Planning Folder: Portfolio Graphic 

Use

You use portfolio graphics in a planning folder in order to visualize the data of a planning layout for which a presentation in several dimensions makes sense or is necessary. In contrast to other graphic types, a portfolio graphic presents the data points so that a data point represents a certain characteristic combination which is shown dependent on two or more key figures. This type of graphic is often used for decision support.

You are interested in the sales that your article has made in the last five fiscal years compared to the sales costs spent on it. In the planning layout it is based on, you include the characteristics article and fiscal year in the lead column. You transfer the key figures sales and sales costs into the data columns. The graphic then shows how high the sales and sales costs were for every combination of article and fiscal year with the position of the appropriate data point. If in addition, you insert the profit-sales ratio in a third data column, its values are presented by the size of the data points.

There is another difference between portfolio graphics and other types of graphics regarding the types of planning folders that are supported: While you can only assign the other types of graphics to the output layouts of two-piece folders, portfolio graphics can also use one-piece planning folders of the type Folder Without Separate Output Area, Not Web-Enabled. If you use this option, the system can display the graphic over the entire screen area.

Integration

The portfolio graphic is a special case of a graphic output layout of a planning folder. You use it the same as other types of graphics but have considerably more setting possibilities.

Prerequisites

The SAP Internet Graphics Server (release 6.25 or higher) must be installed on your system landscape in order to define and display portfolio graphics. The connection between the SAP Internet Graphics Server and the system in which you operate planning must take place using an RFC destination of the type TCP/IP with the predefined name IGS_RFC_DEST.

The values of the characteristics in the header area of the planning layout, which you want to visualize with a portfolio graphic, must be restricted to single values.

Features

Standardized graphic generation

If you do not make any other settings, the system proceeds as follows when converting layout data into a portfolio graphic:

·        A data point is generated for every row of the planning layout.  The value of the key figure from the first data column determines the X position of the data point, the value of the key figure from the second data column determines the Y position.

·        The headings of the first two data columns are transferred as the heading of the X and Y axis of the diagram.

·        If the layout contains other data columns, the values contained in them are converted as follows (the Fixed Size column refers to the state of the key figure with the same name):

Number of Data Columns	Fixed Size	Graphic Conversion
2	n/a	All data points have the same diameter.
3	no	The value of the third data column is represented by the diameter of the data points.
3	yes	The value of the third data column is ignored.
4	no	The values of the fourth data column have no visible effect.
4	yes	The values of the third and fourth data column are used to present trend arrows, provided that column 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 contain the same key figures; otherwise a pie chart is generated the segments of which are in a ratio the same as the values in column 3 and 4.
5	no	The values of the fourth and fifth data column are used to present trend arrows, provided that column 1 and 4 and 2 and 5 contain the same key figures; otherwise a pie chart is generated the segments of which are in a ratio the same as the values in column 4 and 5.
5	yes	The values of the third and fourth data column are used to present trend arrows, provided that column 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 contain the same key figures; otherwise a pie chart is generated the segments of which are in a ratio the same as the values from column 3, 4, and 5.

·        All rows of the layout, the characteristics of which only differ in one value in the lead column, are grouped together in a series marked in color. The value of the free characteristic is transferred as the heading of the data points. The other characteristic values are transferred as an entry in the legend.

·        The descriptions of the characteristics of the planning layout that are not hidden are transferred as the diagram title.

User-defined graphic generation

It is possible to adopt the system behavior described above to your requirements:

You can influence the way in which the data series are formed from the characteristics in the lead column. The system offers you a list of different variants to choose from that are determined dynamically from the attributes of the planning layout.

For layouts with three data columns you can set up what should happen with the rows that contain the value 0 in the third data column. A data point generated from such a row can be displayed or hidden, and you can decide whether to take account of corresponding rows for the generation of the data series.

You use the Fixed Size indicator to determine that an existing third data column is not used for the diameter of the data points, but is used instead for the generation of trend arrows or pie charts together with the subsequent data columns.

XML Customizing

The system generates the portfolio graphics with the help of two XML files. One file contains the data points and series of the graphic, while the other file contains control information to prepare the graphic. You can define templates in the system for these files in order to influence the generation of graphics. You can find more information on this directly in the system by choosing Other Settings in the Graphic Settings dialog box for a layout and then calling up the F1 help.

Activities

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       1.      Choose Business Planning and Simulation → Planning Folders → Customizing from the SAP Easy Access Menu screen. You reach the Planning Folders screen with the list of all planning folders available in the system.

       2.      Select the planning folder you want to edit by double-clicking on it. The Change Planning Folder screen appears.

       3.      Select an output layout of the planning folder and choose   Output Characteristics. The system displays the Graphic Settings dialog box.

       4.      Choose Output as Graphic and Portfolio Graphics as the Output Type.

       5.      Decide how you want to proceed:

-         Confirm your entries in order to generate the portfolio graphic in accordance with the system settings.

-         Choose Other Settings and make the desired settings in order to design the presentation of the portfolio graphic according to your requirements.