Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
2015
SAP BI - Course
Fundamentals
SAP BI
2015
Content
Business Intelligence what is? ............................................................................................................ 3
Why BI? .............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.
2.
3.
4.
Infoproviders ................................................................................................................................ 12
BI Infocub ................................................................................................................................. 14
Multiproviders .......................................................................................................................... 19
Infoobjects:................................................................................................................................... 19
5.
7.
Extract data from source system and data source ( extractor) ............................................ 27
8.
9.
10.
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Why BI?
The effective and flexible BI tool set from SAP helps you to gather any detailed information
from internal and external SAP sources and survey the processes in your company more
clearly than ever before. With BI, your managers are better informed at all levels, enabling them
to make decisions in the short reaction times available in today's dynamic markets. At the
same time, BI helps you to keep costs down in information management.
Relevant business information from productive SAP applications (SAP transactional system) and
external data sources can be integrated, transformed, and consolidated in BI with the toolset provided.
BI provides flexible reporting, analysis, and planning tools to support you in evaluating and interpreting
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data, and tools for distributing information. Businesses can make well-founded decisions and identify
target-orientated activities on the basis of the analyzed data.
The increasing demand for high-quality business information means that in addition to an integrated
data collection process, detailed data analysis and multimedia presentation options are also required.
The demand for Business Intelligence solutions that incorporate all of these features is immense.
Differences between a BI/Data Warehouse System (OLAP) and an OLTP System (transactional
system).
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Level of detail: The OLTP layer stores data with a very high level of detail, whereas data in
the Data Warehouse is compressed for high-performance access (aggregation).
History: Archiving data in the OLTP area means it is stored with minimal history. The Data
Warehouse area requires comprehensive historical data.
Changeability: Frequent data changes are a feature of the operative area, while in the Data
Warehouse, the data is frozen after a certain point for analysis.
Integration: In contrast to the OLTP environment, requests for comprehensive, integrated
information for analysis isare very high.
Normalization: Due to the reduction in data redundancy, normalization is very high for
operative use. Data staging and lower performance are the reasons why there is less
normalization in the Data Warehouse.
Read access: An OLAP environment is optimized for read access. Operative applications (and
users) also need to carry out additional functions regularly, including change, insert, and
delete.
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Specifically for BI, the ETL it is the process of taking raw DataSource data from a source
system(created in RSO2 or if it is SAP standard, activated in RSA6), applying transformation
rules to it, and loading it to an InfoProvider (target).
ETL process is shown in the picture bellow with steps from 1 to 5:
1. Data source to EXTRACT
2. Transformation to TRANSFORM
3. **optional
4. Infopackage to LOAD and 5. DTP also to LOAD
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDuhwCjfAM
In Data Warehousing and Business intelligence (BI), a star schema is the simplest form of
dimensional model, in which data is organized into facts and dimensions.
A fact is an event that is counted or measure, such as a sales or quantity.
A dimension contains reference information about the fact, such as date, product, or customer.
A star schema is diagramed by Fact/Transaction table surrounded by
Dimensions/Master table.
The resulting resembles a star.
Before you create an InfoCube, you want to understand the underlying database model in a more
technical way.
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Aici, mai jos o sa intelegem diferenta intre modul de configurare si acces al tabelelor in sistemul
OLTP (SAP transactional), comparativ cu sistemul BI.
Se vorbeste de schema relationala normalizata din OLTP comparativ cu star schema din BI,star
schema care este vazuta in 2 feluri: clasic si extended:
Almost all OLTP system are designed using a highly normalized relational schema.
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Facts, sometimes called measures, are the focus of the analysis for a business process.
The fact data (values for the facts) is stored in a highly normalized fact table.
The values of the dimension attributes are stored from a technical perspective, in various denormalized
dimension tables.
Din perspectiva afacerii, aceste tabele sunt vazute in mod colectiv ca reprezentand dimensiuni ale
procesului de afaceri, pe scurt acestea sunt numite dimensiuni (dimensions).
The dimension tables are linked relationally with the central fact table by way of key relationships.
In star schema de mai jos, cheia tabelelor de dimensiuni este o cheie generata automat (DIM ID) care
in mod unic defineste o combinatie a valorilor atributelor dimenisiunii (campurile dintr-o dimensiune,
aici, sunt numite attribute ale dimensiunii).
DIM ID va fi o cheie externa in fact table. In acest fel, toate inregistrarile din fact table pot fi
identificate in mod unic.
In BI, campurile din dimensiuni sunt numite characteristici si Facts, din fact table sunt
reprezentate de indicatori sau key figure.
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(refined) star schema. The improvements eliminate both technical and business-reporting problems
experienced with the classic star schema.
Before we can delve into the schema of a BI InfoCube, we need to review characteristics InfoObjects.
We want to focus on master-data-bearing characteristics InfoObjects. The figure below shows two of
the many master-data-bearing characteristics delivered by BI. Although characteristics InfoObjects are
the attribute fields on the dimension tables, the characteristics that have their own master data tables
connected to them are very important in our overall schema design.
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4. Infoproviders
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InfoCubes,
InfoSets,
RemoteCubes and
InfoProviders are the objects or views relevant to reporting. The system supplies data targets
with data from the source systems using a load process (or by writing directly into the tables for
transactional object types (for planning part)).
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The data in a DataStore object can be updated with a delta update into InfoCubes (standard)
and/or other DataStore objects or master data tables (attributes or texts) in the same system or
across different systems.
Unlike multidimensional data storage using InfoCubes, the data in DataStore objects is
stored in transparent, flat database tables. The system does not create fact tables or
dimension tables.
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.
Type
Structure
Data
SID
Supply
Generation
Possible
Standard
Consists of three
From data
DataStore
tables: activation
transfer
Object
process
Yes
From data
Optimized
transfer
DataStore
No
process
Objects
DataStore
Objects for
From APIs
No
Direct Update
Business Example
Your company is about to retire a legacy sales reporting system. Although you are not complete with
your InfoCube modeling decisions, your sales team has decided to use a DataStore object to store data
from this legacy system before it disappears.
To make sure this is a good decision, you want evaluate the DataStore objects and their features and
functions. You also want to make sure you can add a InfoCube in the data flow in the future.
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reporting, or can be part of the of the warehouse, where they can be used to hold years of
potentially needed data.
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o ** No authorization to report would be given to users for these DS objects
Normal reporting scenarios involve a drilldown from InfoCube to the DS object
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.
Multiproviders
A MultiProvider is a type of InfoProvider that combines data from a number of InfoProviders and makes
it available for analysis purposes. The MultiProvider itself does not contain any data. Its data comes
entirely from the InfoProviders on which it is based. These InfoProviders are connected to one another by a
union operation.
5. Infoobjects:
See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5HeVILc-y8
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Material (0MATERIAL)
Time Characteristics InfoObjects form the time reference frame for many data analyses and
evaluations. They are delivered with BI Content.
Examples of time characteristics InfoObjects:
- Calendar day (0CALDAY) . Time characteristic with the largest granularity
- Calendar year (0CALYEAR) or fiscal year (0FISCYEAR) Time characteristic with the
smallest granularity
Units InfoObjects can be specified along with the key figures. They enable key figure values to be
paired with their corresponding units in evaluations.
Examples of units InfoObjects:
- Currency unit (0CURRENCY) . Holds the currency of the transaction ($,EUR, and so on)
- Value unit (0UNIT) . Holds the unit of measure (Gallon, Inch, cm, PC)
Technical characteristics InfoObjects have an organizational function within BI. Examples of
technical characteristics InfoObjects:
- Request ID (0REQUID)
- Change ID (0CHNGID)
Characteristics InfoObjects
Characteristics InfoObjects are used to analyze key figures, for example, Customer (characteristic)
Sales (key figure).
The Maintenance menu of creating a characteristic contains in RSA1 the following tab pages:
. General
. Business Explorer
. Master data/texts
. Attributes
. Hierarchy
. Compounding
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On this tab page, you determine whether or not the characteristic can have attributes or texts. If the
characteristic is to have its own texts, you need to make at least one text selection (short, medium-length,
or long text, that is, 20, 40, or 60 characters). The attributes are assigned to the characteristic on the
Attributes tab page. By selecting any of these checkboxes, the characteristic is designed to bear master
data.
Attributes are InfoObjects (characteristics or key figures) that are used to describe
characteristics in greater detail. For example, the characteristic cost center can be described in more
detail with the profit center and person responsible information about the cost center or if we take as
an example the characteristic material, attributes of the material can be Length, width or color.
If you define attributes as display attributes, you can use these attributes only as additional
information in reporting when combined with the characteristic.
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In other words, in reporting, you cannot navigate within the dataset of an InfoProvider using these
attributes.
If you define attributes as navigation attributes, you can use them to navigate in reporting.
When a query is executed, the system does not distinguish between navigation attributes and
characteristics for an InfoProvider. In other words, all navigation functions in the query are also
possible for navigation attributes.
InfoObject Catalogs
The warehouse has many objects in it. In order to find these objects easily, we organize them into
different types of folders. InfoObject catalogs are just one of the types of available folders in the
warehouse. The figure below shows all the available folders associated with InfoObjects and what
they contain.
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On this tab page, you determine the key figure type (amount, quantity, number and so on), the data
type (currency field/floating-point number, quantity field/floating-point number, and so on), and the
currency/quantity unit.
Type/unit tab:
Business Example
To perform maintenance and administration tasks for your BI Data Warehouse, you need to learn the
features and functions of the Data Warehousing Workbench and how to access them. You also need
general navigation skills, such as searching for objects and adding them to your favorites. Knowing
how to use the search function and other functions will make working in BI much easier.
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For extracting data, the following tools and objects are needed:
Source System:
A Definition
A source system is any system that is available to BI for data extraction and transfer purposes.
Examples include SAP ECC (transactional or OLTP), File, SAP BI, custom system-based Oracle
DB, PeopleSoft, and many others.
DataSource (extractor):
A Definition
DataSources are objects used to extract and stage data from source systems.
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Transformations
Once the data arrives in the PSA, you then have to cleanse / transform it prior to physical storage in
your targets. These targets include InfoObjects (master data), InfoCubes and DataStore Objects.
The design of the data flow uses metadata objects such as DataSources, Transformations and
InfoProviders.
Once the data flow is designed, the InfoPackages and the Data Transfer Processes (DTP) take
over to actually manage the execution and scheduling of the actual data transfer. As you can see
from the figure below, there are two processes that need to be scheduled.
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Fig. InfoPackages and Data Transfer Processes Initiate the Data Flow
DTP is the data transfer process. It is that object that controls the actual data flow (filters, update mode
(delta or full) for a specific transformation between 2 infoproviders or from PSA to a infoprovider.
8. Process chain
Business Example
You realize that all the daily tasks of your BI project would never get done without the use of automation.
Tasks such as the deletion of data, scheduling of InfoPackages, triggering of data transfer processes into
targets, compression of InfoCubes, and so on, are too numerous to manage without a specialized tool.
You want to investigate the use of process chains to accomplish this much-needed automation.
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Process chains provide a drag-and-drop scheduling interface for background tasks that occur in
BI.
Process chains are accessed under transaction RSPC or under the appropriate link in Data Warehousing
Workbench.
Process chains allow:
1. Automatization of the complex schedule of tasks in BI
2. Visualization of processes by using network graphics
3. Central control and monitoring of tasks (processes) in the same or linked chains
Business Example
You use SAP BI to define reports that enable standardized navigation functions in analyses, independent
of the source operational system.
You want to define simple reports, execute these, and make changes to the report definition.
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You have various options for calling up (opening) the Query Designer:
From the BEx Analyzer
As a separate program using Start Programs Business Explorer Query Designer
UsingtheWeb Application Designer (see the BEx Web Application Designer unit)
FromtheBEx Report Designer
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The Query Designer contains many different panes, some panes are only displayed when a function
button is pressed. However, we will now describe the key panes:
1. Directory tree of the selected InfoProvider.
Once you have selected the required InfoProvider, all available objects (dimensions, key figures,
structures) display in the directory tree in the left screen area of the Query Designer.
In this example, you can see the directory tree for the InfoProvider InfoCube Customer Cube
T_SDDEMO2.
2. Characteristic Restrictions
Here you define the characteristic filter values which apply to the entire result set.
3. Default Values
In this pane you define the characteristic filter values which should be used for the initial view of the
result set. The user may choose to modify these filters in the result.
4. Properties
Here is where the settings relevant to the currently highlighted query object are displayed. You can
also make changes to the setting here. Often there will be multiple tabs used to organize the settings in
this pane.
5. Messages
This pane is where informational or error messages are displayed.
6. Free Characteristics.
Put the characteristics which you want to offer to the user for navigation purposes in this pane. These
characteristics do not appear in the initial view of the query result set, the user must use a navigation
control in order to make use of them.
You do not define the filter values here.
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7. Columns
Here is where the query objects (key figures or characteristics) must be placed if you want them to
appear in the columns of the results set.
8. Rows
Here is where the query objects (key figures or characteristics) must be placed if you want them to
appear in the rows of the results set.
9. Preview
This pane gives you an idea of what the layout of the results set will look like when you execute the
query.
10. Tasks
A list of suitable tasks relating to highlighted query object are displayed here, you can click on any of
the tasks in the list to go directly to the settings.
11. Where Used
This pane provides information relating to the use of the query object.
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Percentage Functions:
Percentage Variance (%)
<Operand 1> % <Operand 2>
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Data Functions
Counts
COUNT(<Expression>)
Delivers the value 1 if the expression named in <Expression> is not equal to 0. Otherwise, delivers the
value 0.
NDIV0 (x): Is equal to 0 with division by 0, otherwise x.
NDIV(<Expression>)
Delivers 0 if the expression named in <Expression> gives a division by 0 in the calculation.
Otherwise, the result is the value of the expression.
Is used to:
- Avoid the output of an error message
- Continue calculating with a defined result
Result
SUMCT <Operand>
Delivers the result of the operand in all rows or columns (see Percentage Functions %CT).
Overall Result
SUMGT<Operand>
Delivers the overall result of the operand (see Percentage Functions %GT).
Report Result
SUMRT<Operand>
Delivers the report result of the operand (to distinguish between the overall and the report result, see
also Percentage Functions %GT and %RT).
Mathematical Functions
These include:
Maximum
Minimum
Absolute Value
Smallest integer value larger than operand
Division (integers)
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To define calculated key figures at the query level, you have to include key figures needed for the
calculation in the query definition, and choose New Formula from the context menu of the Key Figure
structure. These formulas are available only locally in the query definition.
If you are defining calculations in the columns as well as in the rows, a formula collision can occur in
the interfaces of the two formulas. You can therefore, define which of the formulas is to be used.
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but assuming they do have the correct authorizations they can make the changes. These changes will
affect all queries where the calculated key figure is used.
10.
Workbooks reporting
See video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfjhC8GOBj4&list=PLyH9U1E43FYqGiaxunNkLE
vv1ZeqpxAMH
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp2/helpdata/en/ba/45583ca544eb51e10000000a1140
84/content.htm?frameset=/en/ba/45583ca544eb51e10000000a114084/frameset.htm&curr
ent_toc=/en/e3/e60138fede083de10000009b38f8cf/plain.htm&node_id=1697&show_child
ren=false
Din link-ul alaturat expandati va rog ramura cu Analysis & Reporting: Bex Analyser
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