SAP BI Live Reporting

[former_member203111]

Hi BI Experts,

I will appreciate if you can advise me what does exactly the term "Live Reporting" mean in SAP BI.

I figured out after reading some links online that It is for BPC, a web based reporting with data input option for BPC, but I like to know what does this live reporting do which other reports such as Ad-Hoc reports or transactional or strategic reports cant do.

Is Live Reporting  possible using Bex tool, BOBJ Webi tool or Crystal Reports

The term Live reporting seems very vague to me, I would appreciate if you can advise me with an example, will appreciate your help, thanks

Regards

[Former Member]

Hi Imran,

This is an area of much confusion. Other terms that may apply are 'real time reporting' and 'near-real time reporting'.

My take on this is that any data warehouse system (SAP BW/BI included) has to compromise latency for breadth of analysis. By this I refer to the opportunity for remodelling that comes when we replicate data into the data warehouse system (along with ring-fenced resources), but which comes at a cost of timeliness.

It would be great to have all three of:

1. an enterprise breadth of analysis,
2. dedicated resources and
3. zero latency,

but that would tear a hole in the space-time continuum (unless, perhaps, you were running your ERP and data warehouse systems side by side on an in-memory database ... such as, say, HANA ).

Having a separate data model is a good thing if your focus is on enterprise-wide reporting that empowers your user base via a common definition of your enterprise entities and a common set of analysis tools. Its not a good idea if your use-case requires immediate, operational reporting - <compromise typically required here>.

You mention BPC which is naturally deployed in the planning process, traditionally these tools have been developed as extensions of the data warehouse environment. In this context the BPC system is real time as it writes planning data to the data warehouse data base and there is thus zero latency relative to the data warehouse.

Hope this brief reply helps, but let me know if you think I can help further.

Regards,

Andrew

[former_member203111]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the detail reply, It gave me some clue to work on some guidelines and directions to investigate more on this topic.

I understand that HANA Live is to be considered for Real-Time operational reporting but I was looking for a possibility if Live Reporting or as you say Real Time reporting can be done using Bex tool or even any tool using BOBJ, such as Analysis or CR with data input option.

But anyhow I appreciate your reply.

Regards