Sappress Inside Sap Business Objects Explorer

Ingo Hilgefort
Inside SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

®
Bonn � Boston
340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 3 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

Contents at a Glance
1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — One Piece of

Your Business Intelligence Puzzle ............................................ 19
2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Installation and

Deployment . ........................................................................... 39
3 Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ..................................... 85
4 Implementation Relevant Topics ............................................. 125
5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Usage Scenarios ................. 189
6 Advanced Topics . ..................................................................... 247
7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Outlook .............................. 299

Contents
Foreword .................................................................................................... 11
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................... 13
Preface ....................................................................................................... 15
1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — One Piece of

Your Business Intelligence Puzzle ............................................. 19
1.1 A Short History of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ........................ 19

1.1.1 The First Start to More Insight — Intelligent Question .... 20
1.1.2 Intelligent Search ............................................................ 22
1.1.3 First Release of Polestar .................................................. 23
1.1.4 Polestar Becomes SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ............ 24
1.1.5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Continues to Evolve .......... 25
1.2 Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ............................ 26
1.3 Introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Business
Intelligence Portfolio ................................................................... 30
1.3.1 Comparison of Tools and Requirements . ......................... 35
1.4 Summary ..................................................................................... 37
2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Installation and

Deployment .............................................................................. 39
2.1 Deployment Options for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . .............. 39

2.1.1 Deployment Options Without SAP NetWeaver BWA . ..... 40
2.1.2 Deployment Options in Combination with
SAP NetWeaver BWA . ................................................... 41
2.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Software Components
and Installation Steps .................................................................. 45
2.2.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ......................................... 45
2.2.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer – Accelerated Version ....... 47
2.2.3 SAP BusinessObjects Open Accelerator ........................... 48
2.2.4 Installation Material, Software Download, and
Important SAP Notes ...................................................... 48

Contents
2.3 Data Connectivity Options . ......................................................... 54

2.3.1 Data Connectivity Options Without
SAP NetWeaver BWA . .................................................... 55
2.3.2 Data Connectivity Options for SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer Accelerated Version . ........................................ 56
2.4 SAP NetWeaver BWA Configuration Steps ................................... 59
2.5 SAP NetWeaver BusinessWarehouse (BW) Configuration Steps ..... 62
2.5.1 Enabling SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
Accelerated Version ........................................................ 62
2.5.2 Configuring Global Settings in SAP NetWeaver
BW Accelerator Index Wizard ......................................... 63
2.6 BusinessObjects Enterprise Configuration Steps ........................... 64
2.6.1 Configuring SAP Authentication for SAP
BusinessObjects Explorer . ............................................... 65
2.6.2 Configuration of SAP Authentication for SAP
2.6.3 Configuring TREX Parameters for SAP
2.6.4 Configuring BusinessObjects Enterprise
Security Profiles .............................................................. 74
2.6.5 Information Space Security . ............................................ 81
2.7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Accelerated Version —
Known Limitations . ..................................................................... 82
2.8 Summary ..................................................................................... 83
3 Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ........................................ 85
3.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Quick Basics ............................. 85

3.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BWA —
Quick Basics ................................................................................ 105
3.3 Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer with
Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets ....................................................... 119
3.4 Summary ..................................................................................... 123
4 Implementation Relevant Topics ............................................... 125
4.1 Support for MultiProvider ............................................................ 125

4.2 Support for SAP NetWeaver BW Queries ..................................... 143

Contents
4.3 Restricted and Calculated Key Figures .......................................... 151

4.4 Calculated Measures .................................................................... 159
4.5 Facet Groups ............................................................................... 162
4.6 Leveraging SAP NetWeaver BW Hierarchies ................................. 174
4.7 Data-Level Security and Filtering Information Spaces ................... 179
4.7.1 Using BI Authorizations . ................................................. 179
4.7.2 Using Data Filtering in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ...... 181
4.8 Known Limitations and Possible Workarounds ............................. 186
4.9 Summary ..................................................................................... 188
5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Usage Scenarios .................. 189
5.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Health Care ............................ 189

5.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Retail . .................................... 198
5.3 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Insurance . .............................. 205
5.4 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Finance . ................................. 211
5.5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Procurement . ......................... 221
5.6 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Customer Service .................... 227
5.7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Sales ....................................... 234
5.8 Summary ..................................................................................... 245
6 Advanced Topics ........................................................................ 247
6.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in the Cloud .................................. 247

6.2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer “Excel Plug-In” .............................. 251
6.3 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer on the iPhone ............................... 254
6.4 Using Index Designer for Open Accelerator . ................................ 270
6.5 Summary ..................................................................................... 295
7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Outlook . .............................. 297
The Author ................................................................................................. 301

Index .......................................................................................................... 303

With SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, you can give your users the data with
the speed they need to get the information required to make informed busi
ness decisions.
1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer —

One Piece of Your Business
Intelligence Puzzle
In this chapter, we will provide you with an overview of SAP BusinessObjects

Explorer and share the high-level functionality of the tool itself and explain the
typical user audience. In the second part of the chapter, we will show how SAP
BusinessObjects Explorer complements the other tools in the SAP BusinessObjects
Business Intelligence (BI) tools portfolio and where you should consider using SAP
BusinessObjects Explorer and where other tools may be better suited.
1.1 A Short History of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer provides users with a unique but simple and easy-
to-learn user experience. This tremendous ease of use — for example, any func-
tion can be used with a left mouse click (no right mouse click) — resulted in a
successful product launch and has positioned it for adoption in a large user base.
With SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, users have a solution that delivers the speed
and ease of use that both companies — SAP and BusinessObjects — were trying
to deliver for a long time. Before going into more details on SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer, however, let’s go back several years and see how the tools have evolved
over time to understand the overall goal and strategy behind SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer.
19

1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — One Piece of Your Business Intelligence Puzzle
1.1.1 The First Start to More Insight — Intelligent Question

In 2005, BusinessObjects and Crystal Decisions (purchased by BusinessObjects in
2003) had offered a combined Business Intelligence portfolio for almost two years.
At this point, business intelligence software had a fundamental problem to solve:
how to reach more users and provide them with the right information. As a cus-
tomer, you could argue that this was simply a problem that the company wanted
to solve so it could sell more software licenses, which is certainly partly true. But
in addition, customer surveys at that time showed that customers made business
decisions without having all of the information, and that, therefore, a majority of
important decisions were made based on a “gut feel.” So, based on this informa-
tion, a new project was started with the goal of providing casual users with the
right information and the right tools to get it.
Early in the project, the idea to use our natural language and common words and
terms to deliver the right data to the user was born, and the idea of a questioncen
tric business intelligence tool was produced, which resulted in the Intelligent Question
product. The main goal of this product was to provide the user with a simple and
easy-to-use user interface (UI) that allowed them to ask questions using commonly
used terms (see Figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1 Intelligent Question
20

A Short History of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 1.1
Intelligent Question focused on the user experience and allowed a user to ask
questions using common business terms and then provide the corresponding data
for further analysis. However, the shortcomings of Intelligent Question were two-
fold. First, all the possible definitions had to be defined by an administrator using
the semantic layer from BusinessObjects (see Figure 1.2).
Show me
my top
Complainers
Customers Based on Products

Number of Calls,
Length of Call, or
Resolution Time?
Show me
my top
Call Agents
Universe = Call-Center.unv
Stores Context = Complaints Employees
Figure 1.2 Universes for Intelligent Question
Second, the product had performance problems with large amounts of data. How-
ever, it was only the first attempt to reach out to a larger audience with a business
intelligence that focused on questions being asked on top of a pool of data, rather
than the classic tools that customers were used to.
21

1.1.2 Intelligent Search

In parallel to Intelligent Question, a second product evolved, Intelligent Search.
Here, the focus leveraged the existing content of the Business Intelligence land-
scape and provided insight into reports, analytics, and the content of those reports.
Compared to Intelligent Question, the major difference in Intelligent Search was
the option for the user to use any words to search for the data (see Figure 1.3).
Figure 1.3 Intelligence Search
Intelligent Search was the first attempt to combine a freeform natural search term
with Business Intelligence, and to provide a user with the information that is avail-
able in his BI landscape. Not only did Intelligent Search provide the results based
on the existing reports and analytics, it also made suggestions for new reports
based on the searched terms and the metadata in the form of Universes avail-
able in the BI system (see Figure 1.4). These new options became available after
BusinessObjects acquired the necessary technology to analyze unstructured data
from the company Inxight in 2007.
22

Figure 1.4 Intelligent Search — Suggested Queries
1.1.3 First Release of Polestar

In parallel to the search products, the first project became known as Polestar and
kicked off at the end of 2006. Polestar combined the typical search workflows
with typical business intelligence technologies, such as data visualization. Market
data and customer feedback showed that there was still a huge untapped user base
that was either just consuming BI without really leveraging or using the informa-
tion, or was not using any BI tools at all. With the first release of Polestar on the
BusinessObjects XI Release 2 platform at the end of 2007, the combination of a
typical search workflow with business intelligence technology was achieved and
the product was successful.
Polestar combined a simple and easy-to-use UI (see Figure 1.5) with the capability
to use search technology on top of available data sources and in that way it could
provide a totally new user experience to a much broader audience of information
consumers. The shortcomings of the initial release were mainly around a tight
integration with the actual BusinessObjects Enterprise platform and the amount
of data that the product was able to handle. Customers had to install Polestar
23

separately from the BusinessObjects Enterprise platform and the amount of data
was limited.
Figure 1.5 Polestar UI
1.1.4 Polestar Becomes SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

With the official acquisition of BusinessObjects by SAP in early 2008, the next
release of Polestar became clearly focused on SAP NetWeaver BW as one of the
main data sources for data exploration. With this release, the functionality of Pole-
star evolved around the support of SAP specific metadata, but most important,
Polestar was combined with the technology of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator,
which opened Polestar up to a much larger data volume than ever before. The
combination of Polestar with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator (BWA) provided the
simplicity and performance customers were looking for.
24

In addition to the combination of Polestar with BWA, the combined teams

improved the integration between these two technologies to leverage topics like
BI authorizations, unit conversions, and support for MultiProviders as part of the
overall deployments. Polestar was renamed to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and
became part of BusinessObjects XI 3.1 at the end of 2008.
1.1.5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Continues to Evolve

By the beginning of 2009, the teams had delivered a great integration of BWA with
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer. Not only did the teams continuously improve the
product, but they also created a version of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer offered
via cloud computing. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer as an on-demand offering
made it possible for customers to upload their own data, leverage the functional-
ity of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, and explore their own data in just a few sec-
onds. The second great innovation, which was also the Demo Jam Winner at SAP
TechED 2009 in Vienna, Austria, is an SAP BusinessObjects Explorer version for
the iPhone, where a user can use the simplicity of the iPhone combined with the
great user experience of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to receive valuable infor-
mation via a mobile device.
At the end of 2009 and early 2010, the combination of BWA with SAP Business
Objects Explorer became even more interesting because the toolset of SAP
BusinessObjects Data Service was added to the architecture. This will allow cus-
tomers to upload any data into BWA and leverage the compelling user experience
of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer not only in combination with SAP NetWeaver
BW based data, but they can also load any data via SAP BusinessObjects Data Ser-
vice into BWA and explore the data using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer.
This brief history of the product development and evolution has provided use-
ful background information about the goals and the ideas behind SAP Business
Objects Explorer and how it became what it is today. Now let’s continue with a
short overview and some key features.
25

1.2 Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
In this section, we will look at some of the basics of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
and learn how it can add value to your overall Business Intelligence landscape.
The research in the BI area conducted by BusinessWeek in the year 2007 indicated
that many business decisions were made without all of the necessary information
(see Figure 1.6).
Information is Not Reaching Business Users
Information available for ‘Instinct-Feel’ Decisions

important business decisions
All of the time 3%
Always just the
right amount 75% of the time 16%
Usually 41% 22%
too little 50% of the time 42%
38% 25% of the time 36%

Usually
too much Never 3%
Aware of bad decisions made

due to insufficient information
Yes
77% 2007 BusinessWeek Research Services Base: 675 US and
European business executives and managers. Economist,
33% No Enterprise Knowledge Workers Study; November, 2007
© SAP 2009 / Page
Figure 1.6 BusinessWeek Research Results
This is a typical shortcoming of classic Business Intelligence tools. Classic Business

Intelligence tools report the status quo of a certain situation and are not created
to report a relationship inside the data, nor are they designed to uncover a root
cause for a typical situation. Not only do these results show that users are miss-
ing information, but they also show that people are knowingly making decisions
without all the necessary details.
26

Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 1.2
This is exactly the situation that SAP BusinessObjects Explorer tries to address.
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer provides the consumer with a large set of data in
a simple-designed UI. The tool combines for the first time the needed speed and
performance with the amount of data that is required to make informed decisions.
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer provides the user with the simplicity of search (see
Figure 1.7) that allows them to analyze data and relationships in the data in totally
new ways that would not be possible in classic business intelligence tools.
Figure 1.7 Information Space — Search
The overall simplicity of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is in giving the user the
functionality to see the actual data along with the ability to use data visualization
technology to identify much faster trends, outliers, or contributions so that they
can analyze the data better and faster than ever before (see Figure 1.8).
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is leveraged by a large portion of the typical infor-

mation consumer audience. This is one of the main goals of SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer: to provide every person with the needed information to perform his
everyday tasks and make required decisions, which was another shortfall of clas-
sic business intelligence tools. In the past, only 20%-25% of the users in a com-
pany were able to use business intelligence and receive the necessary information.
This small percentage wasn’t necessarily based on customers not investing in the
required software; it was based on the complexity of the tools, particularly the
classic business intelligence tools, which are too complex for many consumers.
27

Figure 1.8 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer UI
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is created for the casual user who requires the
information to reach decisions, especially decisions that cannot wait until the IT
department has reviewed the report specifications and created the actual report
and analysis. In those situations SAP BusinessObjects Explorer provides a viable
alternative to fill the gap of self-service reporting and analysis driven by a typical
information consumer (see Figure 1.9).
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is a tool designed for the Information Consumer

and for the management and leadership team; it is not a tool for the typical power
user and Business Analyst. The tool does not offer features that a Business Ana-
lyst would look for, such as a typical slice and dice navigation and the capabil-
ity to navigate between different hierarchies; instead, the tool is designed as the
most simple tool to use. For example, the user can perform any function in SAP
BusinessObjects Explorer with a simple click; the tool does not have any context
menus or right mouse click navigation.
28

Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 1.2
Mapping The Right Tool to The Right Scenario

Supporting an Enterprise BI Strategy
Professionally OLAP AD-HOC PRODUCTION

EXPLORATION DASHBOARDS
Informed ANALYSIS QRA REPORTING
Executives,
Managers Crystal
Explorer Reports
Xcelsius
Information
Consumers
Web
Intelligence
Voyager
BEx
Business
Analyzer
Analysts (Pioneer)
Technically
Capable Full Interactive Experience, Responsiveness Limited
© SAP AG 2009. All rights reserved. / Page 3
Figure 1.9 The Right Tool for the Right Job
With the combination of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and SAP NetWeaver BW

Accelerator and the new option to also accelerate non-SAP data sources by using
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, the number of opportunities where SAP
BusinessObjects Explorer can help you provide your users with the right informa-
tion at the right time are now even larger than before.
Value Add Summary

Overall, the added values of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer combined with SAP
NetWeaver BW Accelerator are:
EE Easy access to the required information that users need to make decisions
EE Access to a large amount of data and not just a small snapshot
EE Reduced need for IT involvement for creating reports and analytics
EE Faster turnaround on critical information
EE Empowers users by providing access to information on the fly and allowing them to
analyze data and find root causes
29

In this section, you learned about the value that SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
and SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator can deliver as part of your overall business
intelligence strategy. (In Chapter 3, we will learn how to use SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer and how to uncover relationships in your data.) In the next section, we
will look at the overall business intelligence portfolio offered by SAP Business
Objects and see which role SAP BusinessObjects Explorer plays as part of a BI
suite offering.
1.3 Introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects

Business Intelligence Portfolio
We just learned about the value you can gain from using SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer and how SAP BusinessObjects Explorer can provide more users with
needed information. Now, we will look at the overall SAP BusinessObjects BI port-
folio and see which types of scenarios SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is designed
for as part of the overall BI solution offering.
In Figure 1.10, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is only one element of your overall
BI solution. In addition to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, you have the choice of
Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and in the near future, Pioneer which
is the successor for BusinessExplorer Analzyer. Each of these tools is designed
with specific user types and usage scenarios in mind — none of these tools will
fulfill all of your requirements by themselves, however. This is an important fact
to recognize, because your BI landscape will need to contain more than a single
tool, and the combination of requirements and user audience types will help you
decide which tool you should use to fulfill the need.
Figure 1.11 shows the BI tools parallel to the growing skill set of your audiences.
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, on the far left, requires the least amount of skills
and Pioneer, the most sophisticated tool, requires the highest degree of skills from
the user. In Figure 1.12, you can see an overview of the BI tools along a set of
functional capabilities.
30

Introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Portfolio 1.3
SAP NetWeaver Portal Any Portal, Any Destination
Information Crystal
Web Intelligence Xcelsius
Access Reports
SAP BEx Explorer
SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise
Data
SAP NetWeaver Quality
SAP NetWeaver MDM ERP
BW Accelerator
Financials
Operations
SAP NetWeaver Human Resources
Data Business Warehouse Corporate Services
Foundation
CRM SCM
Data Integrator Data Quality
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services SRM PLM
3rd-Party Databases and Applications SAP Business Suite
Figure 1.10 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform
SAP
Crystal Web
BusinessObjects Xcelsius Pioneer
Reports Intelligence
Explorer
• Search and • Pre-built report • Easy to use data • Online and • Advanced
explore data from static to visualizations offline reporting analysis
• Common parameterized • Compelling capabilities capabilities
“Google” style layouts interactive • Powerful ad- • Full hierarchy
user experience • Operational dashboarding hoc reporting awareness
• Limited analysis reporting type of analytics capabilities
functionality • Limited
advanced
analysis
capabilities
User Skill Set
Information Consumer
Executive/Management
Business Analyst
Figure 1.11 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio by User Skills
31

Business-
Crystal Web
Xcelsius Objects Pioneer
Reports Intelligence
Explorer
Highly Formatted
Layout (print focused)
Parameterized/
Dynamic Layout
Self Service/
Free Form Layout
Hierarchical
Awareness
Dashboarding &
Visualization
Interoperability
Guided
Navigation
Figure 1.12 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio – Capability Matrix
Following this capability matrix you can evaluate which tool is best suited for
certain types of requirements. For example, the requirement to deliver an exter-
nal income statement for your company would be fulfilled best by using Crystal
Reports according to the category of highly formatted layout. A requirement to
provide the sales force with weekly and monthly sales revenue numbers based on
a set of dimensions could be fulfilled by several tools. For example, Web Intelli-
gence could be a good fit based on the high degree of self-service reporting, Xcel-
sius could be a good fit based on the dashboarding and visualization capabilities,
and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer could be a good choice based on good ranking
in both of those categories.
In such a situation, to determine which tool to use, you would consider who your
audience is and what type of requirement they are trying to fulfill. In Figure 1.13,
the BI tools are grouped by their main user audiences.
32

Ad-Hoc Dashboarding Discovery

Enterprise Advanced
Query & & Data &
Reporting Analysis
Analysis Visualization Exploration
Information
Consumers
SAP
Crystal Business
Reports Objects
Web Explorer
Intelligence Xcelsius
Executive &
Managers
Pioneer
Business
Analysts
Figure 1.13 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio by Target Group
When speaking of the main user audience, the tool is designed with these user
types in mind. There is not a single tool that covers the complete bandwidth of
user audiences. This matrix is not only relevant for your selection of the right tool,
but it also provides you with guidance on the future direction of the tools. For
example, Pioneer is designed as a tool for a Business Analyst and will provide typi-
cal OLAP client features and functions like a slice and dice navigation, exchanging
of hierarchies, and currency conversion, whereas, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
is designed for the Information Consumer who doesn’t require such features and
functions. The most important message from Figure 1.13, however, is that no sin-
gle tool today provides a complete solution, and no single tool in the near future
will provide a complete solution for all your user types.
Figure 1.14 illustrates a decision tree that provides guidance on how to use the
BI tool selection by simply asking a set of simple questions and, based on the
answers, following the path to the best possible recommendation for your BI
33

tool selection. Of course, such a simplistic decision tree can never replace real
experiences with the tools or real-world experience in delivering a complete BI
landscape, so always consider reaching out to BI consultants from SAP or from
SAP partners.
Is the user
answering a regular
repeatable and structured
YES business problem
NO
or question?
Do you require
a highly formatted or Do you
legally predefined know all needed
YES layout? elements to answer
the question? YES
NO
Crystal Reports
NO
BusinessObjects Do you require

Explorer hierarchical YES
Do you require navigation?

YES hierarchical NO
navigation?
Is your
audience a Business
Do
Analyst/Power
you require User type?
Is your
audience a Business dashboarding
Analyst/Power functionality or strong
data visualiz-
User type?
ation? NO YES NO
NO NO
Web Intelligence Pioneer/BEx Web Intelligence

Analyzer
Does the Does the
user require user require
full flexibility in full flexibility in
changing the changing the
report? report?
YES NO YES YES NO YES
Pioneer/ Crystal Reports Web Intelligence Xcelsius Crystal Reports Web Intelligence
BEx Analyzer
Figure 1.14 SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio – Decision Tree
After reviewing Figures 1.11 to 1.14, you should have a better understanding of
where SAP BusinessObjects Explorer fits into the overall BI landscape and where
other tools might be a better fit. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer provides self-ser-
vice reporting and data visualization capabilities to a large audience of information
consumers. It is especially able to deliver simple search functionality on top of your
corporate data. In this way, it provides a complete new user experience, by allow-
ing you to start the reporting and analysis workflow with a simple question.
34

1.3.1 Comparison of Tools and Requirements

To conclude our overview, let’s review the distinctions between the tools by looking
at some concrete requirements and defining which tool is the best fit for each. The
following is a list of requirements grouped by business area in a typical company.
EE Financial Reporting and Analysis Requirements

EE For specific content (like an income statement or a balance sheet) that is
being created, the design needs to be layout focused and the actual printing
of the report is a very high priority.
EE The consumer of the reports should be able to call the content with real time
and historical data.
EE Sales Reporting and Analysis Requirements
EE Users need the capability to change the view of the actual content.
Example: Changing a weekly sales statistics broken down by country into a
weekly sales statistics broken down by sales region and quarter.
EE Users should be able to perform scenario-based analysis, where the user is
able to see the data but also can influence certain factors and see the impact
on the overall numbers.
Example: “What-if-analysis” in a sales planning workflow.
EE Human Resource Reporting and Analysis Requirements
EE The content needs to be presented in a highly textual manner with a strong
focus on the layout.
EE The content needs to leverage data from several different sources (SAP and
non-SAP) and present it in a single report.
EE Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis
Requirements
EE The reports and analytics need to allow for further navigation to either more
detailed-oriented reports or for further analysis of the summarized data.
EE The consumption of the reports and analytics needs to be very simple and
easy to use, and critical information needs to be identifiable right away.
35

These are typical requirements in a business intelligence project. Now let’s take
a look at which of these requirements are best suited for SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer and which other tools may fit the requirements better.
Fulfilled Requirements by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

The consumer of the reports should be able to call the content with real time and
historical data.
Users need the capability to change the view of the actual content. Example: chang-
ing a weekly sales statistics broken down by country into a weekly sales statistics
broken down by sales region and quarter.
The content needs to leverage data from several different sources (SAP and non-SAP)
and present it in a single report.
EE Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis Requirements
The consumption of the reports and analytics needs to be very simple and easy to use
and critical information needs to be identifiable right away.
Unfulfilled Requirements by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

For specific content (like an income statement or a balance sheet) that is being cre-
ated, the design needs to be layout focused and the actual printing of the report is a
very high priority.
This requirement is best fulfilled by using Crystal Reports.
Users should be able to perform scenario-based analysis in which the user is able to see
the data and influence certain factors and see the impact on the overall numbers.
Example: “What-if-analysis” in a sales planning workflow.
This requirement is best fulfilled by using Xcelsius because SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer is not able to provide “What-if” scenario capabilities, but Xcelsius allows
you to create such capabilities as part of your dashboard.
36

Summary 1.4

The content needs to be presented in a highly textual manner with a strong focus on
the layout.
This requirement is best fulfilled by using Crystal Reports because Crystal Reports of-
fers complete control over the layout and design of your report, and you can create
print-focused reports. SAP BusinessObjects Explorer does not provide such function-
ality because it is focused on exploring and searching inside the data.
EE Executive Leadership and Management Reporting and Analysis Requirements
The reports and analytics need to allow for further navigation to either more detailed-
oriented reports or for further analysis of the summarized data.
SAP BusinessObjects Explorer offers the option to use the data from SAP Business
Objects Explorer in Web Intelligence but does not allow for an actual contextual navi-
gation at this point in time. This requirement can be fulfilled by Web Intelligence,
Xcelsius, or Pioneer.
As you can see, based on the requirements that can be fulfilled with SAP Business
Objects Explorer and those that are better suited for other tools such as Crystal
Reports, Xcelsius, Web Intelligence, or Pioneer, you can use SAP BusinessObjects
Explorer to provide analytics content to a large audience of information consum-
ers. It is well suited for cases in which users are trying to find the root cause for a
given situation, or where no classic BI tool is sufficient.
Reporting and Analytics with SAP BusinessObjects

A more detailed distinction based on requirements and user audiences of all tools from
the SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio is part of the book Reporting and Analytics with
SAP BusinessObjects, available from SAP PRESS.
1.4 Summary
In this chapter, we reviewed how SAP BusinessObjects Explorer fits into the over-
all BI portfolio and which use cases are a good fit for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
and which requirements may be better served by other tools.
In the next chapter, we will learn about the typical deployment and configura-
tion scenarios of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in combination with your SAP
landscape.
37

Index
0BI_ALL, 108, 130 BWA, 24, 25, 59, 63, 105, 113, 126,
132, 136, 139, 147, 148, 156, 162, 163,
172, 174, 177, 179, 187, 270, 277, 295
A BW queries, 57, 143
BW query, 57, 132, 143, 144, 146, 150,
Access Levels, 80
168
Activate, 109, 135, 156, 175
Add Calculation, 159
Add New Filter, 184 C
Add Principals, 75, 78, 79
Advanced configuration, 73 Calculated Keyfigure, 108, 151, 153,
Applications, 72, 74, 78, 79, 81 156, 157, 159
Application Server, 66 Calculated Measure, 159, 161, 162
Authentication, 64, 65, 71 Calculated Measures, 159
Authentication Mode, 170 Calculation, 159, 236, 241
Authorization, 130 Calculations, 162
Authorization group, 107, 130, 131, 180 Capability Matrix, 32
Authorizations, 107, 141, 147, 179 Characteristic, 83, 88, 130
Automatically Import Users, 69 Characteristics, 129, 138, 143, 158, 167,
172, 187
Cloud, 247, 249, 251
B Cloud computing, 25
Comparison, 98, 116, 202, 208, 228
BIA Index Parameter, 63
Compounded characteristics, 90
BI Authorization, 25, 82, 107, 130, 147,
Configuration, 59, 62, 64
179, 180, 187
Configure, 253
Bookmark, 95, 204
Configure Excel File, 120, 182
Business Analyst, 28, 33
Connection, 169
Business decisions, 20
Connectivity, 54
BusinessObjects, 20
Contribution, 260
BusinessObjects Enterprise, 64, 65, 74,
Contributions, 27
80, 85, 107, 120, 123
Conversion, 132, 155
BusinessObjects Explorer, 19, 196
Conversions, 82, 108, 131
Business terms, 21
Correlation, 202, 224, 225, 243
Business Warehouse Accelerator, 86,
Crystal Decisions, 20
110, 137, 141, 148, 157, 292
Crystal Reports, 32, 36, 37
BW, 62
Currency, 82, 108
Customer Service, 227
303

Index
D Facet Groups, 90, 162, 168, 173

Facet navigation, 105
Dashboarding, 32 Facets, 94, 95, 138, 142, 149, 158, 241,
Data Connectivity, 54 260, 266
Data Filtering, 181 Filter, 96, 97, 99, 101, 133, 134, 147,
Data Services Designer, 277, 278, 288 173, 181, 193, 195, 206, 208, 215, 239,
Data Services Repository, 273 243, 249, 266, 268
Data visualization, 34, 96 Filter Data, 147
Decision Tree, 34 Filtered value, 97
Deployment, 39, 40, 41, 43, 46 Filtering, 179
Descriptions, 187 Filters, 95, 133, 141, 209, 230, 241, 264
Designer, 273 Filter Selection, 97
Dimension, 88, 100, 116, 162, 200, 209 Finance, 211
Dimensions, 190, 220 Find, 205, 206, 230, 241
Display Attributes, 82, 187
Drill down, 214, 215, 222, 228, 231,
236, 264 G
DSO, 57
Global settings, 62
E
H
Email, 95, 103, 204, 218, 227, 241
Entitlement System, 67 Healthcare, 189, 197
Excel Spreadsheets, 86 Heatmap, 116, 209, 237
Exception aggregation, 82, 187 Hide, 108, 121
Exclude, 133 Hiearchical view, 178
Exclude PartProvider, 132 Hierarchies, 109, 132, 173, 174, 176,
Explorer, 72, 75, 81 179, 187
Export, 95, 103, 196, 204, 218, 227, Hierarchy, 168, 173, 175, 176, 177, 178
250, 253 Hierarchy Exploration, 178
Hierarchy node authorizations, 187
F
I
Facet, 88, 97, 100, 111, 159, 161, 168,
173, 177, 179, 192, 198, 200, 202, 206, Image, 104
209, 230, 249, 262 Implementation, 125
Facet group, 172 Import, 280
Facet Group, 90, 95, 96, 165, 166, 168, Index Designer, 270, 288
173 Index Now, 94, 113, 121, 139, 150, 294
InfoArea, 146, 174
304

Index
InfoCube, 110, 126, 132 M

InfoCubes, 57
InfoObject, 133, 174 Manage Spaces, 86, 110, 120, 137, 141,
InfoProvider, 106, 107, 109, 126, 141, 148, 157, 163, 170, 182, 183
146 Measure, 202, 208, 209, 214, 216, 218,
InfoProviders, 133, 142 224, 225, 235
Information consumer, 27, 28, 33 Measures, 88, 111, 138, 149, 158, 159,
Information Space, 27, 56, 80, 81, 83, 161, 164, 175, 183, 190, 200, 228, 231
86, 87, 92, 93, 94, 96, 103, 105, 110, Message server, 66
113, 120, 121, 126, 137, 139, 142, 148, Microsoft™ Excel, 40, 56, 119, 120, 123,
150, 158, 159, 162, 166, 172, 173, 177, 247, 252
179, 181, 183, 185, 191, 193, 198, 205, Mobile, 254
211, 218, 221, 227, 234, 247, 249, 253, MultiProvider, 57, 125, 126, 129, 130,
256, 270, 294 132, 133, 136, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143,
Information Spaces, 85, 86, 181, 190, 147, 154, 155, 163
256 MultiProviders, 25, 125
InfoSets, 57
InfoView, 79
Installation, 39, 45, 46, 48, 270 N
Insurance, 205
Navigational attributes, 147
Intelligent Question, 20, 21, 22
Navigational Attributes, 174
Intelligent Search, 22
Navigation status, 103
iPhone, 25, 254, 270
New Dimension, 286
iPod, 254
O
K
Objects, 87, 88, 110, 138, 142, 148, 157,
Keydate, 187
164, 175, 183, 294
Key figure, 130, 143
OLAP Universe, 162
Key Figures, 108, 129, 131, 132, 149,
On-demand, 25
155, 158
Options, 68
Other Values, 115
Outliers, 27
L
Label, 121
Language, 64, 187 P
Limitations, 82, 186
PartProvider, 126, 128, 139, 141, 142,
Logon group, 66
155
305

Index
Percentage, 99, 103, 116, 117, 209, 243, S

260
Performance, 56, 134 Sales, 234
Personalization, 92, 179, 181, 184, 186, SAP Authentication, 65, 68, 70, 81, 107,
295 130, 136, 141, 148, 156
Pie chart, 117 Options, 68
Pioneer, 33, 37 SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator, 44
Polestar, 23, 247 SAP BusinessObjects Accelerator Index
POLESTAR_SYSTEM, 63 Designer, 44, 48, 82, 270, 274, 277
Process Variables, 156 SAP BusinessObjects Data Service, 25
Procurement, 221 SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, 29,
Properties, 72, 81, 87, 110, 120 44, 48, 270, 273, 277, 292, 295, 298
SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise, 40, 41,
43, 45, 46, 47
Q SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, 19, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37,
Queries, 143
39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 53, 55,
Query, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 170
56, 70, 82, 85, 92, 95, 103, 105, 107,
Query Snapshot, 187
119, 120, 123, 125, 131, 136, 139, 141,
Question, 206, 241
143, 146, 147, 148, 156, 170, 179, 181,
187, 189, 190, 197, 198, 205, 211, 218,
220, 221, 224, 227, 228, 230, 234, 235,
R 236, 241, 245, 247, 248, 251, 252, 253,
Reference Information Space, 184 254, 270, 298
Reliability, 56 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer
Repository, 273 Accelerated Version, 56, 57, 62, 63, 64,
Requirements, 35, 36, 37 70, 80, 82, 292
Restricted Key Figures, 108, 151, 152, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ñ
156, 157, 159 Accelerated Version, 39, 41, 47, 53
Retail, 198 SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP,
Roadmap, 299 43
Role Import, 69 SAP BusinessObjects Integration for SAP
RSDDTPS, 63, 105, 126, 139, 146, 154, Solutions, 41, 46, 47, 65
174, 180 SAP BusinessObjects Open Accelerator,
RSDDTREX_ADMIN_MAINTAIN, 62 44, 48
RSECADMIN, 130 SAP Client ID, 71
RSR_QPROV_CHECK, 144 SAP ERP, 44
SAP NetWeaver BusinessWarehouse, 44,
47, 62
306

Index
SAP NetWeaver BW, 24, 66, 81, 90, 119, Trex_host, 73

174, 179 TREX hosts, 72
SAP NetWeaver BWA, 85, 119 TREX parameters, 64
SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, 24, 29, Trex_port, 73
39, 41, 44, 47, 48, 54, 56, 57, 85, 92,
123, 125, 151, 270, 295, 298
SAP System ID, 71 U
Scheduling, 92, 112
Unit, 108
SE38, 62, 144
Unit Conversions, 132
Search, 256
Universe, 56, 80, 83, 85, 87, 90, 92,
Security, 179
162, 168, 170, 181, 183, 247, 277
Security profiles, 64, 74
Universe Designer, 168
Self-service reporting, 32, 34
Universes, 22, 39, 40, 55, 86, 123, 181
Semantic layer, 21
Unstructured, 22
Single-Sign-On, 169
Update Target in Repository, 287
Snapshot, 125, 128, 136, 139, 141, 142,
Upload a spreadsheet to explore, 122
146, 147, 150, 155
User audience, 33
Software components, 45
User Security, 75
Software Download, 48
User types, 33
Sorting, 90, 264
Sort order, 112
Spreadsheet, 119, 120, 123, 247
V
Spreadsheets, 39, 40, 55, 56, 119, 123
Status, 94, 113, 121, 294 Variable, 152
Structure, 143, 149, 150, 187 Variables, 143, 156, 187
Summary, 121 Version dependent, 187
System number, 66
W
T
Web Intelligence, 32, 37, 79, 80, 104
Tag Cloud, 116, 239 What-if-analysis, 35, 36
Time-dependent hierarchy, 187
Time-dependent structure, 187
Top 10, 114 X
Transient Provider, 56, 57
Trend, 115, 192, 195, 216 Xcelsius, 32, 36, 37
Trends, 27, 220, 236
TREXADMIN, 59
TREX extension, 59
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Sappress Inside Sap Business Objects Explorer

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Sappress Inside Sap Business Objects Explorer

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Ingo Hilgefort

Inside SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 3 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — One Piece of

2 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Installation and

3 Using SAP Business­Objects Explorer . ..................................... 85

4 Implementation Relevant Topics ............................................. 125

5 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Usage Scenarios ................. 189

6 Advanced Topics . ..................................................................... 247

7 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Outlook .............................. 299

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 5 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — One Piece of

1.1 A Short History of SAP Business­Objects Explorer . ........................ 19

2 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Installation and

2.1 Deployment Options for SAP Business­Objects Explorer . .............. 39

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 7 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

2.3 Data Connectivity Options . ......................................................... 54

3 Using SAP Business­Objects Explorer ........................................ 85

3.1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Quick Basics ............................. 85

4 Implementation Relevant Topics ............................................... 125

4.1 Support for MultiProvider ............................................................ 125

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 8 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

4.3 Restricted and Calculated Key Figures .......................................... 151

5 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Usage Scenarios .................. 189

5.1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer and Health Care ............................ 189

6 Advanced Topics ........................................................................ 247

6.1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer in the Cloud .................................. 247

7 SAP Business­Objects Explorer — Outlook . .............................. 297

The Author ................................................................................................. 301

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 9 2/2/10 2:16:43 PM

1 SAP Business­Objects Explorer —

In this chapter, we will provide you with an overview of SAP Business­Objects

1.1 A Short History of SAP Business­Objects Explorer

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 19 2/2/10 2:16:44 PM

1.1.1 The First Start to More Insight — Intelligent Question

Figure 1.1 Intelligent Question

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 20 2/2/10 2:16:45 PM

Customers Based on Products

Figure 1.2 Universes for Intelligent Question

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 21 2/2/10 2:16:45 PM

1.1.2 Intelligent Search

Figure 1.3 Intelligence Search

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 22 2/2/10 2:16:45 PM

Figure 1.4 Intelligent Search — Suggested Queries

1.1.3 First Release of Polestar

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 23 2/2/10 2:16:46 PM

Figure 1.5 Polestar UI

1.1.4 Polestar Becomes SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 24 2/2/10 2:16:47 PM

In addition to the combination of Polestar with BWA, the combined teams

1.1.5 SAP Business­Objects Explorer Continues to Evolve

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 25 2/2/10 2:16:47 PM

1.2 Introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Information is Not Reaching Business Users

Information available for ‘Instinct-Feel’ Decisions

38% 25% of the time 36%

Aware of bad decisions made

© SAP 2009 / Page

Figure 1.6 BusinessWeek Research Results

This is a typical shortcoming of classic Business Intelligence tools. Classic Business

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 26 2/2/10 2:16:48 PM

Figure 1.7 Information Space — Search

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is leveraged by a large portion of the typical infor-

340_Hilgefort_BookLoose.indb 27 2/2/10 2:16:49 PM

1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — One Piece of

2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Installation and

3 Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ..................................... 85

5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Usage Scenarios ................. 189

7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Outlook .............................. 299

1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — One Piece of

1.1 A Short History of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . ........................ 19

2 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Installation and

2.1 Deployment Options for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer . .............. 39

3 Using SAP BusinessObjects Explorer ........................................ 85

3.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Quick Basics ............................. 85

5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Usage Scenarios .................. 189

5.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer and Health Care ............................ 189

6.1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer in the Cloud .................................. 247

7 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer — Outlook . .............................. 297

1 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer —

In this chapter, we will provide you with an overview of SAP BusinessObjects

1.1 A Short History of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

1.1.5 SAP BusinessObjects Explorer Continues to Evolve

1.3 Introduction to the SAP BusinessObjects

Figure 1.10 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

Figure 1.11 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio by User Skills

Figure 1.12 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio – Capability Matrix

Figure 1.13 SAP BusinessObjects BI Portfolio by Target Group

Figure 1.14 SAP BusinessObjects BI portfolio – Decision Tree

Fulfilled Requirements by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Unfulfilled Requirements by SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

Reporting and Analytics with SAP BusinessObjects