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Creating Universes with SAP BusinessObjects
Creating Universes with SAP BusinessObjects

Creating Universes with SAP BusinessObjects: Create and maintain powerful SAP BusinessObjects Universes with the SAP Information Design Tool

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Creating Universes with SAP BusinessObjects

Chapter 2. Aligning BI Solutions with Business Demands

In the previous chapter, we learned what BI is and how it can enhance the decision-making process in our organization. Now, let's discuss a business case. In this chapter, we will find how BI will help an example company, Northwind, to track their sales, orders, and inventories. We will go through a complete simulation on how Northwind will start adopting BI. Then, we will download the Northwind Microsoft Access database from the Microsoft site. After that, we will get to know their data model and business processes. At the end, we will set up the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) connection, which will be used in the next chapter to build our first Universe.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • A business process and how it applies to the Northwind's example
  • The BI Maturity Model
  • How to download the Northwind Microsoft Access database, and how to set up and configure the ODBC connection linked to this...

Northwind

Northwind is a small company that offers many products to its customers. The company starts growing, and there is no way to maintain customer orders and inventory details manually. The company doesn't have an IT department, and they are using Microsoft Excel to perform their data analysis. The data is stored on many isolated Microsoft Access databases. Currently, reporting is done through Microsoft Excel and some basic Microsoft Access reports. The top management of Northwind is facing difficulties finding the required information at the right time. The available information is also not 100 percent accurate, as it is stored and processed manually. As you can see, they need to build a complete system to store all this information and to act as a source for a complete BI solution.

Management was worried about the cost of implementing such a system, and they are also not sure whether Northwind is ready to take this step yet. Market competition was another key factor to consider...

The BI Maturity Model

As we know, an organization will take time to adopt BI and start getting the desired results. This will not happen within a day. In this section, we will talk about BI Maturity Models, and we will try to identify at which stage Northwind will start and what required actions to reach high-maturity levels are needed. The different levels of the BI Maturity Model are shown in the following diagram:

The BI Maturity Model

Let's take a look at the levels of the BI Maturity Model:

  • Basic BI: At this stage, BI is very limited, and the organization will mainly depend on spreadsheets for analysis and data scattered in many disconnected data sources (data silos).
  • Initiation: At this stage, the organization will try to start and establish a BI system after sensing its value, and after the internal assessment, it will select a BI reporting tool and plan for it. Normally, the cost of establishing a BI solution is high at the beginning, but it will decrease over time, while the value you are getting...

Configuring and setting up Northwind's database

In this section, we will find out how to download the Northwind Microsoft Access sample database. Then, we will create and configure the ODBC connection that we will use in the remaining chapters to build our Universe.

Getting the Northwind sample database

There are two methods to get the Northwind Microsoft database Access file:

  • Downloading it from the Microsoft website: Northwind is a sample Microsoft Access database that you can download and use. To download it, we need to go to the Microsoft office website, then type Northwind in the Home page's search box and navigate to the Template results section or simply use the following links:

    There are two database versions; one is Microsoft Access 2007, and the other one is Microsoft Access 2010. We will use the 2007 version, as you can open it...

The Northwind data model

Now that we downloaded the Northwind Microsoft Access database and successfully created our ODBC connection, let's have a look on the Northwind data model. We can see two main contexts in the Northwind database, as shown in the following screenshot:

The Northwind data model

The first context is related to orders, and the other one is related to inventory. We can think of context as a subject area that covers some related information stored in some related tables. Before we go deep into the Northwind data model, let's first define some terminologies that we will use.

Dimensional modeling terminologies

We have three types of information from the business point of view:

  • Dimension: This is an angle or point of view from which we can look at our data. Region or product is a good example. You might need to check your sales by region or by product.
  • Measure: This is a number that represents a metric such as sales or number of purchase orders. An aggregation method should be assigned to each...

Summary

In this chapter, we analyzed a complete business case with the Northwind company's example, which could be closely related to the company's real-time problems. We talked about their reporting needs and how they initiated their own BI solution. Then, we had an overview of the BI Maturity Model, and we were able to identify that Northwind is in the initiation stage. After that, we learned how to get the Northwind sample database file and how to set up the ODBC connection on top of this database. Finally, we had an overview of the Northwind database model by introducing orders and inventory information contexts.

In the next chapter, we will build our first Universe using the ODBC connection that we created in this chapter. We will start with only one table in the Universe, and we will expand it as we are moving through the remaining chapters.

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Description

This book is aimed at both new developers as well as experienced developers. If you are a new SAP BusinessObjects Universe developer who is looking for a step-by-step guide supported with real-life examples and illustrated diagrams, then this book is for you. If you are a seasoned BusinessObjects Universe developer who is looking for a fast way to map your old experience in Universe designer to the newer Information Design Tool, then this book is for you as well.

What you will learn

  • Leverage SAP BusinessObjects Universes to facilitate your Business Intelligence goals
  • Explore the Information Design Tool, which brings speed and efficiency to reporting
  • Build a robust Data Foundation layer
  • Make a businessoriented Universe
  • Test your Universe and discover issues
  • Use the security profile editor to secure your Universe
  • Develop Universes in a multiuser development environment

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Publication date : Sep 25, 2014
Length: 310 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782170914
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Publication date : Sep 25, 2014
Length: 310 pages
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Language : English
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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Introduction to BI and the Semantic Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Aligning BI Solutions with Business Demands Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Creating Our First Universe Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Creating the Data Foundation Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Creating the Business Layer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Testing Your Universe Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. The Data Foundation Layer – Advanced Topics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. The Business Layer – Advanced Topics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Data Security and Profiles Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. A Multiuser Development Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4
(8 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 37.5%
3 star 12.5%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
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aseelalzaid Dec 30, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book is easy to read and understand. It is well written. With realistic examples.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
d l Jan 02, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Highly recommended for starters or intermediate developers/designers of a Data Warehouse. The book has plenty of descriptions and examples and it even delves into the basic design traps (chasm, fan, etc.).SAP BusinessObjects suite contains a big bunch of programs for Business Intelligence and even ETL development. Someone needs a starting point for the successful end-user reporting, and Information Design Tool (IDT) is the point to start building the design infrastructure for the reports.So, this book is for the IDT (formerly known as Universe Designer). SAP BO has changed program terminology from a release to another, (although the main idea remains the same) so be sure you are working for the right release (you need to have the SAP BO BI 4.x client installed on your machine) before you buy the book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
AS Jan 02, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I found this book to be quite useful for new universe developers coming into SAP BusinessObjects especially if they are looking for documentation having to do with the information design tool. It uses as a base for creating universes the Northwind database which is very popular in the Microsoft community and can be easily obtained from the web. Also, it goes into detail with derived tables which is helpful in understanding how to manipulate existing tables if the proper data model is not available to you to work with. Additionally, it breaks out the key components of the universe with going into depth with the (1) connection, (2) data foundation, and (3) business layer. Finally, the book goes into detail in terms of data foundation advanced topics with solving for chasm and fan traps when encountering loopsOverall, Taha Mahmoud wrote a great book that kept me intrigued to keep reading even though I have been working with Universes for almost 10 years.
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Faisal Zeeshan Feb 21, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent book, I recommend this to everyone interested in bobj development.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
indrani Oct 17, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Book is good for beginners but the examples are based on NorthWind universe which is not supported by SQL server anymore.So we cannot get the Northwind database for practise.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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