BI Suite: Business Explorer
Purpose
The SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Suite, the Business Explorer (BEx), provides flexible reporting and analysis tools for strategic analyses and decision-making support within a business. These tools include query, reporting, and analysis functions. As an employee with access authorization, you can evaluate historical or current data at various levels of detail and from different perspectives, not only on the Web but also on the portal and in Microsoft Excel.
You can also use the Business Explorer tools to create planning applications and for planning and data entry within BI Integrated Planning. For more information, see BI Integrated Planning.
You can use BEx Information Broadcasting to distribute business intelligence content by e-mail, either as precalculated documents with historical data, or as links with live data. You can also publish this content on the portal (in Knowledge Management folders or collaboration rooms).
SAP NetWeaver 7.0 provides two versions of the following tools:
■ BEx Query Designer
■ BEx Web Application Designer
■ BEx Broadcaster
■ BEx Analyzer
This documentation describes the BEx tools from SAP NetWeaver 7.0. For more information about the SAP BW 3.5 BEx tools, see help.sap.com/nw04 → SAP NetWeaver → Information Integration → SAP Business Information Warehouse → BI Suite: Business Explorer.
Features
The following overview shows the functional areas of the Business Explorer:
Query, Reporting, and Analysis
The data in SAP NetWeaver BI is structured into self-contained business data areas (InfoProviders). You analyze the data of the BI system by defining queries for InfoProviders in the BEx Query Designer. By selecting and combining InfoObjects (characteristics and key figures) or reusable structures in a query, you determine the way in which you evaluate the data in the selected InfoProvider.
Analyzing data based on multidimensional data sources (OLAP reporting) makes it possible to analyze multiple dimensions simultaneously (such as time, location, and product). You can implement any number of variance analyses (such as plan-actual comparison, fiscal year comparison). The data, which is displayed in a table, acts as the starting point for a detailed analysis, which can answer a variety of questions. A range of interaction options, such as sorting, filtering, swapping characteristics, and local calculations allow flexible navigation through the data at runtime. You can also display data in graphics (such as bar charts or pie charts). In addition, you can evaluate geographical data (for example, characteristics such as Customer, Sales Region, and Country) on a map. Furthermore, you can use exception reporting to determine deviating and critical objects, to broadcast messages on deviating values by e-mail, or to distribute them to the universal worklist on the portal.
You can perform a detailed analysis of BI information both on the Web and in Microsoft Excel.
BEx Web
Web Application Design
Web Application Design allows you to use the generic OLAP navigation in Web applications as well as Business Intelligence Cockpits for simple or highly individual scenarios. You can use standard markup languages and the Web Design API to implement highly individual scenarios with user-defined interface elements. Web application design comprises a broad spectrum of interactive Web-based business intelligence scenarios that you can adjust to meet your requirements by using standard Web technologies.
BEx Web Application Designer
You can use the BEx Web Application Designer, the desktop application used to create Web applications, to generate HTML pages that contain BI-specific content such as tables, charts, or maps. Web applications are based on Web templates that you create and edit in the Web Application Designer. You can save the Web templates and access them from the Web browser or the portal. Once they are executed on the Web, Web templates are referred to as Web applications.
BEx Web Analyzer
The BEx Web Analyzer is a standalone, convenient Web application for data analysis that you can call using a URL or as an iView on the portal. In the Web Analyzer, you can open a data provider (query, query view, InfoProvider, or external data source) and use ad hoc analysis to create views of BI data, called query views, that you can then use as data providers for other BI applications. You can also distribute and save the results of your ad hoc analysis as required.
Report Designer
The Report Designer is an easy-to-use design tool that you can use to create formatted reports that are optimized for presentation and printing. The Report Designer provides extensive formatting and layout functions that you can use to create corporate balance sheets or HR master data sheets to suit your needs, for example.
PDF Generation
The integrated PDF generation function allows you to print Web applications and reports in various formats. See Creation of Print Versions of BI Applications.
BI Patterns
BI patterns are Web applications that are tailored to the requirements of particular user groups and that are used to provide a uniform display of BI content. You can configure BI patterns to a certain extent using the pattern wizard from the Web Application Designer.
BEx Analyzer
The BEx Analyzer is an analysis, reporting, and design tool of the Business Explorer, which is integrated into Microsoft Excel. In the BEx Analyzer, you can analyze selected InfoProvider data and use it for planning by navigating in queries that were created in the BEx Query Designer. To do this, you can use the context menu or drag and drop functions.
You can design the interface for your queries by inserting design items such as dropdown boxes, radio button groups, and pushbuttons into your Excel workbook. In this way, a workbook becomes a complete query application.
See Analysis & Reporting: BEx Analyzer.
BEx Information Broadcasting
BEx Information Broadcasting allows you to make objects with Business Intelligence content available to a wide spectrum of users, according to your requirements.
Using the BEx Broadcaster, you can precalculate Web templates, queries, query views, reports, and workbooks and publish them to the portal, distribute them by e-mail, or print them. In addition to the precalculated documents that contain historical data, you can also generate online links to queries and Web applications.
The Business Explorer portal role illustrates the various options that are available when working with content from BI in the portal.
Integration to the Portal
You can integrate business content from BI seamlessly into the portal. Integration is carried out using the BEx Broadcaster, KM content, SAP Role Upload, or the Portal Content Studio. Depending on the type of integration, you create objects with different display types in the portal. For more information, see Overview: Integration and Display Types of BI Content.
The portal enables you to access applications from other systems and sources, such as the Internet or intranet. Using just one entry point, you can access both structured and unstructured information. In addition to content from Knowledge Management, business data from data analysis is available to you from the Internet and intranet.
See Integrating Content from BI into the Portal