25 Critical Lessons

for Teams That Are

Running Global SAP
NetWeaver BI
Projects
Dr. Bjarne Berg

2007 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

2
Introduction

SAP NetWeaver BI (BI) has matured substantially over the

last decade
In this session we will explore the lessons learned from a
variety of companies, looking at real examples
We will pay particular attention to design principles,
performance enhancements, and explore what you can learn
from others mistakes
We will also look at BI trends and what others are doing in the
SAP NetWeaver BI space

3
 BI Has Grown Up and Is Now a Core Infrastructure Requirement

59% of companies now have an enterprise data warehouse

This number will grow to 86% by 2009
However, only 39% of companies have a BI competency
center and only 54% have an enterprise information strategy

BI competency center

BI governance program
No plans
Enterprise Info. strategy Within 2009
Currently have
Information quality program

Enterprise Data Warehouse

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Source: Business Week Research, Sept. 2006

Where will your company be in three years?

4
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

5
Global Master Data Integration and SAP NetWeaver BI

When an organization has multiple SAP R/3 systems, the SAP

NetWeaver BI master data integration can be cumbersome
1. Determine what local master data needs to be maintained in the BI
system and load it as separate master data
2. Determine what global master data needs to be maintained in the BI
system and load it to the shared areas
To do this you will need master data mapping rules or tables

3. If you have conflicting master data, consider loading the local

masterdata to DSOs (make it reportable) and merge the global
master data to be used by the InfoCubes
Alternatively, you can load versions of master data into custom
master data objects in SAP NetWeaver BI and use the merged
master data as the 0 objects

If you have multiple regional transaction systems, plan on spending 5 - 10%

of your global project time on master data integration, design, and testing.
6
 Global Master Data Integration and SAP NetWeaver BI (cont.)

You can also decide to use

the SAP NetWeaver Master
Data Management (MDM) tool
to manage and merge the
global master data in a
central location

Source: SAP NetWeaver Magazine, Alan Joch

If an MDM implementation is warranted,

make it a separate project and dont
include this as part of the global BI project.
The BI system simply extracts the new
merged and integrated master data.
7
 Privacy and Security Concerns

European and many Asian countries have Some European Restrictions

strict privacy rules
1. Personal information cannot be
European Union Commissions Directive collected without consumers
on Data Protection protects personal permission. They have the right to
information from Europe to countries review the data and correct
whose privacy practices are not inaccuracies.
deemed adequate 2. Data processing companies must
All European Union (EU) member countries are register their activities with the
bound by the European Commissions finding government.
of adequacy 3. Employers cannot read, copy, or
Your company can become entangled in transfer workers private email.
many local laws, or seek participation in the 4. Personal information cannot be
safe harbor agreements by the Department shared by companies or across
of Commerce (costs up to $500) borders without express
The safe harbor eliminates the need for prior permission from the data subject.
approval to begin data transfers, and makes
Safe harbor agreements can
approval from the appropriate EU member
reduce exposure to such
countries automatic legal issues.
8
Tip 1: Capacity and Scalability Is the Top Concern for Your CxO

Dont under size your global BI system

Spend adequate funding on hardware, memory, processing power
and disk space
A survey of 353 top C-level officers in large companies, reported
that the top BI concern was the scalability of their solutions.

Overall System Performance and capacity 7.9

Server & Desktop processing capacity 7.88

Determining ROI 7.65

Security 7.62

Data Integration 7.51

Too many Business Intelligence tools in use 7.31

Danger of distributing outdated data 7.21

Difficult for end users to learn or use 7.03

Source: Intel, SAP & Business Week
"Seizing the BI Opportunity" 2006. 7 7.25 7.5 7.75 8
9
 Tip 1: Capacity and Scalability Global Hardware Example

Example of a large BI system

This company reallocated their Sun-
6900 box (on Oracle) and have three
Production Sandbox
12 CPUs 4 CPUs
app servers on the production box
96 GB RAM 32 GB RAM More memory allows them to take
better advantage of the parallel load
Development Test of the BI system and to cache many
4 CPUs 4 CPUs
of the frequently run queries
32 GB RAM 32 GB RAM
(BEx Broadcaster)
Key numbers: The hardware also allows them to
3.1 Terabytes of data
2810 named users compare performance between
About 620 active users the boxes

Global systems must consider network connections (speed), data encryption,

and distributions of application and Web servers for load balancing (due to 24-
hour operations).
10
 Tip 2: Pick a Formal Methodology You Have Many Choices

Accelerated SAP (ASAP) methodology is not your only choice

Even though harder to manage on a global project due to long
communication lines, consider RAD, JAD, or EP based on the
time to delivery and impact of failure
When to Select Different Methodologies

High

Joint Application Design System development Life-Cycle Look at what your

(JAD) based methodologies
(SDLC) global organizational
partners have done.
Time to
Delivery You may know more
about RAD than you
Extreme Programming
(EP)
Rapid Application Development
(RAD) think!

Low
Low High Source: Bjarne Berg, DM 11
Impact of Failure Review 2004
Tip 3: Report Dispositioning: Dont Throw Every Report into BI

Many tools exist that can report on SAP R/3 data

You might have static reports that belong in SAP R/3, which would
not be cost effective to develop in SAP NetWeaver BI
Make cost-effective decisions
Just because the report is not in SAP NetWeaver BI does not mean
it cannot be added to a Portal or viewed on the Web
Not all reports belong in SAP NetWeaver BI
Avoid using BI as a dumping group
You need to make conscious decisions on what reporting
needs you are going to meet, and how you will
accomplish this

You need a formal report dispositioning process and need to

evaluate every requirement as BI vs. transaction reporting.
12
 Tip 4: SAP Solutions Manager EarlyWatch Reports Are Great!

EarlyWatch reports provide a

simple way to confirm how
your system is running and to
catch problems
A goldmine for system
recommendations
Run them periodically and read
the details
A real EarlyWatch report from a
mid-sized company that has
been running SAP BW for the
last three to four years
On a large global project, system
issues can be hard to pin-down without
access to EarlyWatch reports. The
monitoring reports allows you to tune
the system before the user community
gets access and complaints arise.
13
 Tip 4: SAP Solutions Manager EarlyWatch Performance Info
1 Performance Indicators
The following table shows the relevant performance indicators in various system areas.
Area Indicators Value Trend
System Performance Active Users 18 down
Hardware Capacity Max. CPU Utilization on DB Server 74 % steady
Max. CPU Utilization on Appl. Server 74 % steady
Database Space Management DB Size 355.52 GB steady
Last Month DB Growth 118.63- GB steady
Query Performance Avg. Total Runtime of the BW Queries 11.5 s down
Avg. Database Runtime of the BW Queries 8.0 s steady
In a 24-hour operational
1 Performance Overview systems due to time-zones,
The performance of your system was analyzed with respect to the average response times and total
workload. We did not detect any major problems that could affect the performance of your system. you will have less time to

react and fix issues.

Therefore, early detection
of system issues are
critical to the success of a
The following table shows the average response times for various task types:
global project.
Task type Dialog Avg. Resp. Avg. CPU Avg. Wait Avg. Load Avg. DB Avg. GUI
Steps Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms Time in ms
DIALOG + 195240 3253.3 728.7 1.8 2.5 1110.9 6.3
RFC
UPDATE 5 984.2 28.2 26.0 15.2 585.4
UPDATE2 48 133.2 17.1 0.7 3.3 80.8
BATCH 59288 11599.3 2091.2 0.6 8.5 5772.6
HTTP 257762 693.5 183.7 4.4 2.2 405.0
1.1 Current Workload
The following table lists the number of current users (measured from our workload analysis) in your system.
Users Low Activity Medium Activity High Activity Total Users
Measured in System 98 11 7 116 14
 Tip 5: Organizing the Global Team Six Ways to Balance the
Global BI Development Effort

Option Benefits Risks

1 Single site
The more distributed the BI
Distributed analysis
development effort becomes,
2

3 Distributed analysis and design the more difficult it is to

4 Co-located analysis and design maintain communication and
get cohesive requirements.
5 Multiple co-located analysis and design
6 Fully distributed development 15
 Tip 5: Organizing the Global Team Small Technical Team Roles

These are roles not positions Many companies fail to

Sometimes one team member can formally assign roles
and responsibilities.
fill more than one role
As a result, they have
Project Sponsor
many jack of all trades
and masters of none.
Project Manager

Business Team Technical Team

Business Analyst BI Architect

Presentation Developer ETL Developer

BI Basis and functional SAP R/3 support

Four to five team members and normally
three to six months duration on each go-live depending on scope
ETL = Extract, transform and load
16
Tip 5: Organizing the Global Team Large Functional Teams

Project Sponsor/ In a global BI organization,

Steering Committee
you simply need to create
functional teams
Project Manager
(instead of the previous
BI Architect technical team models).

Portal Developer(s)

Sales Team Finance Team Material Mgmt. Team

Business Analyst/(sub-team lead) Business Analyst/(sub-team lead) Business Analyst/(sub-team lead)

BI Developer BI Developer BI Developer
Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s) Presentation Developer(s)
ETL Developer ETL Developer ETL Developer

BI Basis and functional SAP R/3 support

15-30 team members and normally
6-18 months duration between each go-live
17
 Tip 5: Organizing the Global Team Localized BI Training

Reference Title Audience Language Class size (max) Note

BW-310 Intro to SAP BI All Local 25 Bring in house

BW-305 BI Reporting & Analysis Query developers Local 15 Bring in house
BW-350 BI Data Acquisition ETL developers English 10-12 SAP facility
BW-365 BW Authorizations System admin English 1-3 SAP facility
SAP-330 BW Modeling BI developers English 10-20 SAP facility

Training for end-users and the local query developers should

be completed in their own language to assure understanding
and encourage participation
Developer training should be in the project language (e.g.,
English, German, French) Dont under estimate the value and cost
savings of in-house training.
18
 Tip 6: You Have to Plan for Global Cockpits

58% of all companies reported that

they were already using BI dashboards
and 25% more planned to do it in
2007 2008
Source: Business Week Research Sept. 2006, survey
Dashboards are no longer cutting-edge
Expected by senior management
Dashboard Scorecard Cockpits
Purpose Displays performance Displays progress Displays status and events
Usage Performance monitoring Performance management Performance management
Updates Real-time feeds Monthly snapshots Daily snapshots
Data Events Summaries Summaries and events
Measures Metrics KPIs Metrics & KPIs
Context Exceptions/alerts Targets and thresholds Trends
Source Linked to systems Linked to plans Linked to BI systems
Sources: Wayne Eckerson, 2005;
Bjarne Berg 2006

Dashboards and cockpits should be in your long-

term global BI strategy (three to five years). 19
 Tip 7: Pick a Project Language and Stick with It!

If you dont enforce a global project language, BI project

documentation becomes fragmented
The project team will quickly disintegrate into groups based on the
language with which they are most comfortable
Enforce a project language and require that all emails are
written in it and all notes are taken in the same language
Dont allow side bars in languages that others
dont understand

Make sure the project

language is clear, and that
pertinent documents are
translated in a timely fashion.
20
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

21
 Tip 8: In the Blueprinting Phase: Model Your Global Solution
1. Create a model based on pre-delivered SAP NetWeaver BI content
2. Map your data requirements to the delivered content, and identify gaps
3. Identify where the data gaps are going to be sourced from
Unit
Logistics
Material
Currency Key Billing information
Plant Unit of Measure
Material number
Shipping/receiving point Base unit of measure
Material entered Billing document
Material group Sales unit of measure
Billing item
Item category Volume unit of measure
Billing type
Product hierarchy Weight unit of measure
Billing category
Storage EAN/UPC Billing Billing date
Creation date

Requirements
Cancel indicator
Number of billing documents
Customer Output medium
Number biling line items ~ Batch billing indicator
Billed item quantity Debit/credit reason code
Sold-to Net weight Biling category
Ship-to Subtotal 1 Reference document
Bill-to Subtotal 2 Payment terms
Payer Subtotal 3 Cancelled billing document
Subtotal 4 Divison for the order header
Customer class
Customer group Subtotal 5 Pricing procedure
Subtotal 6

+
~ Customer country
~ Customer region Subtotal A Document details
~ Customer postal code Net value
~ Customer industry code 1 Cost
End user Tax amount Sales order document type
Volume Sales deal
Sales docuement
Organization

Company code
Division
Personnel Accounting
Time Storage
Standard Content
Distribution channel
Sales organization
Sales group
Sales rep number Cost center
Profit center
Controlling area
Calendar
Calendar
year
month
Objects
Account assignment group Calendar week

Map functional requirements to

Calendar day
LEGEND

the standard content before

you make enhancements
Delivered in standard extractors
Delivered in LO extractor
Not in delivered Content -but in R-3 22
Tip 9: Accept Cultural Differences No Culture Is Dominant!

Cultural differences should not be tolerated, but embraced

Europe has longer vacations (four to six weeks are common,
not exceptions)
Family time is important dont plan 12-hour workdays for
four months
Not everyone is equally interested in hearing how we do
things in the US
Many cultures find it offensive to talk about salaries,
and money
Talk about value and deliverables instead
Consider a co-project manager

23
Tip 10: Meet Local and Global Requirements

In most global organizations there are varying product

hierarchies, financial reporting requirements, mapping of
accounts, data integration, and tool requirements
Try not to solve only the enterprise reporting needs of the
corporation, but also the local reporting and analytical needs
This way you will get local support and ensure the system will
actually be used
A successful global BI project has more that one constituent

If you ignore local requirements, they will simply reinvent

your effort and find work-arounds and other tools.
24
Tips 11: Determine Where to Start

All functional areas are not equally supported by strong

standard BI business content
Some areas have much you can leverage, others will require
significant enhancement to meet your requirements
The differences are often due to customization in SAP R/3 by
companies and/or industry solutions
Focus on an area that
Approximate Usage of Standard Content BW 3.5 solves a problem instead
100
(percentage of overall development effort)
of becoming a
replacement project.
80
Gradually, using a
60 priority-phased
40
approach, solve other
business problems.
20
A good way to think of a
0 BI rollout is in terms of
business problems.
t
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es

gm

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in

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* Rapidly improving content 25

What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

26
Tip 12: InfoCube Design Making the Right Design Decisions

Dimensions
BI allows you to create up to 16 dimensions in a single InfoCube (13
are free)
However, using all 16 on a first implementation limits any future
extensions without major redesign of the system
Line item dimensions increase query performance
These are physically stored in the fact table and therefore have
fewer table joins
Key figures
While no limitations are imposed by BI for the number of key
figures, typical implementations contain 1 - 25
While a higher number may be required (i.e. CO-PA), youll
notice tradeoffs of load performance when many records
are loaded
While more than 45 key figures are not necessarily wrong, it might
be considered unusual you should perform an impact study of
the extract on SAP R/3
27
Tip 12: InfoCube Design General Guidelines

Navigational attributes
Lends flexibility to the way users can access data
Common configuration consists of 1 - 35 attributes
While technically not incorrect you should review InfoCubes that do
not contain any navigational attributes
Review any InfoCube that contains more than 60
This may be an indicator that too much information is being
placed in a single InfoCube
Hierarchies
Hierarchies are ways for users to drill-down into the data for
analysis purposes
Typical configurations tend to have 1 - 8 hierarchies
Review any InfoCube with no hierarchy (or with more than 8) to
validate the design with end-user navigation
For global projects you need to consider global and local currencies as well as
various units of measures (e.g., lbs, kilo, tons, gallons, liters). Once decided
upon, these units of measures should be available in all relevant InfoProviders.
28
 Tip 12: InfoCube Design Evaluating Designs (Real Example)
Name Type Tech_nm Dims* Characteristics Largest dim # KF # info. Nav
(all) total of Char Sources attributes
Billing documents condition values Infocube ZSD_C15 10 47 11 3 1 107
Customer Infocube 0SD_C01 8 14 5 16 1 5
Delivery service Infocube 0SD_C04 9 23 5 15 2 10
Invoice summary Infocube ZSD_C06 16 55 11 19 4 116
Order summary Infocube ZSD_C03 16 62 13 23 5 96
Sales order condition value Infocube 0SD_C15 10 41 10 2 1 0
Sales overview Infocube 0SD_C03 11 34 7 17 7 16
Profitability analysis Infocube Z_COPA_X 15 56 14 85 1 70
Inventory mgmt plant summary Infocube MRP_MATL 6 9 3 22 1 16
Material stock/movements Infocube 0IC_C03 9 18 4 24 - 5
Plant & periodic plant stocks Infocube 0IC_C01 8 15 5 21 - 15
Ad-hoc query order line details MC ZSD_M01 7 14 3 6 - 0
Conditions order & billing document MC OSD_MC01 4 66 56 2 - 0
Order and Invoice summary MC ZSD_C04 16 72 20 24 - 88
SD Pricing order & billing docs MC ZSD_M02 12 53 12 3 - 94
Campaign management Infocube ZDM_C006 15 56 19 29 9 109
Commissions Infocube ZDM_C003 14 34 14 8 4 0
Daily management Infocube ZSD_C01 9 31 8 10 6 6
Disposition summary Cubes with many red
Infocube ZDM_C001 9 16 4 1 1 0
Inquiry summary Infocube ZDC_C005 15 22 4 1 1 29
Matrix or yellow codes
Infocube ZDM_C002 10 16 3 141 1 0
Monthly management report
Program summary
should be examined
Infocube
Infocube
ZDM_C005
ZDM_C004
7
16
9
23
3
4
6
12
1
8
0
1

The observation relates a companys current BI system to normally

observed configuration parameters, which serve as benchmarks to what is
commonly seen at other implementations
KF = Key figures 29
Tip 12: InfoCube Design Evaluating Designs (Another Example)

30
Tip 13: Partitioned InfoCubes That Are No Longer the Same

Often when InfoCubes are physically partitioned, changes

occur as new development and fixes are applied
After a while there is a risk that some of the physically partitioned
InfoCubes no longer are identical
This can cause many issues (i.e., If archiving is used, you must
ensure copies of these older datastores are maintained to be able to
restore data)
InfoCubes A real example
Nam e Technical All Largest Characteri Key Nav.
nam e dim ensions dim ension stics Figures Attrib. NOTES
Sales Order: ACD 2007 ZCORD_A07 15 5 40 9 59 Added 'Created by' as a Dimension(instead of field in
Date dim)
Sales Order: LPD 2006 ZCORD_L06 14 4 40 9 59

Sales Order: LPD 2007 ZCORD_L07 15 5 40 9 59 Added 'Created by' as a Dimension(instead of field in
Date dim)
Sales Order History: ACD 2006 ZCODI_A06 15 13 58 39 66

Sales Order History: ACD 2007 ZCODI_A07 15 13 60 9 66 1) Removed 30 Key Figures, 2) Added field "Date for
inv/bill index and print out" to Date dimension 3) added
field "Customer purchase order type" to business reason
dimension
Sales Order History: LPD 2006 ZCODI_L06 15 13 58 39 66

Sales Order History: LPD 2007 ZCODI_L07 15 13 60 9 66 1) Removed 30 Key Figures, 2) Added field "Date for
inv/bill index and print out" to Date dimension 3) added
field "Customer purchase order type" to business reason
dimension 31
 Tip 14: Naming Conventions Should Be Followed
InfoCube Supply Chain Mgmt - Inventory Mgmt. Cube for Risk Management ZRISK

InfoCubes should
InfoCube Supply Chain Mgmt - Inventory Mgmt. Material stocks/movements (as of 3.0B) 0IC_C03
InfoCube Industry Sectors - Oil & Gas - Exchanges Exchange balance 0OI_EXC01
InfoCube Industry Sectors - Retail Retail Competitor Pricing ZRTL_C01

be named: InfoCube
InfoCube
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
PEDCO DTHEAD_DTTAIL
PEDCO LOGSUM
ZPDCO_C01
ZPDCO_C05

0ABC_C01 or InfoCube
InfoCube
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
Non SAP Area - Marine Services
PEDCO MTHEAD_MTTAIL
PEDCO RCHEAD_RCTAIL
ZPDCO_C03
ZPDCO_C02

ZABC_C02
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO Movement Position ZSDMVMPOS
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO Movement Position History ZSDMVMHIS
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR ZSD_OIPR
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR History ZSD_OIPHS
InfoCube Non SAP Area - EPM (Ent. project mgmt) EPM Cube II ZEPM_C02

ODSs should be InfoCube

InfoCube
Non SAP Area - EPM (Ent. project mgmt)
PIW - Profit Improvement Warehouse
Enterprise Project Mgmt (EPM)
PROFIT IMPROVEMENT WAREHOUSE
ZEPM_C01
ZPIW_P001

named:
InfoCube Monthly Operation Planning 3 MOP3 Pricing Marker ZMOP_CMKR
InfoCube Monthly Operation Planning 3 Monthly Operation Planning 3 ZMOP_P01
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Margin Analysis ZPCA_C04

0ABC_O01 or InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
PCA: Summary 1
PCA: Summary 1 History
ZPCA_C03
ZPCA_C03H

ZABC_O02 InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
PCA: Transaction data
Profit Center Accounting - Customer
0PCA_C01
ZPCA_C09
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Other ZPCA_C10
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Periodic Balance ZPCA_C05
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Planning Items ZPCA_C06

MultiProviders InfoCube
InfoCube
Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct.
Fin.
Cust.Mgmt & Controlling
Rel.Mgmt- - Profit Center
CRM Analytics- Acct.
Cross-Scenario
Profit Center Accounting - Summary
Profit Center Accounting - Vendor
ZPCA_C07
ZPCA_C08

should be named: InfoCube

InfoCube
Analyses-Case Mgmt Analysis
Cust. Rel.Mgmt- CRM Analytics- Cross-Scenario
Analyses-Activity
ERP Analytics- Sales & Distribution Analyses -
CRM Case Management Analysis
Activities
ZCRM_CASE
0CSAL_C01

0ABC_M01 or
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing Cube ZSD_CVF0
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing Cube - History ZSD_CVFH1
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses - Billing Summary
ZABC_M02
Analytics- ZSD_C17
InfoCube SAP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
ERP Analytics- Billing: Condition Data Cube ZSD_C06
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Billing: Tax Conditions Cube ZSD_C06C
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Daily Lift Report ZSD_ZS561
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Delivery Cube ZSD_CVL0
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- Delivery Cube - History ZSD_CVLH1
InfoCube SAP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
ERP Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis ZPAWS
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis (1) ZPAWS1
InfoCube SAP
ERP R/3 SD Sales & Distribution Analyses -
Analytics- PAWS: Pricing Analysis Archive ZPAWS2
ODS = Operational Data Store InfoCube Commercial Excellence
Strategic Enterprise Mgmt - BPS - Capital CE Pricing Log 32
ZCE_C01
InfoCube Investment Planning Capital Investment Planning ZBPS_P05
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

33
Global Performance Issues

Global projects have many performance challenges

Hardware must be optimized for 24/7 operations and
network capabilities
BI system must also have optimal backup and disaster recovery
windows and rapid data load processing
Since most of the query rendering time is spent on the
database, it is important that global projects spend serious
time optimizing the database reads by leveraging tools such
as the BI Accelerator and the classical SAP NetWeaver
BI aggregates

The correct definition of global aggregates can

dramatically reduce the time spent on database reads by
the BI queries, thereby delivering faster query results to
the users in various geographical locations.
34
 Tip 15: Performance Enhancements Are Available Use Them
Nam e Technical Indexes Aggregate Stats DB

Check indexes periodically COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: 2006

nam e
YCPAPL_1
index build Stats
10%

Under RSA1 Manage Performance

COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: ACD 2007 ZCPAPLA07 10%
COPA(US) : P&L L'Oreal R110: LPD 2007 ZCPAPLL07 10%
FI-AR Accounts Receiv. Line Item IC YCZO_1 10%

Check database statistics to route FI-AR Historical Indicators US

FIAR (CS) : Cube - Hist. indicators Zoom
ZCARHI_1
YCZOHI_1
10%
10%

queries faster Agreement

Cancellation and rejection
YC13_AGR
YC11_CR
10%
10%

At this company, 50% of the InfoCubes Carry Over ZCSD_CROV 10%

Consolidated Open Orders ZC_OO 10%

had outdated database statistics that Consolidated Open Orders

Delivery
YC_OO
YC12_DEL
10%
10%

should be updated Historical Invoice LPD

Invoice
ZCHSTLI
YC13_INV
10%
10%

For large InfoCubes, or cubes with

RGA Data ZC_RGADTL 10%
Sales Order History ZCORDINV 10%
Sales order YC11_ORD 10%

many users, the percentage used to Service rate

Invoice: ACD 2004
YC11_SR
ZCINVA04
10%
10%

build the database statistics can be Invoice: ACD 2005

Invoice: ACD 2006
ZCINVA05
ZCINVA06
10%
10%

increased to 15 - 20% Invoice: LPD 2004

Invoice: LPD 2005
ZCINVL04
ZCINVL05
10%
10%

May yield improved Invoice: LPD 2006

Sales Order: ACD 2006
ZCINVL06
ZCORD_A06
10%
10%

query routing Sales Order: ACD 2007

Sales Order: LPD 2006
ZCORD_A07
ZCORD_L06
10%
10%
Sales Order: LPD 2007 ZCORD_L07 10%
Sales Order History: ACD 2006 ZCODI_A06 10%
Sales Order History: ACD 2007 ZCODI_A07 10%
Sales Order History: LPD 2006 ZCODI_L06 10%
Sales Order History: LPD 2007 ZCODI_L07 10%
Invoice: ACD 2007 ZCINVA07 10%
Invoice: LPD 2007 ZCINVL07 10%
Delivery: ACD 2007 ZCDELA07 10%
Delivery: LPD 2007 ZCDELL07 10%
Service Rate: ACD 2007 ZCSRIA07 10%
35
Service Rate: LPD 2007 ZCSRIL07 10%
Tip 15: Performance Enhancements Aggregates Are Often
Incorrectly Built (Real Example)
Several cubes
have no
aggregates,
while others
can benefit
from
generating
new proposals
A score above
30% for
average
aggregate
valuations
should be a
target for a
data store

36
Tip 15: Performance Enhancements Correct Aggregates Are
Easy to Build
This example shows the benefits of aggregates by
using system statistics to generate proposals
This very large InfoCube had over 160 queries attached to
it and only one aggregate

Select the run time of queries

to be analyzed (e.g., 20 sec)
Select time period to
be analyzed
Only those queries executed in
this time period will be reviewed
to create the proposal
High value aggregate proposal
(users who had queries that ran
over 20 seconds during the last
six months, would have
benefited from 438 times
each query execution)
37
Tip 16: Memory Cache Is Often Set Too Low

The cache settings at many companies are too low

For example, at one large company the cache was set at 100 MB for
local and 200 MB for global cache, which is too low for a system
with thousands of users and 4 TB of data
Review the settings with the Basis team and look at the
available hardware
During the review, use the transaction code RSCUSTV14 in SAP
NetWeaver BI to increase the cache if needed
Focus particularly on the global cache
To monitor the usage of the cache, use transaction code
RSRCACHE and also periodically review the analysis of load
distribution using ST03N Expert Mode
Example: At one company over 61% of all 35,644
navigation steps in a month accessed the database
instead of the cache, even after the query was executed.
38
 Tip 17: Use the BEx Broadcaster to Pre-Fill the Cache

Distribution Types

By broadcasting the query result of commonly

used queries to the cache, your users do not
need to execute the query from the database.
Instead the result is already in the system
memory (much faster).
39
 Tip 18: Focus Performance Enhancements on Large InfoCubes

Type InfoArea Name Tech Name Index Stats No of Rows

InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR History ZSD_OIPHS x x 157,218,110
InfoCube Non SAP Area - SFIO SFIO OIPR ZSD_OIPR x x 157,131,010
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Customer ZPCA_C09 x x 119,969,043
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Vendor ZPCA_C08 x x 116,068,014
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. Profit Center Accounting - Other ZPCA_C10 x x 116,012,946
InfoCube Fin. Mgmt & Controlling - Profit Center Acct. PCA: Summary 1 ZPCA_C03 x x 108,784,493

Typically 20% of the cubes and queries will see 80% of

the usage
Focus on these, when performance tuning, or it can become
overwhelming
InfoCubes with over 100 million rows should be analyzed for
performance enhancements, such as broadcasting of queries
to cache, aggregates, indexes, database stats, etc.

Avoid building local queries that are unique to the various

geographies or business units. Focus instead on the reusability
of global queries that are saved as local views (favorites).
40
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

41
Tip 19: Avoid Swiss Army Knife MultiProviders: It Will Be Slow!

There is a temptation to use only a few MultiProviders to build

all queries
This may dramatically slow down queries
Hint: This design may prevent queries from being executed
in parallel

Avoid attempting to build

a single MultiProvider to
do all functions of the
data warehouse

42
Tip 19: Swiss Army Knife MultiProviders and Parallel Processing

To avoid an overflow of the memory, parallel processing is

cancelled as soon as the collected result contains 30,000
rows or more and there is at least one incomplete subprocess
The MultiProvider query is then restarted automatically and
processed sequentially
What appears to be parallel processing corresponds to sequential
processing plus the preceding phase of parallel processing up to
the termination
Generally, its recommended that you keep the number of
InfoProviders of a MultiProvider to no more than 10

Avoid creating InfoCubes that are specific to one country or

business unit. If you do this, you will have to later combine
them in large MultiProviders that may cause slow performance.

43
Tip 19: Swiss Army Knife MultiProviders and Parallel Processing
(cont.)
Consider deactivating parallel processing for those queries
that are MultiProvider queries and have large result sets
With SAP BW 3.0B SP14 (SAP BW 3.1 SP8), you can change the
default value of 30,000 rows refer to SAP Notes 629541, 622841,
607164, and 630500
A larger number of base InfoProviders is likely to result in a
scenario where there are many more base InfoProviders than
available dialog processes, resulting in limited parallel
processing and many pipelined sub-queries

44
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

45
Tip 20: Clean Up Old Objects That Are No Longer Used

After a few years of running SAP NetWeaver BI, companies

often have many objects that are no longer used
Cleaning them up makes for a simpler development
environment, which is easier to navigate and has a positive
impact on analysis on when designing new objects

Keep your environments clean of obsolete junk.

46
 Tip 21: Dont Replicate Legacy Data Logic in SAP NetWeaver BI

Its tempting to replicate the SAP transaction system in the

BI environment
You can spot this when you find many ODSs that serve as
lookup tables (easy to recognize, since these systems have
many ODSs and each of them have few fields)

Number of fields per ODS

14

Don't allow the BI 12

Number of ODSs

system to become a 10

replication of the 8
transaction system, 6
merely because that 4
is what your 2
developers know. 0
0-5 6-10 11-15 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 90+

47
Tip 22: Avoid Direct Querying of ODS

To quickly solve local reporting requirements, it is tempting to

bypass the global InfoCubes and query the data stores
(ODSs) directly this is a mistake
ODSs are for central staging of historical data, detailed
analysis, lookups, and data mining not for local reporting
If you allow the users to bypass the global InfoCube logic,
you will find yourself supporting slow local queries that do
not take full advantage of the inherent performance of the
OLAP processor
Many local detailed queries will consume system resources,
causing other global users to suffer
If you follow this path, you will be asked to create InfoSet
queries and eventually have minimal advantages of standard
content, which will lead you to the road to build a traditional
legacy data warehouse
Restrict the number of users that can access the ODSs. 48
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

49
Tip 23: Be Aware of Divergent Country Accounting Rules

Different accounting standards must be dealt with on

global projects
For example, pension obligations are considered long-term debt in
most European countries and long-term liabilities in the
US (unsecured)
Accounting rules for depreciation, amortization, depletions,
and allocations vary from country to country
For example, the US allows for accelerated depreciation in
certain instances

Plan on involving accountants and mapping tables if you are

consolidating reporting for both local and global purposes.
Make sure you have an audit trail of transformations.
50
Tip 24: Standardize Currency and Units of Measures

A global BI requires standardized currencies and Units of

Measure (UOM) for aggregate reporting
Conversions from pounds to kilos, or from liters to gallons
are easy, but you have to decide how to handle currencies
Possible solution A: Some companies use a pro-forma currency
translation rate for reporting during an interim period and a real
currency translation rate when the financial books are closed or
funds are transferred
Possible solution B: Some companies use previous months
currency translation rate for reporting during an interim period and a
real currency translation rate when the financial books are closed or
funds are transferred

Sites like www.xe.com can provide you pro-forma currency

translation daily, but you have to make a decision.
51
Tip 25: Determining Hierarchies Global vs. Local

On a global project you can create local and global

hierarchies
For example, a large European telecom company created a five-level
sales material hierarchy in BI that reflected the Dutch reporting
view, a seven-level hierarchy that reflected the German reporting
view, and a four-level hierarchy for corporate reporting
This allowed reporting for each subsidiary and a new corporate
reporting hierarchy that was not available in any local system
Lessons learned: You dont have to select a single hierarchy;
local needs can also be accommodated

Trick: MultiProviders can be used to mask

the complexity for the query developers.
52
What Well Cover

Introduction
Scoping the SAP NetWeaver BI project
Getting the project started
Designing InfoCubes the good, the bad, and the ugly
Improving Performance what to do, and how to do it
Understanding the curse of MultiProviders
Cleaning up and ODS management
Considering global integration points
Wrap-up

53
Resources

Steve McConnell, Rapid Development

(Microsoft Press 1996, ISBN: 1556159005)

Jeremy Kadlec, Start to Finish Guide to IT Project

Management (NetImpress 2003, ISBN: B0000W86H2,
Digital, 109 pages)

COMERIT.NET (presentations, tools and acccellerators)

www.Comerit.net

54
Resources (cont.)

European privacy laws

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221111
European Commissions Directive on Data Protection
www.export.gov/safeharbor

Where
to
FIND it

55
7 Key Points to Take Home

Be sensitive to other cultures and dont enforce US

working methods
More than one methodology is available for you to use
Long-term environment sizing and planning is critical
Performance tuning is not an afterthought, but a project task
An SAP NetWeaver BI architecture should be formulated
before a project starts
Plan for BI cockpits and dashboards they are not nice-to-
haves, but a critical part of BI
Get the global team active and develop the SAP NetWeaver BI
solutions for local and global needs

56
Your Turn!

How to contact me:

Dr. Bjarne Berg
bberg@comerit.net
57