Orange County Convention Center

Orlando, Florida | May 15-18, 2011

Enterprise Portal and BOBJ Integration

101 ]
Neville Carvalho
[ Speaker

Neville Carvalho
SAP Technology Manager Accenture
Neville.Carvalho@Accenture.com

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[ Key Learning Points
Overview of Business Objects (BOBJ)
Overview of Enterprise Portal (EP)
Different options available to view BOBJ reports within
both SAP and non-SAP Portal environments.
Pros and Cons of BOBJ / SAP Portal integration options.
Lessons learned when integrating SAP Enterprise Portal
and BOBJ.

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[ Right Tool for every business role

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[ Business user offerings

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[ Mapping The Right Tool to The Right Scenario

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[ Overview of Business Objects (BOBJ)

Business Object connectivity with SAP NetWeaver BI

Architecture
Voyager / Business Explorer (BEX) / Pioneer
Web Intelligence.
Crystal Reports.
Xcelsius.
Query as a web service

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[ Web Intelligence
Business Objects Web Intelligence is the leading end user reporting and
analysis tool. Enables users to make decisions & share info across the
organization.
Where can Web Intelligence add value?
In the area of ad-hoc reporting
Easy to use interface for end user reporting
Simple user interface for end user
Powerful query features
Combine data from SAP NetWeaver BW and non-SAP data, including Excel,
CSV, Text files and in a single report without changing the model.
Can be viewed online, offline, on mobile devices dashboards, in MS office
and Desktop
Connectivity to SAP
Sits on top of Business Objects Enterprise Universe
Universe connects to SAP NetWeaver BI via OLAP BAPI
Access Objects BEx Queries & SAP Netweaver InfoCubes or Multi Providers

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[ Web Intelligence Connectivity

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[ Crystal Reports
Where can Crystal report add value?
Highly formatted reporting i.e. management or legal reports
Professional report layout
Form based, print optimized reports
View static and parameterized reports
Develop powerful data mash-ups
Sort & Filter without querying database
Consume reports offline with Crystal Report Viewer.
Connectivity to SAP ECC & NetWeaver BI
ECC Infosets, SAP Queries, Tables, Cluster, Functional Modules
SAP NetWeaver BI OLAP Kit BI InfoCubes or MultiProviders & BEx
Queries
Open SQL Drivers - Access ODS Objects

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[ Crystal Reports Connectivity

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[ Xcelsius
Is an environment to design and consume highly interactive,
flash based dashboards in PDF, documents, presentations
and NetWeaver Portal.
Where can Xcelsius report add value?
In area of data visualization
Intuitive design environment, enabling user to create professional looking
models using skins, maps, charts, gauges etc.
Add visualizations to Crystal Reports
Drag & Drop interface, mouse over or mouse click events can change
any visualization
Fast to deploy dashboards on SAP & non-Sap systems within weeks
Empowers business users not savvy using analysis tools
Deployed in web based & desktop applications including portal, Adobe PDF &
MS Office
Connectivity to SAP
Via Query as a Web Service (QaaWS) which leverages Business Object Universe
Via Live Office Crystal Reports can be connected to Xcelsius
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[ Xcelsius Connectivity

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[ Query as a web service (QaaWS)
Intuitive wizard based Web Service definition tool.
Allows BI content to be consumed by any user interface that can
process a web service
Business users can define their own query from a universe, and can
securely publish the query as a standalone web service
Enables Crystal, Xcelsius to aggregate multiple disparate data
sources into a trusted BI view

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : Introduction

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal: Overview of Portal Capabilities

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : Providing Uniform Content Access
SAP NetWeaver Portal provide users with a uniform single point of
access to applications, services and information needed for daily
work thus increasing user productivity.

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[ Overview of Enterprise Portal (EP)

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[ Overview of Enterprise Portal (EP)
Portal content is designed to retrieve information from varied
information sources such as Web sites, groupware
applications, legacy systems, enterprise applications,
databases, and document directories.
Roles
Workset
Pages
iViews

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[ Overview of Enterprise Portal (EP)
SAP NetWeaver Portal is the front end of the SAP
NetWeaver platform.
Knowledge Management
Features embedded in the portal permit one to access
documents stored in different repositories.
Collaboration
enables communication with other portal users, and
working together in distributed teams on cooperative
projects

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[ What is an iView Template?
Create new iViews based on existing iView templates or
portal components from PAR files.
Templates are adapted to the type of iView you are
creating.
The information one provides generates an iView, one
may edit the iView properties to modify or fine-tune your
choices.

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[ What is a System?
Definition: A system is a portal object comprised of a set of
properties that represent an external, or back-end,
application. Systems enable a connection to these
applications and the retrieval of data from their information
stores.

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : FPN Implementation Scenarios
Federated Portal has two implementation scenarios:

Content Federation:
Network comprises of two or more portal installations only one portal
works as the log on portal for all users and the remaining portal
installations work as producer of content.

Portal Federation:
Each Portal installation can function as an autonomous entity serving
its own users, put also producing and consuming content to and from
other portals in the federation.

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : IT Scenario Variants

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : Federated Portal

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[ SAP BusinessObjects iView template as part of the SAP
Integration Kit
Uploading the portal archive file for SAP BusinessObjects
iView template
Configure SAP Enterprise Portal System Landscape
Configure BusinessObjects iView in SAP Portal

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[ Portal Archive File

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[ Configure SAP Enterprise Portal System Landscape

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[ Configure SAP Enterprise Portal System Landscape

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[ Using SAP Portal to view BOE Data
BusinessObject iView
URL iView
KM iView

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[ Configure BusinessObjects iView in SAP Portal

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[ SAP BusinessObjects URL iView

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[ SAP BusinessObjects URL iView

Add parameters with their respective values:

sDocName
iDocID
sIDType
sWindow

sWindow parameter opens iView in new window and not in the portal content
area

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : Conceptual Overview of KM and iViews
Business users access SAP BusinessObjects content directly from SAP
NetWeaver Portal pages.
KM provides exploration of SAP BusinessObjects repository objects and
supports common workflows including viewing and scheduling.
iViews supports the viewing of all SAP BusinessObjects document types.
Each specific iView will represent 1 and only 1 SAPBusinessObjects object.

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[ Steps to configure Business Object through
Knowledge Management (KM)
Import Business Object Repository Manager package :
BusinessObjectKM.par into EP
Configure Repository Manager
Configure KM Content Layout
Create KM Navigation iView
Assigned Roles to iView
View Reports

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[ BusinessObjectKM.par install

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[ Configure Repository Manager

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[ Configure Repository Manager

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[ Configure KM Content Layout

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[ Create KM Navigation iView

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[ Runtime Components: KM Navigation
Single Sign On support
Single entry point for access to all SAP Business Object
content
Support for category navigation, corporate folder and
personal document space (Inbox and Personal Folder)
KM Repository service for adding to Portal Favorites,
Copy, Move, Delete, Send link via email

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[ Typical Enterprise Portal Integration Steps
1 Install SAP NetWeaver Portal with KM + SAP
NetWeaver BW.
2 Configure SSO.
3a Install a SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise with SAP
Integration Kit.
3b Configure BOE InfoView to support single sign on.
4 Import SAP roles.
5 All systems should reside in the same DNS domain.

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal : Conceptual Architectural Overview

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[ Scenarios : iViews versus KM

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[ InfoView versus KM & iView Template (1/2)

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[ InfoView versus KM & iView Template (2/2)

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[ Architecture/Hardware Consideration
BW JAVA and SAP enterprise portal on single instance/ single
system
SAP enterprise portal on separate landscape. BI JAVA taking all BI
reporting load and connect to enterprise portal with federated portal
approach
BO content access by using SAP enterprise portal simple iview using
OpenDoc option
BO info view access with in SAP enterprise portal and have all
capabilities and load sharing to BO and info view. Complete
integration with KM part of SAP enterprise portal available in latest
release

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[ High level Basis Activities for Portal Implementation
Establish BEx configuration in portal as well ADOBE service configuration
Validate portal system installation for all prerequisites (Support packs, Patch level
etc)
Validate/Install KM components type on JAVA and check if it is valid for all
systems.
Create source system for each source system to be connected to portal
Exchange certificates between source system and establish SSO with required
parameter change
Install source system package
It is recommended to have Sandbox, Development, Quality and Production.
Portal landscape should match the Source system landscape.
Validate the need for multiple application servers for production to ensure load can
be shared. If multiple app servers are needed, it needs to be installed.
Validate/Install load balancer ( web dispatcher or any other ) in case of
performance and data volume issue
Co-ordinate with Portal team to Integrate Business object content and integrate
info view and other BOBJ related objects.
Export and Importing objects across landscape as a part of portal
transport/cutover activities.
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[ BI-BOBJ-Portal Integration Options

BI Portal is installed and available as a part of BI System set up

Option1 Install Knowledge management and related components within BI Portal (this is
needed for BOBJ Integration)
Integrate BOBJ Portal (Infoview) with BI Portal
Leverage BI Ensure Single Sign on is set up
Concerns:
Portal BI Portal needs to be used as Enterprise portal in future.
Anytime BI System is down, all users will be affected.

Users are familiar with Share point portal and currently legacy reports are published here.
Option 2 SAP Objects can be integrated with Share point portal
Business Objects can be integrated with Share point portal
Concerns:
Leverage Share URL based connections
Integration based on other implementation is not seamless, high on efforts and time
Point Portal consuming.
Users will not get some critical features such as creating reports using Share point portal

Option 3 Enterprise Portal is available within landscape, but is not being used.
Sandbox and Development systems are ready, basis team can install QA and production.

Implement The system needs to be brought up to latest support pack.

Considering future need for Enterprise portal this will not involve any direct landscape
changes
Enterprise Portal

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[ SAP BI Portal
SAP BI Portal:
Pros:
There is no need for separate landscape, we can leverage BI portal that
is installed as a part of BW System
Users will get a single interface for BI Reporting
Cons:
Whenever there is a need for integrating ECC transactions or external
application, we need to revisit the architecture
Only BI Users will benefit from single user interface

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[ Microsoft SharePoint Portal
Through Microsoft SharePoint portal:
Pros:
All reporting content for SAP BI (BEx Queries, WAD templates)
published as links, Business Objects content (Webi reports,
Xcelsius dashboards, Crystal reports) can be accessed from one
place.
Cons:
We will have to validate how SSO works through SharePoint
when connecting to SAP BI and Business Objects Enterprise. This
involves configuring Kerberos.
This release supports only 32 bit versions of SharePoint.

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[ Microsoft SharePoint Features

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[ SAP Enterprise Portal :
Through the SAP Enterprise Portal:
Pros:
Link the BEx queries & BEx Workbooks directly to the Enterprise Portal.
Create Web Application Designer (WAD) templates using BEx queries
and publish them to the Enterprise Portal.
Broadcast Queries in Excel, PDF format using Information Broadcasting
to a group of users or to a network location.
Integrate Business Objects content (Webi, Xcelsius dashboards, Crystal
reports) directly to the Enterprise Portal. InfoView can also be integrated
to the Enterprise portal and SSO is available with this option.
SAP R/3 Transactions and standard reports can also be integrated to the
Enterprise Portal.
Further SAP products or SAP Business Packages added to the company
environment can be deployed seamlessly to the SAP Portal
Cons:
Time to install and bring up the Enterprise Portal.

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[ Which one is the best option?
Need for Portal BI Portal Enterprise Portal
BI Users need Single User interface for Yes Yes
accessing and viewing reports, if not they
need to login into two different portal

There is a future need to access some of the Not Recommended Yes

important transactions through Portal (Web
based VS GUI based)

There is a need to have non-SAP applications Not Recommended Yes

integrated with common portal

There is a need to enable external users Not Recommended Yes

(Customers/Vendors) access reports or
transaction from external locations.

User community is likely to grow within the Not Recommended Yes

company, and there is a need for dedicated
portal to manage system performance.

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[ Recommendation
Deploy all Business Objects content to InfoView .
Integrate InfoView into SAP Enterprise portal.
End user views content via SAP Enterprise Portal.

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[

QUESTIONS

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[

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