SAP BW Overview The objective of data warehousing is to analyze data from various sources.

This is done to support decision making. Two challenges are faced to achieve this goal: * Poor system performance. A data warehouse contains a large volume of data. The data has be to retrieved from the data warehouse for analytical purpose. It is not a trivial task to retrieve data. For this reason a special technique is used, called a star schema. Difficulties in extracting, transferring, transforming, and loading (ETTL) data from various sources into a data warehouse. Data must be cleansed first before we can use it. ETTL is often the failure point for many data warehousing projects. It is difficult to clean SAP R/3 data without using SAP BW. SAP R/3 is ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) software. Most large companies in the world use SAP R/3 to manage their business transactions. SAP BW was introduced in 1997. Before its introduction ETTL of SAP R/3 data into a data warehouse was an arduous task. SAP R/3 customers were weeking a reasonable data warehousing solution. SAP introduced SAP BW as a result.

Sales Analysis - An Example Imagine yourself a a sales manager. Your role is to plan and implement a sales strategy. Your tasks include: * Monitoring and forecasting sales demands and pricing trends * Managing sales objectives and coordinating the sales force and distributors * Reviewing the sales activities of each representative, office, and region You have the following data available about firm's materials, customers, and sales organization. In order to succeed in fierce market competition, you must have an up-to-date picture of your business. The challenge is how to make the best use of data in decision support. various analysis has to be be performed in decision support. Online analytical processing (OLAP) consumes heavy computer resources. Tihs is because the size of data is very large. This analysis cannot be carried out in an online transaction processing (OLTP) system. Sales management system is an example of an OLTP system. A dedicated system needs to be built instead. This dedicated system is called the data warehouse. Data Warehousing A data warehouse is a system with its own database. The data is drawn from various sources.

The data warehouse is designed to support query and analysis. A special database design technique called star schema is used in data warehouses. The star schema facilitate data retrieval for analytical processing. Star Schema The concept of a star schema has been in use for years. This concept is not new. For the data in the previous section, we can create a star schema like that shown below

We call it star schema because of its graphical representation. It looks like a star. The central fact table is usually large. It is large enough to be measured in gigabytes.

This is the table that contains interesting data. The dimension tables are only 1 to 5 percent the size of the fact table. Common dimensions are unit and time. Foreign keys connect the fact table to the dimension tables. In a data warehouse, the dimension tables are not required to be normalized. That means they can contain redundant data. The following steps explain how a star schema works to calculate the total quantity sold in the Midwest region: 1. From the sales rep dimension, select all sales rep IDs in the Midwest region. 2. From the fact table, select and summarize all quantity sold by the sales rep IDs of Step 1. Extracting, Transferring, Transforming, and Loading Data - ETTL Building a data warehouse involves a critical task: to extract, transfer, transform, and load (ETTL) data from diverse data sources into the data warehouse.

In data extraction, the data is moved out of source systems. Example of a source system is SAP R/3 system. To identify the right data is a challenge. A good knowledge of the source systems is a must. In data transfer, a large amount of data is moved regularly from different source systems to the data warehouse. To plan a realistic schedule and to have reliable and fast networks are main challenges. In data transformation, the data is formatted, so that it can be accepted in the data warehouse. For example, an entity with multiple names (such as AT&T, ATT, or Bell) must be converted into an entity with a single name (such as AT&T).

The original data might be sitting in different databases using different data types. Or it might reside in different file formats in different file systems. Some date might be case sensitive. Some are not. In data loading, the data is loaded into the fact tables. This has be to done correctly and quickly. To develop a robust error-handling procedure is the main challenge. ETTL is a complex task. It is also a time consuming task. Errors can jeopardize data quality. This directly affects business decision making. Because of these challenges, most data warehousing projects experience difficulties finishing on time or on budget. SAP R/3 as an Example Let's take a look at SAP R/3 as an example. SAP R/3 is a leading ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) system. 30,000+ SAP R/3 systems are installed worldwide. There are more than 10 million users. SAP R/3 can be used to run your entire business. It includes several modules. Main ones are listed below: * SD (sales and distribution)

* MM (materials management) * PP (production planning) * FI (financial accounting) * HR (human resources). SAP R/3's offers a rich business functionality leads. This leads to a complex database design. This system has approximately 10,000 database tables. Tables and their columns sometimes don't even have explicit English descriptions. Using the SAP R/3 data for business decision support had been a constant problem for years. SAP AG recognized this problem. It decided to develop a data warehousing solution. The result is SAP Business Information Warehouse, or BW. Since the announcement of SAP BW launch in June 1997, BW has drawn great interest. According to SAP more than 1000 SAP BW systems were installed worldwide. We will look into how SAP BW implements the star schema and tackles the ETTL challenges.

SAP Data Warehousing Solution BW is an end-to-end data warehousing solution. It uses preexisting SAP technologies. BW is built on the Basis 3-tier architecture. It is coded in the ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) language. It uses ALE (Application Link Enabling). It also uses BAPI (Business Application Programming Interface) to link BW with SAP systems and non-SAP systems.
BW Architecture

BW Architecture The architecture has three layers: * The top layer * The middle layer * The bottom layer Fig above The top layer is the reporting environment (in the above architecture pic). It can be BW Business Explorer (BEx) or a third-party reporting tool. BEx consists of two components: * BEx Analyzer * BEx Browser BEx Analyzer is Microsoft Excel with a BW add-in. It offers easy-to-use graphical interface. It allows users to create queries without coding SQL statements. BEx Browser works like an information center. It allows users to organize and access all kinds of information. Third-party reporting tools connect with BW OLAP Processor through ODBO (OLE DB for OLAP). The middle layer is a BW Server. It carries out three tasks: * Administering the BW system

* Storing data * Retrieving data according to users' requests The bottom layer consists of source systems. The source system can be R/3 systems, BW systems, flat files, and other systems. If the source systems are SAP systems, an SAP component called Plug-In needs to be installed in the source systems. The Plug-In contains extractors. An extractor is a set of ABAP programs, database tables, and other objects that BW uses to extract data from the SAP systems. BW connects with SAP systems (R/3 or BW) and flat files via ALE; it connects with non-SAP systems via BAPI. The middle-layer BW Server consists of the following components: * Administrator Workbench, including BW Scheduler and BW Monitor * Metadata Repository and Metadata Manager * Staging Engine * PSA (Persistent Staging Area) * ODS (Operational Data Store) Objects * InfoCubes * Data Manager * OLAP Processor * BDS (Business Document Services) * User Roles

Administrator Workbench maintains meta-data and all BW objects. It has two components: * BW Scheduler for scheduling jobs to load data * BW Monitor for monitoring the status of data loads Metadata Repository contains information about the data warehouse. Meta-data comprise data about data. Metadata Repository contains two types of meta-data: * Business-related (for example, definitions and descriptions used for reporting) * and technical (for example, structure and mapping rules used for data extraction and transformation). We use Metadata Manager to maintain Metadata Repository. Staging Engine implements data mapping and transformation. Triggered by BW Scheduler. It sends requests to a source system for data loading. The source system then selects and transfers data into BW. PSA (Persistent Staging Area) stores data in the original format while being imported from the source system. PSA allows for quality check before the data are loaded into their destinations, such as ODS Objects or InfoCubes. ODS (Operational Data Store) Objects allow us to build a multilayer structure for operational data reporting. They are not based on the star schema and are used primarily for detail reporting, rather than for dimensional analysis.

InfoCubes are the fact tables and their associated dimension tables in a star schema. Data Manager maintains data in ODS Objects and InfoCubes and tells the OLAP Processor what data are available for reporting. OLAP Processor is the analytical processing engine. It retrieves data from the database, and it analyzes and presents those data according to users' requests. BDS (Business Document Services) stores documents. The documents can appear in various formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and HTML. BEx Analyzer saves query results, or MS Excel files, as workbooks in the BDS. User Roles are a concept used in SAP authorization management. BW organizes BDS documents according to User Roles. Only users assigned to a particular User Role can access the documents associated with that User Role. BW Business Content Business Content is one of the BW's strongest selling points. Business Content contains standard reports and other related objects. For example, the sales manager can benefit from the following standard reports: Quotation Processing * Quotation success rates per sales area * Quotation tracking per sales area * General quotation information per sales area

Order Processing * Monthly incoming orders and revenue * Sales values * Billing documents * Order, delivery, and sales quantities * Fulfillment rates * Credit memos * Proportion of returns to incoming orders * Returns per customer * Quantity and values of returns * Product analysis * Product profitability analysis Delivery * Delivery delays per sales area * Average delivery processing times Analyses and Comparisons * Sales/cost analysis * Top customers * Distribution channel analysis * Product profitability analysis

* Weekly deliveries * Monthly deliveries * Incoming orders analysis * Sales figures comparison * Returns per customer * Product analysis * Monthly incoming orders and revenue Administrative and Management Functions * Cost center: plan/actual/variance * Cost center: responsible for orders, projects, and networks * Order reports * WBS Element: plan/actual/variance * Cost center: plan/actual/variance * Cost center: hit list of actual variances * Cost center: actual costs per quarter * Cost center: capacity-related headcount We always have the option to use a function, called Generic Data Extraction, to extract R/3 data that cannot be extracted with the standard Business Content. BW in mySAP.com BW is a rapidly evolving product. You can better plan BW projects if you know its future.

mySAP.com is an SAP's e-business platform. It aims to achieve the collaboration among businesses. It uses the Internet technology. It consists of three components: * mySAP Technology * mySAP Services * mySAP Hosted Solutions mySAP Technology includes: * a portal infrastructure for user-centric collaboration, * a Web Application Server for providing Web services, * and an exchange infrastructure for process-centric collaboration.

The portal infrastructure has a component called mySAP Business Intelligence. This component is the same BW but is located in the mySAP.com platform. Using mySAP Technology, SAP develops e-business solutions. For example: * mySAP Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM), * mySAP Customer Relationship Management (mySAP CRM), * and mySAP Product Lifecycle Management (mySAP PLM). mySAP Services are the services and support that SAP offers to its customers. They include: * business analysis, * technology implementation, * and training to system support. The services and support available from http://service.sap.com/bw/ are good examples of mySAP Services. mySAP Hosted Solutions are the outsourcing services from SAP. With these solutions, customers do not need to maintain physical machines and networks.

ERP Overview ERP stands for Enteprise Resource Planning. Enteprise Resource Planning software is often referred to as the backbone for the entire business. Using medical analogy an ERP system has brains (process logic), muscle (business transactions), and heart (business policy). ERP system communicates (as a nervous system) across business functions. ERP systems grow and evolve over time. If left unattended, it can get soft and flabby. The freshly implemented system is not very stable, like your legacy system. Users might not like your newly born ERP system until it matures. ERP software comes under the category of online transaction processing (OLTP) software. A transactions in one module could start coordinated transactions in other modules. For example, when shipping dock clerk records the transaction that goods have shipped to a customer, related changes are made in other modules: order management, billing, and inventory systems. New transactions for revenue recognition and cost of goods sold are started. ERP systems replicates the business structure, processes, policies, and procedures. Each business is different. That is why you cannot just install the ERP software and start using it immediately. The basic nature of the business needs to be determines first.

Comparison to the functionality of the software is then made. By maticulously setting thousands of configuration parameters, you may achieve a system that meets 90%100% of your business requirements. Many of the parameters interact with each other. That makes the implementation tricky. For example, your strategy for configuring your enterprise organization structure can have significant impact on the way you prepare financial statements, manage inventories, fulfill customer orders, procure materials, manage compensation and benefits, secure your data, and so forth. For all you know, your company might be centralized for fulfillment of customer orders and decentralized for procurement and inventory management. In order to configure your system properly, you may have to resolve the centralized/decentralized issues within each application. Attributes of ERP Systems Leading ERP systems supports industry standards and best practices. The Oracle Applications and SAP supports recommendations of the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) and Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). The ERP system is composed of many modules called applications. The core applications support functions, such as financial, distribution, manufacturing, and human resource transactions. The financial applications, for example, are General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Fixed Assets. You may license only the applications you need. The applications are integrated.

They work together to pass individual transactions through an entire business process. This is called modularization approach. It gives flexibility. The modules interact by passing data through program interfaces and by sharing the commonly stored data. A single manual transaction in one application can initiate transactions in other applications. ERP systems are complex. The more applications you use, the more complexity you have. Thousands of configuration parameters interact with each other and change the logic of the programs to fit your unique business situation. It could take months to set up and learn how the ERP operate. The ERP documentation is voluminous. Although an ERP system is complex but the upside is flexibility. Oracle and SAP has thousands of customers in hundreds of industries. They are all over the world. Each of them is using EPR in their own special way. Manufacturing companies, utilities, service companies, governments, and others have configured applications to meet their specific business needs. ERP systems use sophisticated databases at the back end. Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a famous database. The database gives the ERP system the performance and scalability. Thousands of transactions per hour can be processed. Data could be stored for years.

Large ERP databases can go more than 300GB in size. There is a feirce competition going on in ERP market. Two big players are SAP AG and Oracle Corporation. EPR systems are mixture of online and batch processes. For example, you can apply cash receipts to your Receivables modules by keying the data into a form, or you can configure the system to use the AutoLockbox program to process a data file from your bank. ERP Advantages ERP advantages drive implementation projects. Companies implement ERP systems for various reasons. The reasons could be tangible, intangible, or strategic. Due to these intangible and strategic benefits most companies do not even try to calculate a total return on investment from an ERP system. An ERP system could result in following benefits: * Reduce the amount invested in inventory. * Improve worker productivity. * Reduce processing costs per business transaction. * Reduce the time it takes to perform a financial close and prepare financial statements. * Reduce procurement costs. * Install systems with vendor-supported maintenance. * Improve the scalability of business systems to support future growth.

* Upgrade systems to support global accounting transactions (for example, Euro currency requirements). * Obtain better reporting and information about your business. * Get rid of troubles of old systems, and install new or improved business processes. * Improve fiscal controls. * Integrate and standardize processes among your business units and trading partners in your supply chain. * Improve system performance, reliability, and fault tolerance. * Reduce the costs of Information Technology. * Improve order management, customer service, and on-time delivery. ERP Disadvantages ERP disadvantages must be overcome. ERP systems comes with their share of headaches. They are usually difficult to implement. Sometimes they are difficult to operate. In the past few years, odds of success have improved. Everyone in your organization from the database administrator to the receiving clerk to the CEO needs new skills to work with the new technology and business processes. * Most companies must hire outside consultants to help accelerate and improve the implementation. * In the early 1990s, almost half of the MRP/ERP implementation projects failed. Many of these early projects were either abandoned or were finished

late and over budget. An industry of software implementation specialists was created to assist businesses with implementation projects. * Many large and costly implementation projects have produced little or no return on investment for their owners other than to solve the Y2K problem. Several companies have actually observed a reduction in productivity in the first six to twelve months after starting their new systems. * Many companies are surprised to discover the ERP implementation wasn't just a software replacement project, but the start of a continuous process of change, evolution, and improvement. * Many implementation team members have discovered after the ERP project is over that their old jobs either no longer exist or are dull and insignificant. * Package software can force you to make certain choices about how your business will operate, and you might introduce some constraints on your traditional business processes. * In the mid-1990s when customers Application Service Providers Recently the Application Service Providers (ASP) business model is becoming popular as a way to implement and operate your ERP applications. An application service provider (ASP) is a company that offers individuals or enterprises access over the Internet to applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located in their own personal or enterprise computers. Sometimes referred to as "apps-on-tap," ASP services are expected to become an important alternative, not only for smaller companies with low budgets for information technology, but also for larger companies as a form of outsourcing and for many services for individuals as well. Early applications include: * remote access serving for the users of an enterprise * An off-premises local area network to which mobile users can be connected, with a common file server

* Specialized applications that would be expensive to install and maintain within your own company or on your own computer While ASPs are forecast to provide applications and services to small enterprises and individuals on a pay-per-use or yearly license basis, larger corporations are essentially providing their own ASP service in-house, moving applications off personal computers and putting them on a special kind of application server that is designed to handle the stripped-down kind of thin client workstation. This allows an enterprise to reassert the central control over application cost and usage that corporations formerly had in the period prior to the advent of the PC. Microsoft's terminal server product and Citrix's WinFrame products are leading thin-client application server products. Hewlett-Packard, SAP, and Qwest have formed one of the first major alliances for providing ASP services. They plan to make SAP's popular R/3 applications available at "cybercenters" that will serve the applications to other companies. Microsoft is allowing some companies to offer its BackOffice products, including SQL Server, Exchange and Windows NT Server on a rental, pay-asyou-use basis. Oracle Corporation offers ASP model. They call it Business On-Line (BOL). Oracle launched this service on October 1999. Oracle expected it to become a significant part of its future growth. Oracle is perhaps disappointed that BOL has not performed as expected. They business may improve in coming years though. Probably BOL will never create billions of dollars in revenue for Oracle, but it still might become a viable alternative for several customers. In Application Service Provider model, a service provider is establed to host ERP applications. ERP Applications are hosted in a centralized data center over an Internet/intranet connection.

A monthly fee is charged. Important considerations under this model are similar to the issues and concerns you would have with any outsourcing arrangement: * You want to make sure the application implementation meets the needs of your business. * The support expertise of the service provider must exceed the expectations of the users. * Data center management must be better than your own data center. * The ASP must provide an acceptable level of security and performance. * Costs of the service must be reasonable. When the economics of the ASP model is evaluated, you need to compare the monthly charge per user of the system to the initial investment in software, hardware, support, implementation services, and the continuing costs of operating your own systems. Lets say you have 100 users at a monthly subscription cost of $500/user. The ASP model costs might be $50,000/month and might grow or shrink proportionately as the business changes. Compare that monthly charge with a $2 million up-front investment in hardware, software, and consulting, and add annual direct operating costs of $300,000+ for system administrator, support, and data center costs. Usually you must sign a multiyear deal for the ASP services. However you pay by the month. Consider the following advantages and disadvantages when you evaluate companies as an Application Service Provider. Advantages of Business On-Line

The advantages of the ASP model come from your relationship with the hosting company and your ability to avoid the initial costs of starting up the system. Consider the following benefits of ASP: * You know who is responsible with the single vendor solution for system operations, configuration, administration, and performance. * This architecture moves complexity off the desktop and on to the managed server located in a professionally managed data center. * You avoid a large, up-front investment in hardware, software, and implementation costs. * You avoid the cost of support (which can be 20+% of the software costs). * You don't have to find and retain talented technical staff to run these systems. Disadvantages of Business On-Line The disadvantages of the ASP model come from your relationship with the hosting company and the loss of control and flexibility you need to meet current and future business requirements. Evaluate the following issues before considering the Business On-Line service: * The solution might proprietary. If you want to rent the ERP and e-commerce applications, you must get them from specific vendor partners. * Hosting ERP applications is still a relatively new business for it. If it can't make its normal growth rate and profit margins, it might not sustain the business as you expect. * You are locked into specific applications. It will be hard to switch vendors because you would have to switch applications, too.

* You will be restricted to the types of customizations and extensions available. Are there additional pieces of software you need to run your business? * There will be little price competition or flexibility after you commit. * You will be locked in to a long-term contract with limited flexibility to change or terminate. * Application performance issues might be a concern. * Consider the ASP capability to implement and administer the applications. * When you use an ASP, security concerns must be resolved. You must be sure your business data remains private and secure. * The ASP business model is unproven. (If it doesn't work out, where are you in three years?) Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Each businesses is different. Unique set of tools are used by each to manage their customers. Companies must make sure that their customer management software can easily adjust to their needs. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 offers powerful configuration tools. Customers can modify and customize the software. Administrators can use these tools through easy-to-learn Web interface. Need For CRM Few examples of bad customer service experiences are: * You called a customer service phone number and were transferred to five different people. Every single person asked you the same questions, so you had to keep repeating the same answers over and over again.

* A salesperson pulled together a proposal for you but forgot to include your preferred-customer pricing in the quote. * A credit card company mailed you an application for a new account, even though you've had an account with that company for 10 years. The objective of customer relationship management (CRM) software is to enable businesses to manage each customers experience better. CRM strategy recognizes the fact that customer experiences span over time. A customer might interact with the business 50 to 100 times in the course of relationship. A company could provide each customer a personalized experience. CRM is a business strategy. CRM software system is a technology platform to help implement CRM strategy. Today's business environment is competitive. Mistreated customers can easily find other vendors as replacements. If a personalized experience is given to customers, they are more likely to value their relationship with the company. CRM Challenges Some of the factors that make a CRM strategy difficult to implement include: * Multiple customer management systems * Remote workers * Rapidly changing business processes * Multi-channel customer interactions * Difficult and rigid systems

Multiple customer management systems Most companies use more than one system to run its business. Data is not seamlessly shared among these systems. For example, salespeople using a sales tracking system might not know that a customer just opened an urgent customer service issue in customer service system. Remote workers Even if the company using a single system to track all of your customer interactions, offsite workers might not have the ability to access data in the customer management system. Rapidly changing business processes business processes continuously change. Rapidly changing business processes challenge employees to adjust quickly. Most CRM systems cannot adjust as quickly as the business needs it to. Multi-channel customer interactions Customers expect to be able to work using any communication channel that they prefer. These customer communication channels might include Web sites, phone, fax, e-mail, mail, and instant messaging. The customer management system must work with each of these technologies in order to track all of a customer's interactions. Difficult and rigid systems A company has to select a technology system as its customer management platform before embracing CRM strategy. Earlier CRM systems were difficult to use and complex to install.

Companies had customized their CRM systems to their business needs. They had invested large sums of money and time in consultants who customized the software for them. CRM Benefits Following are the examples benefits that a company would get from successful implementation of CRM software. * CRM could track customer interests and purchase history over time. It proactively generate new marketing initiatives for customers based on their unique histories. * CRM could log a history of a customer's service requests. A service technician could easily view all of those requests when the customer called with a new issue. Reviewing a customer's service history might help the technician resolve a customer's new issue much more quickly. * A manager could view all of the interactions with a customer across various functional areas such as sales, marketing, and customer service. People typically refer to this cross-functional history as a 360-degree view of the customer. * Marketing managers could analyze and report on the effectiveness of their marketing lists and campaigns to determine how they should re-allocate future marketing investments. * An analyst could use business intelligence tools to segment customers and prospects to identify trends and create predictive models for sales and customer service planning.

Info Cube Customer ID, Material Number, Sales Representative ID, Unit of Measure, and Transaction Date are called characteristics. Customer Name and Customer Address are attributes of Customer ID. Yet they are characteristics as well. Per Unit Sales Price, Quantity Sold, and Sales Revenue are called key figures. Characteristics and key figures are collectively called InfoObjects. A key figure can be an attribute of a characteristic. For example, Per Unit Sales Price can be an attribute of Material Number. In our examples, Per Unit Sales Price is a fact table key figure. In the real world, such decisions are made during the data warehouse design phase. InfoObjects are comparable with bricks. We use these objects to build InfoCubes. An InfoCube consists of the fact table and its associated dimension tables in a star schema. We will learn how to create an InfoCube that implements the star schema. We start from creating an InfoArea. An InfoArea is comparable to a construction site, on which InfoCubes are built. Creating an InfoArea InfoAreas are the branches and nodes of a tree structure.

InfoCubes are listed under the branches and nodes. The relationship of InfoAreas to InfoCubes is comparable to the relationship of directories to files in an operating system. Before constructing the InfoCube, let's create an InfoArea first. Step 1. After logging on to the BW system, run transaction RSA1, or double-click Administrator Workbench.

Step 2. In the new window, click Data targets under Modelling in the left panel. In the right panel, right-click InfoObjects and select Create InfoArea. In BW, InfoCubes and ODS Objects are collectively known as data targets.

Step 3. Enter a name and a description for the InfoArea, and then click to continue.

The InfoArea has been created as shown

below. Creating InfoObject Catalogs InfoCube cannot be created withou first having InfoObjects. InfoObjects cannot be created without first having InfoObject Catalogs. Characteristics and key figures are different types of objects. We organize them within their own separate folders. These separate folders are called InfoObject Catalogs. InfoObject Catalogs are listed under InfoAreas, just like InfoCubes. We will now create InfoObject Catalogs. Step 1. Click InfoObjects under Modelling in the left panel. In the right panel, right-click InfoArea demo, and select Create InfoObject catalog.

Step 2. Enter a name and a description for the InfoObject Catalog, select the option Char., and then click to create the InfoObject Catalog.

Step 3.

In the new window, click

to check the Info Object Catalog. If it is valid, click

to activate the InfoObject Catalog. Once the activation process is finished, the status message InfoObject catalog IOC_DEMO_CH activated appears at the bottom of the screen.

Result Click to return to the previous screen.

The newly created InfoObject Catalog will be displayed, as shown below.

Following the same procedure, we create an InfoObject Catalog to hold key figures. This time, make sure that the option Key figure is selected.

Creating InfoObjects Characteristics We are going to create characteristics now. Step 1. Right-click InfoObject Catalog demo: characteristics, and then select Create InfoObject.

Step 2. Enter a name and a description, and then click to continue.

Step 3.

Select CHAR as the DataType, enter 15 for the field Length, and then click the tab Attributes.

Step 4. Enter an attribute name IO_MATNM, and then click to create the attribute.

Notice that IO_MATNM is underlined. In BW, the underline works like a hyperlink. After IO_MATNM is created, when you click IO_MATNM, the hyperlink will lead you to IO_MATNM's detail definition window.

Step 5. Select the option Create attribute as characteristic, and then click continue. to

Step 6. Select CHAR as the DataType, and then enter 30 for the field Length. Notice that the option Exclusively attribute is selected by default. Click continue. to

If Exclusively attribute is selected, the attribute IO_MATNM can be used only as a display attribute, not as a navigational attribute. Selecting Exclusively attribute allows you to select Lowercase letters. If the option Lowercase letters is selected, the attribute can accept lowercase letters in data to be loaded. If the option Lowercase letters is selected, no master data tables, text tables, or another level of attributes underneath are allowed.

Step 7. to check the characteristic. If it is valid, click Click characteristic. to activate the

Step 8. A window is displayed asking whether you want to activate dependent InfoObjects. In our example, the dependent InfoObject is IO_MATNM. Click to activate IO_MAT and IO_MATNM.

Result The characteristic IO_MAT and its attribute IO_MATNM has now been created. You will see a status message "All InfoObject(s) activated" at the bottom of Screen. Saving an InfoObject means saving its properties, or meta-data. Physical database objects, such as tables have not been created. The relevant database objects once you activate an InfoObject. Once you do that, the names of the newly created master data table and text table are displayed under the Master data/texts tab. The name of the master data table is /BIC/PIO_MAT, and the name of the text table is /BIC/TIO_MAT. Notice the prefix /BIC/ in the database object names. BW prefixes /BI0/ to the names of database objects of Business Content objects. It prefixes /BIC/ to the names of database objects of customer-created BW objects.

Repeat the preceding steps to create the other characteristics listed below.

The column "Assigned to" specifies the characteristic to which an attribute is assigned. For example, IO_MATNM is an attribute of IO_MAT. The Material Description will be treated as IO_MAT's text. IO_SREG and IO_SOFF are created as independent characteristics, instead of IO_SREP's attributes. BW provides characteristics for units of measure and time. We do not need to create them. From Administrator Workbench, we can verify that the characteristics have been created by clicking InfoArea demo, and then clicking InfoObject Catalog demo: characteristics.

Creating InfoObjects Key Figures Lets create key figures now. Work Instructions Step 1. Right-click InfoObject Catalog demo: key figures, and then select Create InfoObject.

Step 2. Enter a name and a description, and then click to continue.

Step 3.

Select Amount in the block Type/data type, select USD as the Fixed currency in the block Currency/unit of measure, and then click figure. If it is valid, click to activate the key figure. to check the key

Result You have created the key figure IO_PRC. A status message All InfoObject(s) activated will appear at the bottom of screen.

Repeat the preceding steps to create other key figures listed below. KEY FIGURES
Key Figure Name and Description Type/Data Type Currency/Unit of Measure IO_PRC Amount Fixed currency: USD Price of material IO_QUAN Quantity Unit/currency: 0UNIT Sales quantity IO_REV Amount Fixed currency: USD Sales revenue

From Administrator Workbench, we can verify that the key figures have been created by clicking InfoArea demo, and then clicking InfoObject Catalog demo: key figures. We have created the necessary InfoObjects. Now we can create the InfoCube.

Creating an InfoCube The following steps demonstrate how to create an InfoCube. Step 1. Select Data targets under Modelling in the left panel. In the right panel, right-click InfoArea demo and then select Create InfoCube.

Step 2. Enter a name and a description, select the option Basic Cube in block InfoCube type, and then click to create the InfoCube.

An InfoCube can be a basic cube, a multi-cube, an SAP remote cube, or a general remote cube. A basic cube has a fact table and associated dimension tables, and it contains data. We are building a basic cube. A multi-cube is a union of multiple basic cubes and/or remote cubes to allow cross-subject analysis. It does not contain data. A remote cube does not contain data; instead, the data reside in the source system. A remote cube is analogous to a channel, allowing users to access the data using BEx. As a consequence, querying the data leads to poor performance. If the source system is an SAP system, we need to select the option SAP RemoteCube. Otherwise, we need to select the option Gen. Remote Cube. Step 3.

Select IO_CUST, IO_MAT, and IO_SREP from the Template table, and move them to the Structure table by clicking .

Next, click the Dimensions button to create dimensions and assign these characteristics to the dimensions.

Step 4. Click , and then enter a description for the dimension.

BW automatically assigns technical names to each dimension with the format <InfoCube name><Number starting from 1>. Fixed dimension <InfoCube name><P|T|U> is reserved for Data Packet, Time, and Unit. A dimension uses a key column in the fact table. In most databases, a table can have a maximum of 16 key columns.

Therefore, BW mandates that an InfoCube can have a maximum of 16 dimensions: three are reserved for Data Packet, Time, and Unit; the remaining 13 are left for us to use. Repeat the same procedure to create two other dimensions. Next, click the Assign tab to assign the characteristics to the dimensions. Step 5. Select a characteristic in the Characteristics and assigned dimension block, select a dimension to which the characteristic will be assigned in the Dimensions block, and then click to the dimension. to assign the characteristic

Step 6. After assigning all three characteristics to their dimensions, click to continue.

Step 7. Select the Time characteristics tab, select 0CALDAY from the Template table, and move it to the Structure table by clicking

Step 8. Select the Key figures tab, select IO_PRC, IO_QUAN, and IO_REV from the Template table and move them to the Structure table by clicking Next, click InfoCube. to check the InfoCube. If it is valid, click .

to activate the

Result You have created the InfoCube IC_DEMOBC. A status message InfoCube IC_DEMOBC activated will appear at the bottom of the screen. Loading Data You will now learn how to load the data into an InfoCube. In order to maintain data integrity and fast performance, the characteristic data is loaded before the transaction data. Usually data reside in a source system. In the examples you will go through, the data would reside in Excel files. BW has to know where to find these files. It also has to know how to extract the data. For this purpose, we must define a source system in BW.

We must also define a BW object called InfoPackage to schedule a load. We must define yet another BW object called InfoSource. This is done so that InfoPackage knows the structure of the data's destination. BW allows us to aggregate key figures if the destination is an InfoCube, after the data pass through the InfoSource. This aggregation procedure is known an update rule. We will now define a source system. This will help BW know where to find the data. Creating a Source System A BW system can accept data from various source systems. Examples are: * R/3 systems * BW systems * Flat files * External systems through third-party ETTL tools Step 1. Select Source systems under Modelling in the left panel. In the right panel, right-click Source systems and select Create.

Step 2. Select the FileSystem, manual meta data, data using file inte option, and then click to continue.

Step 3. Enter a name and a description for the source system, and then click to create the source system.

Result You have created the source system. A status message Source system SS_DEMOFF creation successful finished will appear at the bottom of screen.