© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. What Every SAP Customer Needs to Know...

© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

What Every SAP Customer Needs to Know About the Latest Reporting, Analysis, and Dashboard Tools Available with SAP NetWeaver BI

Dr. Bjarne BergMyITgroup, a VIP consulting company

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In This Session ...

This is a comprehensive guide to SAP NetWeaver® Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) presentation tools

We will take an overview tour of the Analysis Process Designer (APD), SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC), Web Application Designer (WAD), Report Designer, Web publishing, Java Server pages (JSP) and the new SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer & BEx Analyzer

We will look at the strengths and limitations of each tool and see how they can be used independently or collectively in a SAP NetWeaver BI environment.

You’ll leave this session with a good understanding of how to use SAP NetWeaver BI tools to make your system more flexible and adaptive to the needs of end users

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The SAP NetWeaver BI Core Toolset

SAP NetWeaver BI is an enterprise-wide comprehensive decision support system (DSS) for the analytical needs of an enterprise.

SAP NetWeaver BI can also support some degree of operational reporting

The SAP NetWeaver BI tool set has many presentation tools and options for companies to leverage.

Bjarne: As you know, we don’t allow single-slide sections. Can we move this slide to be in front of the first What We’ll Cover slide, as part of your introductory material?

Also: Is this an SAP image? If so, we need to say “Source: SAP”

BERG: Moved and referenced

Source: SAP

What We’ll Cover …

• The SAP NetWeaver BI tool revolution SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer and BEx Analyzer Analysis Process Designer (APD) SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC) Web Application Designer (WAD) Report Designer Web publishing Java Server pages (JSP) and the old Business Server Pages (BSP) Administrative tools & The Business Objects Roadmap for front-end tools

• Using two or more tools together• Empowering the users – a mind shift• Wrap-up

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The BEx Query Designer in SAP BW 3.5

The BEx query designer is a simple tool that you use to develop queries for users.

While the Query Designer is sued to define the query, you have many options on how you deploy the queries

You can deploy the queries through web templates, broadcasted emails, portals, Excel, and more.

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BEx Query Designer Gets a “Facelift” in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

The 3.5x BEx Query Designer

Note:

The SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 BEx Query Designer

The new 7.0 Query designer was totally redeveloped in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

This new property pane makes it easier to format and control displays than in the past.

BEx ad hoc Query Designer functionality is replaced by BEx Web Analyzer in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

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BEx Analyzer (Excel Workbooks)

1. BEx Workbooks is Excel “on steroids.”

2. SAP BW queries can be opened in Excel

3. Queries can be refreshed and standard Excel functions can

be used

This is a great tool for financial analysts and power users

To use this tool you need BEx installed

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BEx Web Analyzer Integrates Excel

The Excel integration in the BEx Analyzer is far better tham older versions of SAP BW

Unlike the old days of dynamic HTML, you can now use the BEx analyzer more as a real application without refreshing the whole page every time you click on something (this is due to the Java component in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0)

Source: SAP AG, 2008

Important: BEx browser goes away in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 (so does BEx Download Scheduler)

Bjarne: What is the Excel integration in BEx Analyzer better than?

BERG: Spelled out

BEx Analyzer Design Mode

1. Application building in Excel (similar to Web Application Designer)

2. New options for queries with two structures3. Excel formulas allow access to any cell of the result set4. Excel formatting options can be fully leveraged for BEx

workbooks (e.g., blank lines, fonts, etc.)5. Combining Excel formulas and Excel formatting allows the

design of complex formatted workbooks6. Integration of Business Planning is available

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To use this tool you need BEx installed

Source: SAP, Zane Connally 2008




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• SAP BW Analysis Process Designer (APD) is for knowledge discovery and exploration of large sets of data.

• APD has been available in SAP BW since version 3.0 and can be used to do complex analysis without having to restructure the data and create hundreds of specialized data marts.

• You can read from a variety of sources such as Flat files Database tables Data Store Objects (new name for ODS) Infocubes BW queries

Image: SAP, UK

Since BW 3.5, APD has been integrated with the Data Mining Workbench. You can access it using transaction RSDMWB

SAP BW Analysis Process Designer and Data Mining

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• In Data warehousing v2.0 (Bill Immon’s new terminology), we are using BI applications to create new data that needs to be fed to the data warehouse, and/or the transactional system

• Tools are now available to build association data sets that create updates based on BI findings (i.e. customer segmentation, risk, profitability flagging, etc).

Images: Bhanu Gupta, ASUG 2005 Illinois chapter

DW Version 2.0

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Complex scenarios can be built for structured analysis such as risk modeling, customer segmentation, market basket analysis, predictive modeling, and much more

Image: SAPImage: SAP

“New data” based on the findings can be loaded back into data targets and used by others for reporting — example: CRM analysis.

SAP BW Analysis Process Designer and Data Mining




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A Visual Composer is a tool to visualize the data. It is a browser-based modeling and design tool for rapid application development & prototyping in a code-free development environment.

Visual Composer

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Modeling of BI applications using the BI kit of the SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer allows business users to create analytical content for SAP portal. It offers the integration with BI infoproviders, views, BEx web applications, PDF and more as access toother data sources (such as OLAP and relational data sources)via Java connectorsvia Web API

Image source: Cubeserv

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer for Complex Cockpits

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Details about SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Cockpits

• Delivered as part of Enterprise Portal in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Usage Type (SPS8 and higher)

• Different options available for rendering SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer output

Flash Web Dynpro (HTML)

• Flash provides high-end visualization of SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer models

Since a cockpit may have many different DataSources (queries), it can take quite some time to execute them if the memory cache is not used consistently

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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Data Methods

• Can integrate data from multiple data sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems, into one model

• Different options available for data access include: SAP NetWeaver BI Extension Kit Remote Function Call (RFC) Web services

• SAP NetWeaver BI Extension Kit allows access to the following DataSources SAP NetWeaver 2004 BI

(SAP BW 3.5 Support Package 14) SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 JDBC XMLA

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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer DataProviders

• You can use BI queries and views as DataProviders for SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer models

• You also can use BI query functionalities for exceptions and variables along with SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer models

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer allows access to BI history, favorites, and roles

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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Is Easy for Power Users to Learn

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer is a power user tool that is simple to learn for someone with a little bit of technical background (i.e. controllers, report writers, analysts).

Source: SAP

Source: MyITgroup

Take advantage of prebuilt analytic business packages

No coding required to create great-looking Web-based cockpits

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Bjarne: Can you insert here a slide title that briefly describes what it is you'll be demoing at this point?

BERG: Done

Visual Composer Cockpit Demo

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The Future of SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

Composition Environment including SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer continues to be the go-to product for creating composite applications

Source: SAP, July 2008

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• The SAP NetWeaver BI tool revolution SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer and BEx Analyzer Analysis Process Designer (APD) SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC) Web Application Designer (WAD) Report Designer Web publishing Java Server pages (JSP) and the old Business Server Pages (BSP) Administrative tools The Business Objects Roadmap for front-end tools


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BEx Web Application Designer (WAD)

OLAP ProcessorOLAP Processor

BEx Web Application DesignerBEx Analyzer/Query Designer

Web ServiceWeb Service

Charting EngineCharting Engine

Web Browser

HTLM Templates InfoProvider

WAD is an intuitive tool to build powerful web applications and to interact with portals and custom templates.

BW queries can be manipulated in WAD for better display

Bjarne: Should this be “HTML” templates?

BERG: Yes

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Web Application Designer for Custom Applications

WAD can also incorporate other non-SAP web items into powerful cockpits and custom report centers.

OLAP ProcessorOLAP Processor

BEx Web Application DesignerBEx Analyzer/Query Designer

Web ServiceWeb Service

Charting EngineCharting Engine HTLM Templates InfoProviderSource: SAP AG

While WAD can be used by developers without extensive HTML and Java scripting knowledge, these skills will be useful on most projects.

WAD is a key tool for all SAP BI shops and in SAP NetWeaver 2004s the tool is simplified and more powerful.

New: integration with SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx Report Designer. 27

Web Application Designer (WAD) Gets Better

The Web Application Designer is improved with new chart types (Heat Map, Gantt and Milestone Trend Analysis), as well as new layout elements such as “tab strips.”

WAD also has new step-by-step wizards for maps, command editing to create Web API commands and charts, as well as a simplified wizard for layout elements such as radio buttons, action buttons etc.

This reduces the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command Wizards, auto complete and support for HTML tags.

Some of SAP NetWeaver SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Web AD New Features

• Web Items: Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Support Package Stack 7)

• Drag and drop using Analysis item• New chart types (heat map, Gantt, milestone trend analysis)• Export SAP NetWeaver BI Web applications in PDF format• Command Wizard for generating Web API commands• Integration with SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 BEx Report Designer for

formatted reports

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User can change the XHTML source code of any web template either directly, or using the ABAP program RS_TEMPLATE_MAINTAIN_70, or in any external XHTML editor.

SAP NetWeaver BI Web API Commands

• You can use SAP NetWeaver BI Web API commands for carrying out certain actions in SAP NetWeaver BI Web Applications Export to Excel, PDF, etc. OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove drill downs

• Command Wizards guide you through the steps for creating a SAP NetWeaver BI Web API command

• Commands appear together for easy access Data Provider Web Items Web Templates

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Reduce the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command Wizards, auto complete, and support for HTML tags

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Command Wizard and JavaScript

• Use Command Wizard for generating JavaScript code for the Script Item to use in custom cockpit applications

BEx Web Application Designer will not be enhanced further beyond Release 7.1 in 2008

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BEx Report Designer Is Here!

This new tool was created to simplify the formatting of reports and fix many of the printing issues in previous versions of SAP BW

Source: SAP AG

We now get color control, header-footer control and many new features such as location control of cells and integration of pictures, charts, and fixed text

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BEx Report Designer Is New in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

• Customizable font styles (i.e. bold, italic), colors, etc.

• Group-level changes with individual formatting

• Layout options, e.g.: Height of rows, width of columns

• Multi-line column headers

• Flexible field positioning

• Merging cells

• Support for hierarchies

• Rules for the presentation of special characteristic values

• Integration of text, pictures, and charts

• Header and footer for reports

BEx Report Designer 7.1, (last release in 2008) will be available under maximum maintenance

until 2016 and will be replaced with the Crystal Report for SAP NetWeaver BI.

Bjarne: I have changed the designation of “Crystal Report in the text at bottom right – is it ok?

BERG: OK

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Crystal Reports® Is Available (Also in SAP BW 3.x)

• With SAP’s BI offerings, you get access to Crystal Reports. In fact, many predeveloped reports are already available. Currently, you can modify, or develop and deploy, a few of those reports without additional licensing cost.

• Crystal Reports is a great tool for batch reporting of “pixel controlled” formatted reports.

Bjarne: I have slightly rephrased the first bullet (mainly to satisfy some SAP branding/product naming requirements) – is it ok?

BERG: OK

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Web Cockpit in the Portal

You can integrate queries and Web applications into the portal through publishing, broadcasting, or Web calls

The portal can either receive designed pages passively or actively create communities, Web pages, collaboration rooms, or cockpits

Broadcasting

Publishing

Bjarne: I’ve removed the SAP logo …

BERG: OK

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Web Cockpit In SAP NetWeaver Portal (cont.)

• The SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM) Corporate Performance Monitor cockpits are already part of the portal, so you can access them there

• iViews can build custom portal cockpits with iViews from many data sources (SAP Web AD, SAP BW, SAP SEM, SAP R/3, the Web) and in many formats (graphs, pictures, figures, and tables)

• iViews can also be interactive

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Web AD Cockpits in SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0

You can directly publish BI Web cockpits to Portal Content Catalog using the Publish option from Web AD

Portal and BI system connection should be set up as per SAP Note 917950

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Broadcast Cockpit Views and Templates Using WAD

• In SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI Web applications (i.e., cockpit views) to SAP Enterprise Portal knowledge management (KM) folders and via email in various formats (PDF, MHTML, HTML)

• Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.x) can precalculate BI Web applications to enhance performance

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Web Templates Using BSP (in SAP BW 3.5)

• The most common way of deploying BW queries used to be through a standard, or customized web template with built-in navigational features.

• BW provided a global web template that could be enhanced with logos, colors, fonts and additional features at a low cost of development and ownership.

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SAP NetWeaver BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

• SAP NetWeaver BI Java SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP NetWeaver BI and non-SAP data

• SAP NetWeaver BI Java SDK provides access to relational and OLAP data sources using JDBC, XMLA, ODBO etc.

• Access to 200+ data sources using the JDBC drivers

Source: SAP AG, 2005

Java programmers will recognize the standard development kit's (SDK) main libraries such as the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) and the GUI-oriented Swing object library as well

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SAP NetWeaver BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits (cont.)• SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio can develop BI Java SDK-based

applications• Can use along with SAP Java Web Dynpro

Interested developers should familiarize themselves with SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

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More Administrative Tools for Management and Development

• Enhanced Dataflow control (split delta)• Administrator Cockpit (Web-based)• SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator (for high BI performance)• Enhanced InfoSets with InfoCubes• Remodeling and repartitioning of InfoCubes• New Data Transfer Process (DTP)• Write-optimized DataStore objects• New Admin Workbench

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SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 has many improved tools for developers and system administrators

Bjarne: I took out the “BIA” reference because SAP branding requirements do not allow its use.

BERG: OK

Bjarne: This section of your agenda consists of one slide only, and we don’t allow single-slide sections. Can you delete the section and use this slide elsewhere?

BERG: Done

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SAP’s Premium Offerings

SAP Acquired Business Objects in 2007/2008 and is working on integrating its products into the core SAP NetWeaver BI offerings

Bjarne: I slightly rewrote the first bullet – is it ok?

BERG: OK

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New Tools Roadmap

Source SAP AG, June 2008

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Business Objects capabilities – Dashboards and Reports

Crystal Reports for pixel-formatted reports has been available with SAP NetWeaver BI/BW since 2002. This tool can be integrated into your tool portfolio using existing SAP NetWeaver BI queries

(NOTE: Crystal Reports and Crystal Report for SAP NetWeaver BI (Crystal Light) will be the core tools for formatted reports starting 2010)

• Dashboards can be built using Xcelsius.

• Xcelsius+ will be launched in 2009, and will be “the flagship product for data visualization & dashboards”

• BEx Web Application Designer will not be enhanced further beyond Release 7.1 of SAP NetWeaver in 2008.


Bjarne: The animation on this slide calls for the Crystal Reports screenshot to automatically fade in after the slide is shown – is that what you intended?

BERG: No (thanks)

Also: I have rewritten the note at the bottom to reflect my understanding of what “Crystal Light” really will be – is it ok?

BERG: OK

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Business Objects Capabilities — Analysis, Ad-hoc, and Widgets

The Web Intelligence tool from Business Objects is a tool for ad hoc web based reporting, query and analysis.

It is intended for end users and can leverage queries to both relational and OLAP sources.

It will be the core offering for ad-hoc end user analysis starting 2009.

With the current offering of Business Objects you can also use Desktop Widgets to place BI content direct onto a PC desktop and monitor reports and KPIs.


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The Move towards Pioneer

• Pioneer (code name for 2009 release) provides a superset of the capabilities in BEx Analyzer (Excel), BEx Analyzer (Web), and Business Objects Voyager.

• Voyager customers migrate to Pioneer.

• BEx Analyzer & BEx Web Analyzer customers migrate to Pioneer. (Note: BEx goes into regular maintenance)

Web

based

Excel

based


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BEx Report Designer and WAD

You can also let your SAP NetWeaver BI users do basic navigation on the formatted reports by either integrating navigation, or adding this in the Web Application Designer (WAD)

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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer and WAD

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer integrates with Web AD-based applications using Portal Eventing Framework

• For example, BW Web API can pass a filter value from a BEx Web application to SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer And vice versa

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SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer 7.0 Portal Publishing

• SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Design time deploys SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer models directly as iViews to Portal Content Catalog

• You can then use SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer iViews in portal pages, roles, etc.

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Bjarne: We appear to have skipped the section “Empowering the Users – a Mind Shift” Can you check the sequence of your slides and the organization of your agenda?

BERG: Fixed

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Who gets to do what?

The major decision for a SAP NetWeaver BI driven enterprise is to determine who gets access to each tool.

There is often a temptation for the IT community of wanting to keep the tools under their domain – That is a mistake

The IT community should actively work with the power and casual users to improve human capabilities and thereby teach them to become more productive employees.

Chinese Proverb

There are many options and decisions to be made on who should be able to access all the different tools.

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Bex Broadcaster

Tool Access – Who should do what…..

Powerusers

Regular users Authors Developers BW

Admins

Ad-hoc query designer

Query Designer

Analysis ProcessDesigner

Crystal Reports

Broadcaster -wizard

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

Web ApplicationDesigner

Oth

er to

ols

Web

Too

lsQ

uery

tool

s

- /

- /

-

-

- - -

- - /

- / - /

- - -

- - /

- /

- /

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Bex Broadcaster

Deciding Which Reporting Tool Is Right for You

Web reportsWorkbooks Fixed

formatWeb

Applications Models

Ad-hoc query designer

Query Designer

Analysis ProcessDesigner

Crystal Reports

Broadcaster -wizard

SAP NetWeaver Visual Comp.

Web ApplicationDesigner

Oth

er to

ols

Web

Too

lsQ

uery

tool

s

-

- - -

- - /

- /

- - -

-

*

Vizuali-zation

Distrib-ution

- /

- / - /

- - -

- - -

- - -

- -

- -

- / - / -

--

--

--

-

-

-

-* Through embedded Bex Broadcaster

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• The SAP NetWeaver BI tool revolution SAP NetWeaver BI Query Designer and BEx Analyzer Analysis Process Designer (APD) SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (VC) Web Application Designer (WAD) Report Designer Web publishing Java Server pages (JSP) and the old Business Server Pages (BSP)

Administrative tools The Business Objects Roadmap for front-end tools


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Resources

• SAP Documents - Interfaces for Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis, May 2007 https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/

f52e9cc1-0d01-0010-d88b-d808b69391a4

• Dr. Bjarne Berg’s web site (85+ presentations) http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm

• SAP NetWeaver BI - NetWeaver BI 7.0 - what is New? SDN presentation http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/articles/NWBI70_what_is_new.ppt

• SAP Business Intelligence (BI) by Norbert Egger, Jean-Marie Fiechter, Sebastian Kramer, Ralf-Patrick Sawicki, and Stephan Weber. Galio Press - Hardcover, 653 pages, ISBN 978-1-59229-082-6

Bjarne: The third URL doesn’t appear to be valid – could you check it, please?

BERG: Done (one period too many)

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7 Key Points to Take Home

1. Pick the right tools based on what you want to accomplish

“Everything in the world is a nail, when you only have a hammer …”

2. The BW tool set has evolved substantially over the last 2 years

— have you?

3. Today’s presentation developer is much more than a query developer. More than one skill set is needed.

4. Work hard on empowering your end users. You are not doing your organization any favors by keeping BI in the IT organization

5. Consider integrating more than one tool for your analytical needs

6. You may want to consider splitting your back-end BI operations and creating a new reporting group focusing on the front end

7. Budget “real money” to get your organization proficient in the new tools. This is not done overnight, nor cheaply.

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:Bjarne Berg

[email protected]

Disclaimer

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet™, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

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© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. What Every SAP Customer Needs to Know...

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Transcript of © 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. What Every SAP Customer Needs to Know...