- Hardcover: 782 pages
- Publisher: SAP Press; 1st edition (December 31, 2011)
- Language: English, German
- ISBN-10: 1592293840
- ISBN-13: 978-1592293841
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 2.1 inches
Book Description
This book provides a single comprehensive resource that covers all issues related to data warehousing and business intelligence using SAP NetWeaver BW and the myriad of SAP and SAP BusinessObjects front-end BI tools.
What Readers Say
First I have to make one clarification: I say it is THE BEST BW and BusinessObjects book on the market simply because it is the most comprehensive and best written book (I have them all since 2006).
This book is 795 pages of details and overview of each of the tools with practical examples and simple clear recommendations. Almost all pages include the phrase “we recommend….” and much of the test is written in this simple “you” and “we” prose. Something that makes this book easily understandable and a quick read. Best of all, it clearly demonstrates that the book is not reformatted PowerPoint slides like some other BusinessObjects books.
The chapters are organized as:
1. BI Fundamentals – 57 pages with intro text for the beginner (great for students and new employees)
2. Overview of BW 7.3 and BI 4.0 – 70 pages with high level overview of BW data warehouse and a summary of the BusinessObjects tool. This is well written and is specific to the latest version of BW and BOBJ.
3. Data Modeling – 188 pages of real ‘meat’ on how to build BW InfoCubes, DSOs, data flows, aggregates, BWA and a solid how-to approach to this text makes it invaluable.
4. Extraction – 32 pages. This is too short, but it covers the basics of how to load BW 7.3. I would have liked to see more on write-optimized DSOs, buffering for activation and more on the LBWE cockpit. But it covers all the basics…
5. Administration – 30. Short chapter that deals mainly on transports. Have all key ingredients and enough ‘meat’ to be useful even for experienced basis staff.
6. Authorizations – 26 pages. It is nice to see a BW book that spends more than 2-3 paragraphs on this very important topic. I expect to see even more in this chapter in the next edition of this book (more on BOBJ integration and an updated HANA section).
7. SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform – 36 pages. This is the weakest chapter in the book. More should have been written on public folders of BI launchpad, inboxes, server management, but it provides a good starting point for a beginner.
8. BEx query designer – 63 pages. It is really great to see that the authors understand that the BEx query is a central part of the BI landscape. I shiver when I read books from so-called ‘experts’ that suggest bypassing BW features such as the BI analytical engine and simply link the BOBJ tools directly to DSOs (crappy performance) and InfoCubes (thereby bypassing all BI analytical engine functions). These authors get “it” and have this great chapter that should be in all BOBJ books.
9. Query Navigation – 15 pages. Basic navigation stuff that is often missing in other books
10. BEx Analyzer – 22 pages. A good ‘nod’ to the old tools that are being used by the vast majority of BW users.
11. BusinessObjects Analysis – 20 pages. The fact that this chapter follows the BEx Analyzer chapter demonstrates that the authors understand that this is a replacement of the tool in chapter 10. Nice compare and contrast…
12. BEx Web Analyzer – 37 pages that covers the basics and the Web Application Designer templates from a basic level. I like the split of this tool from the BEx Analyzer (Excel vs. web) instead of placing both in the same chapter (would have been 59 of pages to decipher from each other). Well done!
14. BusinessObjects WebI
15. Crystal reports
16. SAP Dashboards (Xcelsius)
17. SAP BO explorer
This is 77 pages of to-the-point tools overview with good examples and all the ‘gotcha’ you would expect. Clear recommendations and simple demos/screenshots that is easy to follow. They could be a bit longer and have more examples, but there are books on each of these areas that can compliment these chapters (i.e. “BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook by Lai and Hacking) and (BusinessObjects Web Intelligence by Brogden, Sinkwitz and Holden). However, having these 4 chapters makes the book tremendously valuable since it is all in a single book, instead of 3-4 others.
18. Integrated Planning – 13 pages. While this technology is probably dying (replaced by BPC), this chapter really needs to be beefed up or removed. 13 pages is simply too little.
19. SAP SEM BCS – 17 pages. Does not belong in this book (dead technology) and should be removed.
Glossary – 10 pages – Awesome!!! Need more.
Tables and core transaction codes – 8 pages – Awesome (more please!)
SAP Notes overview – 4 pages (again: more please, but this is great!)
Overall a very, very, very, good book that I have assigned to all my students at the SAP University Alliance and will be using this and next semester… Strongly recommended!
Purchase this SAP BI Book
If you want to download this e-book, please click on the cover image. You will be redirected to sap-press.com, the only website that sells SAP PRESS e-books. Don’t worry, if you prefer to hold your book the print version is also available for purchase.