SAP BO Tutorial

Introduction

Welcome to the SAP BO Tutorial. The objective of these tutorials is to get an in-depth understanding of SAP BO. In these tutorials, we will cover various SAP BO with examples. The tutorial starts with an overview of SAP BO. In addition to these tutorial, we will also cover common issues, Interview questions, and How To’s of SAP BO.

SAP Business Objects

SAP Business Objects is an enterprise software company, specializing in business intelligence. Business Objects was acquired in 2007 by SAP AG a German company. SAP Business Objects software helps organizations gain better insight into their business, improving decision-making and enterprise performance. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform supports the entire range of end-user reporting, query, and analysis, and performance management uses.

Understanding this infrastructure will help you successfully administer the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform.

By understanding Business Intelligence (BI), you will better comprehend how SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) solutions address the BI product spectrum.

Gartner Inc., a research and advisory firm that helps clients leverage technology, coined the term “Business Intelligence” in the late 1980s.

Business Intelligence, as defined by Gartner, is an iterative user-centred process that includes accessing and exploring information, analyzing this information, and developing insights and understanding that lead to improved and informed decision making.

BI usage crosses the spectrum of users, both internally and externally throughout any enterprise, and includes rank-and-file workers, executives, analysts, and knowledge workers.

Examples of internal and external BI applications include

• Generating a class list for a training session
• Creating an employee performance review
• Scheduling in a health care setting
• Manufacturing computer parts

Business Intelligence can help organizations to

• Identify and track key performance metrics against their direct competitors and the overall market
• Improve customer service and target high yield accounts
• Streamline operations and improve supplier and warehouse operations
• Identify successful marketing campaigns
• Improve response time to market trends and customer requests
• Decrease query and reporting time
• Reduce cost and anxiety over compliance
• Deliver true cost of goods and services
• Reduce strain on IT departments

Business Intelligence provides insights that enable business managers to make tactical decisions, as well as to establish, modify, or tune business strategies and processes in order to gain competitive advantage and improve business operations and profitability.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform supports a range of performance management (Dashboard and Analytics), reporting, querying, and analysis applications.

• It also provides an industry-standard, proven architecture and platform-support for semantic layers, data integration, and security.
• SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform provides for web-based administration and configuration of the entire system.

Benefits of Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence can help organizations to:

• Identify and track key performance metrics against their direct competitors and the overall market Improve customer service and target high yield accounts
• Streamline operations and improve supplier and warehouse operations
• Identify successful marketing campaigns
• Improve response time to market trends and customer requests
• Decrease query and reporting time
• Reduce cost and anxiety over compliance
• Deliver true cost of goods and services
• Reduce strain on IT departments

Business Intelligence provides insights that enable business managers to make tactical decisions, as well as to establish, modify, or tune business strategies and processes in order to gain competitive advantage and improve business operations and profitability.

Describing SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence platform

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform supports a range of performance management (Dashboard and Analytics), reporting, querying, and analysis applications. It also provides an industry-standard, proven architecture and platform-support for semantic layers, data integration, and security.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform provides for web-based administration and configuration of the entire system.

Introducing SAP BusinessObjects  Business Intelligence platform

BI Suite

BI Needs:

Architecture in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform infrastructure

The infrastructure in SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform provides the basic messaging mechanism needed for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform components to communicate with one another.

The Infrastructure is a series of services that are designed to communicate via CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), which runs over TCP/IP.

Note: The Infrastructure establishes connections between clients and servers.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform service groups and servers. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform can be installed on a single machine, spread across different machines in an intranet, or separated over a wide area network (WAN).

Architecture

The architecture of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform is designed to meet the needs of virtually any BI deployment and is flexible enough to grow from several users with a single tool, to tens of thousands of users with multiple tools and interfaces.

Developers can integrate SAP BusinessObjects BI platform into your organization's other technology systems by using web services, Java, or .NET application programming interfaces (APIs).

Tiers: SAP BusinessObject Business Intelligence platform can be thought of as a series of conceptual tiers:

Client

 

Web

Web Server: The web server receives HTTP requests sent from the web client. The web server holds and manages static content such as .html and .js files that may be part of an SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence suite web application.

Web Application Server: A web application server acts as the translation layer between a web browser or rich application, and the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform. The web application server hosts web applications, web services, and Software Development Kits (SDK). Various web application servers running on Windows, Unix, and Linux are supported. Note: If you do not have a web application server in place for use with the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform, the installation program can install and configure a Tomcat 6 web application server for you.

Web Application Container Server: The Web Application Container Server (WACS) is an SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform server that allows SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform web services and web applications, such as the Central Management Console (CMC) and BI launch pad, to run without the need for a previously installed Java web application server.

Web Applications: Web applications run in the web application server to process requests from the web client. SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence suite web applications include:

• Central Management Console
• Lifecycle Management Console
• BI launchpad
• BI workspaces
• SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence
• SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP
• SAP BusinessObjects Explorer

These core tutorials will help you to learn the fundamentals of SAP BO.For an in-depth understanding and practical experience,explore Online SAP BO Training

Web Services

Web services run in the web application server to process requests from client applications. Web services can be called remotely using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) for exchanging information that is not dependent on a specific platform, object model, or programming language.

SAP BusinessObjects web services include logic to understand and direct requests to the appropriate SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform server. SAP BusinessObjects web services can be accessed by rich clients such as Live Office and Crystal Reports, and also by custom-built web service consumer applications.

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform web services include:

• Session
• BIplatform
• ReportEngine
• QueryService
• SaveService
• BICatalog
• Publish
• LiveOffice
• managequeryasaservice
• Federator
• XcelsiusWebServices
• BicsRemote
• Gopher

Management

Central Management Server: The Central Management Server (CMS) maintains a database of information about your SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform (in the CMS system database) and audited user actions (in the Auditing Data Store).

All platform services are managed by the CMS. The CMS also controls access to the system files where documents are stored, and information on users, user groups, security levels (including authentication and authorization), and content.

Event Server: The Event Server monitors the system for events, which can act as a trigger for running a report. When you set up an event trigger, the Event Server monitors the condition and notifies the CMS that an event has occurred.

The CMS can then start any jobs that are set to run upon the event.

Explorer Master Server: Explorer Master Server manages all of the Explorer processing servers, including Explorer Exploration Server, Explorer Indexing Server, and Explorer Search Server

Server Intelligence Agent: A Server Intelligence Agent (SIA) manages and monitors all of the servers on a node, ensuring they operate properly. Note: A node is a group of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform servers that run on the same host. All of the servers on a node run under the same user account. One machine can contain many nodes, so you can run processes under different user accounts.

Storage

Crystal Reports Cache Server: The Crystal Reports Cache Server intercepts report viewing requests sent from clients to the Crystal Reports Processing Server.

If the Cache Server cannot fulfill the request with a cached report page, it passes the request on to the Crystal Reports Processing Server, which runs the report and returns the results. The Cache Server then caches the report page for potential future use

Dashboard Design Cache Server: The Dashboard Design Cache Server determines if a previously served dashboard viewing request would satisfy the current dashboard viewing request.

If the request cannot be fulfilled by the Dashboard Design Cache Server, it forwards the request to the Dashboard Design Processing Server.

The Dashboard Design Cache Server will try to share previous data results as much as possible.

Input File Repository Server: The Input File Repository Server stores all of the documents and program objects that have been published to the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform. It can store a large variety of file types

Output File Repository Server: The Output File Repository Server stores all of the instances generated by scheduled jobs for all object types including Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence, and programs. It also manages instances generated by the Web Intelligence Processing Server. It can store a large variety of file types.

Processing

Adaptive Job Server: The Adaptive Job Server is a generic server that processes scheduled jobs for a variety of object types. Services that can be hosted on this server include: Authentication Update Scheduling Service, Crystal Reports 2011

Scheduling Service, Crystal Reports Scheduling Service, Destination Delivery Scheduling Service, Lifecycle Management Scheduling Service, Platform Search Scheduling Service, Probe Scheduling Service, Program Scheduling Service, Publication Scheduling Service, Replication Service, Security Query Scheduling Service, Visual Difference Scheduling Service, Web Intelligence Scheduling Service,

Adaptive Processing Server: The Adaptive Processing Server is a generic server that hosts services responsible for processing requests from a variety of sources.

Services that can be hosted on this server include Adaptive Connectivity Service, BEx Web Application Service, Client Auditing Proxy Service, Custom Data Access Service, Data Federation Service, Document Recovery Service, DSL Bridge Service, Excel Data Access Service, Lifecycle Management ClearCase Service, Lifecycle Management Console Service, Monitoring Service, Multi-Dimensional Analysis Service, Platform Search Service, Publishing Post Processing Service, PublishingService, Rebean Service, Security Token Service, Translation Service, Visual Difference Service, Visualization Service, Web Intelligence Monitoring Service,

Connection Server: The Connection Server provides database access to source data. It supports relational databases, as well as OLAP and other formats. The Connection Server is responsible for handling connection and interaction with the various data sources and providing a common feature set to clients.

Connection Server 32: The Connection Server 32 is responsible for 32-bit database connectivity to access data.

Crystal Reports 2011 Processing Server: The Crystal Reports 2011 Processing Server responds to Crystal Reports page requests by processing reports and generating encapsulated page format (EPF) files. The key benefit of EPF is that it supports page-on-demand access, so only the requested page is returned, not the entire report. This improves system performance and reduces unnecessary network traffic for large reports. The Crystal Reports 2011 Processing Server retrieves data for the report from the latest instance or directly from the data source. After it generates the report, it converts the requested data to one or more EPF files. These EPF files are then sent to the Crystal Reports Cache Server Crystal Reports 2011 Report Application Server

The Crystal Reports 2011 Report Application Server (RAS) provides ad-hoc reporting capabilities that allow users to create and modify Crystal reports via the SAP Crystal Reports Server Embedded Software Development Kit (SDK).

Crystal Reports Processing Server: The Crystal Reports Processing Server responds to Crystal Reports for Enterprise page requests by processing reports and generating encapsulated page format (EPF) files. The key benefit of EPF is that it supports page-on-demand access, so only the requested page is returned, not the entire report. This improves system performance and reduces unnecessary network traffic for large reports. The Crystal Reports Processing Server retrieves data for the report from the latest instance or directly from the data source. After it generates the report, it converts the requested data to one or more EPF files. These EPF files are then sent to the Crystal Reports Cache Server.

Dashboard Analytics Server: The Dashboard Analytics Server is used by BI workspaces to createand manage corporate and personal BI workspace module content.

Dashboard Design Processing Server: The Dashboard Design Processing Server responds to Dashboards requests by processing dashboards and generating the results.

Dashboard Server: The Dashboard Server is used by BI workspaces to create and manage corporate and personal dashboards.

Explorer Exploration Server: Explorer Exploration Server provides and manages the InformationSpace exploration and analysis capabilities including search on data, filtering and aggregation.

Explorer Indexing Server: Explorer Indexing Server provides and manages the indexing of Information

Space data and metadata.

Explorer Search Server: Explorer Search Server processes search queries and returns search results.

Web Intelligence Processing Server: The Web Intelligence Processing Server is responsible for generating Web Intelligence documents. The Web Intelligence Processing Server obtains document creation requests from the Web Application Server and then communicates with the Input File Repository Server in order to obtain a copy of the Web Intelligence document (WID) file and the universal definition. When viewing an existing instance of a WID, the Web Intelligence Processing Server communicates with the Output File Repository Server to obtain an existing historical instance of a WID.

Data

CMS system database: The CMS system database is used to store the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform information, such as user, server, folder, document, configuration, authorization, and authentication details. It is maintained by the Central Management Server (CMS) and is sometimes referred to as the system repository.

Auditing Data Store: The Auditing Data Store (ADS) is used to store information on trackable events that occur in the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform. This information can be used to monitor the usage of system components, user activity, or other aspects of day-to-day operations.

Lifecycle Management database: The Lifecycle Management database tracks configuration and version information related to an SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform installation, as well as updates.

Monitoring database: The Monitoring database is an embedded Java Derby database to store system configuration and component information for SAP supportability in the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform.

Universes (UNV): UNV Universes are identified by the .unv file extension. They are the legacy type of universe based on the semantic layer in previous versions of the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform (formerly SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise).

They are built using the legacy Universe Design Tool. A universe is an organized collection of metadata objects that enables business users to analyze and report on corporate data in non-technical language.

These objects include dimensions, measures, hierarchies, attributes, pre-defined calculations, functions, and queries. The metadata object layer is built on a relational database schema or an OLAP cube, so the objects map directly to the database structures. A universe includes connections to the data sources so that users of query and analysis tools can connect to a universe and run queries and create reports using the objects in a universe without needing to know about the underlying data structures in the database.

Universes (UNX): UNX Universes are identified by the .unx file extension. They are the new type of universe based on the new semantic layer in the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0 platform.

They are built using the new Information Design Tool. A universe is an organized collection of metadata objects that enables business users to analyze and report on corporate data in non-technical language

These objects include dimensions, measures, hierarchies, attributes, pre-defined calculations, functions, and queries. The metadata object layer is built on a relational database schema or an OLAP cube, so the objects map directly to the database structures.

A universe includes connections to the data sources so that users of query and analysis tools can connect to a universe and run queries and create reports using the objects in a universe without needing to know about the underlying data structures in the database.

Business Views: Business Views simplify report creation and interaction by abstracting the complexity of data for report developers. Business Views help separate data connections, data access, business elements, and access control. Business Views can only be used by Crystal Reports and are designed to simplify the data access and view-time security required for Crystal report creation. Business Views support the combination of multiple data sources in a single view.

Flat files: Flat files include .txt, .csv, and .xls files

Relational databases: Relational databases store data in two-dimensional tables.

OLAP data sources: OLAP data sources store data in multidimensional cubes.

SAP Business Warehouse: SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW) is the OLAP data source from SAP.

SAP Business Explorer queries: SAP Business Explorer (BEx) queries are used to analyze data in SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. BEx queries are built in the BEx query designer.

Process Flow for Each Application

View all components in BI 4.0

This interactive diagram shows important architecture components in the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0 platform

For in-depth understanding on SAP BO Tutorials click on:

Information design tool is an SAP BO

SAP Business Object Mobile Configuration

Security in SAP BO

SAP BusinessObjects Explore