© 2006 wellesley information services. all rights reserved. creating an upgrade plan and strategy...
TRANSCRIPT
© 2006 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.
Creating an upgrade plan and strategy for SAP
NetWeaver 2004s
Dr. Bjarne BergMyITgroup Ltd.
2
What We’ll Cover …
• Why upgrade End of supportNew support strategy & NetWeaverNew features and capabilities
• Creating an upgrade strategy for the futureContent Vs. Technical upgradesUpgrades with NetWeaver
• Planning and Executing the upgradeThe upgrade planThe business case Staffing, duration and scope
• Questions and Answers
• Bonus material: ideas for the business case
3
Why Upgrade – end of support…
Many upgrades are driven by end of support for a certain release.
SAP has now created a 5-1-2 maintenance system that consists of:
- mainstream maintenance
- extended maintenance
- customer-specific maintenance
BW Version
Release date
End of mainstream maintenance
2.0B 8/14/00 12/31/20052.1C 12/18/00 12/31/20053.0A 11/15/01 12/31/20053.0B 5/13/02 12/31/20063.1C 11/11/02 12/31/20063.2 3/31/03 12/31/20063.3 8/30/03 12/31/20063.5 3/31/04 3/31/2010
#1 reason for upgrade:
“Because I had to!”
4
Going forward, SAP will provide five years of mainstream (standard) maintenance, with the option to extend their maintenance coverage for a period of up to three years for small premiums over the standard maintenance rate.
1. Five years of mainstream maintenance at the standard maintenance fee.
2. One year of extended maintenance at an additional two percent maintenance fee.
3. Two more years of extended maintenance at an additional four percent maintenance fee per year. After these eight years, customer-specific maintenance begins, providing a program of support and services uniquely tailored to individual customer requirements.
The plan covers SAP solutions based on the SAP NetWeaver platform including mySAP SCM, SRM, PLM, CRM, and industry add-ons.
The 5-1-2 maintenance strategy
5
The Bigger Picture – NetWeaver ??
NetWeaver is a set of solution components that provides a comprehensive architecture.
All components of NetWeaver can use the same operating system release, and the same database release.
All components can be run within a single physical server if it is a small configuration, thereby reducing the number of systems and databases to be managed.
Source: SAP AG
CO
MP
OS
ITE
AP
PL
ICA
TIO
N F
RA
ME
WO
RK
PEOPLE INTEGRATION
Multichannel access
Portal Collaboration
INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Bus. Intelligence
Master Data Management
Knowledge Mgmt
PROCESS INTEGRATION
Integration Broker
Bus. ProcessMgmt
APPLICATION PLATFORM
J2EE
DB and OS Abstraction
ABAP
LIF
E C
YC
LE
MA
NA
GE
ME
NT
...
CO
MP
OS
ITE
AP
PL
ICA
TIO
N F
RA
ME
WO
RK
PEOPLE INTEGRATION
Multichannel access
Portal Collaboration
INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Bus. Intelligence
Master Data Management
Knowledge Mgmt
PROCESS INTEGRATION
Integration Broker
Bus. ProcessMgmt
APPLICATION PLATFORM
J2EE
DB and OS Abstraction
ABAP
LIF
E C
YC
LE
MA
NA
GE
ME
NT
CO
MP
OS
ITE
AP
PL
ICA
TIO
N F
RA
ME
WO
RK
PEOPLE INTEGRATION
Multichannel access
Portal Collaboration
INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Bus. Intelligence
Master Data Management
Knowledge Mgmt
PROCESS INTEGRATION
Integration Broker
Bus. ProcessMgmt
APPLICATION PLATFORM
J2EE
DB and OS Abstraction
ABAP
LIF
E C
YC
LE
MA
NA
GE
ME
NT
...
6
Why Upgrade to NW 2004s?
One of the major reasons for upgrading your BW environment is the availability of new content and features in the next release. Let us take a look at some of the major new features of version 2004s:
Web Application Designer BI Accellerator BEx Broadcaster BEx Query Designer BEx Report Designer ReModeling Toolbox Security Changes New ETL Interface BPS Integrated Planning PDF print Real-time data warehousing BEx Web Analyzer
We will now take a quick look at these features
7
Web Application Designer gets better
The Web Application Designer is improved with new chart types (Heat Map, GANTT & Milestone Trend Analysis), as well as new layout elements such as ‘tab strips’.
WAD also has new step-by-step wizards for maps, command editing to create Web API Commands and charts, as well as a simplified wizard for layout elements such as radio buttons, action buttons etc.
This reduce the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command wizards, Auto complete and support for HTML tags.
WAD is a key tool for all SAP BI shops and in NW2004s the
tool is simplified and more powerful.
New: integration with NW 2004s BEx Report
Designer.
8
Why upgrade? - BI Accellerator for 2004s
The SAP BI accelerator makes query response time 50-10,000 faster.
You use process chains to maintain the HPA engine after each data load
Both HP and IBM have standard solutions ranging from $32K to $200K+ that can be
installed and tested in as little as 2-4 weeks
SAP NW 2004s BI
HPA Engine/Adaptive Computing
DataAcquisition
InfoCubes
AnalyticEngine
SAP
BW
Any
tool
1. In-memory processing
2. Dictionary-based, smart compression using integers
3. High parallel data access / horizontal partitioning
4. Column-based data storage & access/vertical table decomposition
9
New Object Types
You can broadcast BEx query views and formatted reports (“reports”) in addition to Web applications, queries and workbooks. Reports are a new BEx object type developed within the new BEx Report Designer tool.
New Output Formats
New output formats are based on the distribution type you select. But, you now can broadcast web documents as PDF files.
New Broadcaster features of BI 2004s
10
New Distribution Types
You can broadcast to any printer using Adobe’s PDF, Printer Common Language (psl) or Post Script (ps). (hint: Set up the printers under tools CCMS print).
You to broadcast user-specific information based on attributes in the master data attributes using a distribution list in BI (bursting of emails). The information can be controlled by the system so that users only see data related to them.
New Broadcaster features of BI 2004s
11
New Broadcaster Features of BI 2004s (cont.)
Exception broadcasting is now available in the Broadcaster. Create the exceptions in the query designer and select distribution type in the broadcaster. You can also use additional distributions types (subordinate) and create rules for when the exception report is “monitored”/executed. Exceptions can be based on single events or levels of any performance measure.
You can use multiple distribution types to create a setting that broadcasts over many channels (e.g., the printer and the portal).
NOTE: To manage all alerts and workflow tasks from a single location, an alert is integrated with the portal’s universal worklist in the “central alert framework” of NW application server.
12
To increase the performance of key queries, you can fill the OLAP Cache, or the MDX Cache. This is useful if you have large numbers of users accessing a query, or you have a query that accesses a high volume of data.
The Fill Precalculation Store distribution type allows you to precalculate Web templates, and the Precalculate Value Set option allows you to fill precalculated value set variables with values for characteristic values. The precalculated value sets are then available as variable values in BEx queries.
SAP Dec. 2005: Old Reporting Agent scenarios still run in NetWeaver 2004s. However, the Reporting Agent will not be developed any further and is removed from the 2004s Workbench. You can now
only reach the Reporting Agent using transaction code REPORTING_AGENT
BREAKING NEWS: Reporting agent “goes away”. In the old Reporting Agent you could precalculate the data of a template and access it through the URL . It could not broadcast queries, workbooks or web templates by email or to KM folders.
New Broadcaster Features of BI 2004s (cont.)
13
BEx Query Designer gets a needed ‘facelift’
The 3.5x BEx Query Designer
Note:
The NW2004s BEx Query Designer
This new property pane makes it easier to format and control displays
than in the past.
14
Why upgrade? - BEx Report Designer is here!!
This new tool was created to simplify the formatting of reports and fix many of the printing issues in previous versions of BW.
We now get color control, header-footer control and many new features such as location control of cells and integration of pictures, charts and fixed text.
For many, this tool may reduce the need for 3rd party tools to address structured reports.
Source: SAP AG, 2006
Don't Forget
15
Why upgrade? – New Remodeling Tool Box
In older BW versions, if you forgot to include a field in your infocube, the rework was quite substantial and often involved reloading the infocube as well.
NW 2004s goes a long way to address the complaints that BW is a hard to maintain environment with ‘forever’ fixed models.
Source: SAP AG, Richard Brown, Aug. 2006
In NW2004s you get a new tool to add characteristics and key figures to your model.
16
Why upgrade? - Better security features
There are many new security features in NW 2004s, and a conversion is needed (all or nothing).
Role menus are displayed in the portal and passwords becomes case sensitive.
Authorizations are fundamental building
blocks of the new reporting concept and security contains both
the data value and hierarchy restrictions.
The new security can be built using new “RSECADMIN”
transaction
ASUG Security Upgrade by Eric Dwyer, Nike: http://www.asug.com/client_files/Calendar/Upload/EA1_upgrade_bw_security_2.ppt
Source: SAP AG
Resource
17
Why upgrade? - More Authorization Objects
You get the ability to use much lower security
granularity for developers and users!!
Source: SAP AG July 2006
Authorization objects for the Data Warehousing Workbench:S_RS_DS: For the DataSource or its sub objects (NW2004s)S_RS_ISNEW: For new InfoSources or their sub objects (NW 2004s)S_RS_DTP: For the data transfer process and its sub objectsS_RS_TR: For transformation rules and their sub objectsS_RS_CTT: For currency translation typesS_RS_UOM: For quantity conversion typesS_RS_THJT: For key date derivation typesS_RS_PLENQ: Authorizations for maintaining or displaying the lock settingsS_RS_RST: Authorization object for the RS trace toolS_RS_PC: For process chainsS_RS_OHDEST: Open Hub Destination
Authorization objects for the Business Explorer:S_RS_DAS: For Data Access ServicesS_RS_BTMP: For BEx Web templatesS_RS_BEXTX: Authorizations for the maintenance of BEx texts
Authorization objects for the Admin of analysis authorizationsS_RSEC: Authorization for assignment and administration of analysis authorizationsS_RS_AUTH: Authorization object to include analysis authorizations in roles
Changed Authorization Objects:S_RS_ADMWB (Data Warehousing Workbench: Objects):
New sub objects:CONT_ACT – Installing Business Content; USE_DND - Drag & Drop to InfoAreas and application components; CNG_RUN - Attribute change run
18
Upgrading to NW2004s Security
More Great Details about the Security Upgrade at :
http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/ swp/Berg/Articles/
2004S_Authorizations.pdf(Source: Amelia Lo, SAP)
SAP has created an ABAP migration tool to help you upgrade security in NW 2004s. To access it, goto transaction code SA38, and execute migration program RSEC_MIGRATION.
About 80% of you security setup is expected to make it using this tool. i.e. customer exit variables for the object 0TCTAUTHH does not migrate, and you will have to manually reassign all hierarchy nodes.
While you upgrade, the old security is left intact and you can switch back if absolutely needed (IMG setting). Plan to test…test..and test…
19
Why Upgrade? - Better interface for ETL Design
SAP NetWeaver 2004s has a new and better GUI and formula editors to write complex transfer rules, update rules and data mapping.
On a typical DW project, 40-60% of project effort will be spent on data integration, transformation and loads (used to be higher when tools were more immature).
20
Why upgrade? - BPS Integrated Planning
You can now create planning templates using the web based planning wizard to create models using patterns in the data (tool: “Road map Pattern”). Queries based on aggregation levels can now also write back to the InfoProvider
1 2 3 4 5 6
InfoProvider Aggregation Level Planning SequencePlanning FunctionFilter Pattern
Source: SAP AG, 2006
21
Why upgrade? – New PDF Print
You can also use the PDF to create reports based on BEx web applications, queries and reports using the Adobe DS (comes with NW2004s).
The only Gotchas.. Your users now need to install Acrobat Reader (free at http://www.adobe.com/ products/acrobat/readstep2.html).
The PDF document can also be Broadcasted through BEx Broadcaster
The PDF options allows companies to protect reports from changes by
employees by taking a ‘snapshot’ of the data regardless of subsequent updates
to the data warehouse.
Risks: no link back to SAP BW is needed and security is not validated.
22
Why upgrade? - Real-time Data warehousing gets better
NW 2004s has more features for updates that does not follow the typical asynchronomous (batch) updates. This include:
1. We can use XML to fill the PSA directly 2. Daemon-based update from delta queue (BW API)3. Daemon-based update of the ODS and minimal logging
Note: XML documents creates many tags that will slow down
large dataloads due to the size of each XML record (relatively large)
However, it works great for smaller streams of data.
23
Why upgrade? - BEx web Analyzer integrates Excel
The Excel integration in the BEx analyzer is far better.
Unlike the old days of dynamic HTML, you can now use the BEx analyzer more like a real application without refreshing the whole page every time you click on something (this is due to the Java component in NW2004s)Source: SAP AG, 2006
News: BEx browser goes away in NW2004s
24
Why upgrade? - Drag-and Drop in BeX web Analyzer
You can drag a characteristics into a filter area and automatically filter on that value, and you can also drag it into a column header or a a row.
Building conditions and activating them was often confusing in earlier versions and exception based reporting was sometimes not easy to create for beginning users. NW2004s has now simplified this with more wizards that helps users to build this step-by-step.
BEx web analyzer is a better user tool than in the past. You now get the best world of Java & the web instead of the more ‘clunky’ user
experience related to Dynamic HTML
25
What We’ll Cover …
• Why upgrade End of supportNew support strategy & NetWeaverNew features and capabilities
• Creating an upgrade strategy for the futureContent Vs. Technical upgradesUpgrades with NetWeaver
• Planning and Executing the upgradeThe upgrade planThe business caseStaffing, duration and scope
• Questions and Answers• Bonus material: ideas for the business case
26
BW Content Upgrades
Apply content when you need it, to the technical release you have!!
The new upgrade strategy from SAP is to provide BW technical releases as part of NetWeaver and BI content add-ons,
You do not need to perform a technical upgrade to update the business content.
We now have SAP BI 7.0 and the content releases 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 are now available. Planned upgrades should also include the content releases up to version 7.0.3
Details around each content release is available at http://help.sap.comThe current content (7.0.3) is available at: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/ helpdata/en/ 44/16e6f7a6f30d19e10000000a114a6b/RN_703_en_final.pdf
27
An Upgrade Strategy
Think bigger than BW..
Apply content as soon as feasible. Especially if you have on-going development work. This way you can avoid many “work-arounds”.
You should seriously consider having all NetWeaver components on the same upgrade strategy instead of selecting each component for upgrade. This will help in the shared extractors and also substantially simplify the upgrade planning and landscape.
Look at SAP’s release strategy for each
component you are using and plan ahead,
instead of last-minute “must-do” projects.
Tip
28
Some hints on the upgrade – client, engines and usage types
We are in a transition period, when some items of NW2004s are separate engines, some are clients, and other are usage types.
Key question: is you organization committed to java and the new NW2004s direction?-- if so, go java ‘all the way’..
Source: SAP Installable software units May 2006
Note: standard system copy and SAP migration tools have no standard support for splitting or merging
systems with different usage types
29
Some upgrade choices – the architecture
Note: Depending on your current installation of SAP BW, you have different upgrade options
Upgrade Or
Source: SAP AG May 2006
Upgrade Or
Upgrade Or
1
2
3
30
What We’ll Cover …
• Why upgrade End of supportNew support strategy & NetWeaverNew features and capabilities
• Creating an upgrade strategy for the futureContent Vs. Technical upgradesUpgrades with NetWeaver
• Planning and Executing the upgradeThe upgrade planThe business caseStaffing, duration and scope
• Questions and Answers• Bonus material: ideas for the business case
31
Upgrade Pre-planning
It is important to communicate the goals and timings to the technical team to help them prioritize their research and activity or hardware setup
Communicate goal of having existing content continue to work to functional test team, so they do not get hung up in testing new features before the upgrade is in production.
You need to have the SAP solution Manager to generate the key during the upgrade to NW2004 SR1, and you will need to be on Solution Manager release 3.2 SP8 or higher to make it work (note: 805390).
32
BW Version
Release date
End of mainstream maintenance
Can be upgraded to
2.0B 8/14/00 12/31/2005 2.1C, 3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.512.1C 12/18/00 12/31/2005 3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.513.0A 11/15/01 12/31/2005 3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.513.0B 5/13/02 12/31/2006 3.1C, 3.50/3.513.1C 11/11/02 12/31/2006 3.2 and 3.3 must be applied before 3.53.2 3/31/03 12/31/2006 3.3 must be applied before 3.53.3 8/30/03 12/31/2006 3.53.5 3/31/04 3/31/2010
NetWeaver 2004s Upgrade paths
Still an option…
Current Release NW 2004s Release/supportBW 3.5 (min. SP04) and ABAP, any content release (3.5.x)
BW 3.1c (min. SP14) content 3.2 or 3.3BW 3.0B (min SP20)
BW 2.1C (min. SP18)
BW 2.0B (min. SP26 & Basis SP29)
OtherSAP BI 3.5 Java components (i.e. UDI) on WAS-Java System with usage type SAP AS Java
NetWeaver 2004s usage type ABAP, (usage BI java and EP can be add-ins or
separate systems.
Must be upgraded to SAP BW 3.5 first and then BI7.0 (upgrade with NetWeaver 2004s
Support release 1)
33
Some hints – Upgrade programs SAPup and SAPjup
You will need to install the NetWeaver Application Server Java and the specific user type, before you can use all the features of NW2004s (i.e. Business planning and analysis services, Enterprise data warehousing, Reporting and analysis scenarios etc). You can install this as a separate system or as an add-in to the upgraded ABAP server.
SAP provides a software program called SAPup to help you upgrade the WAS (ABAP) and SAP BW. It is called a “system switch upgrade”.
Note: if you already have java installed, you can also use the upgrade program called SAPjup, to upgrade the WAS-java.
If the WAS-Java was installed on the same system as the WAS-ABAP (as an add-in) you need to run both the SAPup and SAPjup
programs in parallel (see the Master upgrade guide for more details).
34
Some hints on the upgrade - Unicode conversion
Unicode has been available since BW version 3.5.1. and is now highly recommended as part of the upgrade (hint web application designer is now also unicode compliant).
Some things to remember and plan for:
Area Recommended increased capacityMemory 20%Processing power 20-25%Disk space 20-30%
يآلإلقفغ
غяь
фдФ
њщ
Ệẁ תשרחפא
ǻǼǽǿ
Good
Thing
35
Planning Your Upgrade – a Hardware Example
Production
12 CPU
96GB RAM
Sandbox
4 CPUs
32GB RAM
Test
4 CPUs
32GB RAM
Development
4 CPUs
32GB RAM
This west coast company reallocated their Sun-6900 box (on Oracle) and have 3 Appservers on the production box..
More memory allows them to take better advantage of the parallel load of the BW system as well as to cache many of the frequently run queries (BEx Broadcaster)
The hardware also allows them to have a system where performance between the boxes are comparable.
Example
Key numbers: 3.1 Terabytes of data; 2810 named users and about 620 active users
36
Resources
• A Dedicated team with a technical team lead (100%), a Basis resource (100%) and a technical reviewer (100% is required).
• In addition, a dedicated “go-to” resource for technical issues is recommended. This should be an individual that have solid knowledge about the upgrade and have done his before. SAP resources should be considered, due to their contact network within the SAP organization.
• Regression testing is required on behalf or the user community. This should be coordinated with the Power Users or existing developers.
Team Lead
Basisresource
Technical reviewer Upgrade Support
External
Regression Testers
Team Lead
Basis Technical reviewerBW Developer
Upgrade Support
External
Regression Testers
37
Sample Timeline - complete landscape for large BW implementation
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12
Project startup and Team training
Preparation for upgrade of Sandbox system and roll out of SAPGui
Upgrade Sandbox system
Test functionality and decide what to implement in upgrade (What has the best ROI)
Plan upgrade of production landscape
And roll out of new functionality to users
Upgrade development system
Test and validate upgrade
Implement new functionality
Upgrade Test system
(Copy of production if possible)
Test and validate Test system and user training & roll out of SAPGui
Upgrade Production system
Test and validate Production system
The more content you have the longer the upgrade(the more you have to
regression test)
The duration is driven by:1. The number of BW systems in your landscape.
2. The new functionality your are rolling out
3. The support technology needed
38
Minimum Timeline and Basic events:
Do initial upgrade guide and note research [1-2 days]
Upgrade BW sandbox and do cursory issues check [1-4 days]
Upgrade a copy of BW production – have key development leads regression test all live content (both systems must be connected to other landscape environments – testing extractors too!) [2-5 days (size/copy/hw depending)]
Once the initial regression test is complete, create any correctional transports. [3-5 days?]
Post-fix, have full team in for “Upgrade buy-in testing” that all works properly [2-3 workdays]
KEY: now freeze development and release transports, upgrade development and a test system, incorporating the fix transports generated from the upgrade regression test. This should be a clean 2-4 day process.
Plan for regression test glitches – and production cut-over.
39
Move into Landscape
• At this point you have a temporary BW Dev to test patch, and perhaps static training, production and production support systems.
• Ideally, you’d migrate the upgrade to these as soon as possible, but this is a stable point. You will have to decide, based on content, whether copying a test box to training makes sense (can preserve user master)
• For production and production support, you’ve already done a dry run – just do production and copy back to production support unless the size makes this impractical [~ >500GB]
Hardware requirements changed if you also did unicode conversion (recommended)
Don't Forget
40
Knows issues and fixes
• Query Designer: Remove reference in reusable structures/ reusable filters (FEP/SP9)
• Report Designer: Formatting Hierarchies based on Hierarchy levels (FEP/SP9); Chart integration in report item: standalone chart (FEP/SP10); Report designer/item – Chart depending on group level context (FEP/SP11); Images in Enterprise Reports: via Mime Repository (FEP/SP9); Display the Document icon in Enterprise Reports (FEP/SP12); Formatting of frames (color, line styles and sizes), definition of cell – frame margin (FEP/SP11)
• General: Change of Currency translation settings during runtime by end-user (FEP/SP9): Download from Web to Excel 2000 without further navigation. Before SP 9 it only works with Excel 2002/3 (FEP/SP9): List calculation: Normalization according to not visible values (FEP/SP9): Variant Creation (FEP/SP9)
• Web Application Designer: Pattern Wizard in WAD (FEP/SP9): GIS Features (Map Toolbar, Dynamic Geo Objects, context menu for map) (FEP/SP10) Context menu for charts (FEP/SP9): Inclusion of BEx Web Applications as Single iView into a federated NW2004s Portal (SP10): Modal Windows cannot be displayed in Firefox. That will be added in SP10.
• Call Document Integration functionality from within BEx Analyzer (FEP/SP12), Query Designer (FEP/SP10), Web Application Designer, Report Designer (FEP/SP12)
There are still a few outstanding issues that will be addressed in the next few service packs (may, or may not, impact you)
Source: SAP SP Capabilities NW2004s BI SP/FEP 8 to 12 Version 2 (June 2006)– subject to change
41
Knows issues and fixes AdHoc Query & Analysis• Upload of text files for variable selection in Web Analyzer (SP12)• Search (Advanced Search (TREX): Search using Search attributes) in Open/Save Dialogs in Web
Analyzer (SP10)• Search Objects in Portal in Open/Save Dialogs in Web Analyzer (SP9)• CSV Export (SP9)• Change currency translation settings during runtime (SP9)• Flicker Free Rendering (SP12)
Information Broadcasting• Using Variants in Broadcaster (SP9)• Broadcasting BEx Analyzer workbooks via Excel Precalculation Service (FEP/SP10)• Direct Broadcasting into NW2004s Federated Portal (SP12)
EDW:• Transformation - Check referential integrity as part of transformation (SP9)• Return table in transformations (one rule returns a table with keys and figures) (SP10)• Transformation: Navigational attributes as Source for Target Open Hub Destination (SP10) • Nearline Storage: restore data from nearline/archive (SP9)
Source: SAP SP Capabilities NW2004s BI SP/FEP 8 to 12 Version 2 (June 2006) – subject to change
42
7 Key Points to Take Home
• Is it cheaper to upgrade to new content or risk reinventing the wheel?
• A BW architecture is part of a larger decision support landscape
• An upgrade strategy should contain all NetWeaver components
• You upgrade strategy must include both release and content upgrades
• Your upgrade time is largely a function of scope, your regression test strategy and the amount of content in your BW
• The NW2004s upgrade is an extensive one and you should treat it as so.
• Cross reference new features & functionality with your organization’s pain points…and ensure the upgrade costs do not exceed the business benefits
43
Dr. Bjarne Berg's web page -- 60+ presentations, tutorials &
articles http://csc-studentweb.lrc.edu/swp/Berg/BB_index_main.htm
The document “NW 2004s Upgrade master Guide“ is available at http://www.sdn.sap.com/
“Business content and extractors SAP BI 7.0.3” available at http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/44/16e6f7a6f30d19e10000000a114a6b/RN_703_en_final.pdf
“Component upgrade guide SAP Netweaver 2004s ABAP” available at http://help.sap.com
ResourcesResource
45
The Business Case for upgrading – Some ideasStrategic: • Timing of releases - NW2004s BI70 is a major BI release - better to absorb it and new technologies now• Technology like Java and EP usage type is mature and stable enough for productive use• All included technologies are the future of SAP software development - unicode, java and portal especially - it
is better for the technical team to become experienced in installing and maintaining them in a non critical application like reporting and data analysis before applying this know-how to mission critical applications like mySAP ERP 2005/ECC 6.0 (R3)
• While NW2004s has a lot of new technology, much of which has been tested for over ten months, there is no requirement to convert to newer features on upgrade - BW 3.x content can be migrated scenario by scenario.
• Integrated Planning features are the best planning approach Technical: • Better administration capability thru Netweaver Administrator - and BW load and query statistics have been
redesigned and a cockpit provided which includes better process chain support• Unicode support• The GUI component, used by developers even if end users are 100% web based, is in maintenance and SAP
supported past 2010. In addition, the Visual composer component can be used for development, which may shorten KPI reporting request turnaround time.
• BI capability is integrated into the new ECC - but will likely not be used as an integrated reporting component.• Utilizing the NW2004s BI usage type allows early adoption and testing of enterprise services• BI Accelerator capable - indexes InfoCube data - acts as super fast aggregate to overcome bad modeling or
design or simply huge data volumes. (hardware based, provided separately)• New additional support for near-line storage of infrequently used data
HiddenBonus
46
The Business Case for upgrading – Some ideasFunctional:• Security changes - new model is provider oriented, not the old R3 transactional model - enables
better architecture of security solution for reporting, dashboarding and planning - new security implementation has enhanced monitoring, auditing and test tools.
• Better linked extract performance - helps with larger volume extracts, consolidated data transfer
• Better now before a larger volume of data, larger user community and more content requires testing or is affected by downtime
• Allows greater automation and self service capability, freeing business experts for more strategic and less daily operational workload. (source SAP What's new in NW2004s)
• Migration towards single user interface (via EP usage type) in place, tested and scalable before ERP upgrade
• One BI Toolset - Report Design takes place in the new BEx Report Designer
• Specific new components which may drive a component based business justification: (source: SAP New Developments in SAP BI)
HiddenBonus
47
The Business Case for upgrading – Some ideas
Modeling new features:• remodeling toolbox - change InfoCubes without rebuilding them• enhanced datastore objects (ODS) - write optimized objects• enhanced InfoSets (can integrate InfoCubes into join with time dependent Master data)• new, unified datasource definitions• enhanced remote capability - remote master data access without replication• better EDW transformation - graphic UI, simplification of transfer rules, new end and expert
routines• unit conversion - new capabilities during data load and reporting• streamlined Data Flow control definition and process chain build - includes better real-time data
acquisition• new Data Transfer Process (DTP) for better transparency, filtering and parallism in staging, and
delta management• Real time EDW push from XML to PSA vs delta queue• Completely redesigned Administration Cockpit and Statistics for BI runtime, Data load and new
Data load status stats.• redesigned BW "Warehousing Workbench"• Improved Business Content Analysis - overview, search and analysis capability• New process chain functionality and process types• Better Data quality thru improved error handling• Re-partitioning capability - removes drop and rebuild restriction
HiddenBonus
48
The Business Case for upgrading – Some ideas
Reporting new features:• Redesigned Business Explorer Suite of tools...• New Query Designer tool is VB, .NET based unicode compliant, and has enhanced UI features.• New Query Designer supports multi-selected objects, and has options for BI Integrates planning• New report designer tool for better formatted reporting• BEx integrated Web Application Design - more model driven with new layout chart and map wizards• New Web App designer -new layout elements, web items, chart types (GANTT) and is planning aware• Improved intuitive ad-hoc design on the web with better drag and drop• PDF based BEx web printing• Excel based data entry capability• New Information Broadcasting features (query views, formatted reports, data bursting, exception
broadcast, alerts etc)• Visual Composer BI kit for modeling BI applications - can integrate heterogeneous DataSources
(OLAP/relational)• Planning Improvements - speed of analysis, access to real-time data for forecasting, planning wizard
using roadmap pattern• Planning capability built into Query designer - ie queries based on aggregation level can write back to
infoprovider• Planning layouts can be done in Web Application designer - create-configure layout, bind data and
configure interaction
HiddenBonus