SAP Guidelines for Best-Built Applications: BI Tools

Transcription

1 SAP Guidelines for Best-Built Applications: BI Tools Helping partners provide customers with better applications to complement SAP Business Suite Stephen Mak Solution Management, Information Platform, OEM SAP August 2010

4 Introducing What-to Advice: SAP Guidelines for Best-Built Applications The Best-Built Apps Guidelines are: Recommendations from SAP about what SAP technologies partners should leverage Descriptions of what to do rather than how to do it Based on internal standards, best practices, and architecture guidelines used by SAP developers Developed iteratively and incrementally The Best-Built Apps Guidelines are not: Statements of future direction Qualification for a new brand or logo Mandates that partners must follow Best-Built Apps Guidelines are simply guidance about what partners should do to best align their complementary software with SAP Business Suite Partners choose whether or not to follow the guidance SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 4

5 Customer and Partner Benefits From the Guidelines Benefits for Our Mutual Customers Lower Integration Costs Integration is easier between software components built using similar architecture approaches and best practices Reduce Support Costs Products that use recommended components and follow well-understood patterns Complementary software built to leverage SAP support infrastructure Improve Familiarity Reduced operating and training costs for software that runs like SAP solutions Benefits for Our Partners Increase Customer Satisfaction Due to lower integration and support cost, improved familiarity Mitigate Development Costs Better alignment with SAP solutions from the onset reduces future realignment costs Enhance Return on Investment Reducing realignment needs can improve time to market and lifetime ROI SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 5

6 Three Valid Approaches to Solution Development SAP Business Suite Industry Solutions Designed with SAP tools to run in the SAP environment Partner applications built using SAP design and development tools. Such solutions will naturally be deployed to run on the SAP technology platform Migrated to run in the SAP environment Partner applications that are developed using non-sap design time tools and later migrated to run on SAP s technology platform Connected to an SAP solution Partner products developed using non-sap design time tools and running on non-sap platforms that integrate with SAP Business Suite and other solutions SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 6

7 Guidelines Developed Iteratively and Incrementally Introduction All guidelines, summarized Application lifecycle management Process orchestration and SOA User interface and user experience Enterprise information management BI tools Application development Governance and security Published chapters revised when needed October 2009 October 2009 December 2009 February 2010 April 2010 May 2010 Summer 2010 Summer 2010 Fall 2010 TechEd SAPPHIRE TechEd SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 7

10 Data Foundation Information Access The Information Platform Business Intelligence Tools & Platform SAP NetWeaver Portal Any Portal, Any Device Pioneer Explorer Crystal Reports Web Intelligence Xcelsius SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator 3 rd -Party Applications Focus of first version of Chapter 7 BI SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse ERP Financials Operations Human Resources Corporate Services CRM SCM 3 rd -Party Databases SRM PLM SAP Business Suite SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 10

11 BI Tools for Every Role All Integrated in One BI Platform Low-Touch Information Consumers Executive Search & Exploration Ad hoc Query & Reporting Dashboards Enterprise Reporting Explorer Xcelsius Crystal Reports LOB Management Web Intelligence High-Touch Information Experts Analysts Dynamic Static Interactivity SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 11

12 Crystal Reports Enterprise Reporting Provide information easily and securely Integrate information across data sources Scalable, large-scale distribution Tightly embedded into your business applications SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 12

13 Web Intelligence Ad hoc Query & Analysis Empower business users Interactive viewing and analysis plus ad hoc query for business users Universes for a business-centric view of information Advanced OLAP analytics for power users Remove IT bottleneck Users access information they need without calling IT Controlled and secured by IT BT-QUERY-1. SAP recommends using Web Intelligence as a Query and Analysis tool. BT-QUERY-2. SAP does not recommend using Desktop Intelligence as a Query and Analysis tool. SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 13

14 Xcelsius Dashboards and Visualization Intuitive and attractive Based on Adobe Flex technology Embed into other dashboards, portals, reports, PowerPoint Interactive information Familiar Excel interface for simple model building Controls like sliders for powerful what if scenario modeling SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 14

15 Explorer Data Exploration BI for all business users Simplicity and speed of search Intuitive exploration and visualization Fast response across mountains of data No training required Help IT be successful Easy and efficient to manage and scale Fast delivery and value to business Reuse BI infrastructure SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 15

16 BI Content Adds Value to Enterprise Applications Crystal Reports Web Intelligence BT-CI-1. To help end users gain immediate insight into their businesses, SAP recommends that ISVs create SAP BusinessObjects BI content (such as reports and visualizations) that is specific to their enterprise applications and data. Explorer Xcelsius SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 16

17 Universe Semantic Layer for SAP BusinessObjects BI Tools The Universe is the SAP BusinessObjects semantic layer through which business users access data. The Universe consists of three components: Connectivity information Data foundation Business layer.unv BT-META-1. SAP recommends using the SAP BusinessObjects semantic layer (Universe) as an intermediate layer between reports, analytics, queries, analysis, and dashboards and the underlying database. The Universe allows application developers to simplify access to data schemas for their users. BT-META-2. SAP does not recommend using SAP BusinessObjects Business Views as the metadata layer. SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 17

18 BI Platform The BI Platform is the underlying platform upon which the following products are based: SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise SAP BusinessObjects Edge SAP Crystal Reports Server The BI Platform services include: Security Scheduling & Alerting Publishing & Distribution BI Content Repository Caching & Failover Auditing Server Management SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 18

19 Developing Enterprise Applications With the BI Tools & Platform SDKs BI Platform SDK BI Platform API Security Scheduling & Alerting Publishing & Distribution BI Content Repository Server Management OpenDocument API Access/view BI content in BI Platform repository BI-SEC-1. To enable federated identify management, SAP recommends using Trusted Authentication. This technique allows a developer to leverage their own security model to provide single sign-on from their application to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. BI-USER-1. SAP recommends that partners that OEM the BI platform follow up any user management tasks in their applications with a corresponding user maintenance action in the BI platform. SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 19

20 Crystal Reports SDKs Reporting Component vs. Reporting Servers Crystal Reports SDKs enable report viewing, creation and modification Comparing two types of reporting technologies Component Technology Server Technology Host Application Host Application Report Application Report Application Reporting Server Report Component (.dll/.jar) Reporting services SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 20

21 Crystal Reports Reporting Component vs. Reporting Servers BT-BO-4. SAP recommends using the component deployment model for the following situations: Small, self-contained component desktop applications Small Web applications that will be accessed by a department or work group in a company Reports that are run on demand A reporting engine embedded in the application process SAP recommends using the server deployment model rather than the component deployment model in more demanding situations like the following: For mission-critical Web applications that need report processing failover For reports that need to run at specific times or are based on specific events or the successful completion of a third-party business process For reports that share objects like formulas, SQL commands, text objects, and images in an object-oriented repository For managing shared reports For providing access to enterprise data via web services For situations with a complex semantic data layer Where robust security options for user, group, object, and folder levels are required For batch report processing SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 21

22 Crystal Reports Reporting Component BT-BO-3. SAP recommends using functionality from any of the following products when developing using the component deployment model: Crystal Reports 2008 Crystal Reports XI Developer Microsoft Visual Studio Crystal Reports for Visual Studio.NET Crystal Reports for Eclipse Rational Application Developer BT-BO-3a. SAP does not recommend using the Crystal Reports report designer component (RDC), which is an older COM-based solution. SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 22

23 Other SDKs Web Intelligence SDKs Lower level APIs available in Java (REBEAN) and.net (RENET) Xcelsius SDK Flex API that allows developers to create new visualization components Universe Designer SDK Create, modify, or audit the semantic layer SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 23

24 SAP BusinessObjects Applications Packaging and Installing BI Archive files (BIAR) BI-PKG-1. When delivering a BI solution, SAP recommends packaging the content as BIAR files. Response files BT-INST-01. When silent installation is required, SAP recommends the use of response files to silently install SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 24

26 Data warehouse strategy SAP BusinessObjects Solution Architecture Customer System Landscapes ERP system Non-SAP ERP SAP ERP Non-SAP ERP & SAP ERP No DWH System Landscape Type 1 System Landscape Type 2 System Landscape Type 3 Non-SAP DWH System Landscape Type 4 SAP NetWeaver BW SAP NetWeaver BW & non-sap DWH System Landscape Type 5 System Landscape Type 6 For more information, go to: SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 26

28 Take the Next Step Download SAP Guidelines for Best-Built Applications. Visit the website to get the latest version: Visit regularly for latest information and updates Coming soon! The BBA Application Development chapter Get more information, get a BBA briefing from your PSA: Your Partner Manager or Partner Service Advisor is happy to provide you more information about leveraging SAP Best-Built Applications Guidelines Your PSA can help you to engage with our team and provide direct feedback Listen to our next webinar about Application Development on 9/28/2010 Help us! Visit our blogs and read and comment on what SAP s thought leaders say about Best-Built Applications Share your experiences with BBA on SDN.SAP.COM publically through blogging yourself. us at bestbuiltapps@sap.com SAP AG All rights reserved. / Page 28