SAP BO Dashboards 4.1 best practice on layout and components

[Former Member]

Dear SCN,

I have requirement to create a BO 4.1 dashboard with data & Visualization based on a excel sheet which is currently in use as a Mgmt dashboard. The current excel dashboard is having more than 100 KPIs in one view which is readable only if you put in on a slide and view it in full screen by running a slideshow.

Question 1:

1. Being the suggested size of the Xcelsius canvas not more than 1024 X 768 so that it is viewable with out scroll bar in BI launchpad or in any browser or in pdf, I am trying to confirm in this forum that the canvas size of 1024 X 768 is the recommended maximum size for the dashboard to get the clear view in any browser/BI launchpad . Pls confirm as it will help me in doing the design for the KPIs and its visualization.

Question 2:

1. I am using the BICS connection and accessing the source data from BW. Because the no. of KPIs are more and ranging between 10 cubes and 40 queries as the data is across different modules, I would like to know what is the recommended no. of connections for queries /cubes in dashboard using BICS connectivity which does not affect the performance

2. For the same dashboard using BICS connection, What is ideal number of components like Charts/Scorecard/Spreadsheet table that is recommended to use to ensure better performance?

I appreciate your answers which can help the finalization of the dashboard design for this dashboard of data and visualization requirements which is very high when compared to the normal dashboards.

Thanks and Regards

Jana

[former_member182541 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Q1.

1024*768 is good enough to display in all browser, anything beyond this may be hurdle in displaying various browser. Most it depends on the system resolution, please check the below link for more details.

Q2.

1. Its all based on the requirement, Generally we need to minimize the connections as much as possible to hitting the DB or the reporting tools. But haven't said that its also based on the requirements to go with the no of connections, anything more than 9 or 10 it takes time to refresh the data.

2. Its upto the requirement to use the component as developer we can advice them what to use, but we cannot eliminate the dashboard requirement, remove all unused components from the dashboard, try eliminate the excel logic and functions as much as possible. These things makes your dashboard to increase the performance.

Hope this helps!!!

--SumanT

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Suman,

Thanks for your answers.You answers and links which you have attached are helpful and It answered my questions related to canvas size and Connections.

I am expecting some benchmark numbers as per the best practices with respect to the No. of components to be used to ensure the better loading of the dashboard. As the increase in number of components increase the size of the dashboard and also it requires more time to load the data for the components, I am looking for the number as per the best practice by considering the below points.

1. When I say the no. of components, I am not considering the components like label, text box,combo box or list box. I am considering the components which is used for visualization and interactive drill down on top of the visualized charts ( For Eg. Column charts, Pie charts, Gauges ).

2.I am not going to use more calculations/formulas in my dashboards as the values and structure are almost the same with the BEx query.

3.Having around 10 to 12 connections.

4.The data sets are not more than 900 rows totally. For any control, we will be binding only 100 rows at the max as the data for the KPIs are summarized at the year/month level at the BW layer.

Since the KPIs are more, the Visualizations are more and we can't re-use the Visualization charts for most of the KPIs. Currently I am ending up with ~35 charts/ gauges along with other label and selection controls which I will be using to show 100 KPIs with unique visualization requirements and I am going for the tab-wise layout with more dynamic to accommodate and separate logically.

Hope these details will give clear picture of why I am looking for the Benchmark on No. of components .

I appreciate your help!

Thanks and Regards

Jana

[former_member182541 · Accepted solution]

Hi JK,

I can understand the frustration behind this, but there is no any specific standard or benchmark to design the dashboards, all you want is to keep the dashboard simple, quick and meaningful. I can tell in generic that the no of connections is ok, when you say 35 charts think about the data rendering to the chart and the subsequent components too. Dashboard is adviced to not go more than 512 rows and you are taking almost 900 rows and 100 KPI's. Let me tell you this is going to be huge and easily you are going to fall in trap of performance may be not now in future of after 5 - 10 months depends on the data increase.

Why can't you break the dashboard into pieces and use it can used quick as well, I have worked the similar situation like your but not upto 35 charts nearly 15 of mine connected to BW and ending up to fail, later we decide to break up the logic and analysis. I am not trying to scare you at the same time you need to understand the flaws when you design the dashboard. I can tell you one more time dashboard meant for summarized data not for detailed data by using 35 charts.

Using Tab-wise to differentiate and designing the dashboard is helpful, but still all everything is invoked and involved behind. All you can do is make a clear dashboard and separate the triggering operation only for the specific analysis this can reduce the performance.

Dashboards (Xcelsius) General Best Practices - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki

--SumanT

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Suman,

I am struggling here Please provide your valuable inputs.

I have built some webi reports/Dashboards so that customer want see reports from enterprise portal end.When the customer login into his/her account through portal,he/she should see their reports/dashboards(their respective data).

Here i am using BO 4.1 version and building reports on the top of bex queries.What are things needs to be done from  BO end please share your inputs in detailed. Pls share any docs if you have

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Mohan.

[former_member182541 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mohan,

There are two things you can do either you need to create the rights in BO or you can use the access level from BI(BEx Query).

1. After creating the dashboard using the super user(who has all the access), Create the groups in BO end assign the users to it, take the help from admin team on this.

2. You can use the authentication mode SAP  using (Single sign On)"SSO" to create the dashboard which use the same access from BI.

Always open a new discussion, rather posting it in a different query.

Also please look into the below document.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/d0a213ed-d4fd-2c10-2ea6-f09eb96e5...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Suman,

Good Morning,

Yes,Your inputs gave me a clarity to go forward with confidence.I have replicated users(here 1000 users we have).So users and groups has been created.Here we don't have admin team that is the worry.BI/BW team is working on authorizations of each every users.From BO perspective

how can we need to give access to each and every user what roles and access levels we have to create so that user can able to see his/her respective data at  the portal level.Please share any docs relates to that.

Because i am working first time this kind of requirement.So inputs are very valuable for me.

Thank you in advance.

Best Regards,

Mohan.

[former_member182541 · Accepted solution]

Check out the below links, which can help you on this.

Setup of SAP SSO Service in SAP BO BI4.0 CMC - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki

http://bi-insider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SAP-Business-Objects-Security.pdf

AUTHORIZATION FOR BI REPORTING - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki

[Former Member]

Hi Suman,

Thanks for the detailed analysis on my question and confirming the understanding of mine.

I agree with you on the alarming facts on the design of the dashboard to maintain the performance.

I have already informed the client about these Do's and Dont's and the possible ways to present the existing dashboard due to the huge volume of data and its visualization.But the requirement is finalized even before that.

So I am confirming my standpoint here with the experts on this dashboard space to check if it is still possible to do without costing my performance.

Thanks once again for the clear explanation on my scenario. I may also need to raise a ticket to get the answers from SAP on the performance best practices to pass on to the client, if needed .

Regards

Jana