
Standard
Integrated BI- Planning
Not supported
Standard
OLAP - Currency conversion, UoM conversion on
frontend, Report-to-Report interface
Not supported
Standard
Filters on Characteristic values
Limited support
Standard
OLAP Variables
Limited support
– only thru BO
enterprise
Standard
What-if-scenarios (use of sliders)
Standard
Not supported
Live office
Standard
Not Supported
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Conclusion
Xcelsius
 You get unsurpassed State-of-art visualization for BI or non-BI data.
Flash player visualization
 Intuitive drill-down and navigation
 Interactive dashboard with sliders to see for example: “How COGS or
Net-Sales” will impact your bottom-line in a dashboard
 Not very complex to set-up if you start from a template and have a
good idea about the purpose of the dashboard
WAD
 Easier to work with BW query, use of all dynamic parameters such as
“current fiscal period” & BW features
 Use of BI-IP
 Single version of truth
 Allows dynamic switching of items
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Lets not forget BEx analyzer
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Best Practices
 Both tools have their own place
 Its best to base the decision on the “type” of users the
organization has. Example: consumers or analysts.
 Consider the strategy for delivery of reports  example
publishing the reports to Enterprise-portal. Currently, it is
easier to integrate WAD – reports into portal
 Xcelcius cannot currently handle BI-IP queries. Use WAD or
VC for such queries
 Avoid a proliferation of xcelcius dashboards, at least have an
understanding with business that IT cannot be responsible to
maintain thousands of customer xcelcius dashboards.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Key Learnings
 Xcelsius can create more user friendly Dashboards but
complex dashboards can take as much time as WAD
applications
 WAD can create working dashboards but have limited
Visualization Objects
 WAD has more capability of Navigation and other analytics
 WAD can handle BI-IP functions
 Replicating WAD dashboards for different queries is much
easier and can be designed such that user can input/select the
queries dynamically during runtime.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Demo
Demo
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ NIBCO INC.
 Privately held, family-owned
company
 Established in 1904
 Between $500 million - $1
billion sales
 2700 associates worldwide
 1100+ SAP users
 Headquartered in Elkhart,
Indiana
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ NIBCO INC.
 Businesses are built around
metal and plastic flow control
systems
 Nine manufacturing locations
in the US; one in Mexico, one
in Poland
 Worldwide distribution
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ NIBCO INC – SAP Systems Background
 R/3 “Big Bang” in 1997 with release 3.0F
 Subsequent upgrades to 4.0B/4.6C/4.7 Enterprise/ECC 6.0
 BW Unicode go-live in April 2003 with release 3.1
 Subsequent upgrades to 3.5/BI 7.0
 EP go-live in 2006 with release 6.0
 Subsequent upgrade to EP 7.0
 All systems reside in Elkhart (global instances)
 33 Information Services associates handle all technology for
the company
 Note: four application developers
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ The Challenge
Be quick to market with applications
that meet business requirements
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ SAP Visual Composer
Visual Composer is a modeling tool that enables codefree composition of UI elements, Enterprise Services
and reusable components to rapidly create and adapt
rich user interfaces. from sdn.sap.com
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ SAP Visual Composer at NIBCO
Dashboards
 Embedded in web pages on our SAP Enterprise Portal
installation
 Static – allow viewing of key business information
 Dynamic – filtered by data from users’ ERP HR record, or
 Filtering by the user within the application
Composite Applications
 Blend SAP ERP data with BI queries/views
 Allow user interaction with application
 Used for making business decisions in operations
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ SAP VC at NIBCO - Dashboards
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[
SAP VC at NIBCO – Composite Applications
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ SAP VC Findings at NIBCO





Rapid prototyping is possible with Visual Composer
Flash/chart animation gets business users’ attention
Code free (packaged)
Information “push”
Personalization based on HR master data
 Not intended to manage a large volume of data from the
source data service
 Chart features/colors are limited
 Technical challenges with 7.0 release (we understand many
issues have been addressed with CE 7.1 release)
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Key Learnings
 SAP Visual Composer is a powerful tool that business analysts,
with a strong understanding of underlying services, can use to
build technology solutions.
 The introduction of SAP Visual Composer to your technical
landscape does not eliminate the need for good applications
development personnel.
 SAP Visual Composer has limitations, and may not always be
the right tool for your need - but it can reduce time to market
over traditional development methods.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Demo
Demo
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[
]
 Thank you for participating.
Please remember to complete and return your
evaluation form following this session.
For ongoing education on this area of focus, visit the Year-Round
Community page at www.asug.com/yrc
[
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
SESSION CODE:
208
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