This course provides optimization strategies, best practices, and SAP guidelines and updates for SAP Solution Manager Enterprise Edition and Support.

This course provides expert guidance to plan for, set up, and properly evaluate SAP Solution Manager. It was specifically created for managers, administrators and technical teams tasked with evaluating or utilizing SAP Solution Manager.

This course provides expert guidance for teams that are evaluating, deploying, and managing SAP NetWeaver XI and was specifically created for managers, administrators and technical teams tasked with evaluating or utilizing SAP NetWeaver XI.

This course provides expert guidance to develop, define, and implement a rock solid security strategy for SAP® ERP and SAP NetWeaver environments.

When an SAP ERP upgrade or enhancement package installation can significantly advance your organization’s business strategy


This session highlights innovative strategies being used by leading companies to initially prove — and then continually demonstrate — the value of an SAP ERP upgrade in order to secure and retain management buy-in and support. It offers strategies and tactics to increase your return on SAP ERP long after your initial upgrade project. During this session, you will:

Build a bullet-proof business case for your upgrade that can win over the most skeptical decision maker

Find out how to increase the ROI of your upgrade by tightly integrating this project with strategic business improvement and cost savings initiatives

Get expert instruction and examples of how to build a multi-dimensional project roadmap that accounts for business, functional, and technical requirements

See why most companies underestimate the return on their upgrade because they don’t account for the benefits across all key functional areas

Evaluate the pros and cons of three different upgrade strategies — upgrade, migrate, and consolidate — and determine which approach yields the highest ROI for your organization

Identify the key components that must be factored into your upgrade cost and ROI model

Reduce risk in your organization by using your upgrade to launch a more stringent change management process

Determine whether your upgrade is the right time to get functionality you’ve previously paid for “off the shelf”


 Critical steps and considerations for choosing and optimizing your upgrade approach: Technical upgrade, functional upgrade, or SAP enhancement package installation


Your decision to perform a purely technical upgrade versus a combined technical-functional upgrade or SAP enhancement package installation has a profound impact on the upgrade project itself, as well as downstream support and maintenance activities. Walk through the pros and cons of each approach, and gather recommendations to help you make the right long-term decision for your organization. In this session, you will:

Get a firm understanding of how technical upgrade, functional upgrade, and SAP enhancement package installation projects differ in terms of cost, time, resources, and benefits

Determine whether a purely technical upgrade project truly reduces expenses and risks and what the tradeoffs are in terms of long-term ROI and support for the business

Explore the major financial, HR, logistics, and corporate functional deltas between SAP R/3® and SAP ERP releases and SAP enhancement packages and understand prerequisites for activating new functionality

Find out how technical upgrades, functional upgrades, and enhancement package projects have varying effects on testing and downtime

Determine when you should include an SAP enhancement package installation and activation with your upgrade

Understand the prerequisites for using various pieces of functionality in SAP ERP 6.0


 A guided tour of SAP enhancement packages: Everything you need to know to successfully evaluate, activate, and optimize new functionality


Sharpen your knowledge of SAP enhancement packages and get a summary of the new functionality they provide. Find out how an enhancement package installation differs from a traditional upgrade, and explore the recommended approach for getting started with, installing, and activating enhancement packages — either as part of your upgrade or as a standalone project. In this session you will:

Broaden your knowledge of the business functionality that is included in SAP enhancement package 4 (Hint: It includes functionality from enhancement packages 1, 2, 3 and much more)

Get an understanding of the SAP enhancement package installation process, when it is best to apply them, and how an installation differs from a traditional upgrade

Examine important differences between installation versus activation of SAP enhancement packages with advice on the potential time, effort, and complexity associated with configuring specific pieces of functionality

Learn why it is crucial that you have installed all of the latest support packages and are running SAP NetWeaver® enhancement package 1 in order to install SAP ERP enhancement package 4

Fortify your understanding of the SAP tools available to assist you with your installation: the solution browser, the scenario and process component list, and The Enhancement Package Information Center

Get the latest updates on the release of enhancement package 5, including a sneak peek at what’s coming via the “Ramp-up” program


Is your SAP landscape ready for an SAP ERP 6.0 upgrade or SAP enhancement package
installation? Essential preparation considerations to optimize cost, stability, and performance


Starting an upgrade project without evaluating and properly preparing your landscape can result in poor system performance, instability, and extended downtime. This session walks you through the process of preparing your landscape for your upgrade or SAP enhancement package project. Understand different landscape, CPU, memory and release compatibility requirements to ensure your applications run smoothly together. By attending you will:

Understand SAP’s five-system landscape requirement (Hint: This is a recommended minimum!) and how this approach reduces downtime and provides a complete productive support landscape during the course of the upgrade

Learn how to conduct a comprehensive compatibility analysis with other SAP and third-party applications to avoid being surprised by integration gotchas

Identify the right questions to ask your vendors so that you know whether or not third-party applications need to be upgraded at the time of your project

Explore typical landscape scenarios that support a technical upgrade, functional upgrade, or SAP enhancement package installation

Recognize the largest opportunities for landscape cost savings, including an OS/DB migration upgrade

Gain insight into how functionality requirements, such as the use of SAP NetWeaver Portal to support selfservices and cockpits, impact your landscape

Assess the hardware reduction and cost-savings opportunities that virtualization could provide

Determine whether you should convert to Unicode at the time of your upgrade and what that entails

Evaluate your use of ABAP™ and Java to determine whether they should run on a dual stack or individual application stacks


Avoiding the would-haves, could-haves, should-haves: Strategies for planning, scoping and executing a fail-safe SAP ERP upgrade or SAP enhancement package project plan


Obtain expert guidance to plan, scope, execute, and derive maximum value from your upcoming SAP ERP upgrade. Avoid the common mistakes that commonly trip up SAP ERP upgrade and SAP enhancement package projects. Learn how to maximize the reward and mitigate risks associated with an SAP ERP upgrade project. You will:

Learn how to build a project plan, create the project timeline and milestones, and assemble the right mix of business and technical resources for your project

Examine the five factors that directly impact an upgrade timeline, such as the decision to do a technical or functional upgrade, amount of resources available, and landscape decisions

See the right way to analyze current system usage and understand why that is important for your project plan, specifically with regard to testing

Learn how to assess gaps between current functionality in production versus functionality in the upgrade sandbox to get a precise scope of what no longer works and whether to add new functionality

Acquire expert advice to manage the “red zone—” the phase in which all other projects and development activities should be frozen

Step through an end-to-end analysis of an upgrade cycle, from preparation to blueprint, to realization to finalization, and get examples of pitfalls to watch for and avoid

Explore the anatomy of a typical cut-over weekend, including an overview of the technical upgrade phases and best practices for orchestrating a flawless cut-over


 Expert instruction for choosing and using the best methods and tools to accelerate your upgrade or enhancement package project and minimize downtime


Deadline and downtime are two of the most critical benchmarks used to measure the success of any upgrade project. Through lecture and demonstration, become familiar with dozens of SAP tools that help you conquer these objectives, and identify scenarios that may be best supported by third-party tools. You will:

Weigh specific criteria to help you determine if, whether, and how SAP Solution Manager should play a role in your upgrade project and which specific functionality, such as the upgrade roadmap, could be most useful

Learn how to utilize the solution browser tool to identify functional deltas in your SAP R/3 or SAP ERP system

See how the upgrade dependency analyzer works to uncover dependencies that could affect other SAP components in your landscape when you upgrade

Identify and eliminate obsolete custom modifications in your system using the custom development management cockpit

Acquire expert advice to deftly navigate The Enhancement Package Information Center to quickly get the information you need

Reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly with regard to near zero downtime upgrades (Hint: They are not recommended for every situation)

Ascertain if and when it makes sense to license the test data migration server (TDMS) to better manage your QA environment


 If, when, and how SAP Solution Manager adds value before, during, and after your upgrade or SAP enhancement package installation


This session offers advice to help you decide what role SAP Solution Manager can play in helping you manage your upgrade project, proactively resolve issues in your SAP ERP system, and optimize performance. Come away with a clear understanding of the benefits of utilizing SAP Solution Manager during an upgrade project. By attending, you will:

Learn how to leverage the project administration tool to provide the framework for running a transparent, efficient, upgrade project by cataloging transactions, tracking progress, and storing key project documents

See how project administration can be used to export information into other project management tools, like Microsoft Project

Step through a demonstration that shows you how to access and utilize the template business processes from within the Business Process Repository

See how to use SAP Solution Manager as a central storage and check-in/check-out tool for critical project documentation that can be reused throughout the project and for new projects

Understand how to track, manage, and resolve project issues using Service Desk functionality

Find out how the Service Desk integrates with popular third-party incident management tools, as well as how it works with satellite systems to pinpoint the causes of problems

Find out why SAP Solution Manager may be a requirement for SAP enhancement package support and maintenance, particularly for SAP enhancement package 4


 Do your testing processes and procedures measure up? Practical advice to ensure the quality and stability of your upgraded system long after your project ends


Testing, while absolutely critical to avoiding errors, downtime, and productivity lapses, can add considerable time and complexity to an upgrade or SAP enhancement package project. Find out how to prioritize, optimize, and streamline your testing efforts throughout your project life cycle without compromising the quality of your system.

Explore, in detail, how to create a landscape-wide testing strategy that accounts for interdependent SAP applications and third-party applications and interfaces

Review tools and techniques to build a testing catalog that optimizes the number of test scripts and that covers your critical business processes

Receive guidelines for segmenting your testing strategy into phases and manageable work packages

Learn how to create a scorecard to drive each testing phase with metrics that not only track results, but reduce the effort and time

Understand the unique goals and objectives of diagnostic, unit, transactional, string, and regression tests

Identify opportunities to convert from manual to automated testing to minimize the drain on human resources, strengthen your system’s compliance, and more effectively test new functionality

Boost your knowledge of when, why, and how to use testing tools such as eCATT and the SAP Quality Center application by HP


 Expert advice, lessons, and guidelines for maintaining, monitoring, and troubleshooting your newly upgraded SAP environment using SAP Solution Manager


SAP Solution Manager has become the de facto resource for managing and supporting your SAP ERP 6.0 landscape. The key to maximizing its value as a support tool is knowing its capabilities and when and where to use them. This session is designed to help customers evaluating their support strategy consider whether SAP Solution Manager could reduce TCO and offers insights and best practices for maintaining a newly upgraded or enhanced system. You will:

Learn the basics of central system monitoring capabilities within SAP Solution Manager and the advanced features it provides when paired with the project administration tool

Determine if, whether, and how your users can contact support and track SAP issues more easily via the Service Desk and what the limitations are (Hint: It might not be a good replacement for your IT help desk)

Find out how to monitor business conditions using business process monitoring and what the requirements are for using this tool

Gain insight into what SAP EarlyWatch® reports can reveal about your system’s patch levels, commonly used transactions, and database report — and examine your options for running these reports

Explore new background job management tools that can be used to maintain batch jobs more effectively

Learn how to prioritize which tools to use based on their ability to help you reduce TCO of your newly upgraded system, including recommendations for the minimum number of tools needed


 Creative strategies for doing more with less: How to get the most from internal project teams and external consultants


With tight budgets and limited human resources, organizations must think creatively in order to assemble their upgrade project teams, hit key deadlines and milestones, and achieve desired business outcomes — all while keeping costs down. In this session, you will:

Obtain best practices for conducting an internal resource assessment to identify and select the right people to staff your project

Determine how many resources you will need for your project and which roles should come from inside versus outside the company

Acquire expert advice to negotiate for resources from your non-technical business teams and utilize them smartly

Find out how to clearly define project team roles, assign tasks and deliverables, and measure outcomes

Determine if and when you need to hire outside consulting resources and understand how to go about it wisely with a well-defined RFP and statement of work (SoW)

Assess your organization’s internal core competencies to ensure you use consultants only to augment — not replace — internal talent

Learn how to proactively formulate a plan to manage your upgrade after your consultants leave with a sound training, knowledge transfer, and post-project support strategy

Walk through the four key factors you must consider when deciding whether to outsource development, either onshore or offshore (Hint: There can be an impact on the realization phase of your project)


 Leveraging your upgrade or enhancement package project to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO)


SAP and IT teams are under greater pressure than ever to achieve more while reducing costs. Find out how an SAP ERP upgrade provides a unique opportunity to make changes that reduce the overall costs of operating and maintaining your SAP landscape as well as position the enterprise to react faster to changing business requirements. In this session, you will:

Find out how to assess the usage of custom modifications and code in your system and eliminate what’s obsolete so you don’t have to keep maintaining it on your new system

Acquire expert guidance to assess your landscape for unnecessary, expensive, or slow hardware that can be eliminated or replaced

Quantify productivity gains that can be achieved from better performing systems and streamlined business processes

Find out if all the data on your original system needs to be kept live or if it can be archived and retained offline

Determine whether multiple instances of applications can be consolidated into a single instance to reduce infrastructure and licensing costs

Retire legacy interfaces, third-party applications, business processes, and indices that are out of date or have traditionally been expensive and time-consuming to maintain

Clean up client-dependent data to reduce errors and enable better testing

Learn how to incorporate the permanent resolution of long-standing, nagging system issues that could not previously be justified as their own projects into the upgrade 

This course provides updated strategies, best practices, and comprehensive education on what’s new with data modeling in SAP NetWeaver® 7.0. and was designed for administrators and technical teams tasked with optimizing data modeling in SAP NetWeaver 7.0. 

Data modeling, management, and architectural techniques for high data volumes with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 


Explore the best architectural and data modeling techniques for SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) environments that include large volumes of data. Watch this session to:

Delve into advanced techniques, such as the layered approach and logical partitioning.

Identify techniques, including data transfer process (DTP) parallel processing, write-optimized DataStore Objects, and Information Broadcasting, to ensure that acceptable performance is maintained for reports, analytics, and data loads, even under extreme conditions.

Hear how SAP Information Lifecycle Management capabilities, such as nearline storage and archiving, factor into a high-volume data management strategy.

See how the SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator forms a cornerstone of system performance management, especially when dealing with massive amounts of data.

 Understand the key strategies, tactics, technologies, and concepts necessary to implement and manage a successful SAP NetWeaver BI system that contains extremely large amounts of data.


Introduction and Migration to the SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 data flow concept 


Explore the new data flow concept introduced with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) 7.0. Watch this session to:

Gain familiarity with the new DataSource concept, data transfer process (DTP), and InfoPackage changes that are included in the new data flow.

Understand data flow implications for customers new to SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and customers upgrading from SAP BW 3.x.

Examine the differences between an emulated DataSource, which remains an object in SAP BW 3.x, and a migrated DataSource, which is subject to all the improved functionality and data staging improvements available with SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0.

Evaluate the benefits and tradeoffs of each option in order to make the best choice for your SAP NetWeaver BI environment.

Determine if and how these updates could help you simplify maintenance of DataSources and more effectively monitor the data staging process.

 Bonus! A step-by-step guide to properly migrate to the new DataSource concept as well as advice for when and how to revert back to an SAP BW 3.x Data Source is available in your course book.


What’s new with data modeling in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0? 


Explore the breadth of new data modeling tools available with SAP NetWeaver® Business Intelligence 7.0, such as DataStore Objects, InfoSets, the remodeling toolbox, and more.

Determine if and how to use these tools to build data models that optimize data loads, join cubes to create specialized result sets, and remodel characteristics without dumping data.

Explore the new features for working with InfoSets to create specialized result sets.

Discover how the remodeling toolbox allows you to modify InfoCubes without deleting data.

Examine the latest capabilities available with the new Data Warehousing Workbench, including improved, centralized visualization of data flow that lets you see results in one place.

 Hear about new options for properly modeling DataStore Objects, formerly known as ODS objects.


An introduction to the new SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 Data Warehousing Workbench 


Take a guided tour of the new SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 Data Warehousing Workbench. Watch this session to:

Understand key differences between this new tool and its predecessor, the SAP BW 3.x Administrator Workbench.

Explore capabilities newly available with the Data Warehousing Workbench, such as advanced navigation, user-friendly interactive features, and a reduction in keystrokes.

Find out how to use the Data Warehousing Workbench as the entry point to all the important tools for managing your SAP NetWeaver BI environment, including remodeling, repartitioning, metadata/document searches, the SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator, and open hub.

See how you can execute change runs and launch metadata/document searches directly from the Data Warehousing Workbench.

Learn how you can maintain settings for InfoCubes, DataStore Objects, and OLAP cache.

 Identify previous Administrator Workbench features that have been removed or updated, such as the Reporting Agent, and find out how this could affect you.


Unlock the secrets of Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) to increase the analytic value of your SAP Business Intelligence InfoCubes 


Get a technical overview of the Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) language, and learn practical ways to leverage MDX to add value to your organization’s InfoCubes.

Learn how MDX has been implemented by SAP, and view specific examples of how it addresses common reporting and analytics obstacles like filtering data and creating exceptions.

Receive an outline of basic MDX concepts including SELECT statements, dimensions, and levels.

Understand the differences between MDX and SQL, and see how MDX can add business logic, like calculated members and named sets, to SAP InfoCubes.

See how MDX is used in SAP NetWeaver BI (and SAP BW 3.x) in three available interfaces, including OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO), XML for Analysis (XML/A) and OLAP BAPI®.

 Step through three live demos of how to perform time series and period comparisons, filter data sets using MDX functions, and create named sets.


SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence data modeling strategies for ensuring consistent data and accurate reports and analytics 


Acquire tips to avoid the most common data modeling mistakes that can result in an SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) system being populated with inaccurate, inconsistent data.

Determine why it’s important to map out your data modeling strategy clearly and carefully and to consider all possible data combinations before actual modeling begins.

Find out why a lack of knowledge about time-dependencies, delta updates, different data targets, and transformations can cause teams to oversimplify the data model, leading to inaccuracies in reports and analytics.

Identify the data discrepancies that can occur when data is joined during a delta load process.

Understand the differences that time-dependent versus time-independent attributes have on the consistency of historic time-dependent scenarios.

 Explore new SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 features and enhancements that can make it easier to handle time dependencies.


Tips and tricks for using SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 as your Enterprise Data Warehouse 


Gain insight into the successes and failures of six large-scale SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI)-based enterprise data warehouse (EDW) implementations, and learn how to apply lessons to your own EDW strategy and project.

Examine the difference between an evolutionary SAP NetWeaver BI data warehouse architecture and a top-driven design method.

Compare the results of using a data mart (bottom-up) approach to an EDW (top-down) approach, and determine which approach best fits your requirements.

Explore the ways in which new SAP NetWeaver BI enhancements — including the new data modeling toolbox, the SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator, and the DAMEON updates — support real-time enterprise data warehousing.

Learn how to avoid EDW pitfalls, such as loose data standards, relaxed use of standard SAP NetWeaver BI content, minimal environment management, lack of transport controls, and poor performance.

 Learn how to leverage the SAP NetWeaver BI architecture in a large landscape using the Corporate Information Factor CIF) and how to execute a high-level design before your project starts.


Best practices to effectively use SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence DataSources and extractors 


Understand the role and operation of DataSources and extractors in your SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI) environment. Eliminate confusion that is often encountered when dealing with delta-enabled extractors.

Get tips, tricks, and best practices for creating generic extractors and enhancing extractors.

Learn how to configure and optimize the size of data packages.

Learn how to analyze and troubleshoot problems associated with general error messages or specific messages like “no data found” that can appear when an extractor is run.

Explore the benefits and prerequisites of using the extractor checker. 

 Bonus! A list of important tables that contain information relevant to DataSources, along with techniques to simulate and test extraction processes in the online transaction process (OLTP) system before data is extracted and loaded into SAP NetWeaver BI.


An up-to-date guide to extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) processes within SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 


Understand how your options for managing and optimizing data extraction, transfer, and load (ETL) processes change with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0. Explore the new form of DataSources and how they affect the way you manage ETL processes.

Discover the new features for building and managing process chains, such as the ability to migrate InfoPackage groups and event chains into process chains.

Gain insight into new data flows and how they could affect future or existing usage of, third-party ETL tools.

See how new data governance and quality management features, such as the error stack, can help preserve data integrity during the transfer process.

Learn the best ways to reuse existing transfer rules, update rules and routines to create faster, less error-prone data transformation processes.

Determine whether new real-time data acquisition capabilities could help you automate frequent data loads.

 Get valuable deployment tips for the new SAP NetWeaver BI ETL tools.


An in-depth exploration of archiving and near-line storage options for managing SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence data 


Explore the three data management and archiving options available to help you control burgeoning data volumes in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (SAP NetWeaver BI). Obtain criteria to choose the right option for your needs or develop a hybrid approach that leverages the best of multiple options.

Examine the differences between traditional archiving and near-line storage (NLS) of SAP NetWeaver BI data, including an update on the new near-line interface.

Determine whether NLS is a viable option if you need to archive but don’t want to permanently delete information from your SAP NetWeaver BI database.

Learn how to ensure your SAP NetWeaver BI data targets are designed properly to anticipate future growth and subsequent data archiving.

Consider the benefits and tradeoffs of various third-party archiving solutions, including overhead, storage requirements, and performance impacts.

 Take away valuable lessons and get a realistic idea of how to achieve all the benefits of archiving while preserving the integrity of SAP NetWeaver BI data online and in your archives.


Case study: LACCD’s advanced use of SAP BW MultiProviders in its data model to report on and analyze heterogeneous business data 


This session draws from the experiences of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), where MultiProviders are actively used to show business analysts gross wages, employee demographics over time, and reports that relate employee pay to workload.

Learn how MultiProviders enable you to combine and analyze heterogeneous business data in reports and analytical applications, as well as allow you to partition criteria and divide large amounts of data into smaller chunks.

Understand the key requirements for using MultiProviders, including common keys, compatible dimensions, and comparable key figures.

Get real-world insights into the pitfalls of using MultiProviders.

Grasp the tradeoffs of data modeling shortcuts like adding keys via “near duplicate” records, and learn how to evaluate them before settling on a solution.

 View an ABAP™ code fragment that maps changes between time dimensions so end users can jump seamlessly from one query to another.


Case study: How The Schwan Food Company models and manages time and date dimensions in its SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence 7.0 system 


Explore The Schwan Food Company’s methods for properly designing and modeling time and date dimensions in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence InfoProviders, master data objects, and reports.

Find out how the company ensures proper reporting on multiple dates.

Learn how The Schwan Company handles time-dependent master data and how it correctly derives time-based values in update and transfer rules.

Examine the company’s versatile use of custom time characteristics for data extraction, transfer, and load (ETL) processes and reporting.

Learn how The Schwan Company uses dates as key figures with or without storing the values in SAP NetWeaver BI InfoProviders.

Examine the benefits and tradeoffs the company has experienced using temporal joins in InfoSets.

 See how the company handles past, present, and time-related aspects and limitations in reports.

Straight answers on the future of your business intelligence investment


 Hear directly from SAP about the role SAP BusinessObjects will play in your current – and future – SAP investment and business intelligence (BI) strategy. Get answers to your most pressing questions, such as:

How has the SAP BI strategy evolved and how will that affect my future decisions?

Where do SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) tools fit into this strategy?

Which solutions and tools are phasing out, and what will replace them?

Can I still leverage my BEx queries and existing BI content in SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP?

Will BEx Query Designer continue to play a fundamental role in the SAP BI strategy?

How will Crystal Reports and Xcelsius dashboards be embedded as delivered content in SAP Business Suite?

Do I have to start using all these tools today?

Which versions of SAP BusinessObjects XI or SAP NetWeaver BW do I need?

What is in store for the next release of SAP BusinessObjects, what new features and functionality will be released in the coming months?


Map the right tool to the right job: Strategies, updates, selection criteria


Dive into the extensive capabilities of the BI solutions available in SAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP BusinessObjects, and explore which tools map best to your organization’s specific business requirements.

Step through the key functionality of tools in the SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence (BI) solutions suite, including Crystal Reports, Xcelsius, and SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, and determine where, why, and how each can add value to your organization 

Identify key considerations to determine which tools are best suited for your requirements, including:

Mapping specific data sources to each tool to achieve optimum performance

Understanding which tools are best for specific types of users

Selecting tools that will offer the highest ROI for your requirements 


Compare the capabilities of the SAP BusinessObjects BI tools to those of traditional BI tools, and then map them to real-world scenarios to better understand:

Which tools are best suited to report off SAP ERP data versus data from SAP NetWeaver BW

Which tools are best suited to report off of non-SAP data sources, like Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Hyperion Solutions

When departments should use BEx Analyzer versus Crystal Reports

When to employ SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence versus Crystal Reports

Why SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence can’t report directly off SAP ERP

Which reporting tools are best for executive-level reports, financial reports, and business user reports

Different approaches for delivering reports via the business intelligence portal (formerly called InfoView), SAP ERP, and OpenDoc calls 


Step through some real-world scenarios to better understand how other organizations have selected the right tools for their jobs


Proving ROI: How to demonstrate the value of your SAP BusinessObjects implementation and integration effort


Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of any initiative is demonstrating a clear business benefit to key players in your organization. This session provides metrics and strategies to illustrate the value your SAP BusinessObjects integration effort to key stakeholders:

Anticipate the most pressing concerns of decision makers, and learn how to directly map the benefits gleaned from the BI tools to those issues

Understand how to measure the direct value each tool can have on your existing reporting and BI processes 

Hear how other organizations have demonstrated the value of their SAP BusinessObjects implementation and integration to decision makers


Technical details for bringing SAP BusinessObjects into your current BI architecture


This session steps through the complex architecture of an integrated BI environment. Understand the details of how SAP BusinessObjects solutions fit into an SAP ERP or SAP NetWeaver BW landscape, and what technical resources are needed for a successful integration initiative.

Step through an architectural “map” of the SAP BI landscape, and see how the reporting and analytics tools available within SAP ERP, SAP NetWeaver BW, and SAP BusinessObjects tie together 

Explore distinct integration points, and understand how these points will differ depending on the make-up of your SAP landscape 

Get tips on which drivers, transports, and data sources are needed for a successful integration

Learn which transports are best leveraged with SAP ERP and which are best for SAP NetWeaver BW

Explore the differences in how SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, and Xcelsius communicate with your SAP platform

Gain additional insight on how to connect to other SAP Business Suite solutions, such as SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) and SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM)


Gain a thorough understanding of the resources available in the SAP Integration Kit, and how to:

Extend data connectivity for Crystal Reports, SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, and Voyager using drivers that enable communication with SAP systems

Integrate SAP roles and users with the SAP BusinessObjects systems and extend functionality to single sign-on

Leverage SAP NetWeaver BW publishing to publish Crystal Reports objects from SAP NetWeaver BW systems to SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise

Integrate the SAP BusinessObjects repository into SAP NetWeaver Portal to provide functionality such as feedback, ranking, and collaboration from Knowledge Management

Integrate SAP BusinessObjects content with SAP NetWeaver Portal



10 surefire tips for seamless integration between SAP BusinessObjects and your BI landscape


Integrating SAP BusinessObjects solutions with your existing BI landscape can be fraught with pitfalls and “gotchas.” This session offers key considerations to help you avoid the roadblocks that stand in front of optimal integration between SAP BusinessObjects and SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP systems.

Learn which patch and release levels are needed before starting the integration process 

Know which key resources you must have aligned in the pre-integration phase 

Understand the order of operations for a successful SAP BusinessObjects integration project, from end-user training to the installation of essential transports and drivers 

Hear an overview of which of your current BI investments can still be leveraged in an integrated SAP BusinessObjects environment, and which cannot, including queries, reports, table authorizations, hierarchies, and roles 

Get testing, troubleshooting, and maintenance best practices for your post-integration landscape


Proven practices, strategies, and advice to integrate SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, and Xcelsius with your SAP systems


Each SAP BusinessObjects solution comes with its own integration opportunities and challenges. This session will make you aware of the specific nuances of tying SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, and Xcelsius to your SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW systems.

Discuss which questions to ask when integrating each of these specific SAP BusinessObjects BI tools into your existing landscape, such as:

What are my data sources?

Which tools am I already leveraging?

What resources do I have available?

What is my project scope?

Who are my BI consumers?

What is my reporting delivery strategy? 


Dive into recommended practices for integrating Crystal Reports

Find out which metadata layer will offer the best performance when using Crystal Reports to report off of SAP NetWeaver BW

Learn how to leverage SAP BusinessObjects report bursting capabilities to optimize reporting delivery strategy

Learn tips to develop Crystal Reports against SAP data sources 


Unearth tips and techniques for integrating SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

Understand the differences between OLAP universes and relational universes, and how SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence leverages OLAP universes as a fundamental building block for reporting off of SAP NetWeaver BW

Gain insight into the differences between pointing to an SAP NetWeaver BW query vs. an InfoCube

Learn when, why, and how to tweak your existing SAP NetWeaver BW queries for optimal report performance (and when you may need to build new queries) 


Delve into the differences between the available connectivity options for delivering quality Xcelsius dashboards, including LiveOffice, QaaWS, and BI Consumer Services (BICS)


Strategies that yield a high-performing, scalable SAP BI environment


You can have the best tools with the greatest features and functions, but if they don’t scale and perform, they’ll be useless to your business. This unique session pulls together key best practices and concepts in the areas of sizing, virtualization, and scalability from those who are building these platforms every day. Arm your teams with insight, tips, and tricks to create and size an SAP BI platform that can support the ever changing needs of your business.

Understand the difference between vertical and horizontal scalability 

Walk through a system sizing exercise and identify key questions to determine your specific sizing requirements, such as:

Number of users

Types of reports

User activity 


Assess whether virtualization makes sense for your SAP landscape, specifically within the latest VMware ESX Server environments 

Get seven scalability tips and tricks for optimizing platform performance, including:

Support for a 32-bit vs. 64-bit Windows platform

Which operating system, Microsoft Windows, Unix, or Linux, is best for scalability and performance

Which Web platform, .NET or Java, offers the greatest performance for specific scenarios

How to troubleshoot common bottlenecks, such as simultaneous users and high volumes of throughput on report processing



SAP BusinessObjects security: Features, requirements, and integration with your existing policies


You already have a security strategy to protect your critical data and reports. In this session find out the key security issues and challenges that come with these new tools, and learn how to leverage your existing security policies and strategies. Examine the native security features of SAP BusinessObjects, explore how these features differ from those of more traditional BI tools from SAP, and dive into the specific roles and characteristics that can be leveraged in your newly-integrated environment.

Bolster your knowledge of the native security features in SAP BusinessObjects and how they can best compliment traditional SAP security

Get expert advice on security design and workflow processes developed from real-world scenarios 

Explore the core security feature and terminology differences between the SAP BusinessObjects BI tools and the more traditional BI tools in SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP, including:

Roles versus groups

Object-level security as compared to role-level security

The distinction between authentication and single sign-on

A comparison of client-side and server-side single sign-on 


Learn how to leverage and map your pre-existing SAP roles from your SAP platform into SAP BusinessObjects 

Dive deep into the single sign-on features within SAP BusinessObjects, and examine how Secure Network Communications (SNC) can be used to leverage true single sign-on capabilities 

Understand the methodologies behind coupling Active Directory and SAP security in order to simplify your security matrix and streamline user maintenance 

Receive answers to some of the most common, and most challenging, security-related questions

Find out how the disablement of a role in SAP will affect your roles within SAP BusinessObjects

Learn what maintenance levels are required after roles have been mapped

Understand the workflow architecture of importing roles from SAP NetWeaver BW into SAP BusinessObjects

Discover ways to employ the monitoring and auditing of accounts and user activity in SAP BusinessObjects



Data sources made simple: A comprehensive guide to understanding, customizing, and leveraging hierarchies in SAP BusinessObjects


Learn how hierarchies serve as the basis for reporting and analysis within your SAP environment, and explore how SAP BusinessObjects employs hierarchies differently than SAP BEx or other traditional SAP business intelligence tools. This detailed session simplifies the concept of hierarchies and offers easy to understand guidelines for using 
them at your company.

Investigate the importance of hierarchies, and learn why they are a crucial component within your SAP environment 

Find out how each of the SAP BusinessObjects BI tools handles hierarchies and how that differs from handling hierarchies within SAP BEx

Explore how hierarchy and hierarchy node variables behave in the various SAP BusinessObjects BI tools

Examine methods to leverage SAP NetWeaver BW hierarchies, and get tips on developing custom hierarchies within SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence and Crystal Reports

Understand the different hierarchy-related limitations that exist in the various SAP BusinessObjects tools

Take away tips and tricks on developing savvy reports by utilizing hierarchies


Tuning SAP BusinessObjects solutions for optimal performance: Tips from the trenches


This session delivers proven practices to help you anticipate and manage performance issues and bottlenecks related to using SAP BusinessObjects solutions in your landscape. Understand what workloads and tasks can drag down your system, get advice for bolstering query performance, and learn how to deal and troubleshoot slow response times.

Prepare for the key culprits behind lagging performance of the SAP BusinessObjects BI tools, including:

Running queries through the OLAP BAPI® layer as opposed to running native to SAP

Hitting optimized BEx queries and putting them in SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator versus hitting queries, InfoCubes, and multiproviders directly

Misidentifying data volume limitations

Issues with contention of database activity in SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW while running reports 


Step through demos showing performance scenarios for SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, and Xcelsius, and learn how performance varies depending on whether you report off of SAP NetWeaver BW or SAP ERP 

Examine the preferred back-end metadata objects used to boost system performance 

Learn how reporting off data store objects (DSOs) versus InfoCubes plays a crucial role in your SAP BusinessObjects system performance 

Determine which connectivity methods are best suited for optimized system performance, and specifically investigate how BICS uses BEx queries off OLAP to deliver content 

Find out why limiting data volume is essential for performing what-if analysis within Xcelsius dashboards 

Learn how to open Xcelsius within Crystal Reports, and the ways this affects overall system performance 

Gain insight into the common bottlenecks that negatively affect system performance, and hear how SAP tracing can be leveraged to monitor and identify performance issues


The SAP business intelligence roadmap: What’s in, what’s out, and what it means to you


Understand the next generation of SAP’s reporting and business intelligence solutions, and learn how these future BI offerings will work within your SAP NetWeaver BW, SAP Business Suite, and SAP BusinessObjects environments.

Review SAP’s current BI strategy and the role SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions play in that strategy 

Hear directly from SAP on many of the enhancements planned for the core SAP BusinessObjects BI platform (SAP BusinessObjects XI 4.0)

Learn about many new user enhancements that make the SAP BusinessObjects BI tools much easier to use

Get a glimpse into the new semantic layer and see how it will provide a more robust environment for managing disparate data 


Explore future enhancements to reduce the administrative task of running the SAP BusinessObjects and SAP NetWeaver platforms in parallel 

Learn the product details for Pioneer, the much anticipated next generation analysis tool that will be replacing BEx Analyzer and SAP BusinessObjects Voyager, and how it will be an integral part of the future SAP BusinessObjects portfolio 

Get the information you need to decide if you should implement, upgrade, or integrate your BI solutions now or wait until the next release


 Manage your ongoing SAP BusinessObjects implementation and integration initiative


Whether you’re evaluating, starting a new project, or are in the process of bringing more solutions into your landscape, you will learn valuable and practical advice to manage and validate your current project plan and ensure you aren’t missing any critical items. This session offers insight into key decision points as you plan your next steps.

Get tips and best practices for creating a clear project plan before implementation, including the specification of timelines and how you will phase out your deployments

Glean the benefits of taking an iterative approach to BI implementation

Understand the importance of a Business Intelligence Competency Center

Weigh the pros and cons of a top-down vs. bottom-up approach to BI implementation 


Identify the key milestones of the project and who within your organization needs to be involved at each phase 

Find out how to get key stakeholders’ and managements’ buy-in 

Map user requirements to available tooling, and be confident that you are selecting the correct tools for various groups of users 

Learn how to determine the sequence of installation, upgrade, or integration steps, taking into account the dependencies between BI solutions 

Get lessons and insights to avoid the most common challenges companies face when integrating their BI landscape 

Get advice on how to strategically phase out unsupported, or unneeded, solutions


A comprehensive introduction to SAP BusinessObjects Explorer


This session examines SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated. Learn how it differs from the standard version of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, and the benefits it can provide managers, business teams, and casual users with immediate insights into vast amounts of data.

Get an overview of the features in SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated, and learn how it allows users to slice and dice massive volumes of data in seconds, without the need for formal report development or IT intervention. Discover:

How SAP NetWeaver BW, SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer interoperate

The SAP BusinessObjects Explorer end-user interface and see how it differs from other BI tool interfaces

How to leverage SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated for data analysis, even outside of SAP NetWeaver BW 


Explore the specific features of SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated, that allow for rapid search and analysis of data 

Identify technical requirements, such as the use of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, to properly index and partition large volumes of data before they are queried and analyzed

Hear the SAP two-year roadmap for SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, accelerated, to ensure you are up to speed and aligned with the most up-to-date SAP BI strategy