SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI - Define your Publishing St...

Former Member · ‎09-04-2006

Introduction

Due to the myriad of options available in SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI, it is very important to determine your publishing strategy for reporting. The online help includes how to implement a lot of these scenarios at this link: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04s/helpdata/en/9d/24ff4009b8f223e10000000a155106/content.htm

The Matrix

This matrix shows all the tools and destinations within SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI. There are 4 options for publishing:

Direct Save - Using the save capabilities defined by the "SAVE" button within the application.
Publish - These tools use the option from the menus in the application called "Publish to Portal".
Broadcaster - This uses Information Broadcasting to publish reports.
Manually - This requires manually creating iViews or links in the destination.

Implementation Scenarios

Since there are lots of options available in the matrix, I'm going to propose an example implementation plan to show how you can distinguish different user types and the tools that they use. Keep in mind this example scenario isn't a recommendation. It's just an example to show how you can use all the different tools and segment your user communities.

End User - Uses only BEx Web Analyzer
Reporting Collaboration User - Uses only BEx Web Analyzer and can save to shared areas
Reporting Distribution User - Uses only BEx Web Analyzer and can save or distribute to shared areas or other user’s personal areas
Power User - Uses BEx Web Analyzer and BEx Analyzer
Power Collaboration User – Uses BEx Web Analyzer and BEx Analyzer and can save to shared areas
Power Distribution User - Uses BEx Web Analyzer and BEx Analyzer and can save or distribute to shared areas or other user’s personal areas
Super User - Can use all BEx Tools
Super Collaboration User - Can use all BEx Tools and can save to shared areas
Super Distribution User - Can use all BEx Tools and can save or distribute to shared areas or other user’s personal areas

Go to Part 2?

In part 2 of this blog series, I give 4 possible options for how to definte a publishing strategy based off this matrix. See it here: SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI - Define your Publishing Strategy Part 2. Integral to publishing strategies are strategies around transporting. In part 3 of this BLOG, I'll be discussing options and key considerations for transporting all these reports! Part 4 will discuss how to work with permissions between a lot of the reporting destinations.

Summary

The reason I put this BLOG together is that it is very important to define your reporting strategy very earliy in your SAP NetWeaver 2004s BI projects. Previously, in BW 3.x, most customers didn't have to worry about publishing as much because there weren't as many options. Now that there are lots of options, you need to choose your destinations and tools you are using to ensure that you are presenting your users a unified reporting access path.