Options for building your management cockpits and best practices to optimize its navigation and useabliity

Options for building your management cockpits and best practices to optimize its navigation and useabliity Dr. Bjarne Berg

What We’ll Cover … • Background, terminology, and examples • Tool options • SEM CPM • Web AD and SAP NetWeaver 2004s • Visual Composer • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK) • Third-party cockpits • What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap-up

Background and Terminology • Many companies and people confuses 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 (i.e., some metrics in a cockpit may only be updated monthly). However, such deviations should be exceptions.

Typical Components of a Cockpit: SEM Example • Higher-level navigation between views • External data • Graphical displays Comparative/ benchmarking Logical grouping of similar information

SEM Management Cockpit Customize navigation menus and buttons Illustrate best practices, benchmarks, or target performance

Visual Composer Management Cockpit Add number listsEach frame can have internal navigation Represent the same data in several ways to highlight trends and to also provide transaction details

Navigations Linked to Multiple Views Central navigation can change multiple views Link more documentation Make multiple measures available Source: SAP AG, 2005

Strategy Management and Performance Measurement – CPM The presentation layer in SAP Management 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 object are already web enabled and integrate with the Portal. They also provide built-in drill downs and navigation based on how you constructed your measures.

What is SEM – CPM? The Corporate Performance Monitor (SEM-CPM) is part of the Strategic Enterprise Management BI toolsuite. It consists of the Performance Measurement (PM) area and the Strategy management area (SM). The Performance Management area consists of four distinct areas: • Management Cockpit • Measure Builder • Benchmarking • Delivery of business content The Strategy Management consists also of four areas • Balanced Scorecard • Strategy modeling • Value Driver Tree • Risk Management Source: J. Lombard, 2006

SEM – CPM Walls Walls are the highest level of the SEM-CPM Cockpit. Research has shown that more than 7 walls are hard to read and comprehend. Ideal numbers are 3, 5 or 7. Major consideration!! Humans have a hard time remembering, organizing, and retain information that is asymmetrical. This is true for hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling and smelling.. Read more about the cognitive revolution and the article that started it all: Newell and Simon “The magic number 7” (1956)

SEM-CPM Navigation and Measures • Use indicators (red, green, yellow) at a high level to indicate the overall situation of the organization • Create the hierarchies of measures in the Measure Builder tool (get to measure builder by transaction code UMK_MB_DISP_PARA) By clicking on each of the frames, users can access more details and other cockpits

SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate • 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 in a fractured, non-productive manner. • Try to avoid empty spaces, but don’t force unrelated measures into the cockpit. It confuses the users.

SEM-CPM Rules for Graphs and Real Estate (cont.) • There is nothing wrong with using the same type of graphs on a cockpit (i.e., tachometers). Users adapt quickly and can absorb the information faster.

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).

Cockpits with Web AD 3.x and SAP NetWeaver 2004s • Web Application Designer (Web AD) can create Web-based cockpits using BW query data

Cockpits with BW 3.x Web AD • BW 3.X based Web Application Designer (WAD) provides drag and drop functionalities for creating BW Web templates which may be the host of web based BW cockpits • WAD can be used for creating BW Web Cockpits integrating data from multiple BW queries. Each item can be served by a BW query, or by external web pages or web applications

Cockpits with BW 3.x Web AD (cont.) • Standard Web items are available for creating BW Web templates with minimal coding • Charts • Tables • Drop-down boxes • Navigation block • Check box

Cockpits with SAP NetWeaver 2004s Web AD • New items include improved tabstrip container in SAP NetWeaver 2004s for designing BI Web applications • Reduces the amount of custom coding required with the help of Command wizards, Auto complete, and support for HTML tags

SAP NetWeaver 2004s Web AD New Featurs • Web Items: Tab Pages, Button, Script Item (SAP NetWeaver 2004s Support Package Stack 7) • Drag and drop using Analysis item • New chart types (heat map, Gantt, milestone trend analysis) • Export BI Web applications in PDF format • Command Wizard for generating Web API commands • Integration with SAP NetWeaver 2004s BEx Report Designer for formatted reports

BI Web API Commands • You can use BI Web API commands for carrying out certain actions in BI Web Applications. • Export to Excel, PDF etc. • OLAP functions: Apply Filter values, remove drill downs • Command Wizards guide you through the steps for creating a BI Web API command • Commands appear together for easy access • Data Provider • Web Items • Web Templates The Web cockpits developed by Web AD in SAP NetWeaver 2004s can be interactive, include many data sources, and be very flexible

Command Wizard and JavaScript • Use Command Wizard for generating JavaScript code for the Script Item to use in custom cockpit applications This is a great feature for building custom features into your cockpits based on standard JavaScript

More New Cockpit Options • Personalize BI query variables • Bookmark the navigational state of the BI Web application • Perform multidimensional analysis of BI query data • Allow users to create exceptions and conditions for BI query data These features makes it easier to customize the dataset that queries return to the Web cockpit

Web AD Cockpits in SAP Enterprise Portal 6.0 Direcltly publish BI Web cockpits to Portal Content Catalog using the Publish option from Web AD Portal and BI system connection should be set up as per OSS note 917950

Broadcast Cockpit Views Using Web AD • In SAP NetWeaver 2004s, use Information Broadcaster to broadcast BI Web applications (i.e., cockpit views) to Enterprise Portal KM folders and via email in various formats (PDF, MHTML, HTML) • Information Broadcaster/Reporting Agent (BI 3.x) can precalculate BI Web applications to enhance performance

Visual Composer – Background • Visual Composer is a Web-based modeling tool • You can use Visual Composer to develop SAP Enterprise Portal content with no coding • Can create integrated view of OLTP and OLAP data sources

Visual Composer Cockpit Example • No coding required to create great-looking Web-based cockpits • Take advantage of prebuilt analytic business packages

Details about Visual Composer Cockpits • Delivered as part of Enterprise Portal in SAP NetWeaver 2004s Usage Type (SPS8 and higher) • Different options available for rendering Visual Composer output • Flash • Web Dynpro (HTML) • Flash provides high-end visualization of Visual Composer models Since a cockpit may have many different DataSources (queries), it can take quite some time to execute them if the memory cache is not used consistently

Visual Composer Data Methods • Can integrate data from multiple data sources, including SAP and non-SAP systems, into one model • Different options available for data access include: • BI Extension Kit • Remote Function Call (RFC) • Web services • BI Extension Kit allows access to the following DataSources • SAP NetWeaver 2004 BI (BW 3.5 Support Package 14) • SAP NetWeaver 2004s • JDBC • XMLA

Visual Composer DataProviders • You can use BI queries and views as DataProviders for Visual Composer models • You also can use BI query functionalities for exceptions and variables along with Visual Composer models • Visual Composer allows access to BI history, favorites, and roles

Web AD and Visual Composer • Visual Composer integrates with Web AD-based applications using Portal Eventing Framework • For example, BW Web API can pass a filter value from a BEx Web application to Visual Composer • and vice versa

Web Cockpit in the Portal Integrate queries and Web applications into the portal through publishing, broadcasting, or Web calls The portal can either receive designed pages passively or actively create communities, Web pages, collaboration rooms, or cockpits Publishing Broadcasting

Web Cockpit in the Portal (cont.) • The SEM-CPM cockpits are already part of the portal, so you can access them there • iViews can build custom portal cockpits with iViews from many data sources (Web AD, BW, SEM, R/3, Web) and in many formats (graphs, pictures, figures, tables) • iViews can also be interactive

Visual Composer 7.0 Portal Publishing • Visual Composer Design time deploys Visual Composer models directly as iViews to Portal Content Catalog • You can then use Visual Composer iViews in portal pages, roles, etc.

Building a Web Cockpit in the Portal The trick in developing custom Web cockpits in the portal is to manage the real estate very carefully. Most pure iView-based cockpits are very cluttered and hard to read and navigate. 1. Start with logical groupings of items (i.e., sales, finance) 2. Limit colors to complimentary formats (we will look at these later). 3. Share the same navigation menus and tabs as the portal 4. Avoid running text, flashes, animations, layering and scrolling text (this is an absolute no-no).

What We’ll Cover … • Background, terminology, and examples • Tool options • SEM CPM • Web AD • Visual Composer and demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK) • Third-party cockpits • What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap up

BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits • BI Java SDK can be used for custom applications based on SAP BI and non-SAP data. • BI Java SDK provides access to relational and OLAP data sources using JDBC, XMLA, ODBO etc. • Access to 200+ data sources using the JDBC drivers. Java programmers will recognize the standard development kit's (SDK) main libraries such as the abstract windowing toolkit (AWT) and the GUI-oriented Swing object library as well Source: SAP AG, 2005

BI Java SDK-Based Cockpits (cont.) • SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio can develop BI Java SDK-based applications • Can use along with SAP Java Web Dynpro Interested developers should familiarize themselves with SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio

What We’ll Cover … • Background, terminology, and examples • Tool options • SEM CPM • Web AD • Visual Composer and demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK) • Third-party cockpits • What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap up

Third-Party Cockpits • Some best-of-breed cockpit tools incorporate SAP BI as part of a Web item provider, or more commonly through BW queries fed by BAPIs or ODBO in BW • Some even provide separate Multidimensional Online Analytical Processing (MOLAP) solutions tightly connected to SAP BW • Hint: reading RS_ tables inside BW Cognos Microsoft

Third-Party Cockpits (cont.) • Other BI and cockpit companies, such as Corda, are actively working on creating cockpit tools for SAP BI

What We’ll Cover … • Background, terminology, and examples • Tool options • SEM CPM • Web AD • Visual Composer and demo • Publishing to the portal • Custom cockpits (BI Java SDK) • Third-party cockpits • What makes a good cockpit? • Which tool is right for me? • Wrap-up

War Rooms and External Access • Shared cockpits are most useful • External access to information is more common. Vendors and customers love it! • You can build war rooms for collaborative decision making using cockpits • Cockpits require a true BI infrastructure. It is tempting to jump straight to the cockpit development, but it is almost impossible without a well-architected BW system to support it.

A Good Cockpit Is Simple Majority of usage of cockpits are in user segments 1 and 5. You should use BI queries and OLAP for the other segments. Segment 4: Info Gatherers - 4% Concentrated in information areas. Rarely reach transaction areas. Segment 5: Single-clickers - 32% Visit homepage only. Segment 6: Wanderers - 15% Very few, very random pages. Few hits, but long duration per page view. Segment 1: Trackers - 37% Tracking -Characterized by low duration overall. Segment 2: Reservers - 3% Low duration per page view. Segment 3: Uncommitted - 10% Characterized by long duration. Complex decisions. Example source: Dr. Paul Strupp, Sun Microsystems The average manager navigate in no more than 7 dimensions and only 2 levels deep (49 views). Therefore, the majority of users of cockpits need few, simple, but highly informative views. The other user community is best served by OLAP queries.

Use of Color Colors share a powerful connection with emotions, so you want to be conservative Colors on opposite sides are complimentary and looks good together in a cockpit Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colors in 1666 and identified 12 basic colors Color definitions: Shade: base color mixed with black Tint: base color hue mixed with white Tone: base color + gray or another base color + a complementary color Source: Bob Marteal, Cornell Univ. 2005, Susan M. Raymond, WHS

How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors? Monochromatic scheme This uses a single pure color with a number of tints and shades to provide variety Pros: Extremely unified and harmonious; effective for establishing an overall mood Cons: Can be dull because of the lack of variation and therefore can lose the interest of the viewer Any three colors which are side by side on a color wheel, Pros: Great selection of possible combinations makes this scheme versatile. The similarity makes the schemes harmonious with great results because it is soothing and restful. Cons: The use of more than three colors can dilute the overall effect of this scheme. Analogous scheme

How do You Pick Your Web Cockpit Colors? (cont.) Pick any three colors on a triangle. This scheme is very appealing and well balanced. Pros: Extremely stable, each color perfectly balances with the other. It is useful for presenting information in bold, decisive patterns. Cons: The vibrancy may be too much and detract from the message. Triadic scheme Any two colors that are side by side on a color wheel Pros: This scheme has more variety than a simple complementary color scheme Cons: It is less vibrant and eye-catching; it is difficult to harmonize the colors Split scheme

Options for building your management cockpits and best practices to optimize its navigation and useabliity