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Overview of SAP BW

A business of
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1. Agenda

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Contents
• SAP BW Overview and Concepts
• Introducing the Administrator Workbench
• Data Modeling and Loading
• Data Extraction (OLTP and Remote Systems)
• The ODS and Business Content
• Production Support
• BEX Reporting

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Data Warehousing and the

SAP BW Overview and
Concepts

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SAP Business Information Warehouse
• Data Warehouse system with optimized structures for
reporting and analysis
• OLAP engine and tools for BEX Reporting
• Integrated meta data repository
• Data extraction and data staging in OLTP
• Preconfigured support for data sources from R/3
Systems
• BAPIs for data sources from non-SAP systems
• Automated Data Warehouse management
• Administrator Workbench for controlling and managing
content
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Business Information Warehouse
Architecture

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 Business
Content

Financial Accounting Logistics

General Ledger Sales
Accnts Receivable Controlling Human Resources
Purchasing
Accnts Payable Profitability Analysis Administration
Inventory Management
Special Ledger Product Costing Training & Events
Production
Fixed Assets Overhead Costing Time Management
Profit Center Accnt Project Management
Payroll Accounting
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 Close the Loop

Action

Common
Analytical
Transaction Applications
Analysis
Processing Meta Data

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Extraction Transformation
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

OLTP External 8
DSS
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 Architecture Overview

3rd party
3rd party OLAP
OLAP client
clients
3rd party OLAP client Business Explorer
MDX Analyzer
Browser
(hosted by MS Excel)
OLE-DB for OLAP Provider

Administrator OLAP Processor InfoCatalog

Workbench
Meta
Administration Data Meta Data Manager Data
Data Manager
Manager
Repositor InfoCubes
Scheduling y
Business Information Staging Engine Operational
Monitor Warehouse Server Data Store
BAPI

Non R/3 Production Data Production Data OLTP

Extractor Extractor Reporting

Non R/3 OLTP R/3 OLTP Applications

Applications 9

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 Staging Process

InfoCube InfoCube

Update Rules Update Rules Update Rules

Communication Structure Communication Structure

Business
Information
Info Sources
Mapping & Transformation Rules
Mapping & Transformation Rules
Warehouse
Transfer Structure Transfer Structure Transfer Structure
Server

Source R/3 standard 3rd party Market

Systems extractor extraction tool Information

Data extract Data extract

Sales Europe Sales Americas
Research Institute

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R/3 OLTP System Non R/3 OLTP System
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 DataSource and InfoSource
Business Information
Warehouse Server InfoCubes
Staging Engine
Update Rules

Communication structure InfoSource

Transfer Rules Transfer Rules

Transfer Rules
(Replicated) Transfer Structure Transfer Structure Transfer Structure

DataSource
Transfer Structure Transfer Structure Transfer Structure

Extract Source Structure Extract Source Structure Extract Source Structure

OLTP System 1 OLTP System 2

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 Extraction, Transformation and Loading

 Open for any source

 Flexible set of ETL capabilities
 Integration on application level
JDBC
XLMA  Open to third-party tools
ODBO
 Support of open standards

…to get a complete view of your business

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 Non-SAP Data Sources

Business Information Warehouse Server

Administrator
Workbench Dat
Meta Staging
Data StagingEngine
Engine a
Repositor Bas
y BAPI e

Complementary
ComplementaryExtraction
Extraction
&&Transformation
TransformationTool
Tool
R/3 File

Mainframe RDBMS
• Staging BAPIs allow ... Non SAP
− ... certified SAP Partners to provide
ready-to-run extraction & transformation tools
− ... customers to integrate their non-SAP data

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 Persistent Staging Area

Business Information Warehouse Server

InfoCube

Update Rules

PSA Validation

InfoSource InfoSource

BAPI

Data extract Data extract

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OLTP System
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Administrator Workbench

Central
CentralAdministration
Administrationand
andControl
Control
 Modeling
Modeling
 Reporting Agent
Reporting Agent
 Business Content
Business Content
 Monitoring
Monitoring
 Metadata Repository
Metadata Repository

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 OLAP Processor
 Arbitrary drill-downs, horizontally, vertically, hierarchically
 Built-in functions for ...
... Aggregation: sum, count, count distinct, min / max,
first / last, average by period, ...
... Comparison: difference, ratio, percent,...
... Analysis: sort, cumulated sum, time series,...
... Stock value handling
... Financial: currencies, fiscal year variants,...
 Derived key figures

Vienna.conf.032499

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 More OLAP Goodies ...

 Hierarchies for interactive drill-down

 Tree-like structures on a characteristic’s domain
 Structure defined in external hierarchy table (similar to
master data)  no realignment problem!
 Flexible versioning on hierarchies
 Variables
 Determine set of data for a query at run-time
 which complex filters, which hierarchies?
 Values for variables are calculated by the system or
entered by the user
 Values for variables can be used as input for formulae

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 Currency Conversion
• Convert during data load and/or
during analysis
• Based on R/3 conversion rates Business Explorer
• Conversion per EUR
− fiscal year / fiscal period
− calendar date / period convert
OLAP
OLAP Processor
Processor
− conversion rate type EUR
• Mixed currencies within USD JPY
columns or rows
− multi currency aggregates can be Staging
Staging Engine
Engine convert
resolved by a simple dill-down by
units
NLG
DM
JPY
R/3 EUR LIT File
R
FF
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 Aggregates
• Speed up query performance by providing
pre-aggregated views on InfoCubes
 Aggregates are also stored in InfoCube star schema
• Fully invisible to the end-user
 Created by administrator depending on InfoCube semantics and
query anticipation
 Optimized by OLAP processor selecting best aggregate
• Built-in consistency
 data package released for queries when aggregate update complete
• Zero downtime during load

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 BW Data Model

Customer # Name Location Master

13970522 Brightview, Inc. Palo Alto data

Customer dimension
InfoCube
C Customer # Region …
13970522 west ...

P C T Quantity Revenue Discount Sales overhead Fact table

250 500,000 $ 50,000 $ 280,000 $

50 100,000 $ 7,500 $ 60,000 $
… … … ...

P Product # Product group … T Period Fiscal year …

2101004 displays ... 10 1997 ...
Product dimension Time dimension

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InfoCube: SAP BW Design
• Central data stores for reports and evaluations
• Contains two types of data:
− Key Figures
− Characteristics
• 1 Fact Table and up to 16 Dimension Tables
− 3 Dimensions are predefined by SAP
− Time
− Unit
− Info Package

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 Info Cube Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Query Cache

Others
Govt Agencies
Institutions

Customer Retail
Group Whole sale South
Dept Stores West Regions
East

Furnishings

Bi-products
Glassware

Chemicals
Ceramics
Plastics

Division

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 InfoCube: Example
East
South

Customer
Region

group
Dept. Stores
North

Wholesale
Retail

Glass- Ceramics Plastics Pottery Copper Pewter

ware

Division
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 InfoCube: Multi-dimensional analysis
Query Cache InfoCube
Characteristics:
Product group
Customer group
East
Region

Division
Customer
South

Area
group
DeptStores Company code
North

Wholesale
Retail Region
Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware Period
Division Profit Center
Bus. Area

Analysis 2 Analysis 3 Analysis

of Ceramics of Plastics of Plastics division
1 division division and Southern region
East

East
South East

Region

Region
Customer Customer Customer
Region

South

group group

South
group
DeptStores DeptStores DeptStores
North

North

North
Wholesale Wholesale Wholesale
Retail Retail Retail
Glass- Ceramics Plastics Glass- Ceramics Plastics Glass- Ceramics Plastics
ware ware ware

Division Division Division

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 InfoCube: Characteristics and Key Figures

Customer
group
1 North
100 Plastics Character-
RT-0001 Retail Trade istics
Region

Sales 4,000,000
Hours worked 1,300,000 Key Figures

Division

• Key Figures are stored for a unique combination of Characteristic Values

• Number of dimensions is degree of granularity / summarization level of the dataset

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 What is an InfoObject ?
• The various OLTP data models are unified for BW
• Business objects / data elements become
InfoObjects
R/3
OLTP BW Extractor

Table of cost centers

CO
KOS TL ... DataSource
Controlling InfoObject
for
Cost Center
“0COSTCENTER”

Table of employees
HR
Human EMPLO COST_CENTER ...
Resources
InfoObjects are unique across
application components !
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Types of InfoObjects

• Characteristics: evaluation groups like “Cost Center”, “Product

group”, “Material”
− Have discrete values stored in their master data tables
(e.g. the characteristic “Region” has the values “North”,
“South”, ... )
− Special types of characteristics:
− Time characteristics like “Fiscal period”, “Calendar year”, ...
− Unit characteristics which comprise currencies and units of
measure like “Local currency” or “Sales quantity”
• Keyfigures: continuously valued numerical fields like amounts and
quantities (e.g.: “Revenue” and “Sales quantity”)

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 Reporting Architecture

Analyzer
defines ...
Business Explorer

OLAP server
OLAP
Processor
operates on ... Query

Database Database
stores ... Star
Schema
Aggregates

stored in
InfoCub
e

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 Reporting
Architecture
Business Explorer
Analyzer stored in
shows ...
defines ...
Query View Excel Workbook

OLAP server

OLAP
Processor Query
operates on ...

Database Aggregates

stored in Star
Database Schema
stores ...
InfoCube
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Analyzer: Defining
Queries

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 Analyzer embedded in Excel

• Business Explorer Analyzer ...

− ... implemented as an Add-in for Microsoft Excel
− ... links query rsults to cells in Excel workbooks
(e.g. multiple queries within same worksheet)
− ... offers all navigation features of OLAP-Processor via mouse-
click, context-menus, toolbar etc.

Workbooks
as All
rendition End-users build
container on existing Excel
for queries and
presentati and MS Office
(store, e- know how
mail) on
features of
Excel
available
Vienna.conf.032499

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Thank You

A business of