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Download SAP Crystal Presentation Design 2008

Posted by SAP BI-BO on Thursday, October 21, 2010

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CNET Editor's Note: SAP Crystal Presentation Design  2008  (a $195 value) is  completely free when activated before 12/31/2010.

Publisher's description         

From SAP:
SAP Crystal Presentation Design--formerly known as Xcelsius Present software--is a point-and-click data visualization software solution designed to create flash-based interactive data presentations from ordinary spreadsheets and share them via Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF. Product benefits: Create professional-looking presentations in just a few minutes; transform rows of data into interactive charts, maps; make informed decisions by exploring what-if scenarios; engage, inform, and persuade your audience with stunning visualizations. Get started instantly with more than 50 pre-built analytics and an assortment of layout templates.

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SAP Business Objects - Xcelsius Dashboard Samples

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Xcelcius Dashboard

Click on Image to see the Xcelcius Dashboard Samples

By clicking on the above image it will show the SAP Business Objects - Xcelcius Dashboard samples from Inverra (external link) . For looking the preview of sample you have to select any one sample and click on the launch .

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Business Objects Voyager

Posted by SAP BI-BO on Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Voyager is a web-based OLAP client with and advanced & highly intuitive user interface based on WEB 2.0 (Ajax) technology

Where can Voyager add value?
- Multiple connections to multiple OLAP Servers (NetWeaver 
   BI/BW, MSAS, Essbase, IBM DB2)
- Multiple pages in a workspace
- Capable of standard OLAP navigation
- Business calculations: % diff, % cont, variance…
- Advanced charting engine with new chart capabilities especially designed for OLAP analysis
- Time based calculations: Prior Period, YTD, QTD, MA…
- Filter, sort, ranking – top / bottom, by value by %

Why it is required?
- Tool designed for business analysts analyzing OLAP data & end users reviewing OLAP data
- Open data Access
- Access and analyze multiple OLAP sources in the one workspace
- Multiple views of the same OLAP cube in the one workspace
- Tight integration into MS PowerPoint & Word

SAP Connectivity
- Direct Access to SAP NetWeaver BI Queries & InfoCubes via XMLA

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Business Objects Web Intelligence

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Business Objects Web Intelligence is the leading end user reporting-and-analysis tool.

Where can Web Intelligence add value?
- In the area of ad-hoc reporting
- Easy-to-use interface for end user reporting
- Powerful query features
- Leverage business friendly ‘semantic layer’ to hide complexity

Why it is required?
- Self-service reporting and analysis, autonomy from IT
- Simple user interface, designed for the masses
- Combine data from SAP and non-SAP data in a single report
- Rich feature set

Connectivity to SAP
- Sits on top of Business Objects Enterprise Universes
- Universes connect to SAP NetWeaver BI via OLAP BAPI
- Access objects: BEx Queries & SAP BI InfoCubes

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Live Office – MS Office Integration

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Live Office allows the deployment and access of BI reports & dashboards within Microsoft Office PowerPoint , Word & Excel

Where can Live Office add value?
- Live Office integrates  refreshable BI data within documents, 
   spreadsheets, and presentations.
- The result is an Office  document you can share  with others
   for secure, collaborative decision- making.
- Using intuitive wizards  and toolbars,  easily  connect to and
   select  data  from a Crystal Report or Web Intelligence doc.
- Once  the data  is  placed  into  your  MS  document, you can
   format, reorganize, and perform calculations—all while using
   familiar features in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Why it is required?
- Seamless integration of BI into Microsoft Office
- Easy self-service & sharing of BI data embedded into

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Advanced Data Visualization with Xcelsius

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Xcelsius is an environment to design and consume highly interactive, flash-based dashboards in PDF, documents, presentations and NetWeaver Portal , PDF, documents, and presentations

Where can Xcelsius add value?
- In the area of data visualization
- Intuitive design environment, enabling you to easily create   
   professional -looking models quickly using skins, maps,
   charts, gauges, and selectors.
- Add visualization to Crystal Reports
- End user personalization

Why it is required?
- Fast to deploy dashboards on SAP and/or non-SAP data
- Empower Business Users who are not savvy using analysis tools
- Simplify BI information with innovative & intuitive visuals

SAP Connectivity
- Via Live Office Crystal Reports can be connected to Xcelsius
- Via Query as a Web Service (QaaWS) which leverages Business Objects Universes

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Enterprise Reporting with Crystal Reports

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Where does Crystal Reports add value? 

- In the area of highly formatted reporting 
     - Such as management reports or legal reports  
- It enables the creation & modification of formatted reports:
     - On top of SAP NetWeaver BI
     - Leveraging the solid data warehousing foundation
- Report off of all sources of information in your organization

Why it is Required?
- Highly formatted management reports 
- Professional report layout (one-to-many approach)
- Operational and tactical applications with low interaction rate (view static & parameterized reports)
- Form-based, print-optimized reports
- Develop powerful data mash-ups

Connectivity to SAP Applications and NetWeaver BI 
 - InfoSet/ABAP Query Driver – Access SAP BI InfoSets.
- Open SQL Driver - Access ODS Objects
- NetWeaver BI OLAP Kit
     - Connect to multidimensional SAP NetWeaver BI InfoCubes & BEx Queries. 


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MultiProvider

Posted by SAP BI-BO on Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A MultiProvider is a special InfoProvider that combines data from several InfoProviders, providing it for reporting. The MultiProvider itself (InfoSets and VirtualProviders) does not contain any data. Its data comes exclusively from the InfoProviders on which it is based. A MultiProvider can be made up of various combinations of the following InfoProviders:
. InfoCubes
. DataStore objects
. InfoObjects
. InfoSets
. Aggregation levels (slices of a InfoCube to support BI Integrated Planning)

Use
A BEx query can only be written against a single InfoProvider. A MultiProvider is a single InfoProvider to a query but through it, multiple providers can be indirectly accessed.


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Data Store Objects

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Since a DataStore object is designed like a table, it contains key fields (document number and item, for example) and data fields. Data fields can not only be key figures but also character fields (order status, customer, or time, for example). You can use a delta update to update DataStore object data into connected InfoCubes or into additional DataStore objects or master data tables (attributes or texts) in the same system or in different systems. In contrast to multidimensional DataStores for InfoCubes, data in DataStore objects is stored in flat, transparent database tables. Fact and dimension tables are not created.

With DataStore objects, you can not only update key figures cumulatively, as with InfoCubes, but also overwrite data fields. This is especially important for transaction-level documents that change in the source system. Here, document changes not only involve numerical fields, such as order quantities, but also non-numerical ones such as ship-to parties, delivery date, and status. Since the OLTP system overwrites these records when changes occur, DataStore objects must often be moceled to overwrite the corresponding fields and update to the current value in BI.

DS Oject Types
SAP BI distinguishes between three DataStore object types: Standard, Write Optimized, and Direct Update. These three flavors of DataStore Objects are shown in the following figure.

1. The Standard DataStore Object consists of three tables (activation queue, active data table, and change log). It is completely integrated in the staging process. In other words, data can be loaded into and out of the DataStore Objects during the staging process. Using a change log means that all changes are also written and are available as delta uploads for connected data targets.

Architecture and Functions of Standard DataStore Objects
 
Standard DataStore objects consist of three tables:
Active Data table
This is where the current status of the data is stored. This table contains a semantic (business-related) key that can be defined by the modeler (order number, item, or schedule line, for example). It is very important that the key be correctly defined by the modeler, as a match on the key initiates special delta processing during the activation phase (discussed later). Also, reporting via the BEx uses this table.
Change Log table 
During the activation run, changes are stored in the change log. Here, you can find the complete history of the changes, since the content of the change log is not automatically deleted. The connected targets are updated from the change log if they are supplied with data from the DataStore object in the delta method. The change log is a PSA table and can also be maintained in the PSA tree of the Data Warehousing Workbench. The change log has a technical key consisting of a request, data package, and data record number.
Activation Queue table
During the DTP, the records are first written to this table. This step is necessary due to the complex logic that is then required by the activation process.



Schema for a Standard DataStore Objects

2. Write optimized is a new kind of DataStore Object . It is targeted for the warehouse level of the architecture, and has the advantage of quicker loads.

3. A direct update DataStore object (previous 3.x transactional ODS) has only the table with active data. This means it is not as easily integrated in the staging process. Instead, this DataStore object type is filled using APIs and can be read via a BAPI.

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InfoCube

Posted by SAP BI-BO

Info Cube is structured as Star Schema (extended) where a fact table is surrounded by different dim table that are linked with DIM'ids. And the data wise, you will have aggregated data in the cubes.
Infocube contains maximum 16(3 are sap defines and 13 are customer defined) dimensions and minimum 4(3 Sap defined and 1 customer defined) dimensions with maximum 233 key figures and 248 characteristic.

The following InfoCube types exist in BI:
. InfoCubes
. VirtualProviders
There are two subtypes of InfoCubes: Standard, and Real-Time. Although both  have an extended star schema design, Real-Time InfoCubes (previously called Transactional InfoCubes) are optimized for direct update, and do not need to use the ETL process. Real-Time InfoCubes are almost exclusively used in the BI Integrated Planning tool set. All BI InfoCubes consists of a quantity of relational tables arranged together in a star schema.

Star Schema
In Star Schema model, Fact table is surrounded by dimensional tables. Fact table is usually very large, that means it contains millions to billions of records. On the other hand dimensional tables are very small. Hence they contain a few thousands to few million records. In practice, Fact table holds transactional data and dimensional table holds master data.
The dimensional tables are specific to a fact table. This means that dimensional tables are not shared to across other fact tables. When other fact table such as a product needs the same product dimension data another dimension table that is specific to a new fact table is needed.
This situation creates data management problems such as master data redundancy because the very same product is duplicated in several dimensional tables instead of sharing from one single master data table. This problem can be solved in extended star schema.



Extended star schema
In Extended Star Schema, under the BW star schema model, the dimension table does not contain master data. But it is stored externally in the master data tables (texts, attributes, hierarchies).
The characteristic in the dimensional table points to the relevant master data by the use of SID table. The SID table points to characteristics attribute texts and hierarchies.
This multistep navigational task adds extra overhead when executing a query. However the benefit of this model is that all fact tables (info cubes) share common master data tables between several info cubes.
Moreover the SID table concept allows users to implement multi languages and multi hierarchy OLAP environments. And also it supports slowly changing dimension.



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