Introduction

According to the official SAP documentation, to use the Calculation Data Provider ( /STDF/DP_CALCULATION ), two queries must be created that serve as operands. However, if you want to see data calculated by a query and a fixed value, there is a simple trick.

In this blog post, I’ll take you step-by-step to a nice graph with fake data for demonstration purposes that is easy to customize for your own needs. Few words, lots of screenshots. I hope you enjoy it.

Data converted from hours to days through division by the fixed value of 24
Example: Average ticket processing time in calendar week 28/2021 – 530 days. You can do better!

Reason for exploring the Calculation DP

When reading chapter 5.2 of the SAP Community Wiki, which deals with the average processing time of tickets in the ITSM DP, I asked myself why the data is displayed as hours in a Focused Insights OCC dashboard while it is displayed as days in the BW query. That’s when I got the idea to somehow divide the data for the dashboard by 24. If that worked, it would greatly expand the capabilities of the Calculation Data Provider.

Different units for the average processing time of ITSM tickets (Focused Insights: hours, BW Query: days) – https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/DP_ITSM

By the way … this wiki page is out of date, and the BW query has changed with SAP Solution Manager 7.2. Nevertheless, it is a nice example for a possible application of the calculation DP.

SAP Documentation

Every official guide tells us that we have to create two queries for using the Calculation DP.

SAP Community Wiki (https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/Calculation+Data+Provider)

OCC Dashboard 7.2 User Guide (https://help.sap.com/doc/321a71ee55f849b5901f99ad813af6af/280/en-US/FINSIGHTS_OCC_Dashboard.pdf#page=78)

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Create a query with the basic data

For this showcase I created a query using the ITSM Data Provider ( /STDF/DP_ITSM ) with the KPI “Average Processing Time” selected.

Step 2: Create a second query with the calculation

Creating a calculation always requires two operands and an operator such as addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Since you can only select queries as operands, first select your (one and only) query for both operands.

Then, switch to the Expert mode and change the value of one operand manually. As a first check, assign Operand2=10 to divide the value of Operand1 by 10.

Attention: Keep in mind that calculated data will not be displayed in the preview section!

No preview for queries with DP_CALCULATION

(Optional:) Check the chart

Now, let´s have a look at the display mode. Save and close the editor.

Compare the value of the basic data (blue line) with the data divided by 10 (red line). It works!

Having checked that, you are only a few steps away from the final chart.

Step 3: Fine-tune the gadget

Adapt the query with the Calculation Data Provider in Expert mode to your requirements and make sure that you keep the vertical bars that separate the key-value-pairs.

Select a time period and resolution…

…and enter the correct description for the value unit that appears near the y-axis in the chart.

Step 4: Hide the first query

Finally, hide the query with the basic (uncalculated) data that is essential for the calculation but should not be shown in the chart.

That´s it.

Conclusion

With the Calculation Data Provider you have more options than SAP mentions (or even knows?). Just use your imagination 😉

I am looking forward to reading your comments on this blog post. Please let me participate in your ideas and use cases.

All screenshots were taken by me in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SPS11 with ST-OST 200 SP06 Wave 9.0