Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse, Second Edition: Leveraging the Business Intelligence Capabilities of SAP NetWeaver

The long-anticipated publication of this second edition reflects the growing success of SAP NetWeaver as well as the various Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities that are embedded with SAP BW version 7.0. Written by SAP insiders, this comprehensive guide takes into account the ever-changing features, functionality, and toolsets of SAP NetWeaver to bring you the most updated information on how to use SAP BW to design, build, deploy, populate, access, analyze, present, and administer data. you'll discover the options that are available in SAP NetWeaver and uncover a new means to improve business performance.

This book reflects the process an organization goes through during an implementation of the software. The authors begin with an introduction to BI and SAP NetWeaver and quickly progress to information modeling and enterprise data warehouse concepts. you'll learn how to access and deliver meaningful analytic information to the organization, as well as perform integrated planning functions. Finally, the authors share invaluable insight on warehouse administration, performance, and security.

With more than 50 percent new or revised material, this second edition of Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse shows you how to:

• Extract data from online transaction processing systems
• Store transformed data in a way that best supports reporting and analysis
• Use the various Business Explorer tools such as BEx Report Designer, BEx Analyzer, BEx Broadcaster, and BEx Web Application Designer
• Schedule, monitor, troubleshoot, and archive data loads

About the Authors

Kevin McDonald is a consultant and entrepreneur. He co-founded and was the CEO of COMPENDIT, Inc., a consulting services firm acquired by Inforte Corp. in 2004. He was an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year regional finalist and was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine for having created a “Hot 100” fastest-growing new business. He has instructed, implemented, and designed enterprise decision-processing systems for dozens of clients. Prior to co-founding COMPENDIT, Kevin was the Director of New Dimension Technology and a corporate spokesperson for SAP, where he had worked in both America and Germany. He was program manager during the successful market launch of SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW), and he authored the SAP BW product map that was first used to define the scope and development direction for the software.

Kevin started his career at Baxter Healthcare, where he held positions in both IT and finance functions. He has authored numerous articles about SAP’s Business Intelligence Solution for The Data Warehouse Institute’s newsletter, and he has made presentations on business intelligence at DCI’s Data Warehouse World, HP World, ERP World, TDWI conferences, ASUG, SAP TechEd, SAP Sapphire, Decision Processing 98 and 99, and Informatica World. Kevin is an advisor to the Cognos Innovation Center.

Andreas Wilmsmeier is a managing director of Inforte Deutschland. Andreas has been a member of the initial SAP BW core development team, where he has been responsible for designing and implementing parts of the Staging Engine (for example, the Staging BAPI). Andreas has been consulting SAP BW clients since the initial customer shipment of SAP BW 1.2A in early 1998 and has continued to contribute to the development of SAP BW by providing feedback from the field and to the development of business content for the financial services and defense industries.

After receiving his diploma in computer science and business economics, Andreas started his career in developing data warehouse and Internet solutions. Prior to working for Inforte, Andreas ran the German subsidiary of COMPENDIT until its acquisition by Inforte in early 2004.

His knowledge of data warehousing, data mining, and knowledge management has been showcased at numerous international conferences, including SAP Sapphire, SAP TechEd, ASUG, Cebit in Hanover, Germany, and Systems in Munich, Germany. Andreas has authored articles in the SAP Technical Journal, and the German-language E/3 Magazine.

David Dixon is a vice president with Inforte’s SAP Practice, where he is responsible for ensuring the quality of Inforte solutions and project deliveries. A recognized authority in business intelligence, he has extensive full-lifecycle project experience in architecting and implementing complicated global solutions for Fortune 100 companies. David has also worked with the SAP SEM and SAP BI development teams on numerous occasions in support of the latest products.

Prior to joining Inforte, David worked for COMPENDIT, a consulting firm acquired by Inforte in March 2004, where he was a founding team member. Prior to joining COMPENDIT, he was a Platinum Consultant with SAP. David started his career as a Financials and Controlling (FI/CO) consultant with SAP in 1995, specializing in all of the SAP reporting and analysis applications and tools. An accomplished speaker, he has presented at industry-leading SAP and BI events, including SAP TechEd, ASUG, and TDWI.

Bill Inmon is thought of as the “father of the data warehouse” and is co-creator of the “corporate information factory.” He has more than 28 years of experience in database technology management and data warehouse design. He is known globally for his seminars on developing data warehouses and has been a keynote speaker for every major computing association and many industry conferences, seminars, and trade shows. Bill has written about a variety of topics on building, usage, and maintenance of the data warehouse and the corporate information factory. More than 500 of his articles have been published in major computer journals such as Datamation, ComputerWorld, and Byte magazine. Bill is currently a columnist with Data Management Review and has been since its inception. He has published 39 books.

Bill founded and took public a Silicon Valley company, Prism Solutions, in 1991. Prism Solutions became Ardent Software, which was acquired by Informix, renamed Ascential Software, and acquired by IBM. The software he created is still used by hundreds of companies today. The Web site has now grown to support millions of visitors a month. Bill consults with a large number of Fortune 1000 clients, offering data warehouse design and database management services.