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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Designing and deploying solutions using the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform 4.2.
Key Features
- Get up and running with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform
- Perform effective data analysis and visualization for actionable insights
- Enhance your BI strategy by creating different types of reports and dashboards using SAP BusinessObjects
Book Description
The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform is a powerful reporting and analysis tool. This book is the ideal introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform, introducing you to its data visualization, visual analytics, reporting, and dashboarding capabilities.
The book starts with an overview of the BI platform and various data sources for reporting. Then, we move on to looking at data visualization, analysis, reporting, and analytics using BusinessObjects Business Intelligence tools. You will learn about the features associated with reporting, scheduling, and distribution and learn how to deploy the platform. Toward the end, you will learn about the strategies and factors that should be considered during deployment.
By the end, you will be confident working with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform to deliver better insights for more effective decision making.
What you will learn
- Work with various tools to create interactive data visualization and analysis
- Query, report, and analyze with SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence
- Create a report in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise
- Visualize and manipulate data using an SAP Lumira Storyboard
- Deep dive into the workings of the SAP predictive analytics tool
- Deploy and configure SAP BO Intelligence platform 4.2
Who this book is for
This book is for Business Intelligence professionals and existing SAP ecosystem users who want to perform effective Business Intelligence using SAP BusinessObjects.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 197
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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SAP Business Intelligence Quick Start Guide
Copyright © 2019 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Amey VarangaonkarAcquisition Editor: Reshma RamanContent Development Editor: Kirk DsouzaTechnical Editor: Suwarna PatilCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator: Hardik BhindeProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Rekha NairGraphics: Alishon MendonsaProduction Coordinator: Jyoti Chauhan
First published: February 2019
Production reference: 1210219
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78934-620-6
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Contributors
About the author
Vinay Singh is a data science manager at BASF, Germany. He has over 12 years' experience in data warehousing and BI. Before joining BASF, he worked with multiple companies/customers, including SAP, Adobe Systems, Freudenberg, and T-Systems, which provided him with a good mix of product development and consulting experience.
His other publications include Real-Time Analytics with SAP HANA, published by Packt, Manage Your SAP Projects with SAP Activate, also published by Packt, and Creating and Using Advanced DSOs in SAP BW on SAP HANA, by SAP PRESS. He is a visiting research scholar at the National Central University of Taiwan, and a distinguished speaker at various forums.
About the reviewer
Parag Terwadkar has extensive experience (over 12 years) in the IT industry and has worked in multiple technologies throughout his career, starting with SAP R/3 through to big data. He has spent several years working closely with clients, and currently works for Accenture GmbH in a managerial role.
He is also a FIDE rated chess player and loves spending lots of time participating in, and following, all kinds of sports.
Packt is searching for authors like you
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
SAP Business Intelligence Quick Start Guide
Dedication
About Packt
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Section 1: Introduction to SAP Business Intelligence
Overview of SAP BusinessObject Business Intelligence 4.2
BI and its benefits
Components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.2
Central Management Console
Central Configuration Manager
Lifecycle Management
Enterprise data sources for BI reporting tools
Information Design Tool
Creating a Universe with the IDT
Getting started with the tool
Creating a new relational connection
Creating a shortcut in our local folder
Creating a single source data foundation
Creating a new Business Layer with a file 
Creating a query on the Business Layer using Query Panel
Creating a BEx query to directly access SAP BW as a data source
Displaying the SAP HANA view using the SAP HANA live browser
Local data sources
Summary
Section 2: Data Visualization, Analysis, and Reporting
SAP BusinessObject Analysis
Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft
A basic workbook with SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft
The list of groups 
The Data Source group 
The Data Analysis group 
The Combine and Display groups 
The Insert and Tools groups
Creating a SAP BusinessObjects Analysis workbook 
Creating a SAP BusinessObjects Analysis workbook based on an existing BEx query
Report to report interface 
SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft PowerPoint
Inserting a data source in a workbook
Creating a PowerPoint presentation using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for PowerPoint
Creating a PowerPoint presentation using analysis for PowerPoint based on SAP BW data 
Summary 
SAP BusinessObject Design Studio
Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
Interface elements of SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
Working with the design tool 
Design Studio architecture
Deployment platform as BI
Deployment on SAP NetWeaver
Deployment on SAP HANA
Architecture for local mode
Use case – creating an analytical application
Summary 
SAP BusinessObject Web Intelligence
Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects WebI
Reporting with SAP BusinessObjects WebI
Querying with SAP BusinessObjects WebI
Analyzing with SAP BusinessObjects WebI
WebI calculations
Groups and sorts
Other features 
Application modes
Creating a WebI document based on an existing Universe 
WebI document based on SAP HANA view
Summary 
SAP BusinessObject Crystal Reports
Introduction to SAP Crystal Reports 
Toolbars in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise
Data sources for SAP Crystal Reports 
Data grouping and sorting
Creating a report in SAP Crystal Reports 
Creating the report with SAP HANA view as a data source 
Insight to Action
Summary 
SAP BusinessObject SAP Lumira
Introduction to SAP Lumira 
Use cases for Lumira 
Data preparation 
Prepare view
Date panel
Object Picker and column data manipulation panel
Data manipulation panel 
Data editing and cleaning panel
Data filtering in columns and charts 
Filter panel 
Number and date formatting 
Visualization and storyboards 
Chart types in SAP Lumira
Sharing the charts, stories, and datasets 
Sharing charts 
Sharing stories
Sharing datasets 
Sending charts by email 
Introduction to SAP Lumira Cloud 
Creating a SAP Lumira visualization 
Creating a Lumira report based on the eFashion packages and Universe
Creating a visualization using a SAP BW query
Creating a SAP Lumira storyboard
Summary 
SAP BusinessObject Predictive Analytics 2.0
Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analytics
SAP Automated Analytics and Expert Analytics features 
The data understanding phase 
The modeling and evaluation phase 
A classification example using Automated Analytics
Model performance indicators 
Automated Analytics – forecasting in SAP Predictive Analysis 
Configuring the Modeler and exploring the data
Building a classification model and analyzing the results
Summary 
Section 3: BI Platform Features and Deployment
BI Platform Features
Introduction to the BI platform features of SAP BusinessObjects 
SAP BusinessObjects BI platform security 
License type and access
User rights and permissions
Group hierarchy, groups, and subgroups
Rights in the BI platform
Object-level security
Folder-level security
Top-level folder security
Access levels
Inheritance 
Document settings for mobile access 
Web intelligence-specific settings for SAP BusinessObjects mobile and designing studio-specific settings 
Scheduling and emailing an SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Report
Scheduling and sending a Webi document 
Summary 
BI Platform Deployment
Introduction to BI platform architecture 
SAP cloud strategy – BI solutions 
SAP Analytics Cloud
SAP Lumira
SAP BW/4HANA 
SAP Crystal Reports
SAP BusinessObjects BI4 for cloud deployment options
SAP BusinessObjects on SAP HANA
BI platform system overview
SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 – deployment 
Central Management Server database requests and system and API calls
Centralized versus decentralized
Agile Visualization functions and components
SAP BusinessObjects Lumira
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for OLAP
SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analytics
Dashboards and applications 
SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio
SAP BusinessObjects dashboards 
Reporting in the BI platform
SAP BusinessObject Web Intelligence
SAP Crystal Reports
Universal semantic layer 
Benefits of business views
Overview of the BI platform suite 
Client-tier components for integration 
Information Design Tool
Data-tier components for integration 
Processing-tier components for integration 
Storage, management, and web-tier components for integration
SAP BusinessObjects platform – a tool for integration
Web interfaces
Semantic layer
Report content types
Summary
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Preface
This book will serve as an introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform, and will introduce readers to the different data visualization, visual analytics, reporting, and dashboarding capabilities of the tool.
Who this book is for
BI professionals and existing SAP ecosystem users who wish to perform effective BI using SAP BusinessObjects will benefit from this book. It will serve as an introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform. By the end of this book, readers will be comfortable in using the SAP BusinessObjects tool for all their needs pertaining to BI for effective strategizing/decision making.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Overview of SAP BusinessObject Business Intelligence 4.2, provides a high-level overview of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2. We will walk through SAP BI solutions and its benefits, identifying the components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 and enterprise data sources for SAP BI reporting tools.
Chapter 2, SAP BusinessObject Analysis, explains how to create a basic workbook with SAP BusinessObjects Analysis (Microsoft Office edition). We will also see how to manage SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP HANA data sources for Microsoft Office functionality.
Chapter 3, SAP BusinessObject Design Studio, explains SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio and walks the reader through various concepts related to Design Studio, namely, initial view, layout, and architecture.
Chapter 4, SAP BusinessObject Web Intelligence, describes how to create an SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence document and how to use features such as query, report, and analyze with SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (Webi)
Chapter 5, SAP BusinessObject Crystal Reports, describes how to create a report in SAP Crystal Report for Enterprise and explores the variety of toolbars and report elements that are available.
Chapter 6, SAP BusinessObject SAP Lumira, provides a general overview of SAP Lumira. We will learn how to visualize and manipulate data using an SAP Lumira storyboard.
Chapter 7, SAP BusinessObject Predictive Analytics 2.0, covers how to use SAP predictive analytics and explains how the SAP predictive analytics toolset can be used.
Chapter 8, BI Platform Features, explains how to use SAP predictive analytics, with a focus on data mining.
Chapter 9, BI Platform Deployment, provides a general overview of the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform architecture, BI systems, and the elements contained within BI systems.
To get the most out of this book
You should have some basic knowledge of SAP and BI. Even though we will be discussing SAP BusinessObjects BI from scratch, some prior knowledge of SAP is always beneficial.
You will require access to SAP BusinessObjects systems. You may even acquire an Amazon Web Service / Microsoft Azure subscription for the BusinessObjects system required.
At the end of each chapter, there are exercises, with screenshots demonstrating how to carry them out. Please complete these exercises and also complete the activities that the author has set as learning exercises for readers.
Download the color images
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789346206_ColorImages.pdf.
Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Open the IDT and create a new project called UNI_relational_data as follows."
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Click on Information Design Tool."
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].
Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packt.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.
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If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in, and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.
Reviews
Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!
For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.
Section 1: Introduction to SAP Business Intelligence
This section serves as an introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2, where we will set the tone for the book. It contains one chapter, covering an overview of the BI platform and various data sources for reporting purposes. This section contains only one chapter which is Chapter 1, Overview of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2.
Overview of SAP BusinessObject Business Intelligence 4.2
This book will take you through the concepts related to SAP Business Intelligence (BI) and the tools associated with the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.2. While we start with basic concepts and understanding the platform, and gradually progress to deeper insights into the various tools offered by the platform. The book offers a good overview of all the tools with examples of how to use the functionalities offered by each tool.
This chapter provides a high-level overview of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2. We will walk through SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 and its benefits, identifying the components of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 and enterprise data sources for BI reporting tools. We will learn about the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform and different BI tools that are available to use in a business scenario. We will learn how to create a Business Explorer (BEx) query to directly access SAP BW as data source. We will use these data sources, connections, and business layers in upcoming chapters.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
BI and its benefits
Components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.2
Enterprise data sources for BI reporting tools
Creating a BEx query to directly access SAP BW as data source
Local data sources
BI and its benefits
BI is a strategic and reporting tool with sets of methodologies and processes for transforming data into meaningful insights, such as sales reports, slice and dice finance reports, and predictive analysis, to support decision making.
Some of the benefits are as follows:
Decreased query and reporting time
Identifying and track key performance metrics against their direct competitors and the overall market
It is fast at providing reports, performing analysis, and planning
It helps you make better business decisions
It directly helps to reduce costs, which leads to higher revenue for an organization
The SAP BusinessObjects BI platform provides an enterprise BI with systems that are scalable, flexible, and adaptive. They have a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that allows us to deploy and standardize SAP BusinessObjects BI implementations. SAP offers both a suite of reporting tools with a full spectrum of features and a new cloud solution as a so-called software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. In this book, we will discuss the traditional SAP BusinessObjects tools and the new predictive analytics tools. With SAP BI, you can get insights in the following areas:
Data discovery
: With SAP BusinessObjects you can discover, analyze, and share. It can do the following:
Mash up data from multiple sources
Create visualizations
Combine visualizations to tell a story
Applications and dashboards
: It enables you to build engaging experience in the following ways:
It allows you to create dynamic and customizable applications and dashboards
You can engage in sophisticated planning and predictive applications
out-of-the-box
It's capable of delivering engaging information to users where they need it
Reporting
: You can distribute formatted information:
Securely distribute information across the organization
Create interactive reports
Create personalized reports via email
Components of SAP BusinessObjects 4.2
SAP BusinessObject BI platform 4.2 is a reporting and analytics platform that targets business users. It is an innovation platform that simplifies, enhances, and extends the capabilities of BI. It consists of a number of reporting applications with which a user can discover data, create applications and dashboards, and perform analytics to derive business insights. The platform ensures increased responsiveness, reduced costs and workload, and helps organizations to make better decisions.
We need to understand the various tools available in SAP BusinessObject 4.2 to perform reporting. There are multiple management tools, platform services, and client tools in SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 that support the entire range of user reporting, queries, analysis, and performance management.
Some of the salient features of the SAP BI platform are as follows:
BI content management allows the secure storage of BI content
It provides a software development kit, which can be used by the
API to extend the solution or for making the process automated
It is possible to distribute personalized BI content to a large audience in an automated manner
It gives the ability to scale up and scale out to suit growing demand
It provides services to the audit trail for compliance or capacity planning
The following diagram shows the overview of the architecture of SAP BusinessObjects BI:
The following are some of the main BusinessObjects BI platforms:
Central Management Console
(
CMC
)
Server Intelligence Agent
(
SIA
)
Central Configuration Manager
(
CCM
)
Central Management Servers
(
CMS
)
Semantic layer tool
Client tools
In the next section, let's examine in detail the following platform tools for administration:
CMC
CCM
Lifecycle Management
(
LCM
) tools
Central Management Console
In SAP BusinessObjects BI, the CMC is the main web interface used to perform any administrative task, which also includes managing servers. It also allows us to publish and organize content, transfer BI platform objects across our SAP BusinessObjects BI platform landscape, and configure security settings. As the CMC is a web-based application, we can perform all the administrative tasks in a web browser on any computer that can connect to the web application server. All users can log on to the CMC to change their own preference settings. Only members of the administrators group can change management settings, unless a user is explicitly granted rights to do so. Roles can be assigned in the CMC to grant user privileges to perform minor administrative tasks, such as managing users in your group and managing reports in folders that belong to your team.
Central Configuration Manager
CCM is tool that's used to view and modify server settings when the SAP BusinessObjects server processes are offline. It is widely used to create and configure nodes and to start and stop the web application server. Another very important usage of CCM is to configure the SIA and to start or stop the server. It can operate in both Unix and Microsoft Windows environments.
In a Unix environment, the shell script allows us to manage servers from the command line, and in Microsoft Windows we get a graphical user interface. The Microsoft Windows environment allows us to makes network parameter changes in one go to all servers within a node.
Lifecycle Management
The LCM console is a web-based tool (within CMC) that allows the management of different versions of BI resources, dependencies, and a mechanism to
