BEx Query Designer

Unit 1: Introduction to BW
Reporting

7/17/2007
Data Warehouse System

A data warehouse system serves primarily to stage information from various data
sources.

The information is staged in various forms including personalized reports, freely

definable queries, and predefined reports.

A data warehouse can:

– Pool data from different, mostly heterogeneous sources
– Overcome this heterogeneity on different levels (system, schema, and data)
– Stage data in the form required by the user

Slide 2
What We Expect from a Data
Warehouse

The following demands are made on a data warehouse:

– Standardized structuring and presentation of all company

information
– An easy-to-use, single-point of access to all company
information
– Sophisticated business reporting methods for self-service
analysis at all levels
– Fast and cost-effective installation
– A high performance environment
– Data staging from heterogeneous environment
– Release of source systems and IT organization
– Data access that is independent of the source system
– Analysis of data over a specific period of time, and the storage
of historical information (time-dependent master data)

Slide 3
SAP Business Information Warehouse

SAP BW provides the following:

– Data warehousing system with optimized data structures for reporting and
analysis
– Separate system
– OLAP engine and tools
– Comprehensive data-warehousing architectural base
– Automated data warehouse management
– Pre-configuration using SAP global business know-how
Slide 4
Terminology and Objects in SAP BW:
InfoObject
Business analysis-objects (customers,
sales volumes, and so on) are called
InfoObjects in SAP BW.

InfoObjects are divided into

characteristics and key figures.

Characteristics can be further divided

into units, time characteristics, and
technical characteristics.

Key figures are all data fields that are used to store values or
quantities.

Slide 5
Terminology and Objects in SAP BW:
InfoCube
The central data containers that form
the basis for reports and analyses in
SAP BW are called InfoCubes.

They contain key figures (sales

volumes, incoming orders, actual
costs, and so on) and a link to the
characteristics (that is, to the master
data of the SAP BW system [cost centers, customers, materials, and
so on]).

Key figures are stored in a single fact table, with the characteristics
stored in individual dimension tables.

Slide 6
Terminology and Objects in SAP BW:
InfoProvider
InfoProvider is the super-ordinate term for an object that you can use to
create reports in Business Explorer (BEx).

InfoProviders deliver data that can be analyzed using a query.

InfoProviders can deliver data from physical data stores…

– InfoCubes
– ODS Objects
– InfoObjects

…or logical views of physical data stores…

– InfoSets
– Remote Cubes
– Virtual InfoCubes
– MultiProviders
Slide 7
Terminology and Objects in SAP BW:
Operational Data Store (ODS)
An ODS is a data store in which data is stored at a basic level
(document level).

This data is often from various data sources and/or source systems.

ODS objects should be reported very selectively because ODS

objects are not built for reporting purposes other than in drill-down
paths to retrieve a few detailed records.

Slide 8
Terminology and Objects in SAP BW:
MultiProviders
Multi-Providers combine data from of
all types of InfoProviders (InfoCubes,
ODS Objects, InfoObjects and
InfoSets).

Multi-Providers do not store the data,

but access the data from the
underlying InfoProviders.

Multi-Providers require additional

processing in SAP BW.

Multi-Providers should be used sparingly – only when you really need to

combine data from two different InfoProviders.

Slide 9
Business Information Warehouse
Architecture

SAP BW enables Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) for staging

information from large amounts of operative and historical data.

OLAP technology permits multi-dimensional analyses according to

various business perspectives (slice and dice).
Slide 10