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An Introduction to the New Data Warehousing Workbench for BI Administrative Tasks

Anurag Barua Ernst & Young
2009 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

In This Presentation

Please note: ! The name SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) is used in this presentation to refer to a component that has recently been renamed SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) ! The name SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence Accelerator (SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator) is used in this presentation to refer to software that has recently been renamed SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator)

In This Session You Will

Be exposed to the new features in the Data Warehousing (DW) Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Learn how the DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 is different from its immediate predecessor in SAP BW 3.5 (Administrator Workbench) Find out how to use the DW Workbench as the entry point to all the important tools for managing your SAP NetWeaver BI environment Learn more about the new features accessible via the DW Workbench

What Well Cover

The Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Differences and an Overview of the New Features in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The Modeling Tab and Advanced Navigation in DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 An In-Depth Look at the Features in the New Administration Tab Wrap-up

What Is the Data Warehousing (DW) Workbench?

Mission control for your BI system Single point-of-entry for administration and monitoring of BI activities, data modeling, extraction, transformation and loading of data

Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

The Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

Administrator Workbench (in <= SAP BW 3.5)

Administrator Workbench in SAP BW 3.5

What Well Cover

The Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Differences and an Overview of the New Features in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The Modeling Tab and Advanced Navigation in DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 An In-Depth Look at the Features in the New Administration Tab Wrap-up

A Comparative Glance at Old and New

SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 SAP BW 3.5

Changes to Workbench: An Overview

Several new enhancements have been introduced, especially in the Modeling tab ! Single point-of-entry to various areas in SAP NetWeaver BI; easier navigation for all categories of users ! Enhanced user-friendliness ! More intuitive ! Some of the tabs/buttons from SAP BW 3.5 and earlier releases have been removed due to obsolescence

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Specific Differences

Name change " from Administrator Workbench to Data Warehousing Workbench New Administration tab added under Modeling tab The Persistence Staging Area (PSA) tree has been removed partly because of a paradigm shift ! Before SAP NetWeaver 7.0, you had to manage PSA tables in Admin Workbench under its own object tree; it is now generated during the activation of a DataSource and can be accessed from the Manage option of the context menu or via the load process monitor ! PSA is a mandatory conduit for any data entering your BI system

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Specific Differences (cont.)

Reporting Agent (RA) has been purged; all functionality is now incorporated within the Information Broadcasting (IB) capabilities (primarily with the BEx Broadcaster) ! All erstwhile RA capabilities are now provided by IB and then some No InfoPackage group tree available ! Functionality superseded by process chains Event Collector is no longer available and is now triggered by process chains

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Specific Differences (cont.)

A new DataSources option has been introduced ! Very useful option that lets you branch directly to (the maintenance of) every DataSource associated with your BI system The pure text-based search has been replaced by metadata-based search that provides advanced features and functionality

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Specific Differences (cont.)

New BI Accelerator tool introduced ! Tool that improves performance of queries that frequently run on huge volumes of data New metadata search capability using the TREX engine ! Old document search removed Advanced Find functionality in Modeling area for BI objects New Favorites function in Modeling area

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Specific Differences (cont.)

New Real-Time Data Acquisition (RDA) makes it possible to upload to your BI system deltas in real time Advanced monitoring capabilities for various BI objects and processes (like DataStore Objects [DSOs], change runs, etc.) have been introduced Ability to repartition InfoProviders

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Specific Differences (cont.)

New SAP NetWeaver BI Administration Cockpit ! In the presence of SAP Enterprise Portals (EP), administrators get a cockpit-like view of the health of the system and the ability to drill down to the details of errors and suspected deviations New authorization paradigm ! Paradigm shift from the (traditional) authorization objectsbased technique to one that allows authorizations to be set up for any characteristic Remodeling of InfoCubes ! You are now able to remodel InfoCubes in a convenient way and without the risk of losing data ! Values for both characteristics and key figures can be populated by simple assignment as well as using coding
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Specific Differences (cont.)

DW Workbench can be accessed using transaction RSA1 ! You can still access the Administrator Workbench (from SAP BW 3.5) in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 by running transaction RSA1OLD
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Some users like to toggle between old and new, especially soon after they upgrade to SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 to ensure a smoother transition # This should not however be a reason not to adopt the new DW Workbench

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What Do These Changes Mean for BI Administrators?

A lot of new tools (especially in the monitoring realm) have been introduced by SAP to make life easy for administrators ! A steep learning curve is involved!

A lot of new terminology needs to be mastered ! Example: If you used Reporting Agent in SAP BW 3.5 (even though Information Broadcaster was available), you need to quickly master IB because RA is no longer supported

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What Do These Changes Mean for BI Administrators? (cont.)

Good news: The key Extraction, Transform, and Load (ETL) concepts from SAP BW 3.5 and earlier versions have not changed ! You can build on your existing competencies but keep expanding your skill sets in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0

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What Well Cover

The Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Differences and an Overview of the New Features in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The Modeling Tab and Advanced Navigation in DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 An In-Depth Look at the Features in the New Administration Tab Wrap-up

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New Find Function in Modeling

Searching in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Workbench

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Adding an Object and Context to Favorites

Highlight the application area Click on the favorites icon or drag and drop to favorites

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How to Retrieve from Favorites

Click on favorites icon to get the application area you saved ! Entire context is available " expand hierarchy to the desired level

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Modeling Push Button Bar

DataSource Repository " TX: RSDS APD Workbench " TX: RSANWB Data Mining Workbench " TX: RSDMWB BI Integrated Planning " TX: RSPLAN

DataSource Repository

IP APD Data Mining Workbench Workbench Workbench

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Modeling Push Button Bar: Navigation Buttons

Left arrow button takes you to the previous screen Right arrow button takes you to the next screen ! Both buttons mimic standard HTTP-based forward and backward navigation of Web pages Hide/Show navigator button lets you toggle between display of the entire navigation path and the final result Full screen/half screen button lets you toggle between showing and hiding the tree display

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The Hide/Show Navigator Button in Action

With button turned to off, navigate to the view

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New Buttons Have Been Added to the Object Tree

Button 1: Expand subtree/hierarchy node " entire hierarchy can be expanded ! Maximum of 100 levels of expansion possible Button 2: Converse of Button 1" Collapse entire hierarchies

Expand subtree/hierarchy node

Add object to favorites Collapse entire Hide empty hierarchies folders

Display Data Flow Upwards Legend and documentation

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New Buttons Have Been Added to the Object Tree (cont.)

Button 3: Add object to favorites " excellent personalization tool Button 4: Hide empty folders " nodes with no lower-level objects are filtered out from display

Expand subtree/hierarchy node

Add object to favorites Collapse entire hierarchies

Display Data Flow Upwards Hide empty folders Legend and documentation

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New Buttons Have Been Added to the Object Tree (cont.)

Button 5: Legend and documentation " successor to old legend icon Button 6: Display Data Flow Upwards " collapses the nodes underneath the node on which it is applied

Expand subtree/hierarchy node Collapse entire Add object to favorites hierarchies

Display Data Flow Upwards Hide empty folders Legend and documentation

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What Well Cover

The Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Differences and an Overview of the New Features in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The Modeling Tab and Advanced Navigation in DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 An In-Depth Look at the Features in the New Administration Tab Wrap-up

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New Tab: Administration

Prior to SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, there was no centralized area for various administration activities

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Administration Tab: Features

Existing features like Information Broadcasting and Process Chain maintenance are now included in this tab ! In previous releases, they were not readily visible Several new features have been included: ! BI Administration Cockpit ! Monitors ! Change Run ! Analysis Authorizations ! Metadata Search/Documents ! Remodeling/Repartitioning ! Request Administration Archiving

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Monitoring

Extremely useful area " expand the hierarchy to check out the contents

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BI CCMS

BI Computing Center Management System (CCMS) is where you monitor the health of your system (transaction code: BWCCMS)

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Load Data

Clicking on this link takes you to the data load monitor (TX: RSMO or via the InfoSource in past releases)

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Open Hub

Clicking on this link takes you to the open hub monitor (TX: RSBMO2) " you can monitor all loads out of your open hubs and into your InfoSpokes

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Real-Time Data Acquisition (RDA)

Clicking on this tab takes you to the RDA monitor ! RDA is a brand-new feature in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 You can: ! Create and assign daemons ! Create InfoPackages for scheduling data loads ! Monitor the status of InfoPackages ! Display logs

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BI Accelerator

Clicking on this link takes you to the BI Accelerator toolset ! Brand new offering for SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 You cannot use this tool out of the box ! Your hardware must be ready for it ! Configuration must also be in place: ! Enter an RFC destination in SM59 for the BI Accelerator server ! Enter an RFC destination for the TREX server for the BI Accelerator indexes in the RSADMINA maintenance view # Please refer to SAPs official documentation on BI Accelerator at the SAP Service Marketplace at service.sap.com for details on the BI Accelerator
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BI Accelerator (cont.)

With BI Accelerator, aggregates are not required ! Aggregates are supported in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, but there is no real need for them ! You should not jettison aggregates altogether! When a query is run, a BI Accelerator index (if it exists) is accessed before an aggregate is accessed for the same InfoProvider ! The order of access is: OLAP Cache " Index in BI Accelerator " Aggregates " InfoCube

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Change Run

You can monitor the status and messages associated with change runs ! A change run is required if attributes and/or hierarchies of a characteristic has/have changed; not only the InfoObject but also the aggregates have to be updated with these changes

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Precalculation Server

When you click on the link, you are taken to the precalculation server administration (TX: RSPRECADMIN)

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Aggregate Display

Upon clicking on the aggregate link for an InfoCube, you are taken to the aggregate display for that particular InfoCube

Double-click to display aggregates for the InfoCube

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DataStore Objects (DSOs)

New name of entity formerly known as ODS Object Three types of DSOs in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 ! Standard ! Direct corresponds to transactional ODS Object from 3.X ! Write-optimized new type ! Contains single (active data) table ! SIDs (Surrogate IDs) are not created ! Optimized for writing of data

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Settings for DSOs for Type Standard DSO

Five setting options in DSO Maintenance

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Details of Settings

SIDs Generation upon Activation ! Option to improve performance by not having SIDs generated when data is activated ! SAP recommends keeping this flag on Unique Data Records ! Flag this box when you are sure that the data figures being loaded into the DSOs are all unique, meaning that the values of their key fields are not identical ! Records will be inserted directly without checking for existence of identical keys, thereby improving data load performance

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Details of Settings (cont.)

Set Quality Status to OK Automatically ! Keep this checkbox flagged unless you want an additional quality check of the data and then a manual change of status to OK or green ! Data is not available in the active data table (i.e., not activated) if the status is not changed either manually or automatically to OK Activate Data Automatically ! If the quality status is OK or green, checking this box means that data is activated without the need for manual intervention ! When data is activated, data is populated in the active data and change log tables
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Details of Settings (cont.)

Update Data Automatically ! DSO is often the source or at least the intermediary between the source and other data targets (such as another DSO or InfoCube) ! Checking this box means that the data targets that are connected to this DSO will get updated automatically

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Settings for DSOs Write-Optimized DSO

Single setting option the only possibility here is (un)checking of data uniqueness

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Status of DataStore Objects (DSOs)

Status overview for DSOs is a new front-end feature with SAP NetWeaver BI; it was not available in SAP BW 3.5 and earlier releases Clicking the link here from the workbench takes you to an extremely useful view of all DSOs with information on loading status, last loaded Request ID, last Request ID to which the DSO has been activated, etc. Double-clicking on an individual line takes you to the DSO maintenance for that particular DSO
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DSO Status Overview

New functionality for display of DSO status

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Workload Monitor

Clicking on the link takes you to the workload monitor (TX: ST03)

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BI Delta Queue

Go to the SAP NetWeaver BI Delta Queue maintenance by clicking on the link (TX: RSA7)

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Analysis Authorizations

A new application for analyzing authorizations has been introduced in SAP NetWeaver BI ! You can also run (new) transaction RSECADMIN ! The previous authorization framework and transactions (RSSM, RSSMTRACE, RSSMQ) have been replaced with this new paradigm ! You should not run the old transactions ! An alternative way of getting to authorizations maintenance is by using the menu path: ! SAP Easy Access Menu " Business Explorer " Authorizations

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Analysis Authorizations (cont.)

Interface of new Authorization workbench

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Analysis Authorizations Maintenance

In the Maintenance tab, you maintain authorizations, including creating new ones ! Give your authorization a meaningful name

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Analysis Authorizations Maintenance (cont.)

Enter text and then add the characteristics whose authorizations you want checked

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Analysis Authorizations Maintenance (cont.)

You can specify key figures, dimensions, units, etc., not just characteristics ! When you do an F4 on characteristics/dimensions, only those InfoObjects that are marked as authorization-relevant (in InfoObject maintenance) will be available for selection

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Analysis Authorizations Generation

When you go to the Generation tab, you can specify a list of parameters that will be used to generate authorizations from an InfoProvider

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Analysis Authorizations User

When you click on the User tab, you are taken to an interface that connects directly to user maintenance (transaction SU01) and the profile generator (transaction PFCG) for user-based authorization maintenance

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Metadata Search/Documents

Functionality has been enhanced ! In SAP BW 3.5 it was purely a document management tool; in SAP NetWeaver BI, you can search metadata ! TREX engine must be installed ! Transaction code is RSODADMIN

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Metadata Search/Documents (cont.)

Interface of metadata search

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Remodeling

Brand-new functionality introduced in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 (formerly 2004s) ! Clicking on link takes you to remodeling area (TX: RSMRT)

Alternatively, in InfoProvider view, highlight InfoProvider, select Additional Functions from context menu and then Remodeling
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Remodeling (cont.)

You can only remodel InfoCubes the areas that can be remodeled pertain to characteristics and key figures ! You cannot currently remodel DSOs or InfoObjects

You do not lose or impact existing data in any way when you remodel You can monitor status of your remodeling jobs directly from the remodeling workbench

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Creating a Remodeling Rule

Interface of the remodeling toolbox ! Create a new Remodeling Rule and specify the InfoProvider that you will be remodeling

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Creating a Remodeling Rule (cont.)

When you press on Create, a pop-up appears " provide a meaningful description

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Maintaining Objects for Remodeling

Add/delete/replace desired InfoObject(s) per your design

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Repartitioning of InfoProviders

Prior to SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 you could not partition InfoProviders that had been loaded with data Starting in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, you can (re)partition DataStore Objects and InfoCubes ! Very convenient feature: if data volumes balloon unexpectedly, you can change existing partition schema or create new ones if you didnt have any Check SAP documentation on which databases support repartitioning for InfoCubes and DataStore Objects and also for any prerequisites Clicking on the link in Monitoring takes you to the repartitioning workbench
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Repartitioning of InfoProviders (cont.)

Interface of the repartitioning workbench

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Repartitioning of InfoProviders (cont.)

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Repartitioning must be approached with extreme caution

You have three options: ! Adding Partitions adding a new partition to an already partitioned (E fact table of an) InfoCube ! Merging Partitions coalescing partitions that are very sparse or absolutely empty ! Complete repartitioning data from E to F fact table is completely copied over and reconverted ! Takes more time and space
$

SAP Note 1008833 contains important information on repartitioning " it is a must-read before you embark on any repartitioning activity

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Request Administration Archiving

New navigation feature in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Facilitates performance improvements by taking offline administration and log data (transaction: SARA)

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Analysis of BI Objects

The existing analysis and repair of BI objects functionality (TX: RSRV) has been incorporated into the Data Warehousing Workbench

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What Well Cover

The Data Warehousing Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Differences and an Overview of the New Features in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 The Modeling Tab and Advanced Navigation in DW Workbench in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 An In-Depth Look at the Features in the New Administration Tab Wrap-up

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Resources

Articles by Ned Falk in BI Expert www.bi-expertonline.com ! SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Whats New in the BI Front End: Part 1 (April 2006). ! SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Whats New in the BI Front End: Part 2 (May 2006). ! SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Whats New in the BI Back End (January 2006). ! SAP NetWeaver 2004s: New Analysis Authorizations to Ease Administration (June 2007). SAPtips at www.saptips.com ! Anurag Barua, Data Warehousing Workbench in BI 7.0: Utilize New Features of an Enhanced NetWeaver Front-End, (SAPtips, December/January 2006/2007).
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Resources

SAPs Help Web site at help.sap.com ! Information on enhancements and modifications by Support Pack ! http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/43/6a433c120f 619ae10000000a1553f6/frameset.htm The Business Intelligence discussion forums at SAPs Software Developer Network (SDN) ! www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/forums

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7 Key Points to Take Home

The former Administrator Workbench has been significantly revamped in SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 Several new features have been introduced, and obsolete features have been removed The DW Workbench can be used as a single point-of-entry for launching all SAP NetWeaver BI features Navigation has become a lot simpler and context-based The Administration tab in modeling is a new feature and contains advanced monitoring capabilities that are useful for administrators

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7 Key Points to Take Home (cont.)

The Administration tab also consists of links to several new features Mastering the myriad features of the DW Workbench involves a steep learning curve because it is almost a paradigm shift

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Your Turn!

How to contact me: Anurag Barua anurag.barua@gmail.com

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Disclaimer
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

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