UAE, Dubai, October 02, 2013 – In-memory computing (IMC) is quoted as one of the top 10 technology trends for 2013. Jumping on this trend is Spinneys Dubai, a leading food retailer in the UAE, who recently implemented SAP’s real-time in-memory technology platform SAP HANA®. This groundbreaking solution combined with the leading visualization and analysis capabilities of SAP@ BusinessObjects™ immediately allowed Spinneys to explore and analyze large quantities of their data from a vast array of sources more effectively, at record speeds. Clariba, a leading business analytics consultancy in the Middle East, was a key player in ensuring the successful implementation and immediate results.
Installing SAP BusinessObjects 4.1 with a Unix-like architecture
In recent customer projects we have seen the need of having a machine with Unix-like architecture (more specifically Linux) ready for action. This is why we created a virtual machine with a Linux installation and proceeded with the challenge of a Business Objects 4.1 (although it should work for any other version) implementation on a Unix-like system. This post will present useful tips for starting a SAP BusinessObjects implementation on a Unix-like system and the steps you need to accomplish it.
First Impressions on SAP Lumira Cloud: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
In 2012 SAP introduced a new product to their Analytics Solutions portfolio that was formerly known as Visual Intelligence, then recently rebranded as SAP Lumira. It is intended to allow business users to acquire, manipulate, analyze and visualize data from corporate and personal data sources to discover and share insights. It started as a desktop-based client only, but now there is a Cloud version; both could work independently but to exploit the maximum potential, if you can afford it, it is best to work with both of them.As all products that are still in early stages, I found lots of things that in my opinion are still missing, things to be improved and other things that show a lot of potential from the very beginning. Which is why in this article I will cover three categories about: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Centralizing your KPIs with Metapedia
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) play a key role in managing an organization, as they help define and measure progress toward company goals. As a best practice many companies use templates to build their new reports, where KPIs used in every report are included. Filling out this information manually should be a one time exercise, and the work should be re-used throughout the documents that share common KPIs. The dynamic use of KPIs in reporting was a common customer requirement. As an approach to this situation we have developed a way to centralize them and populate the list of KPIs for your reports using the Metapedia tool of the SAP BusinessObjects Metadata Management / Information Steward Application, which I will share with you in this post.
Scheduling SAP BI Explorer spaces based on events
Users frequently find their explorer spaces and exploration views displaying outdated information. Indeed this can happen if the source data is not ready when the indexing process is scheduled to start at a fixed time, so a manual re-run is needed when the data is available to ensure data freshness. Unfortunately scheduling explorer spaces is not possible in the current 3.x or 4.x versions of SAP BusinessObjects BI, but a workaround has been recently applied in one of our customers which we detail in this article.
Getting the most from your SAP Strategy Management 10.0
You have successfully implemented SAP Strategy Management (SSM) in your company and users are gradually becoming familiar with that new tool. What’s next? How do we motivate managers to adopt it and use it as a support to their decision making tasks? In this article I would like to share my thoughts about the following topics
Not missing a hit in SAP BusinessObjects using HTTP traffic logs
Monitoring the number of views of an important corporate document is a key need for any company who is aiming for better resource management and company-wide alignment. This is especially important in a migration project in order to define what content to migrate or in a document maintenance process to prioritize assignments. SAP BusinessObjects Auditing is able to register when documents are viewed or retrieved but it has certain limitations, so most of the users activity is lost. This article explains an alternative method to collect the number of views of any SAP BusinessObjects file type or web page that sits on our web server so they can complement our current auditing reports.
Managing ETL dependencies with SAP BusinessObjects Data Services (Part 3)
Are you satisfied with the way you currently manage the dependencies in your ETL? In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the features I expect from a dependency management system, and what are the main possibilities offered (directly or indirectly) by Data Services. In Part 2, I proposed an architecture (structure and expected behavior) for a dependency management system inside Data Services. Now I will give you the implementation details, while a feedback on how it went “in real life” as well as possible improvements will come in part 4. So how do we implement this theoretical solution in Data Services?
Simple Forecast Exercise with SAP Predictive Analysis
One of the latest products that SAP has incorporated in its Business Intelligence Suite is SAP Predictive Analysis. Essentially, this product shares its main interface with SAP Lumira (formerly SAP Visual Intelligence) but the added value comes from the Predict workspace where you can find a series of algorithms to build predictive models.
Horeca Trade - Video testimonial
Hear how Hisham Aljamil runs Horeca Trade better, thanks to implementing SAP BusinessObjects BI with Clariba
Web banners-Horeca Clariba
Horeca Trade is the only company in the UAE completely dedicated to the foodservice channel. From people and products, to distribution and marketing, they do it all. Their business model was built from the ground up specifically to accommodate foodservice standards and requirements, which requires tight monitoring from producer to consumer.
Consumables have a very specific time frame for delivery, and Horeca has to ensure that its processes are as tightly controlled and efficient as possible. Any delay in the network could result in loss of products, and they have a lot to track as they deliver across the UAE 24 hours a day.
Horeca Trade Warehouse
With SAP Business Intelligence solutions implemented by SAP Partner Clariba, Horeca Trade has full control over sales, inventory, purchases, finance, operations and HR, all the ingredients needed for success. With SAP, they run better, and serve their customers better.
Listen to: Hisham Aljamil - Managing Director of Horeca Trade in our latest video testimonial.
Picture1