Review Booklet Designer (Concept and Adaptability) - CE2408

[Stefan-Kraus]

Introduction 

You might have seen that, step-by-step, modernization and Fiori-enablement of embedded reporting in SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud is making progress behind the scenes:

1. A front-runner for the Group Financial Statements Review Booklet was already shipped last year. Please find the related blog here.
2. Further enhancements together with additional review booklets were shipped in SAP S/4HANA Cloud 2408. Please find more information about selected improvements here.
   

In a nutshell, review booklets offer application-specific, guided business pages optimized to deliver answers to relevant and typical business questions out -of the box. They combine application logic and guidance with integrated multidimensional insights enriched with augmented insights based on new AI capabilities as we go forward.
In an addition a new Fiori-based, generic Multidimensional Analysis  apps is delivered. This app can be used for generic slicing and dicing of multidimensional data (also known as pivoting)
Both categories of apps are based on the same multidimensional technology leveraging our well-known multidimensional protocol (InA) in combination with the ABAP-Analytic Engine and the related pivoting controls, APIs, and dialogs in UI5. This OLAP-technology (including Commenting) is well-known from our BW Solution.

Review Booklet Designer in Focus 

In this blog, we would like to introduce how a key user can use the review booklet designer to copy booklets  delivered by SAP and adapt the page content, layout, navigation and formatting to his or her needs.
You will learn the following:
- The big picture - how analytical queries, InA-service, and review booklets come together
- The different elements and building blocks you can adapt when you create your own custom review booklet
- How this fits into the "Standard" SAP key user process using "Manage KPI and Reports"
Overall screens and explanations will help you to get a more hands-on view of the adaptability concepts of review booklets in general.

High-Level Architecture

Before we create and adapt custom review booklets, let's first have a top-down view of the high-level architecture.
The most important foundation is the virtual data model in S/4HANA, using core data services.
Here, the CDS cubes and Analytical Queries are delivered, which provide the data you want to see.

"Analytical Queries" define the model for multidimensional analysis including dimensions, measures, and what we call structures for 2-dimensional queries.
Those "Analytical Queries" are delivered as SAP-delivered queries on behalf of SAP or can be created by a key user using  the "Custom Analytical Queries" application (to be precise in our case, we use the new Fiori App F1572A - Analytical Queries and Services, which creates custom queries as projection views - this is the  latest and newest version of the analytical query designer in S/4HANA CE2408)

To allow a user to start and run such queries, InA-services are used. By using such a service, multiple analytical queries can be grouped (This could be delivered by SAP as well as done for custom queries)

This is nicely illustrated in the picture below:

Big Picture

This also illustrated: When we copy such a review booklet delivered by SAP,  reuse of the InA-service and all analytical queries delivered by SAP is possible. In addition, a key user can create own custom InA-services and analytical queries.

Defining Custom Review Booklets

When you now create such a custom review booklet by copying a booklet delivered by SAP, you also copy internally a booklet model (all settings and page layouts) that can now be adapted.
The main purpose of such a booklet model is to translate the meta data of an  existing "Analytical Query"  (measures, structures and dimensions) to a guided page.
A guided page is created by a default column set, row set, certain proposed filters, as well as a page layout.

 These are the elements you will create when you define new guided pages within your custom review booklet.

Key User Process in S/4HANA to Support Custom Reporting

Now let's finally clarify the overarching key user process - how you would publish your new review booklet to your users. 

You proceed with the following steps within the "Manage KPI and Reports" application, which is the standard way how reporting assets in S/4HANA are created and published.

Manage KPI and Reports

Steps to Copy a Review Booklet:

If you now want to get a more practical and detailed understanding of what and how you can adapt a custom review booklet, the next chapter is perfect for you:
You can choose whether you want to see an end-to end demo in the following video. <click here tbd.>
or you follow at high -level the most important steps in this blog.

Copy Your First Review Booklet

Booklets delivered by SAP combine the best practices and typical business questions you have in a specific business domain and business role. Therefore, we recommend  you copy and adapt such review booklets.
Therefore you do the following:

1. Open "Manage KPI and Reports"
2. Choose the Review Booklet delivered by SAP that you want to use as template.
3. Press Copy and enter the name of your custom booklet
   
   

   As a result, you will copy the booklet model delivered by SAP with all the pages that are foreseen.

Adapt Your Custom Review Booklet 

You now want to see your copied review booklet: 

1. Open Configuration - when you open the configuration you will see the booklet model, predefined by SAP, presented in the different tabs of the "Review Booklet Designer":
   
2. Adapt your review booklet, changing the "Analytical Queries" used as data providers, "Business Pages", "variables on booklet and page level, formatting and Nnavigation.
   You are now in a wizard-based application, which presents all aspects of your booklet model.
   You can run it as is by checking it, then pressing save final and preview.
    
3. You can change the analytical queries/data providers, or add a new custom queries:
   It is important to remember that a new type of analytical queries has been introduced to simplify the underlying CDS world. These queries are called Projection Views, created with the new analytical query designer and require an InA-service to grant the start authorization. Please find more information here.
   
   When you now adapt your review booklet it is very easy: You either choose a analytical query delivered by SAP, which is in your value-help in any case, because the related InA-service is already referenced.
   Alternatively you create your custom InA-service when you create your own analytical query and then you will find those analytical queries in the value-help in your "Analytical Queries" tab as well.
   Please note you can assign multiple analytical queries to one InA-service.
   
   

4. Add, Delete or Change "Business Pages"
   You will find numerous example pages, which you can adapt.
   For example, you can hide and add pages, change the default rows and columns, or change the row sets or column sets that appear in the combo -boxes of your guided pages.
   
   You can choose from multiple page layouts, which range from simple tables to combined tables and charts. Each of these layouts are optimized for certain application needs to analyze time series, margins in waterfalls, balances in two containers,  and many examples shown below. 
   Please find examples for those page layouts below:

   Here are some example Pages based on those Page Layouts:
5. Once you are finished, you check your review booklet and "Save Final". This will allow you to preview your review booklet in an early stage.

Publish your Booklet

As a last step, you have to make sure that your review booklet is available to your business users.
Here, we follow the standard key user process known from "Manage KPI and Report".
Accordingly, you do the following:

1. Stay in  "Manage KPI and Reports"
2.  You create a tile for your Fiori Launchpad, where you enter the title, subtitle, semantic object and action of your application.
3. This will allow you to publish your Fiori App to a business catalog, which you finally share with your business users after you transported the application to production.
   

   

Closing Remarks

Please note that the review booklet designer is an analytical application builder.  It is a framework for delivering multidimensional analytic applications with meaningful business pages, which can be delivered out -of the box and adapted by our customers. It is not the goal to replace generic analytic tools or dashboarding tools, which you find in an analytical platform. Review Booklets can be built by SAP Developers and can be copied and adapted by key users in customer systems. This approach is targeted first to S/4HANA public cloud, but technically also in future possible and designed for private cloud customers.

More Information / Further Resources: 

You will find more information on this topic using the following ressources:

Review Booklet Designer - Help Documentation