30 critical lessons for

global SAP NetWeaver BI

project Teams

Dr. Bjarne Berg

MyITgroup Ltd.
A VIP consulting company
© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

2
 BI Has “Grown Up” and Is Now a Core Infrastructure Requirement

• 59% of companies now have an enterprise data warehouse

 This number will grow to 86% by 2009
• However, only 39% of companies have a BI competency center
and only 54% have an enterprise information strategy

BI competency center

BI governance program
No plans
Enterprise Info. strategy Within 2009
Currently have
Information quality program

Enterprise Data Warehouse

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

Source: Business Week Research, Sept. 2007

Where
Wherewill
willyour
yourcompany
companybe
beininthree
threeyears?
years? 3
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

4
1. Global Master Data Integration and SAP NetWeaver BI

• When an organization has multiple SAP R/3 systems, the SAP

NetWeaver BI master data integration can be cumbersome
1. Determine what local master data needs to be maintained in the BI
system and load it as separate master data
2. Determine what global master data needs to be maintained in the BI
system and load it to the shared areas
 To do this you will need master data mapping rules or tables

3. If you have conflicting master data, consider loading the local masterdata
to DSOs (make it reportable) and merge the global master data to be
used by the InfoCubes
 Alternatively, you can load versions of master data into custom

master data objects in SAP NetWeaver BI and use the merged

master data as the “0 objects”

IfIfyou
youhave
havemultiple
multipleregional
regionaltransaction
transactionsystems,
systems,plan
planon
onspending
spending5%-10%
5%-10%ofof
your
yourglobal
globalproject
projecttime
timeononmaster
masterdata
dataintegration,
integration,design,
design,and
andtesting.
testing.
5
 2. Using MDM for Global Master Data Integration

• You can also decide to use the SAP

NetWeaver Master Data Management
(MDM) tool to manage and merge the
global master data in a
central location

Source: SAP NetWeaver Magazine, Alan Joch

IfIfan
anMDM
MDMimplementation
implementationisiswarranted,
warranted,
make
makeititaaseparate
separateproject
projectand
anddon’t
don’tinclude
include
this
thisas
aspart
partofofthe
theglobal
globalBIBIproject.
project.The
TheBIBI
system
systemsimply
simplyextracts
extractsthe
thenew
newmerged
mergedandand
integrated
integratedmaster
masterdata.
data.
6
3. Privacy and Security Concerns across International Boundaries
• European and many Asian countries have strict
privacy rules Some
SomeEuropean
EuropeanRestrictions
Restrictions
• European Union Commission’s Directive 1.1.Personal
Personalinformation
informationcannot
cannotbebe
on Data Protection protects personal information collected
collectedwithout
withoutconsumers’
consumers’
from Europe to countries permission.
permission.They
Theyhave
havethe
theright
righttoto
review
reviewthe
thedata
dataand
andcorrect
correct
whose privacy practices are not inaccuracies.
deemed “adequate” inaccuracies.
 All European Union (EU) member countries are 2.2.Data
Dataprocessing
processingcompanies
companiesmust must
bound by the European Commission’s finding of register
registertheir
theiractivities
activitieswith
withthe
the
adequacy government.
government.
• Your company can become entangled in many 3.3.Employers
Employerscannot
cannotread,
read,copy,
copy,oror
local laws, or seek participation in the “safe transfer
transferworkers’
workers’private
privateemail.
email.
harbor” agreements by the Department of
4.4.Personal
Personalinformation
informationcannot
cannotbe
be
Commerce (costs up shared
to $500) sharedbybycompanies
companiesororacross
across
borders
borderswithout
withoutexpress
expresspermission
permission
 The safe harbor eliminates the need for prior approval from
fromthe
thedata
datasubject.
subject.
to begin data transfers, and makes approval from the
appropriate EU member countries automatic Safe
Safeharbor
harboragreements
agreementscan
canreduce
reduce
exposure
exposuretotosuch
such
legal
legalissues.
issues.
7
4. Capacity and Scalability Is the Top Concern for Your CxO

• Don’t under size your global BI system

 Spend adequate funding on hardware, memory, processing power, and
disk space
AAsurvey
surveyofof353
353top
topC-level
C-levelofficers
officersininlarge
largecompanies
companiesreported
reportedthat
that
the
thetop
topBI
BIconcern
concernwas
wasthe
thescalability
scalabilityofoftheir
theirsolutions.
solutions.
Overall System Performance and capacity 7.9

Server & Desktop processing capacity 7.88

Determining ROI 7.65

Security 7.62

Data Integration 7.51

Too many Business Intelligence tools in use 7.31

Danger of distributing outdated data 7.21

Difficult for end users to learn or use 7.03

Source: Intel, SAP, and Business Week
"Seizing the BI Opportunity" 2007. 7 7.25 7.5 7.75 8
8
 4. Capacity and Scalability — Global Hardware Example

Example of a large BI system

• This company reallocated their Sun-
6900 box (on Oracle) and have three
Production Sandbox
12 CPUs 4 CPUs
app servers on the production box
96 GB RAM 32 GB RAM • More memory allows them to take better
advantage of the parallel load of the BI
Development Test
system and to cache many of the
4 CPUs 4 CPUs
32 GB RAM 32 GB RAM frequently run queries
(BEx Broadcaster)
Key numbers:
 3.1 Terabytes of data
• The hardware also allows them to
 2,810 named users
 About 620 active users
compare performance between
the boxes

Global
Globalsystems
systemsmust
mustconsider
considernetwork
networkconnections
connections(speed),
(speed),data
data
encryption,
encryption,and
anddistributions
distributionsofofapplication
applicationand
andWeb
Webservers
serversfor
forload
load
balancing
balancing(due
(duetoto24-hour
24-houroperations).
operations). 9
 5. Pick a Formal Methodology — You Have Many Choices

• Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology is not your only choice

• Even though harder to manage on a global project due to long
communication lines, consider RAD, JAD, or EP based on the time
to delivery and impact of failure
When to Select Different Methodologies

High

Joint Application Design System development Lifecycle

(JAD) based methodologies
(SDLC)
Look
Lookatatwhat
whatyour
yourglobal
global
organizational
organizationalpartners
partnershave
have
Time to
done.
done.
Delivery
You
Youmay
mayknow
knowmore
moreabout
about
Extreme Programming
(EP)
Rapid Application Development
(RAD)
RAD
RADthan
thanyou
youthink!
think!

Low
Low High
Impact of Failure
Source: Bjarne Berg, Data 10
Management Review 2004
6. Report Dispositioning — Don’t Throw Every Report into BI

• Many tools exist that can report on SAP R/3 data

 You might have static reports that belong in SAP R/3, which would not be
cost effective to develop in SAP NetWeaver BI
• Make cost-effective decisions
 Just because the report is not in SAP NetWeaver BI does not mean it
cannot be added to a Portal or viewed on the Web
• Not all reports belong in SAP NetWeaver BI
 Avoid using BI as a “dumping group”
• You need to make conscious decisions on what reporting needs
you are going to meet, and how you will
accomplish this

You
Youneed
needaaformal
formalreport
reportdispositioning
dispositioningprocess
processand
andneed
needtoto
evaluate
evaluateevery
everyrequirement
requirementas asBI
BIvs.
vs.transaction
transactionreporting.
reporting.
11
 7. SAP Solutions Manager — EarlyWatch Reports Are Great!
• EarlyWatch reports provide a
simple way to confirm how
your system is running and to
catch problems
 A “goldmine” for system
recommendations
• Run them periodically and read
the details
• A real EarlyWatch report from
a mid-sized company that has
been running SAP BW for the
last three to four years

On
Onaalarge
largeglobal
globalproject,
project,system
systemissues
issues
can
canbe
behard
hardtotopin-down
pin-downwithout
withoutaccess
accesstoto
EarlyWatch
EarlyWatchreports.
reports.The
Themonitoring
monitoring
reports
reports allow you to tune thesystem
allow you to tune the system
before
beforethe
theuser
usercommunity
communitygetsgetsaccess
access
and
andcomplaints
complaintsarise.
arise. 12
 7. SAP Solutions Manager — EarlyWatch Performance Info
1 Performance Indicators
The following table shows the relevant performance indicators in various system areas.
Area Indicators Value Trend
System Performance Active Users 18 down
Hardware Capacity Max. CPU Utilization on DB Server 74 % steady
Max. CPU Utilization on Appl. Server 74 % steady
Database Space Management DB Size 355.52 GB steady
Last Month DB Growth 118.63- GB steady
Query Performance Avg. Total Runtime of the BW Queries 11.5 s down
Avg. Database Runtime of the BW Queries 8.0 s steady

1 Performance Overview Due

Duetototime-zones,
The performance of your system was analyzed with respect to the average response times and total time-zones,aa24-24-
hour
houroperational
workload. We did not detect any major problems that could affect the performance of your system.
operationalsystem,
system,
will
willhave
haveless
lesstime
timetotoreact
react
and
andfixfixissues.
issues.
The following table shows the average response times for various task types: Therefore,
Therefore, early
earlydetection
detection
Timeof system issues are
Task type Dialog Avg. Resp. Avg. CPU Avg. Wait Avg. Load Avg. DB Avg. GUI
Steps Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms of system
in ms issues are
DIALOG +
RFC
195240 3253.3 728.7 1.8 2.5 1110.9
critical
criticaltotothe
6.3
thesuccess
successofofaa
UPDATE
UPDATE2
5
48
984.2
133.2
28.2
17.1
26.0
0.7
15.2
3.3
585.4
80.8 global
globalproject.
project.
BATCH 59288 11599.3 2091.2 0.6 8.5 5772.6
HTTP 257762 693.5 183.7 4.4 2.2 405.0
1.1 Current Workload
The following table lists the number of current users (measured from our workload analysis) in your system.
Users Low Activity Medium Activity High Activity Total Users
Measured in System 98 11 7 116 13
 8. Organizing the Global Team — Six Ways to Balance the Global BI
Development Effort

Option Benefits Risks

1 Single site

2 Distributed analysis
The
Themore
moredistributed
distributedthe theBI
BI
3 Distributed analysis and design
development
developmenteffort
effortbecomes,
becomes,
4 Co-located analysis and design
the
themore
moredifficult
difficultititisistotomaintain
maintain
communication
communicationand andget get
5 Multiple co-located analysis and design
cohesive
cohesiverequirements.
requirements.
6 Fully distributed development 14
 9. Organizing the Global Team — Small Technical Team Roles

• These are roles, not positions Many

Manycompanies
companiesfail failtoto
 Sometimes one team member can formally
formallyassign
assignroles
rolesandand
responsibilities.
responsibilities.
fill more than one role
As
Asaaresult,
result,they
theyhave
have
Project Sponsor many
many“jacks
“jacksofofall
alltrades”
trades”
and
and“masters
“mastersofofnone.”
none.”
Project Manager

Business Team Technical Team

Business Analyst BI Architect

Presentation Developer ETL Developer

BI Basis and functional SAP R/3 support

The team consists of four to five team members and projects lasts
normally 3-6 months depending on scope
ETL = Extract, transform, and load
15
10. Organizing the Global Team — Large Functional Teams

Project Sponsor/ InInaaglobal

globalBIBIorganization,
organization,you
you
Steering Committee
simply
simplyneed
needtotocreate
createfunctional
functional
teams
teams(instead
(insteadofofthe
theprevious
previous
Project Manager
technical
technicalteam
teammodels).
models).
BI Architect

Portal Developer(s)

Sales Team Finance Team Material Mgmt. Team

Business Analyst/(sub-team lead) Business Analyst/(sub-team lead) Business Analyst/(sub-team lead)

BI Developer BI Developer BI Developer
Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s)
ETL Developer ETL Developer ETL Developer

BI Basis and functional SAP R/3 support

15-30 team members and normally
6-18 months duration between each go-live
16
 11. Organizing the Global Team — Localized BI Training

Reference Title Audience Language Class size Note

BW-310 Intro to SAP BI All Local 25 Bring in house
BW-305 BI Reporting and Analysis Query developers Local 15 Bring in house
BW-350 BI Data Acquisition ETL developers English 10-12 SAP facility
BW-365 BW Authorizations System admin English 1-3 SAP facility
SAP-330 BW Modeling BI developers English 10-20 SAP facility

• Training for end users and the local query developers should be
completed in their own language to assure understanding and
encourage participation
• Developer training should be in the project language (e.g., English,
German, French) Don’t
Don’tunderestimate
underestimatethe
thevalue
valueand
and
cost
costsavings
savingsofofin-house
in-housetraining.
training. 17
 12. You Have to Plan for Global Cockpits

• 58% of all companies reported that

they were already using BI dashboards
and 25% more planned to do it in 2007-2008
 Source: Business Week Research Sept. 2007, survey

• Dashboards are no longer cutting-edge

 Expected by senior management
Dashboard Scorecard Cockpits
Purpose Displays performance Displays progress Displays status and events
Usage Performance monitoring Performance management Performance management
Updates Real-time feeds Monthly snapshots Daily snapshots
Data Events Summaries Summaries and events
Measures Metrics KPIs Metrics and KPIs
Context Exceptions/alerts Targets and thresholds Trends
Source Linked to systems Linked to plans Linked to BI systems
Sources: Wayne Eckerson, 2005;
Bjarne Berg, 2006
Dashboards
Dashboardsandandcockpits
cockpitsshould
shouldbe
beininyour
your
long-term
long-termglobal
globalBI
BIstrategy
strategy(three
(threetotofive
fiveyears).
years). 18
 13. Pick a Project Language and Stick with It!

• If you don’t enforce a global project language, BI project

documentation becomes fragmented
 The project team will quickly disintegrate into groups based on the
language with which they are most comfortable

• Enforce a project language and require that all emails are written
in it and all notes are taken in the same language

• Don’t allow “side bars” in languages that others don’t understand

Make
Makesuresurethe
theproject
projectlanguage
language
isisclear,
clear,and
andthat
thatpertinent
pertinent
documents
documentsare aretranslated
translatedininaa
timely
timelyfashion.
fashion.
19
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

20
 Resource Leveling — 1. Base It on the Scope (Real Example)
Customi Tech. Dev. Extraction and Report Security and Web User Project mgmt System docs Tech infra- Bus. Analysis, Total
zation infocube transforms and roles scheduling develop- support/ and admin & manuals structure training, req. Hours
ment planning gathering, change
mgmt.
Financials
L General ledger line item (ODS) 216 229 188 101 132 134 100 79 150 403 1,732
M COPA 158 286 153 127 153 152 120 94 180 470 1,893
L Prod cost planning released cost 216 229 188 101 133 135 100 79 150 403 1,734
estimates (COPC_C09)
M Exploded itemization standard 238 286 216 126 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,035
product cost (COPC_C10)
L Cost and allocations 216 1144 188 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 2,648
(COOM_C02)
M Cost object controlling 238 286 216 137 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,046
(0PC_C01)
Order
L Billing 216 229 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,732
L Sales order 216 229 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,732
L Acct. Rec. (0FIAR_C03) 216 229 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,732
Deliver
L Shipment cost details 216 229 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,732
L (0LES_C02)
Shipment header (0LES_C11) 216 228 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,731
L Stages of shipment (0LES_C12) 216 228 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,731
L Delivery data of shipment stages 216 228 187 101 132 135 100 79 150 403 1,731
(0LES_C13)
L Delivery service (0SD_C05) 180 229 133 101 132 134 100 79 150 403 1,641
Planning and Scheduling
L Material Movements (0IC_C03) 216 457 132 101 132 134 100 79 150 403 1,904
M APO Planning 277 832 216 127 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,621
M SNP Integration 277 832 216 127 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,621
Manufacturing Processes
M Production Orders 277 832 216 127 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,621
M Cross Applications 277 832 216 127 153 152 120 94 180 470 2,621
Total Hours 4,298 8,074 3,587 2,110 2,656 2,681 2,040 1,606 3,060 8,126 38,238

Remember
Rememberthat
thatyour
yoursizing
sizingalso
alsohas
hastotobebebased
basedon
on
the
theteam’s
team’sexperience
experienceandandskill
skilllevel.
level.
21
 Resource Leveling — 2. Prioritizing & ‘rules of thumb’ (real example)
2005 2006 2007
Financials qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3 qtr 4 qtr 1 qtr 2 qtr 3
General ledger line item (ODS) 866 866 1,732
COPA 946.5 947 1,893
Prod cost planning released cost 867 867 1,734
estimates (COPC_C09)
Exploded itemization standard product 1017.5 1017.5 2,035
cost (COPC_C10)
Cost and allocations (COOM_C02) 1324 1324 2,648
Cost object controlling (0PC_C01) 1023 1023 2,046
Order
Billing 866 866 1,732
Sales order 866 866 1,732
Accounts receivables (0FIAR_C03) 866 866 1,732
Deliver
Shipment cost details (0LES_C02) 866 866 1,732
Shipment header (0LES_C11) 865.5 865.5 1,731
Stages of shipment (0LES_C12) 865.5 865.5 1,731
Delivery data of shipment stages 865.5 865.5 1,731
(0LES_C13)
Delivery service (0SD_C05) 820.5 820.5 1,641
Planning and Scheduling
Material Movements (0IC_C03) 952 952 1,904
APO Planning 1310.5 1311 2,621
SNP Integration 1310.5 1311 2,621
Manufacturing Processes
Production Orders 1311 1,311 2,621
Cross Applications 1311 1,311 2,621
Total 1,813 1,813 4,232 4,232 2,598 2,598 4,283 4,283 3,573 6,195 2,622 38,238

Plan
Plantotospend
spend15% 15%ofofthe
theproject
projecttime
timeononproject
projectprep,
prep,25%
25%on onblueprinting,
blueprinting,45%
45%onon
realization
realizationand
and15%
15%on ongo-live.
go-live.
There
Thereisisaarisk
riskofofspending
spendingtootoomuch
muchtimetimeon
ondesign
designand
andshort
shortchanging
changingdevelopment
developmenttime,
time,
which
whichoften
oftencauses
causesproject
projectdelays.
delays.Accept
Acceptthat
thatyou
youwill
willnot
nothave
haveanswers
answerstotoall
allquestions
questions
until
untilyou
yousee
seethe
thedata
dataand
andqueries.
queries. 22
 Project Preparation Phase — Dependencies
ID TASK

1-Jun
2-Jun
28-May
29-May
30-May
31-May
1 SAP Best Practices BI Implementation Roadmap - read Notes
2 Pre-Sales Phase / Project Preparation
3 Perform Customer Workshop & present Best Practices in Demo System
4 Review and select scenarios that are best fit for customer requirements
5 Carry out review of delivered business content to check for gaps
6 Define Critical Success Factors
7 Validate & Document Technical Requirements
8 Define System Landscape Strategy (maybe 2 system landscape and/or SAP One
9 Server)
Perform Hardware sizing

• Key to project prep phase is the level setting of all parties

 One-day workshop with stakeholders, managers, and sponsors
 Dedicate some time early in the workshop to demo SAP NetWeaver
BI and discuss capabilities of the tool set

AAone-day
one-dayworkshop
workshopcan canremove
removeproject
projectconfusion
confusionand
and
delays,
delays,help
helpiningetting
gettingthe
theright
rightrequirements,
requirements,and andavoid
avoid
missing
missing“low
“lowhanging
hangingfruit.”
fruit.” 23
 Blueprinting Phase — Planning Dependencies
ID TASK

28-May

30-May

2-Jun
29-May

31-May
1-Jun
1 SAP Best Practices BI Implementation Roadmap - read Notes
11 Blueprint Phase & Planning Phase
12 Apply for Going Live Check
13 Finalize Project Scope [selected scenarios]
14 Check Content delivered by Best Practices
15 Determine those issues affecting BW Implementation and assign risk to project
16 Present Final Scope to Customer and Get Signoff of Scope
17 Project Planning Phase
18 Set Up Development Environment
19 Define transport Strategy
20 Activate TMS
21 Define Project Organization and Create Teams
22 Analyze Roles and Tasks by Standard Content Areas and Technical
23 Update delivered Project Plan & finalize, including resources assignments
24 Define customer rollout & training strategy for SAP BW
25 Define types of users of the BW
26 Determine Number of users for BW
27 Determine Data Access Requirements

• Many tasks can take place at the same time Note: Example dates are
based on a 6-8 weeks RAD
 The trick is to ensure all team members implementation
are active and the workload is
evenly balanced throughout project
Spend
Spendsome
sometime
timeon onresource
resourceloading
loadingand
andworkload
workload
balancing.
balancing.Not
Notallalltasks
tasksare
aredependent.
dependent. 24
 Blueprinting Phase — Project Management, Test Plans, Dependencies
ID TASK

5-Jun
6-Jun
7-Jun
8-Jun
9-Jun
10-Jun
11 Blueprint Phase & Planning Phase
17 Project Planning Phase
37 Project Procedures
38 Update Project Management Standards and Operating Procedures
39 Update Implementation Standards and Procedures to include BW specific
40 Update SAP System Admin Procedures
41 Test plans
42 Define BW Test Plans
43 Define Data Flow & Validation Test Plans
44 Define Data Access Test Plans
45 Define Authorizations Test Plan
46 Develop System Test Plans
47 Develop Technical Test Plans
48 Develop Functional/Performance Test Plans

Test Strategy
SAP
SAPR/3R/3and
andBI BItesting
testingisis
Test Plan not
notdifferent
differentfrom
fromaa
methodology
methodologystandpoint,
standpoint,but but
Test Execution the
theexecution
executionis.is.
Problem Resolution
25
 Realization Phase — Development Core Dependencies
ID TASK Dur-

5-Jun

8-Jun
9-Jun
6-Jun
7-Jun
ation

51 Project Realization 6.25d

52 BW Development Configuration 3.d
53 Implement relevant Best Practices scenarios 3.d
54 Configure Data Access Environment .25d
55 Source Data Quality Validation .75d
56 Collect Representitive Sample of Source Data (Transaction and Master) .5d
57 Identify and List all issues with transaction/master data .5d
58 Implement Standard Authorization Concept - Development Environment 1.d
59 Document those issues affecting BW Implementation and assign risk to project .25d
60 Communicate issues to customer and agree on criteria to clean data .5d
61 Provide customer report on findings and agree on go forward strategy to clean .25d

• Most issues during this phase will be data ETL

 While you cannot plan for all issues, you can set aside time to deal with them

Data
Datacleansing
cleansingshould
shouldoccur
occurininthe
thesource
sourcesystem.
system.(Hint:
(Hint:
Cover
Coverthis
thisininthe
thescope
scopestatement.)
statement.)

26
 Realization Phase — Testing Core Activities
ID TASK Dur- Start Finish
ation

51 Project Realization 6.25d 6/5/05 8:00 AM 6/13/05 10:00 AM

62 Quality Assurance Environment 3.25d 6/10/05 8:00 AM 6/13/05 10:00 AM
63 Set Up Quality Assurance Environment .5d 6/10/05 8:00 AM 6/10/05 12:00 PM
64 Transport Requests from Dev .25d 6/10/05 1:00 PM 6/10/05 3:00 PM
65 Load data from R/3 QA Environment 1.d 6/10/05 3:00 PM 6/11/05 3:00 PM
66 Test QA Environment 2.5d 6/10/05 3:00 PM 6/13/05 10:00 AM
67 BW Quality Assurance Configuration .5d 6/10/05 3:00 PM 6/11/05 10:00 AM
68 Execute BW Test Plans in Quality Environment 2.d 6/11/05 10:00 AM 6/13/05 10:00 AM

Tasks\Dates December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 1-Mar 8-Mar 15-Mar 22-Mar 29-Mar 5-Apr

to s t o p for
Identify People for Testing
s n o time
“The r e '
ea d y late.”
s, w e 'r ea l r
s t e o f t ime!
Schedule Facilities ga n o t a wa
g i s
Prioritize Test Areas (Queries)
Testin

Send out Meeting Notice

Execute System Test

Document Results

Problem Resolution

Business
Businessanalysts
analystsare
areresponsible
responsiblefor
forplanning
planningand
and
executing
executingthe
thesystem
systemtesting
testingofofqueries.
queries. 27
 Final Preparation Phase — System Testing Dependencies
ID TASK

11-Jun

13-Jun
14-Jun
15-Jun
16-Jun
17-Jun
18-Jun
19-Jun
10-Jun

12-Jun
69 Final Preparation Phase
70 Setup Production Environment
71 Define Production System Design
72 Set Up Production Environment
73 Confirm BW Production Configuration
74 Execute BW Test Plans in Production Environment
75 Conduct System Tests
76 Conduct System Administration Tests
77 Conduct Backup and Restore Procedure Test
78 Conduct Failure Scenarios Test
79 Conduct Disaster Recovery Test
80 Conduct Going Live Check

• Typical backup strategy

 Run a full system backup on the weekends and only delta backups each day before the
load process starts
 Make sure that you can actually restore from the backups and that the system has the
resources it needs (i.e., Will one application server be enough?)

Don’t
Don’tunderestimate
underestimatethe
theneed
needfor
forsystem
systemtesting
testingfor
for
performance
performanceand
andrecovery
recoverypurposes.
purposes. 28
 Final Preparation Phase — User Training & Support Dependencies
ID TASK

10-Jun
11-Jun
12-Jun
13-Jun
14-Jun
15-Jun
16-Jun
17-Jun
18-Jun
19-Jun
69 Final Preparation Phase
81 Training Plans
82 Develop End User Training and Documentation Content
83 Prepare for End User Training and Documentation Delivery
84 Deliver End User Training
85 Train System Administration Staff
86 Define Long-Term Production Support Strategy
87 Refine Production Support Plan
88 Reorganize Team for Production Support
89 Establish Help Desk
90 Realization Review

• This is the time to execute the production support plans and re-
organize the project team into a sustainable organization, or plan
the hand-off to a support organization if one exists
• Remember to plan for the integration of your support plans with
your organization’s existing support systems
and help desk routing
29
 Final Preparation Phase — Dependencies
ID TASK

17-Jun
18-Jun
19-Jun
20-Jun
21-Jun
22-Jun
23-Jun
24-Jun
69 Final Preparation Phase
91 Final Preparation Tasks
92 Transport to Production Environment
93 Perform Conversions
94 Cutover
95 Perform Cutover to Production System
96 Confirm Production Readiness
97 Verify Users are Ready
98 Final Preparation Review
99 Conduct Quality Check
100 Conduct Final Preparation Review
101 Sign off Final Preparation Phase
102 Final Approval for Going Live

• You can often cut over to the production box before the go-live
 If you already have BI users live in-the-box, you can mask the new functionality by not
mapping the new queries to the user’s role menu until you are ready
IfIfyou
youare
arealready
alreadylive
livewith
withother
othercontent,
content,plan
planfor
foraaweekend
weekendcut-
cut-
over
overand
andspend
spendSaturday
Saturdaytotovalidate
validatethe
theproduction
productionbox.
box. This
This
gives
givesyou
youSunday
Sundaytotofix
fixany
anymajor
majorissues.
issues. 30
 Go-Live — Post Go-Live Activities
ID TASK

1-Jul
24-Jun
25-Jun
26-Jun
27-Jun
28-Jun

30-Jun
29-Jun
103 Go Live and Support Phase
104 Setup Production Support
105 Go Live & Support Review
106 Provide Production Support
107 Post Go Live Activities
108 Review and Close Open Issues
109 Close Open Issues and Sign off Go-Live and Support Phase
110 Review Business scenarios
111 Validate Live Business Process Results
112 Strategic BW Planning
113 Develop Strategic Plan for BW
114 Identify additional requirements concerning Web Reporting and Bex Analyzer
115 Project End

The
Thelast
lastdeliverable
deliverablefor
forthe
theimplementation
implementation The
Thesupport
supportorganization
organizationwill
willtake
take
ensures
ensures high system performancethrough
high system performance through over
overthe
thesystem
systemafter
afteraapre-
pre-
monitoring & feedback.
monitoring & feedback. determined time period. Some
determined time period. Some
team
teammembers
membersmaymaytransition
transitioninto
into
We
Weneed
needtotoexecute
executeissue
issueresolution
resolutionplans
plans their new roles as support staff.
their new roles as support staff.
and contingency plans.
and contingency plans.
This
Thisisisaacritical
criticaltime
timewhen
whenaa“SWAT”
“SWAT”team
teamthat
thatquickly
quickly
AA“lessons
“lessonslearned”
learned”session
sessionshould
shouldbe
beheld addresses
held addressesuser userconcerns
concernscan
canmake
makeall
allthe
thedifference
differenceinin
atatthe end of the project to assure how
the end of the project to assure howthethesystem
systemisisreceived
receivedamong
amongthe
theusers.
users.
organizational
organizationalawareness
awarenessandandeducation.
education.
Source: Pauline Woods-Wilson
31
 14. In the Blueprinting Phase — Model Your Global Solution
1.1.Create
Createaamodel
modelbased
basedon
onpre-delivered
pre-deliveredSAP SAPNetWeaver
NetWeaverBIBIcontent
content
2.2.Map
Mapyour
yourdata
datarequirements
requirementstotothe
thedelivered
deliveredcontent,
content,and
andidentify
identifygaps
gaps
3.3.Identify
Identifywhere
wherethe
thedata
datagaps
gapsare
aregoing
goingtotobe
besourced
sourcedfrom
from
Unit
Logistics
Material
Currency Key Billing information
Plant Unit of Measure
Material number
Shipping/receiving point Base unit of measure
Material entered Billing document
Material group Sales unit of measure
Billing item
Item category Volume unit of measure
Billing type
Product hierarchy Weight unit of measure
Billing category
Storage EAN/UPC Billing Billing date
Creation date

Requirements
Cancel indicator
Number of billing documents Output medium
Customer Number billing line items ~ Batch billing indicator
Billed item quantity Debit/credit reason code
Sold-to Net weight Billing category
Ship-to Subtotal 1 Reference document
Bill-to Subtotal 2 Payment terms
Payer Subtotal 3 Cancelled billing document
Customer class Subtotal 4 Divison for the order header
Subtotal 5 Pricing procedure

+
Customer group
~ Customer country Subtotal 6
~ Customer region Subtotal A Document details
~ Customer postal code Net value
~ Customer industry code 1 Cost
End user Tax amount Sales order document type
Volume Sales deal
Sales document
Organization

Company code
Division
Distribution channel
Personnel Accounting
Time Storage
Standard Content Sales organization
Sales group
Sales rep number Cost center
Profit center Calendar year
Calendar month
Objects
Controlling area
Account assignment group Calendar week

Map
Mapfunctional
functionalrequirements
requirementstoto
Calendar day
LEGEND

the
thestandard
standardcontent
contentbefore
beforeyou
you Delivered in standard extractors
make
makeenhancements
enhancements Delivered in LO extractor
Not in delivered Content - but in R-3 32
15. Accept Cultural Differences — No Culture Is Dominant!

• Cultural differences should not be tolerated, but embraced

• Europe has longer vacations (four to six weeks are common, not
exceptions)
• Family time is important — don’t plan 12-hour workdays for four
months
• Not everyone is equally interested in hearing how we do things in
the US
• Many cultures find it offensive to talk about salaries,
and money
 Talk about value and deliverables instead
• Consider a co-project manager

33
 16. Meet Local and Global Requirements

• In most global organizations there are varying product hierarchies,

financial reporting requirements, mapping of accounts, data
integration, and tool requirements
• Try not to solve only the enterprise reporting needs of the
corporation, but also the local reporting and analytical needs
 This way you will get local support and ensure the system will actually be
used
• A successful global BI project has more than one constituent

IfIfyou
youignore
ignorelocal
localrequirements,
requirements,they
theywill
willsimply
simplyreinvent
reinventyour
your
effort
effortand
andfind
findwork-arounds
work-aroundsand
andother
othertools.
tools.
34
17. Determine Where to Start

• All functional areas are not equally supported by strong standard

BI business content
 Some areas have much you can leverage, others will require significant
enhancement to meet your requirements
 The differences are often due to customization in SAP R/3 by companies
and/or industry solutions
Focus
Focusononananarea
areathat
that
ApproximateUsage
Approximate Usageof of Standard
Standard Content
Content BW
SAP BI 3.5
7.0.3 solves a problem instead
(percentage of overall development effort) solves a problem instead
100
ofofbecoming
becomingaa
“replacement”
“replacement”project.
project.
80
Gradually,
Gradually,using
usingaapriority-
priority-
60
phased approach, solve
phased approach, solve
40
other
otherbusiness
businessproblems.
problems.
20 AAgood
goodway waytotothink
thinkofofaaBIBI
rollout
rolloutisisininterms
termsofof
0
business
businessproblems.
problems.
t
CO

*
O

n
FI

gm

ry
es
g

EM
ti o
M
in

AP

to
Sa
CR

m
ur

bu

n
SC

ve
t

y
i
ac

str

li t

In
uf

a
Di

Qu
an

35
M

* Rapidly improving content

What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

36
 18. InfoCube Design — Evaluating Designs (Real Example)
Name Type Tech_nm Dims* Characteristics Largest dim # KF # info. Nav
(all) total of Char Sources attributes
Billing documents condition values Infocube ZSD_C15 10 47 11 3 1 107
Customer Infocube 0SD_C01 8 14 5 16 1 5
Delivery service Infocube 0SD_C04 9 23 5 15 2 10
Invoice summary Infocube ZSD_C06 16 55 11 19 4 116
Order summary Infocube ZSD_C03 16 62 13 23 5 96
Sales order condition value Infocube 0SD_C15 10 41 10 2 1 0
Sales overview Infocube 0SD_C03 11 34 7 17 7 16
Profitability analysis Infocube Z_COPA_X 15 56 14 85 1 70
Inventory mgmt plant summary Infocube MRP_MATL 6 9 3 22 1 16
Material stock/movements Infocube 0IC_C03 9 18 4 24 - 5
Plant & periodic plant stocks Infocube 0IC_C01 8 15 5 21 - 15
Ad-hoc query order line details MC ZSD_M01 7 14 3 6 - 0
Conditions order & billing document MC OSD_MC01 4 66 56 2 - 0
Order and Invoice summary MC ZSD_C04 16 72 20 24 - 88
SD Pricing order & billing docs MC ZSD_M02 12 53 12 3 - 94
Campaign management Infocube ZDM_C006 15 56 19 29 9 109
Commissions Infocube ZDM_C003 14 34 14 8 4 0
Daily management Infocube ZSD_C01 9 31 8 10 6 6
Disposition summary Cubes
Cubeswithwithmany
manyred
Infocube
redZDM_C001 9 16 4 1 1 0
Inquiry summary Infocube ZDC_C005 15 22 4 1 1 29
Matrix ororyellow
yellowcodes
codesshould
should
Infocube ZDM_C002 10 16 3 141 1 0
Monthly management report
Program summary
be
beexamined
Infocube
examined
Infocube
ZDM_C005
ZDM_C004
7
16
9
23
3
4
6
12
1
8
0
1

The observation relates a company’s current BI system to normally

observed configuration parameters, which serve as benchmarks to
what is commonly seen at other implementations
KF = Key figures 37
 19. Partitioned InfoCubes That Are No Longer the Same

• Often when InfoCubes are physically partitioned, changes occur as new

development and fixes are applied
 After a while, there is a risk that some of the physically partitioned InfoCubes
are no longer identical
 This can cause many issues (i.e., if archiving is used, you must ensure copies
of these older datastores are maintained to be able to restore data)

InfoCubes AAreal
realexample
example
Nam e Technical All Largest Characteri Key Nav.
nam e dim ensions dim ension stics Figures Attrib. NOTES
Sales Order: ACD 2007 ZCORD_A07 15 5 40 9 59 Added 'Created by' as a Dimension(instead of field in
Date dim)
Sales Order: LPD 2006 ZCORD_L06 14 4 40 9 59

Sales Order: LPD 2007 ZCORD_L07 15 5 40 9 59 Added 'Created by' as a Dimension(instead of field in
Date dim)
Sales Order History: ACD 2006 ZCODI_A06 15 13 58 39 66

Sales Order History: ACD 2007 ZCODI_A07 15 13 60 9 66 1) Removed 30 Key Figures, 2) Added field "Date for
inv/bill index and print out" to Date dimension 3) added
field "Customer purchase order type" to business reason
dimension
Sales Order History: LPD 2006 ZCODI_L06 15 13 58 39 66

Sales Order History: LPD 2007 ZCODI_L07 15 13 60 9 66 1) Removed 30 Key Figures, 2) Added field "Date for
inv/bill index and print out" to Date dimension 3) added
field "Customer purchase order type" to business reason
dimension 38
 20. Naming Conventions Should Be Followed
InfoCube Supply Chain Mgmt - Inventory Mgmt. Cube for Risk Management ZRISK

InfoCubes should be InfoCube

InfoCube
Supply Chain Mgmt - Inventory Mgmt.
Industry Sectors - Oil & Gas - Exchanges
Material stocks/movements (as of 3.0B)
Exchange balance
0IC_C03
0OI_EXC01

named: InfoCube
InfoCube
Industry Sectors - Retail
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
Retail Competitor Pricing
PEDCO DTHEAD_DTTAIL
ZRTL_C01
ZPDCO_C01

0ABC_C01 or InfoCube
InfoCube
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
PEDCO LOGSUM
PEDCO MTHEAD_MTTAIL
ZPDCO_C05
ZPDCO_C03

ZABC_C02 InfoCube
InfoCube
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
Non SAP Area - SFIO
PEDCO RCHEAD_RCTAIL
SFIO Movement Position
ZPDCO_C02
ZSDMVMPOS
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO Movement Position History ZSDMVMHIS
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR ZSD_OIPR

ODSs should be named: InfoCube

InfoCube
Non SAP Area - SFIO
Non SAP Area - EPM (Ent. project mgmt)
SFIO OIPR History
EPM Cube II
ZSD_OIPHS
ZEPM_C02

0ABC_O01 or InfoCube
InfoCube
Non SAP Area - EPM (Ent. project mgmt)
PIW - Profit Improvement Warehouse
Enterprise Project Mgmt (EPM)
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT WAREHOUSE
ZEPM_C01
ZPIW_P001

ZABC_O02 InfoCube
InfoCube
Monthly Operation Planning 3
Monthly Operation Planning 3
MOP3 Pricing Marker
Monthly Operation Planning 3
ZMOP_CMKR
ZMOP_P01
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Margin Analysis ZPCA_C04
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. PCA: Summary 1 ZPCA_C03

MultiProviders should InfoCube

InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
PCA: Summary 1 History
PCA: Transaction data
ZPCA_C03H
0PCA_C01

be named: InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Profit Center Accounting - Customer
Profit Center Accounting - Other
ZPCA_C09
ZPCA_C10

0ABC_M01 or InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Profit Center Accounting - Periodic Balance
Profit Center Accounting - Planning Items
ZPCA_C05
ZPCA_C06

ZABC_M02 InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin.
Cust.Mgmt & Controlling
Rel.Mgmt- - Profit Center
CRM Analytics- Acct.
Cross-Scenario
Profit Center Accounting - Summary
Profit Center Accounting - Vendor
ZPCA_C07
ZPCA_C08
InfoCube Analyses-Case
Cust. Rel.Mgmt-Mgmt
CRMAnalysis
Analytics- Cross-Scenario CRM Case Management Analysis ZCRM_CASE
InfoCube Analyses-Activity
ERP Analytics- Sales & Distribution Analyses - Activities 0CSAL_C01
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing Cube ZSD_CVF0
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing Cube - History ZSD_CVFH1
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing Summary ZSD_C17
InfoCube SAP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
ERP Analytics- Billing: Condition Data Cube ZSD_C06
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing: Tax Conditions Cube ZSD_C06C
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Daily Lift Report ZSD_ZS561
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Delivery Cube ZSD_CVL0
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Delivery Cube - History ZSD_CVLH1
InfoCube SAP R/3
ERP SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis ZPAWS
InfoCube SAP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
ERP Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis (1) ZPAWS1
InfoCube SAP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
ERP Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis Archive ZPAWS2
ODS = Operational Data Store InfoCube Commercial
Strategic Excellence
Enterprise Mgmt - BPS - Capital CE Pricing Log 39
ZCE_C01
InfoCube Investment Planning Capital Investment Planning ZBPS_P05
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

40
Global Performance Issues

• Global projects have many performance challenges

 Hardware must be optimized for 24/7 operations and Network capabilities
 BI system must also have optimal backup and disaster recovery windows
and rapid data load processing

• Since most of the query rendering time is spent on the database, it is

important that global projects spend serious time optimizing the
database reads by leveraging tools, such as the BI Accelerator and
the classical SAP NetWeaver BI aggregates

The
Thecorrect
correctdefinition
definitionofofglobal
globalaggregates
aggregatescan
candramatically
dramaticallyreduce
reducethe
the
time
timespent
spentonondatabase
databasereads
readsbybythe
theBI
BIqueries,
queries,thereby
therebydelivering
delivering
faster
fasterqueries
queriestotothe
theusers
usersinindifferent
differentcountries
countries
41
 21. Performance Enhancements Are Available — Use Them
Name Technical Indexes Aggregate Stats DB

• Check indexes periodically COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: 2006

nam e
YCPAPL_1
index build Stats
10%

 Under RSA1  Manage  Performance

COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: ACD 2007 ZCPAPLA07 10%
COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: LPD 2007 ZCPAPLL07 10%
FI-AR Accounts Receiv. Line Item IC YCZO_1 10%
FI-AR Historical Indicators US ZCARHI_1 10%

• Check database statistics to route FIAR (CS) : Cube - Hist. indicators Zoom
Agreement
YCZOHI_1
YC13_AGR
10%
10%

queries faster Cancellation and rejection

Carry Over
YC11_CR
ZCSD_CROV
10%
10%

 At
this company, 50% of the InfoCubes had Consolidated Open Orders ZC_OO 10%
Consolidated Open Orders YC_OO 10%
outdated database statistics that should be Delivery YC12_DEL 10%

updated Historical Invoice LPD

Invoice
ZCHSTLI
YC13_INV
10%
10%
RGA Data ZC_RGADTL 10%
Sales Order History ZCORDINV 10%

• For large InfoCubes, or cubes with Sales order

Service rate
YC11_ORD
YC11_SR
10%
10%

many users, the percentage used to Invoice: ACD 2004

Invoice: ACD 2005
ZCINVA04
ZCINVA05
10%
10%
build the database statistics can be Invoice: ACD 2006 ZCINVA06 10%

increased to 15%-20%
Invoice: LPD 2004 ZCINVL04 10%
Invoice: LPD 2005 ZCINVL05 10%

 Mayyield improved Invoice: LPD 2006 ZCINVL06 10%

Sales Order: ACD 2006 ZCORD_A06 10%

query routing Sales Order: ACD 2007

Sales Order: LPD 2006
ZCORD_A07
ZCORD_L06
10%
10%
Sales Order: LPD 2007 ZCORD_L07 10%
Sales Order History: ACD 2006 ZCODI_A06 10%
Sales Order History: ACD 2007 ZCODI_A07 10%
Sales Order History: LPD 2006 ZCODI_L06 10%
Sales Order History: LPD 2007 ZCODI_L07 10%
Invoice: ACD 2007 ZCINVA07 10%
Invoice: LPD 2007 ZCINVL07 10%
Delivery: ACD 2007 ZCDELA07 10%
Delivery: LPD 2007 ZCDELL07 10%
Service Rate: ACD 2007 ZCSRIA07 10%
42
Service Rate: LPD 2007 ZCSRIL07 10%
21. Performance Enhancements — Aggregates Are Often Incorrectly
Built (Real Example)
• Several cubes
have no
aggregates,
while others can
benefit from
generating new
proposals
• A score above
30% for
average
aggregate
valuations
should be a
target for a data
store

43
21. Performance Enhancements — Correct Aggregates Are Easy to
Build
• This example shows the benefits of aggregates by
using system statistics to generate proposals
 This very large InfoCube had over 160 queries attached to it
and only one aggregate
• Select the run time of queries
to be analyzed (e.g., 20 sec)
• Select time period to
be analyzed
 Only those queries executed in
this time period will be reviewed
to create the proposal
• High value aggregate proposal
(users who had queries that ran
over 20 seconds during the last six
months would have benefited from
438 times — each query
execution)
44
 22. Memory Cache Is Often Set Too Low

• The cache settings at many companies are too low

 For example, at one large company the cache was set at 100 MB for local and
200 MB for global cache, which is too low for a system with thousands of users
and 4 TB of data
• Review the settings with the Basis team and look at the available
hardware
 During the review, use the transaction code RSCUSTV14 in SAP NetWeaver BI
to increase the cache, if needed
 Focus particularly on the global cache

• To monitor the usage of the cache, use transaction code RSRCACHE

and also periodically review the analysis of load distribution using
ST03N – Expert Mode
Example:
Example:At Atone
onecompany,
company,over
over61%
61%ofofall
all35,644
35,644navigation
navigation
steps
stepsininaamonth
monthaccessed
accessedthe
thedatabase
databaseinstead
insteadofofthe
thecache,
cache,
even
evenafter
afterthe
thequery
querywas
wasexecuted.
executed. 45
 23. Use the BEx Broadcaster to Pre-Fill the Cache

Distribution Types

By
Bybroadcasting
broadcastingthe thequery
queryresult
resultofofcommonly
commonlyusedused
queries
queriestotothethecache,
cache,your
yourusers
usersdo
donotnotneed
needtoto
execute
executethe thequery
queryfrom
fromthe
thedatabase.
database.Instead
Insteadthe
the
result
resultisisalready
alreadyininthe
thesystem
systemmemory
memory(much
(much
faster).
faster). 46
 24. Focus Performance Enhancements on Large InfoCubes

Type InfoArea Name Tech Name Index Stats No of Rows

InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR History ZSD_OIPHS x x 157,218,110
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR ZSD_OIPR x x 157,131,010
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Customer ZPCA_C09 x x 119,969,043
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Vendor ZPCA_C08 x x 116,068,014
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Other ZPCA_C10 x x 116,012,946
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. PCA: Summary 1 ZPCA_C03 x x 108,784,493

• Typically 20% of the cubes and queries will see 80% of

the usage
 Focus on these when performance tuning, or it can become
overwhelming
• InfoCubes with over 100 million rows should be analyzed for
performance enhancements, such as broadcasting of queries to
cache, aggregates, indexes, database stats, etc.
Avoid
Avoidbuilding
buildinglocal
localqueries
queriesthat
thatare
areunique
uniquetotothe
thevarious
various
geographies
geographiesororbusiness
businessunits.
units.Focus
Focusinstead
insteadononthe
thereusability
reusabilityofof
global
globalqueries
queriesthat
thatare
aresaved
savedasaslocal
localviews
views(favorites).
(favorites).
47
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

48
 25. Avoid “Swiss Army Knife” MultiProviders: It Will Be Slow!

• There is a temptation to use only a few MultiProviders to build all

queries
 This may dramatically slow down queries
 Hint: This design may prevent queries from being executed in parallel

Avoid attempting to build

a single MultiProvider to
do all functions of the
data warehouse

49
 25. “Swiss Army Knife” MultiProviders and Parallel Processing

• To avoid an overflow of the memory, parallel processing is

cancelled as soon as the collected result contains 30,000 rows or
more and there is at least one incomplete subprocess
 The MultiProvider query is then restarted automatically and processed
sequentially
 What appears to be parallel processing corresponds to sequential
processing plus the preceding phase of parallel processing up to the
termination
• Generally, it’s recommended that you keep the number of
InfoProviders of a MultiProvider to no more than 10 (ideally less
than 4-5)
Avoid
Avoidcreating
creatingInfoCubes
InfoCubesthatthatare
arespecific
specifictotoone
onecountry
countryororbusiness
business
unit.
unit.IfIfyou
youdo
dothis,
this,you
youwill
willhave
havetotolater
latercombine
combinethem
themininlarge
large
MultiProviders
MultiProvidersthatthatmay
maycause
causeslow slowperformance.
performance. 50
 25. MultiProviders and Parallel Processing (cont.)

• Consider deactivating parallel processing for those queries that are

MultiProvider queries and have large result sets

 With SAP BW 3.0B SP14 (SAP BW 3.1 SP8), you can change the default
value of 30,000 rows — refer to SAP Notes 629541, 622841, 607164,
and 630500
• A larger number of base InfoProviders is likely to result in a
scenario where there are many more base InfoProviders than
available dialog processes, resulting in limited parallel processing
and many pipelined sub-queries
• Create ‘hints’ to direct queries when you use MultiProviders to link
physically partitioned InfoCubes (i.e. by year)

51
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

52
Tip 26: Clean Up Old Objects That Are No Longer Used

• After a few years of running SAP NetWeaver BI, companies often

have many objects that are no longer used
• Cleaning them up makes for a simpler development environment,
which is easier to navigate and has a positive impact on analysis
when designing new objects

Keep
Keepyour
yourenvironments
environmentsclean
cleanofofobsolete
obsoletejunk.
junk.
53
 Tip 27: Don’t Replicate Legacy Data Logic in SAP NetWeaver BI

• It’s tempting to replicate the SAP transaction system in the

BI environment

• You can spot this when you find many DSOs that serve as lookup
tables (easy to recognize, because these systems have many
DSOs and each of them have few fields)
Number of fields per ODS

Don't
Don'tallow
allowthetheBI
BI 14
system
systemtotobecome
becomeaa 12
N um ber of O D Ss

replication
replicationofofthe
the 10

transaction
transactionsystem,
system, 8

merely
merelybecause
becausethat that 6

isiswhat
whatyour
your 4

developers
developersknow.
know.
2
0
0-5 6-10 11-15 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 90+

54
 Tip 28: Avoid Direct Querying of DSO (ODS)

To quickly solve local reporting requirements, it is tempting

to bypass the global InfoCubes and query the DSO (ODSs)
directly — this is a mistake
• DSOs are for central staging of historical data, detailed analysis,
lookups, and data mining — not for local reporting
• If you allow the users to bypass the global InfoCube logic, you will find
yourself supporting slow local queries that do not take full advantage of
the inherent performance of the OLAP processor
• Many local detailed queries will consume system resources, causing
other global users to suffer
• If you follow this path, you will be asked to create InfoSet queries and
eventually have minimal advantages of standard content, which will
lead you to the road to build a traditional legacy data warehouse

Restrict
Restrictthe
thenumber
numberofofusers
usersthat
thatcan
canaccess
accessthe
theDSOs.
DSOs. 55
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

56
Tip 29: Be Aware of Divergent Country Accounting Rules

• Different accounting standards must be dealt with on

global projects
 Forexample, pension obligations are considered long-term debt in
most European countries and long-term liabilities in the US
(unsecured)

• Accounting rules for depreciation, amortization, depletions,

and allocations vary from country to country
 Forexample, the US allows for accelerated depreciation in
certain instances
Plan
Planononinvolving
involvingaccountants
accountantsandandmapping
mappingtables
tablesififyou
youare
are
consolidating
consolidatingreporting
reportingfor
forboth
bothlocal
localand
andglobal
globalpurposes.
purposes.
Make
Makesure
sureyou
youhave
havean anaudit
audittrail
trailofoftransformations.
transformations. 57
 30. Standardization - Currency and Units of Measures

• A global BI requires standardized currencies and Units of

Measure (UOM) for aggregate reporting
• Conversions from pounds to kilos, or from liters to gallons are
easy, but you have to decide how to handle currencies
 Possible solution A: Some companies use a pro-forma currency translation rate for
reporting during an interim period and a real currency translation rate when the
financial books are closed or funds are transferred

 Possible solution B: Some companies use previous month’s currency translation

rate for reporting during an interim period and a real currency translation rate when
the financial books are closed or funds are transferred

Sites
Siteslike
likewww.xe.com
www.xe.comcan canprovide
provideyou
youpro-forma
pro-formacurrency
currency
translation
translationdaily,
daily,but
butyou
youhave
havetotomake
makeaadecision.
decision.
58
 30. Standardization - Hierarchies — Global vs. Local

• On a global project, you can create local and global hierarchies

 Forexample, a large European telecom company created a five-level
sales material hierarchy in BI that reflected the Dutch reporting view,
a seven-level hierarchy that reflected the German reporting view, and
a four-level hierarchy for corporate reporting
 This
allowed reporting for each subsidiary and a new corporate
reporting hierarchy that was not available in any local system

• Lessons learned: You don’t have to select a single hierarchy;

local needs can also be accommodated

MultiProviders
MultiProviderscan
canbe
beused
usedtotomask
maskthe
the
complexity
complexityfor
forthe
thequery
querydevelopers.
developers.
59
What We’ll Cover …

• Introduction
• Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
• Getting the project started - project plans & execution
• Designing InfoCubes — the good, the bad, and the ugly
• Improving performance — what to do, and how to do it
• Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
• Cleaning up and DSO management
• Considering global integration points
• Wrap-up

60
Resources
• Steve McConnell, Rapid Development (Microsoft Press,
1996).
 ISBN: 1556159005

• Jeremy Kadlec, Start to Finish Guide to IT Project

Management (NetImpress, 2003).
 ISBN: B0000W86H2, Digital, 109 pages

• Dr. Bjarne Berg’s Web site (70+ presentations and

accelerators)
 http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_ index_ main.htm
• European privacy laws
 www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221111

• European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection

 www.export.gov/safeharbor

61
 7 Key Points to Take Home

• Be sensitive to other cultures and don’t enforce US

working methods
• More than one methodology is available for you to use
• Long-term environment sizing and planning is critical
• Performance tuning is not an afterthought, but a project task
• An SAP NetWeaver BI architecture should be formulated before a project
starts
• Plan for BI cockpits and dashboards — they are not nice-to-haves, but a
critical part of BI
• Get the global team active and develop the SAP NetWeaver BI solutions for
local and global needs

62
Your Turn!

How to contact me:

Dr. Bjarne Berg
bberg@myitgroup.com
63