SAP Lumira - Introduction
SAP Lumira is a self-service solution that allows analysts and decision makers to access, transform, and visualize data. It allows organizing and navigating data the way you want, quickly and visually without using a single line of code or additional modelling layer. SAP Lumira's interactive visualizations let you analyse data quickly to discover unique insights that you can share throughout your organization. With the software's ability to connect to the SAP HANA platform, business users get access to real-time answers buried in massive amounts of data. SAP Lumira delivers beautiful analytic's , allowing you to easily convey knowledge, discover hidden patterns, and transform the way you do business. This White paper consists of basics about SAP Lumira (formerly SAP Visual Intelligence). This white paper quickly takes us through the look and feel of this tool.
Working with SAP Lumira
We can download SAP Lumira Desktop free trial version from the internet and install it on our Computer. The welcome screen of SAP Lumira is shown in the below screenshot.
The home screen shows us the simple steps that are required before we build the story dashboards.
There are mainly five steps.
1) Acquire Data
2) Enrich Data
3) Build Visualizations
4) Explore Data
5) Share with the team mates
To analyse the data we need to first acquire the data. The data can be acquired from the different data sets like Microsoft Excel, Text, Copy from Clipboard, Connect to SAP HANA One, Download from SAP HANA One, Universe, Query with SQL and Connect to SAP Business Warehouse as shown in the below screenshot.
Depending on the location of Source Data, we need to select the appropriate Dataset and connect it to the SAP Lumira. After acquiring the data, we can preview all the Measures and Dimensions present in the dataset in the left pane. We can see four tabs Prepare, Visualize, Compose and Share in the resulting screen.
In Prepare tab we can preview the data that we acquired from the source. If we select a particular Dimension or Column in the prepare screen, it gives various option that we can use on this column at the right hand pane in the screen as shown in the below screenshot.
We can see the various simple transformations that can be applied to that particular column like Distinct values, Rename, Split, Remove, Convert Case, Replace, Fill, Convert the number, Convert to date, Trim, Group by Selection, Group by Range, Create calculated Dimension etc. All these simple transformations are applied at the front end only. We can also create 'New Calculated Dimensions' and ' New Calculated Measures' also which are similar to calculated key figures and Selection/Formula options in SAP Business Explorer (BEx). Also we can merge or add data of other data sources.
To analyse further, we need to go to Visualize tab. In this screen, we can drag and drop different measures and dimensions available in the dataset in to the Graph area for analysis. There are many ways to add measures or dimensions in to the Graph area. We can double click the measure/dimension or we can use + sign adjacent to Measures/Dimensions on X axis and Y axis as shown in the below screen or we can simply drag and drop them.
Then the corresponding graph is displayed in the graph area. We can select different chart types according to our convenience and play with tool. We can add one more chart to the screen by just clicking the + symbol at the bottom of the screen as shown in below screenshot highlighted in Red box.
In this way we can save as many dashboards as required and analyse the data at the root level.
Now coming to Compose tab, here we can create story boards’ i.e., we can compose the story regarding the analysis we did in the Visualize tab. We can compose the story based on all the visualizations we saved in the Visualize tab. Just drag and drop the visualizations in the workspace from visualizations pane. We can give a name to our story board and also we can give comments for the story board.
After creating the story boards, we can Share it to the Users. We have sharing options like Export as File, Publish to SAP HANA, Publish to SAP Lumira Cloud, Publish to SAP Lumira Server, Publish to SAP Stream Work and Publish to SAP BI.
So depending on the requirement we will be sharing the Story dashboards to the users. Let us say we are publishing the Story Dashboard to the SAP Lumira Cloud, and then we need to select 'Publish to SAP Lumira Cloud' in the Share tab. Then we get the following screen to give the details like User Name and Password to connect to the Cloud and Share.
SAP Lumira Cloud
In a Web browser, navigate to the landing page of SAP Lumira Cloud at https://cloud.saplumira.com and Login.
Registering with SAP Lumira Cloud:
SAP Lumira Cloud provides two editions: Free Edition and Enterprise Edition. The Free Edition does not expire and provides individual users with 1GB of storage. The Enterprise Edition provides multiple GBs of shared storage and the ability to manage user access and permissions. We must have a license to start using both versions of SAP Lumira Cloud.
We can register with Lumira Cloud for a free account. In this case, we obtain a Free Edition license automatically. Later on, we can call an SAP sales representative to upgrade to the Enterprise Edition license.
Alternatively, we can start with the Enterprise Edition license from the beginning. Simply call the SAP sales representative to purchase the license. An account will be created for us and then we can register with Lumira Cloud and start using it.
Steps to Register for the SAP Lumira Cloud:
1) Do one of the following:
- To register a Free Edition account, go to the landing page of SAP Lumira Cloud at https://cloud.saplumira.com, and click Register new account.
- To register with the Enterprise Edition of SAP Lumira Cloud, once we purchased the license, need to follow the link in the invitation email to the registration page.
The registration dialog box is displayed.
2) Complete and submit the registration form. A confirmation email will be sent to us.
3) In the confirmation email, click the link to set password and activate our SAP Lumira Cloud account.
We are directed to a confirmation web page. We can click Continue to log on to SAP Lumira Cloud.
Look and feel of SAP Lumira Cloud:
After logging in to the SAP Lumira Cloud, we will find following major components in the cloud:
My Items and Settings tabs as shown below.
My Items tab
The My Items tab is to view and work with all types of files that SAP Lumira Cloud supports.
For each item on the list, the following information is displayed, one column for each property:
- Name. (A short description about the item is displayed below the name if available.)
- Owner (by default). You can also choose to show Type or Size by using the Show list.
- Last Modified.
The icon beside each item provides options available for the file, such as download, share, explore, and delete, depending on the file type.
- Upload allows us to upload a file to SAP Lumira Cloud.
- Created Dataset allows us to acquire data from an Excel file or a CSV file to create a dataset.
- All allows us to view all files,
- Shared allows us to view only the files that are shared among SAP Lumira Cloud members.
- Narrow by allows us to filter the files by file type (for example, SAP Lumira documents, story documents, datasets, and SAP Crystal Reports).
- Show allows us to choose the file property to display on the second column: Owner, Size, or Type.
Settings tab
The Setting tab includes the following tabs:
- Profile: Manage our account profile.
- Account Info (for the Free Edition): Check our account space usage.
- Team (for the Enterprise Edition): Check our team account space usage; view and manage our team.
Conclusion
Overall, the SAP Lumira Cloud is the best tool available in the present market that lets us to analyse data and collaborate with colleagues on datasets, stories, and other business intelligence artefacts from web browsers or mobile devices.
References
[1] SAP Lumira User Guide, SAP AG
[2] Documents published in http://scn.sap.com/
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