SAP BPC Embedded 10.1 seamless integration with BW 7.5 on HANA and Analysis for Office

In the below blog I would focus on BPC 10.1 Embedded and its seamless integration with BW 7.5 (SP4)/BW-IP/BPC NW on HANA with Front end Input/reporting on Analysis for Office 2.3.

BPC NW 10.1 Embedded is an excellent solution provided by SAP with the flexibility of sharing the dependency between IT and Business and leveraging the best features of BW-IP, BW powered by HANA, Native HANA and BPC.

Pros of BPC Embedded 10.1

• Deep BW Integration – Full Integration of Planning into BW data models and tools, eclipse based Modeling Tools in BW powered by HANA, before using BWMT I wasn’t aware of such an easy to use and friendly tool which could reduce the development efforts to bigger extent as query designer opens very fast, we can have multiple screen in HANA Studio from BWMT unlike 6 screen limitation of SAP GUI.

• In Memory – Rich set of HANA-Optimized planning functions , utilizing BW powered by HANA with IP-PAK planning engine ,real time HANA optimized providers (aDSO of type direct update and Cube with planning enabled)

Source of diagram –  https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/207f2ed3-a22f-3210-faa5-ade903c2b2ed?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&60593398613131

 Above diagram describes about Calculations of planning function run, aggregation,and conversions like Currency/Unit conversion etc. occurring directly in HANA DB layer

Source of diagram – SAP

Similarly above diagram shows the integration of IP-PAK with BPC 10.0 in BPC 10.1 Embedde version where in planning engine runs on SAP HANA DB directly

• Planning Sessions – Easy creation of What if Analysis with the use of buffers, users could use recalculate button in Analysis office tab for analyzing the data before finally submitting it SAP recommends use the Analysis Plug-In instead of the EPM Plug-In with BPC Embedded projects.

• User Friendly -Strong focus on Business Users ( Master data handling , local file uploads), data duplication is removed  ,since ‘BPC embedded’ utilizes BW for master data , hierarchies , transaction data with no duplication of data, BW-IP/PAK data models and engines are used.

• BPC Features – BPF and Work status Excel and Web UI of BPC would help to automate the locking and changing of status through BPC web front end also executing the complete flow through BPF.

• Matrix Security – Optional ways of defining access rights to data , now the security can be handled from BW end by using authorization object concept of BI.

BPC Embedded Architecture

 

 

The architecture above shows the holistic technical flow  starting from master data to aDSO to Composite Provider to Aggregation level to Input Query to AO/Design Studio. There is also connection available to publish the real time aDSO (cube/DSO) to EPM Model and create EPM Office /web reports

BPC Embedded Planning Steps – Process Flow view

BPC Embedded Planning components

• Info provider –aDSO’s

As I mentioned it has become pretty simple in modelling through BWMT in HANA Studio, now the creation of Info objects and aDSO is must from BWMT tool.

Below screen shot explains about aDSO of type Direct Update DSO and aDSO of type Cube (Real time) with planning enabled feature in BWMT (BW modelling tool )

aDSO – of type DSO Direct Update & tick on Direct Update and  Planning mode

 

In Detail section we can add the characteristics as Key and Keyfigures. Please note that characteristics which are marked as key are only allowed in aggregation level.

aDSO – of type Real Time Cube with tick on Activate Data , All Char as key , Reporting on Union of Inbound , Planning Mode

• Composite Provider

CP is a type of Info Provider that combines data from a number of Info Providers (including composite providers( of type union)) and makes it available for analysis purposes. It’s similar to Multi provider with Union and Join capability.

Below example of composite provider has aDSO of type real time cube and composite provider which has set of aDSO’s in it.

• Aggregation Level

Aggregation Level of BPC Embedded is a subset of Info provider. Aggregation levels are source and are Info provider for an input-ready query.

We should create aggregation level on composite provider with all characteristics/key figures or subset of aDSO so that it allows to write the data in aDSO by using Input enabled query created on top of Aggregation Level( in below example planned enabled direct update aDSO ).

Key Figures are aggregated for all the characteristics that’s are not in aggregation level and while saving the records will have value # for the characteristics that are not included in Aggregation level

 

 

• Planning functions

 

Standard Planning Function –

The standard planning functions are the predefined planning functions provided by sap to change data. They are easy to use and simplest type. Use RSPLAN t-code for the same

Example

Copy

Currency Translation

Deleting

Reposting

Revaluation

Unit Conversion

COPY Function

• Copy function is used to copy the key figures from one characteristic combination to other.
• We can copy data for more one characteristic combination to another and also from one cube to other.

Example of COPY planning function below ( Function Type COPY is SAP delivered)

Select fields to be changed, select key figures to be changed (Either individual or all) Provide selections in form of constants or variables

Create Planning filter for the planning function in RSPLAN

There can be a requirement of custom planning functions which can be achieved by either FOX formulas or custom planning function type

• Planning Queries

Important points of making a query planned enabled are:

1. Created on top of Aggregation Level
2. An aggregation level or Composite provider comprising aggregation level based on real time planning enabled Info provider.
3. Key Figure Property in Query Planning tab should be set with Input ready ( relevant for locking)
4. In Query Property planning tab check start query in change mode
5. There must be no locks, no data slices set.
6. The aim of planning must not be a combination not allowed by the char relationship.

• Analysis Office 2.3 Workbook creation and integration with BEx Queries

Once the above flow is ready based on the Input /reporting or analysis tool we need to integrate the BEx query . We will take AO 2.3 as a User Front end tool for Submission.

Open Analysis for Office

We can either create and save the AO workbook in SAP netweaver server or BO server Since the below example explains about SAP netweaver , so we need to skip this , if we have to save the workbook in BO server we need to login here with user id pwd and URL .

Click SKIP

Now login and Insert the Bex Query

We can call and insert multiple planning functions , planning sequence – say copy , delete etc to be executed from this workbook and build a button in workbook to call the planning function and sequences.

We can insert multiple queries in workbook by using Use Data Source as highlighted in above screen shot , once we have inserted data source then we need to insert cross tab.

So the above way AO workbooks can be created based on multiple input ready queries and buttons would help to automate planning functions , calculations etc.

To conclude , this blog talks about technical overview of BPC Embedded 10.1 , its architecture ,how its uses BW-IP flow with new BWMT tool in HANA Studio utilizing HANA functionality through BW -IP PAK . It also explains a simple case of query integration in user friendly Analysis for Office .

The sequence  and flow explained above will help to plan the architecture and development with BWMT in mind and utilizing the BW on HANA latest providers and features.

Thanks and hope this blog would be helpful!

Sources  –

https://support.sap.com/content/dam/library/ssp/infopages/pam-essentials/BPC_101_NW.pdf

https://help.sap.com/bopac

https://etcircle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/BPC-10-1-Roadmap-10-2015.pdf