Boeke J. - SAP BI Analysis Office - a Practical Guide

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1st Edition 2015, Gleichen

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My name is Joerg Boeke and I am an SAP BW solution architect and consultant based in Germany.

I started working with SAP NetWeaver BW reporting in 1998, using version 1.x to enhance Excel-based FI/CO reporting, with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to enrich SAP Business Explorer (SAP BEx) Excel-based reporting for customers. After several years of consulting with clients on how to improve their SAP BEx-based reporting and SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office (which is abbreviated as AO), I want to share my experiences with you in this book so that you can create state-of-the-art AO workbooks. I have found that a lot of SAP NetWeaver BW books cover only SAP BEx, and most of the books dealing with Business Objects (BO) cover the BO side, and primarily web-based reporting. What I think is lost or missing is the fact that many users, especially in SAP Controlling, have a need for Excel-based reporting.

With SAP BEx, SAP Excel-based reporting in the BW 7.x environment, SAP dropped a lot of the previous 3.x Excel VBA interaction functionality. Fortunately, this functionality is now back with AO and the SAP BEx features are included as well.

These factors were key drivers for me to write this book, which focuses on Excel and BW. A lot of good functionality that used to exist in AO is back and can be used in Excel and for manual enhancements.

One of the best features reinvented in AO a full-blown programming exit, the Application Programming Interface (API) is similar to previous 3.5 SAP BEx versions. This feature helps users fulfill complex reporting needs by simply calling that functionality using Excel macros.

Using this API exit, you can create and enrich AO-based reporting, from simple reports with automated functions to complex Microsoft Excel-driven dashboards.

I would like you to join me in systematically exploring how you can use AO Excel-based reporting to fulfill your current and future reporting needs.

Note on the data in this book

All of the data shown in the illustrations in the book is either dummy data or demo data provided by SAP.

In this book, my aim is to support readers who are familiar with SAP BEx and are considering a transition to AO Excel as the designated reporting tool for Excel-based reporting. Readers will learn where to find the functions they are familiar with from SAP BEx in AO.

Readers starting with AO who are unfamiliar with SAP BEx reporting can use this book to walk through AO functionality for reporting and enhancements.

The book provides a step-by-step guide to unleashing reporting functionality for you and your reporting users. Readers from beginners to experts will find tips and best practices for leveraging AO.

We will start with the basics and will gradually build on our understanding of AO.

If you are already familiar with AO basics, then you can skip the sections on the toolbar and context menus.

AO versions in this book

This book explains the options and features for AO based on Version 1.4 SP9 and some enhanced features of AO 2.0 BETA. However, in the beginners examples, I will reference all of the options and functionality availability in AO Version 1.4.

I would like to dedicate this book to my customers and thank all of those who have shared their specific reporting problems with me. Without those problems and questions like How do I do this with AO?, I would not have had the inspiration to write this book and help readers like you.

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Warning

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Finally, a note concerning the copyright: All screenshots printed in this book are the copyright of SAP SE. All rights are reserved by SAP SE. Copyright pertains to all SAP images in this publication. For simplification, we will not mention this specifically underneath every screenshot.