an introduction on working with businessobjects voyager for beginners - sap bo xi 3.1

7/31/2019 An Introduction on Working With BusinessObjects Voyager for Beginners - SAP BO XI 3.1

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2010 SAP AG 1

An Introduction on Working withBusinessObjects Voyager forBeginners SAP BO XI 3.1

Applies to:

SAP BusinessObjects XI (3.1) Voyager Version 2.

For more information, visit theBusiness Intelligence Homepage

Summary

This article describes a basic workaround of SAP BusinessObjects Voyager. Users can viewmultidimensional data sets and gain insight by accessing and viewing the full range of OLAP data. Thissoftware enables business analysts to explore OLAP data using a tool designed specifically for providinganswers to business questions, discover trends, and share this analysis with others. The article mainlyfocuses a firsthand experience for beginners who wish to work on Voyager.

Author: Arun Bala Ganesan

Company: Wipro Technologies

Created on: 24 January 2010

Author Bio

Arun Bala Ganesan currently works for Wipro Technologies, Bangalore. His expertiseincludes SAP Business Intelligence 7.0 and ABAP.
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdnhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdnhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdnhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn


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An Introduction on Working with BusinessObjects Voyager for Beginners SAP BO XI 3.1


2010 SAP AG 2

Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 3Business Challenges .......................................................................................................................................... 3Benefits of SAP BusinessObjects Voyager ........................................................................................................ 3Step-by-Step Guide ............................................................................................................................................ 4Web Intelligence vs. Voyager ............................................................................................................................. 5Charting in BO Voyager ...................................................................................................................................... 6Filtering Values ................................................................................................................................................... 8Features of Voyager ........................................................................................................................................... 9Other Functionalities of Voyager ...................................................................................................................... 10Broadcasting by Email ...................................................................................................................................... 13Creating Comparative Income Statements ....................................................................................................... 13Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 15Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 16


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Introduction

SAP BusinessObjects XI (3.1) Voyager A great tool to explore and analyze complex information as itdelivers a full range of functions for the analysis of multidimensional data sets. Using Voyager, users canquickly answer business questions and share their analysis with others, spreading knowledge beyondconfines of a single department. SAP BusinessObjects Voyager software enables business analysts toexplore online analytical processing data using a tool designed specifically for them. It allows them to getanswers to business questions, discover trends, and share their analysis with others.

In this article, we will learn basic navigation and functionalities that can be performed in SAP

BusinessObjects InfoView Voyager. Voyager is a great tool for working on ad-hoc reports. The term on-the-fly suits the best for SAP BusinessObjects, where SAP data can be visualized and analyzed with its clickdrag reports. With insight into every aspect of the business, users can monitor performance, spotinefficiencies, and identify opportunities for growth.

Business Challenges

SAP BusinessObjects Voyager allows analysts to simultaneously show multiple views of the same OLAPcube or of different ones, all within the same work space. The business challenges faced are enlisted below.

Create faster and more-efficient ways to explore multidimensional data.

Share OLAP data with users across organization.

Provide analysts with access to all OLAP data sources.

Reduce the cost of deploying and maintaining a separate system for OLAP data.

SAP BusinessObjects Voyager not only provides access to a wide range of OLAP databases, but it alsoallows analysts to combine information from different systems in a single work space. This greatly reducesthe time it takes to pull the data together and complete the analysis, and it lessens the analysts dependenceon support team for data consolidation. In the face of growing compliance challenges we need to buildcontrols and checks into users business processes. Supporting regulatory compliance also requires theseprocesses to be fully transparent.

Benefits of SAP BusinessObjects Voyager

SAP BusinessObjectsVoyageroffers analysts a modern, advanced user interface and enables them to:

Discover trends and details stored in their financial systems without help of a database administrator.

Get answers to business questions while viewing multidimensional data sets quickly and efficiently.

Access the full range of OLAP data sources available within the organization. Share results using a simple, intuitive Web interface.

Access multiple different OLAP sources in the same report to get a comprehensive view of thebusiness and the cross-impact that one trend may have on another.

Interrogate, analyze, compare, and forecast business drivers.

Use a comprehensive range of business and time calculations.
http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epx


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Step-by-Step Guide

Fig. 1.1-- Logon: This is login screen for BusinessObjects Voyager.

Fig. 1.2 In Voyager, BusinessObjects InfoView displays the following details. Here to create a workspacewe need to select Document List in the BusinessObjects InfoView.

Fig. 1.3 This is the step to create a Voyager Workspace. As mentioned earlier, business analysts canquickly explore online analytical processing (OLAP) data, answer business questions, and then share theiranalysis and work space with others.

Choose Document List


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Web Intelligence vs. Voyager

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence is front-end reporting software that you can use for online and offlinead hoc reporting. While in case of SAP BusinessObjects Voyager, it is front-end analytical reporting softwarethat reads data from Info Cubes. Users can easily create workspaces with multiple slice-and-dice options.

Fig. 1.4 Logging into Voyager Workspace

Fig. 1.5 Here, we use an existing cube (Say Purchase Cube 0d_PU_C01) for demonstration purpose.Here, the data is categorized Country wise. In the SAP

BusinessObjects InfoView, all details of country in

selected cube are given on right pane. The list states the total key figure values of individual fields.


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Fig. 1.6As we group the details, we are in process of creating a Year-Country wise report. Its just asimple click and drag from the left pane. The details are dropped and in just a few seconds, we get ourresults.

Charting in BO Voyager

Fig. 1.7 Charting Clicking on top of SAPBusinessObjects InfoView, we can notice there are several

options for charts. Here we use the option Insert a pie chart to make a pie chart appear for data in grids. Using this we can view the overall data trend, and obtain answers without needing multiple views of our data.

Fig. 1.8 As viewed, the display of pie chart is visible in bottom section.


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Clients can quickly access the specific data they need by refreshing only the relevant subset of data. Thispartial refresh means that they can get answers to specific questions swiftly and efficiently.

Fig. 1.9 Further, we also insert 3D bar charts and line charts for efficient analysis of data. Visualizationsand exception highlighting allow users to quickly discover trends and identify complex patterns. A few morecharts like box plots, scatter plots, radar charts, bubble plots, and exception highlighting enabling analyststo quickly find patterns, exceptions, and other areas of interest.

Fig. 1.10 Multiple views of same OLAP cube can be displayed in the same workspace thereby providing acomprehensive view of the business. Using Drill option we can perform operations like drill down, up, focusup or down. Analysts also need to use specific time and business calculations to review potential businessscenarios. This allows exploration of issues, no matter which cubes the information is stored in.


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Filtering Values

Cross tabis for comparative analysis. A tabular report just displays the details either in vertical horizontaltable format. This greatly reduces the time it takes to pull the data together and lessens the dependency onyour support team for data consolidation. This enables users to interact with the data so they can exploreand understand the analysis further and review potential business scenarios. A cross tab is made up ofthree components

Row

Column

Measure.

Fig. 1.11 Cross tabs: Filtering using the display member selector

Fig. 1.12 Here, we deselect the miscellaneous details and choose the requested years for reports.


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Fig. 1.13In this Member Selection panel, we choose the details required for computing the report detailfor Country-year wise report 2003-05

Fig. 1.14Here, we choose the option Hide Null Valuesand the details for the year 2005 is not displayed.

Features of Voyager

SAP BusinessObjects Voyager allows the exploration of business issues, no matter in which cubesthe information is stored.

SAP BusinessObjects Voyager also allows users to interact with the data, export results to MicrosoftExcel, or save the results as Adobe PDFs for printing or archiving.

Its a zero-install, Web-based, Ajax client that delivers full-client style functionality.

Deployed as part of the SAP BusinessObjects XI platform, organizations can centrally managesecurity, data connectivity, and documents and drive down deployment and maintenance costs.

Source:Voyager Features
http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/featuresfunctions/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/featuresfunctions/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/featuresfunctions/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/featuresfunctions/index.epx


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Other Functionalities of Voyager

Fig. 2.1 In a new workspace in Voyager, drag and drop 2 columnsValue of Goods Received in LabelandPurchase Order Quantity from the standard cube. These are key figure values and are accessible inVoyager for ad-hoc reporting purpose.

Fig. 2.2 Now, as and when we click and drag these values from left to right hand Voyagerworkspace, we

can view the results instantly. This software enables high level reporting to be done, and consolidates datafrom different sources into one report.

Fig. 2.3 Now, we click anddrag the crosstab for inserting another dimension. Well insert time dimension

as years into this ad-hoc report, when data is consolidated into column wise time dimension as in belowfigure.


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Fig. 2.4 Country-year wise report

Fig. 2.5 At this point, we can perform more from this report by adding 2 extra dimensions to this report.

Also, we can calculate the sum of all values using the Summation symbol


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Fig. 2.6Now, to export data to desktop, we can click the hot key Export data to excel in the toolbar.

Fig. 2.7 Click Open to view the excel sheet output. Click Save to download it to desktop. This is the finaloutput in XLS format for user or analysts view.


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Broadcasting by Email

Fig. 2.8 The distribution type Broadcast E-Mail (Bursting) allows you to broadcast BI objects (queries,query views, Web templates, reports, or workbooks) as pre-calculated documents or online links by email torecipients that you determine on the basis of master data.

Fig. 2.9 If you have maintained the addresses of the recipients in the master data, you can select acharacteristic in whose attributes the e-mail addresses or the BI user names are maintained, and the systemcan determine the recipients from this information. This type of distribution is known as bursting.

Creating Comparative Income Statements

The following examples show how to create a dashboard for Comparative Income Statements.

Fig. 2.10 Here, we need to choose our dashboard where we have made a report kind of output for export.

Fig. 2.11Once the output is displayed, we choose option Export this reportand generate a PDF output.


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Fig. 2.12The PDF report output which was generated for the corporate dashboard NEW1.


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Related Content

SAP BusinessObjects Voyager

Business Objects Integration Kits for SAP

Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder
http://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epxhttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epxhttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/609af209-a9ad-2a10-ab9f-922901510f0ehttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/609af209-a9ad-2a10-ab9f-922901510f0ehttp://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/4086f1e3-f43d-2c10-e985-b6f74f93dbf3http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/4086f1e3-f43d-2c10-e985-b6f74f93dbf3http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/4086f1e3-f43d-2c10-e985-b6f74f93dbf3http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/index?rid=/library/uuid/609af209-a9ad-2a10-ab9f-922901510f0ehttp://www.sap.com/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/large/business-intelligence/advanced-analytics/voyager/index.epx


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Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is notsupported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document,and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.

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an introduction on working with businessobjects voyager for beginners - sap bo xi 3.1

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