Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education SAP BW Overview

Agenda Reporting Comparison BW Overview BW Landscape & Architecture BW Reporting Tools Business Content BW Website Online Resources Discussions/ Q&A

Reporting Comparison R/3 BW Relational & Multidimensional Analysis Line Item Analysis Delivered Reports Basic Reporting or Predefined (requires ABAP programmers) Consumes Resources from Transaction Processing Real-time Analysis Function Specific Relational & Multidimensional Analysis Delivered Reports (aka Business Content) Ad hoc or Predefined (can be designed by users) Significantly Faster Processing Current (according to update schedule) & Historical Analysis Cross Functional

BW Overview The Business Information Warehouse (BW) is SAP’s architectural solution for data warehousing. Seamless integration with R/3 Built-in functionality that substantially reduces DW design, development and maintenance BW is a separate system from the R/3 transaction processing system BW data structures are optimized for reporting data efficiently and quickly (analytical processing). R/3 data structures are optimized for recording data efficiently and quickly (transaction processing).

State System BW Landscape BW Dev DB1 BW QA QB1 BW PRD PB1 BW TRN TB1 BW SB SB1 Data Data Data Data Data SAP R/3 DV1 DR1 DC1 SAP R/3 QA2 QR1 QC1 SAP R/3 PRD PR1 PC1 SAP R/3 TRN TR1 TC1 SAP R/3 SF1 SR1

Business Explorer Tools Basic BW Architecture BEx SAP R/3 InfoCube ODS Non-SAP Data Sources (Flat file, XML or DBConnect) Data Detail Business Content Web Based BEx SAP-BW Data Sources Business Explorer Tools

BW Reporting Tools Business Explorer (BEx) Query Designer MS-Excel-Based Analyzer (Web or GUI) Formatted Reporting Web Application Designer

Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer Queries and solution workbooks embedded in MS Excel Excel functionality can be utilized (calculations, charts, VBA programming, etc.) Queries are refreshed at each run; workbooks provide pre-calculated queries Incorporates BW Security and, therefore, eliminates the need for an additional layer of security at the reporting level Seamless integration with BEx Analyzer for the Web

GUI Based or…… SAP Menu Bar Add-in

Web-Based

What is “Business Content?” Advantages of using Business Content Pre-Configured SAP-delivered objects allow rapid development (DataSources, Transfer Structures, ODSs, InfoCubes, Queries, etc.) Based on Best Practices A solution to build upon Provides a good baseline for enhancements of functionality and data models.

http://www.sytecpa.org/BW/index.asp

Online Resources SAP Online Documentation - help.sap.com Service Marketplace - service.sap.com OSS Notes Installation and upgrade info SAP Developers Network - sdn.sap.com Online Forums How Tos SAP Fans – www.sapfans.com

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