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Background documentation Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis  Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

This documentation provides a starting point for the administration and optimal maintenance of the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario. It contains BI-specific information for various tasks, lists the relevant tools, and directs you to any further documentation that you may need to complete the tasks. You can only use this documentation in conjunction with other manuals, such as the other SAP NetWeaver Technical Operation Manuals, the Master Guide, and SAP Library.

This scenario shows how business experts can use the reporting and analysis tools available in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) to provide customized BI information for the different types of user within a company.

Business Explorer

The tools in the BI Suite, subsequently referred to as Business Explorer (BEx), allow business experts to create and distribute the necessary reports and analyses. These tools are integrated with each other and have user-friendly, intuitive interfaces. 

You can perform a detailed analysis of BI information both on the Web and in Microsoft Excel. You can also define formatted reports optimized for presentation and printing.

Web applications and formatted reports can be easily converted into PDF files and printed.

Users access BI information from the portal. They can use information broadcasting functions to distribute this information by e-mail, for example, or distribute it to KM folders and collaboration rooms.

Visual Composer BI Integration

In addition, the integration of BI into the Visual Composer allows you to include BI data in composite applications, which users can access in the portal.

Business experts create iViews or portal pages based on data from SAP or third-party systems. The data can be stored relationally or multidimensionally. A set of query templates that cover specific business aspects and the user-friendly operation in the Visual Composer support business experts in creating BI applications.

For more information, see Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis.

Integration

This section on the administration of the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario lists the most important administration tasks for the optimal operation of the Business Explorer tools.

You also have to execute administration tasks for the following scenarios:

Overview: Administration of other IT scenarios

IT Scenario

What You Need to Know

Enterprise Data Warehousing

This scenario covers the staging and modeling of the data that forms the basis of analysis and reporting in the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario. In addition, the Enterprise Data Warehousing scenario offers performance optimization, user management, and monitoring options.

For more information about monitoring and performance optimization of queries, see Tasks Performed Regularly - Monitoring and Preparation for EDW Processes.

Running an Enterprise Portal

This scenario is a prerequisite for central, role-based access to SAP NetWeaver. With the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario, you can publish content from BI to the portal and allow users to work with structured data from BI together with unstructured data and the various functions in the portal.

Enterprise Knowledge Management

In the portal, this scenario provides central and role-based access to the information in your company and establishes a link between structured business data and unstructured documents.

Enabling User Collaboration

With user collaboration in the portal, users can use services for collaboration to edit documents (including BI documents) in an application sharing session, for example.

For more information about the general administration of the BI system, see BI (Business Intelligence).

Note

If you are using the Business Explorer tools and runtime in SAP BW 3.5, see the Technical Operations Manual for SAP BW 3.5. For more information, see the SAP Library at help.sap.com/nw04 ® SAP NetWeaver ® SAP NetWeaver Technical Operations Manual ® Additional Administration of SAP NetWeaver Components ® SAP Business Information Warehouse.

Caution

Note that with the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario, you must have the same support package version for SAP NetWeaver 7.0 in the portal and in the BI system.

Technical System Landscape

The following figure outlines the main components required for the Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis scenario.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

BI applications are created using the various tools from the Business Explorer Suite or SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer; the applications can then be published to SAP NetWeaver Portal.

The BEx Query Designer is available for creating queries. These can be used for Microsoft Excel-based analysis in the BEx Analyzer or for Web-based analysis in the BEx Web. The data analysis can also be based on InfoProviders from SAP NetWeaver BI or on multidimensionally stored data from third-party providers.

In BEx Web, the Web Application Designer is available for creating Web applications, the Report Designer is available for creating formatted reports, and the Web Analyzer is available for Web-based ad hoc analysis. Using information broadcasting, you can broadcast the generated content from BI by e-mail, or publish it to the portal.

Relevant Components

For more information about the relevant components, see the table below.

The following table provides an overview of where you can find further information:

Component

See

Business Explorer (BEx)

BEx Query Designer

Query Design: BEx Query Designer

BEx Web Application Designer

Web Application Design: BEx Web Application Designer

BEx Report Designer

Enterprise Reporting

BEx Web Analyzer

BEx Web Analyzer

BEx Analyzer

Analysis & Reporting: BEx Analyzer

Information Broadcasting

Information Broadcasting

Visual Composer BI Integration

BI Integration Wizard

BI Menu Dialog Boxes

SAP NetWeaver Portal

Integrating Content from BI into the Portal

Integrating Content from BI into the Portal

BI Documents in Knowledge Management

BI Documents in Knowledge Management

Tasks

The Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysisscenario contains the following scenario variants:

      Query, Reporting, and Analysis

      Ad Hoc Query and Analysis

      Microsoft Excel Integration

      Information Broadcasting

      Modeling BI Data with SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer

These sections provide an overview of the necessary administrative tasks.

 

 

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