Business Intelligence for everyone

2014-08-31T11:39:00.002+03:00

Hi everyone,

After almost half a year of preparations and writing ,my new book :SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook is published ,it is dealing with the main BI tool of the SAP BI4 platform- Web Intelligence ,covering it from A-Z and based on my working experience and how to use and implement best practices,hope you enjoy reading it,

Yoav Yahav

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook

What’s New in SAP HANA SPS 08

2014-06-10T17:30:00.002+03:00

Read here about all the new latest changes in the last version of HANA:

http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2014/05/28/what-s-new-in-sap-hana-sps-08

Power BI Connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects BI Now Generally Available

2014-06-10T17:28:00.000+03:00

Microsoft and SAP announced the general availability of Power BI connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects BI. This joint business intelligence interoperability solution is delivered in Microsoft Excel, Power BI for Office 365, and SAP BusinessObjects BI. With this solution, users can....click here for further reading...

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook coming up

2014-03-18T21:16:00.000+02:00

Hi All,

Been very busy in the last months writing the SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook for packet publishing an A-Z guide that will walk you through the entire Web Intelligence environement,the book isn't yet ready and would be in the stores in October 2014 but you can already get the preview or the RAW version of it ,enjoy..more updates will come soon

SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook

Creating default value in a dynamic date range prompt

2013-09-11T15:57:00.000+03:00

One of the most requested features in Web Intelligence reports is to have a default value in a time range prompt that will enable to chose time frames such as current day, last day and ctr.

In the following example I will demonstrate how to implement such logic in a very simple way

I am using:

BI4 SP6
Oracle 11
A Custom Universe containing a time view table
Information design tool

First we will create s special super prompt condition object that will enable us to choose date range ,current month or last month :

This script uses a case when phrase that allows choosing several time ranges.

For example ‘this month’ will return the function: TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM') which will result us the current month data

Here is the full syntax:

"GenericDateTable".GENERICCURRENTDATE between

Case WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='last month' then trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-2)) + 1

WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='this month' then TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM')

Else To_Date(@Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent),'DD/MM/YYYY')

End

AND

Case when @Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent) = 'last month' THEN trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-1))

WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent)='this month' then ADD_MONTHS(TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM'),+1)

Else To_DATE(@Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,Mono,Free,Not_Persistent),'DD/MM/YYYY')

End

2. Now we will first test our prompt to varify that it is working currectly :

This month data :

Last month data :

Date range :

3.Now we will add a sinple parameter to the prompt syntac which will allow us to use a default value

that corresponed to our prompt ,lets use the value ‘last month’,the last parameter in the prompt is the one that holds the default value and as you can see when we open the report the default value is already there :

"GenericDateTable".GENERICCURRENTDATE between

Case WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='last month' then trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-2)) + 1

WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='this month' then TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM')

Else To_Date(@Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}),'DD/MM/YYYY')

End

AND

Case when @Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}) = 'last month' THEN trunc(add_months(last_day(sysdate),-1))

WHEN @Prompt('From Date(dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'})='this month' then ADD_MONTHS(TRUNC(SYSDATE,'MM'),+1)

Else To_DATE(@Prompt('To Date (dd/mm/yyyy)','A',,mono,free,Not_Persistent,{'last month'}),'DD/MM/YYYY')

End

Now when we will run the report we will see the default value:

And that’s it….

Conclusion:

Implementing default dynamic time range is simple but can be also used to reports that are required to run daily using date range but also required to be scheduled on last month, by implementing such prompt we will reduce the number of versions of the same report: one version for daily running and the other version for scheduling…

Web Intelligence 4.1, what's new?

2013-07-08T12:21:00.000+03:00

Official presentation by Gregory Botticchio :

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/a0298826-1ec5-3010-c892-9e92a4574404?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&58540404247860

Asug 2013 session :Strategies for Selecting the Right BI Client Product Based on Your Own Requirements

2013-07-01T16:08:00.000+03:00

http://events.asug.com/2013AC/Business%20Intelligence/0507%20Strategies%20for%20Selecting%20the%20Right%20BI%20Client%20Product.pdf

Mobile Minute: Preview of Analytics on the SAP HANA Cloud from the iPad

2013-06-26T13:34:00.000+03:00

SAP HANA: Overview - Use HANA with BI 4.0 Service Pack 4

2013-06-24T10:04:00.000+03:00

What is new in Mobile BI 5.0 ?

2013-06-24T09:57:00.001+03:00

Read about all the new exiting chnages in the latest version of Mobile BI :

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/businessobjects/blog/2013/06/20/what-is-new-in-mobile-bi-50-asug-webcast-part-1

http://scn.sap.com/community/mobile/businessobjects/blog/2013/06/20/what-is-new-in-mobile-bi-50-part-2-asug-webcast

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Release to Customers

2013-05-20T15:28:00.000+03:00

Just before the SAPPHIRE NOW conference, SAP announced the Release to Customer (RTC) of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1, Edge BI 4.1 and Crystal Server 2013.

Read here about all the new features in this version:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/sbo41/en/sbo41_whats_new_en.pdf

http://assets.timoelliott.com/docs/SAP%20BusinessObjects%20BI%204.1%20What's%20New%20L2.pdf

SAP Offers Small Businesses More Visibility and Control With Business Management Solution Running Fully on SAP HANA Platform

2013-03-06T11:47:00.002+02:00

SAP today announced SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA, the first business management solution for SMEs running fully in memory:

http://www.news-sap.com/sap-offers-small-businesses-more-visibility-and-control-with-business-management-solution-running-fully-on-sap-hana-platform/

Lifecycle Manager Overrides in BI4

2013-01-14T08:58:00.001+02:00

A good article I read today explaining the difficulties using promotion management

(former known as life cycle management ) in BI4 platform :

http://davidlai101.com/blog/2012/12/25/demystifying-lcm-overrides/

you can also read here a in general but the bugs aren't mentioned :

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/Lifecycle+Manager+Overrides+in+BI4

How SAP BW and HANA will merge over time -- and why it matters

2013-01-14T08:45:00.001+02:00

Read the first of this two-part series on SAP Business Warehouse and HANA. Part one addresses how companies should consider their data management needs when assessing the technologies.

http://searchsap.techtarget.com/feature/How-SAP-BW-and-HANA-will-merge-over-time-and-why-it-matters

Sneak Peek of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 SP5

2012-11-21T09:15:00.001+02:00

What's new in BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 SP5 ?

"Dashboards 4.0 SP05 (formerly Xcelsius) will support iPad only in the first release. Publish your dashboard to the SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence platform and then download or run it on your iPad using SAP BusinessObjects Mobile. We may support other tablets in future releases..."

Get a Sneak Peek of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 SP5: How to Mobilize Your Dashboards

What’s new in SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 SP5...

2012-11-21T09:09:00.001+02:00

Whats's new in BI4 platform ,SP5 ?

Read here strating from page 81:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_whats_new_en.pdf

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboarding Strategy and Statement of Direction

2012-11-13T10:48:00.002+02:00

Where exactly is Dashboard design is heading for ?

What will happen with flash ?

How will Zen take it's part in this process ?

Read hear for further understanding :

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-dashboards/blog/2012/06/08/follow-up-questions-to-the-dashboarding-statement-of-direction

http://blogs.sap.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2012/04/External-SAP-SOD-Dashboarding-2012.pdf

Exists or not exists- that is the answer

2012-11-11T13:50:00.000+02:00

Using more complex queries that can answer simple question like who bought product A but didn't bought product B? Or in another Case: which customers from the customer’s table don’t have an order in the order table ,is one of the abilities that we would like to give for the users and allow them to use it simply and freely as we can.

In order to do that we can use in some cases the sub query method which is good and solid, but in some cases using the Exist \ not exist would be better.

And why is that?

There are first of all performance differences that makes the exists operator make a better work of evaluating which is the driving table and by doing so , use in some cases the appropriate index ,there is also the ability to work with nulls.

For a better understanding of the differences between Exists and subquery read here:

http://www.ehow.com/info_8750242_differences-between-exists-sql.html

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/oracle-tip-understand-the-difference-between-in-and-exists-in-subqueries/5297080

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2007/05/18/60210.aspx

Using the Island resort we will use the Customer and the Sales tables in order to answer a simple question:

Who are the customers who haven’t paid so far?

first we will build the following predefined condition using this syntax:

SELECT Customer.cust_id
FROM Customer

WHERE NOT EXISTS

(select Sales.cust_id from Sale where Customer.cust_id=Sales.cust_id)

We will create a simple query that returns the customers ID’s :

The result will be getting just those customers who don’t have any invoice :

SAP Announces New Trial for Data Discovery at SAP BusinessObjects User Conference

2012-09-20T09:26:00.000+03:00

Read here about the new exiting tool:

http://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2012/09/19/sap-launches-new-trial-for-data-discovery-at-bi-user-conference/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sap-launches-new-trial-for-data-discovery-at-bi-user-conference

SAP Dashboard BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 Planned Features

2012-06-17T10:19:00.000+03:00

What's new in BI4 Dashboard design feature pack 3 ?

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-dashboards/blog/2011/11/25/sap-dashboard-bi-40-feature-pack-3-planned-features-asug-webcast-summary

What's New -SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite 4.0 Feature Package 3

2012-03-21T06:30:00.000+02:00

Here is the official PDF:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_whats_new_FP3_en.pdf

What's New in Mobile BI ?

2012-03-01T07:15:00.001+02:00

What's new in SAP BI Mobile ?

According to the following link iphone devices are currently supporting SAP Explorer, still much to come in Feature pack 3 where also Android devices will be supported :

http://www.sap.com/campaigns/2011_08_mobile-analytics/see-it-in-action/index.epx

BI4 Feature Pack 3 Planned Features for the BI Platform

2012-01-09T07:48:00.002+02:00

What new features awaits in BI4 feature pack 3 ?

Some Highlights :

Call from Bex query to a web address,another Bex query (via report linking )

see here for more details :

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70ehp2/Helpdata/EN/99/08629bd3e41d418530c6849df303c9/content.htm

OEM support
Use custom user attributes for enhanced security in IDT
Bi Launch Pad supports theming
SAP Streamwork integration with BI Launch Pad
Hot full automated backup of the repository (DB +FRS )

For further reading here Tammy Powlas article :

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/27890

SAP to Deliver Integrated Social Analytics to the Enterprise

2011-12-13T08:06:00.003+02:00

"SAP Social Media Analytics by NetBase enables enterprises to create an enterprise social analytics platform that offers a wider and deeper perspective on a range of activities"...

This tool allows organizations to extract unstructured data from the web (95 million social media posts daily from Twitter, Facebook, news feeds, blogs and other sources) and by that analyse trends,feedbacks
,requests and many other data items that can bring a better understanding of the business work flow.

Watch this new Video :

SAP pays $3.4B for cloud vendor SuccessFactors

2011-12-04T07:35:00.003+02:00

SAP is about to acquire SuccessFactors ,a provider of cloud-based human capital management tools.

In order to become a major player in the cloud and cloud BI business and compete with already in motion vendors like Oracle,Informatica,Salesforce and Microstrategy.

Click here for the original article :

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222397/Update_SAP_pays_3.4B_for_cloud_vendor_SuccessFactors