Lessons learned from the implementation of an SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence cockpit

Lessons learned from the
implementation of an SAP
NetWeaver Business
Intelligence cockpit
Dr. Bjarne Berg
© 2008 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
In This Session ...
We will look at lessons learned from the implementation of an very large
SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence cockpit.
We will explore how applications and systems can be integrated, how
data collection can be automated, and how cockpits are developed in a
standardize format using SAP’s Strategic Enterprise Management’s
(SEM) Corporate Performance Monitoring, BI, and Portal combined.
Look at how to extract data from a variety of non-R/3 systems, and find
out how KPIs can be automatically created based on this data.
See how seasonal thresholds for evaluating different data such as
monthly, annual, and yearly benchmarks impact design decisions.
Learn how to incorporate this information into graphs and charts.
Learn how single sign-on (SSO) can be achieved and how change
management in large-scale cockpit implementations are done.
1
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
22
Background
Sedgwick county has 21 cities, including the
city of Wichita with 354,000 people. It also
has 27 townships and an area of 1,008 square
miles.
Sedgwick County is home to a number of
aviation-related industries and is known as
the "Air Capital of the World."
3
Background
The county has many organizations, such as Public heath,
Emergency Management (fire and ambulances), Sheriff, Forensic
center, Code enforcement, Registrar of deeds, County clerk,
Criminal Justice (district attorney, district courts, jails), Highways,
Healthcare, Parks, Solid waste, Housing, Election, HR, Treasurer,
Tax collection, County zoo and coliseums, airport and much more..
A major challenge was to measure these many organizations
effetely so that resources could be allocated in the best interest of
the citizens.
Key concept: Transparency in Government
4
What is SEM – CPM?
The Corporate Performance Monitor (SEM-CPM) is part of the Strategic
Enterprise Management BI tool suite. It consists of the Performance
Measurement (PM) area and the Strategy management area (SM).
The Performance Management area consists of four distinct areas:
1. Management Cockpit
2. Measure Builder
3. Benchmarking
4. Delivery of business content
The Strategy Management consists also of four areas
1. Balanced Scorecard
Strategy
2. Strategy modeling
3. Value Driver Tree
4. Risk Management
Measure
Value Driver Tree
Objective
Initiative
Source: J. Lombard, 2006
Risk
55
Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM
The presentation layer in SAP
CPM cockpits has
four layers:
•
•
•
•
Cockpit
High-level overview (consists of walls)
Wall A logical grouping of measures
Logical view The display level of the cockpit; consists of frames
Frame
Lowest level of individual measure display
These presentation layer objects are already Webenabled and integrated with the Portal. They also
provide built-in drill-downs and navigation, based
on how you constructed your measures.
66
SEM – CPM Walls
Walls can be grouped and are then the highest level of the SEM-CPM
Cockpit. In this case we have organized the cockpits in a high-level
community profile, a County theme, and walls for two department KPIs
The color codes
(red, yellow and
green) of the
indicators are set
based on some
thresholds that we
will explore later..
77
SEM-CPM Navigation and Measures
•
•
The Frames can be based on a set of composite measures that are
weighted. I.e. 6 KPIs can we weighted differently to create an overall
measure.
You can create the hierarchies of measures in the Measure Builder tool
(transaction UMK_MB_DISP_PARA)
By clicking on
each of the
frames, you
can access
more details in
graphical
cockpits
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
9
Our System Architecture and External data extraction
Legacy
Legacy
Reporting
Reporting
Legacy
systems
systems
systems
Users
Users
Users
Users
Users
1
SQL
Server
ASP page
2
3
SAP R/3
6
4
SAP BW
1. Flatfile updates and Manual
Updates through ASP pages.
Gradually being automated.
2. Periodic updates through DB
connect from SAP BI
3. Periodic updates through BI
extractors (ALE)
5
SAP
SEM-CPM
SAP
Portal
4. SAP BI Queries executed through
ODBO
5. Cockpits hosted in SAP Portal, which
also provides single sign-on (SSO)
6. Users via standard web browsers on
intra or internet.
10
External data extraction and updates
By creating a SQL
Server database, we
could standardize the
user input and
customize the web
pages in ASP so that is
was easy to do manual
inputs.
All input are flagged as
periodical (monthly, qtr
or annual) and are open
for edits only for a
specific period by a few
individuals in the
department that has
access.
Legacy
systems
Users
Users
Users
Users
Users
SQL
Server
ASP page
SAP R/3
SAP BW
SAP
SEM-CPM
SAP
Portal
The extraction from the SQL server
database to SAP BW/BI is done through a
single job that extract all KPI information
for the period through the use of SAP BI’s
DB connect feature.
Query Performance and Simplification in Infocubes
Legacy
Legacy
Reporting
Reporting
Legacy
systems
systems
systems
For Non-SAP data
Since single KPI values for a
given department and period
are stored in the SQL Server
and transmitted to BW. The
Queries takes on average 0.2
seconds !!!!
Users
Users
Users
Users
Users
SQL
Server
ASP page
SAP R/3
SAP BW
SAP
SEM-CPM
SAP
Portal
For SAP data
KPI_ID Period
1
2007-10
2
2007-11
3
2007-12
4
2007-07
5
2007-10
6
2008-01
…
…
…
…
Dept_ID
201
201
201
202
202
204
…
…
Value
0.65
0.64
0.68
386
394
16794
…
…
Period_type
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Qtr
Qtr
Annual
…
…
Locked
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
N
…
…
The details are kept in the
DSO and the infoCube has
only the single value for the
department for the period.
Query speed is therefore only
0.2 seconds on average…
12
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
13
A User Experience example
Our first step is to navigate to the departmental KPIs
14
Accessing Frames
Now we want to explore the Summary cockpit for Public Safety
15
Accessing summary Cockpits
These KPIs are weighted measures of six KPIs for the
Emergency management Services. The index is color coded
for acceptable performance levels.
We can click on any graph to enlarge it…
16
Drilling down to details
Here we can see that the index has turned red. That indicates
that further research is warranted. We added a new drilldown
button to make user navigation easier..
Note: This is sample data from the test system and has not
been validated (system went live a few months later)
17
Changing indicator graphs on the Cockpits
In the cockpit, the colors are set by the underlying KPI
performance. When there are no benchmarks, you can
change the image…
Some KPIs do not have
benchmarks, they are not color
coded red, yellow, or green.
In those cases, SAP codes them
with a “beautiful” X.
We did not like that and created our
own image and replaced the “X”
with a customized image instead.
18
Exploring the Emergency Management Profile
The profile does not contain benchmark data, but is
informative about the activities. Here we explore the number
of EMS 911 calls
From the EMS profile users can access
1. Primary KPIs for the organization
2. Program outcome KPIs
3. Tertiary KPIs to manage the operations.
KPIs are for all levels of the organization
19
Program Outcomes for EMS
Program outcomes include detailed benchmarks for monthly performance
and is coded red, yellow and green based on actual data. Here we see
ambulance performance for 1 month
- Building hierarchies of
measures gives everyone, at all
levels of the organization some
benefits of using the cockpit.
- Getting the management to use
the same tool is a major benefit
of SAP-BI
20
Tertiary Operational Indicators for EMS
The Tertiary indicators are most important for the director of Emergency
Management Services. It may be combination of survey data taken
periodically and system data loaded monthly.
Don’t be afraid of merging periodical data, such as customer
satisfaction and employee ratings taken every 6-months with
operational data from source systems
21
Tertiary Financial Indicators for EMS
By making financial data easily accessible with the operational data, the
department managers see a greater benefit of using the cockpits.
The data can be annual, monthly or weekly, as long as it
is used for trend lining and management decisions.
Be careful about adding daily information. When doing
so, you are leaving management cockpits and have
started building dashboards which have different usage
community and a variety of different tools
22
Dashboard, Scorecard & Cockpits
Purpose
Usage
Updates
Data
Measures
Context
Source
Dashboard
Displays performance
Scorecard
Displays progress
Cockpits
Displays status and events
Performance monitoring
Performance management
Performance management
Real-time feeds
Monthly snapshots
Daily snapshots
Events
Summaries
Summaries and events
Metrics
KPIs
Metrics & KPIs
Exceptions/alerts
Targets and thresholds
Trends
Linked to systems
Linked to plans
Linked to BI systems
Sources: Wayne Eckerson, 2005;
Bjarne Berg 2006
•
•
Many companies and people confuse the concepts of
dashboards, scorecards, and cockpits. They vary in terms
of purpose, usage, source, data, etc.
Most BI systems fall in to the cockpits category
These are typical parameters, and some may be
slightly different (e.g., some metrics in a cockpit may
only be updated monthly).
23
Back to the Walls
This case study has 821 KPIs for management & operations – we only
looked at one small area with 18 KPIs so far. Let us look at the senior
managements view of the cockpit and the community profile..
For senior management, the KPIs tends to have more broad
applications in terms of scope and level of aggregation. Policies
and budgets are based on overall performance and not the day-today operations which may fluctuate by seasons.
Dashboards – not cockpits, are used for operational management24
The Senior Managements Community profile
The Community profile is a great way to summarize the
organization in terms of descriptive statistics. It is a very
high-level overview of the status of the organization.
For commercial enterprises, this is an area that may contain a
summary of all employees, locations by demographic information
and organizational model, and/or summary production volumes or
sales volumes for last quarter, or year, and trend lines.
Keep the information very summarized!
25
The Community Profile of an Organization
The community profile should be organized in subcategories. That are informative, interesting and
have long-term trend line value.
This example has six sub grouping of measures and a total of 34 KPIs.
For example purposes, we will explore the long-term Economic trend lines
26
Community profile – Economic indicators
For long-term indicators, don’t be afraid to use external data and data that
has annual updates. The collection of this data is simple, low cost and
provides everyone with a shared knowledgebase.
In the community profile, the data should be long-term
trends and relevant to Strategic decision making
27
Keep the Cockpit useful for a Large community
By keeping the cockpit ‘wide’ and for a large user community, we were
able to provide a shared view of a highly diverse government organization.
Build a ‘wide’ cockpit with shared measures that is widely available to all users
28
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
29
Automating the Thresholds and the KPI data from Non-SAP systems
The data table in SQL
server provides a set of
columns that are captures
the summary of the
results for the period for a
department.
KPI_ID Period
1
2007-10
2
2007-11
3
2007-12
4
2007-07
5
2007-10
6
2008-01
…
…
…
…
Dept_ID
201
201
201
202
202
204
…
…
Value
0.65
0.64
0.68
386
394
16794
…
…
Period_type
Monthly
Monthly
Monthly
Qtr
Qtr
Annual
…
…
Locked
Y
Y
N
Y
Y
N
…
…
This allows the department to update the KPI
values for a short time period to correct any
errors (done in a simple ASP page)
Threshold values (Red,
Yellow and Green) are
captured for each period,
so that the history of
historical thresholds can
be preserved.
KPI_ID Period
1
2007-10
2
2007-11
3
2007-12
4
2007-07
5
2007-10
6
2008-01
…
…
…
…
RThreashold YThreashold GThreashold
0.8000
0.7500
0.7499
0.8000
0.7500
0.7499
0.8000
0.7500
0.7499
450.0000
425.0000
424.9999
450.0000
425.0000
424.9999
21000.0000
17500.0000
17499.9999
…
…
…
…
…
…
30
SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate
•
Try to avoid empty spaces, but don’t force unrelated measures
into the cockpit view — it confuses users
•
Don’t use as many types of graphs as possible,
and never mix more than 3 types of graphs. If you
use more, users have to interpret the pictures as well as the data.
•
Missing data
points add
irritation.
(it is hard to
hide bad data in a cockpit)
31
31
SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate (cont.)
There is nothing wrong with using the same type of graphs on a
cockpit (e.g., tachometers or line charts). Users adapt quickly
and can absorb the information faster.
32
Tracking changes over time – Annual Measures in context
For an organization to act strategically, you need annual performance
measures to see the big picture. You often have to merge measures also.
This is of little value to the operational managers, but of great value to the
CFO, CEO, CxO and upper level executives.
When the executives are looking at their organization, they
are frequently examining external data at an annual level
33
Use of Complex graphing of annual measures
Sometimes measures has little value unless they are seen in context of
other indicators. You can use complex graphing with different scales to
address this
Example: Number of
fatalities in road accidents
have limited value in
assessing vehicle safety
without seeing the context
of total number of
accidents.
We can click on the graph to examine
34
this closer
Use of Complex graphing of annual measures
We now have two measures over 5 years of different scales.
However, SAP-CPM allows you to merge these in a single graph
with two scales
35
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
36
Single Sign-On (SSO)
We wanted the user to have a shared experience, an not having to log-on
to the Portal, R/3, BI and other systems.
There are two core ways that SSO can be done in SAP portal 5.0 and 6.0
1. SAP Logon Ticket
2. User Mapping (user name and password)
This is a workaround for systems that are unable to verify and receive SAP
Logon tickets.􀂌 For each system object in SAP Portal the logon method is set
to "UIDPW". Each user is then mapped with password and user ID in the SAP
system.
This is easy to setup, but hard to maintain without a central security
organization that works across SAP and non-SAP applications.
37
Single Sign-On (SSO)
SAP Logon Tickets are the best option. You need to issue tickets from
central location (i.e. SAP Portal) that all users log-on to.
A. Go to Visual Administrator and use the using Key Store Administration to get the
verfiy.der
B. Change the profile parameter
login/accept_sso2_ticket = 1.
set login/create_sso2_ticket = 0
Use DEFAULT.PFL on back-end system
C. Use transaction code - STRUST to import SAP portal’s public key certificate
(verify.der) to the ticket-accepting system’s certificate list. 􀂌
D. Add the Portal to receiving system’s Access Control List (ACL) by maintaining the
TWPSSO2ACL table
More at: Patrick Dixon: http://www.sapinsideronline.com/downloads/Las_Vegas_2007/presentations/Track9_session9.pdf
38
Single Sign-On (SSO) tickets - 3 options for non-R/3 systems
1. SAPSSOEXT - Dynamic Link Library for SSO to Java and C applications
From http://service.sap.com/patches download the SAPSSOEXT library for
SAP logon ticket
2. Web Server Filter for SSO to Web apps that support authentication with
an HTTP header variable
See SAP Note 442401: Web server filter for SSO to third-party systems
3. Web Server Filter with Delegation for Win-Server for SSO to a Microsoft
Web-based application
SAPSSOEXT Windows Server on IA32 32bit → SSO2 To Kerberos Mapping Filter
More at: Patrick Dixon: http://www.sapinsideronline.com/downloads/Las_Vegas_2007/presentations/Track9_session9.pdf
39
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
40
Change Management Process
Since A CPM system is going to track performance over time, it is
important that the benchmarks and thresholds to not fluctuate
frequently.
At the same time the organizations and people being measured has
an inherent interest in moving the thresholds if they turn yellow or
red.
Therefore you will need a formal change management process for
how to get approvals for changes to the cockpits
Senior management should be the decider, not the IT department…
41
Change Management Process
IT responsible
Change
Request form
Integration tested
Business responsible
QA environment
No
Approved?
Sr. mgmt. responsible
Submission
No
Approved?
Yes
Approved?
Moved to
production
No
No
Complete?
Yes
Yes
System tested
Scheduled
Devl. environment
Yes
Review
recommended?
No
Change
Request form
Unit Tested
Developed
Devl. environment
Yes
No
Approved?
Yes
The Change Management Form - page 1
To make this process work, you need a formal instrument.
The instrument can be on-line (i.e. a web page), electronically (word
document), or a paper based system.
The form should contain at least these fields:
Change Request Form
Requestor Name:
Department
Phone number / email
The front-page
that the requestor
fills out
Describe the change requested, be
detailed
Why is it needed
How important is it that the
change occur? (how would you
manage if this is not done)
TBD
When is the change needed
When
possible
Future
release
Date
Break-fix
(right now)
43
The Change Management Form - page 2
This page is used by the system administrator or the project team.
The purpose is to have controlled changes that are scheduled and
tested appropriately
For internal use only
Received date:
Reviewed by:
Comments/recommendation
The back page
that the system
admin and
approver fills out
Pending
Not-Approved
Future
release
Approved
Break-fix
(right now)
Pending
Prototyped
In QA
Tested
In Production
Approval status:
Approved by:
Approved date:
Assigned to:
Due date:
Development status:
44
What We’ll Cover …
•
Background
•
Data Collection from non-SAP Sources
•
A Very Large Cockpit real example
•
Seasonal thresholds and graphing options
•
Single Sign-On (SSO) and role based security
•
Change Management
•
Wrap-up
45
When to Consider CPM — Management Cockpits
The management cockpits and Web rendering closely integrate with
the pre-delivered measures in SAP Measure Catalog. You also can add
new measures through SAP Measure Builder.
By linking the higher-level measures using Measure Trees, you can
create true performance measures that are consistent throughout your
cockpit and which also take care of most of the Web navigation and
drill downs in the cockpit. Navigation is built in to the management
cockpit and you do not have to build customized links.
Consider SAP CPM when you have limited in-house Web skills, or
when measure consistency and rollups are very important.
Drawback: Users often complain that there are too many steps
that they have to follow when drilling up and down within the
measures (rigid navigation that is hard to customize).
46
What SAP Tool Should I Use? – Other Options
BW 3.x
Web AD
SAP NetWeaver
2004s
Web AD
SAP
NetWeaver
Visual
Composer
SAP
SEMCPM
Thirdparty
cockpits
Java SDK
tools
Portal
iViews
Multidimensional Analysis (full)
J
J
-
-
-
-
J
Portal integration
J
J
J
J
J
-
J
Information Broadcaster
J
J
-
-
-
-
-
Formatted reporting
-
J
-
-
-
-
-
Graphical options (delivered)
-
J
J
J
J
-
J
Automatic code generation
-
J
J
-
-
-
-
J
J
J
J
J
J
J
Direct support for non-BW data
-
-
J
-
J
-
J
Simplicity to use and learn
-
-
J
J
-
-
J
SAP integration
There are many options and sometimes the choice is based on
what you are familiar with and whether you enjoy using new tools
47
Resources
Presentations, articles and accellerators
www.comerit.net
•
SAP Insider Online Portal security by Patrick Dixon
http://www.sapinsideronline.com/downloads/Las_Vegas_200
7/presentations/Track9_session9.pdf
•
Building Cockpits and Dashboards: Shortcuts, Design Best Practices,
and Guidelines to Ensure You Pick the Right SAP Tool for the Job Reporting and Analytics 2007 WIS publishing
 http://cscstudentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/articles/R&A_2007_Berg_building_co
ckpits_dashboards_v3.ppt
48
7 Key Points to Take Home
•
Don’t underestimate the time it takes to get management
buy-in to measures, thresholds and performance graphs
•
Get very senior management sponsorship. If you cannot
get it, go with OLAP instead.
•
Instill the tool into the organization’s decision making
process. I.e. Create a periodic (monthly) meeting with
KPI reviews.
•
Formalize a process when and how KPIs can be
changed. Approvals should be done by Sr. executives
and not very often (seek measure stability).
49
7 Key Points to Take Home
•
Seek middle management input and allow them to
comment on the system before the designed is locked
and before go-live.
•
Create organizational profiles, top KPIs and performance
measures for lover organizational levels.
•
Make sure that your cockpits have a broad user
community and are consistent in color, graphs and data.
50
Your Turn!
How to contact me:
Dr. Bjarne Berg
[email protected]
51