creating interactive, user-friendly sap businessobjects web intelligence reports

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Case Study: Advanced Techniques from Sonae Indústria for Creating Interactive, User-Friendly SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Reports

Antonina Santos and Nelsa Santos Sonae Indústria

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In This Session

• Learn how the company uses input controls to view the same report from multiple angles

and enable quick data filtering to analyze reports based on specified criteria

• Find out about new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Web Intelligence features that improve

user experience and reporting capabilities

• Learn how to improve report formatting, data visualization, and user interaction

• See how the company uses SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence BI web services to

accelerate dashboard design performance

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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Sonae Indústria

• Wood-based panels industry

• Main indicators (2014)

Turnover: 1.015 Million Euros

EBIDTA: 96 Million Euros

• Production: One of the world’s top producers

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Sonae Indústria: Our Operations

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Sonae Indústria: Our Products

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1998 ... 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

BOE XI 3.1

Portal InfoView

SAP BW + BEX

DW + BO 5

Portal Lotus Notes

DW + BO 6.5

Portal Lotus Notes

SAP BI + BOE 4.0 … 4.1

Portal BI Launch Pad

DW + BOE XIR2

Portal InfoView

SAP’s BO acquisition

Investment & Acquisitions Restructure & Optimize

SAP Full Model

Rollout

SAP FI

Business focus

Sonae Indústria: Our BI System Landscape History

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Sonae Indústria: Our BI Landscape and Architecture

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Portugal

Germany

Spain

UK

France

South Africa

Canada

Netherlands

SAP ECC 6.0

SAP ERP

HCM 6.0

SAP BW 7.3

BID Development

BIDCLNT121

BIQ Quality

BIQCLNT121

BIP Production

BIPCLNT121

T12

T12CLNT121

T12CLNT322

TPO

TPOCLNT121

IND

INDCLNT121

Transport

• Workbench (322)

• Workbench/Config. (121) transport

DEV (SBD) PRD (SBP) Import wizard Product Lifecycle management

SAP BOE BI 4.1

HRD HRT HRP

BI Launch Pad

BI CMC BI Launch Pad

BI CMC

Our BI Landscape and Architecture

Transport

Transport

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SAP Systems Overview

• Reporting: SAP BusinessObjects and SAP BW 7.3

More than 400 users

Receive data from source system more than two times per day

Different time zones

• SAP ERP 6.0 single instance

More than 70 company codes and 21 plants in 7 countries

• SAP modules: MM, SD, PP, QM, PM, APO, GL, AP, AR, AA, CO-PC, CCA, PCA, IOA

• SAP ERP HCM 6.0 single instance

• SAP Enterprise Portal

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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Avoid Multi-Reports in a Document

• Having one document with many reports is not legible and the

performance is bad. We opted to have separated documents.

• For example:

Sales and marketing report is divided into two documents: one with Customer List and

another with Customer Key Account. Instead of having one document with 10 reports,

we have two documents with five reports.

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Avoid Multi-Reports in a Document (cont.)

• Benefits of creating smaller documents:

Reduce the time it takes to load the document initially in the viewer/interface

Reduce the refresh time

Reduce the system resources needed

Improve the performance while modifying the document

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Query Stripping

• Query Stripping feature optimizes the query to fetch only data which will be displayed to

the user

• How to activate this option:

Edit Query Properties and select the option Enable query stripping

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Query Stripping (cont.)

• How to activate this option: (cont.)

Edit Document Properties and select the option Enable query stripping

If the Query level property and the Document level property are both enabled, then the query will

be stripped. Otherwise, the query will not be stripped.

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Query Stripping (cont.)

• For example: instead of creating a big document with a lot of information, we created a

document called “Flat Query” with only three columns. We made available a lot of objects

in order to permit all users to build tables or graphs without editing the query. We made

available the principal objects in Available Objects list and users just have to choose and

drag and drop.

• The objects not selected in the report appear in bold

• Always refresh the report when a new object is added in the right panel

Available

objects to add

in the report

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Query Stripping (cont.)

• Benefits of query stripping:

Decreases the response time

The display of the report for the user is faster

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#TOREFRESH

• In a Web Intelligence document developed over a BICS

connection, a typical message that appears is

“#TOREFRESH”

• To avoid manual refresh, activate the “Automatic” option

Go to CMC and activate option in Applications Web

intelligence

In Web Intelligence tool, go to “Properties Document”

and select the option “Automatic refresh”

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Publication and Schedule

• Why we use the publication:

The publication permits us to have the information customized. The user or group of

users will only receive the data by email according to the profile defined in the role in

SAP BW.

• For example:

Our sales assistants receive by email a sales report (in PDF format) only with their own

customer list. They don’t have access to BI Launch Pad.

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Publication and Schedule (cont.)

• We define the publication and schedule in Central Management Console:

We have a specific folder for publication

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Publication and Schedule (cont.)

• We define the Enterprise Recipients

Select the Group List that

will receive the report. This

Group is defined in an SAP

BW role.

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Publication and Schedule (cont.)

• We specify the document format and the destination

Select the document format to be sent

Define the details to be sent: all

reports or a specific report

Configure the destination (email, report

name). The email address is defined by

the user profile in SAP BW.

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Publication and Schedule (cont.)

• We fill the prompts values and recurrence type

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Publication and Schedule (cont.)

• Benefits of the publication:

Maximize the security

Minimize database traffic

Easy distribution

Users don’t have to wait for the refresh of the report

Users don’t need to have access to BI Launch Pad

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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BI Launch Pad

• Easy access organized by folders with restricted accesses. By simple clicks, the user has

access to the information.

• Access to a workspace with user information according to the profile defined in SAP BW.

Each user sees their own information in a global view (dashboard) or selects the

document he wants to analyze.

Link to

documents Dashboard

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BI Launch Pad (cont.)

• Benefits of the BI Launch Pad:

Gain a comprehensive view of all information in one place

Ability to mix different content types to create unified views

Simple and easy to use (users can modify and create their own documents)

Any level of user can create and modify workspaces using drag and drop features

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Input Controls

• Use input controls to create a dynamic report depending on the user’s selection in order

to enhance the report presentation and usability

We can select single or multiple values for filtering

Define input controls using standard windows controls such as text boxes and radio

buttons

When you select values in the input control, you filter the values in the associated

report elements by the values you selected

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Input Controls (cont.)

• Input controls provide an interactive and easy way to filter the data

• Users just have to select and unselect data. They can easily see what is filtering.

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Prompts Predefined

• In all our reports, we defined prompts by default. When the user refreshes the document,

the Prompt screen appears with Prompts prefilled.

• For example: the prompt “Grid Domain” (materials grouping) is filled with the value

GRIDWW. This value is defined in BEx Query Designer.

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Prompts Predefined (cont.)

• Benefits of prompts prefilled:

The users don’t have to fill the standard prompts

The “Refresh on Open” functionality purges the document automatically, but these

prompts are not purged

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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Conditional Formatting

• Highlighting data with different colors helps the analysis

The user will focus on the relevant data to take the actions

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Group Values

• Group values of a dimension in order to reorganize information

• Users can create their own variables that produce a custom grouping based on an

existing dimension’s values

IT independence!

• For example: group values of Shape material dimension in two groups (CTS and PLC)

Select the dimension you want to group

Select the Group option

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Group Values (cont.)

• Select the values to group and create the group

If you use Query Stripping, remember that the object that is not in the report will not be refreshed!

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Group Values (cont.)

• How to use Group function with Query Stripping

You must have the dimension in your report (in a table or in a filter, …)

Our suggestion: add into the report a table with the dimension and Hide it

The dimension

Shape is not in the

report, so the Group

can’t be refreshed

The dimension

Shape is in bold: it

is not in the report,

so it can’t be

refreshed

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Group Values (cont.)

• How to use Group function with Query Stripping (cont.)

Add into the report the Shape dimension

and refresh the query

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Group Values (cont.)

• How to use Group function with Query Stripping (cont.)

Now, the Shape Group is also refreshed. You just have to select the Shape table and

hide it.

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Freeze

• In reading mode, you can freeze headers for columns or rows in a table to ensure that

they remain visible as you scroll through the rest of the table

Adopt “Excel” functionality in Web Intelligence report exploration

Open the report in Reading Mode

Select the table you want to freeze the columns

Select Freeze option at the top and select both Rows and Columns

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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Web Services

• Choose the connectivity that best fits the requirements

Performance (when user will see these figures, how often)

Use work already done – Re-work

Can easily be changed to accommodate new data

Adapts to your BI model (Will it oblige to change my providers?)

Reviewing the connection options for your case

Using the BI Web Services is more powerful than using the basic QaaWS connection

With BI Web Services and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, you have a lot of flexibility to provide fast

and robust data access to your dashboards, hence improving the performance, which is your main goal

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS

1. Define and develop the Web Intelligence report that will supply the information and

publish in your server

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS (cont.)

2. Publish the Web Intelligence report content as a Web Service for each table in your

report

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS (cont.)

3. Check and keep the Web Service URL definition. You will need to paste this into the

QaaWS data connection in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.

Example of possible web service name:

http://”servername”:8080/dswsbobje/qaawsservices/biws?

WSDL=1&cuid=AU4dMMe48bNPu7uURoi9FCE

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS (cont.)

4. The next step is to access the Web Service from your dashboard. The BI Web Service is exposed as the same SOAP interface used by QaaWS. To use the service in your dashboard, you will add a QaaWS connection, import the service, choose a method, and then define the input and output parameters (if needed).

Launch SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards, open the Data Connection menu, and add a QaaWS connection. Paste the URL (see the example on the previous slide) into the wsURL box and then click Import. In this example, SDDash_01_proof_table from the Method drop-down list is used.

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS (cont.)

Definition – Input Values

Use getFromUserInstance – it reads the result of a schedule/publication of a specific

user

Use getFromLatestDocumentInstance – it reads the result of the latest schedule/

publication

The Web Service published is directly

linked with the place where the report is

scheduled/published

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Web Services (cont.)

• Connectivity – Web Services – QaaWS (cont.)

Definition – URL path between development/production

Define it in your spreadsheet; otherwise, you will loose the server path definition

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What We’ll Cover

• Sonae Indústria: Overview

• Report performance

• End-user experience

• Report formatting

• Dashboard design performance – web services

• Wrap-up

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Where to Find More Information

• http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-58571

Jonathan Brown, “Tips for Optimizing the Performance of Web Intelligence

Documents” (SCN, February 2015).

• http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-50943

Javed Chowdhary, “Create Publication to Schedule Webi Report to Dynamic

Recipients” (SCN, January 2014).

• http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/Personalization+in+SAP+Business+Intelligenc

e+4.0+Web+Intelligence+Publications

“Personalization in SAP Business Intelligence 4.0 Web Intelligence Publications” (SCN,

September 2013).

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Where to Find More Information (cont.)

• http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/Creating+a+dynamic+report+using+Input+Cont

rols

Enrico Acchioni, “Creating a Dynamic Report using Input Controls” (SCN, February

2014).

• http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-21148

“Web Intelligence 4.0: Conditionally format data based on defined thresholds” (SCN,

January 2013).

• http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-49932

“Web Intelligence 4.1 SP2: Group the values of a dimension” (SCN, December 2013).

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7 Key Points to Take Home

• Make the information available with simple documents: the user shouldn’t have to find

information, it must be evident

• BI Launch Pad – Organize documents in a folder structure to be plug and play for the

end user

• Help the end user easily manage the information with available filters, prompts, …

• Help the end user analyze the information by simple visualization or clicks (workspace

predefined)

• Combine Dashboards with BI workspace to produce the best cockpit data information

• Help the end user gain time by sending important information by email

• Train the end user to modify or create simple reports in order to give them independence

from IT

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Your Turn!

How to contact us:

Antonina Santos

Antonina.santos@sonaeindustria.com

Nelsa Santos

Nelsa.santos@sonaeindustria.com

Please remember to complete your session evaluation

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