Connecting Users to Data with Xcelsius ]

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Connecting Users to Data with Xcelsius

Kevin Fournier & Gary Bernstein Senior Consultants

D S S l

DataSense Solutions

CHAVONE JACOBS

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ASUG INSTALLATION MEMBER MEMBER SINCE: 2003

Real Experience. Real Advantage.

COREY PEARSON

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ALLAN FISHER

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Talking Points

My Background – Consultant with DataSense Solutions

Overview of Business Objects XI BI Platform

What is Xcelsius? - What Can it Do? - How Does it Work?

How do I Connect Xcelsius to my Data?

What to Consider When Designing & Deploying Dashboards?

Conclusion, Questions and Answers.

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DataSense Solutions, Inc.

A Sp i li d C

lti P

ti

Provide products, consulting and

Founding and managing

organization of the New England Business Objects User Group 1997

A Specialized Consulting Practice……

educational services to help

companies design, build and deploy business intelligence and data

warehouse systems

j p

Co-established the Boston Chapter of TDWI – The Data Warehousing Institute

Our consultants help clients “bridge the gap” between business/user requirements and a technical solution

CA ERwin Reseller and Solution provider. ERwin Data Modeler solution

Certified Business Objects Consulting, Training and Sales Partner – Since 1996

Netezza Solution Partner Partner – Since 1996

Hands on experience with over 350

B i Obj t t

Business Objects customers empowering over 25,000 users.

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BUSINESS OBJECTS XI

Crystal Web Infoview &

Reports Intelligence Xcelsius Explorer Portal Integration Kits

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A Comprehensive Portfolio of Business Management

SAP/Business Objects Product Portfolio

A Comprehensive Portfolio of Business Management and Business Intelligence Solutions

To BEST FIT Your Needs.

Solution D e EDGE SERIES ENTERPRISE ept h and Br e a Business Intelligence CRYSTAL REPORTS ONDEMAND.com adth

Your Business Complexity / IT Expertise High Low

Business Management

Your Business Complexity / IT Expertise High Low

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Xcelsius - What is it?

A Windows based tool for developing highly interactive and visually rich reports and

dashboards

Provides access to Excel and enterprise data via many connectivity methods

Provides interactive controls that allow users to change values to perform ‘What If’ analysis

analysis

Xcelsius 2008 – available independent of Business Objects or SAP configuration*

*connectivity and functionality will vary based on licensing and connectivity and functionality will vary based on licensing and deployment configuration.

D hb d d Vi li ti

Dashboards and Visualization

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Xcelsius – What can it do?

Produce displays that present information from single or multiple data sources that are visually pleasing and interactive

Great for displaying metrics, KPI’s, goals, in an easily understood and meaningful way an easily understood and meaningful way Visually monitor what matters and alerts organizations to exception conditions All d illi d il

Allow drilling to detail to see root cause What-If capabilities allow users to change values to see how business is affected

Output can be deployed via web browser, Adobe, Word, Outlook, PP, desktop, SharePoint, SAP Portal or Visual Composer

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Xcelsius – How does it work?

Step 1: Data Source Tier

Identify your compliant data source(s). Universes, Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence documents, or y p g any XML- compliant data source.

Step 2: Connectivity Tier

Many methods available to connect to corporate y p data inside or outside your organization.

Step 3: Visualization Tier

Use Xcelsius development tool to create visual p models.

Step 4: Distribution Method

Deploy SWF(Flash) file to InfoView, website, p y ( ) PowerPoint, PDF, SharePoint, SAP Portal or other publishing options.

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Xcelsius 2008 – Development Environment

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Xcelsius: What does it look like?

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More than a pretty picture….

Information combined from various sources

Consistent business definitions definitions T l Timely Information Quality data Intuitive User

Interface

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Xcelsius Connectivity Options

Query as a Web Service (QaaWS)Q y (Q )

Live Office

Crystal

Other: SAP BEx, NetWeaver BI,

XML, Adobe LiveCycley

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Query as a Web Service

Lets you create a custom

web services for specific i i h

queries using the same

semantic layer as the rest of

the Business Objects BI j

Suite.

All BI b

Allows BI content to be

delivered to any application

that can process Web p

Services.

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Using Query as a Web Service

O D

d Q

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On Demand Querying

Parameters

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Live Office

An add-in to Microsoft Office

tools - Excel Word Outlook tools Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Provides easy access to

up-to-date corporate data using the same semantic layer and the same semantic layer and security shared by the

Business Objects BI Suite.

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Using Live Office (1)

C d hb d

Options:

) f h d d

Connect your dashboard to:

A Web Intelligence Report

A Crystal Report

a) refresh on demand b) from a report Instance

• previously scheduled report

A Crystal Report

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Using Live Office (2)

Options:

Connect your dashboard to:

• A Universe Query

a) refresh on demand b) from saved query data

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Crystal Connectivity

Connecting to your managed or un-managed Crystal Reports as

a data source.

Crystal Report Xcelsius Dashboard

Xcelsius Developer

Data

Source(s) _p

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Using Crystal Connectivity: Step 1

Connect your Dashboard to the data in one Crystal Report

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Using Crystal Connectivity: Step 2

Embed your dashboard into a Crystal 2008 Report

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Using Crystal Connectivity: Step 3

Crystal Report Content

Hidden Results

Xcelsius Components

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Other Connectivity Options:

Sample of BEx Query & SAP NW BI Connection

System Requirements 1 BI 7 X Add O SP901 1. BI 7.X Add-On SP901 or higher 2. Xcelsius Designer 2008 SP2 hi h SP2 or higher 3. SAP GUI 7.10 Dashboard Consumers:

1. Flash Player 9 or higher

2. Server side NetWeaver

Platform:

3. SAP EHP1 for SAP NW

7.0 SP5 Java and ABAP

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Using BEx Query Option

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Connect Results to Xcelsius Model

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Dashboards in your Environment

Considerations for Development Considerations for Development

Purpose A W b P Data Source R f h R t As a Web Page Within a Report Analysis Tool Type of User Refresh Rate # of Users Data Volumes # of data sources yp Type of data Data Quality Consistency Ease of Design S Environment E R Summary Drilldown Template Existing Reports Security Existing Skills Centralization

Centralization

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_{Users of Dashboards}

Executive Management

Dashboards, Scorecards, KPIs

Business Analysts Front Line us ess a ysts

Ad-Hoc Queries, On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP)

Front Line Employees

Operational or Standard Reports

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What is the Purpose of my Dashboard?

Analysis Tool

I need to get from NY to Boston: Should

I Fly, Drive or take the train? Like a Web

P Part of a

R t

Page Report

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Conclusion

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Xcelsius is a very powerful development tool that can access

data from virtually any source and location.

Output can be delivered in almost any required format and

remain connected or disconnected from the data source.

Xcelsius allows for a wide variety of display options that

support a large range of users needs support a large range of users needs.

Consideration and care should be given to selecting the most Consideration and care should be given to selecting the most appropriate connectivity options and design choices.

Connecting Users to Data with Xcelsius ]

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