The reporting, analysis, and interpretation of business data is of central importance to a company in guaranteeing its competitive edge, optimizing processes, and enabling it to react quickly and in line with the market. As a core component of SAP NetWeaver, the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) provides data warehousing functionality, a business intelligence platform, and a suite of business intelligence tools that enable businesses to attain these goals. Relevant business information from productive SAP applications and all external data sources can be integrated, transformed, and consolidated in SAP BW with the toolset provided. SAP BW provides flexible reporting and analysis tools to support you in evaluating and interpreting data, as well as facilitating its distribution. Businesses are able to make well-founded decisions and determine target-orientated activities on the basis of this analysis.
The following graphic shows how the SAP BW concept is structured. Data Warehousing, BI Platform and BI Suite represent the core areas of SAP BW.
The following graphic shows where SAP BW is positioned within SAP NetWeaver. Furthermore, those subareas that incorporate SAP BW are listed. These are described in detail below.
SAP BW Subareas
| Area | Description |
| Data Warehousing | Data warehousing in SAP BW represents the integration, transformation, consolidation, cleanup, and storage of data. It also incorporates the extraction of data for analysis and interpretation. The data warehousing process includes data modeling, data extraction, and administration of the data warehouse management processes.The central tool for data warehousing tasks in SAP BW is theAdministrator Workbench. |
| BI Platform | The Business Intelligence platform serves as the technological infrastructure and offers various analytical technologies and functions. These include the OLAP processor, the Metadata Repository, Business Planning and Simulation, special analysis processes such as Data Mining, and the Reporting Agent. |
| BI Suite: Business Explorer | The SAP BW Business Intelligence Suite, the Business Explorer (BEx), provides flexible reporting and analysis tools for strategic analyses, operational reporting, and decision-making support within a business. These tools include query, reporting, and analysis functions. As an employee with access authorization you can evaluate past or current data on various levels of detail, and from different perspectives, not only on the Web but also in MS Excel.You can use BEx Information Broadcasting to distribute Business Intelligence content from SAP BW by e-mail either as precalculated documents with past data, or as links with live data. You can also publish it to the Enterprise Portal.The Business Explorer allows a broad spectrum of users access to information in the SAP BW using the Enterprise Portal, the Intranet (Web application design) or mobile technologies. |
| Development technologies |
With the BI Java SDK you can create analytical applications with which you access both multidimensional (Online Analytical Processing or OLAP) and tabular (relational) data. You can also edit and display this data. BI Java Connectors, a group of four JCA-enabled (J2EE Connector Architecture) resource adapters, implement the BI Java SDK APIs and allow you to connect applications that you have created with the SDK to various data sources.
The Open Analysis Interfaces make various interfaces available for connecting front-end tools from third-party providers.
The Web design API and table interface allows you to realize highly individual scenarios and demanding applications with customer-defined interface elements. |
Joshua Burkhow
Joshua is working to become a Data Scientist with focus on Analytics, Big Data, Machine Learning, and Statistics. His passion for Data and Information are second to none. He is a certified IBM Cognos Expert with more than 10 years experience in Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing, Analtyics, IT Management, Software Engineering and Supply Chain Performance Management with Fortune 500 companies. He has specializations in Analytics, Mobile Reporting, Performance Management, and Business Analysis.
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