Business objects without BI

[Former Member]

Hi All,

My client wanted to use Business objects with out using SAP BI. What is best practice to go for business objects with out BI.

They wanted extract data from ECC and use Business object for reporting.

please let me know best pracitce from the following

1. Extract data from ECC directly (ECC as data source, No middle layer)

2. use a middle layer as data store ( extract data from ECC and store it in middle layer . Business objects will use this middle layer as data source ).

any links on the above topic ....?

Thanks,

Chindam Praveen Kumar

[dennis_scoville4]

1. Extract data from ECC directly (ECC as data source, No middle layer)

SAP Business Objects Enterprise is not capable of using ECC as the source system. SAP Business Objects Crystal Reports, along with the SAP Integration kit, can provide reporting directly from ECC tables. Using Crystal Reports in ECC does have it limitations however, because it can cause performance issue. It basically equates to using SQVI in ECC, but with a much better development environment and GUI.

2. use a middle layer as data store ( extract data from ECC and store it in middle layer . Business objects will use this middle layer as data source ).

SAP Business Objects does have a product called Rapid Marts, which is a prepackaged solution that provides standard Data Services Data Flows and code to extract data from ECC and load into standard tables. Both the Data Services processes and tables can be enhanced. These provide a less costly, compared to SAP BW, data repository and can significantly speed up getting a functioning model.

Or, you can create your own database and setup tables the way you want them. You can use any type of tool for ETL, such as SAP Business Objects Data Services or Informatica. The SAP Business Objects Enterpise Universe would be the semantic layer to connect the SAP Business Objects reporting tools (e.g. Web Intelligence, Web Intelligence Rich Client, et. al.) to the underlying database.

[Former Member]

Thanks Dennis for your response,

Client is planning to use Microsoft SQL 2005 . need some information in this like .....

1.Cons and pors of using Microsoft SQL 2005 ?

2. Best way to extract data from ECC to Microsoft SQL 2005 ?

Thanks,

Chindam

[Former Member]

Less Costlty until you compute the cost for each of the Data Marts, including licensing.

Consider your BW deployment is free in terms of licences and the huge Business Content available (including BW datasources) still make this the most cost-effective solution.

[Former Member]

Chindam,

Here is a link to SAP, Enterprise Reporting:

[http://www.sap.com/usa/solutions/sapbusinessobjects/ondemand/enterprise-reporting/index.epx]

Your posting has some ambiguity to it:

What is best practice to go for business objects with out BI. 
They wanted extract data from ECC and use Business object for reporting

BI is a term that stands for Business Intelligence. Business Objects (now called SAP Business Objects) is a company that provides software to assist in the entire ecosystem of reporting, from ETL to the Semantic Layer, to the reporting capability. The good part of SAP Business Objects is that the product is modular so you can pick and choose the components, thus possibly reducing unwanted costs in acquisition of software licenses. Once you have a firm idea of the reports you want to produce and the data required to support those reports, it would be a good idea to investigate several vendors and their offerings, presenting your requirements and seeing what their solution is. Best wishes with your project.

Thanks,

John