SAP CRM Web UI Analytics brief introducction and impressions

[former_member182421]

Component	Support Package
BBPCRM	SAPKU70204
SAP_ABA	SAPKA73105
SAP_BASIS	SAPKB73105
WEBCUIF	SAPK-73105INWEBCUIF
SAP_BW	SAPKW73105

I bet some of you guys still hearing those sentence again and again, "We want a report in the Web UI which should list...."  or "Yes, no problem, we will build a ALV in the web client" This last one still give me the chills <Offtopic> I HATE TLX!</offtopic>

Well as you already know, Web Client is not meant to do reports as you will traditionally do in SAP GUI, there's a reporting layer called SAP CRM Analytics which uses can use BI reports or CRM reports, remember BW is part of netweaver, so yes, CRM has his own BW , what's the main advantage of using SAP CRM analytics, although is based on BW  you can display very very very updated data. You can click the following link to see a nice video blog with some features: SAP CRM Analytics without BI ( using the CRM as the data source) in the perfect world

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-5432

You can check/follow the SAP Best practices documents how to configure SAP CRM Analytics (no BI integration):

C41_CRM702_BB_CRM Interactive Reporting

CR2_CRM702_BPD_Interactive Reporting

Don't forget to activate the Business functions that applies to your needs, for example, if you want to use Sales Orders reporting area.

As you see there's a lot of stuff to learn, understand and do and I bet most of the people who read this will have no experience with SAP BW (like me) well, if is this you case, stop reading this, and run to find a BW consultant in your team, don't continue until you come back with him/her.....I'm serious.....soooooooo  you are not going to find him/her, right? do you think you are "very macho" to do it in your own right? nah...I'm kidding probably you won't find him/her because the project estimation didn't included a BW guy, why? this is a CRM implantation, who was expecting a BW consultant will be needed? reports are done with ALV!

Now I'm serious, you will need it, at least if you don't have enough time (and a sandbox) to learn how to add new fields and how BW objects should be transported.

Still a lot to do just to enable a few reports right? well now comes the best part: Let's assume you have everything running and healthy, you created  a report which lists sales orders, the customer wants to analyze the sales orders of this quarter, the list is about 5.000 sales orders, I hope you have a nice hardware or...wait? someone said SAP HANA? because if not, this will take ..hmmmm...let's say some time :twisted:

Okok, you are lucky and you have SAP HANA and you realized you can export the data via a flat excel file or even a pivot table, I tried the pivot table export and it's pretty impressive, I mean, from a customer point of view, you all know customers love exporting data to excel and play with i.

And now one of the reasons which led me to write this blog:

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3439767

Yeah, the Web UI export to excel is "limited" to tens or hundreds records....so what now? you did a lot of work the customer payed the HANA licences but you can not export the info to excel because is "limited to tens or hundreds" when I read this It was like noooooooooooooooo waaaaaaaaaaaaaay. So if I was you I would really consider all this points before starting the "SAP CRM Analytics safari" .

In resume:

SAP CRM analytics requires:

- SAP CRM Knowledge

- SAP Web UI Knowledge

- SAP BW Knowledge

- SAP BASIS Knowledge

- Reports of no more than tens or hundreds records as long the customer doesn't want to export to excel and you have a nice hardware or SAP HANA.

In the end I just want to clarify, this is my modest opinion and my brief experience, take it as what it is :smile: of course I encourage all of you to participate in this blog, SAP CRM Analytics world is very obscure and  any small contribution/discussion will be a benefit to everyone.

Cheers!

Luis