Transcript SAP Management Cockpits BI BW - Lenoir

Options for building your
management cockpits
and best practices to
optimize its navigation
and useabliity
Dr. Bjarne Berg
© 2007 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 Visual Composer
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
2
Background and Terminology
Purpose
Usage
Updates
Data
Measures
Context
Source
Dashboard
Displays performance
Scorecard
Displays progress
Cockpits
Displays status and events
Performance monitoring
Performance management
Performance management
Real-time feeds
Monthly snapshots
Daily snapshots
Events
Summaries
Summaries and events
Metrics
KPIs
Metrics & KPIs
Exceptions/alerts
Targets and thresholds
Trends
Linked to systems
Linked to plans
Linked to BI systems
Sources: Wayne Eckerson, 2005;
Bjarne Berg 2006
• Many companies and people confuses the concepts of
dashboards, scorecards, and cockpits. They vary in terms
of purpose, usage, source, data, etc.
• Most BI systems fall in to the cockpits category
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.
3
Typical Components of a Cockpit: SEM Example
• Higher-level
navigation
between
views
• External
data
• Graphical
displays
Comparative/
benchmarking
Logical grouping of
similar information
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SEM Management Cockpit
Customize navigation
menus and buttons
Illustrate best
practices, benchmarks,
or target performance
5
Visual Composer Management Cockpit
Add number lists
Each frame can have internal navigation
Represent the same data in
several ways to highlight
trends and to also provide
transaction details
6
Navigations Linked to Multiple Views
Central navigation can
change multiple views
Link more
documentation
Make multiple measures
available
Source: SAP AG, 2005
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What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 Visual Composer
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
8
Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM
The presentation layer in SAP
Management cockpits has
four layers:
• Cockpit – high-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 integrate with the Portal. They also
provide built-in drill downs and navigation based
on how you constructed your measures.
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What is SEM – CPM?
The Corporate Performance Monitor (SEM-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:
1. Management Cockpit
2. Measure Builder
3. Benchmarking
4. Delivery of business content
The Strategy Management consists also of four areas
1. Balanced Scorecard
Strategy
2. Strategy modeling
3. Value Driver Tree
4. Risk Management
Measure
Value Driver Tree
Objective
Initiative
Source: J. Lombard, 2006
Risk
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SEM – CPM Walls
Walls are the highest level of the SEM-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)
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SEM-CPM Navigation and Measures
• Use indicators (red, green, yellow) at a high level to indicate the
overall situation of the organization
• Create the hierarchies of measures in the Measure Builder tool
(get to measure builder by transaction code UMK_MB_DISP_PARA)
By clicking on
each of the
frames, users
can access
more details
and other
cockpits
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SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate
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.
1.
13
SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate (cont.)
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.
14
When to Consider CPM – Management Cockpits
The management cockpits and web rendering closely integrate with
the pre-delivered measures in SAP Measure Catalog. You also can add
new measures through SAP Measure Builder.
By linking the higher-level measures, using Measure Trees, you can
create true performance measures that are consistent throughout your
cockpit and which also take care of most of the web navigation and
drill downs 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 in-house web skills, or
when measure consistency and rollups are very important.
Drawback: Users often complain that there are too many steps
that they have to follow when drilling up and down within the
measures (rigid navigation that is hard to customize).
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What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 Visual Composer
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
16
Cockpits with Web AD 3.x and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
• Web Application Designer (Web AD) can create Web-
based cockpits using BW query data
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Cockpits with BW 3.x Web AD
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
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Cockpits with BW 3.x Web AD (cont.)
• Standard Web items are available for creating BW Web
templates with minimal coding
 Charts
 Tables
 Drop-down boxes
 Navigation block
 Check box
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Cockpits with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Web AD
• New items include improved tabstrip container in SAP NetWeaver
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
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SAP NetWeaver 2004s Web AD New Featurs
 Web Items: Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (SAP NetWeaver 2004s
Support Package Stack 7)
 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 SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx
Report Designer for formatted reports
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BI Web API Commands
You can use BI Web API commands for carrying out certain actions in
BI Web Applications.
 Export to Excel, PDF etc.
 OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove drill downs
• Command Wizards guide you through the steps for creating a BI Web
API command
• Commands appear together for easy access
 Data Provider
 Web Items
 Web Templates
•
The Web cockpits developed by Web
AD in SAP NetWeaver 2004s can be
interactive, include many data sources,
and be very flexible
22
Command Wizard and JavaScript
•
Use Command Wizard 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
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standard JavaScript
More New Cockpit Options
Personalize BI query variables
• Bookmark the navigational state of the BI Web application
• Perform multidimensional analysis of BI query data
• Allow users to create exceptions and conditions for BI query data
•
These features makes it
easier to customize the
dataset that queries
return to the Web
cockpit
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Web AD Cockpits in SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0
Direcltly publish BI Web cockpits to Portal Content Catalog using the
Publish option from Web AD
Portal and BI system connection should
be set up as per OSS note 917950
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Broadcast Cockpit Views Using Web AD
In SAP NetWeaver 2004s, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI
Web applications (i.e., cockpit views) to Enterprise Portal KM folders
and via email in various formats (PDF, MHTML, HTML)
• Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.x) can precalculate BI
Web applications to enhance performance
•
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What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 Visual Composer
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
27
Visual Composer – Background
• Visual Composer is a Web-based modeling tool
• You can use Visual Composer to develop SAP Enterprise Portal
content with no coding
• Can create integrated view of OLTP and OLAP data sources
28
Visual Composer Cockpit Example
•No coding required to create great-looking Web-based cockpits
•Take advantage of prebuilt analytic business packages
29
Details about Visual Composer Cockpits
•Delivered as part of Enterprise Portal in SAP NetWeaver 2004s Usage
Type (SPS8 and higher)
•Different options available for rendering Visual Composer output
Flash
Web Dynpro (HTML)
•Flash provides high-end visualization of Visual Composer models
Since a cockpit may have
many different DataSources
(queries), it can take quite
some time to execute them
if the memory cache is not
used consistently
30
Visual Composer Data Methods
• Can integrate data from multiple data sources, including
SAP and non-SAP systems, into one model
• Different options available for data access include:
 BI Extension Kit
 Remote Function Call (RFC)
 Web services
• BI Extension Kit allows access
to the following DataSources
 SAP NetWeaver 2004 BI
(BW 3.5 Support Package 14)
 SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 JDBC
 XMLA
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Visual Composer DataProviders
• You can use BI queries and views as DataProviders for
Visual Composer models
• You also can use BI query functionalities for exceptions and
variables along with Visual Composer models
• Visual Composer
allows access to BI
history, favorites,
and roles
32
Web AD and Visual Composer
• Visual Composer integrates with Web AD-based
applications using Portal Eventing Framework
• For example, BW Web API can pass a filter value from a
BEx Web application to Visual Composer
 and vice versa
33
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s
 Visual Composer
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
34
Web Cockpit in the Portal
Integrate queries and
Web applications into the
portal through
publishing, broadcasting,
or Web calls
The portal can either
receive designed pages
passively or actively
create communities, Web
pages, collaboration
rooms, or cockpits
Publishing
Broadcasting
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Web Cockpit in the Portal (cont.)
• The SEM-CPM cockpits
are already part of the
portal, so you can access
them there
• iViews can build custom
portal cockpits with
iViews from many data
sources (Web AD, BW,
SEM, R/3, Web) and in
many formats (graphs,
pictures, figures, tables)
• iViews can also be
interactive
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Visual Composer 7.0 Portal Publishing
• Visual Composer
Design time deploys
Visual Composer
models directly as
iViews to Portal
Content Catalog
• You can then use
Visual Composer
iViews in portal pages,
roles, etc.
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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)
3. Share the same navigation menus
and tabs as the portal
2. Limit colors to complimentary
4. Avoid running text, flashes,
formats (we will look at these later). animations, layering and scrolling
text (this is an absolute no-no).
38
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD
 Visual Composer and demo
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap up
•
39
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
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Source: SAP AG, 2005
BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits (cont.)
• SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio can develop BI Java SDK-based
applications
• Can use along with SAP Java Web Dynpro
T ip Interested
developers should
familiarize
themselves with
SAP NetWeaver
Developer Studio
41
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD
 Visual Composer and demo
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap up
•
42
Third-Party Cockpits
• Some best-of-breed cockpit tools incorporate SAP BI as
part of a Web item provider, or more commonly through
BW queries fed by BAPIs or ODBO in BW
• Some even provide separate Multidimensional Online
Analytical Processing (MOLAP) solutions tightly
connected to SAP BW
Cognos
 Hint: reading RS_ tables inside BW
Microsoft
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Third-Party Cockpits (cont.)
• Other BI and cockpit companies,
such as Corda, are actively
working on creating cockpit
tools for SAP BI
44
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD
 Visual Composer and demo
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
45
War Rooms and External Access
1. Shared cockpits are most
useful
2. External access to information is more common.
Vendors and customers love it!
3. You can build war rooms for collaborative
decision making using cockpits
4. Cockpits require a true BI infrastructure.
N o te
It is tempting to jump straight to the
cockpit development, but it is almost
impossible without a well-architected
BW system to support it.
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A Good Cockpit Is Simple
Majority of usage of cockpits are in user segments 1 and 5. You
should use BI queries and OLAP for the other segments.
Segment 1: Trackers - 37%
Tracking -Characterized by low
duration overall.
Segment 4: Info Gatherers - 4%
Concentrated in information areas.
Rarely reach transaction areas.
Segment 2: Reservers - 3%
Low duration per page view.
Segment 5: Single-clickers - 32%
Visit homepage only.
Segment 3: Uncommitted - 10%
Characterized by long duration.
Complex decisions.
Segment 6: Wanderers - 15%
Very few, very random pages.
Few hits, but long duration per page
view.
Example source: Dr. Paul Strupp, Sun Microsystems
N o te
The average manager navigate in no more than 7 dimensions and only 2 levels deep
(49 views). Therefore, the majority of users of cockpits need few, simple, but highly
informative views. The other user community is best served by OLAP queries.
47
Use of Color
Colors share a powerful connection with
emotions, so you want to be conservative
Sir Isaac Newton developed the
first circular diagram of colors in
1666 and identified 12 basic colors
Colors on opposite sides are
complimentary and looks good together
in a cockpit
Color definitions:
Shade: base color mixed with black
Tint: base color hue mixed with white
Tone: base color + gray or another base color +
Source: Bob Marteal, Cornell Univ.
a complementary color
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2005, Susan M. Raymond, WHS
How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors?
This uses a single pure color with a number of tints and
shades to provide variety
Monochromatic scheme
Pros: Extremely unified and harmonious; effective for
establishing an overall mood
Cons: Can be dull because of the lack of variation and
therefore can lose the interest of the viewer
Analogous scheme
Any three colors which are side by side on a color wheel,
Pros: Great selection of possible combinations makes
this scheme versatile. The similarity makes the schemes
harmonious with great results because it is soothing and
restful.
Cons: The use of more than three colors can dilute the
overall effect of this scheme.
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How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors? (cont.)
Pick any three colors on a triangle. This scheme is very
appealing and well balanced.
Triadic scheme
Pros: Extremely stable, each color perfectly balances with the
other. It is useful for presenting information in bold, decisive
patterns.
Cons: The vibrancy may be too much and detract from the
message.
Split scheme
Any two colors that are side by side on a color wheel
Pros: This scheme has more variety than a simple
complementary color scheme
Cons: It is less vibrant and eye-catching; it is difficult to
harmonize the colors
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A Colorful Example of What Not to Do
Colors that are so similar that not
everyone will be able to
distinguish them (blends
information)
Split scheme
background colors
that are unattractive
Distracting color that breaks the
color scheme and attracts
attention for no apparent reason
51
Use of Real Estate – Symmetry, Graphs, and Colors
Consistent use of graphs is visually pleasing. Here
are three types of graphs and a map.
Background colors are
monochromatic scheme
in blue
Bars and lines are limited
to same color scheme
with few additional colors
Symmetry is visually pleasing and makes the cockpit easy to read.
Here we have 3 walls, 4 frames in the outer walls, and a central section.
Filling the white space by either enlarging the map, or adding a
message board would improve this cockpit
52
The Need for Speed
• When cockpits bring together data from many sources
during runtime, it can be very slow and cumbersome
 This is because when your system access the portal cockpit, it
may have to execute the supporting cockpit queries
• Solution: You can present static images (i.e., static HTML
from BEx Broadcaster into a portal iView) or you can
cache queries results by using Reporting Agent in 3.5x
or BEx Broadcaster in SAP NetWeaver 2004s
53
The Need for Speed (cont.)
• SAP NetWeaver 2004s allows you to fill the resident memory
of your server with pre-run results (cache). This provides
faster response to the users, since the query result sets are
accessed from memory instead of re-executed on the
database side.
BW 3.5
NetWeaver 2004s
IMPORTANT: Old Reporting Agent scenarios still run in
SAP NetWeaver 2004s. However, Reporting Agent will not
be developed any further and is removed from SAP
NetWeaver 2004s Workbench. In BI 7.0 you can only
reach it by transaction code REPORTING_AGENT
54
What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD
 Visual Composer and demo
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
55
What SAP Tool Should I Use?
BW 3.x
Web AD
SAP NetWeaver
2004s
Web AD
Multidimensional Analysis (full)
J
Portal integration
Information Broadcaster
Visual
Composer
SAP
SEMCPM
Thirdparty
cockpits
Java SDK
tools
Portal
iViews
J
-
-
-
-
J
J
J
J
J
J
J
J
J
-
J
-
-
-
-
J
J
J
J
-
J
J
-
-
-
-
J
J
J
J
J
J
J
Direct support for non-BW data
-
-
J
-
J
J
Simplicity to use and learn
-
-
J
-
-
-
Formatted reporting
Graphical options (delivered)
Automatic code generation
SAP integration
J
J
There are many options and sometimes, the choice is based on what you
are familiar with and whether you enjoy using new tools
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What We’ll Cover …
• Background, terminology, and examples
• Tool options
 SEM CPM
 Web AD
 Visual Composer and demo
 Publishing to the portal
 Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK)
 Third-party cockpits
What makes a good cockpit?
• Which tool is right for me?
• Wrap-up
•
57
Resources
• Dr. Bjarne Berg's Web page: 60+ presentations, tutorials, and articles
http://csc-studentweb.lr.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm
• SAP Online Help
BW
and EP Integration
 http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/a3/7b583c2439e66fe10000000a114
084/content.htm
• SDN BW How to Guides
How
to integrate Visual Composer Applications and BEx Web Templates
 https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/ad182ac70a01-0010-4fb8-8a4d217b19c1
• BW Expert (www.BWExpertOnline.com)
“Create
Unparalleled Analytical Applications with SAP NetWeaver BI, Visual
Composer, and Macromedia Flex” by Moya Watson and Judy Kestecher, SAP Labs
 January 2006 issue
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7 Key Points to Take Home
• There are many ways to build Web cockpits and SAP has
tools for them all.
• Look at in-house Web skills before you decide on the tool.
• SAP Performance Management is a great tool for those with
limited Web skills, but requires consistency in performance
measures (roll-ups) and structured navigation
• Visual Composer is great for complex graphing
• Web AD is the tool of choice by experienced Web
programmers who want total design freedom
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7 Key Points to Take Home
• Third-party tools for Web cockpits are emerging and some
are quite advanced (Cognos).
• While all these tools gives you a great deal of flexibility, it is
the use of the real estate, colors, graphs, and consistency
that is going to determine if your cockpit is successful:
Spend serious time designing instead of coding!
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Your Turn!
How to contact me:
Bjarne Berg
[email protected]
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