bi203 - how to design and deploy high performing sap businessobjects dashboards (xcelsius)

1

BI203

How to design and deploy high

performing SAP BusinessObjects

Dashboards (Xcelsius)

Berlin :

Gregory Botticchio, SAP Technology RIG

Dr. Gerd Schöffl, SAP Technology RIG

Las Vegas :

Patrice Le Bihan, SAP Technology RIG

Bangalore :

Raghu Ganesh, SAP Technology RIG

© 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved. / Page 2

Disclaimer

This presentation outlines our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a

purchase decision. This presentation is not subject to your license agreement or any other

agreement with SAP. SAP has no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this

presentation or to develop or release any functionality mentioned in this presentation. This

presentation and SAP's strategy and possible future developments are subject to change and

may be changed by SAP at any time for any reason without notice. This document is provided

without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to, the implied

warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. SAP

assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document, except if such damages

were caused by SAP intentionally or grossly negligent.

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Agenda

1. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Overview

2. Design Best Practices

Requirements Gathering Reduce

Initialization Time

Scalability Considerations

Contextual Drill Down

3. Data Connectivity Options

SAP NetWeaver BW Connection

Common Semantic Layer Queries

4. Appendix


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0

From Xcelsius to Dashboards

(*) no connectivity

(**) no connectivity to BW or BOE

Xcelsius 2008 Dashboards 4.0

Xcelsius Present SAP Crystal Presentation Design (*)

Xcelsius Engage SAP Crystal Dashboard Design (**)

Xcelsius Enterprise SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0

Xcelsius designer renamed to Dashboard Design tool

3



What it is

Dashboard Design Tool is a tool for rapid development of

visualizations and highly interactive BI Dashboards through a flexible

and easy to use point and click interface

Provides the “big picture” :

A clear overview of the business performance

Summarized data and key performance indicators

Tool of choice for BI dashboards solution :

Key component of a BI strategy

Highly visual and interactive user

interface

Simple and intuitive dashboards for

casual BI users: executives, managers

and operational staff



What it is not

Dashboards are not a comprehensive BI tool

Not a reporting tool for detailed operational reporting

No built-in paging

No export to Excel or PDF

Not an ad hoc or OLAP analysis tool

Analysis paths are predefined by dashboard author

Not an application building tool

No state management

No built-in persistence

To provide the next level of detail :

Use embedded hyperlinks to detailed views for contextual drill down

Examples :

InfoView openDocument URL to WebI

Report-to-Report Interface (RRI) URL to BEx Web Analyzer reports

4


Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix


Dashboards BestPractices

Requirements Gathering

Executives and decision makers Highly aggregated data

Key Performance Indicators

Business analystsMore interactivity

Drill down capabilities

What-if scenarios

Who is the solution designed for?

What decisions will be made with the solution?

5




What metrics is the solution focused on?

What characteristics will the metrics be grouped by?

Will there be a need for real-time data?

A dashboard should provide insight or answers on a few

focused business questions

Break the data down into several dashboards if more

questions need to be answered

Leverage schedule reports for better performance




What visual components best represent the data?

How will the user interact with the data?

Selectors (lists, menus, sliders): define interactivity

Charts: best for trends, comparison, breaking the data down

Gauges, Scorecard: performance indicators, great with alerts

Maps: any geographical analysis

6


Dashboards Best Practices


Start the design with pen and paper …

Create a proof of concept

Design with end user and decisions in mind

Create a layout that scales

Keep it simple, do not overload with visualization effects

Good Bad

Mock up the end state first Best not to start with a

complex spreadsheet


Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix

7



Reduce Initialization Time

Slow initialization time is the main barrier to adoption

Users expects a Web experience : 15 seconds max

Three factors to consider:

Flash file size

Number of components

Data connections refresh on load




Flash file size:

Flash size to 2Mb max

Reduce data in spreadsheet to a minimum :

remove all sample data

only keep what is necessary to default view

Be careful with resolution of embedded images

Optimize Spreadsheet option (File > Preferences… > Excel Options

8




Use the least number of components:

DON’T

Use a new chart for each series

DO

Use a single chart and dynamically swap the data

Consider breaking the model into pieces




Use the least number of components:

Use Scorecard components to combine individual icon

components

20 visualization components (―icon‖)

versus

1 visualization component(―Scorecard‖)

9




Data connections refresh on load:

Replace Connection option ―Refresh before Components are loaded‖ …

… with a (hidden) Connection Button with option

―Refresh after Components are loaded‖




Data connections refresh on load:

Avoid pulling too much data upfront :

only retrieve data displayed in the initial view

use hard coded dimension values when possible

fetch data on demand, triggered by user actions

AVOID

USE

10


Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix


Design Best Practices

Scalability considerations

Factors for scalability :

Amount of data

Data query refresh time

Aggregation and calculation

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Amount of data:

Be careful with large result sets:

Rule of thumb : 2,000 data points max at a time

Really only a dozen at a time when possible

More data means:

Larger model and more work for the model

Heavier Flash file for the Web browser to handle

Data on demand vs. everything pulled up front




Amount of data:

Avoid displaying too many components with data at once, break it down with

―SWF Loader‖ – smaller Flash files

―Label Menu‖ – multiple tabs (< Xcelsius 2008 Fix Pack 3.1)

―Tab Set‖ – multiple tabs (≥ Xcelsius 2008 Fix Pack 3.1)

12




Amount of data:

BI Workspaces :

smaller Flash files in multiple tabs

OR…

… dimension filters and charts in

separate Flash files




Aggregation & calculation:

Aggregate on the back end : a database engine will always perform and

scale better than a web browser

Aggregate to the smallest summary possible : default view should be the

high level view all users are interested in

Use Alerts to highlight the points to drill on :

13





Avoid listing all records, use Top / Bottom N and offer a link to a report for

all records

AVOID USE





Calculate on the back end : a database engine will always perform and

scale better than a web browser

Use Filtered Rows instead of SUMIF, COUNTIF, HLOOKUP, VLOOKUP

14





With calculations in Excel spreadsheet, beware that :

More calculations makes larger models and slow performance

Dashboards do not support Macros or VB Script

Not all Excel functions are supported, refer to Help Guide

Slower performance as each change requires cell values to

recalculate through all the data

Be careful with copy-paste in Excel

spreadsheet at design time


Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix

15




Provide the next level of details from a Dashboard to other BI tools with :

URL Parameters to open a BEx Web Report with context

available today with Xcelsius 2008 SP2 and SAP NetWeaver 7.01 SP5

OpenDocument API to open Web Intelligence or Crystal Reports content with

context

available today with Xcelsius 2008 and SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

BI Workspaces to offer composite dashboards

available end of 2010 with SAP BI 4.0




New BI Workspaces in BI 4.0:

BI Workspaces as a replacement to Dashboard Builder

Improved and easier Content Linking capabilities : Dashboards to WebI, to

Crystal, WebI to Crystal, etc.

Passing

State value to

the

Dashboards

model

Passing

State value to

Crystal report

document as

a filter

16




New BI Workspaces in BI 4.0:

a new “Content Linking” interface through a Visual Editor

Graphical view of links between modules

Exposes linking meta-data (prompts, range names, filters, etc.)

Only linkable modules are displayed




Module Type Source / Target

Dashboards Source and target External Interface (recommended),

FSCommand or Portal Data

WebI Source and target Can be a source only in part mode. Support

prompts and filters as target.

Crystal Report Target Support prompts and filters as target.

Compound module Target Simply Pass the data to the underlying reports

Viewer module Source and target Simply Pass the data to the underlying report

ViewerDashboards

Crystal

ReportCompoundWebI

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Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix


Data Connectivity options

Possible Options with Xcelsius 2008 and BOE XI 3.1

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Possible Options with Xcelsius 2011 and SAP BI 4.0



Implementation scenarios & recommendations for new projects

1)including SQL access to BW

2)Large investment in BEx queries and BW infrastructure

3)BW among other data sources

Source XC 2008 / BOE XI 3.1 DD 2011 / SAP BI 4.0

Relational DBMS (1) QaaWS Universe (.UNX) Queries

OLAP MSAS BI Services with UNV BI Services with .UNX

OLAP BW (2) SAP NW BW Connection SAP NW BW Connection

OLAP BW (3) BI Services with BICS

19



Recommended Options with Xcelsius 2008 and BOE XI 3.1



Recommended Options with Xcelsius 2011 and SAP BI 4.0

20


Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix




Major performance improvements with SAP NW 7.01, SP06, Java patch 20

New internal handling of BICS calls

Parallel processing of queries (depending on number of connections in browser)

Two different execution modes depending on handling of variables:

BW variables are filled entirely from within the dashboard or default values

No variable popup is sent/necessary

Each connection (query) will only be called once the data is requested

Initialization time depends on the number of executed queries but not on number of connections

Mode can be set via a URL parameter (XC_MODE=X)

BW variables are filled from variable popup or URL parameters

A variable popup is sent (displayed) when necessary

All queries contained in the connections are instantiated (but not executed) BEFORE any component

is loaded

Query data is only read when necessary

Initialization time depends on number of connections in dashboard

Default mode (for compatibility)

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Agenda




Initialization Time






4. Appendix





• Leverage Common Semantic Layer

• Access to BW and non BW data, ability to

build queries on multi-source universe

• Simplified Authoring Workflow (dashboard

and queries designed from Dashboard

Design Tool)

• Multilingual and localized dashboards

• Relational sources only in BI 4.0

• Uses BOE for administration and

authorization with Monitoring and Auditing

• Easy Integration into Infoview or other

portals with OpenDoc API

Use this option for

• SAP and non-SAP data

• Use Semantic Layer common to all BI clients

• Multi lingual dashboards

• Better scalability (relational data sources

only in BI 4.0)

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Common design experience

across all data sources with

support for new semantic

layer

Improved authoring via query

integration and direct access

to semantic layer

Simpler

Authoring Experience

The new Semantic layer in BI4.0:


SAP BI 4.0

New System Monitoring

Serve data to large numbers of users

New dedicated Dashboards servers within SAP BI 4.0

Leverage platform cluster architecture for linear scalability

Query data cache based on user security profile

Reduce dependency on data source performance

Reduce hardware costs

Control resource consumption with built-in monitoring

Dashboard servers are monitored

Control user activity with built-in audit

Dashboard servers log user activity

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Further Information

SAP Public Web:

SAP Developer Network (SDN): www.sdn.sap.com

Business Process Expert (BPX) Community: www.bpx.sap.com

SAP BusinessObjects Community (BOC): boc.sap.com

White Papers on Xcelsius and NW connection:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/EoBVC

SDN Forum about Xcelsius: http://forums.sdn.sap.com/forum.jspa?forumID=30

White Paper on Xcelsius Servers on BOE XI 3.1 SP3:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/YYWLCw

Further technical information from the SAP Technology RIG

Webinars: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/ipnw-khnc

How to Guides: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/howtoguides.

Podcasts: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/sap-how-it-works-elearning.

You can also follow SAP Technology RIG on Facebook and Twitter

http://www.facebook.com/pages/SAP-RIG/119256894764191?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/saprig


Further Information

Related SAP Education and Certification Opportunities

http://www.sap.com/education/

Related Workshops/Lectures at SAP TechEd 2010

BI264, Building Dashboards that Rock with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard

Design (Xcelsius), Hands on Session

http://www.sdn.sap.com/

http://www.bpx.sap.com/

http://boc.sap.com/

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/EoBVC

http://forums.sdn.sap.com/forum.jspa?forumID=30

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/YYWLCw

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/ipnw-khnc



http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/howtoguides

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/sap-how-it-works-elearning
















http://www.sap.com/education/

24

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Appendix


Excel supported options



Live Office

Web Intelligence BI Services

Query As A Web Service

25



Supported Excel Functions

From the Dashboard

Design Tool 2008 Help

menu, search for

Supported Excel

Functions.


Appendix





Live Office



26




Xcelsius

Dashboard

BICS API

BEx Web Runtime

HTTP /

Web Services

Direct connector to BEx queries

• Consume BEx Queries and Views

• Support of all variable type (incl. personalization)

• No limitations in query features used

• BW authorization enforced

• Free characteristics list of values for filtering

SAP NetWeaver platform integration

• Dashboard authorization

• Favorites and Roles

• Transport capability (integrated into DW workbench)

• Translation of texts

• Access through SAP NetWeaver Portal using BEx iView

• Does not require BOE

• Requires Java stack : BI Java and Portal components

Available with SAP NetWeaver 7.01 SP5

Use this option for

• Pure SAP environment (no BOE)

• Administration from BW

• BW is the only data source

SAP NetWeaver BW




27


Appendix





Live Office





Live Office

Live Office retrieving data from Crystal

Reports (or Web Intelligence)

• Documents are typically scheduled to avoid

live access to data source

• Document instances used as data caches

within BOE

• Access to SAP R3/SAP ERP via Crystal

Reports


authorization



• Access to non BW data

Use this option for


• Existing BusinessObjects environment

• Scheduled report instances

• Access to R3 tables with Crystal

Reports

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

Data Sources

CRYSTAL REPORTS

Xcelsius

Dashboard

WEB INTELLIGENCE

UNIVERSE

28



Live Office


Appendix





Live Office



29





Data Sources

Xcelsius

Dashboard

WEB INTELLIGENCE

UNIVERSE


• Ability to combine data sources in WebI


• Access to BW and BEx queries via BICS in

BI 4.0


authorization



Use this option in BI 4.0 for

Access to BEx queries via BICS

Use this option in XI 3.1 for

• WebI calculation engine

• Combine data sources in WebI


Appendix





Live Office



30



Query as a Web Service

Universe Queries via Query as a Web

Service (QaaWS)

• Leverage Semantic Layer from Universe

• Live access to OLAP data sources

• Caching within BOE for relational sources

(XI 3.1 SP3)


authorization




Use this option for


• Better scalability (relational data sources

only) in XI 3.1


Data Sources

Xcelsius

Dashboard

UNIVERSE


SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP3

What’s New

Major improvement around scalability with the introduction of Query Caching

for QaaWS based dashboards

2 new Dashboards dedicated servers based on RAS21 architecture used for

Crystal Reports and Desktop Intelligence

No migration required

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Query as a Web Service


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