Friday, December 28, 2007
Business Process Management
- How to Monitor and Analyze Errors in the SAP J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 3.69MB) This guide provides recommendations for the order in which you should analyze errors; pointers to the individual tools and assessments for cases in which they are particularly appropriate; and common error situations and tips on how to handle them.
Enabling Application-to-Application Processes
- How to Monitor and Analyze Errors in the SAP J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 3.69MB) This guide provides recommendations for the order in which you should analyze errors; pointers to the individual tools and assessments for cases in which they are particularly appropriate; and common error situations and tips on how to handle them.
- How to Prioritize Exchange Infrastructure (XI) Messages on the Integration Server (PDF 268KB) With the help of the Queue Prioritization you can pick important messages and push them to queue XBT1, which is reserved for these selected messages. Learn exactly how in this guide.
- How to Sample IDoc-XI (Exchange Infrastructure) Scenarios (PDF 980KB) Learn how to apply adapter-specific identifiers, alternative identifiers, and header mapping in order to configure various Intermediate Document (IDoc) and Exchange Infrastructure (XI) scenarios.
- How to Correlate JMS Messages (PDF 1.35MB) This guide demonstrates how to map asynchronous Java Message Service (JMS) messages to synchronous communication.
- How to Handle Acknowledgments for IDoc (PDF 1.56MB) This guide deals with the processing of acknowledgment messages for Intermediate Document (IDoc) scenarios via SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI).
- How to Use the Content Conversion Module with the J2EE JMS Adapter (PDF 169KB) Learn to convert XML files to flat structures, and vice versa, using the conversion module of the SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI) Adapter Framework. The guide also includes several sample configuration files.
- How to Use the Mail Adapter of the J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 648KB) Learn tips and tricks for using the mail adapter, such as how to send Exchange Infrastructure (XI) messages to a mail receiver, or how to create XI messages from incoming mails.
- How to Work with Java Proxies (PDF 738KB) Learn about using Java proxies to connect applications with an Exchange Infrastructure (XI) Integration Server.
- How to Use the J2EE SOAP Adapter (PDF 859KB) Learn to use the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) adapter for sending messages to a Web service, or providing a Web service for receiving messages.
- How to Web Service Data Load into Business Intelligence (BI) Using Exchange Infrastructure (XI) in SAP NetWeaver 2004s (PDF 886KB) Learn to send data from SAP NetWeaver 2004s (Exchange Infrastructure usage type) to SAP NetWeaver 2004s (Business Intelligence usage type) with full quality of service.
How to guides - XI for NW 2004s
- How to Configure Message Level Security in SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI) 7.0 (PDF 1.57MB) This guide describes the implementation of Message Level Security (MLS) between the SAP Partner Connectivity Kit (PCK) and the Integration Server as part of SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI) 3.0.
- How to Monitor Industry-Speak Scenarios (PDF 1.40MB) Learn about B2B adapters provided by SAP NetWeaver 2004s Exchange Infrastructure that follow industry-specific standards: RosettaNet Implementation Framework (RNIF) adapters for the high-tech industry, based on RosettaNet protocol RNIF 1.1 and RNIF 2.0; and the Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) adapter for the chemical industry, based on RNIF 1.1.
- How to Monitor and Analyze Errors in the SAP J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 3.69MB) This guide provides recommendations for the order in which you should analyze errors; pointers to the individual tools and assessments for cases in which they are particularly appropriate; and common error situations and tips on how to handle them.
- How to Prioritize Exchange Infrastructure (XI) Messages on the Integration Server (PDF 268KB) With the help of the Queue Prioritization you can pick important messages and push them to queue XBT1, which is reserved for these selected messages. Learn exactly how in this guide.
- How to Create Modules for the J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 677KB) This guide steps through the development of a simple adapter module in SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio
SAP XI How To Documents
-
How to Monitor Integration Processes - ccBPM (PDF 583.2KB) This guide explains the detailed procedure of using the transactions for monitoring the Business Process Engine to display detailed information about the status of a specific process or its individual steps. The guide also shows you how to use process monitoring in SAP Exchange Infrastructure 3.0 (XI) and how you can access it.
-
How to Convert Between IDoc XML and Flat Files in XI.30 (PDF 277.9KB) Learn how to create a flat file out of an IDoc-XML by means of an ABAP mapping program and the J2EE File Adapter. You will also learn how to create an XI message in IDoc-XML format starting from a flat file representation of an IDoc.
-
How to Configure Message Level Security in SAP XI 3.0 (PDF 1.5MB) Learn the ins and outs of Message Level Security (MLS) between the SAP Partner Connectivity Kit (PCK) and the Integration Server (IS), part of SAP XI 3.0.
-
How to Monitor Exchange Infrastructure 3.0 (PDF 1.1MB) Learn how to configure monitoring for all SAP XI components. This document also describes best practices for many configuration topics involving the alert framework.
-
How to Scale Up SAP Exchange Infrastructure 3.0 (PDF 1.5MB) Learn what the most likely scaled system architecture looks like, and read about a step by step procedure to install additional dialog instances. The guide also walks you through additional configuration steps and the application of Support Package Stacks.
-
How to Configure the IDoc Adapter (PDF 333.5KB) Learn how to configure your system to create an IDoc adapter in Exchange Infrastructure 3.0 to send an IDoc from SAP XI to the SAP backend system.
-
How to Sample IDoc Scenarios Within XI 3.0 (PDF 1MB) Learn how to apply adapter-specific identifiers, alternative identifiers, and header mapping in order to configure various IDoc-XI scenarios.
-
How to Correlate JMS (PDF 1.4MB) Learn to map asynchronous Java Message Service (JMS) messages to synchronous communication. In general, two scenarios are considered: sync/ async and async/sync.
-
How to Monitor Industry-Speak Scenarios (PDF 1.4MB) This how-to guide deals with the monitoring concepts that are available for the industry standard adapters within SAP XI 3.0. The different monitoring concepts are described in relation to the RNIF 1.1 protocol. However, the concepts are also applicable to RNIF 2.0 and CIDX.
-
How to Develop a Webservice Using NWDS and SAP XI.30 (PDF 479KB) Learn a step by step solution to develop a simple Web Service Application using SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio & SAP XI 3.0. This solution details all of the procedures involved in the process.
-
How to Migrate SAP BC Scenarios to SAP XI (PDF 725.6KB) Learn the needed steps to migrate from SAP Business Connector to SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure.
-
How to Set Up a Web Service-Related Scenario with SAP XI (PDF 970.5KB) Take a step-by-step tour of how a web service-related scenario is implemented in SAP XI 3.0, from the creation of entries in the System Landscape Directory through the configuration of receiver and interface determination in the Integration Directory.
-
How to Use BAPI Wrappers in Asynchronous Scenarios with ccBPM (PDF 310.3KB) Learn how an external application can communicate with R/3 via SAP XI 3.0 and cross-component BPM.
-
How to Create Modules for the J2EE Adapter Engine (PDF 673.3KB) This manual guides you through the development of a simple adapter module with the help of the SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio.
-
How to Use the Content Conversion Module in JMS Adapter (PDF 289.4KB) Learn how to convert XML files to flat structures and vice versa using the conversion module of the XI Adapter Framework. The guide also includes several sample configuration files.
-
How to Use the Mail Adapter (PDF 650.7KB) Learn some tips and tricks for using the mail adapter, such as how to send XI messages to a mail receiver or how to create XI messages from incoming mails.
-
How to Work with XI 3.0 Java Proxies (PDF 740.2KB) Learn about using Java proxies to connect applications with an XI Integration Server.
-
How to Use the XI 3.0 SOAP Adapter (PDF 863.1KB) Learn tips and tricks for using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), like how to use a SOAP adapter to connect XI to a web service client or a web service server.
-
How to Perform DBLook-ups from XI Utilizing J2EE JDBC (PDF 375.1KB) This document explains how to access an external database with the purpose of performing data look-ups from within an XI mapping.
-
How to Monitor and Analyze Errors in the Adapter Engine (PDF 2.8MB) This guide will assist you during error analysis of the SAP J2EE-based adapter framework. Learn the order in which you should analyze errors and the tools and assessments available.
-
How to Handle SLD and XI (PDF 282.6KB) Learn how SAP XI uses the System Landscape Directory (SLD) for different use cases. This document also describes two scenarios where you may have a separate SLD.
-
How to Handle Caches in SAP XI 3.0 (PDF 1.1MB) This guide provides an overview of information caches in SAP XI 3.0, including some troubleshooting tips for common problems.
-
How to Prioritize XI Messages on the Integration Server (PDF 381.1KB) Learn how the queue prioritization feature enables you to pick important messages and push them to their own queue, as well as push messages with low priority into a queue of their own.
-
How to Transport XI Content Using CMS (PDF 2.2MB) Learn how to install and manage the Change Management Service (CMS), part of SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI). CMS enables you to configure your transport landscape and manage the transport of objects between different systems.
-
How to Make Consistent Changes to Software Component Versions (PDF 318.5 KB) Learn where, how, and in which order Software Component Versions (SWCVs) must be changed or replaced to ensure consistency. This guide describes the main use cases and provides a step-by-step solution for each one.
-
How to Install and Configure External Drivers for JDBC & JMS (PDF 374.1KB) Learn how to install additional drivers on the SAP Web AS J2EE Engine. These drivers are required to communicate with a database or a messaging system that uses the SAP XI 3.0 Adapter Framework.
-
How to Use CMS in XI 3.0 (PDF 326.3KB) Learn how to plan and introduce CMS in an SAP XI 3.0 environment. This guide also points out particular issues you have to consider when setting up and using CMS.
-
How to Enable Single-Sign-On for XI 3.0 (PDF 495.4KB) Learn how to configure Single Sign-On. This guide applies to all SAP Exchange Infrastructure (SAP XI) configuration and administration scenarios using the Integration Builder and the Runtime Workbench as well as the Partner Connectivity Kit (PCK).
-
How to Debug XI Applications (PDF 730.3 KB) Learn the required steps to debug applications connected to XI via a proxy framework to analyze problems within the receiving application.
-
How to Handle Acknowledgments for IDoc (PDF 835.8KB) Learn how to set up the processing of acknowledgments for IDoc messages that are sent via SAP XI 3.0.
-
How to Use ABAP Mapping in XI 3.0 (PDF 300.2KB) Learn how to enable ABAP mappings in SAP XI 3.0. It is possible to develop ABAP mappings in addition to the existing mapping types: message mapping, XSLT mapping and Java mapping.
-
How to Receive and Convert PDF Documents with SAP XI (PDF 534.8 KB) Learn how to create XI Interfaces and use the SAP Conversion Agent by Item field to automatically create sales orders in an ERP system to follow a request.
Integration Scenarios /Cross component
-
How to Push Data from BI to XI (PDF 1.1MB) This paper extends the Open Hub scenario significantly, by providing a technique which subsequently delivers the extracted dataset to the SAP NetWeaver PI system (aka XI) in XML format, using a custom process type that calls an ABAP proxy for data transport.
-
How to Push Data into BW from XI (PDF 1.2MB) Learn to send data from XI to BW with full Quality of Service (Exactly Once In Order). The solution is based on BW 3.5 and XI 3.0 which are both part of SAP NetWeaver '04.
-
How to Integrate Unified Worklist to XI BPM via Workflow (PDF 851.6KB) Learn how to trigger a BWF within ccBPM of XI, and to display the corresponding work item in the Universal Work List of EP and KMC.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
8 Lessons Learned from an SAP CRM 2005 Data Migration Project
Key Concept |
To migrate data from a legacy system to SAP CRM 2005, you have a couple of options. You could use Data Transfer Workbench, which works best with simple data loads. Otherwise, you could use a Business Application Programming Interface approach, which is appropriate when you want to load business partner attributes separately. |
For a recent client, I had to migrate business partner data from a homegrown legacy system to SAP CRM 2005. The requirement was to load business partner data, marketing attributes, external identifiers, contacts and their marketing attributes, employee relationships, and various partner functions. This involved loading about one million business partners with their various attributes in a short span of time.
The initial evaluation revealed that the Data Transfer Workbench (transaction SXDB_TOOLS) with object type BUS1006 was not a viable option because we needed to load many repeating attributes. We decided to use a Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) approach with a custom load program to load each of the attributes separately. This option provided more flexibility in the data load process.
SAP’s benchmark for loading a business partner using a direct data load program is approximately 35,000 records into the system. In this case, the custom data load program using BAPIs was loading fewer than 5,000 records into the system. I’ll take you through the tasks we performed to improve the system performance and show you some key lessons we learned in this project.
Expand Target Groups Using SAP BW Data in Segment Builder
Use mySAP CRM Marketing’s Segment Builder with SAP BW data to increase the analytical power of segment modelers. As a centralized repository for enterprise data, SAP BW allows you to access structured data covering areas beyond mySAP CRM, giving you more resources to better determine target groups.
Key Concept |
| Segment Builder is an application within mySAP CRM, integrated into Marketing Planner, that provides many functions and navigation features to create target groups (segments). It does so by combining and refining data from multiple sources, such as BW queries, InfoSets, and Marketing attributes. |
It is essential for marketing analysts to gather and analyze customer data. This allows you to better understand customer needs and behavior. You can then easily use this information to build stronger customer relationships.
To provide meaningful products and services to their client bases, companies usually group their customers according to similarities of needs and characteristics. This process is called customer segmentation and results in target groups. You use target groups for marketing campaign planning, services proposals, or further segmentation and analysis.
mySAP CRM provides a tool within its Marketing application called Segment Builder. It is closely integrated with Marketing Planner, so you can directly attach target groups to marketing campaigns. You also could contact your target groups through channels such as phone calls or emails. Access Segment Builder via menu path SAP menu>Marketing>Segmentation of Business Partners>Marketing Segments>Segment Builder.
Did you know that by using SAP BW data within Segment Builder, you can expand the universe of data that you can use for segmentation? In my work I’ve found that using SAP BW data in addition to mySAP CRM data allows me to go beyond the borders of mySAP CRM to create more specific target groups. You also can apply the process you use for importing SAP BW data to incorporate data from many other sources (e.g., mySAP ERP Central Component [ECC] and legacy systems) into Segment Builder, which offers you many more target group options.
First Look: SAP CRM Service On-Demand
Find out about the latest update to the SAP CRM on-demand suite. It includes SAP CRM on-demand for Service, which adds service ticket functionality. The update also allows you to integrate your SAP HR system with the SAP CRM on-demand suite.
Key Concept |
SAP CRM on-demand for Service (SAP CoD for Service) differs from the on-premise mySAP CRM for Service in that you do not need to install software or hardware to run the system. You access SAP CoD for Service through a Web browser with a user ID and password. Both the on-premise and on-demand systems run on the SAP NetWeaver infrastructure and use the same data model. |
Increasing the functionality included with the SAP CRM on-demand (SAP CoD) suite, SAP added a third module, SAP CoD for Service, in September 2006. This release joins the other two SAP CoD modules — SAP CoD for Sales and SAP CoD for Marketing — introduced earlier in 2006. SAP CoD users receive SAP CoD for Service as part of the automatic upgrades included with the SAP CoD suite.
Designed for small and medium businesses (SMBs), SAP CoD for Service includes functionality such as multilevel categorization, service level agreement (SLA) calculation, rule-based ticket distribution, actions, and knowledge search. In addition, if you already have SAP HR, you can integrate it with the SAP CoD suite to avoid redundant entries in both systems.
As your business grows and you require a greater depth of functionality and integration, you can migrate from the hosted SAP CoD to the on-premise mySAP CRM with minimal downtime. SAP CoD is based on the same architecture and data model as mySAP CRM, which reduces (and in some cases eliminates) many time-consuming aspects of a migration. These include data mapping and conversion, migration of configurations and business processes, and retraining and change management for users.
Let me show you around SAP CoD for Service. I’ll use the example of Roberta Black, who is reporting an issue with her notebook computer. The service center agent logs in to the Web-based SAP CoD for Service to document the issue and decide the appropriate course of action.
Best Practices for Transferring Data from SD to SAP CRM
You can use SAP CRM to perform order processing and pricing tasks you used to perform in R/3. Find out how to move this data from your R/3 system to your SAP CRM system so you keep any enhancements you made to the R/3 data to support your business requirements.
Key Concept |
To move data from R/3 to SAP CRM, you use a pair of user exits. On the R/3 side you use CRM0_200, which is the standard user exit in the R/3 back end that sends data to the CRM Server. On the SAP CRM side, you use SMOUTIL3, which is the standard user exit in the CRM Server that performs the final check of the incoming data before accepting it into SAP CRM. |
Perhaps your company is considering implementing SAP CRM to take over functionality you currently carry out in R/3 Sales and Distribution (SD), such as pricing. Regardless of which SAP CRM component you plan to implement, downloading the R/3 customer and product masters ensures consistency between your planning and sales support system (CRM) and your finance and execution system (R/3).
If you have had your SAP system for a while, you may have enhanced your R/3 system to support specific business needs. In general, these enhancements support specialized pricing requirements or other requirements that lead to adding new fields. Let me show you how you can incorporate these enhancements into the CRM environment so that a move to CRM is a step forward for your company and not a step backward.
You should use these processes if:
- You need your data for order processing and you plan to take orders in SAP CRM
- You use your data for pricing and you plan to carry out pricing in SAP CRM
- You use your data for workflow or sales assignments
Why Not Use Business Server Pages?
Business Server Pages (BSP) support many of your business processes on the Web. Beginning with an introduction to BSP, the author presents five basic steps that will allow you to use BSP functionality in BW. In addition, his downloadable code found on the BW/BI Expert Web site enables you to offer personalization options to your BW users.
SAP CRM Marketing On-Demand: Wave 3 and 4 Updates
Find out about the functionality available in SAP CRM Marketing on-demand, including updates available since SAP introduced it in May 2006. Also see how it relates to the functionality available in the on-premise SAP CRM.
Key Concept |
With SAP CRM 2006s, companies can choose between SAP CRM on-demand (CoD) and the on-premise version of SAP CRM. Those who start with CoD have the option to migrate to the standard on-premise SAP CRM with minimal work and training. The functionality available in SAP CoD is a subset of the on-premise SAP CRM solution, which also includes integration to R/3 and SAP ERP Central Component. |
As part of SAP CRM on-demand (CoD), SAP introduced SAP CRM Marketing on-demand in May 2006. The key marketing capabilities available in CoD include:
- Campaign Management: Develop, execute, and measure campaign activities through inbound and outbound interaction channels
- Segment Management via target groups: Discover and gain insights into customer segments, define segments, and manipulate and generate target groups.
- Lead Management: Generate qualified leads, prioritize leads, and follow up on every lead to closure
- Marketing Analytics: Understand the marketing effectiveness of a campaign by providing operational reporting and analytics capabilities
I will give an overview of each of these capabilities within Marketing on-demand, including updates in the wave 3 functionality that was released in February 2007 and planned enhancements for wave 4 in June 2007. Then I will go over the additional marketing functionality available if you choose to migrate to the on-premise version of SAP CRM. To learn about SAP CoD and the marketing concepts discussed in this article, refer to the CRM Expert articles listed in the “For More Information” sidebar.
SAP E-Commerce for mySAP CRM: Integrate Your E-Commerce Channel into Your Order Management Processes
With SAP E-Commerce for mySAP CRM, you can extend your CRM business processes to the Internet. This provides customers with a consistent experience on the Web for sales and self-services and allows you to integrate your e-commerce channel into your order management processes.
Key Concept |
| SAP provides standard JavaServer Pages (JSP) templates for SAP E-Commerce that you can use in either business-to-consumer or business-to-business scenarios. JSPs provide a way to display dynamic content on the Web using simple Java programming. The end result is an HTML page that presents a layout with Java code and performs the required processing for, say, a database query or filling blank input fields. |
Online customers have high expectations for e-commerce sites. They want full, accurate product information, recommendations that are based on preferences and prior purchasing history, and reliable processes for delivery and payment. Online customers also expect to be recognized regardless of the channel through which they interact with the selling company.
To meet these expectations, SAP E-Commerce for mySAP CRM extends functionality from mySAP CRM to the Internet, creating an online sales and interaction channel for both business customers and consumers. SAP E-Commerce, which is part of mySAP CRM, uses the business data and business processes that have already been defined for sales processes in other channels. Customers receive consistent information across all channels within mySAP CRM whether they interact with a sales representative, a call center agent, or a Web site to place their orders.
SAP CRM 2005 or SAP CRM 2007: Which is Best For You?
Key Concept |
SAP CRM 2005, introduced in October 2005, includes improved marketing, sales, and E-Commerce functionality. SAP CRM 2007, expected to be available in 2008, builds on these improvements and introduces a new user interface (UI). |
As the Ramp-Up date for SAP CRM 2007 draws near, you may be wondering, “Is now a good time to upgrade and if so, what version should my company consider?” Although the excitement of leaping to the latest and greatest can be appealing, it may be wise to first evaluate which of the releases best suits your company’s needs.
Currently, SAP has four possible releases from which to choose: SAP CRM 2005, SAP CRM 2006s (1 and 2), and SAP CRM 2007. SAP CRM 2006s has limited availability, so let’s focus on SAP CRM 2005 and SAP CRM 2007 beginning with the software selection process as it pertains to those who are using mySAP CRM 4.0 and earlier. Even if you are a new SAP CRM user, you can also gain insight into how the two versions compare. Let’s begin this review with SAP CRM 2005.
From Siebel to SAP CRM: How Dow Corning Switched in 10 Months
Key Concept |
| Replacing an existing CRM system with software from a different vendor is a significant task. By carefully planning your migration project, you can make the switch with minimal disruption to your business. The key is to map your business processes to the new solution, configure the system to meet your users’ requirements, and plan a strategy for migrating your existing data to the new system. System testing and user training are also important tasks in a CRM migration project. |
Dow Corning Corporation is a leader in silicon-based technology and innovation. With annual sales exceeding $4 billion, the company offers more than 7,000 products and services to meet the needs of more than 25,000 customers globally.
In 2005, we standardized on SAP NetWeaver as our CRM technology platform. As part of this approach, we switched from using Siebel 7.5.3 to SAP CRM 2005 to support our global CRM processes — in 10 months. Our experienced Basis team built the hardware infrastructure and installed the CRM software. The implementation team included five Dow Corning resources, including business process experts, a project leader, and additional personnel who performed configuration and testing. We also used an outside integrator, who provided on-site expertise in SAP CRM configuration, ABAP program development, People-Centric User Interface (PCUI) configuration, and SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (XI). Additional contracted resources supplemented the on-site team throughout the project.
Let me share with you some tips and tricks we learned during our SAP CRM 2005 implementation. I’ll provide a brief history of CRM processes at Dow Corning to give you a better understanding of how we use our CRM system. Then I’ll explain how we approached the SAP CRM implementation.
Publish SAP BI Content More Easily with SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0
Among the benefits of SAP NetWeaver ’04 is better integration between SAP BI and SAP Enterprise Portal (SAP EP). This overview explains what the integration of SAP BW 3.5 with SAP EP 6.0 Support Stack ’04 (and above) provides.
Create Web Services Quickly with the New Web Service Tool
In alignment with SAP’s roadmap for enterprise service-oriented architecture, SAP CRM 2006s provides enterprise services for key business objects that you can use out of the box. In addition, you and your partners can now model your own Web services without additional programming. The new Web service tool allows you to quickly create new services tailored to the specific needs of your organization to extend your SAP CRM system. Learn about the Web service tool and find out how to use the creation wizard included with it.
Key Concept |
Web services are open interfaces that allow you to link loosely coupled systems with a technology that does not bind them to any particular programming language or platform. Web services represent an industry-wide standard. You define them with a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) file, which communicates interface information between Web service producers and consumers. |
SAP CRM 2006s provides a new Web service tool that allows you to model your individual Web service interfaces without spending days on ABAP or Java coding any more. With the Web service tool, you first model your service design object by choosing the needed attributes. Then the tool transforms those service design objects into Web service interfaces by plugging into the standard SAP NetWeaver Web service application programming interface (API).
Web services offer you flexibility to extend an application’s capabilities to support specific business processes without extensive coding or complex integration. For instance, you can use Web services to allow your customers to access your product and price information from their procurement systems and to create sales orders in your SAP CRM system by linking the procurement software to your order management application.
Web services can also help you work offline by uploading data from your SAP CRM system to an Adobe interactive form that you can modify offline and synchronize later. This way, you can pass leads from your SAP CRM system to your channel partners via email. You also could send service tickets to service technicians in the field. In both examples, the recipients receive all of the information they need — they can respond and add new data by just filling out the form.
Let us explain some ways you can use the Web service tool and show you some of the features. We’ll then walk you through the creation wizard so you can see how to create a Web service with SAP CRM 2006s.
Quickly Build Impressive Dashboards in SAP BW 3.5
You have a variety of options for creating and maintaining dashboards in SAP BW 3.5 including a new approach that significantly reduces your development efforts. The SAP Business Explorer (BEx) Web Application Designer in SAP BW 3.5 introduces the Web template Web item so you can easily design dashboards that your end users are sure to love.
Data Mining with the Analysis Process Designer in SAP BW 3.5
The Analysis Process Designer (APD) workbench, introduced in BW 3.1 Content (BW 3.0B SP6), allows users to combine numerous transformations into a single data flow. It offers a less technical approach to enhancing subject-oriented, non-volatile data that has already been integrated, cleansed, and transformed in the data warehouse. The author examines current APD features and outlines future plans for integrating it with other data mining functionality in the upcoming BW 3.5 release set for later this year.
Make Sure That User-Defined Statuses Appear in SAP NetWeaver BI for Reporting
Key Concept |
CRM user-defined statuses let you know the current processing state of an interaction, such as a service ticket. A group of statuses within SAP CRM makes up a status profile. To extract and transfer the item to SAP NetWeaver BI, you assign a BW status object. You can combine the BW status objects in BW status object groups to arrange them by application component, for example. |
When creating reports, such as for an interaction center or a sales team, the status of interactions is an important factor for the report. For example, the status can provide key information about service ticket reopen rates, how many service tickets are closed within two days, and how many sales contracts are in process at the end of the business day.
In the case of a service ticket, you can use the Status field to see what’s happening with the ticket. A service ticket with a Close status indicates that the problem has been solved. Some companies add custom statuses for this field, such as In process, to represent the steps between opening and closing a ticket.
If you use custom statuses, you need to ensure that these texts also appear in your SAP NetWeaver BI system so that you can report on them. Typically your BI team would do this by enhancing the BW extractor using logic coded in a Business Add-In (BAdI) or user exit. This custom coding can be problematic when you upgrade SAP NetWeaver BI or SAP CRM.
However, I can show you a five-step process you can follow that does not involve any coding. Here is an overview of the five steps:
What’s New with mySAP CRM 2005 Marketing: Coupon Management
Coupon Management, a new scenario in mySAP CRM 2005 Marketing, takes you from the preplanning stage of a coupon campaign to the post-analysis stage once the campaign is finished. See how Coupon Management allows you to offer coupon promotions to your customers.
Key Concept |
| The retail industry in the US and Canada has employed the Universal Product Code (UPC) since 1973. UPC is a 12-digit coding system designed to uniquely identify a product and its manufacturer. For a coupon UPC number, the first digit is the coupon numbering system number (always a 5 or 9). The next five digits make up the manufacturer ID, the next three digits the family code, and the next two digits the value code. The final digit is the check digit. |
Prior to mySAP CRM 2005, most companies that offered coupons managed them using homegrown systems involving Microsoft Excel. Coupon Management is a new scenario in mySAP CRM 2005 Marketing that centralizes the process within mySAP CRM and allows you to integrate with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI) to analyze your coupon campaigns.
This scenario helps you estimate how many coupons consumers will redeem for a given campaign. It also helps you determine the total cost of a coupon promotion by taking into account the face value of the coupon and estimated clearing house fees.
Coupons can introduce new products and attract more new buyers for existing products. They can also help you widen your product distribution, reduce product inventory, and stimulate quick sales.
Avoid Data Inconsistency in SAP NetWeaver BI in Just 5 Steps
Key Concept |
Typical enterprise data warehouse scenarios involve a large amount of data consolidation, cleansing, and enrichment. These processes create dependencies on data load sequencing and modeling. These dependencies ensure that the dependent data load happens only after the previous data load has finished. |
Consider an organization with multiple source systems feeding master and transactional data to an enterprise data warehouse based on SAP NetWeaver BI. During these data update stages, all the data targets that the system retrieves for consolidation, cleansing, and enrichment need the most current data. This is particularly critical in a single-source data warehouse. When you consolidate or enrich information, you must confirm that all the dependent loads succeeded.
If your enterprise has a single master data chain, the transactional loads can still progress even though the master data chain has failed for some of the master data. This allows inconsistent data to infiltrate your system. To avoid this, you need to set up dependencies in the data load process chain.
However, SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and earlier releases lack the infrastructure capabilities to set up these dependencies. We developed a five-step process that allows you to set up and track dependencies for critical loads:
Step 1. Become familiar with using the ABAP program process type in transaction RSPC
Step 2. Create a custom table in transaction SE11 to map and store the dependencies
Step 3. Create a custom program to get the dependencies for the data load
Step 4. Create a variant for each dependency you need
Step 5. Run the process chain with the variant you created in step 4
When implemented, the process automatically synchronizes the data loads — using dependencies that you maintain in a custom table — and checks for successful completion of these dependencies in the process chain execution. If a dependent process does not complete successfully, the process blocks the next data load and raises an error.
BEx Information Broadcasting in SAP BW 3.5 Puts Users Front and Center
SAP has expanded the feature set in the latest iteration of SAP BW. Included in the new functionality is BEx Information Broadcasting, which provides a variety of ways for users to disseminate information. This introduction to BEx Information Broadcasting and its front-end tool, the BEx Broadcaster, will give you a head start on putting it to use.
Use SAP NetWeaver BI as an ESA-Oriented Data Source
You can go beyond the traditional use of SAP NetWeaver BI for strategic reporting on aggregated and historic data. Learn how one company created a composite application using a second SAP BW instance as a consolidated data source. The resulting application uses the SAP BW data embedded in a transaction.
Key Concept |
| Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) is a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that merges SAP’s enterprise application content with the open composition platform SAP NetWeaver. It enables the building of flexible business processes by SAP systems, partners, and stakeholders by making the linking of software components possible. |
Company X, a leading US company, wanted to improve its current manual fax- and email-based process because it took several days for changes to appear in the back-end systems such as mySAP ERP. Company X designs and brands its products and sells them globally. It outsources the production to several hundred contract manufacturers around the world. After creating purchase orders (POs) in mySAP ERP with several dozens of line items, company X issues the POs to the manufacturers. The manufacturers receive the POs to confirm the items. Once they confirm the POs, the manufacturers report the status of the work in progress. The company’s current setup slowed production because internal employees and manufacturers could not see updated data in the back-end systems for several days, or didn’t have access to the information directly.
After preliminary research, company X found no packaged solution that completely fulfilled its requirements. The company decided to combine its existing functionality (mySAP ERP and SAP BW) with SAP Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM) by building a custom composite application. The project team decided to use SAP BW for more than reporting and analyzing. It created a separate SAP BW instance to serve as a direct data source for applications.
Company X’s composite application updates the back-end systems through a Web application via SAP Enterprise Portal. It allows its employees and manufacturers to view updated PO data in near real time. This creates an improved and efficient collaborative process with its contract manufacturers.
Like company X, many organizations today face the challenge of integrating existing applications and composing them into new applications. In many cases, businesses are satisfied with their existing system but want to update it to fulfill changing business needs. When you link existing pieces of applications, you can consolidate data from different sources. Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) allows you to keep current IT software while building composite applications. Many companies have switched from a traditional buy and build approach to a buy, compose, and build approach (Figure 1).Query SAP NetWeaver BI’s Metadata and Result Sets More Easily with New XML Web Items
Two new XML Web items are available in the SAP BW 3.5 Web Application Designer that ease XML programming. Learn how they affect your query options.
Key Concept |
| Two XML Web items in SAP BW 3.5 provide programmatic access to query metadata and result sets in an XML output format. This paves the way to making programmatic interaction with and manipulation of Web Application Designer templates easier with XML. |
SAP BW 3.5 includes two Web items that are easily overlooked because their names do not immediately make their function evident. While not necessarily directly applicable to the mainstream user of either Web Application Designer (Web AD) or Web templates in general, these Web items provide important features for making analytically based XML programming efforts easier over the Web. These Web items are unique in that they allow programmatic access to the result data returned by SAP BW 3.5.
By providing XML representation of both structural information and the actual data of a particular query or view, these Web items allow quick access to SAP NetWeaver BI data for browser-based application development. You can use JavaScript to access the data delivered by these Web items. This is particularly handy when the application accessing the SAP NetWeaver BI system requires detailed metadata information (in addition to the data itself).
What's Coming in 2004
SAP BW 3.5 will be a part of the SAP NetWeaver 2004 Ramp-Up in the end of March and unrestricted shipments begin in late 2004. The author explains the features of the updated program, such as an improved business intelligence platform, support for enterprise data warehousing, and new and easier ways to distribute enterprise-wide business intelligence. She also suggests how to upgrade to SAP BW 3.5.
Optimize FI-GL Processing with Intelligent Lookup Tables and Pseudo Delta Loads
Key Concept |
An intelligent lookup table is a DataStore object with data required as a lookup when processing high data volumes. An intelligent lookup table can optimize data processing in a multi-layer business warehouse setup. Usually it is a subset of a large data set containing only the records you need for a particular data load. This subset contains only relevant details corresponding to business logic related to your project. An example of an intelligent lookup table is a DataStore object containing accounting document numbers mapped to vendor codes and purchase order (PO) numbers. During each delta load, this DataStore object contains only those records that relate to the data set that you’re currently processing. |
A purchasing group in a multi-billion dollar corporation wanted to improve its operational reporting capabilities by daily updates of purchasing performance indicators and management dashboards. The operational purchasing group sources and purchases all non-production goods and services including external resources and consultancy. I helped to implement a multi-layer BW data model to fulfill its needs using intelligent lookup tables and a pseudo delta approach.
This setup provides a capability to implement complex business logic when moving line items to the second level. At the same time, it substantially speeds up data processing time — 30 million transaction lines used to run for three days in the old setup, but with the intelligent lookup tables it took 26 hours.
The project requirements included complex filtering logic for invoices and purchase orders. The project team and I used a multi-layered BW setup to ensure the solution is scalable and reusable. First, all documents are loaded to the first level because projects other than this one might use them. Second-level DataStore objects contain only project-related documents with certain business logic applied. On the third level, the BW system aggregates data in the reporting InfoCubes.
Open Hub Transformation Meets Complex Business Requirements
Key Concept |
Open hub allows BW to act as a source to distribute data to systems outside of BW. It extracts data from BW’s InfoCubes, DataStore objects (formerly operational data store [ODS] objects), and master data. It then sends that data to external destinations as either a relational database table or a flat file. Transforming data in open hub requires ABAP coding in the form of a custom Business Add-In (BAdI). |
The nature of many IT organizations dictates that information needs to flow not only into the BW system, but also out of BW into other systems. For example, your sales team needs BW data to feed a third-party transactional system. This system tracks and maintains shipping orders on a monthly basis. The third-party package has specific data storage requirements. To get the data out of BW into this third-party shipping system, you can use open hub. However, open hub extracts data in its current form. You often need to translate the data to comply with the third-party system’s data requirements, such as a five-digit material number or a leading zero at the beginning of each field. To satisfy these requirements, use custom ABAP code in the open hub transformation Business Add-In (BAdI).
In my example, SAP has a four-character alphanumeric plant field 0PLANT, but the third-party system requires a five-character numeric field for plant. During extraction, you must convert the plant field. Open hub transformation can perform the translation in just three steps: Set up the InfoSpoke, configure open hub transformation, and write custom ABAP code.
Effectively Gather BW Functional Requirements
Key Concept |
When developing any data warehouse solution, it helps to have a set of documents that you can complete to define and set the scope of development. These documents act as a template that the members of the project team and the business can fill out to provide a clear and repeatable process for requirements gathering. This should allow you to identify gaps as early as possible in the design process. |
One of the biggest and most important challenges in any implementation is gathering and understanding the end user and process team functional requirements. These functional requirements represent the scope of analysis needs and expectations (both now and in the future) of the end user. These typically involve all of the following:
- Business reasons for the project and business questions answered by the implementation
- Critical success factors for the implementation
- Source systems that are involved and the scope of information needed from each
- Intended audience and stakeholders and their analysis needs
- Any major transformation that is needed in order to provide the information
- Security requirements to prevent unauthorized use
This process involves one seemingly simple task: Find out exactly what the end users’ analysis requirements are, both now and in the future, and build the BW system to these requirements. Although simple in concept, in practice gathering and reaching a clear understanding and agreement on a complete set of BW functional requirements is not always so simple.
Use Selective Deletion to Substitute InfoCube Characteristic Values
Key Concept |
The InfoCube is a model of a specific business scenario, so its content reflects the business environment. From time to time, BW teams are required to adjust an InfoCube’s content to a changed business environment. Substituting characteristic values to update the InfoCube is one such adjustment. |
From time to time, BW teams are required to substitute the characteristic values of an InfoCube to adjust content based on a changed business situation. For example, you might have to substitute values caused by changes to the business environment such as a sales manager substitution, changes in product hierarchies, or data inconsistency.
In many cases, users choose to fully reload their data. However, this involves a long InfoCube downtime during which you delete incorrect data and load new data. Then the system recalculates aggregates. The InfoCube is unavailable during this process and the larger the InfoCube, the longer the downtime.
I propose two other approaches for substituting InfoCube characteristic values. The first is substitution with selective deletion. The second is substitution with reverse load, which I’ll explain in my other article in the July/August 2007 BW/BI Expert. In many cases they are much more effective compared to the traditional method.
Most of the routine situations are associated with static data InfoCubes that have been left unchanged for a long time. For instance, a sales budget InfoCube contains target monthly sales key figures for customer managers. The BW team prepares this InfoCube at the beginning of each year and leaves it alone all year. This InfoCube is usually used for plan-fact comparison reports.
Use Selective Deletion to Substitute InfoCube Characteristic Values
Key Concept |
The InfoCube is a model of a specific business scenario, so its content reflects the business environment. From time to time, BW teams are required to adjust an InfoCube’s content to a changed business environment. Substituting characteristic values to update the InfoCube is one such adjustment. |
From time to time, BW teams are required to substitute the characteristic values of an InfoCube to adjust content based on a changed business situation. For example, you might have to substitute values caused by changes to the business environment such as a sales manager substitution, changes in product hierarchies, or data inconsistency.
In many cases, users choose to fully reload their data. However, this involves a long InfoCube downtime during which you delete incorrect data and load new data. Then the system recalculates aggregates. The InfoCube is unavailable during this process and the larger the InfoCube, the longer the downtime.
I propose two other approaches for substituting InfoCube characteristic values. The first is substitution with selective deletion. The second is substitution with reverse load, which I’ll explain in my other article in the July/August 2007 BW/BI Expert. In many cases they are much more effective compared to the traditional method.
Most of the routine situations are associated with static data InfoCubes that have been left unchanged for a long time. For instance, a sales budget InfoCube contains target monthly sales key figures for customer managers. The BW team prepares this InfoCube at the beginning of each year and leaves it alone all year. This InfoCube is usually used for plan-fact comparison reports.
Use Reverse Loading to Substitute InfoCube Characteristic Values
Key Concept |
A characteristic is an object that presents the elementary dimension component in the BW star schema model such as customer, product, company, or sales organization. Key figures of an InfoCube relate to characteristics that supply additional information to each key figure. |
Many business scenarios, such as updating inconsistent data, require you to substitute InfoCube characteristic values. In this article, I’ll discuss a technique that involves a reverse load. See my July/August 2007 BW/BI Expert article “Avoid Full Data Reload: Use Selective Deletion to Substitute InfoCube Characteristic Values” for steps outlining the procedure of selective deletion and for a table outlining when you might want to use each technique.
Rolling Off Data from Data Targets: Which Process Is Right for You?
Evaluate several processes that allow you to delete data in BW, including archiving, selective deletion, delete and change log requests, and deletion of Persistent Staging Area data and master data.
Key Concept |
| Rolling off data from a data target means deleting data from a data target in a rolling manner. Instead of simply deleting all the data at once, you can roll off the oldest parts at a set interval of time. |
Sizing is one of the most important aspects of BW design. When a data target grows too big, performance often deteriorates. You can manage performance for data targets with large volumes by partitioning, compressing, or aggregating. However, you still need to manage the size of data targets because BW does not have enough room to keep the history of your source systems. Therefore, you must devise a strategy to roll off data from your data targets.
In a typical data warehouse environment, you must keep historical data from three months to 10 years depending on the data target’s granularity. For a data target with calendar day granularity, usually the retention period is three months to a year. For a data target with calendar month granularity, the retention period can be longer — three to five years. For a data target with calendar year granularity, you may keep up to 10 years of data.
BW contains no clear-cut functionality to automate the process of rolling off data from data targets. I will show you how to use BW’s tools to design a solution to roll data off from data targets seamlessly and automatically. There are no specific requirements or prerequisites other than those I’ll explain later.
The process you choose depends on your data target (master data, ODS, or Info-Cube) and your update mode. Possible update modes include delta, pseudo-delta (full, but with selections to force delta), or full. Use pseudo-delta when it is impossible to create a generic delta extractor — instead, write code in the InfoPackage selections to get updated data only. Let’s explore the functionality that BW provides to roll off data from data targets.
Empower Your End Users with Accurate BW Reports
Key Concept |
A class is a type of ABAP program. In the context of my solution, I use the class to change the cell contents of the results table. More specifically, the class changes the cell content of the status characteristic. Instead of displaying the key code from the status ODS object, the table interface passes an image string that converts to an icon in the Web application. In my example, BW creates a report to display the characteristic value as a traffic light icon (for example, a green traffic light instead of displaying the number 10). This helps the end users visualize the data in a more intuitive way. |
End users at my company often ask, “How recent is the data that I see in my report?” They want to know when BW extracted data from its source systems. If you have developed Web-based reports, you may have seen the “status of data” information that you can include as part of a text element Web item.
However, this information has a number of limitations. First, users only see the information after they access the report. If you have not loaded the data into BW since the users last looked at the report, they can’t realize it until they’ve spent time to open the report. Secondly, complex BW system architecture involving ODS objects, Info- Cubes, and MultiProviders can make the SAP standard “status of data” option misleading.
For example, a MultiProvider can have many different InfoCubes from which it can access data. A BEx query built on this MultiProvider might only access data from some of these underlying InfoCubes. The SAP standard “status of data” information displays the date/time of the underlying InfoCube loaded the longest time ago. For example, InfoCube A was loaded on January 1, 2005, at 9:00, InfoCube B on January 9, 2005, at 7:00, and InfoCube C on January 9, 2005, at 9:00. Because InfoCube A contains no key figures for this BEx query, but is part of the MultiCube, the date and time that the user sees are incorrect (Figure 1).Save Time and Resources by Managing Excel Workbook Growth
Key Concept |
One major side effect of using workbooks in Excel is the history effect, or workbook growth. Excel creates history traces in its files even if you turn off the change management feature. As a result, your files keep growing when you save the Excel file either locally or on the BW server. The problem does not relate to SAP BW, so this applies to all of your Excel files. |
A lot of companies use BW for Sales and Distribution (SD) reporting. Imagine a salesperson not connected to high-speed Internet or dial-in connection. When that person executes a workbook report, the BW server first transmits the workbook and secondly refreshes the data. So whenever he downloads a workbook, he has to wait for the data to refresh. Modifying workbooks creates historical data that consumes lots of system resources. I’ll explain how to get rid of that historical data to speed up your system.
First, I’ll show you an example of how the data accumulates. Then I’ll explain how to isolate huge workbooks that don’t contain a lot of data and how to reduce their size using a third-party tool of your choice. This should reduce the strain on your servers and make BEx Broadcaster run faster.
How to Copy Process Chains
Everybody who creates process chains comes to a point at which they want to copy a process chain. There are many reasons: because copying makes it quicker, you want to make only small changes from an existing chain to another, or you want to test a process chain and modify it to look at different scenarios without having to destroy the original.
Modify BW-BPS Web Interfaces with JavaScript to Include Fixed and Scrolling Columns
Key Concept |
The standard Business Planning and Simulation (BPS) interface toolset allows the insertion of JavaScript-based commands directly into the Web interface for customization. Existing BPS Web interface customization tools do not provide specific formatting capabilities for overall presentation. In the case of layouts presenting large numbers of columns and rows, the standard presentation does not allow certain columns or rows of a layout to be fixed (or “frozen”) and other columns or rows to scroll. The incorporation of JavaScript commands into the BPS Web interface allows you to customize the Web presentation to include enhanced scrolling capability. |
SAP BW-Business Planning and Simulation (BPS) provides tools via transaction BPS_WB that allow you to customize BPS planning applications that you want to present to the end user via a Web session. SAP provides standard Web interface development tools such as function buttons, tab strips, and containers for specific objects. However, the standard solution does not provide a number of custom effects. You can achieve some of these effects by using JavaScript-based commands to enhance your scrolling abilities.
We’ll present a brief example to explain different scrolling capabilities and limitations and then show you the three phases of work you need to undertake to implement the capabilities you want to have. We’ll also show you the logic of the scrolling solution.
We have provided JavaScript commands in the code available at the Downloads section of BWExpertOnline.com. You can easily incorporate these commands into most Web interfaces during the Web interface configuration. The use of this modification code technique is applicable to all BW-BPS Web Interface Builder functionality found within BW-BPS 3.5 through BW-BPS 6.0.
Refine BW Querying with Real-Time Data
Key Concept |
Standard function module RSFH_ GET_DATA_SIMPLE simulates the data extraction from a source system in transaction RSA3. The function module allows delta extraction for all DataSources available in Logistics (LO) Customizing Cockpit. In the article, I use this function module to add the latest delta data to my report. |
Recently, a large public financial company I worked for needed a report providing real-time sales data for the current quarter. Its technical team updated BW InfoCubes daily, but this wasn’t often enough. The company manages its sales by quarter. At the end of the quarter, the online information is critical for the sales management. The required report should contain historical sales data for the last three months, including the most recent R/3 transactions for the past day, hour, and minute. Users need this information to make accurate and informed decisions based on data from the hectic end-of-quarter period.
This sounds like a complicated requirement, but the BW server already contained almost all relevant data. Therefore, I only needed to bring the latest (next) delta information into the report. This approach solves a range of reporting requirements. Here are a couple of additional business scenarios that you could address with this technique:
- A part of the production line in a manufacturing company includes complicated quality assurance (QA) equipment. The equipment updates the SAP R/3 system with online data regarding product testing. The company has a requirement from its QA manager to present last month’s testing results with current-day results to find relevant exceptions.
- A company must produce material requirements planning (MRP)-style reports to compare current stock with opened sales orders and production orders.
- A company just finished a marketing effort including TV and radio and the company needs to assess the impact on sales volume. It wants to use online information to get quick support from its back office.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
