SAP BW Overview

1
SAP BW Overview

• Pennsylvania State System
• of Higher Education

2
Agenda

• Reporting Comparison
• BW Overview
• BW Landscape Architecture
• BW Reporting Tools
• Business Content
• BW Website
• Online Resources
• Discussions/ QA

3
Reporting Comparison

• R/3

BW

• 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

4
BW Overview

• The Business Information Warehouse (BW) is SAPs
  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).

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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
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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
7
BW Reporting ToolsBusiness Explorer (BEx) Query
Designer

• MS-Excel-Based Analyzer (Web or GUI)
• Formatted Reporting
• Web Application Designer

8
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

9
GUI Based or
SAP Menu Bar Add-in
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Web-Based
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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.

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http//www.sytecpa.org/BW/index.asp
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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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QUESTIONS
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Thank You