Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build management cockpits your users will adopt

Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build management cockpits your users will adopt Bjarne Berg Lenoir-Rhyne College

What We’ll Cover … • Background and terminology • Tool options – pros and cons • SEM Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM • Web Application Designer • Visual Composer & demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI JAVA SDK) • 3rd Party Cockpits What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap up

Background and Terminology Many companies and people confuses the concepts of dashboards, scorecards and cockpits. It makes sense exploring these concepts in terms of purpose, usage, source, data etc. Most BI systems will fall in to the category of “Cockpits”… These are typical parameters, and some may be slightly different. i.e. some metrics in a cockpit may only be updated monthly. However, such deviations should be exceptions.

Typical components of a Cockpit – SEM example Higher level navigation between views External data Graphical displays Comparative / benchmarking Logical grouping of similar information

Typical components of a Cockpit – SEM example Navigation menus, and buttons can be added A cockpit can also illustrate best practices, benchmarks or / and target performance.

Typical components of a Cockpit – Visual Composer example Number lists can also be added, and each frame can have internal navigation The same data can be represented in several ways to highlight trends and to also provide transaction details

Typical components of a Cockpit – Navigations linked to multiple views Central navigation can change multiple views More documentation can be linked Multiple measures can be made available Source: SAP AG, 2005

Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM The presentation layer in SAP Management cockpits have four layers: • Cockpit- Highest level overview (consists of ‘walls”) • Wall- a logical grouping of measures • Logical View- the display level of the cockpit consists of ‘frames’ • Frame- lowest level of individual measure display These presentation layer object are already web enabled and integrates with the SAP Portal. They also provide built-in drill downs and navigation based on how your measures were constructed.

What is SEM – CPM? The Performance Measurement –(CPM) is part of the Strategic Enterprise Management BI toolsuite. It consists of the Performance Measurement (PM) area and the Strategy management area (SM). The Performance Management area consists of four distinct areas: • Management Cockpit • Measure Builder • Benchmarking • Delivery of business content The Strategy Management consists also of four areas • Balanced Scorecard • Strategy modeling • Value Driver Tree • Risk Management Source: J. Lombard, 2006

SEM – CPM Walls Walls are the highest level of the CPM Cockpit. Research has shown that more than 7 walls are hard to read and comprehend. Ideal numbers are 3, 5 or 7. Major consideration!! Humans have a hard time remembering, organizing, and retain information that is asymmetrical. This is true for hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling and smelling.. Read more about the cognitive revolution and the article that started it all: Newell and Simon “The magic number 7” (1956)

SEM – CPM Navigation and Measures Indicators (red, green, yellow) can be used at a higher level to indicate the overall situation of the organization. The hierarchies of measures are created in the ‘Measure Builder’ tool. By clicking on each of the frames, users can access more details and other cockpits.

SEM – CPM – Use of Graphs and ‘Real-Estate’ – some rules 1. Don’t use as many types of graphs as possible, and never mix more than 3 types of graphs. If you use more, users have to interpret the pictures as well as the data in a fractured, non-productive manner. 2. Try to avoid empty spaces, but don’t force unrelated measures into the cockpit. It confuses the users. 3. There is nothing wrong with using the same type of graphs on a cockpit (i.e. tachometers). Users adapt quickly and can absorb the information faster

When to consider CPM – Management Cockpits The Management Cockpits and web rendering are closely integrated with the pre-delivered measures in the SAP Measure Catalog and you can also add new measures through the SAP Measures Builder. By linking the higher level measures, using the Measure Trees, you can create true performance measures that are consistent throughout your cockpit and which also takes care of most of the web navigation and drilldowns in the cockpit (navigation is built in to the management cockpit and you do not have to build customized links). Consider SAP CPM when you have limited web skills in-house, or when measure consistency and when rollups are very important. Drawback: users often complain that there are too many steps that has to be followed when drilling up & down within the measures (rigid navigation that is hard to customize).

Cockpits with Web Application Designer 3.x and NW2004s • Web Application Designer (SAP WAD) can be used for creating web based Cockpits using BW query data.

Cockpits with the BW 3.X Web Application Designer • BW 3.X based Web Application Designer (WAD) provides drag and drop functionalities for creating BW Web templates which may be the host of web based BW cockpits • WAD can be used for creating BW Web Cockpits integrating data from multiple BW queries. Each item can be served by a BW query, or by external web pages or web applications

Cockpits with the BW 3.X Web Application Designer • Standard Web Items are available for creating BW Web Templates with minimal coding. • Charts • Tables • Dropdown boxes • Navigation Block • Check box

Cockpits with the BW 3.X Web Application Designer • To enhance standard functionalities WAD provides ability to write custom JavaScript functions, customer specific style sheets (CSS), ABAP Classes for Table Interface and use of BSP applications. • JavaScript functions can be written in the template or can be stored in Mime Repository (SE80) and shared within multiple templates. • For example JavaScript and BSP can be used in BW Web templates to provide functionality for saving BW bookmarks to user favorites. • External HTML Editor (Dreamweaver, Home Studio etc.) can be used for formatting BW Web templates. WAD provides functionalities for downloading and uploading BW Web Templates.

BW 3.X Web Application Designer • BW Web Applications can be directly published to Portal Content Catalog from WAD “Publish” menu. Portal and BI system connection should be set up for direct publishing of BW Web Applications.

Cockpits with the new NW2004s Web Application Designer • New tool in BI NW 2004s for designing BI Web Applications. • Reduces the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command wizards, Auto complete and support for HTML tags.

Cockpits with the new NW2004s Web Application Designer New features includes the following. • Web Items - Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (NW 2004s SPS7) • Drag and Drop using Analysis item • New Chart Types (Heat Map, GANTT & Milestone Trend Analysis) • Export BI Web Applications in PDF format • Command Wizard for generating Web API Commands • Integration with NW 2004s BEx Report Designer for formatted reports.

Cockpits with the new NW2004s Web Application Designer • BI Web API commands can be used for carrying out certain actions in BI Web Applications. • Export to Excel, PDF etc. • OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove Drilldowns. • Command Wizards guides you through the steps for creating a BI Web API command. • Commands are grouped together for easy access. • Data Provider • Web Items • Web Templates The web cockpits developed by the Web Application Designer in NW2004s can be interactive, include many data sources and be very flexible

Cockpits with the new NW2004s Web Application Designer • Command Wizard can be used for generating JavaScript code for the Script Item to use in custom Cockpit applications. This is a great feature for building custom features into your cockpits based on ‘standard’ java scripts

Cockpits with the new NW2004s Web Application Designer • Provides the options for Personalizing BI query variables. • Ability to Bookmark the navigational state of the BI Web application. • Multidimensional analysis of BI query data. • Ability for user to create Exceptions and Conditions on BI Query data. These features makes it easier to customize the dataset that is returned by the queries to the web cockpit.

NW 2004s WAD Cockpits in the SAP EP6 Portal BI Web Cockpits can be directly published to Portal Content Catalog using the “Publish” option from Web Application Designer. Portal and BI system connection should be set up as per OSS note 917950.

Broadcasting Cockpit views using NW2004s WAD • Information Broadcaster can be used to Broadcast the BI Web Applications (i.e. cockpit views) to Enterprise Portal KM folders and via Email in various format (PDF,MHTML,HTML etc.). • Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.X) can be used for pre-calculating BI Web Applications for enhancing performance.

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - background • Visual Composer is a Web based modeling tool. • Visual Composer can be used for SAP EP Content development with no coding. • Can be used for integrated view of OLTP and OLAP data sources.

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - example • No coding required for creating great looking web based Cockpits. • Pre-built Analytic Business Packages.

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - details • Delivered as part of NW 2004s EP Usage Type (SPS8 and Higher). • Different options available for rendering VC output • Flash • WebDynpro (HTML) • Flash provides high-end visualization of Visual Composer Models. Since a cockpit may have many different data sources (queries), it can take quite some time to execute them if the memory cache is not used consistently.

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - data methods • Can be used for integrating data from multiple data sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems into one single model. Different options available for data access include. • BI KIT • RFC • Web Services • BI Kit allows access to the following Data Sources • SAP BI NW 2004 (3.5 SP14) & NW2004s • JDBC • XMLA

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - data providers • BI Queries and Views can be used as data providers for Visual Composer models. • BI Query functionalities for Exceptions, Variables etc. can be used along with Visual Composer models. • Visual Composer design time allows access to BI history, favorites and roles.

Cockpits with NW2004s Visual Composer - WAD and VC • Allows integration with BW Web Application Designer based application using the Portal Eventing Framework. • For example a filter value can be passed from the BEx Web Application using BW Web API to the Visual Composer and vice-versa.

NW 2004s Visual Composer

Web Cockpit in the Portal Queries and web applications can be integrated into the portal through publishing, broadcasting, or through web calls. The portal can either be a passive recipient of the designed pages, or actively create communities, web pages, collaboration rooms, or cockpits that is organized by the portal. Publishing Broadcasting

Web Cockpit in the Portal The SEM Performance Management Cockpits are already integrated into the portal and can be accessed from there. iViews can also be used to build custom portal cockpits The iView can be from many data sources (WAD, BW, SEM, R/3, web) and in many formats (graphs, pictures, figures, tables etc.). iViews can also be interactive.

NW2004s Visual Composer - Portal Publishing • Visual Composer Design time allows direct deployment of Visual Composer Models as iViews to Portal Content Catalog. Visual Composer iViews can be then used in Portal Pages, Roles etc.

Building a Web Cockpit in the Portal The trick in developing custom web cockpits in the portal is to manage the real estate very carefully. Most ‘pure’ iview based cockpits are very cluttered and hard to read and navigate. 1. Start with logical groupings of items (i.e. sales, finance) 2. Limit colors to complimentary formats (we will look at these later). 3. Share the same navigation menus and tabs as the portal 4. Avoid running text, flashes, animations, layering and scrolling text (this is an absolute no-no).

BI JAVA SDK based Cockpits • BI JAVA SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP BI and non-SAP data. • BI JAVA SDK provides access to relational and OLAP data sources using JDBC, XMLA, ODBO etc. • Access to 200+ data sources using the JDBC drivers. Java programmers will recognize the standard development kit's (SDK) main libraries such as the abstract windowing toolkit (AWT) and the GUI oriented Swing object library as well Source: SAP AG, 2005

BI JAVA SDK based Cockpits • NW Developer Studio (NWDS) can be used for developing BI JAVA SDK based applications. • Can be used along with SAP JAVA Web Dynpro. Interested developers should familiarize themselves with the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

What We’ll Cover … • Background and terminology • Tool options – pros and cons • SEM Corporate Performance Monitor – CPM • Web Application Designer • Visual Composer & demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI JAVA SDK) • 3rd Party Cockpits What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap up

3rd Party Cockpits Some “best-of-breed” cockpit tools incorporate SAP BI as part of being a web item provider, or more commonly through BW queries served up by BAPIs or ODBO in BW. Some even provides separate MOLAP solutions that is tightly connected to SAP BW (hint: reading RS_ tables inside BW) Cognos MicroSoft

3rd Party Cockpits Other BI and cockpit companies, such as Corda, are actively working on creating cockpits tools for SAP BI.

What We’ll Cover … • Background and terminology • Tool options – pros and cons • SEM Corporate Performance Monitor – CPM • Web Application Designer • Visual Composer & demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI JAVA SDK) • 3rd Party Cockpits What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap up

War Rooms and External Access • Cockpits are most useful if they are shared. • External access to information is more common. Vendors and customers are loving it…. • ‘War rooms for collaborative decision making can be built using cockpits. • Cockpits require a true BI infrastructure. It is tempting to jump straight to the cockpit development, but it is almost impossible without a well architected BW system to support it.

What is a Good Cockpit -- Make it simple Majority of usage of cockpits are in user segments 1 and 5. The other areas are better served by BI queries and OLAP. Segment 4: Info Gatherers - 4% Concentrated in information areas. Rarely reach transaction areas. Segment 5: Single-clickers - 32% Visit homepage only. Segment 6: Wanderers - 15% Very few, very random pages. Few hits, but long duration per page view. Segment 1: Trackers - 37% Tracking -Characterized by low duration overall. Segment 2: Reservers - 3% Low duration per page view. Segment 3: Uncommitted - 10% Characterized by long duration. Complex decisions. Example source: Dr. Paul Strupp, Sun Microsystems The average manager navigate in no more than 7 dimensions and 2 levels deep (49 views). Therefore, the majority of users of cockpits will need few, simple, but highly informative views. The other user community is best served by OLAP queries.

Use of Colors is Very Important Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666 and identified 12 basic colors Colors shares a powerful connection with emotions, so you want to be conservative. Colors on opposite sides are complimentary and looks good together in a cockpit The rest of the colors are merely: Shade - base color mixed with black Tint - base color hue mixed with white; Tone - base color + gray or another base color + a complementary color Source: Bob Marteal, Cornell Univ. 2005, Susan M. Raymond, WHS

Evaluate, choose, and use the right BI tools to build management cockpits your users will adopt