Business Process Operations dashboards - behind th...

volker_vongloeden · ‎08-26-2011

This blog is the (more technical) sequel of the blog Business Process Operations dashboards - ALL AT A GLANCE where I have shown some dashboard examples and explained how Functional Scope of Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager and New functionality "Business Process Analytics" - how to improve your business processes data can be tapped for the dashboards.

This blog will give some more details on what needs to be done in order to get your own personal dashboard configured. But still this blog will only give you some outlines on the setup. If you are looking for a detailed step by step description , then you can find a complete Setup Guide on the SAP Service Marketplace at (login required) http://service.sap.com/bpm > Media Library > Technical Information > Setup Guide - Business Process Operations Dashboards or directly here.

Depending on your current support package level you should refer to the following SAP notes which provide overviews about corrective notes

High-level setup description

As a first step you need to access the Business Process Operations Work Center in SAP Solution Manager and click on "Manage BPO Dashboards" in order to make any configuration in that area.

In the previous blog I mentioned 4 steps that need to be (initially) performed, before you will see your dashboard result:

Maintain Connector Instances
Setup Analytical Keyfigure Instances (AKFIs)
Setup Panels
Setup Dashboards

So let's look closer at those 4 steps...

What is a Connector and a Connector Instance?

The BPO dashboards can be connected to various data sources such as database tables or SAP BW InfoCubes. To make this data available in the BPO dashboards you need connectors. The task of a connector is to transform a specific data format that is used in the source system into a generic data format that can be used in the SAP Solution Manager.

The following 3 connectors are available for Business Process Operations dashboards:

BPM Alerts Cube connector (for BPMon trend analysis data)
BPM Alerts Table connector (for BPMon alert data)
BPM Analytics Cube connector (for Business Process Analytics data)

Connector Instances can access data from local SAP Solution Manager systems as well as remote SAP Solution Manager systems!

If you want to maintain a new or existing connector instance, you have to navigate to the tab strip "Setup Analytical Keyfigure Instance" and push the button "Maintain Connector Instance" on the right-hand side. On the following screen you have to select one of the three available connectors (mentioned above) and maintain additional information (e.g. used RFC connection and one or several managed systems) in order to define a corresponding connector instance.

What is an Analytical Key figure and an Analytical Key figure instance (AKFI)?

Based on the configured connector instance, various analytical key figures are provided. The main types of key figures are

Backlog key figures, e.g. overdue outbound deliveries
Throughput key figures, e.g. outbound deliveries created per day

Each key figure has several key figure-related characteristics such as plant, shipping point, delivery type, sales organization, etc. as well as time-related characteristics (calendar day, calendar week, calendar month, calendar year). Analytical key figures can be configured and saved as analytical key figure instances (variants of analytical key figures). An analytical key figure instance can be reused in several panels. For every analytical key figure you need to assign one connector instance.

When you want to define a new analytical key figure instance, you select tab strip "Setup Analytical Keyfigure Instance" and click on "Add". Thereafter you select a previously defined connector instance and an analytical key figure of interest from the corresponding repository (e.g. Overdue outbound deliveries or Total number of IDocs).

After this you can select/maintain characteristics as category or drill-down or for filtering the available data. There are three different types of filters available:

Regular (e.g. Sales Organization 1000)
Relative (e.g. last 30 days)
Top N (e.g. the top 5 plants with highest backlog)

What is a Panel?

A panel is a graphical display of one or more analytical key figure instances. A panel has a title, a chart type, data labels, and one or several analytical key figure instances assigned to it. A dashboard consists of one or more panels. One panel can be reused in several dashboards.

In order to set up a new panel you navigate to tab strip "Setup Panel" an press "Add". After this you select a chart type that best fits the data to be displayed (see Business Process Operations dashboards - ALL AT A GLANCE You can provide additional label texts and you have to select at least one analytical key figure instance, that was previously defined, you want to display in that panel.

What is a Dashboard?

A Business Process Operations Dashboard is a visual display of one or several analytical key figures to give the end user an overview of a certain business area or a business process. A dashboard has one or up to six panels assigned to it and an assigned authorization group.

In a final step you want to arrange your defined panels in one dashboard. For this you navigate to tab strip "Setup Dashboard" and again click on "Add" for a new dashboard definition. Here you define the matrix layout of your dashboard, e.g. a 2x2, 2x3 or 3x2 matrix of panel instance arrangements. Additionally you configure the visibility of your dashboard for other users (Authorization Group). Finally you select the panel instances of interest and define the sequence of panels (i.e. the sequence in the panel instance table shown below is reflected in the dashboard as sequence from left to right and top to bottom).

Finally you got your new Business Process Operations dashboard - well done!

If you require more details on the respective setup steps, then please refer to the complete Setup Guide on the SAP Service Marketplace at (login required) http://service.sap.com/bpm > Media Library > Technical Information > Setup Guide - Business Process Operations Dashboards or directly here.

SAP Teched 2011

Visit us also on SAP TechEd 2011 at ALM263 - Business Process Analysis & Monitoring

During this hands-on session you will learn how to configure business process analytics in SAP Solution Manager and how to work with this tool in order to gain insights where you can possibly improve your existing business processes. You will also learn how you can set up business process monitoring as an alert monitoring with reference to the business process analytics data. At the end of the session you will then configure your own business process operations dashboard which will display different key figures on one browser page.

Further Information

Frequently Asked Questions about Business Process Monitoring are answered under http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/FAQ+Business+Process+Monitoring.

The following blogs (in chronological order) provide further details about Business Process Monitoring functionalities within the SAP Solution Manager.