Business Builder in SAP Datasphere

[cristina_talmaciu]

Hi,

Does Business Layer make any sense now as the recomendation of SAP is to use analytics models for consumption? I am a little bit confused and it is not clear enough in which situations we should use Business Layers. Initially they were recommended for self-service but I think the business users have to create too many layers, which makes it too complex. The analytic model is not so complex, so I guess the users can be empowered to create their own analytic models. What is SAP position regarding the self-service? 

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thank you!

Cristina

[XaviPolo]

Hi @cristina_talmaciu 

I remember at the beginning, when the Business Builder came out ... it seemed promising. It added three functionalities for me very interesting, the versions, which help the development of projects and their maintenance, the perspectives, which allowed to expose a subset of fields to the reporting layer (in the style of BW queries) and the calculated ratios that are added in the upper layer (as SAC does).

So we started to work and add it to the projects, mainly for the functionality of the calculated ratios, since it was not necessary to calculate them in SAC, but there were also many shortcomings (some of them were solved over time).

Then the analytical model appeared, SAP said it was the future, but it only had one of the features mentioned above, calculated ratios... so in a way it was a step backwards. But we are "forced" because for example the future "Source Change" functionality in SAC seems that in the case of DSP it will only work with the analytical models. And I seem to remember that there are still some basic things that have not made it to the Business Layer such as the integration of time hierarchies with SAC (it is still there in the roadmap ... years after).

So I think there is no other option, if SAP says they are betting on AM, then they already made the decision for us 🙂

For complex projects and with frequent changes that respond quickly to the needs of analytics users, the Business Builder was ideal, it has versions !!!, the ability to create perspectives and not give a group of users 200 fields that they will not use and that only confuse and annoy them, perspectives are the ideal !!!
... but if the developer himself does not bet on it, I would not bet on it either.

Let's just hope that SAP realizes the good ideas they had for the Business Layer and works on something similar for the Data Layer and the AMs.

Regards,

[cristina_talmaciu]

It seems that all the artefacts built under BL will be translated to AM: https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-members/the-sap-datasphere-analytic-model/ba-p/1355...

"The Business Builder is designed to make it possible for certain business users with technical expertise to be able to create and edit data models, and combine central company data with their own data. Objects in the Business Builders are generally based on objects in the Data Builder. The following objects are currently available: Dimension, Analytical Dataset (not to be confused with the semantic Analytical Dataset in the Data Builder), Fact Model, Consumption Model and Perspective. Of these, Fact Model and Consumption Model will be transferred to the new Analytic Model, meaning these objects will also be obsolete in the foreseeable future. The Perspective as an interface to Reporting will also be replaced by the Analytic Model.

The new Analytic Model, therefore, is the successor for a total of four object types in the Data Builder and Business Builder."

[TuncayKaraca]

Hi @XaviPolo,

I was checking things on Business Builder once I saw @cristina_talmaciu's question yesterday.

You've summarized very well with great insights, thanks!  Business Builder / Business Layer is a great idea but I guess it will be neglected for the most of time.

Just some thinking... I am with the principal that modeling on Data Layer should be a generic. We should avoid creating a different varieties of same Views, Analytic Models. For example as a coding principal that "no hardcoding filters, constants, parameters, etc." we could do things on Business Layer. There is one underlying Fact View in Data Layer, then on top of that Fact Model and Consumption Model on Business Layer, we can have multiple Perspectives for the Consumption Layer, etc.  Also regarding consuming data from SAP Analytics Cloud, Perspective from Business Layer also can be used.

Regards,
Tuncay