Embedded Crystal Reports Inside ERP

8/17/2019 Embedded Crystal Reports Inside ERP

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Using Crystal with SAP ERP

Tammy

Powlas,

Fairfax

Water


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In This Session …

Overall message is about customer empowerment. You

can set up this functionality yourself!

Why embedded

analytics?

What are embedded analytics?

Expanding BI to more users

How to

set

up

embedded

analytics

inside

the

SAP

ERP

system

What are the benefits of embedded analytics

You

will

learn

about

the

options

with

SAP

BusinessObjects inside the SAP ERP system


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Fairfax Water

Largest water utility in Virginia

1.7 million individuals get their water from Fairfax

Water

AAA bond rating

400 employees

Fairfax Water

produces,

on

average,

167

million

gallons

of water per day

One out of five Virginians gets their water from Fairfax

Water


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What We’ll Cover …

Leveraging embedded analytics

Understanding embedded analytics

Looking at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with

enhancement package 5

Setting up embedded analytics inside SAP ERP system

Obtaining the

benefits

of

embedded

analytics

Review of Crystal with ERP

Wrap‐up


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Why Embedded Analytics

You have made a significant investment in your ERP system

Research shows that companies taking an embedded BI

approach outperform

the

average

as

well

as

those

with

a traditional on‐ premise approach to BI

Improves revenue, profit, cash flow, sales of pipeline

Aberdeen’s 2010 benchmarking report showed that day‐to‐

day decision

process

is

hindered

by

poor

data

quality

Users are already familiar with the ERP application can

spread the analytical capability to team members

Analytic functionality integrated with or embedded within

existing applications


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BI Wisdom 2013

BIWisdom.com

2013 Wisdom of Crowds ® Business Intelligence Market Study


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Looking at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with



Obtaining the

benefits

of

embedded

analytics

Review of Crystal with ERP

Wrap‐up


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What Are Embedded Analytics?

You provide embedded analytics in the context of a business transaction

Characteristics

The user is able to see the information from inside an OLTP application in the same window, without having to drill down or invoke any command

The information

conveyed

is

concise

enough

to

convey a clear message

The information is always in the current context and directly applicable to the transaction at hand

Source: Oracle (www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/ux/applications/510101.htm)


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SAP’s Definition of Embedded Analytics

Embedded analytics is the integration of SAP

BusinessObjects reports (BI content) into the SAP

Business Suite

Not a separate installation but part of the ERP

application

Includes pre

‐delivered

content

as

embedded

content

within SAP Business Suite applications

Content is embedded within standard business

processes of most SAP Business Suite applications

Customers have the ability to change it

Includes real‐time, operational data


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Context Aware

Limited interaction

from users

Pixel Perfect

Report inside ERP

Operational

Reporting without

delays

No need to

understand

complex data

model


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Looking at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with



Obtaining the

benefits

of

embedded

analytics

Wrap‐up


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What New Reporting Features Come Ehp5

Reporting in SAP is often via SAP ALV reports or through SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse

Using SAP

BusinessObjects

you

are

keeping

your

investment in existing reports

With SAP BusinessObjects becoming a part of the SAP landscape, you can look at taking advantage of the

toolset within

SAP

ERP

Predefined content delivered with SAP Crystal Reports and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius) (not covered here)

Integrated into

the

lifecycle

management

of

the

product


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Looking at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with



Obtaining the

benefits

of

embedded

analytics

Wrap‐up


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Two Scenarios

SAP Crystal Reports

Transient Provider


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CRYSTAL REPORTS

Scenario 1


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Crystal Reports 2011 and SAP ERP

ABAP List Viewer

• Crystal Reports is able to use ABAP List Viewer (ALV) as

a data source for reporting (“thousands of reports”)

• You are

able

to

use

Crystal

Reports

objects

as

a layout

option for Web Dynpro ALV and SAP GUI ALV layouts

• You are able to create Crystal Reports objects as

templates for

all

users

• Crystal Reports objects become part of the software

logistics of the ALV“Use Crystal without making

an investment”


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Technical Requirements

Technical environment

Server side

Web Dynpro

or

SAP

GUI

ALV

on

enhancement

package 5

Client side

Crystal Reports

Viewer

for

SAP

Business

Suite

at

runtime

Crystal Reports Designer for report changes


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SAP GUI 7.10

Crystal Reports 2008

SP03

(only for design time)

SAP Crystal Reports Viewer for

SAP Business Suite Applications

SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations 2010

SAP NetWeaver 7.02

Client Server

Display Lists with SAP Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports

2011

(only for design time)

or


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SAP Technical Requirements

Source: SAP


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Display ALV as a Crystal Report

SAP List Viewer Display Option Crystal Reports

Legacy reporting

More sophisticated users

Limited formatting

Gain Real

‐Time

Access

Improved User Experience

Gain Insight


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Bringing in the Information Consumer

Information Consumers – These users typically view predefined

and static content and perform relatively little drilling and filtering

on their own

Business Users – These users perform some moderate amount of drilling and filtering on their own

Expert Users – These users are much more likely to perform

resource‐intensive operations in the system, including ad‐hoc

analysis and

customization

(Source: SAP)

From Expert/Business To Information Consumer


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How to Embed Crystal Reports Inside SAP ERP

ALV (ABAP List Viewer) has several output options –

PDF, Excel, XML, and with enhancement package 5, SAP

Crystal Reports

2011/2013

SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2011 (free) runs inside SAP

ERP

No

other

infrastructure

is

neededYou will need SAP Crystal Reports 2011/2013

Designer if you want to create your own

templates


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Configuration

IMG SAP NetWeaver® Application Server SAP

List

Viewer (ALV)

Maintain

SAP

GUI

‐Specific

Settings


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Crystal Viewer for SAP Business Suite

Applications

Crystal Reports Viewer for SAP Business Suite

applications – Download it from service.sap.com/notes,

SAP Note

1353044

Requires login credentials to the SAP Service

Marketplace


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Crystal Viewer Installation Steps

Run the installation file (xSAPCRVAdpt.exe) of the Crystal Reports Viewer for SAP Business Suite apps

It can be found here:

https://websmp202.sap‐ag.de/~form/handler?_APP=00200682500000001943&%20_EVENT=DISPHIE

R&HEADER=N&FUNCTIONBAR=N&EVENT=TREE&TMPL=01200615320200017144&V=INST

Requires login credentials to the SAP Service Marketplace

Prerequisites

Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. or above needs to be

installedInstalled SAP GUI 7.10 or above Our experience: Not all machines meet the prerequisites


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Demonstration of Setup

DEMO

26


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Two Flavors

• Generic Crystal report: Enable usage of SAP

BusinessObjects tools immediately across all

ALVs within the whole suite (e.g., for printout or as

starting point to define specific Crystal Reports)

• Specific Crystal Report: Using formatting features

on top of data of a dedicated ALV layout. Can be

shipped as content or defined by customer.

Central idea

• Using Crystal Reports as a layout option for Web Dynpro

ALV and SAP GUI ALV

• Leverage ALV lifecycle management (LCM)

SOURCE: SAP

CrystalReport

Source: SAP

How does it work?


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How to Create a Specific Crystal Report

and Assign It as ALV Layout Option

Start ALV

Display with Generic

Crystal Report

Edit generated layout in

Crystal Report Designer

(additional license may

be required)

Save new specif ic Crystal

Report as ALV layout option

Source: SAP

Source: SAP


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Benefits of Embedded Crystal Reports

Automatically generate a Crystal Report based on the content of an existing SAP ERP report

Associate

a

specifically

designed

Crystal

Report

with

an

SAP List Viewer report

Import templates for a corporate identity

Crystal Reports becomes part of the ALV software

logistics – Leverages

existing

ALV

investment

You can import and export a Crystal Report

Simplification of navigation, especially in summarized financial reports

Response from

users

has

been

positive

Uses best‐of ‐breed reporting


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Benefits

Content is available, unlike before

Pixel perfect

Content rendered

as

a part

of

business

processes

No modeling needed

Access to ALV

Ease of

use

Expanding the use of BI to include the Information

Consumer


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Real Life Example – Inventory Forms


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Real‐Life Example: Financial Statements


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Crystal Summary

Reports off SAP transactions

Layout option for SAP List

Viewer (ALV)

Default and custom

Benefits to

customer

Best‐of ‐breed reporting

Real time

Leverage ALV investments


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Getting Started with Embedded Analytics

Existing SAP Business Suite/ERP customer with SAP BusinessObjects?

Consider

including

embedded

analytics Existing SAP Business Suite customer with no SAP

BusinessObjects?

Start with SAP Crystal Reports on ALV to

expose reports

embedded

in

real

time

Look at content with preformatted reports and dashboards

Considering SAP

Business

Suite?

Include embedded analytics in your planning


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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is a separate server needed?

A: No, this is inside your SAP ECC/ERP system

Q: Are

authorizations

needed?

A: No for SAP Crystal Reports, yes to report on transient

providers that use BW authorizations

Q:

What

about

performance

issues?

A: Limit data in result sets

Q: For embedded SAP Crystal Reports, does this work

for Crystal Reports for Enterprise?

A: No, you need to use SAP Crystal Reports 2008 SP 2 or

SAP Crystal Reports 2011


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Value of Embedded Analytics

Standardize on one platform for reporting: BI with a

consistent frontend

New

ways

of

navigating

the

data

Real‐time; no replication or duplication of data

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Speed of Adoption / Ease of

Deployment

Ability to tailor Analytical Functionality

Cultural and Process Improvements

Add value

to

existing

software

investments

Top Benefits of Embedded BIAdapted from an Aberdeen Study, February 2012


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Best Benefit: FREE

Embedded Crystal Reports

Transient provider

Depending on how you use them – both are FREE

features

If you

already

have

an

SAP

BusinessObjects

BI

4.0 license, transient provider is free

If you are not making changes to the

embedded Crystal

Reports

then

a design

time

license for Crystal Reports is not needed


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Looking at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with



Benefits

of

embedded

analytics Other SAP ERP Options for Crystal

Wrap‐up

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 and SAP ERP


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41

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 and SAP ERP

Background

Use SAP ERP as a data source for Crystal Reports 2011 (BI 4.0)*

Create management and financial reports and distributethem in various ways in real time

Crystal

Reports

2011

is

an

incremental

upgrade

from

SAP

Crystal

Reports 2008

Ability to save reports in read‐only mode

Ability to save .XLSX format

Build custom applications using SAP Crystal Reports for Visual

Studio

Recommended for SAP ERP Reporting over SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise

New start page

*BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 can connect Crystal for Enterprise to ERP

Data Connectivity: SAP Crystal Reports 2011


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Data Connectivity: SAP Crystal Reports 2011

and SAP ERP

Software Required

Crystal Reports 2011 (client side)

SAP BusinessObjects

Enterprise

3.1

or

BI

Platform

4.0

SAP Integration Kit (XI 3.1 only)

SAP ERP

Available

Data

Sources

InfoSets

SAP queries

ABAP functions

Tables and cluster (Open SQL)

Source: SAP

ERP D t S C t l 2011/2013


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43

Transparent Tables

(Open SQL Driver)

InfoSets – Global and

standard

SAP Query – Global and

standard

ERP Data Sources Crystal 2011/2013

When to Use Crystal Reports for Enterprise


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• Universe on top of SAP ERP• Supported data sources

– Classic InfoSets

– ABAP Functions

– ABAP Queries

• Supported for Multi‐Source

Universes – Combine SAP ERP with other

sources, for example SAP BW or

SAP HANA, or non‐SAP data

sources

When to Use Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Wh t C t l R t f E t i


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45

When to use Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Data Source Recommendation

BI4 Universes (.UNX) Crystal Reports for Enterprise

BEx Query in BW 7.x Crystal Reports for Enterprise

SAP ERP Tables Crystal Reports 2011/2013

SAP ERP InfoSets / ABAP Functions Crystal Reports for Enterprise FP3/ SP4

BI Platform Driven Alerting Crystal Reports for Enterprise


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46


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Crystal for Enterprise Design Time against ECC

Crystal Reports for Enterprise – Run Time


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Crystal Reports for Enterprise – Run Time


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Demo

— Report

Conversion

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Benefits of Crystal Reports for Enterprise &


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Crystal Reports 2011

Choose Crystal Reports 2011 or Crystal Reports for

Enterprise based on features needed

Move

to

Crystal

Reports

for

Enterprise

at

your

own

speed

Investments in existing reports are preserved

Reports created in Crystal Reports 2011 will

open in Crystal Reports Enterprise Designer

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Co‐Existence Crystal Reports 2011 & Crystal


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Reports for Enterprise

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 and Crystal Reports for

Enterprise can run on the same desktop client

Migrate

managed

reports

to

Crystal

Reports

for

Enterprise by using Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Designer

51



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What We ll Cover …



Looking

at

the

new

reporting

features

that

come

with



Obtaining the benefits of embedded analytics

Review of options of Crystal with SAP

Wrap‐up

Wrapping Up


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pp g p

Use SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise for SAP ERP

reporting

Use

the

SAP

Community

Network

for

free

online

tutorials (sap.com/learnbi)

Use SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise or Crystal

Business Suite Viewer for financial and management

operational real

‐time

reporting

Consider migrating from Crystal Reports 2011 to Crystal

Reports for Enterprise

Crystal

Reports

for

Enterprise

and

Crystal

Reports

2011

can operate side‐by‐side


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ASUG SAP

TechEd Pre

‐Conference

Day

Monday, October 21

BI4.1 & BW on HANA Hands‐on

SAVE THE DATE

Resources


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SAP Community Network

http://scn.sap.com/community/embedded‐

analyticshttp://scn.sap.com/community/crystal‐reports

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi‐

platform/businessobjects‐bi

‐for

‐sap

Sap.com/LearnBI – free tutorials

Additional Resources (cont.)


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Ingo Hilgefort, Integrating SAP BusinessObjects 4.x BI Platform with SAP NetWeaver (SAP PRESS, November 2011).

www.sap‐press.com/products/Integrating

‐SAP

‐

BusinessObjects‐BI‐Platform‐4.x‐with‐SAP‐NetWeaver.html

Ingo

Hilgefort,

Reporting

and

Analytics

with

SAP BusinessObjects (2nd Edition) (SAP PRESS, January

2012).

www.sap‐press.com/products/Reporting‐and‐

Analysis‐with

‐SAP

‐BusinessObjects

‐%282nd

‐

Edition%29.html

56


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Free online

tutorials

for

Business

Intelligence

from

SAP

• Free and easy access for everyone!• More than 800 how‐to tutorials

• Beginner and core tasks for BI users, analysts, and designers

• Interactive versions

hosted

on

SCN

• Video versions hosted on YouTube

• Tutorial links in product help, start pages, and documentation


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Questions

Feedback?

Please complete the online survey

Follow

me

on

Twitter

@tpowlas


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THANK YOU

FOR

PARTICIPATING

Follow me on Twitter @tpowlas

For ongoing

education

on

this

area

of

focus,

visit ASUG.com

Embedded Crystal Reports Inside ERP

Documents

Transcript of Embedded Crystal Reports Inside ERP