Pennsylvania State System

of Higher Education

SAP BW Overview
 Agenda

Reporting Comparison
BW Overview
BW Landscape & Architecture
BW Reporting Tools
Business Content
BW Website
Online Resources
Discussions/ Q&A
 Reporting Comparison

Line Item Analysis Relational & Multidimensional Analysis

Delivered Reports Delivered Reports (aka Business Content)

Basic Reporting or Predefined (requires Ad hoc or Predefined (can be designed

by users)
ABAP programmers)
Significantly Faster Processing
Consumes Resources from
Transaction Processing
Current (according to update schedule)
Real-time Analysis & Historical Analysis

Cross Functional
Function Specific
 BW Overview

The Business Information Warehouse (BW) is

SAPs architectural solution for data
warehousing.
Seamless integration with R/3
Built-in functionality that substantially reduces DW design,
development and maintenance
BW is a separate system from the R/3 transaction
processing system
BW data structures are optimized for reporting data
efficiently and quickly (analytical processing).
R/3 data structures are optimized for recording data
efficiently and quickly (transaction processing).
 State System BW Landscape

BW Dev BW QA BW PRD BW TRN BW SB

DB1 QB1 PB1 TB1 SB1

Data Data Data Data Data

SAP R/3 SAP R/3 SAP R/3 SAP R/3 SAP R/3
DV1 QA2 PRD TRN SF1
DR1 QR1 PR1 TR1 SR1
DC1 QC1 PC1 TC1
 Basic BW Architecture

BEx
SAP R/3

ODS InfoCube

Non-SAP
Data Sources
Data Detail Business Content
(Flat file, XML Web
Based
or DBConnect)
SAP-BW BEx

Data Sources Business

Explorer Tools
 BW Reporting Tools
Business Explorer (BEx) Query Designer

1. MS-Excel-
Based Analyzer
(Web or GUI)

2. Formatted
Reporting

3. Web Application
Designer
Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer
Queries and solution workbooks embedded in MS Excel

Excel functionality can be utilized (calculations, charts,

VBA programming, etc.)

Queries are refreshed at each run; workbooks provide

pre-calculated queries

Incorporates BW Security and, therefore, eliminates the

need for an additional layer of security at the reporting
level

Seamless integration with BEx Analyzer for the Web

GUI Based or

SAP Menu Bar Add-in

Web-Based
What is Business Content?

Advantages of using Business Content

Pre-Configured SAP-delivered objects allow
rapid development (DataSources, Transfer
Structures, ODSs, InfoCubes, Queries, etc.)
Based on Best Practices

A solution to build upon

Provides a good baseline for enhancements of
functionality and data models.
http://www.sytecpa.org/BW/index.asp
 Online Resources
SAP Online Documentation - help.sap.com
Service Marketplace - service.sap.com
OSS Notes
Installation and upgrade info
SAP Developers Network - sdn.sap.com
Online Forums
How Tos
SAP Fans www.sapfans.com
QUESTIONS
Thank You