the right method & tools for building sap bi web cockpits at international paper dr. bjarne berg...

The right method & tools for building SAP BI web cockpits at International Paper

Dr. Bjarne Berg Joe McFerrinComerit Inc International Paper

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What We’ll Cover …

• Company Background & Basic Terminology• Our Tool options

SEM CPM Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s Visual Composer Publishing to the portal Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)

• Cockpit development at International Paper• What makes a good cockpit?• Which tool should you pick?• Learning Points at International Paper

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Who We Are - General Facts

•More than 100 years of paper and forest products industry experience

•World’s largest paper and forest products company with $25 billion in sales annually

•More than 83,000 employees worldwide

•Ranked 82nd in Fortune 500

•Number one in our industry in Fortune’s Most Admired Companies survey

•Founding member of the global business-to-business electronic marketplace for the forest products industry –forestexpress.com

•Wealth of experience developing products and finding innovative solutions for our customers

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Our Sales Around the Globe

N. America 78%

L. America 3%

Europe 11%

Asia Pacific 8%

IP facilities

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International Paper and SAP Reporting

• SAP History (LIS, SIS, CO-PA, ABAP Reporting)

• 1995 -- First Go Live on R3 with Financials and limited Logistics• 1997 – Implementation of R3 Logistics for Masonite division• 1999 – Implementation of R3 Logistics for Arizona Chemical division• 2001 – Implementation of R3 Logistics for Beverage Packaging division• 2003 – HCM (Human Resources) implemented in North America• 2004 -- Financials implemented globally at 375 + locations• -- Enterprise supply chain improvement initiative

• Experienced all of the traditional limitations and frustrations with traditional SAP reporting tools

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Who We AreLeveraging BWBusiness Driver

BW Report CenterQ&A

Who We AreLeveraging BWBusiness Driver

BW Report CenterQ&A

A company as large as International Paper has to consider data as a corporate asset…

The data must be uniformly accessed and have the same meaning…

SAP R/3 is our core system and the tight coupling to BW is hard to ignore..

We want to leverage our solution for future DSS development and do not want stand-alone custom solution that is non-scalable.

International Paper and SAP Reporting

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Where are we headed ? (Crawl, Walk, Run)

1999 - Received first SAP overview of BW 1.2 - Perceived as too immature for IP requirements

2000 - BW 2.0b released GA - Still could not justify separate purchase w/o APO as driver

2001 - BW 2.1c released GA, we implemented on NT platform - Justified pilot implementation along with APO as “futures” prototype - By year-end, adopted BW as part of enterprise information delivery strategy - Financials pilot for Capital Management (FI-AM, FI-GL)

2002 - Upgraded to BW 3.0B on Solaris- Beverage Packaging Sales Excellence live by year-end - Crystal Reports/BW integration utilized extensively for report delivery to the field

2003 - Upgraded to BW 3.1 with 3.2 content - Completed S&A expenditure tracking project - Began enterprise supply chain reporting project with a foundation strategy - Started design of a BW based Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) - Completed supply chain “early deployment” BW projects

2004 - Completed first release of enterprise supply chain reporting project - Laid foundation (master data, ODS layer) for a BW based EDW

- 48 Process Chains and 71 Data Targets (ODS Objects/Infocubes)

2005 - Upgraded to BW 3.5 and 2006 - Enabled BW Broadcaster and PDF functionality. Went live with IPG Containerboard Lead Team

Cockpit

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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 & KPIs

Context Exceptions/alerts Targets and thresholds Trends

Source Linked to systems Linked to plans Linked to BI systemsSources: Wayne Eckerson, 2005; Bjarne Berg 2006

Background and Terminology

• Many companies and people confuses the concepts of dashboards, scorecards, and cockpits. They vary in terms of purpose, usage, source, data, etc.

• Most BI systems fall in to the cockpits category

These are typical parameters, and some may be slightly different (i.e., some metrics in a cockpit may only be updated monthly).

However, such deviations should be exceptions.

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• Cockpit developement at International Paper• What makes a good cockpit?• Which tool should you pick?• Learning Points at International Paper

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Our options - SEM

• Higher-level navigation between views

• External data

• Graphical displays

Comparative/ benchmarking

Logical grouping of similar information

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Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM

The presentation layer in SAP Management cockpits has four layers:

• Cockpit – high-level overview (consists of walls)• Wall – a logical grouping of measures• Logical view – the display level of the cockpit; consists of frames• Frame – lowest level of individual measure display

These presentation layer object are already web enabled and integrate with the Portal. They also

provide built-in drill downs and navigation based on how you constructed your measures.

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When to Consider CPM – Management Cockpits

The management cockpits and web rendering closely integrate with the pre-delivered measures in SAP Measure Catalog. You also can add new measures through SAP Measure Builder.

By linking the higher-level measures, using Measure Trees, you can create true performance measures that are consistent throughout your cockpit and which also take care of most of the web navigation and drill downs in the cockpit. Navigation is built in to the management cockpit and you do not have to build customized links.

Consider SAP CPM when you have limited in-house web skills, or when measure consistency and rollups are very important.

Drawback: Users often complain that there are too many steps that they have to follow when drilling up and down within the

measures (rigid navigation that is hard to customize).

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Our options: Cockpits with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Web AD

• New items include improved tabstrip container in SAP NetWeaver 2004s for designing BI Web applications

• Reduces the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command wizards, Auto complete, and support for HTML tags

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Our options: Broadcast Cockpit Views Using Web AD

• In SAP NetWeaver 2004s, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI Web applications (i.e., cockpit views) to Enterprise Portal KM folders and via email in various formats (PDF, MHTML, HTML)

• Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.x) can precalculate BI Web applications to enhance performance

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Our options: Visual Composer

• Visual Composer is a Web-based modeling tool• You can use Visual Composer to develop SAP Enterprise Portal

content with no coding• Can create integrated view of OLTP and OLAP data sources

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Our options: Visual Composer

• No coding required to create great-looking Web-based cockpits• Take advantage of prebuilt analytic business packages

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Our options: Web Cockpit in the Portal

Integrate queries and Web applications into the portal through publishing, broadcasting, or Web calls

The portal can either receive designed pages passively or actively create communities, Web pages, collaboration rooms, or cockpits

Broadcasting

Publishing

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Our options: Web Cockpit in the Portal (cont.)

• The SEM-CPM cockpits are already part of the portal, so you can access them there

• iViews can build custom portal cockpits with iViews from many data sources (Web AD, BW, SEM, R/3, Web) and in many formats (graphs, pictures, figures, tables)

• iViews can also be interactive

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Link more documentation

Central navigation can change multiple views

Make multiple measures available

Source: SAP AG, 2005

Our options - Customized cockpit

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Our options: BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits

• BI Java SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP BI and non-SAP data.

• BI Java SDK provides access to relational and OLAP data sources using JDBC, XMLA, ODBO etc.

• Access to 200+ data sources using the JDBC drivers.

Source: SAP AG, 2005

Java programmers will recognize the

standard development kit's (SDK) main

libraries such as the abstract windowing

toolkit (AWT) and the GUI-oriented Swing object library as well

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Cockpit development at IP – Our Requirements

Managers needed a way to view high level information at a glance

Information was spread out between many different info-providers

Information needed to be easy accessible through difference business areas

IPG Containerboard Lead Team Cockpit

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Cockpit development at International Paper – The Layout

Each Tab Represents a different business area

Every row in the cockpit is a different query

“Phase II” represents KPI in future releases

“Pending” indicates the KPI in current development

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Cockpit development at International Paper – Jump-To

A jump-to is hyperlink that allow users to navigate to more detailed reports associated with that Key Figure.

Most of our key figures have jump-to links attached to them allowing the user to see more detailed information with out having to search for other reports.

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Cockpit development at International Paper – Pre-calculation

• This cockpit has over 18 queries, which need to be executed before the cockpit can be seen

• These queries run sequentially which makes this cockpit take over a hour to execute

• Due to this extensive amount of time required to execute this cockpit we needed to pre-calculate our results

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Cockpit development at International Paper

Pre-calculation Options We Used

Data – This is the option we used for most of our cockpits. It allows all data shown on the cockpit to be pre-calculated.

HTML for Web Browser – We used this option less often. It was only used if the cockpit’s HTML and CSS files were large

enough to cause a hindrance on performance.

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Cockpit development at International Paper – Our Requirements

KIWI Cockpit Report

• Business needed a way to pull data from several different multi-providers into one report

• Business also needed the flexibility to export, print, share and save report results

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Cockpit development at International Paper – Custom Navigation

• Since this cockpit need several different tools allow users to share, print and save their report values we created a toolbar menu for these options.

• Many of these options are also used on our main web template but needed to modified slightly to be used with this cockpit.

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Cockpit development at International Paper – The Design

• This cockpit design uses six queries to show over a hundred different key figures

• By using fewer queries we are able to improve performance and lower maintenance issues

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Cockpit development at International Paper – The Layout

• By having a constant number of rows per query and having fixed column width we were able to create seamless table design.

• This allows user to compare results with out having to navigate to different tables

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A Good Cockpit Is Simple

Majority of usage of cockpits are in user segments 1 and 5. You should use BI queries and OLAP for the other segments.

Note

Segment 1: Trackers - 37%Tracking -Characterized by low duration overall.

Segment 2: Reservers - 3%Low duration per page view.

Segment 3: Uncommitted - 10%

Characterized by long duration.

Complex decisions.

Segment 4: Info Gatherers - 4%

Concentrated in information areas. Rarely reach transaction areas.

Segment 5: Single-clickers - 32%

Visit homepage only.

Segment 6: Wanderers - 15%Very few, very random pages.Few hits, but long duration per page view.

Example source: Dr. Paul Strupp, Sun Microsystems

The average manager navigate in no more than 7 dimensions and only 2 levels deep (49 views). Therefore, the majority of users of cockpits need few, simple, but highly informative views. The other user community is best served by OLAP queries.

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Use of Color

Colors share a powerful connection with emotions, so you want to be conservative

Colors on opposite sides are complimentary and looks good together in a cockpit

Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in

1666 and identified 12 basic colors

Color definitions: Shade: base color mixed with blackTint: base color hue mixed with white Tone: base color + gray or another base color + a complementary color Source: Bob Marteal, Cornell Univ.

2005, Susan M. Raymond, WHS

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How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors?

This uses a single pure color with a number of tints and shades to provide variety

Pros: Extremely unified and harmonious; effective for establishing an overall mood

Cons: Can be dull because of the lack of variation and therefore can lose the interest of the viewer

Monochromatic scheme

Any three colors which are side by side on a color wheel,

Pros: Great selection of possible combinations makes this scheme versatile. The similarity makes the schemes harmonious with great results because it is soothing and restful.

Cons: The use of more than three colors can dilute the overall effect of this scheme.

Analogous scheme

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How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors? (cont.)

Pick any three colors on a triangle. This scheme is very appealing and well balanced.

Pros: Extremely stable, each color perfectly balances with the other. It is useful for presenting information in bold, decisive patterns.

Cons: The vibrancy may be too much and detract from the message.

Triadic scheme

Any two colors that are side by side on a color wheel

Pros: This scheme has more variety than a simple complementary color scheme

Cons: It is less vibrant and eye-catching; it is difficult to harmonize the colors

Split scheme

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A Colorful Example of What Not to Do

Colors that are so similar that not everyone will be able to

distinguish them (blends information)

Distracting color that breaks the color scheme and attracts

attention for no apparent reason

Split scheme background colors

that are unattractive

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Use of Real Estate – Symmetry, Graphs, and Colors

Consistent use of graphs is visually pleasing. Here are three types of graphs and a map.

Background colors are monochromatic scheme in blue

Bars and lines are limited to same color scheme with few additional colors

Symmetry is visually pleasing and makes the cockpit easy to read. Here we have 3 walls, 4 frames in the outer walls, and a central section.

Filling the white space by either enlarging the map, or adding a message board would improve this cockpit

Best Practice

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The Need for Speed

• BW 3.5 and SAP NetWeaver 2004s allows you to fill the resident memory of your server with pre-run results (cache). This provides faster response to the users, since the query result sets are accessed from memory instead of re-executed on the database side.

NetWeaver 2004s

IMPORTANT: Old Reporting Agent scenarios still run in SAP NetWeaver 2004s. However, Reporting Agent will not

be developed any further and is removed from SAP NetWeaver 2004s Workbench. In BI 7.0 you can only

reach it by transaction code REPORTING_AGENT

BW 3.5

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What SAP Tool Should I Use?

BW 3.x

Web AD

SAP Net-Weaver

2004s Web AD

Visual Composer

SAP SEM-CPM

Third-party

cockpitsJava SDK

toolsPortal iViews

Multidimensional Analysis (full) - - - -

Portal integration -

Information Broadcaster - - - - -

Formatted reporting - - - - - -

Graphical options (delivered) - -

Automatic code generation - - - - -

SAP integration

Direct support for non-BW data - - - -

Simplicity to use and learn - - - - -

There are many options and sometimes, the choice is based on what you are familiar with and whether you enjoy using new tools

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Learning Points – Pre-Calculation

Always consider pre-calculating the result set

• Cockpits usually use several different info-providers and queries to bring together information from different business areas and display this information on one screen.

• Queries will run sequentially. For example if you have ten queries that take two minutes for each to run, your cockpit will take twenty minutes to load.

• Don’t make your users wait for these results, pre-calculate your results when possible.

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Learning Points – Use SAP Built-in Functionality

Use SAP functionality where possible

Always check to see if SAP has functionality to fulfill your requirements before you custom develop it yourself

Try to use SAP supported languages (ABAP) before using other web based technologies (JavaScript, PHP)

If you must develop your own functionality then try and make it reusable in future cockpits

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Learning Points – Break Down Large Developments

Break up development into multiple phases

Before developing multiple cockpits start with one and get users feedback

This will allow users and developers to test and find what the best practice is for the company

Try to keep consistency between cockpits to minimize maintenance effort

the right method & tools for building sap bi web cockpits at international paper dr. bjarne berg...

Documents

international paper

sap overview of bw

sap reporting slide

years of paper

meaning sap r3

sap reporting sap history

sap netweaver

implementation of r3