Full Security Integration with the BI Platform

Data Services 4.0 now leverages the BI Platform for security and administration. This puts all of the security for Data Services in one place, instead of it being fragmented across the various repositories. Now, Data Services repositories are managed through the Central Management Console where the administrator can set rights on individual repositories just like he would with any other object in the BusinessObjects world.

This change brings some welcomed improvements. For example, users now log in to the Data Services Designer or Management Console with their BusinessObjects user ID. You no longer need to enter database credentials when you log in to Designer. Instead, once you log into BusinessObjects, you are presented with a simple list of Data Services repositories to choose from.

Built in Text processing transform

I first saw the BusinessObjects Text Analysis offering in a live demo years back. There was a ton of potential, but it was yet another tool separate from the rest of the suite and never got much momentum. Now that technology is included in Data Services 4.0. Using Text Processing, Data Services can read unstructured text such as e-mails and extract the important information from it, including names, places, dates, and their relationships. I am excited to see how this will be used by our clients.

New Datastore support for HANA

A lot of hype has surrounded SAP’s new High-Performance Analytic Appliance, or HANA software. This technology will allow for in-memory analysis of data and provides real-time data loads from any data source that Data Services supports. Many of the BI client tools in BusinessObjects 4.0 support HANA, including Xcelsius Dashboard Design and Explorer. I’m looking forward to the chance to work with this new product and find out what it can really do.

64-bit Server Architecture

Just like BusinessObjects 4.0, Data Services 4.0 has native 64-bit support.  Both the server components and client tools are now 64-bit.   The 32-bit server components are no longer offered, but there is still a 32-bit Designer tool available.

Get More Information

Data Services 4.0 is currently in ramp-up with SAP.  If you are interested in what Data Services 4.0 has to offer, read more about it from SAP’s What’s New guide.  Data Services 4.0 is scheduled for general release in June 2011.

No related posts.

While we enjoy a nationwide client-base, we primarily deliver our SAP BusinessObjects consulting and training services in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and District of Columbia.

Our practical solutions deliver actionable and measurable business results that inform decision making, optimize IT efficiency, and improve business performance. We are a trusted advisor, strategic business partner, and expert implementer in business intelligence, data warehousing, data integration, information quality and performance management solutions.

We are currently looking for experienced, full-time SAP BusinessObjects developers to add to our consulting staff. Your initial project would involve the analysis, design, development and maintenance of SAP BusinessObjects universes and reports for an ongoing effort we have with an existing client.

Job Responsibilities include:

• Analyzing the client’s reporting requirements
• Creating Universes, reports and adhoc reports
• Designing and developing ETL routines to build the necessary back-end data
• Unit and integration testing
• Status Reporting
• Other related tasks

Job Requirements include:

• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Be able to interact with the business users to understand requirements and relate to their needs
• Experience in creating Business Objects Universes and Reports
• Understanding of how the security is designed in the Business Objects reports
• Desire and ability to quickly learn the client’s business processes
• Familiarity with Data Warehouse concepts including Star Schema or ER Modeling.
• Experience with Informatica or other ETL tools
• Experience with SQL
• Experience with Xcelsius, BusinessObjects SDK, or other SAP tools is a plus!

We offer:

• Competitive base salary
• Company-paid Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO health insurance
• Company-paid prescription, vision, dental, and short and long-term disability insurance
• 401k plan with company match
• Training & conference attendance opportunities
• Significant growth potential

To learn more about Altek Solutions, visit our website at www.alteksolutions.com.

For immediate consideration, please send cover letter, resume and salary history to Deb Berkheiser by email to dberkheiser@alteksolutions.com or by fax to (877) 844-7402.

All candidates must be legally able to work in the United States. We are unable to sponsor H1B Visas at this time.

Related posts:

1. We’re looking for a few good consultants…

Throughout the lifecycle of a popular product or organization, you can expect names to evolve and change.  Since the acquisition of Business Objects by SAP, however, this has become a much bigger problem.  SAP likes to use “descriptive names” for their products, so they pick names that generically describe what the product does.  It seems like they went down that path for some products (i.e. Xcelsius) but reverted back to the original product names for others (i.e. Web Intelligence).  What we’re left with is a collection of names that may or may not mean something to us.

This post is meant to clear some of the confusion around this renaming, and provide a bit of insight into what each product is used for.  (That is something I often get asked by clients and prospects alike.)  As new products are release/renamed, we’ll update the post to reflect those changes.  For now, you can use it as your starting roadmap to SAP BusinessObjects naming clarity.

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0

This is the name of the complete BusinessObjects release, including BI & EIM
(aka SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0, SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.x, etc…)

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0

This is the name of the Business Intelligence components of the release

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform

This is the name for the BusinessObjects product bundle for Enterprises
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0, SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x, etc…)

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

This is the ad hoc reporting component of the Business Intelligence suite.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Interactive Analysis, Webi)

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

This is the version of Xcelsius designed to be part of a larger SAP BusinessObjects deployment.  Other ‘flavors’ of this tool may be branded under the SAP Crystal solutions banner.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Design, SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius, Xcelsius Enterprise)

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for OLAP/edition for Microsoft Office

This is a new product that replaces the Voyager product.
(aka SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis Web/SAP BusinessObjects Advanced Analysis Excel)

SAP BusinessObjects BI Launch Pad

This is the new name for the out-of-the-box portal that’s used by end-users to access content, create reports, etc…
(aka SAP BusinessObjects InfoView, Infoview)

SAP BusinessObjects BI workspaces

This product is replacing the functionality of Dashboard Builder.
(SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder)

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes
2. SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise 4.0 Ramp-up and Analysis!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about what it takes to be a great business intelligence consultant.  Now it’s time to turn the tables a bit, and talk about what it takes to be a great client. Successful implementation of a BI project is based on a partnership between the consultants and the client, so here are a few things that we look for in a fruitful partnership.  A great client:

1. Is available and responsive
   A great client is responsive to requests and does their part to ensure lines of communication are maintained throughout all levels of the organization.  They understand that a small delay can have a huge impact on the overall project, and do their best to be available and attentive whether it be via email, phone calls, or in-person meetings.
2. Has clear goals for what they want to accomplish
   Consultants want to work on projects that are successful and meet their stated purpose.  So help them do that.  Share your organizational goals with them, and set a strategy for achieving your business intelligence objectives.  This may sound obvious, but I can assure you that many organizations don’t do this.
3. Respects and appreciates the consultant’s contribution
   Great clients don’t look at consultants as vendors, but rather as strategic partners and trusted advisors.  They understand that as difficult as it is to acquire a great new client, it’s even more difficult to find a great new consultant.  The best client relationships are ones where there is mutual respect and appreciation. You solve their problems, they provide more and better opportunities to work together.
4. Doesn’t haggle or make excessive demands
   Negotiation has always been a factor in business transactions.  But it should be characterized by a friendly and realistic give-and-take discussion, not by haggling over price or making excessive demands. Clients who haggle demonstrate a lack of understanding and appreciation for what a great consultant can do for their organization, and are typically indicative of a generally unrewarding project experience to come.
5. Pays their bills on-time
   Consulting organizations rely on a steady stream of great clients paying their bills.  This may seem like an obvious statement, but it is often overlooked.  If payment will be delayed or gets stuck in the approval process, let the consultant know to see if they can help.  Otherwise, be sure to stay within the terms of your invoice.

Question:  What other attributes do you think it takes to be a great client?

Related posts:

1. What Makes a Great SAP BusinessObjects Consultant?

In a previous post (If Google is Your Consultant’s Best Friend…RUN!) I mentioned a case where a “consultant” was hired for a project they obviously had no clue about how to deliver.  Certainly a case of the project team bringing in the wrong resource.

Along those lines, I’m often asked by people just starting their career in consulting what it takes to be successful.  So I thought I’d give a few guidelines for what I think makes a great SAP BusinessObjects consultant.  Hopefully this will provide some value on both sides of the fence.

1. Diverse knowledge of a variety of technical topics
   While an in-house developer typically only needs to master one database platform, for instance, a great consultant needs to know all the major platforms.  Same thing goes for other technologies.  For instance, a great SAP BusinessObjects consultant should know about databases, ETL tools, schema design, Windows and Unix servers, Active Directory and LDAP authentication, web servers, application servers, and much more – not to mention the SAP BusinessObjects stack itself!  (There certainly are instances where a consultant may specialize in one area of SAP BusinessObjects, i.e. universe design, Xcelsius development, etc…  But in most cases, consultants need skills that encompass a variety of those technologies.)
2. Business accumen
   You could have all the technical prowess in the world, but if you can’t understand a client’s business you’re out of a job.  A great SAP BusinessObjects consultant possesses a solid foundation of how businesses work, and the ability to quickly understand the unique challenges that make today’s client different from the one last month.  Similar to #1 above, unless specializing in a particular vertical market, a great consultant needs to acquire a working knowledge of a variety of business models in a number of different fields.
3. Ability to quickly self-learn
   In my previous post mentioned above, I chastised the consultant that was reaching out for a lifeline on a project they had no business being on.  That’s not what I’m talking about here.  While in-between projects, a great consultant should be able to rapidly learn new tools and technologies with nothing more than a technical manual, because a great consultant is a busy consultant and there often isn’t time to attend live training classes.
4. Ties to the community
   A great consultant knows that they are not an island, and they take advantage of all that being a part of the SAP BusinessObjects community offers.  They might have their own blog where they share insights, offer webinars to bring clients and prospects up to speed on the latest in BI, participate in the BusinessObjects Board “BOB” or contribute back to the greater community in another way beyond just providing services to clients.
5. Hunger for knowledge
   A great consultant never satisfies their thirst for knowledge.  Whether by reading trade publications, building pilot projects or learning new technologies on their own, they know that there’s always something new to learn if they want to stay on top of their game.
6. Awareness of their limits
   Finally, a great consultant knows their limits in terms of both the size of a project as well as the know-how that will be required.  When given a task that they don’t believe they can complete based on their current size or skillset , a great consultant works with their client to bring in the additional resources and know-how the client needs to be successful.

(Coming to the end of this post, I realized I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this:  If you possess all of the traits mentioned above and are looking for a challenging career with a growing consulting organization…let me know.)

Question: Did I miss anything?  What other attributes do you think it takes to be a great SAP BusinessObjects consultant?

Related posts:

1. What Makes a Great Business Intelligence Client?
2. If Google is Your Consultant’s Best Friend…RUN!

I recently published the post 5 Reasons Why You Should Use an SAP BusinessObjects Universe to highlight some of the core benefits you’ll see when implementing the semantic layer for you organization.  The post was derived from speaking with organizations new to the Business Objects world about the benefits of leveraging the semantic layer. Throughout those talks, I also get to hear a lot of misconceptions about SAP BusinessObjects Universes.  Sometimes they are born out of a simple lack of understanding of the SAP BusinessObjects architecture, while other times they are propagated by competing business intelligence vendors.  (Shocking, I know.)

In any case, I’m here to set the record straight.  While the universe semantic layer isn’t perfect, it is pretty good at what it does and keeps getting better.  Here are some common misconceptions that I’ve heard over the years.  Did I miss any?  Let me know in the comments…

Universes affect query performance by adding unnecessary overhead.

False. In its simplest form, a universe is merely a semantic layer that maps your database objects to standard business terminology to provide an intuitive way to work with information.  When queries are refreshed, the business terminology is turned back into SQL and executed on the appropriate database directly.  If your query has three items in it, so will the resultset coming back from the database.  There aren’t any middleware components or services that add overhead to this process.

The Universe is simply a cube of my data, formatted for reporting.

False. (See above.)  The data returned by your universe continues to reside wherever it does today.  The universe semantic layer simply defines how those tables are joined, how the objects are defined, etc…

I need to have a data warehouse or data mart to be able to use a Universe.

False. While query performance will generally be better if running against a schema designed for reporting (i.e. data mart/data warehouse), as a technology Universes are equally at home pointing directly to data contained in CRM, ERP and other transactional systems.  We often use this method when implementing operational reporting, where our client needs real-time access to their raw transaction information.

I can’t use a Universe because I want to aggregate by different dimensions depending upon the report.

False. When developing a universe, you simply define how objects should aggregate – sum, avg, count, etc… -  not specific dimensions by which to aggregate.  By properly using SQL Aggregation and Measure Projection in the definition of your universe objects, the result set will dynamically aggregate at whatever level is appropriate given the dimension objects you selected.  If you select ‘Year’ and ‘Total Sales’, the query will return one row for each year showing total sales.  Add ‘Product Line’ to the query, and now you’ll have one row per year per product line, etc…  All of this done automagically by the universe.

Our application uses a proprietary database, so it won’t work with a Universe.

False (sort of). In general, as long as the vendor provides an ODBC driver for the database you should be able to access it’s information through the universe using a Generic ODBC connection.  However (and it’s a big however) the functions that you can use in the universe are limited to those that are supported by the ODBC driver.  If you’d like to roll up all the sales by year and the driver doesn’t support a Date function to do that, you’re out of luck.  (Obviously you could still do these conversions at the report level, but that’s a different topic as we’re talking specifically about universe functionality here.)

At any rate, this lack of support has more to do with the specific ODBC driver than the universe, as you would run into the same issue no matter how you tried to access that data.  In these cases, we typically evaluate the reporting requirements alongside the capabilities of the ODBC driver itself before making the decision to move forward with the generic driver, or work towards getting the data into a more standard database platform.

Question:  What misconceptions have you had/heard about SAP BusinessObjects Universes?

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes
2. What is a Business Objects Universe?
3. Exploring 4.0: Information Design Tool

In meeting with organizations who are new to SAP BusinessObjects or who are legacy Crystal Reports users, we are often asked the question “Why should I use a Business Objects Universe?”.  To organizations who have worked with universes for a period of time, the advantages and value proposition are clear.  But for organizations who are new to universes, it can often be a challenge to quantify the value of the semantic layer.

In this post I hope to outline a few of the reasons why we recommend implementing universes, even if you’re not using an SAP BusinessObjects tool that specifically requires them.

Integrated security

One of the most common ways that security is implemented into an SAP BusinessObjects Universe is to dynamically restrict data being returned by a query.  In this example, only sales belonging to the user that ran the report or viewed the dashboard would be shown.  You can also use this technique to segregate data by customer, regional manager, product division, warehouse, etc… to give everyone a personalized view of their information.  But that’s just the beginning.

You can also use the built-in universe security to restrict access to particular objects (such as salary or SSN), control the types of queries a user can run, change the database connection depending on the user, and even dynamically map to other tables.  Leveraging the universe model gives you complete security over your environment, and the best part is you only have to apply the security once and it takes affect whether the user is refreshing a canned report, viewing a dashboard or creating their own ad hoc report.

Single version of the truth

We’ve all been there.  You’re at a meeting discussing sales numbers and three people give three different answers on what last month’s sales were.  The Sales Manager defines it as bookings made.  The Warehouse Team counts only orders that were physically shipped out the door.  And Finance, well they pull a bunch of different information into their spreadsheet and come up with a third version.  They may all be correct, but they’re also all wrong.

Building a universe layer “forces” you to come together and define the terminology that you use, perhaps in the case above creating separate “sales” and “shipments” measures to satisfy everyone’s reporting requirements.  When reporting through the universe, everyone in the organization will benefit by having access to the same information, defined in the same way, using the same calculations.

Build once and reuse

Some of the clients we meet with, particularly those that have been using Crystal Reports for some time, are resistant to using universes because “it would be easier to just hardcode the SQL” or “our data structure is too complex”.  Sure, it may be easier the first time to hardcode a SQL query into a report, but what about the second, fifth or tenth time you have to do that?  And as for the data being too complex, with few exceptions if you can define it in SQL you can build it into a universe.  This ability to define the universe semantic layer one time and leverage it across the entire SAP BusinessObjects toolset is huge.

Maintenance/change management

Perhaps one of the most overlooked benefits of utilizing the universe layer is around maintenance and change management.  With the universe model all of your logic is in one place, making maintenance straightforward.  Plus, if the data model for any of your upstream systems changes, you can in most cases modify the universe to reflect those changes without having to touch any of your downstream reports, dashboards or analytics.  Just imagine if you had 2,000 reports written against hardcoded SQL sitting on top of a data model that has now changed radically in a new release.  I’ve seen it happen, and it wasn’t pretty.

Intuitive interface for developers and end-users

This is what it’s all about: providing end-users and developers alike with a drag and drop interface where they could build reports using business terminology rather than SQL code.  Which is more intuitive to an end-user: SUM(DB_AdvWorksDW.dbo.FactResellerSales.SalesAmount) or ‘Sum of Reseller Sales’?  Now imagine this simple example using CASE statements, datatype conversions, etc… and you’ll understand the true power of the SAP BusinessObjects universe.

In using the universe layer, report authors and developers can reference information in common business terminology, and be shielded by all the technical complexity and transformations that are happening behind the scenes.

Want to learn more?

There are many benefits to using the Universe model, these are just a few of the most popular.  Want to learn more?  Call us at (877) 844-7476 or email info@alteksolutions.com to see how you can leverage the power of the universe for your organization.

Question:  Does your organization utilize SAP BusinessObjects universes?  If so what advantages do you see, and did you find any downsides?  If you don’t use universes, why not?

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Misconceptions About Business Objects Universes
2. Maintain Peak Performance With a Comprehensive SAP BusinessObjects Health Check
3. Five Reasons Why Ad Hoc Reporting Won’t Work in Some Organizations

We’re about to embark upon a new project to conduct a large-scale health check on one of our client’s primary reporting environments, so I thought it may be beneficial to write about the process we use. Hopefully it will give you some insight into how to conduct a health check, and the benefits your organization will see should you decide to undertake one.

When sitting down with a client to discuss conducting a Health Check, we tend to get asked a lot of questions – which is exactly how I’m going to frame this post. Have some of your own? Add them in the Comments, and we’ll add them to the post.

What is an SAP BusinessObjects Health Check?

In it’s basic form, an SAP BusinessObjects Health Check is directed to discovery and documentation of an SAP BusinessObjects deployment. The core deliverable of a Health Check is an accounting of system design and performance, along with recommendations on how to best approach the environment for present and future requirements.

When should a Health Check be conducted?

Generally, it’s a good idea to periodically (every year or so) conduct Health Checks to keep up with changing demands, technologies and information. We especially recommend undergoing a Health Check activity:

• Before migrating to a major new release
• When the actual system usage or audience has changed significantly from its original scope
• If performance isn’t as expected or is declining
• When development is complete and new content is about to be migrated into production

Why should I do a Health Check? Where is the benefit?

The main benefit of a Health Check is to receive an unbiased evaluation of your environment, along with a roadmap of ways to improve its usability, security and performance. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. By identifying the weak links in your system and proposing solutions to resolve them, a successful Health Check put your business intelligence solution and organization as a whole in a much better competitive position.

What does the process look like?

Over the past ten years, we have developed a core methodology around Health Checks, and I’m sure other organizations may have their own written procedures as well. While we often tailor our process to meet a specific goal or area of focus, the workflow generally looks like this:

• Kick-off meeting to determine scope, constraints, areas of focus, etc…
• Interviews with technical teams
• Interviews with developers
• Interviews with end-users
• Self-guided analysis/Follow-up interviews
• Documentation development
• Presentation of findings/recommendations

What specifically is evaluated?

We typically start the analysis process with the following areas and add/modify according to the client’s specific needs and areas of focus:

• Tool selection and usage
• Development practices
• Architecture & configuration
• Underlying databases
• SAP BusinessObjects Universes, reports, analytics and dashboards
• Custom intranets/extranets/portals
• Security protocols
• Skill and knowledge gaps

What are the deliverables? What do I “get”?

Deliverables may vary depending upon the methodology of the organization conducting the Health Check. The primary deliverable that we provide is a well-written, detailed document that covers:

• The current state of affairs
• Issues discovered during the Health Check and their potential resolutions
• Recommendations on ways to improve the environment by applying best practices
• Education plan to address staff skill- and knowledge-gaps
• A Business Intelligence Roadmap to help ensure the organization moves in the right direction

How long does it usually take?

A typical Health Check for a small to mid-sized organization usually takes between 5 and 10 days. If your environment is smaller in scope, it could be accomplished in as little as a few days. Likewise, if you’ve got a large environment with numerous servers, databases and universes – like the one we’re embarking on now – the process can take a bit longer.

Why use a consultant? Can’t my own developers conduct our Health Check?

Sure…but that’s a bit like having the fox guard the hen house, isn’t it? In all seriousness, using your own developers to perform a Health Check is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

First, they don’t know what they don’t know. A seasoned consultant, who develops a variety of BI solutions day in and day out, has acquired additional skills along the way that give them a unique perspective on best practices and approaches to your problems. Second, your developers may be too close to the problem. Working in an environment for a period of time may blind them to glaring issues an “outsider” will pick up on almost immediately. Finally, as an outside resource, a consultant generally doesn’t have to deal with office politics. They come in to do a job, and make recommendations based on fact – not whether or not they’re going to ruffle anyone’s feathers.

Are these really beneficial? Will I see results?

The “worst” that can happen is we end up telling you that you’re doing everything right – but that hasn’t happened in the ten years I’ve been doing these. We can ALWAYS find some tweaks that can have a large impact on the performance, usability and scalability of your Business Objects environment. Two cases that come to mind are a client implementing a suggested change that took query run-times from 20+ minutes to under 3 seconds, and a client that had numerous reports that were unknowingly pointing to test data instead of production data for several months.

What are the next steps after a Health Check is conducted?

As part of a typical Health Check you will receive a document outlining recommendations you can take to improve your environment. Once presented, the recommendations are yours to do with what you wish. You could throw them out the window (not recommended), undertake them in-house, utilize a consulting organization to bring your deployment up to par, or a combination of all three. In any case, the Health Check will provide you with a solid roadmap on what you need to do next to maintain and improve your SAP BusinessObjects environment.

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons Why You Should Use SAP BusinessObjects Universes

Following SAP’s big acquisition of BusinessObjects, more and more companies running SAP are looking to BusinessObjects as an answer for their reporting needs. The BusinessObjects tools WebIntelligence and Xcelsius are well suited for this role. However, getting SAP data into those tools is not yet as easy as SAP would like.

Tools like WebIntelligence and Xcelsius are primarily driven by the BusinessObjects universe. Unfortunately for SAP customers, SAP has not yet produced a universe connector to allow you to tap directly into your SAP R/3 data. Instead, SAP customers need to leverage an ETL tool to extract the SAP data into a relational database. For a variety of reasons, BusinessObjects Data Services is the tool of choice for this job. In this post I will explain how Data Services talks to SAP to extract data.  

Data Services connects to SAP using the same information you would use to connect through the SAP GUI tool.  In Data Services, you create a datastore with all the required SAP server information.  Once set up, you can import SAP tables into Data Services just as you would with any other data source.  Instead of using a standard Data Flow as you would with a relational database, with SAP data you must use the R/3 Data Flow.

The standard method for manually extracting SAP data is to write custom ABAP code which generates a flat data file. The flat file can then be consumed by other processes.  With the R/3 Data Flow, Data Services uses this same method, although it automates the entire process.  A basic SAP R/3 Data Flow in Data Services will generate ABAP on-the-fly and upload it to the SAP server via a shared directory.  The shared directory can be a network share or FTP that both the Data Services and SAP servers can access.  Data Services then asks SAP to execute this ABAP code.  The resulting flat file is generated in the same shared folder, which Data Services then processes.

Inside an R/3 Data Flow -- Joining 4 Sales fact tables from SAP R/3

From here, any normal Data Services transformations can occur on the data — the extraction from SAP is complete. The SAP data can be joined with data from other sources, or you can use Data Services’ built in Key Generation and Table Comparison transforms to build a true datamart with slowly changing dimensions and delta-loaded fact tables. The BusinessObjects universe can be laid on top of this database, allowing you to use all the other tools in the BusinessObjects suite — reporting with Web Intelligence, analysis with Explorer, or dashboarding with Xcelsius.

SAP also offers several “Rapid Marts”, which combine Data Services jobs with a prebuilt universe, providing a plug-and-play solution. There are Rapid Marts for Sales, Inventory, Cost Centers, Projects, and more.  Whether you choose to use one of these prebuilt solutions or design your own, it is good to understand the challenges involved with connecting BusinessObjects to SAP.

For More Information

• SAP Community Network Wiki on BusinessObjects and SAP
• SAP BusinessObjects Rapid Marts
• Altek Solutions Data Management Services

No related posts.

Dashboards and visualizations are a hot topic right now.  You can’t go to an SAP BusinessObjects event or a user group meeting without seeing over half of the presentations focusing on dashboards and visualizations.  And, like with any cutting-edge technology, it seems everyone is trying to get in on the action.  While that’s a good thing, sometimes people lack the basic knowledge and skills to utilize those tools to deliver effective analysis.

Creating effective dashboards and visualizations is both an art and a science, akin to web design.  When the internet was in it’s infancy, most websites contained a lot of bells and whistles (such as flashing test, GIF animations, visitor counters, etc…) but very little substance.

As the internet matured, website developers began to focus more on delivering compelling content and less on using every tool they have at their disposal.  Think of the sites you visit regularly today.  How many of them have a visitor count on the homepage?  Enough said.

Along those same lines, we’re going to look at a few tips you can use to take your dashboard and visualization skills to the next level and ‘underwhelm’ your users with a great dashboard design.

1. Just because a component exists doesn’t mean you have to use it
   Some of the components in Crystal Dashboard Design (formerly Xcelsius) are poor.  Not from a quality standpoint, but in the context of displaying information in a meaningful way.  Unfortunately, these same components tend to provide a lot of “eye candy” and pop-up everywhere in marketing brochures and demo dashboards.  Resist the urge, and choose the right component for what you’re trying to convey…even if it’s not “glossy”.
2. Choose the correct chart for your data
   An entire series of posts can be written on this topic.  (In fact, we’re working on that.)  In short, choose a chart that will best represent your data and dimensions.  If you’re looking at information trends along a time series, use a line chart.  Comparing information across different dimensions, use a bar chart.  And by all means, stay away from pie charts.  They just aren’t effective at visually representing differences in data values once you have more than 3 or 4 slices.
3. Cohesive color theme
   Selecting a color scheme that works can do wonders for your dashboard design in adding an air of professionalism.  If you organization already as a color scheme developed for their website or intranet, you can leverage that.  Otherwise, try one of many color scheme tools such as Adobe’s Kuler to help you develop one.
4. Incorporate Interactivity to Facilitate Analysis
   At the end of the day, a great dashboard is all about the data. To be an effective decision-making tool, users should be able to drill down from the dashboard to analyze more detailed information across other dimensions (e.g., time, product, geography, etc.).  Even the ability to open related, context-aware operational reports from the dashboard is a huge win for end-users, and is relatively simple to implement.
5. White space
   Many dashboards that I’ve seen try to cram too much information into an area.  It’s almost as though the developer was paying for that space by the square pixel and was trying to maximize their investment.  If you truly need that much information available on the dashboard, use tabs or drill downs to access the secondary data.  Just remember that white space is your friend.

We’ll explore some of these concepts in more depth in future posts.  Until then, work on incorporating these tips into your dashboards and visualizations to increase their effectiveness and professionalism.

Question:  What tips would you share with someone just starting out with dashboard and visualization development?

Related posts:

1. Crystal Dashboard Design (Xcelsius 2008) Tips and Tricks ep1: Adding a Select All to your Selector
2. Crystal Dashboard Design (Xcelsius 2008): Tips and Tricks ep5: Parent and Child Dashboards from InfoView using Doc Download!
3. Making Your Measures Behave