Design Considerations : Building a Global data Model !

There are various design considerations in term of how to utilize the cube or the DSO in level 1 & Level 2.

1. As much as possible, please use the same type of keyfigures & characteristics as we built a multiprovider out of 6 plan & actual Infocubes.We had faced an issue with the 0APO_SafetyQty as one of the keyfigure was of type 'Quan' & another of type 'FLTP'.

2. One of the keyfigure ' Safety Stock' has an exception aggregation by 0Mat_Plant, so 0Mat_Plant should always be included in the BI Data Model.

3. Always,when determining how to group dimensions, always try to come up with a hierarchy and based on the possible values we expect, we should be clubbing them. For e.g you have Material Dimension, Plant Dimension & SourceSystem Dimension. As per the Global Data Model, we are sourcing from three different sources and hence actually you should have only 3 values for 'Source System' so it's better to remove Source system as a dimension and move it either plant or material. Now as per hierarchy sourcesystem --> Location --> Material , we should club characteristic with dimension 'Location' and not 'Material'.

4. If any of the infoprovider ( which are part of the Global Multiprovider ) has a navigational attribute enabled, make sure it is enabled in all the other concerned Infocubes & Multicube and really the parent attribute should be a Global infoobject without having conflicting master data entries. for e.g attribute Material Group & Material Plant for infoobject '0Material'

5. wherever possible if there is no source information available for compounding characteristic '0Mat_Plant' etc, map to characteristic such as '0Material' .

to be continued..........

APO SNP Extraction to SAP BI : Challanges faced !

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While working with one of the Pharma Giant in USA, I got an opportunity to explore APO SNP & DP extraction area. Based on the requirement to report on entire supply chain for one of pharma product, I managed to find a planning book & Data view from APO SNP (our main source of extraction ). On further analysis, I found that some of the key figures maintained in the APO 'Data view' were auxiliary key figures and since they are virtual in nature, they can not be sourced directly by building an extractor. If you go to transaction code : /SAPAPO/SDP8B and see for a particular keyfigure if No 'fieldname' i.e '/BIO/..' is maintained (see screen left), it means these are auxiliary keyfigures and they can not be sourced directly through a APO data source. All the keyfigures present in planning area ( Using T-code : /SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN ) are basic keyfigures.

Auxiliary Keyfigure ( defination ) : Auxiliary keyfigures for a planning book are usually temporary and are often used to display values that are calculated with macros. In planning books that are based on SNP planning areas, it is possible to save auxiliary key figures in a database table.

We found out following calculation for these calculated keyfigures :

Total Demand DMDTO (Gesamtbedarf ): Forecast/Sales Order + Dependent Demand + Distribution Demand(Planned) + Distribution Demand( Confirmed) + Distribution Demand (TLB Confirmed )

Total Receipts RECTO (Gesamtzugang ): Production(Planned) + Production (Confirmed) + In Transit

Stock on Hand : Stock on Hand (Projected) + Total Receipts - Total Demand There are there solutions to pull this info into BW :

If these Auxiliary keyfigures are used for reporting on the basis of planning area, following three solutions will enable them for reporting.

1. Copy the SNP Planning Area, if required created new infoobjects, add time series, initialize the new planning area, define a planning book/data view for the new planning area.

a. Copy the SNP Planning area '9ASNP02' ( /SAPAPO/MSDP_ADMIN).

b. If required, define new keyfigures as infoobjects where you want to save the auxiliary keyfigures.

c. Add a time series keyfigure to the new planning area for every relevant planning book-auxiliary keyfigure.

d.Initialize the new planning area for the plan version to be used.

e. Define a planning book/data view for the new planning area.

f. You can also Copy the standard planning book/data view ( e.g 9ASNP02), save it under new name , assign the planning book to the new planning area and activate the macros.

g. Activate the currently inactive macros in your planing book/data view (/SAPAPO/SDP8B).

h. Define a macro that copies the values from the relevant planning book-auxiliary keyfigures into corresponding keyfigures from the planning area.

i. Data can be copied either by using the interactive copy-macro or in a batch using a DP batch job.

2. Replicate the complex calculation involved in these Auxiliary keyfigures from APO Planning book into BI Data Model or BI Query.

3. Use BAPI 'BAPI_PBSRVAPS_GETDETAIL' which reads data from APO Planning book & view'( Please see Image no 1, Top left corner ) and build a extractor to extract this information into BI.

Few more Questions !

1. How many secondary indexes can be created on a single table as per SAP recommendation.

Maximum 4

2. System can derive _________ from _________ but not from __________ at runtime using automatic characteristic relationship in BI-IP.

0CALYEAR , 0CALQUARTER , 0CALWEEK



3.SAP Business Object can run in which of the mode.

Two Tier Mode + Three Tier Mode



4. XML based extraction is used for small volumes of data to BI.

5.

Few Questions ?

1. When Aggregates are created and filled which valuation statistics are generated ?

Summarized Record, Usage

2. Planning variables in Integrated Planning can be used in.

- Characteristics Relatioship and Data Slices

- Filter & Planning functions

-Input-ready Queries

3. We can delete the original excel spreadsheet after importing the data on the Xcelcius envurinment.

Order to Cash Data Model Design !

Table for Contract Line item: VBAP
Table for Contract Header : VBAK

There are two types of Contract Document:

Doc Type: ZCCR: Cost Reim/ Time and Material Contract
Doc Type: ZCFP: Fixed Price Contract

Contract Value is stored in “NETWR” field of VBAP table (i.e Contract Line item) and has “WBS Element” assigned to it. Field for “WBS Element” in VBAP table is “PS_PSP_PNR”

T-code: VA43 can be used to view contract document.

Double click on the contract Line item à Go to Account assignment tab for “WBS Element”
Go to “Conditions” tab for “Contract Value” i.e. “NETWR”
Double click on the contract Line item à Go to Account assignment tab for “WBS Element”
Go to “Conditions” tab for “Contract Value” i.e. “NETWR”
KSH3 & KCH3 are tcode to view pft ctr and cost cntr hierarchy.

SAP Enterprise Performance Management - Some notes

FPM 7.5 :
-> SAP Strategy Management andBPC integration to BOBJ BI Toolsand BOBJ Enterprise.
->All three Consolidation solutions(BPC, BCS & BOBJ-Fin Cons) getenhancements and maintenance.
->BOBJ-Fin Cons and BOBJProfitability& Cost ManagementIntegration to SAP NetWeaver BIEDW.
-> IDD/BOE Integration for BOBJProfitability& Cost Management, BOBJ- Fin Consolidation.

Features of FPM 8.0 :
-> Unified, Highly usable FPM end-user & Authorising Environment
-> Unified Masterdata, Business Rules, Metadata for all applications
-> Unified workflow & process orcheastration across the suite.

Interesting to see how SAP BPC gets integrated with SAP BOBJ tools, more info will follow soon.

SAP BI Questionaire : 14

Which of the following objects keeps the aggregate and InfoCube in synchronization?

Read pointer
SID pointers
Surrogate pointer
All of the above

2. Following are required to implement Transitive Attributes.

Infoset
Multiprovider
Aggregates
APD

3. What are the limitations of a Remote-Cube?

System dependent
Only for transaction data
Small volume
All of the above