_________________________________

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
An Up-To-Date Guide to
SAP NetWeaver BEx _________________________________
Broadcasting: Features, _________________________________
Functions, and What’s _________________________________
Really Required to Make It _________________________________
Work in Your Organization
_________________________________
Dr. Bjarne Berg _________________________________
MyITgroup
© 2007 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

What We’ll Cover ...

_________________________________
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do? _________________________________
• The Broadcasting Wizard
_________________________________
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster
_________________________________
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned _________________________________
• Wrap-up _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

What Is BEx Information Broadcasting?

_________________________________
• It’s a standard part of SAP BW 3.5 and the latest version of SAP
NetWeaver®. It lets you send “reports,” BEx queries, workbooks, _________________________________
and Web applications to a variety of recipients, e.g.: _________________________________
Email
addresses, _________________________________
BW users,
BW roles
_________________________________
SAP Enterprise _________________________________
Portal
Knowledge _________________________________
Management
folders
_________________________________
SAP Enterprise _________________________________
Portal
_________________________________

Image: SAP AG
2
What Can BEx Information Broadcasting Do?
_________________________________
• Broadcasts can be configured to run: _________________________________
A single time
On a scheduled basis (every day, week, month, e.g.) _________________________________
During specific timeslots defined by the administrator _________________________________
Or any time (if you allow)
When an event occurs; i.e., when an “exception” occurs
_________________________________
As part of a process chain _________________________________
• You tell the system:
_________________________________
What to send
f A link to regenerate the query, etc., based on live data, or _________________________________
f A standalone (precalculated) version of the item
How to send it
_________________________________
f There are several format and compression options _________________________________
Key concept: push vs. pull — Broadcasting is a push tool
3

Why Is Broadcasting Important?

_________________________________
• Reduces the time users spend _________________________________
looking for information
_________________________________
• Improves the likelihood that
users will use your BI data _________________________________
• Expands the reach of BI data to _________________________________
non-SAP users as well!
• Makes BW data available for
_________________________________
users on the go _________________________________
• Lets you link your BW and _________________________________
Portal systems together!
• Lets users collaborate, integrate _________________________________
BW content with other _________________________________
enterprise and Web
content, etc.! Image: SAP AG
4

Push vs. Pull: The Need for a Change in Mentality

_________________________________
• Users must change their mindsets in order to stop reviewing _________________________________
everything that merely reflects business as usual. The push
mentality requires that users plan for what is important to _________________________________
them and set up fixed sets of reports that are used to manage _________________________________
the business.
• In general, the push approach reduces the time users spend _________________________________
looking for information and provides them with more time to _________________________________
examine data that really matter to them.
_________________________________
• You should carefully consider using BEx Broadcaster for core
reporting that users perform through any handheld computer _________________________________
device. This simplifies the security setup and also increases
_________________________________
the speed of any report (does not access the source system
through limited bandwidth). _________________________________

5
 SAP NetWeaver 7.0: New Object Types and Output Formats
_________________________________
• New object types _________________________________
You can broadcast BEx query views and
formatted reports in addition to Web _________________________________
applications, queries, and workbooks.
Reports are a new BEx object type
_________________________________
developed within the new BEx Report _________________________________
Designer tool.
_________________________________
_________________________________
• New output formats
New output formats are based on the _________________________________
distribution type you select. You now can
broadcast Web documents as PDF files.
_________________________________
_________________________________

SAP NetWeaver 7.0: Distribution Types

_________________________________
• Distribution types _________________________________
You can broadcast to any printer using
Adobe’s PDF, Property Specification _________________________________
Language (PSL), or PostScript (PS).
_________________________________
Under this option, you can also control
printer headers and footers as well. _________________________________
f Hint: Set up the printers under
ToolsŒCCMSŒPrint _________________________________
• You can broadcast user-specific _________________________________
information based on master data
attributes using a distribution list in _________________________________
BI (bursting of emails). The system _________________________________
can control the information so that
users only see data related to them. _________________________________

SAP NetWeaver 7.0: Exception Broadcasting

_________________________________
• Exception broadcasting is now available _________________________________
in BEx Broadcaster. Create exceptions in
Query Designer and select a distribution _________________________________
type in BEx Broadcaster. _________________________________
• You can also use additional distribution
types (subordinate) and create rules for _________________________________
when you monitor or execute the _________________________________
exception report. Base exceptions on
single events or levels of any performance _________________________________
measure. _________________________________
• Use multiple distribution types to create a
_________________________________
setting that broadcasts via many channels
(e.g., the printer and Enterprise Portal 6.0). _________________________________
Key concepts: Don’t spend time monitoring business-as-usual activities — only get alerted
when exceptions occur. Don’t search for exceptions — send them automatically. 8
 BEx Broadcaster: Exception Reporting
_________________________________
You can make BEx _________________________________
Broadcaster send you an
exception report when an _________________________________
exception occurs or if the _________________________________
system reaches a certain level
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
First, you have to define _________________________________
the exceptions for the _________________________________
query and make the
exception active _________________________________

BEx Broadcaster: Exception Reporting (cont.)

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• Under the General Precalculation tab, power users can use defined
exceptions to send a broadcast only when the selected trigger point _________________________________
occurs
_________________________________
• Note that you can use only those exceptions defined in the query in the
broadcast settings here _________________________________
To manage all alerts and workflow tasks from a single location, integrate an
alert with the SAP Portal’s 6.0 Universal Worklist (UWL) in the Central Alert _________________________________
Framework (CAF) of SAP NetWeaver Application Server. To do so, go to the
Central Alert Server (use transaction code ALRTCATDEF).
10

An Advanced Option: Inserting Text into the Alerts

_________________________________
• Using the Central Alert Server, by selecting the distribution _________________________________
type “Create Alert” and selecting the “Alert Category,” you
can also insert text from BEx Broadcaster into the alerts to _________________________________
make them more relevant to the recipient _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

11
SAP NetWeaver 7.0: Query Performance
_________________________________
• To increase the performance of key queries, _________________________________
you can fill the OLAP Cache or the MDX
(multi-dimensional expressions) Cache. _________________________________
This is useful if you have large numbers of
users accessing a query, or you have a _________________________________
query that accesses a high volume of data. _________________________________
• The Fill Precalculation Store distribution
type allows you to precalculate Web _________________________________
templates, and the Precalculate Value Set
_________________________________
option allows you to fill precalculated value
set variables with values for characteristic _________________________________
values. The precalculated value sets are
then available as variable values in _________________________________
BEx queries.
_________________________________
The Reporting Agent in SAP BW 3.x could precalculate the data of a
template and access it through the URL. It could not broadcast queries,
workbooks, or Web templates by email or to KM folders. 12

What We’ll Cover ...

_________________________________
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do? _________________________________
• The Broadcasting Wizard
_________________________________
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster
_________________________________
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned _________________________________
• Wrap-up _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

13

BEx Broadcasting Wizard Ad Hoc Scheduling

_________________________________
• Access BEx Broadcasting Wizard from the context menu in a query
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• BEx Broadcasting Wizard is a tool for end users _________________________________
to distribute queries and workbooks to
individuals or larger audiences through email, _________________________________
printers, or SAP NetWeaver Portal.
14
 Output Formats: HTML
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• HTML file _________________________________
Use this option to send a single HTML file (standard static Web
page). This is an easy way to send Web pages to handheld devices
_________________________________
(BlackBerry or Pocket PCs, e.g.), and also to custom Web _________________________________
applications.
• The report is a snapshot rather than live data _________________________________

15

Output Formats: XML

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• You can now broadcast query output in Excel format (XML for _________________________________
MS Office) without using precalculation server (available as of _________________________________
Support Package 8)
• Any parser engine that can read the XML documents supports
_________________________________
this format; you can also use it for customized Web _________________________________
development efforts
16

Output Formats: MHTML

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• HTML as Separate Multipurpose
Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Files _________________________________
Provides a set of individual files for
each Web item in your report _________________________________
• The benefit of this standard Web
_________________________________
format option is that it optimizes
reuse of objects, since images are _________________________________
cached in the browser after they are
first accessed
17
 Output Formats: Online Links to Current Data
• This is the most secure method for
protecting the access to your data.
However, the recipient must have
online access to your system, a
username, and a password.
• The recipient may not see the same
data as what you believe you sent,
since the data may have been
refreshed since you sent the
broadcast.
• The link back to the online source
requires recipients to log on with a
username and a password to see the
content, but the user can see the
latest data.
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
18

Output Formats: PDF

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• The use of PDF as a publishing and broadcasting option is new in SAP
_________________________________
NetWeaver 7.0. To make it work, configure PDF broadcast Adobe Document
Services (ADS) on the Java Stack. _________________________________
• The output format determines how many steps the Wizard has (e.g., PDF
involves 6 steps, while online links have 5).
19

Output Formats: ZIP Files

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

• Zipping files reduces the size and improves network traffic: _________________________________
It is very good for sets of MIME files, which are relatively large _________________________________
Not a good option for handhelds (requires unzipping and several
read steps) _________________________________
Normally not needed for single HTML files unless the report is very
long _________________________________
Reduces network traffic and the size of the mail in the mailboxes
_________________________________
Pros: file size much smaller; Cons: not as easy to use, since you have to unzip
the file and need to license the unzip program 20
 Identify Recipients and Enter a Message
_________________________________
_________________________________
Enter one or more email
addresses, a subject, and
_________________________________
body.
The importance level flags the
_________________________________
email for delivery to your
recipient. _________________________________
_________________________________
Click on Continue to save
and schedule the broadcast _________________________________
to execute later.
_________________________________
OR
Click on Execute to execute _________________________________
the broadcast once only,
during the next available
processing window, and exit.
_________________________________

21

Define a Name for the Broadcast Setting

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

• This is the name under which you store your settings _________________________________
• If you want to execute this broadcast more than once with _________________________________
these settings you can save them
_________________________________
• You can retrieve the settings later
_________________________________
_________________________________
Define groups of settings for reports you send repeatedly (e.g.,
Tip weekly status reports, month-end financial reports, etc.) 22

Tell the System When to Schedule the Broadcast

_________________________________
You can schedule the job to
run every time the InfoCube is
_________________________________
changed (the process chain
has run) _________________________________
You can limit the users to when _________________________________
they can schedule jobs to avoid
stress on the system. We can _________________________________
provide multiple predefined
times when they can schedule
the reports. _________________________________
_________________________________
You can also allow the users to
create their own scheduling
_________________________________
times (only authorized users
see this) _________________________________
_________________________________
Developers should set up predefined time windows for scheduling broadcasts
23
What We’ll Cover ...
_________________________________
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do? _________________________________
• The Broadcasting Wizard
_________________________________
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster _________________________________
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned _________________________________
• Wrap-up _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

24

Another Level of Access

_________________________________
• There are several other advanced options that developers can _________________________________
use to set up background jobs and to control who can access
the Broadcaster _________________________________
• Plan on training your power _________________________________
users to know more than
_________________________________
just the basics
• We will now take a _________________________________
look at the most _________________________________
common tasks
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

25

BEx Broadcaster
_________________________________
• Business typically gives access to this tool to the power
_________________________________
users or developers only, since it has more options and
requires slightly more skill _________________________________
• Access via Web Application Designer (Web AD) or Query
Designer _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Web AD SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Query Designer
26
 Regular Scheduling by Power Users Using BEx Broadcaster
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

• The output formats are the same as in Broadcasting Wizard _________________________________

• But you can also “burst” the Broadcasts _________________________________
_________________________________

27

Bursting Broadcasts
_________________________________
_________________________________
If selected,
everyone gets _________________________________
the same
broadcast _________________________________
_________________________________
Here we can _________________________________
make the The Country manager stored here is
broadcasts Master Data and the attribute for the _________________________________
contain only country manager contains the email
address where we are sending the
data that is Broadcast
_________________________________
relevant to
each specific _________________________________
user _________________________________
On the conference CD I have included detailed, step-by-step
descriptions and scenarios on how to set up bursting 28

Determine the Recipient of Bursted Broadcasts

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• These fields determine the recipients in bursting of reports
(mass broadcasts with user-specific views) _________________________________
• In this example, I am bursting emails based on the company _________________________________
code and sending specific mailings based on each receiver’s
country (the BI system has to store the email address) 29
Select Characteristic Values
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• You can determine the broadcast based on predefined
selections, or you can use a control query to determine the _________________________________
characteristics values to include in the broadcast _________________________________
Set the standard template for broadcasting from SAP Reference IMG SAP
Customizing Implementation Guide SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence
Reporting-Relevant Settings BEx Web Set Standard Web Templates
30

Filter Navigation Tab

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• If you precalculate the queries, you can allow the recipient to navigate _________________________________
the reports by the characteristics you select. The more items you
include, the larger the size of the broadcast items. This is not a problem _________________________________
if you are mailing to a few of users, but for thousands of users daily,
you should select these items carefully. _________________________________
Great
The benefit of the Filter Navigation tab is that you can select which items
you want to enable without having to create new queries 31
Feature

Why Broadcast to SAP Enterprise Portal (5.0 and Later Portal

Versions) vs. Email?
_________________________________
• More powerful _________________________________
Users can comment, rate, and discuss the broadcasted assets
You can place the assets in iViews on cockpits/dashboards _________________________________
You can integrate the assets with other portal content _________________________________
Portal users without a BW user ID can now access BW content
SAP Search and Classification (TREX) searches include _________________________________
broadcasted assets _________________________________
• More user friendly
Users can subscribe/unsubscribe themselves
_________________________________
• Easier, more flexible administration _________________________________
You can leverage the portal’s access control lists/capabilities
_________________________________
No email address lists to maintain (users [un]subscribe)
Avoids the email glut, and the BW/network performance hit! _________________________________

32
Options for Broadcasting to the Portal
_________________________________
• The broadcast options are similar to the email distribution. You have
several choices: _________________________________
1 - Deploy via KM Favorites 4 - Deploy via the BW showcase role _________________________________
2 - Deploy via a KM folder 5 - Deploy via custom iViews
3 - Deploy via Collaboration Rooms _________________________________
• You can broadcast
the content to the _________________________________
portal at fixed
intervals and have _________________________________
the content instantly
available through _________________________________
independent Web
pages. You can also _________________________________
broadcast to the
portal through links _________________________________
back to your system.
_________________________________
Great There is a demo role available since SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0. You can use this role
for your publishing to the portal or enhance it any way you like. The portal role is
Feature
available under com.sap.ip.bi.business_explorer_showcase 33

What We’ll Cover ...

_________________________________
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do? _________________________________
• The Broadcasting Wizard
_________________________________
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster
_________________________________
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned _________________________________
• Wrap-up _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

34

Security and Access Settings

_________________________________
• Controlling which users can schedule ad hoc or through BEx _________________________________
Broadcaster is a critical maintenance issue
• You can control the user’s ability to schedule the reports
_________________________________
through the authorization object S_RS_BCS _________________________________
The administrator still uses the standard S_RS_ADMWB object
_________________________________
• In SAP NetWeaver 7.0, you also have new broadcast settings
for the RSADMWBOBJ field, including: _________________________________
Maintain/Delete (23)
_________________________________
Display (03)
Execute/Schedule (16) _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

35
 New Broadcasting Administration Interface in SAP NetWeaver 7.0
News: With SAP NetWeaver 7.0, there is a new transaction RSRD_ADMIN (or RSA1Œ
AdministrationŒBroadcasting) where you can manage BEx Broadcaster
New Broadcasting Administration Interface Features
Broadcast Types
Distribution Types
Output Formats
Monitor Schedules in Broadcasting Administration
• The Broadcasting
Administration allows you to
monitor to see who is
scheduling what and if some
times are more heavily utilized
than others (e.g., 7 to 8 am)
• This is a great tool to help
balance stress on the system
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
36
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
37
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
38
Reorganize Bookmarks with Broadcasting Administration
• Reorganize and delete bookmark
IDs and view IDs that the system
created for Information
Broadcasting but no longer needs
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

39

Manage Broadcast Logs

_________________________________
• RSRD_LOG displays all logs for BEx Broadcaster settings. _________________________________
Logs are only written for scheduled settings and not for directly
executed settings. _________________________________
In large SAP NetWeaver _________________________________
BI systems with many
users and frequent _________________________________
broadcasts, the logs
can be really big, so you _________________________________
should delete them
periodically
_________________________________
• You can also use RSBCSRE03 to delete
_________________________________
email logs that BEx Broadcaster created
_________________________________
_________________________________

40

Execute and Debug

_________________________________
• Using transaction RSRD_START, you can execute (and _________________________________
therefore debug for test purposes) any settings
• Make sure to activate the indicator for executing settings
_________________________________
online _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Great _________________________________
_________________________________
Feature
41
 Create Jobs to Run after Other Jobs or Defined Events
Link a job to another job to
create set of events that
allows the scheduler to
build complex broadcast
rules that may be hard to
maintain (and understand)
The best approach is to create time
points (periodic broadcasts) as the
default broadcasting option
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

42

Creating Process Chains and Time Points

_________________________________
• You can assign broadcast events to process chains. First you _________________________________
create a variant and assign it to the InfoCube. The event in the
process chain triggers the broadcast event. _________________________________
• Creating time points:
_________________________________
You can create background jobs
(transaction SM36) to schedule any _________________________________
jobs starting with the text
"TP_BROADCASTING_". This _________________________________
allows users to broadcast at certain
time points. In SM36, start the _________________________________
condition, select the date and time
when the job starts, select the _________________________________
periodic flag and define it as
hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, _________________________________
or other.
Tool _________________________________
Time points control when end users can schedule broadcasts. This avoids heavy
scheduling during data loads or times when many users access the system. 43

Create Time Points

_________________________________
• Create background jobs using transaction SM36 to schedule any jobs
starting whose names begin with "TP_BROADCASTING_"
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

44
 Create Time Points (cont.)
_________________________________
You can create _________________________________
empty periodic
jobs that the _________________________________
Broadcasting _________________________________
Wizard will later
associate with _________________________________
queries _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

45

Create Jobs Using the Job Wizard in SM36

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

46

Reporting Agent Is Dead — Don’t Use It!

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
IMPORTANT: “Old Reporting Agent scenarios still run in SAP NetWeaver 7.0. However, Reporting
Agent will not be developed any further and is removed from SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Workbench. You can
now only reach Reporting Agent using transaction code REPORTING_AGENT” Source: SAP 47
Prerequisites for Workbook Precalculation
_________________________________
• MS Office XP (or .NET framework version 1.1 or later) _________________________________
• MS Excel 2000 (or later)
_________________________________
• SAP BW workbook precalculation services
Note: servers with this installed will be visible under the transaction _________________________________
RSPRECADMIN and you can also perform server load balancing
_________________________________
• SAPGUI 6.20/6.40 with BEx
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
This is not needed for standard broadcasting of Web queries
or Web applications, only for workbooks. _________________________________
Note: you can avoid the precalculation server if you send _________________________________
broadcasts as “XML for Excel” available in Service Pack 8
for SAP NetWeaver 7.0
48

Prerequisites for Workbook Precalculation (cont.)

_________________________________
• Use transaction _________________________________
RSPRECADMIN in BW
_________________________________
Administrator Workbench
• Hardware requirements vary to reach the precalculation _________________________________
depending on: settings
_________________________________
Volume of data being
broadcast _________________________________
Data formats
Channels _________________________________
Number of users _________________________________
Type of queries or
workbooks _________________________________
Broadcast frequency
_________________________________
• SAP provides no detailed
recommendations
49

What We’ll Cover ...

_________________________________
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do? _________________________________
• The Broadcasting Wizard
_________________________________
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster _________________________________
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned _________________________________
• Wrap-up _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

50
 Decide Who Should Be Allowed to Do What: Governance Council
_________________________________
• There are many options and decisions to make about who should be
_________________________________
able to access all the broadcast features. A good approach to decide
who gets access and also when to create any time points, is to create a _________________________________
governance council of a few managers and developers.
Regular Power BW _________________________________
users users Authors Developers Admins
Email
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ _________________________________
Target

Portal - -/☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ _________________________________

BEx broad-
casting wizard ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ _________________________________
Tools

BEx Broadcaster
- -/☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
_________________________________
Process chains
- - - ☺ ☺
One-time _________________________________
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
Scheduling

Schedule using
preset time points ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
_________________________________
Free schedule - -/☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ 51

Spam Filters and Server Blockers

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
• Spam filters may automatically block users who create a high volume of
emails in the browsers and mail servers. You have to make sure that the _________________________________
internal email system flags you as a valid email broadcaster.
_________________________________
Review regularly to make sure that mail systems such as Yahoo!, Google,
AOL, Microsoft, and others have not flagged all your emails as spam 52

Manage Time Points

• Be careful to not add all your
broadcasts to the end of process
chains. Long process chains may
slow down the load processing of
large systems with hundreds of
InfoCubes.
• Good time points may be 6–8 am
when the load jobs are finished and
before a large number of users
access the system.
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

• Another good time may be at the end of weekly or monthly loads _________________________________
on the weekend (i.e., Saturday or Sunday mornings). _________________________________
The key is to balance the times when users can execute jobs. If you do not carefully
manage this, users tend to schedule their broadcasts between 7 and 9 am. 53
 Avoid Volumes of Junk
_________________________________
• Users tend to schedule queries for distribution and never _________________________________
disable the schedule after it has started to run. This creates
mountains of junk that few actually use. _________________________________
• Users who don’t want _________________________________
a broadcast tend to
_________________________________
simply delete it, or
automatically remove _________________________________
the email. So, how
_________________________________
do you know if
anyone reads the _________________________________
broadcasts?
_________________________________
_________________________________
Best Developers should perform a periodic review of scheduled broadcasts to see if
Practice there are any candidates for deletion
54

How to Stop Volumes of Junk: Monitor Broadcasts

_________________________________
• Establish a process to review and control internal spam kings _________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Use transactions SCOT
and SOST to monitor _________________________________
SMTP mails Best
Practice

55

KPI and Exception Reporting

_________________________________
• A major challenge in setting up the BI _________________________________
Broadcaster for exception reporting
is the definition of what an exception is _________________________________
• Set this up in the _________________________________
query, and BEx
Broadcaster uses it _________________________________
• If the query does not _________________________________
define the exception
_________________________________
the way that a user
wants it, it is not _________________________________
available to broadcast
_________________________________
as an exception
Exception reporting requires that users execute and evaluate a query to
_________________________________
see whether to broadcast it. This overhead can be substantial if you
Issue have a high number of users monitoring different queries. 56
What We’ll Cover ...
• What is BEx Broadcaster and what can it do?
• The Broadcasting Wizard
• Developer options for BEx Broadcaster
• How to manage the Broadcaster
• Making it work in real life — lessons learned
• Wrap-up
57
Resources
• Dr. Bjarne Berg’s resource site
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/
BB_index_main.htm
• Dr. Bjarne Berg and Joyce Butler,
“BEx Broadcaster at International Paper”
(ASUG, 2006)
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/
Articles/ASUG-2006-v6.ppt
58
Resources (cont.)
• BEx Broadcaster including BI 7.0 new
features – Dr. Berg and Filip Lemmens
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/
Articles/Portals_2006_Broadcaster_v19.ppt
• SAP BEx Broadcaster: How to make
it work in practice – Dr. Berg
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/
Berg/articles/broadcaster_v15.ppt
59
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
7 Key Points to Take Home
_________________________________
• Do not schedule all your broadcasts after a process chain has _________________________________
completed: It may slow down nightly data loads
• Control the times users can run reports to avoid high stress _________________________________
on the system
_________________________________
• Segment the broadcast tools based on the user roles and
level of training _________________________________
• Monitor the logs carefully and make sure that you control _________________________________
spam kings
• Do not give free scheduling to a high number of users _________________________________
• Be aware that spam filters may catch many of your _________________________________
broadcasts
• If you are not on SAP NetWeaver 7.0, seriously consider an _________________________________
upgrade and stop using Reporting Agent _________________________________

60

Your Turn!
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Dr. Bjarne Berg _________________________________

Director of BI, MyITgroup Ltd. _________________________________
bberg@myitgroup.com
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm _________________________________

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