SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office is the successor to BEx Analyzer, allowing your users to analyze and share the information stored in your SAP NetWeaver BW system. For example, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office can provide your financial controller with the functionality to analyze the financial situation based on your corporate cost center and profit center structure inside the Microsoft Excel environment. The controller can use the Microsoft PowerPoint plug-in to create a presentation to share his findings with board members.

I will start with the installation and configuration of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office and then continue with a quick look at some basic functionality.

Installation of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office

Before you can install the software, you first need to download it from SAP Service Marketplace. You can find SAP BusinessObjects Analysis in the Software Distribution area. After you log on to SAP Service Marketplace and navigate to the Software Distribution corner, follow menu path Installations and Upgrades > Entry by Application Group > SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio > SBOP Analysis MS Office > SBOP Adv. Analysis Office 1.0 > Installation. You can then add the necessary files to the download basket and use the download manager to receive the files.

In addition to the installation files, you should also download the latest Service Packs for SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office, which you can find in the Software Distribution Corner as well. For all Support Packs, follow menu path Support Packages and Patches > Entry by Application Group > SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio > SBOP Analysis MS Office > SBOP Adv. Analysis Office 1.0 > SBOP Adv. Analysis Office 1.0 > Win32.

Before you start the actual installation of the product, make sure you verify your environment against the technical prerequisites:

Technical prerequisites for the client computer:

• Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Office 2007 (Microsoft PowerPoint is only supported with Microsoft Office 2007)
• SAP GUI 7.x with SAP BW 3.5 and SAP NetWeaver BW 7.x Add-Ons
• Windows XP or later

Technical prerequisites for SAP NetWeaver BW:

• SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 or later. Recommended is SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 Enhancement Package 01 Service Pack 05 to benefit from other performance enhancements for the SAP BusinessObjects suite
• Technically, BEx queries from SAP BW 3.5 are supported when using an SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0 environment

When finished with the software download, you can start the installation on your client by running the SAPAAOsetup.exe form the downloaded installation package (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Installation routine

Click the Next button and select the Advanced Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office component (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Installation routine — components

Click the Next button and configure the installation path in the next screen (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Installation Routine — installation directory

After you configure the installation directory, click the Next button to start the actual installation process. When the installation finishes (it should just be a short period), you should see SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Excel and SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft PowerPoint listed under the menu Start > Programs > SAP BusinessObjects.

Establish a Connection

Before using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis either with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft PowerPoint, you need to first establish a data connection to your BEx queries. Overall, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office allows you to connect in two different ways: You can use the system definitions of your locally installed SAP GUI or you can integrate SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office with your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise environment and in that way share the workbooks, presentations, and connections.

In the next couple of steps, I show you how to create a shared connection as part of your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise environment so that you only have to establish this connection once for all your users.

Step 1. Log on to the Central Management Console (CMC) of your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

Step 2. Select the Voyager Connections area (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Voyager Connections

Step 3. Click the connection icon  to start the process to create a new connection.

Step 4. In the next screen (Figure 5), enter the details from Table 1 for your SAP NetWeaver BW system.

Figure 5

Connection details

Table 1

Connection details options

Step 5. After providing the details, click the Connect button. The system asks you to log on to SAP NetWeaver BW. You are then provided with a list of InfoProvider and BEx queries (Figure 6). Select the BEx query from your InfoProvider and save your connection.  

Figure 6

List of InfoProvider and queries

You have now created a connection as part of your SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise system. You can start using this connection with SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office, which I’ll show you how to do in the next steps.

Step 1. Follow menu path Start > Programs > SAP BusinessObjects > Advanced Analysis for Excel.

Step 2. In Excel, navigate to the Advanced Analysis tab and select the menu option Insert > Select Data Source (Figure 7). This is the first time using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office, so you are presented with an empty logon screen and a URL with placeholders. The system asks you to log on to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise so that you can use the shared connection.

Figure 7

Logon dialog

Step 3. Replace the placeholders in the Web Service URL field with the values for your SAP BusinessObjects system. Then provide the necessary credentials to log on to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. The Options button allows you to select the correct authentication method, which depends on your environment. You can select Windows Active Directory, LDAP, Enterprise, or SAP.

Step 4. After a successful authentication, the shared connection appears and you can start using SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office.

In this section you established a shared connection and learned how to use it as part of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office. In the next section I show you some of the basic application functionality.

Basic Functionality

For the next couple of steps, assume that you are using the BEx query in Figure 8 with the following elements:

• Free characteristics
  • Country
  • Region
  • Distribution Channel
  • Sales Organization
  • Sold-To Party
  • Product Category
  • Calendar Year/Month
  • Calendar Year
• Rows
  • Product Group
  • Product
• Columns
  • Net Value
  • Open Orders Quantity
  • Open Orders Value
  • Product Costs
  • Transport Costs

Figure 8

BEx query

To use this BEx query in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Excel, follow menu path Start > Programs > SAP BusinessObjects > Advanced Analysis for Excel. Inside Excel, navigate to the Advanced Analysis tab and select the menu option Insert > Select Data Source. Then select the BEx query either directly from a locally defined connection or via a shared connection from SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Select a BEx query in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Excel

Based on the query definition in BEx Query Designer, you are presented with a crosstab that shows the defined rows and columns. All free characteristics are shown on the right side as part of the navigational panel (Figure 10).

Figure 10

Navigation panel

The navigation panel provides you with several options to navigate the data. You can access all the characteristics and key figures and you can rearrange them via drag-and-drop. In addition, you can also change the defined filters or create a new filter by using the Background Filter area in the navigation panel.

Next to the Display button in Figure 9, you can see the new functionality called Pause Refresh. With this functionality, click the Pause Refresh button, change your crosstab (e.g., add a characteristic, remove a key figure, or change a filter setting), and then click the Pause Refresh button again to update your crosstab. When Pause Refresh is activated, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Excel does not update the crosstab or interact with the SAP NetWeaver BW server.

This functionality is useful when, as part of your crosstab, you want to perform several steps after each other. For example, you could remove or add several characteristics and key figures from your crosstab without having to wait for the feedback from SAP NetWeaver BW. When finished with the changes, you can refresh the crosstab in a single step. Overall, this enables you to perform the task quicker because you do not have to wait for the server interaction after each step.

Now that you have your first crosstab in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Excel, let’s take a look at the options available to you to change the view of the information. The easiest way to change the view is to use the navigation panel. For example, Figure 11 shows how you drag the characteristic Calendar Year/Month to the rows and place it directly on top of the Product characteristic. This replaces the Product characteristic with the Calendar Year/Month characteristic in your crosstab.

Figure 11

Navigation panel — replace a characteristic

Figure 12 shows that you can also remove characteristics from your crosstab by drag-and-drop. In this example, I moved the Product Group characteristic from the Rows area to the empty area in the navigation panel. An alternative is to right-click the characteristic and open the context menu. Here you can add the characteristic to the rows, columns, or filter section.

Figure 12

Navigation panel — remove a characteristic

Figure 13 shows that the context menu is not only available for the characteristic, but also for the actual members of the characteristic. For example, this allows you to select the value Germany for the Country characteristic and add the value directly to the filter section.

Figure 13

Select Germany as a filter

Figure 14 shows you the context menu for a given characteristic. You can see the options to filter the values for a selected characteristic or to swap a selected characteristic with another characteristic.

Figure 14

Filter options

Select the Product Group characteristic as part of the crosstab and navigate to the menu item Member Display in the Advanced Analysis tab (Figure 15). The Member Display menu allows you to select which parts (key or text or both) and which text (short, medium, or long) should be displayed for the characteristic.

Figure 15

Member Display options

Next, select a key figure as part of your crosstab and navigate to the Measure Display menu (Figure 16). The Measure Display menu allows you to define the number format (Figure 17), define the general numeric format, and apply a currency translation.

Figure 16

Measure Display options

Figure 17

Number Format options

When you select a characteristic or a key figure as part of the crosstab, you can also use the Filter menu (Figure 18). The actual options you see depend whether you selected a key figure or a characteristic.

Figure 18

Filter menu options

Select a characteristic (I chose Sold-To Party) and navigate to the Filter menu. Choose the Filter by Member option and you can create a selection for the characteristic using specific selected members or ranges of members (Figure 19).

Figure 19

Filter by Sold-To Party

If you select a key figure or a characteristic in the crosstab, you can also use the Filter by Measure functionality (Figure 20). This option allows you to create filter definitions based on the actual values of a specific key figure. This provides you the identical (and even more) functionality of what you know today as a condition in the BEx Query Designer. In particular, you can define which areas of your crosstab the filter affects, such as the innermost rows, the innermost columns, or all dimensions.

Figure 20

Filter by Measure

This description of the installation routine and the introduction of several basic workflows in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Microsoft Excel should help you as you evaluate this new application. With the processes I described, you can replace existing workbooks and provide your end users with a more user-friendly application to help increase their satisfaction and productivity.

Ingo Hilgefort

Ingo Hilgefort started his career in 1999 with Seagate Software/Crystal Decisions as a trainer and consultant. He moved to Walldorf for Crystal Decisions at the end of 2000, and worked with the SAP NetWeaver BW development team integrating Crystal Reports with SAP NetWeaver BW. He then relocated to Vancouver in 2004, and worked as a product manager/program manager (in engineering) on the integration of BusinessObjects products with SAP products. Ingo's focus is now on the integration of the SAP BusinessObjects BI suite with  SAP landscapes, such as SAP BW and SAP BW on SAP HANA, focusing on end-to-end integration scenarios. In addition to his experience as a product manager and in his engineering roles, Ingo has been involved in architecting and delivering deployments of SAP BusinessObjects software in combination with SAP software for a number of global customers, and has been recognized by the SAP Community as an SAP Mentor for SAP BusinessObjects- and SAP integration-related topics. Currently, Ingo is the Vice President of Product Management and Product Strategy at Visual BI Solutions, working on extensions to SAP’s product offering such as SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio and SAP Lumira. You may follow him on Twitter at @ihilgefort.

You may contact the author at Ingo@visualbi.com.

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