Comprehensive Guidelines to Speed Data Analysis Using the Analytical Engines from SAP

Dr. Bjarne Berg COMERIT

2012 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

In This Session

Get strategic advice for leveraging data warehousing and analytical engines from SAP to increase the speed and efficiency of data processing and analysis including: SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator SAP BusinessObjects Explorer SAP HANA SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Explore ways to deploy OLAP tools within SAP BusinessObjects Analysis via Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, or the Web interface and get criteria to map each approach to your analytical requirements Demo the key differences between the Microsoft and OLAP editions of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis You will come away with a deep understanding of what these solutions can do and when to use them

What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

Why In-Memory Processing?

Technology
1990 CPU 2012 Improvement

Focus

0.05
MIPS/$

304.17
MIPS/$

6083x

Memory

0.02
MB/$

52.27
MB/$

2614x

Addressable Memory
Network Speed

216
100
Mbps

264
100
Gbps

248x
1000 x

Disk Data Transfer

5
MBPS

620
MBPS

124x
Source: BI Survey of 534 BI professionals, InformationWeek, 2010

Source: 1990 numbers SAP AG, 2012 numbers, Dr. Berg

Disk speed is growing slower than all other hardware components, while the need for speed is increasing.

What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

In Memory Processing General Highlights BWA

3. Queries are routed to BWA by the Analytical engine

SAP BW
BI Analytical Engine 2. Indexes copied in to RAM on blades

InfoCubes
1. Indexing and compression stored on a file system

DSOs
BWA = SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

It Is All About Performance, Performance, Performance

It is hard to build a fast dashboard with many queries and panels without SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator This provides in-memory processing of queries that is 10-100 faster

What we simply do is place the data in-memory and retrieve it much faster There is also some limited OLAP functionality that can be built into SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.3, but most data processing still occurs in the BI Analytical engine You can also place non-SAP data in-memory, using SAP BusinessObjects Data Services

How Does SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Work in Reality?

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.0 performs aggregation and data selection for the query, all other processing is done by the BI analytical engine (i.e., as the OLAP processor)

Therefore, not all query processing will be dramatically faster

In SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.2 you can handle more of the analytics processing, such as top-5 products sales, which was previously done in the BI analytical engine

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator is accessed by queries and also by any jobs that use the application programming interface (SAPRSDRI_INFOPROV_READ) or the data read transaction (LISTCUBE), when aggregate flag is selected or any of the OLAP interfaces to third-party tools
7

Compression and TREX

The TREX engine is NOT the same as the traditional implementation of the search engine BWA comes with its own TREX engine that collects the data During the index build, the data is also compressed using advanced mathematical methods The result is therefore a much smaller sized index than the original Berg: I moved this note from InfoCube slide 13 to here, since this is

the first slide that shows the older term SAP BI Accelerator. BERG: OK
8

SAP BI Accelerator (BIA) was renamed to SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator in 2009

3 Steps of InfoCube Index Creation

First master data is processed (Y, S, and X) tables. Second, the fact tables are grouped and indexed. This occurs by merging the E and F tables into one F table prior to indexing it. This is done automatically and does not change the basic cube. Third, the dimension tables are indexed. This include all D tables (potentially 16).

The process starts with a database lock on each table. The next step is a data transfer to a temporary BWA file and transferring the data to BWA. The final step is to write the indexes to memory and activate it for queries.

The Rule of 50% and Impacts

Buying hardware is not as easy as you may think

First you need to make space for temporary index files. The recommended size is about 50%. Second you need to have one fail-over blade in case of hardware issues.

Example-1: Your sizing program says you need 48Gb of memory You need 48GB + 48Gb for temp indexes and 48Gb failover = 144Gb (66.66% overhead) Example-2: Your sizing program says you need 192 Gb of memory You need 192GB + 192Gb for temp indexes and 48 Gb failover = 432Gb (44% overhead)
10

Performance is Near-Linear: Benchmarks

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerators strength resides in its near-linear scalability Performance is measured in terms of:
1. BW Accelerator index creation time

2. Multi-user throughput per hour

3. Average report response time 4. Average number of records touched by each report
SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator reads data from InfoCubes. DSOs and InfoObjects are still read from base/physical tables (even when the InfoObject is indexed as part of master data).

11

BI Analytical Engines Query Executing Priorities

Information Broadcasting / Precalculation Information Broadcasting / Precalculation

Query Cache

Query Cache

Aggregates

SAP BW Accelerator

InfoProvider

Query Execution Without SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

Query Execution With SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

Aggregates can be replaced with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, while the memory cache is still useful.

12

Query Performance Improvements Real Example of 70 Queries

The slowest queries that spent most of their time on the database side benefitted the most
Overall 36 of 70 queries were at least twice as fast. Before BWA, the average query execution took 58.8 seconds; after BWA the average query took 17.9 seconds (295% faster overall).

13

Query Performance Improvements OVERALL

Query execution time before BI-A
10 9 8

Number of Queries

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260

Seconds

The major improvement is to make query execution more predictable and overall faster

Query execution time after BI-A

25

20
15 10 5 0

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260

14

HINT: BWA will not be used if a query has a key figure set to NO1, NO2, or NOP (no aggregation)
Seconds

Number of Queries

Workbook Performance Improvements with BWA

Workbooks require embedding of JavaScripts; can contain multiple queries; and may have macros, lookups, and internal logic It is therefore hard to estimate the real performance benefits of implementing SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator In this real example of 20 slow workbooks, the average performance improvement for workbooks was 363% faster

15

Performance Information BWA Indexes Build Times

Creating new indexes (refreshes) can be time consuming. The build time depends on: a) The size of the records (length) b) The number of records c) The number of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator processors d) The network transfer speed In this example, 23 InfoCubes with over 232 million records were indexed in 90.56 minutes

On average, 2.56 million records per minute were indexed!

16

Most Customers Have Found BWA Admin to Be Minimal

The Admin work is done through a single interface The admin interface is available under the transaction code RSDDBWAMON/ RSDDBIAMON

Health checks for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator are available under the transaction code RSRV

Most companies plan for a maximum of 2-5 days of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator training. You need a maximum of 1-2 administrators (1 for backup).
17

RSDDBIAMON BWA Administrator Tools

Restart BIA server: Restarts all the BWA servers and services Restart BIA Index Server: Restarts the index server Reorganize BIA Landscape: If the BWA server landscape is unevenly distributed, redistributes the loaded indexes on BWA servers

Rebuild BIA Indexes: If a check discovers inconsistencies in the indexes, delete and rebuild the BWA indexes.
18

Selective Usage of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

You can turn off the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator usage for certain roles. This reduces the stress on the hardware for non-essential users.

You can also turn off the BWA uses for individual users in transaction code SU01

You can see if anyone is using the BWA indexes in the table RSDDSTATBIAUSE and some details are also available in RSRT after patch 16.

19

RSDDBIAMON BWA Administrator Tools and Control

Connectivity checks Checks if BW is still connected physically to the BW system System Check Checks if the blades and file system is operating normally Load Monitoring Keeps track of performance of the load process (read, writes, compression, and time spent)

You can turn off the BWA index query availability for InfoCubes through the transaction RSDDBIAMON2. 20

Health-Checks and Reconciliation

The BWA interface allows you to compare the data in SAP NetWeaver BW vs. the indexes. This means that you can easily check if they are outdated (service pack 12 required) Other tools include the ability to run queries to see if the numbers in the two databases match.

You can check your installation using the function module

TREX_CHECK_BIA_INSTALLATION

or using the transaction code RSDDBIAMON.

21

Proposals and Estimations

The Analysis and Repair options include proposals and time estimation tools that you may use The interface can propose deltaindexes for periodic updates

You can estimate the runtime of indexing the fact table of an InfoCube before you place it into a process chain or a manual job You can estimate the memory needed before adding new records into memory
You can use the ABAP program
ZZ_SET_QUERY_NOHPA_FLAG to turn off BWA access for single queries in the RSRREPDIR table
(SAP Note: 1161525 for BWA 7.0)

22

The SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Reset Button

The simple way to fix most issues is to delete all indexes and rebuild them during a weekend Think of this as the ultimate reset button. You can also rebuild master data indexes
In TREXADMIN you can see the number of records in the BWA indexed Infocube. 1. Select the RFC Server, Execute. 2. Click on tab Index Admin. 3. For each InfoCube select BIA as the Index ID. The records are equal to the # of documents. 4. Estimations of this, based on statistics, are also available in: RSDDV - BIA Indexes SE16 - RSDDTREXDIR
23

Increasing Index Creation Performance

1.

To increase index creation performance, you can change the global parameters in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Pay particular attention to the number of parallel processes available (max 10 per available physical processors) Make sure the memory buffers are set large enough to accommodate large InfoCubes Review consistency check recommendations in SAP Notes 1052941 and 1161967

2.

3.

4.

You can check global parameters in RSRV and you can change global parameters in RSBATCH and RSDDBIAMON.
24

Planning a 6-Week BWA Implementation

An SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator project can be completed in six weeks However, due to hardware lead-times (normally 4-6 weeks), most projects should plan a 12-week duration The time waiting on hardware should be used on performance tuning of existing queries and dashboards We will now look at the major tasks of implementing an SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator solution

Sizing Is Critical, but Good Tools Are Available

SAP has integrated key sizing parameters for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator in the new Quick Sizer. You can give it a try at: http://service.sap.com/quicksizer (requires login credentials for the SAP Service Marketplace)
Customers with existing BI systems and data loaded can get good sizing and 26 compression estimates by running the SAP program available in SAP Note 917803.

Training for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

Reference BW-310 BW-305 BW-350 BW-360 BW-361 BW-365 SAP-330

Title Intro to SAP BI BI Reporting and Analysis BI Data Acquisition BW Performance & Admin BW Accelerator BW Authorizations BW Modeling

Audience All Query developers ETL developers System admin System admin System admin BI developers

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator training is included in the SAP courses: BW-310, BW-360, and in the online course BW361

In the past, SAP has also offered a two-day workshop called BI Upgrade & Accelerator (WNASAP BW Accelerator)

27

Testing

Make sure you identify real benefits and benchmark with preand post-performance after SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator is implemented

This requires that all critical performance data is captured before SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator is installed
You should document the post performance and build times as early as possible so that you know what the performance of complex dashboards will be and how the indexing will fit into existing process chains
You can see what InfoCubes are indexed by going to RSDDV and clicking the button BIA Indexes.
28

The New SAP NetWeaver BW 7.2 Features Modeling in BWA

In BWA 7.2 you can complete many of the joins and aggregation that was previously conducted in the BI analytic engine, and was therefore hard to performance tune It also reduces the data being transferred to the app server and therefore is much faster as well
Image source: SAP AG, 2011, SDN

The New SAP NetWeaver BW 7.2 Features Faster Performance

Image source: SAP AG, 2011, SDN

The major benefit of BWA 7.2 is that you can move more of the calculation over to the accelerator and materialize the result inmemory. This improves the reads, and calculations in the OLAP/ BI analytic engine on the BW side are substantially reduced. The following calculations are now included: SUM MIN MAX CNT (count all detailed values) CN0 (Count all values not zero or null) AVG (average) AV0 (Average for all values not zero or null)

Prerequisites for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.2

For SAP BusinessObjects Explorer BWA needs to be upgraded to BWA 7.20 BW should be upgraded to minimum SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0.1 EHP 1; SPS 5

(Source SAP AG BWA 7.2 Installation guide, and SAP Notes 1392524 and 1148111)

SAP Technology RIG Recommendations If the system is on SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 or 7.0 EHP1, then use SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.0 If the system is on SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 EHP1 SPS 5 or higher AND you are using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (accelerated version), then use BWA 7.20 If the system is on SAP NetWeaver BW 7.3, then use BWA 7.20

(Source Marc Bernard, SAP AG, 2011)

31

The SAP NetWeaver BW 7.2 Limitations and Query Settings

There are still some limitations. For example you cannot use the exception aggregation for single key figures in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator if it uses: Virtual key figures Conversion before aggregation Formula calculation before aggregation Non-cumulative key figures Key figures with elimination of internal business volume

You also get more detailed control on each query as to how it reads the BWA. Think of it as similar to Query read modes
(more details at SDN: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/ library/uuid/70950003-f7ef-2d10-b1bcee483800b25c?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true

The New SAP NetWeaver BW 7.2 Performance Example

Queries with large OLAP processes, such as average and counts, benefit the most from the new BWA 7.2 system SAP has published the following performance example:

Source: Sapphire, SAP AG, 2011,

90-95% FASTER!!

What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

34

Why the Rapid Adaptation of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer?

One of the driving forces for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer has been the rapid implementation of blade solutions running on-top of SAP NetWeaver BW. To date, according to SAP, over 1,000 of these systems has been installed.

Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Number of BWA Systems 84 376 558 909 1053 1200+ ?

Sourc e: Ty Miller, Tec hnology Solution management, SAP AG.

35

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview

You can connect in several ways to data sets

1. External data may be indexed by the

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services and stored on dedicated SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator blades
2. SAP NetWeaver BW data may

be indexed on SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator blades for fast inmemory processing (also through SAP HANA)
3. External data may also be

accessed as non-accelerated via SQL/MSU universes

4. Excel spreadsheets may also
Source: SAP, Aug, 2011

be accessed

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer does not require SAP NetWeaver BW. You can accelerate all data sources.

36

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Big Picture

SAP Business Objects Explorer Client
Web Application Server (BOBJ Enterprise Web App.)

SAP Business Objects Explorer Web Application

BO Explorer Servers

Explorer Servers Master Service

Explorer Servers Indexing Service

Explorer Servers Exploration Service

Explorer Servers Search Service

BWA Driver

Central Mgmt. System (CMS)

Lucene Driver

Lucene Indexes BO Enterprise Servers

BWA Accelerator

Report Server (WIRS)

Central Mgmt. System (CMS)

Enterprise Repository

SAP BW 7.x

Database using a Universe

BWA = SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator

Creating Indexes from External Data

Using the Accelerator Index Designer in SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, you can also index data from external data files and databases It is important to note that the SAP BusinessObjects indexes are on dedicated blades For SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator you should always have one spare blade for failover If a blade fails, the system can reload the indexes from the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator file system (i.e., GPFS) For the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer blade, you can use only one blade

3. Queries are routed to BWA by the Analytical engine

SAP BW
BI Analytical Engine 2. Indexes copied in to RAM on blades

InfoCubes
1. Indexing and compression stored on a file system

DSOs

Business Object Data Services

External data
Data Integrator

Index Designer

Files

Databases

38

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview

Accelerated (BWA) or non-accelerated solutions

Explorer with no blades Interface Universe Explorer Accelerated version Direct Access to BWA Columns/Rows (SAP BW Authorization)

Security
Scheduled Indexing Mechanism

Columns Only (XI)

Copies Data from Makes BWA index available data source and to Explorer blade edition creates index on XI Slow Fast Explorer blade edition BWA SAP BW Administrator sets users access to BW Accelerator indexes

Speed of result set retrieval for data (>1m rows)

Aggregation

XI

XI Admin sets user Access Control to Data access to Universes

39

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Non-BW Data

Using the SAP BusinessObjects Data Services tool, you can access non-SAP data and model it in the BWA Cube Designer tool

Version 4.0
3. Queries are routed to BWA by the Analytical engine

SAP BW
BI Analytical Engine 2. Indexes copied in to RAM on blades

InfoCubes
1. Indexing and compression stored on a file system

DSOs

Business Object Data Services

External data
Index Designer

Version 3.2 and 4.0

Files

Databases

40

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Improved Features

Many customers looked at earlier releases of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and noted several limitations Many of these limitations are now remedied. These include: The possibility to import your own Excel files Create your own calculations at the user level You can group related dimensions for simplicity of analysis Security in improved and row-level data security can be implemented You can personalize the view by filtering information Users may navigate hierarchies instead of flat data

PS! Currently the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer solution is licensed based on number of blades and the number of named users.

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Indexing from Queries

You can use BEx queries to create complex indexes that are stored simply as a flat table in the index (de-normalized). First you must enable the query for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer indexing using the program: RSR_QPROV_CHECK.

This checks if the query can be used for indexing Query limitations for Explorer indexing

Query display settings are not supported and deltas are not available. PS! The read mode for the query is executed as read everything.

Technical name cannot be over 20 characters Query cannot have two structures Query cannot use local aggregation or calculations before aggregation Integrated planning queries and queries with input variables cannot be used Queries with temporal hierarchy joins cannot be used

The Many SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Access Methods

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is normally accessed through a browser However, you can always download the results from a search into Excel and perform analysis from there You can save the result set as an image and load it on portal sites, handhelds, or send as email Finally, you can access the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer directly from a handheld device that supports basic Web browser functions

Source: Dan Kearnan, SAP AG (2010)

Ad Hoc Search

The core idea of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is that users can search the BI data like they would using Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search engines

Users should not have to know how the data is structured, what query to execute, or how to display the data
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer takes a first stab at presenting the data in a usable format From there, users may navigate and change the display

The users may save their settings and the display at any time

44

Ad Hoc Search Example

1. First we searched on sales and found three possible choices 2. We selected sales Information and searched after the term "Texas
This shows the sales amount by state as a table, the gross margin as a graph and as a table
Any display can be exported to Excel, saved as an image, emailed, or bookmarked

A Step-by-Step Demo: Searching

Step 1. We load the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Web interface into a browser

Step 2. We Search for sales

Step 3. We get the search results and a list of information spaces

The search result list is sorted based on an internal relevancy score.

46

A Step-by-Step Demo: The Initial View

Step 4. The system looks at the data and formats it based on implied hierarchies (i.e., time, geography, customer) as well as measures. Users may navigate and change measures, graphs, and tables.

A Step-by-Step Demo: Searching in a Result Set and Measures

Step 5. Again, we are interested in sales around Texas, and can search the initial result set

Step 6. By changing the Measure from margin to sales revenue all graphs and tables change

48

A Step-by-Step Demo: Changing Charts and Drill Down

Step 7. We can change the chart by selecting from the left menu options

Step 8. While the first display was based on the best guess, we can now drill down to the different product lines

The best graphing options, based on our data, is highlighted by a star:

49

A Step-by-Step Demo: More Graphing Options

Step 9. There are many graphing options and some are more useful than others

Proportional view is best when you are looking for size relations. i.e., what are the largest contributors to sales?

Most of the time, the reccomended graphs works best for the data set, but not always
Try several graphing options before deciding on your view.
50

A Step-by-Step Demo: Explore More Filtering

Step 10. By clicking on Explore more you are promted to filter on the characteristic you selected

Since we clicked Explore more in the state box, we can now select only the states we are interested in

Filtering data makes the images more meaningful. It is harder to analyze 50 states and scroll through the data.

51

Ad Hoc Search Example

1. First we searched on sales and found three possible choices 2. We selected sales Information and searched after the term "Texas
This shows the sales amount by state as a table, the gross margin as a graph and as a table
Any display can be exported to Excel, saved as an image, emailed, or bookmarked

A Step-by-Step Demo: Searching

Step 1. We load the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Web interface into a browser

Step 2. We Search for sales

Step 3. We get the search results and a list of information spaces

The search result list is sorted based on an internal relevancy score.

53

A Step-by-Step Demo: The Initial View

Step 4. The system looks at the data and formats it based on implied hierarchies (i.e., time, geography, customer) as well as measures. Users may navigate and change measures, graphs, and tables

A Step-by-Step Demo: Searching in a Result Set and Measures

Step 5. Again, we are interested in sales around Texas, and can search the initial result set

Step 6. By changing the Measure from margin to sales revenue all graphs and tables change

55

A Step-by-Step Demo: Changing Charts and Drill Down

Step 7. We can change the chart by selecting from the left menu options

Step 8. While the first display was based on the best guess, we can now drill down to the different product lines

The best graphing options, based on our data, is highlighted by a star:

56

A Step-by-Step Demo: Explore More Filtering

Step 10. By clicking on Explore more you are promted to filter on the characteristic you selected

Since we clicked Explore more in the state box, we can now select only the states we are interested in

Filtering data makes the images more meaningful. It is harder to analyze 50 states and scroll through the data.

57

A Step-by-Step Demo: Filter Results

We now see the (product) lines are sold in only three states

Filter values are displayed here:

Always see if any items have been removed in a filter before you look at the data, i.e., 15,061,789 is not the sales revenue for the firm, only the revenue for three states.

58

A Step-by-Step Demo: The Visualization Panel

Step 11. You can also zoom in on the data by only showing the visualization panel In the Visualization Panel, you can view all the fields and measures as a complete table

Notice: The table only contains data from the three states we filtered on

A Step-by-Step Demo: Top 10 Analysis

Step 12. In the visualization panel, we can perform top 10 analysis by a single click. All other values are summarized in an other category and graphed

The ability to quickly group and summarize data is a great feature. This is normally done in the BI analytical engine of SAP NetWeaver BW, and can be very slow.

60

A Step-by-Step Demo: Other Display Options

Step 13. You can view the data in relative size by using a comparison graph

Line graphs are usually preferred if you have 3-20 data points

Areas on the graphs can be highlighted by clicking on one or more data points

A Step-by-Step Demo: Sorting and New Calculations

Step 14. Any data panel can be sorted in many ways

Step 15. We can also add our own measures

In our example we are adding the measure Margin Per Unit as total margin divided by quantity sold
Measures used on any graph can be calculated on-the-fly.
62

A Step-by-Step Demo: Mini-OLAP Example

Step 16. In this mini-OLAP example we are: Looking at some key cities in a few states (filter) Only looking at data for 2003 and only for Sweats and T-Shirts (filters) Examining the profit margin per unit sold (customized calculation)

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is not an OLAP tool, but can support basic drill-down features, and thereby complex unstructured analysis.

63

A Step-by-Step Demo: Downloading a Data Set

Step 17. Any result set displayed in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer may be saved to a PC as a comma-delimited file

You can select to save the data set filtered by the navigations or only the data from the visualization panel

Data saved this way can be opened in Excel or imported directly into Access and other databases.
64

A Step-by-Step Demo: Configuring Measures

Step 18. Measures in the data set can also be configured to be filter columns for user navigation

Other options include Max Min Sum Average

This is how you determine how data will be accessed and how measures will be displayed.
65

HINT: Connectivity, Network, and Non-Logical Calculations

You sometimes can get the following message from the system:

This normally means that the connectively to the system is either too slow, or broken. This is an issue that is more common for very slow connections such as older Wi-Fi networks You can also get this error message if the result set you requested is not available (i.e., non-logical calculations)
66

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.2 Features

In earlier releases of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator you could not index DSOs; with version 7.2 this is now available Also, prior to SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.2, the solution was only used for rapid in-memory data fetches BI analytical engine processes such as data sorts, calculated key figures (CKF), restrictive key figures (RKF), top-5 conditioning, etc., were still costly overheads to the query execution Calculation Engine Index We now have a new calculation engine and Aggregation Engine SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.2 a new aggregation engine inside This means that the benefits of in-memory processing is no longer confined to data fetches and queries can be made to run even faster

You can now performance tune some BI analytic engine functions with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, not only data reads. PS! SAP HANA can also support SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Source: SAP AG, Nov. 2011

68

Budgeting for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer with BWA

You have to plan for: SAP BusinessObjects Explorer licenses (per blade as well as per number of users) Hardware costs (approx. $14K-$22K per chassis + $5-10K per blade and a rack, if you do not have a spare place for the chassis. Add in two network cards and a file system.) Good planning numbers for production environment (only): Small HW costs ~ $40K to $60K Medium HW costs ~ $60K to $250K Large HW costs ~ $250K to $500K+ Add consulting fees for 2-3 people for 7-10 weeks. The actual time needed depends on how much of the infrastructure you already have in-place and how you plan on rolling out the solution)
Remember to plan for three years of vendor support costs.
69

Required and Optional Components

Installing SAP BusinessObjects Explorer can be confusing. Some components are required, while others are optional.

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services if you use external data Index designer plug-in if you use external SAP-Certified blade vendors: accelerated data IBM, SUN, Dell, Cisco, SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 7.20 if you use Teradata, Fujitsu, HP accelerated data revision 5

You can find detailed requirements at:

Accelerated version: https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/docs/DOC-120755 Non-accelerated version: https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/docs/DOC-120756

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 3.2 can run only on SUSE Linux 64-bit OS for blade servers (requirements (PAM) for 4.0 should be taken from service.sap.com)
Source: SAP AG , Nov. 2011

Some Limitations Authorizations and MultiProviders

When you create the index, the conversions, hierarchies, texts, and authorization indexes are made. However, if the Analysis Authorizations are on the MultiProviders, they cannot be used in the index

You can fix this by placing the Analysis Authorizations on the basic cubes instead When you create an index on a MultiProvider, a part provider can be used. This creates a single index for BWA and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, but part providers can only be consumed by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (not BW) [SAP Note: 1593642]

2002

2003

2004

2005 2006

2007

2008

When creating snapshots, you can only filter on a single characteristic and MPSI is not available for BW reporting
(see other limitations in SAP Note: 1332392)

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Index snapshots can be taken of a MultiProviders (MPSI), however, this can take a long time to create if the data volume is large. Delta capabilities can be done in a different rollup step (RSDDTPS_INDEX_MPRO)

Some Ideas Authorizations

If you use Authorization based on hierarchy nodes (0TCTAUTHH) , it is not used by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Also, if you have based your authorization on custom user exit coding, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer cannot leverage this either. To setup the security in RSDDTPS_AUTH, try the following:

Hint: Create an active directory group and add all users to this group. Since SAP BusinessObjects Explorer does not use SAP security, you can use the AD group for single-sign-on.
Source logic from: M. Umarwadia and M. Walsh, SAP TechEd 2011

Some Features of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.0

You can also use universes created by the Information Design Tool (IDT) and access these in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Spreadsheets can be added in the Information Spaces and you can use SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to access this (in a non-accelerated manner)/
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Other Features of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.0 Templates

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.0 now provides templates for customers to personalize their own displays

This feature assists users in having their own visualization and preferences stored in templates that can bypass any default displays/views by the system.
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Other Features of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.0 Servers and CMC

You can manage all servers in one location within the Central Management Console (CMC)

Your BI applications and tools, including SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, can now be accessed through the BI Launchpad.
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An Implementation Milestone Plan Example

BO Explorer Milestone Plan
Project start up BW implementation review and ranking of InfoCubes/DSOs for indexing Review physical hardware infrastructure and network access Size the BWA using program in note: 917803 Plan for fail-over, disaster recovery and backup HW vendor selection (& approvals if required) Contact vendor and place Purchase order Collect benchmarks for current performance and targets Execute performance tuning of queries, install SAP BO XI and BO-E Security design Examine process chains and create new if needed Install hardware BWA and connectivity Test connectivity and perform readiness assessment Training for 2 system admins Create first indexes and test functionality Make enhancements and change scope as needed (i.e. more infoproviders) Create all planned indexes and test process chains (time to build indexes) Execute system test with User Acceptance team (end users) Design and implement updated process chains Collect benchmarks for current performance and targets Document results and close project 1 2 3 4 Weeks 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Since some vendors build the hardware as made-to-order, it is important to get the purchase order placed as soon as possible.
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Register and Take a Free Test Drive with SAP HANA

You

can register for a free test drive at: https://bi.ondemand.com/session/new

You can also upload your own data and try the tool to see if it is something for your organization. There is even quick guides, videos, and wizards to get you started.

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What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

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SAP HANA In Memory Options

SAP HANA is sold as an in-memory appliance. This means that both Software and Hardware are included from the vendors Currently you can buy SAP HANA solutions from Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard SAP HANA currently indexes the data from a variety of sources, including ERP and BW and store the result on a dedicated server The future of SAP HANA is to replace the databases of ERP and BW and run these on the in-memory platform

Source SAP AG,2011

SAP HANA has the potential to radically change the way databases operate and make systems dramatically faster.

Tools and Access Methods

You can connect to SAP HANA with a direct access method, or you can use universebased access For example, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for MS, OLAP edition, and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer can all establish a direct link to SAP HANA Other BI client products can leverage the universe-based approach You need special licenses to use SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 on top of SAP HANA and JDBC configuration may be required Administrators use: SAP HANA studio, Information designer, data service designer, DB clients, and Excel 2010. End users methods: SAP HANA database clients, BI clients, and Excel 2010.

SAP HANA Sources and Target Interfaces

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0

HANA Appliance
ERP Real-time Database

SQL (JDBC / ODBC) BICS

In Sybase Replication Server Memory Computing Engine

SQL (JDBC / ODBC) DBSQL

Others

BusinessObjects Data Services

SAP BW 3rd Party

MDX (ODBO)

A great benefit is the real-time loading of SAP HANA from ERP. This can provide real-time analytics to end-users.

SAP HANA Product Strategy

While we can index SAP NetWeaver BW data today via SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, the next generation of SAP HANA is intended to make it possible to run SAP NetWeaver BW on top of HANA

Source: Uddhav Gupta- SAP Solution Management, DataWarehousingPlatform, TechEd, 2011

A big decision for companies in the future will be to decide how much real time, operational reporting from ERP should stay in SAP HANA/ERP and what sort of analytical data should be stored in a SAP HANA-enabled BW systems.

SAP HANA Loading the Application and Performance

You can load the application based on the logs in the source system, ETLbased (Extract Transform and Load) loads, and SAP trigger-based replication

Purpose BusinessObjects Data Services 4.0 ETL-based replication Sybase replication server & Load Controller Log-based replication SAP Landscape Transformation (LT) Trigger-based replication
Log based replication is possible on IBM DB 2 LUW/UDB and planned for MSFT SQL Server Enterprise Edition, Oracle Enterprise Edition, and Sybase ASE (as of Dec. 2011) .
Some Reported SAP HANA Performance Achivements Compression Query speed improvements Project (data) Max Min Average Bank 1 : 6.3 521.6 258.8 369.5 HANA POC (SAP) 1 : 5.2 484.3 301.4 350.3

Tool

Looking Inside SAP HANA In-Memory Computing Engine (IMCE)

AAAA
Metadata Authorization Transaction

Manager

Manager

Manager

Disk Storage
Data Volumes Relational Engine

SQL Script

SQL Parser

Session Manager
Calculation MDX Engine

Log
Volumes

-Row Store -Column Store

Load Controller

Replication Server

BusinessObjects Data Services

Inside the Computing Engine of SAP HANA we have many different components that manage the access and storage of the data. This include MDX and SQL access, as well as Load Controller (LC) and the Replication Server.

SAP HANA Virtual Marts and Applications

Virtual data marts and new applications were built that run on SAP NetWeaver BW, which is again enabled by SAP HANA in-memory processing
Applications developed by SAP near-term 1. Profitability analysis 2. Dynamic cash management 3. Strategic workforce planning 4. Smart meter analytics (power companies) Applications developed by SAP mid-term 1. Planning & consolidation 2. Customer revenue performance mgmt 3. Predictive segmentation & targeting 4. Trade promotion management 5. Merchandise & assortment planning 6. Sales & operations planning (SOP) 7. Demand signal repository

HANA (in-the works)

ERP Database Applications Databases Files

Virtual Data Marts Virtual Data Marts

Virtual Data Marts Virtual Data Marts

This provides much tighter integration with the source system (less data latency) and much faster query response time for high-volume analysis

SAP HANA Information Composer

In the Web-based Information Composer users can upload their data into the SAP HANA database and create their own Information Views In the Information Views, users can combine objects inside SAP HANA, create their own calculations, and access their results in SAP BusinessObjects tools The three types of Information Views: Attribute View Details Analytic View Analysis Calculation View Query built on attribute views, DB tables, and analytic views

The SAP HANA Information Composer is intended for power users and authors, while the SAP HANA Information Modeler tool is intended for the technical IT person.

SAP HANA Studio Information Modeler

Information Modeler is easy to work in. However, it requires some data modeling skills SQL skills are also important when creating models and packages

Once Packages are developed, they can be accessed by the end user interfaces.

SAP HANA Studio Information Modeler Displaying Data

The Information Modeling tool in SAP HANA also allows the developer to access the information and provide some basic graphing, pre-delivered templates, and navigation options There is even a distinct value tab, that provides a data profile of the Image source: SAP various columns AG, 2011, SDN

Thanks to: Naresh Ganatra, Nov. 2011

This is not intented as an end-user interface (use SAP BusinessObjects BI tools instead), but it can add significant value to the designers and developers.

Row- vs. Column-Based Indexing

An

index based on rows would require a substantial amount of data to be read. This is good when we are looking for complete records and want all this data is not a very efficient way of accessing BI data when we are looking for only a few of the attributes, or key figures, in the records
State NC TX FL TX FL NC NY NY FL CA CA NY CA FL IN IN CA FL NC SC Class Gold Silver Platinum Gold Platinum Silver Platinum Platinum Gold Platinum Silver Gold Platinum Platinum Silver Gold Gold Platinum Silver Gold Birth date 8/7/1959 2/24/1963 1/1/1959 2/13/1981 12/26/1958 6/11/1977 5/9/1971 3/13/1969 9/8/1980 2/10/1955 9/9/1980 2/23/1974 3/10/1978 12/14/1981 10/25/1954 11/27/1970 10/1/1955 6/27/1960 11/19/1958 12/21/1973 $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Income 71,927 35,633 144,077 85,087 123,456 76,506 73,503 68,987 100,600 105,943 112,096 41,080 118,481 50,900 78,304 38,809 157,105 151,067 63,169 65,628

Row Store
One of the relational engines to store data in row format. Pure in-memory store In memory object store (in future) for live cache functionality Transactions Version Memory is the heart of row store Row store architecture Write operation mainly go into "Transactional Version Memory" INSERT also writes to persisted segment Moves visible version from memory to persisted segment Clears outdated record versions from Transactional Version memory Row Store tables have a primary index Row ID maps to primary key

Column Store
Improves read functionality significantly, also improves write functionality Highly compressed data No real files, virtual files Optimizer and Executer Handles queries and execution plan Delta data for fast write Asynchronous delta merge Consistent view Manager Main store compressed and read optimized Data is read from Main Store Delta Store Write optimized for write operations. Asynchronous merge move the data from delta store to main store Compression by create dictionary and applying further compression methods Even during the merge operation, the columnar table will still be available for read and write operations. To fulfil this, a second delta and main storage are used internally Merge operation can also be triggered manually with an SQL command
Source: SAP AG, Dec. 2011

It

Row ID Name 1 Jane Hansen 2 Olav Petersen 3 Peter Johnsen 4 Thomas Berg 5 John Beatty 6 Jim O'Brian 7 Jeff Pinolli 8 Carol VanZyck 9 Fredrick Davidson 10 Tone Leffler 11 Carol Hansen 12 Jim Petersen 13 Jeff Johnsen 14 Peter Berg 15 Thomas Beatty 16 John O'Brian 17 Olav Pinolli 18 Jane VanZyck 19 Tone Davidson 20 Fredrick Leffler

Secondary indexes can be created

Row ID contains the segment and the page for the record Indexes in row store only exist in memory Index definition stored with table meta

While SAP HANA supports row-based indexing and you can leverage this for certain occasions, most indexes for SAP BI and analysis would probably be better served by column-based indexes

Row- vs. Column-Based Indexing (cont.)

As we can see, there are only 7 unique states and 3 unique customer classes in the data. This allows SAP HANA to compress this data set significantly By including the Row ID in the column-based index in SAP HANA, the ownership of the values in the index can still be mapped back to the record

Row ID Name 1 Jane Hansen 2 Olav Petersen 3 Peter Johnsen 4 Thomas Berg 5 John Beatty 6 Jim O'Brian 7 Jeff Pinolli 8 Carol VanZyck 9 Fredrick Davidson 10 Tone Leffler 11 Carol Hansen 12 Jim Petersen 13 Jeff Johnsen 14 Peter Berg 15 Thomas Beatty 16 John O'Brian 17 Olav Pinolli 18 Jane VanZyck 19 Tone Davidson 20 Fredrick Leffler

State NC TX FL TX FL NC NY NY FL CA CA NY CA FL IN IN CA FL NC SC

Class Gold Silver Platinum Gold Platinum Silver Platinum Platinum Gold Platinum Silver Gold Platinum Platinum Silver Gold Gold Platinum Silver Gold

Birth date 8/7/1959 2/24/1963 1/1/1959 2/13/1981 12/26/1958 6/11/1977 5/9/1971 3/13/1969 9/8/1980 2/10/1955 9/9/1980 2/23/1974 3/10/1978 12/14/1981 10/25/1954 11/27/1970 10/1/1955 6/27/1960 11/19/1958 12/21/1973

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Income 71,927 35,633 144,077 85,087 123,456 76,506 73,503 68,987 100,600 105,943 112,096 41,080 118,481 50,900 78,304 38,809 157,105 151,067 63,169 65,628

Column-based indexes on fields with repeated values often leads to better compression ratios and thereby lower size of the indexes (as we can see, there are few values repeated in the rows).

SAP HANA Vendors and Appliance Options

The vendors that provide SAP HANA solutions include Cisco, Dell, IBM, Intel, HP, and Fujitsu as of Jan 2012

SAP HANA generally consists of:

The database and database clients HANA studio (P2 repository) Load controller and Sybase replication server The host agent and LM structure files Op. Sys. configuration, SAPCAR & SAP JVM The update manager for SAP HANA

IBM System x3950 X5

Fujitsu

HP DL 580 G7

Dell R910

Cisco UCS C460 M2

SAP HANA Sizing the Application

While sizing should be done for each customer individually to get accurate numbers, SAP has provided a t-shirt sizing model for customers who want to get some high-level sizing guidelines

Source: Christiane Stagge, SAP AG, Dec. 2011

To do accurate sizing you should contact your service partner and the hardware vendor you are working with and plan to spend some time getting the numbers right. In general, it is preferable to oversize the system and thereby save time on potential future add-ons.

SAP HANA Test Drive

You can see demos and do a test drive at: https://www.experiencesaphana.com

This site contains a lot of great information and you can also try the Information Composer and see recorded demos.

SAP HANA Training and Certification Available

As of Jan 2012, SAP has three e-learning courses and two instructor led courses available. You can also take the certification for SAP HANA certified application associate. This has 80 exam questions.
Source SAP AG, Jan 2012

What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

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The SAP BusinessObjects Analysis OLAP Tools (Web and MS Office)

We are now looking specifically at the OLAP tool previously known as Voyager and Pioneer The tool is now called simply Analysis

Source SAP AG,2011

*Voyager is now SAP BusinessObjects Analysis.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Excel Interface

The SAP BusinessObjects Analysis tool exists in an MS Office edition and a Web edition The MS Office edition supports both Excel and PowerPoint
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Source SAP AG,2011

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis PowerPoint Interface

The tool has a 98 query panel and can embed live BI analysis in the Microsoft Office applications Excel and PowerPoint.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Some Office Requirements

The panel allows for filtering, slice and dice, and navigation BEx query views and queries can be used (both BW 3.5 and 7.0), but your BW system has to be on version 7.x You need Microsoft Office 2003 or higher to be able to use SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, MS Office edition (min)
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You need 2007 version (minimum) to use the PowerPoint functionality, but no GUI is required

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Web Version

The OLAP (Web edition) is great for analysts that wants to interact with the data and also add their own calculations, formatting, charts, and filtering The output from this analysis can be shared with others within a department or logical grouping of employees who need to see the information

This is not a basic reporting tool, but an analysis tool.

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SAP BusinessObjects Analysis OLAP Navigating the Basics

You can use the task toolbar to toggle between
Data Properties Outline

You can have up to four analysis items open on the same page

You can have many analysis sheets open at the same time
(3 is default)

This is not a basic reporting tool, but an analysis tool with a very high degree of flexibility to create your own analysis workspace.

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Navigation

The tool bars are consistently used in the whole Web application

Through tabs and simple selection screens the users can easily access, select, and navigate the data
Users can also add their own formulas and calculations in the Web interface and store the definitions
Most power users will find this intuitive and easy to learn

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis

Lean vs. Complete Deployment

Typically SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, MS Office edition is installed in the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise BI 4 environment By doing so, users do not need a SAP GUI and can share workbooks, PowerPoints, and connection Smaller lean installations can skip the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise environment and access SAP NetWeaver BW directly, but every users must have a SAP GUI installed on each machine and connections must be made for each client machine

No Java is required on SAP NetWeaver BW.

The Components of BI 4.x Platform

The complete components of the BI landscape consist of a variety of software:

Source systems BI 4.x system Portal system Client software

- Microsoft Office - Web Browser - Other

Access to SAP BW Data The BEx Query Designer

The BEx Query Designer is the starting point for almost all reporting in the SAP landscape.

This concept assures that data is the same in different reporting environments and that objects are reusable.

The core idea is to: write once and publish many ways. While you can access InfoProviders directly (no query), this bypasses the BI analytic engine and most of the support from this component such as RKF, CKF, hierarchies, etc.

The BEx Query Designer Getting up to Speed

Learning to use the BEx Query Designer is simple Most developers should take the BW 305 course at SAP before starting their BI project

BEx queries are a fundamental access method for BI and SAP 107 BusinessObjects. Understanding the query designer is a critical skillset.

What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

108

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis vs. Other SAP Tools

All SAP tools have strength and weaknesses. This is a subjective summary of each of the major tools
Target User Development
End User -

Capabilities
External web services Simplicity Ad-Hoc querying -

Tool
End User Web Application Designer Dashboard Designer (Xcelsius) Visual Composer Interactive Analysis ad-hoc (WebI) Analysis Edition for OLAP (web) Analysis MS edition Power ExecuUser tives Power IT External User Author Developer Graphing Navigation data -

Longterm Strategy

OLAP

Crystal Reports

BO Explorer Limited Support

Good Support

Some Support

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What Well Cover

Introduction SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator Overview SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Overview SAP HANA Capabilities and Impact to Organizations SAP BusinessObjects Analysis Capabilities Other Performance Considerations A Roadmap for getting to Next Generation BI Wrap-up

110

Resources

SAP HANA Test-run https://www.experiencesaphana.com/welcome SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Product Web site http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/busine ss-intelligence/data-exploration/accelerated/index.epx SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Collaboration Workspace https://cw.sdn.sap.com/cw/community/sap/sapbusinessobjects explorer

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator main page on SAP SDN http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/bwa

7 Key Points to Take Home

In-memory processing is the future and it is already at your doorstep You should have this on your long-time budget SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is a great tool for unstructured, ad hoc analysis SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is a specialized tool, it does not replace the other SAP BusinessObjects tools There is a place for OLAP, ad hoc, and formatted reports SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator is still here for SAP NetWeaver BW data (primarily) Installing and operating these platforms are not difficult, but require specialized skills Accelerated dashboards and BI analytics is a must-have for the next 18-36 months!
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Your Turn!

How to contact me: Dr. Berg Bberg@ComeritInc.com

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Disclaimer
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, 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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