Alright ! So, we have In-Memory Analytics in SAP Business ByDesign.
Let's get to know more about this Analytics offering.
It consists of
PREDEFINED CONTENT
- > 270 reports with pre-defined characterisitics and key figures
- 23 Key Performance Indicators
- 4 Crystal Xcelsius Dashboards
- 3 Crystal Reports
PLUS
TOOLS / FRAMEWORK to create the same
- Report Wizard to create new reports
- Wizard to create new key figures
- Excel Add-in for integration with MS Excel to create advanced analytical workbooks
- Crystal Reports Add-in to enable custom Crystal report creation
- KPI Monitor and Catalog, etc
Phew ! That's already a lot of terms. So, let's begin
A CHARACTERISTIC is nothing but a field in the data base table. This can be of type alpha numeric, numeric, etc. Example : Country, Posting Date, UoM, etc
A KEY FIGURE is also a field in the data base table. This is a number or a metric. It gives the measure of a certain business process. Example : Invoice Net Value, Gross Margin, etc
A REPORT is a combination of characteristics and / or key figures pulled together for a meaningful presentation of data and further analysis. The base layer of a report is a DATA SOURCE. Example : Sales Order Volume Report
Reports are of different types in ByDesign
- Browser based reports
- Excel based reports aka Workbooks
- Mobile Reports
- Crystal reports aka Formatted reports
BROWSER BASED REPORTS are those that can be rendered either in a web browser or in MS Excel UI. They allow you to perform drill down and analysis.
EXCEL BASED REPORTS aka WORKBOOK is when you render a browser based report in MS Excel UI, make some changes to it using the native excel functionality such as Conditional Formatting, etc and save it back to ByDesign
A CRYSTAL REPORT is a pixel-perfect formatted display of information intended for click-and-print consumption by the exectuive user. It is a native Crystal .rpt file type and is rendered via the Crystal Reports Viewer interface.
A DATA SOURCE is a pre-modeled collection of fields (characteristics and key figures) that you can use to create new reports on. Example : Sales Order Line Item Data source
A KPI or KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR is an aggregation of analytical data into a single value, mainly targeted at managers. Example : Average Call Closure Time defined as call closure time divided by the number of service orders. Note: ByDesign users cannot create their own KPIs. They can only create their own KPI EVALUATIONS
The KPI CATALOG is nothing but a listing of all the KPIs available in ByDesign. This is available from the Business Analytics work center, only to the Key User.
The KPI MONITOR is a tool in the manager work centers that lists all the KPI evaluations that a manager is interested in. This allows for the manager to be alerted real-time, when a critical threshold is reached.
A KPI EVALUATION is a user-specific, time-dependent and condition-based evaluation of a KPI. The default evaluation delivered with 'Average Call Closure time' is 'TimeFrame 'Year-To-Date'. You can define your own evaluation for the same KPI. Example : Average Call Closure Time Denver Office, where you can add a paramter to aggregate only data related to the Denver office calls and service orders.
A DASHBOARD is a holisitic visual display of the most important information related to a business topic. Example : The 'Purchasing' dashboard has widgets that show 'Purchasing Spend Volume' 'Top 5 Spend Categories' 'Top 10 Suppliers' etc.
Stay tuned, more to come !
Bluesky
