Mapping Geo-Relevant Characteristics 

Definition

To display BI data geographically, a link between this data and the respective geographical characteristic must be created. This process is called Mapping Geo-Relevant Characteristics.

Structure

The geographical information about geographical boundaries of areas that are displayed using static geo-characteristics is stored in Shapefiles. In the Shapefile, a BI-specific attribute called the SAPBWKEY is responsible for connecting an area on the map with the corresponding characteristic value in BI. This attribute matches the characteristic value in the corresponding BI master data table. This process is called SAPBWKEY Maintenance for Static Geo-Characteristics . See SAPBWKEY Maintenance for Static Geo-Characteristics

You can use ArcView GIS or other software that has functions for editing dBase files to carry out the SAPBWKEY maintenance (MS Excel, for example).

With data in point form that is displayed using dynamic geo-characteristics, geographical data is added to BI master data. The process of assigning geographical data to entries in the master data table is called geocoding. See Geocoding

The software ArcView GIS from ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) geocodes the InfoObjects.

Integration

You can execute the geocoding with the help of the ArcView GIS from ESRI software. As well as geocoding, ArcView also offers a large number of functions for special, geographical problems that are not covered by SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence. ArcView enables you to create your own maps, for example, a map of your sales regions. For more detailed information, see the ArcView documentation.

When you buy SAP NetWeaver BI, you receive a voucher that you can use to order ArcView GIS from ESRI.

The installation package also contains a CD developed specially by SAP and ESRI. The CD contains a range of maps covering the whole world in various levels of detail. All maps on this data CD are optimized already for use with SAP NetWeaver BI. The .dbf files for the maps already contain the column SAPBWKEY that is predefined with default values. For example, the world map (cntry200) contains the usual values from the SAP system for countries in the SAPBWKEY column. Therefore, you can use the map immediately to evaluate your data geographically. You do not have to maintain the SAPBWKEY.

You can get additional detailed maps in ESRI Shapefile format from ESRI.