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Integrating 3 rd Party Tools with SAP Business Information Warehouse

Integrating 3 rd Party Tools with SAP Business Information Warehouse. Naeem Hashmi Chief Technology Officer Information Frameworks Tel: 603-432-4550 Cell: 603-661-6820 Email: nhashmi@infoframeworks.com http://infoframeworks.com. SAP GO-Live Call April 11, 2002. Agenda.

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Integrating 3 rd Party Tools with SAP Business Information Warehouse

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  1. Integrating 3rd Party Tools withSAP Business Information Warehouse Naeem Hashmi Chief Technology Officer Information Frameworks Tel: 603-432-4550 Cell: 603-661-6820 Email: nhashmi@infoframeworks.com http://infoframeworks.com SAP GO-Live Call April 11, 2002 Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  2. Agenda • Anatomy of BI Tools • Data Access Interfaces in SAP BW (Pro and Cons) • 3rd Party Reporting Tools and SAP BW • Challenges in integrating 3rd Party tools with BW • What SAP or 3rd party vendors can do to address SAP BW Integration Issues • Q&A Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  3. Basic Components of 3rd Party BI Tools A Typical Data Access, Query/ Reporting and ETL Tool Data Storage Data Access Interface Metadata Query Reporting OLAP Mining Engine Mostly Database Oriented (SQL) Structured Data Distribution Engine Presentation ETL Engine Un-Structured Data • Tools provide several Data Management layers • Each layer impacts overall performance Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  4. SAP Portal SAP BW Interfaces SAP certifies 3rd Party tools for individual Interface/Version OleDB for OLAP OLAP BAPI XML RRI Interface RFC,BAPI SBAPI, TBAPI DB Connect ALE/TRFC Source: SAP Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  5. SAP R/3 & BW 3rd Party BI Tools - Interfaces A Typical Data Access, Query and Reporting Tool Data Storage Data Access Interface Metadata Query Reporting OLAP Mining Engine Structured Data Distribution Engine Presentation Un-Structured Data • Remote Function Calls (RFC) • Business API ( BAPI) • No OLEDB for OLAP BAPIs for SAP R/3 • Database Level Access • - ODBC, SQL*NET, etc. Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP” by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000 Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  6. Accessing SAP BW - ODBO/BAPI Interface 3rd Party Client Application MDX Dataset OLAP ENGINE ODBO Query Cubes Application Server MOLAP Cube InfoCube ODS Object DATABASE SERVER Source: “Business Information Warehouse for SAP” by Naeem Hashmi, Prima, 2000 NOTE: Understand that in BW you never access the physical database when accessing through these APIs. Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  7. Comparing Data Access Performance 3rd Party OleDB for OLAP Certified Tool -- BEX -- InfoSet Query Source: Business Information Warehouse for SAP, Naeem Hashmi, Prima 2000 Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  8. 3rd Party BI Vendors/Tools BW • Arcplan • Brio Technologies • Business Objects • Cognos • Crystal Decisions • Information Builders • PolyVista Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  9. 3rd Party BI products and their Usage Vendor Product R/3 BW Vendor Product R/3 BW ArcPlan dynaSight ESRI Connect X X X Brio Brio.Report, BrioQuery X X IBI WebFOCUS X Business Objects BusQuery, WebIntell. X MIS Alea, OnVision X Cognos PowerPlay, Visualizer X SAS Enterprise Guide X Comshare Decision X Viador E-Portal Suite X Crystal Decisions Enterprise, Analysis PolyVista X X PolyVista Vendors and Products Product and Intended Audience PRODUCTION Crystal Enterprise IBI MANAGEMENT ArcPlan dynaSight Cognos Visualizer Comshare Decision PolyVista POWER USERS Crystal Enterprise IBI WebFOCUS MIS Alea, SAS Enterprise Guide PolyVista INDIVIDUAL Brio.Report Crystal Enterprise IBI ANALYST Business Objects BusinessQuery Cognos PowerPlay Crystal Analysis PolyVista Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  10. Reporting Tool Profile: ArcPlan BW20.SCM • Company: • Langenfeld, Germany-based company known for its EIS and custom development environment • Products: • dynaSight, inSight • Certification: • BW-ODB 1.2 – inSight 2.35 • BW-ODB 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0 • BW-OBI 2.0 – dynaSight 3.0 • Strengths: • Custom application development for building specialized views of information • Multiple integration points with SAP R/3 BAPIs and SAP BW ODBO • Application integration with SAP SEM for write-back and SAP R/3 via RFC (NC*) • Weaknesses: • No production reporting or out-of-the-box tool for business users • Small company size and low visibility in North America * NC = Not Certified Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  11. Reporting Tool Profile: Brio Technology • Company: • Santa Clara, California-based company known for providing easy-to-use tools for reporting on RDBMS • Products: • BrioQuery, Brio.QuickView, Brio.Insight, Brio.Report, Brio.Portal, Brio.Impact • Certification: • R/3 4.0, 3.1 – Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0, BAPIs for Brio.Report • BW-ODB 1.2 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW • BW-ODB 2.0 – Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW • Strengths: • Good SAP R/3 operational reporting and pixel-level formatting • Usability of Brio.Enterprise for manipulation and formatting • Weaknesses: • Separate products, architecture, and user interfaces for SAP R/3 and SAP BW • Limited BW support for embedding hierarchies to drill, pivot, and perform ranking and top/bottom analysis Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  12. Reporting Tool Profile: Business Objects • Company: • Paris, France-based company known for its metadata product BusinessObjects Universe and an integrated user interface for reporting and analysis • Products: • BusinessObjects 5i, WebIntelligence, BusinessQuery, InfoView, InfoView Mobile, SetAnalyzer, Application Foundation • Certification: • BW-ODB 1.2 – BusinessObjects • BW-ODB 2.0 – BusinessObjects BW Connect 5.1.1 • Strengths: • Integrated reporting and analysis product for BW via ODBO • Specialized query interface, BusinessQuery, for supporting BW • Good reporting and publishing of information to many users • Weaknesses: • Outdated rapid deployment templates (RDT) to R/3 RDBMS via metadata • Separate BusinessQuery product cost on top of base product • No support for SAP R/3 reporting Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  13. Reporting Tool Profile: Cognos • Company: • Ottawa-based (Ontario, Canada) company known for its best-of-breed tools Impromptu and PowerPlay • Products: • Impromptu, PowerPlay, Visualizer, Upfront, 4Thought, DecisionStream, e-Applications for SAP, HeadStart for SAP – OLTP (NC*) & BW • Certification: • BW-ODB 1.2 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0 • BW-ODB 2.0 – Cognos PPDS ODBO Interface for SAP BW Release 1.0 • Strengths: • Established breadth of functionality from ETL, models, reporting & analysis, and applications • Strong analysis and mobile capabilities via PowerPlay • Good visualization and customization capabilities via Visualizer • Weaknesses: • Limited reporting functionality via PowerPlay • Must build external marts or catalogs via HeadStart for Impromptu • Direct Database Access Against SAP R/3 and BW * NC = Not Certified Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  14. Reporting Tool Profile: Crystal Decisions • Company: • Vancouver-based (British Columbia, Canada) company known for its Crystal Reports and easy report creation and distribution • Products: • Crystal Analysis, Crystal Reports, Crystal Enterprise, Holos Analytic System, Balanced Scorecard, Customer Profiling, Budgeting, Report Alerts • Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0 – InfoSet Driver, ABAP Query Driver (Release 3.x and above), Open SQL Driver (Release 3.x and above), WP-WAI via MiniApps • Certification: • WP-WAI 2.1 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0 • BW-ODB 2.0 – Crystal Enterprise Solution Kit for mySAP.com Release 2.0 • BW-ODB 1.2 – Seagate Holos 7.0, Info 7.0, Worksheet 7.0, Crystal Reports 7.0 • Strengths: • Good integration with mySAP Workplace, SAP R/3, and BW for operational and enterprise reporting and ad-hoc analysis • Strong operational and BW reporting, Strong Partner with PeopleSoft’s EPM • Weaknesses: • Minimal direct sales and consulting presence for implementations • Limited interactive analysis for BW – coming in Crystal Analysis Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  15. Reporting Tool Profile: Information Builders • Company: • New York City-based company known for its data integration and reporting technology for automating large and complex deployments • Products: • WebFOCUS, Business Intelligence Dashboard, Maintain, ReportCaster, Two-Way Email, Reporting Agent, Power Reporter, Managed Reporter, i-vision for Financial Analysis, i-vision for HR Analysis, i-vision for Sales and Distribution Analysis • Certification: • BW-ODB 2.0 – WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3 • Strengths: • Operational and enterprise reporting for SAP R/3 and SAP BW • i-vision reporting solutions for SAP R/3 and BW • Performance and scalability for broad production/enterprise reporting • Weaknesses: • Limited ad-hoc reporting and analysis • Lack of usability for interactive report analysis Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  16. Vendor/Tool Profile: PolyVista • Company: • Houston -based company a new kid on the block with amazing next generation of Integrated OLAM, OLAP and Visualization tool to quickly analyze huge data volumes. • Products: • PolyVista 1.2 • Certification: • None • Strengths: • Strategic data analysis – data mining • OLAM, OLAP, and Visualization • Performance and scalability to handle vary large data volumes • Weaknesses: • Limited to Microsoft OLAP environment • Not a data access and query tool • No SAP BW API certification Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  17. Reporting Tools – Strengths & Weaknesses Vendors Strengths Weaknesses ArcPlan • Custom application development • Integration with BAPI and ODBO • Integration with SEM for write-back • Limited reporting and ad-hoc analysis • Low visibility and small company size in North America Brio Technology • Operational reporting for SAP R/3 • Usability of Brio.Enterprise for manipulation and formatting • Separate product for SAP R/3 and BW • Limited interactive analysis for BW Business Objects • Integrated reporting and analysis • Specialized query interface • Publishing information to users • Outdated Rapid deployment template for SAP • Additional cost for BusinessQuery • No SAP R/3 reporting Cognos • Complete ETL, mart, tools • Strong analysis and mobile abilities • Good visualization and customization • Limited reporting via PowerPlay • External marts/catalogs needed for reporting • External marts needed for applications • Integration – Workplace, BW, R/3 • Operational and BW reporting • Minimal direct sales and consulting presence • Limited interactive analysis for BW Crystal Decisions • Limited ad-hoc reporting • Lack of usability for interactive report analysis Information Builders • Operational and BW reporting • i-vision solutions for R/3 and BW • Scalability and performance PolyVista • Very Strategic and Analytic • Scalability and performance • Dynamic Visualization • Limited to Microsoft OLAP Platform • Limited Ad-hoc or production reporting Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  18. SAP Certification and Validation for Integration • The certification and validation process is critical to ensuring the ability of third-party products to perform SAP R/3 reporting • SAP provides certification and validation at integration points: • Interface Certification: Development and testing of third-party software vendors’ interfaces. Available for BW-ODB and WP-WAI*. • Interface Validation: Where certification is not available, special business and technical validation of third-party software vendors’ interfaces. Available for RFC/BAPI. • Leveraging SAP documents to further investigate third-party integration points and certification and validation: • OLAP BAPI for BW 2.0B – April 2000 • OLAP ODBO for BW 2.0B – 2000 • OLAP ODBO for BW 1.2B – 1998 • Business Object Repository Programming Interface 3.0D & 4.0B – 1998 • Workplace Certification 2.1 – 2000 * Workplace - Web Application Integration (WP-WAI) Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  19. Vendor Certification by SAP System and Interface Certification Interface Vendors Products/Interface Name SAP ArcPlan dynaSight 3.0 2.0 Brio Technology Brio.Enterprise for SAP BW 2.0 BW-ODB Business Objects BW Connect 5.1.1 2.0 Cognos PPDS ODBO for BW Release 1.0 2.0 SAP BusinessInformation Warehouse Comshare Decision 2.5.1 1.2 Crystal Decisions Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0 2.0 Information Builders WebFOCUS for SAP Release 4.3 2.0 MIS OnVision & Alea 3.7 – 1.2 2.0 SAS Enterprise Guide Release 1.2 2.0 Viador E-Portal Suite 6.0 1.2 BW-OBI* dynaSight 2.0 ArcPlan ESRI ESRI Connect Release 1.0 3.6-4.6 SAP R/3 RFC/BAPI Brio Technology Brio.Report for SAP R/3 Release 1.0 4.0/3.1 Workplace WP-WAI Crystal Decisions Crystal Enterprise mySAP 2.0 2.1 * Business Information Warehouse - OLAP BAPIs (BW-OBI) • SAP = Latest certification interface tested • Information as of 8/15/01 Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  20. Crystal Decisions – Business Content Crystal Reports & BW 3.0x Start_demo.exe Source: SAP Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  21. PolyVista Active Visualization Schema OLAM OLAP Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  22. 3rd Party Tools Integration Issues • Product Architecture and IT Culture • 3rd Party BI Tools are designed keeping SQL Interfaces in mind and not API centric. This is a big problem. • IT Environment: Companies have established BI standards based on tools and solution and can’t think beyond DBMS tables. • Immature ODBO Standard • Primarily based on MS OLAP Server. No future enhancement committee on ODBO specs. • Performance • 3rd Party Tools have their own Data Management Layers to manage entire BI environment – while BW has its own - no pass through capability. Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  23. 3rd Party Tools Integration Issues • Vendors: Can’t justify ROI for improving BW Integration issues – BW user community is not large enough that warrants investment • Vendors not interested in doing more than certifying their products against BW due to present SAP and BI tools OEM relationships • SAP Data Access Strategy: API only – No direct database access Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  24. So what we do now? • Forcing SAP to allow BW DBMS level access is not going to work • Integrating 3rd Party Tools with BW has to do with your Information Delivery Architecture rather to force fit a tool with BW • If BW is in your long term strategy, define a balanced Information Delivery strategy • Balance Traditional DW and BW usage • Exploit Hub and Spoke Services (BW3.0B) to build traditional DBMS data marts for 3rd Party tools data access • Work with SAP to enhance Hub& Spoke services to address 3rd Party data access issues, for example, flattening of hierarchies. Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  25. SAP BW - 3rd Party BI Tools:An Integrated approach • Integrate 3rd Party tools and BW at the Portal Level through the use of iViews • Exploit SAP Portal’s unification and aggregation services to provide a Tool agnostic information access environment Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

  26. Q&A • Which 3rd Party BI products are you using? • What are the major issues that you are facing when using these tools against BW? • Who are the end-users? • What do you expect from SAP on 3rd Party BI tools Integration? • More? Copyrights 2002: Information Frameworks. Naeem Hashmi Integration 3rd Party Tools with SAP BW

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